shrinkAdink_05/10

If you are already feeling some hunger, I would go ahead and do the fill at the next visit. Can't hurt anything. Only thing that hurts is if you are too full. (I just had a tiny un-fill today after having a stomach virus and vomiting for a few days my stomach swelled a little, so I was too tight and that feels horrible!) I am 5ft 4 1/2in. At my highest not pregnant weight I was 220. I am now down to 148lbs in less than 6 months.:wink2:

44 pounds is AWESOME in such a little time! Think if you were doing it all on your own...how much more difficult it would be! Keep up the good work. As long as you are content, that is what matters most :wink2:

I absolutely think that fills are a huge part. I have family members who have been banded and still love to eat, so they aren't as eager to get regular fills and their weight loss shows it! They are happy to be losing slowly and still be able to eat pretty much what they want. Me, well I wanted to work this tool to the max. I never wait until I feel hungry to get my fills because that can slow down progress if I am tempted to over indulge. I go by how my body feels when I eat. If I start feeling like I am eating more than I previously could, then it's time for my fill, I don't wait for hunger pains...I never want to feel those again! :biggrin: Since I started with a lower BMI I thought my loss would go slower too, but I have been happily shocked at how quickly it has come off. I am now down to a size 4-6 pants! I never thought I would see that day again, lol. My doc was willing to do a fill after 1 month so I jumped on it. Many docs won't do them so soon. Did Dr. Kirshembaum do your surgery? I would definitely go ahead with the fill, they will make sure you aren't too tight. Right now you are still filling full because you most likely have some of the normal swelling that goes along with the surgery. BUT, as soon as that swelling goes down, you will feel it. So, I didn't wait. As I said before, I don't want to feel hunger pains ever again! Dr. Kirshenbaum has been very pleased with my progress and last time said, " Angela, you are a poster child for lapband. I should stand you at my front door to greet all my patients." So, I guess that means I am doing something right?:wink2: Let me know if you have any other questions.

My BMI was around 35 when I had surgery on May 5, 2010. My pre-surgery weight was 212. Now today Oct. 19, 2010 I weigh 148. So, 64lbs in less than 6 months is TOTALLY worth it!! I have been very stict with myself about getting fills regularly and to the max everytime. I have eat "treats" and I haven't been to the gym as much as I would like, but despite that, I have still been successful having this awesome tool!!

Banded May 5th. I am down 54lbs. Started at 212, down to 158. Only 28lbs away from my goal.:smile: From a size 18 to now a size 8/10. Best thing I have EVER done for myself! Just had another fill on Sept. 3rd. I losing count how many fills i have had now, but I am up to 7.9cc's in a 10cc band. Dr. Kirshenbaum is very pleased with my progress. Said i am a poster child for lapband, lol. I can eat anything and have never had any problems what-so-ever. I guess I am one of the lucky few. Best money I have ever spent. SOooooooo HAPPY!!

Banded May 5th...started at 212. Weighed in today at 165! Wooo~hoo!! 47 pounds down in 3 months. This is seriously the best thing I have ever done for myself. I wish so much that more people could have this opportunity.

Yes, I was talking to you :thumbup: So, I was more curious to know if they don't have you drink water as they are doing the fill, how do they know how much of a fill to give you? OR do they just say this visit you get __ cc's and that's that.

I am in agreement with the two others that posted to take GAS X. I used the strips that dissolve on your tongue and took the max dosage. WHAT A RELIEF it was! I was MISERABLE for several days until I took those out of despiration, not really believing it was gas. The shoulder pain was so horrible, I felt like I wanted to pass out several times. It worked wonders for me :wub: Good luck!!

So, I take it that this is your first fill? Let me know how it goes and how your doctor does it. It's very interesting to hear different people's experiences. Seems like every doctor does things slightly different and gives slightly different advice, before and after being banded. My mother-in-law says her doc gives her a predetermined amount of a fill and then has her gulp water AND eat crackers. Not sure what her docs thoughts are on the whole cracker thing, she isn't even sure, as she never thought to ask...but always interesting to know the varying details and explanations. Good luck! (Oh, and the being able to glup water really is a GOOD thing. The sipping thing has caused me to stay a little dehydrated because I can't sip, sip, sip all day and hurts like heck when you are thristy while working out at the gym and try too gulp. If I drink to fast now the water gets stuck like there is a bubble holding it up and then when I cough it comes squirting out like a gyser.:wub:)

Thank you! Thank you! I feel super awesome. Everyone around me commments daily about the changes they have seen so quickly. The people who ridiculed me for having the surgery are now either 1, so jealous they have finally just shut up, or 2 they are asking for the Docs name and number. Everyone who needs this surgery deserves it. I hope as time goes on more and more insurances will make it easier to be approved and/or that the self pay will become more and more affordable for those who also need and deserve it.:thumbup: Since May (3 months) I am now down 44 pounds with only 36 more to go. The more I lose, the more motivated I am.

Today i went in to have my 4th fill i am now at 7.65cc's. :smile: i have had some personal problems at home and work so my emotional eating habits are coming back to haunt me no matter how hard i fight them. :sad: I am hoping this new fill will keep me from being able to eat the crap my emotions tempt me to eat. I was doing ok in the mornings but by lunch time seems like my band is looser because as early as 2 hours after a good solid food meal i was feeling hungry again already. Evenings have been the very worst. :blushing:So, i'll see how this fill works come tomorrow morning. I think I may even be a tad too tight. Well I ate some creamy mashed potatoes tonight i was getting the pain in my shoulder that says stop eating, even though I only had a few bites. Hmmm...looking forward to what tomorrow brings. Hopefully I can eat, but hopefully just not as much and most of all hope i stay full longer!

YOU CAN DO IT!! How is it going so far? I haven't logged in for a few weeks. So much going on, I just haven't had time. I went for another fill today so i am now at 7.65cc. i think I may be a little too tight. I have had shoulder pain for a few seconds at a time when i was eating KFC mashed potatoes tonight. I weighed in today at 177 still Oh well, it could be worse I could be all the way back at the beginning huh?

So, this last 2 weeks since my last fill became torture...ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS EAT! AND YES, I WAS HUNGRY! :tongue2: This last week was riddled with failures. I ate half of a steak house burger and fries for lunch one day and that wasn't the only time I fell off the wagon, but on this day I decided this is a bunch of crap after I feed my emotions with half of a snickers bar! HOW FOOLISH I HAVE BEEN! :frown: Lucky for me my doctor is the best! They scheduled me for my first day off that I could get there. Went in today and the PA did my fill which scared me. Dr. K is so good at it that I was afraid he would hurt me. It did hurt more going in, but as you see I survived it :smile: He added 1.4 cc's, and I think this time I definitely feel some "real" restriction. :wub: I kept my July 1st appt. just in case I feel like I need more. When he added 1.5cc's I could feel the water he had me drink nearly stop in my throat and felt the funnel effect, so then at 1.3cc's it went down every easily so 1.4cc's it is! This was the first time of any of my fills that I felt the slowing/stopping feeling. I liked feeling this because now I feel like i finally got a really effective fill. oh well, we'll see! The nurse said i now have 7cc's in total. I hope this does the trick. I want those ICKY hungry, cravings feelings to stop for good!:thumbup: BTW, I weighed in at 177. I was happy to hear I lost 5 pounds from the last fill but it definitey WAS NOT from eating right. When i messed up, like with the hamburger and the snickers I took an Alli pill with them, helps keep your body from absorbing all the fat. (I used this successfully before surgery on 2 different occassions to lose weight, but of course you stop, you gain it back) I worked my butt off at the gym to try and make up for the food failures. Looks like it worked, but I can't and won't continue on like this! Family reunion is coming up on July 22nd my goal weight for the reunion is 169...will I reach it???! I'll keep you posted! :smile:

Thanks for all your encourgement guys! It helps so much!!

Yipeee! I weighed in today at 178! I bought a body bugg too, I think this along with the weight trainer is making a world of difference. I highly recommend it! My new goal is 169!

I think i do have some restriction again, FINALLY. I did for the first 2 weeks after surgery, but not again til now. After the second fill I regained some faith again although i am hungry as we speak, i am fighting myself on having a little something to eat or go to bed and sleep the hungry pain off. Today i ate half of a salsbury steak weight watcher meal and felt plenty satisfied. Had a healthy dinner measured it out to 5 ounces and ate it all... felt satisfied. All day until now i have been happy and satisfied. i guess that means i need to start going to bed sooner??? Keep working out, I know that is what is helping me right now. Can't you go get another fill? I guess I am lucky because my Doc is only an hour away and it's only $25 for a fill. (except for now it's free til 3 months post-op) Good luck to you!!

Well the 2nd fill has broken my plateau. Am I to my "sweet" spot? Don't think so, but feeling less hunger than ever. Tonight I ate about 5ozs of good healthy food and felt satisfied. It's now 11pm and my belly is rumbling a bit, but seems that i always have a problem this time of night. Guess I should hurry and get this blog done so i can go sleep off the hunger? I go July 1st for my next fill. So, in two weeks i think i will be where i want to be! Today is June 13, 2010 and I weighed in this morning at 178! Yippppeee!!!:mad2: My first goal was to get to 179, so I just set my new short term goal today at 169. Then, I have a family reunion coming up on July 22. So, that is five weeks for me to lose all I can. My original goal for family reunion week was 170. I think I am going to revise that to 165, this is just to push myself more at the gym. I am currently kickin' my own butt... I come home feeling good, but sore! I know I will be converting some of this blubber to muscle so I may even have issue with the scale moving the way i want it. But, oh well...it gives me something to work towards. All in all today was long, but pretty good. No complaints... I had a great day at the gym. 10 minutes on the rowing maching, 15 minutes on the stairmaster (my new love!) and then 30 minutes on the Elyptical on the cross training mode with intensity of 9 kept heart rate up in the cardo range the entire time. Everyday it gets easier!:frown: Bad news, I am SO hungry! Think I'll have a little chuck of cheese:blush: then off to bed.

Went back in today to get another fill. I wanted more than he gave me, but he was really concerned that I would be over filled and then suffer the weekend. This time since I knew what to expect I was less nervous and the needle wasn't anything more than a tiny quick pinch. He filled me to 5.7cc so lets see how this will work! I stopped at Wendy's and got a baked potatoe and a junior frosty to sample both. I was only able to eat about 4 tablespoons of potatoe and about half an ounce of the frosty. YIPPPPEEEE....I hope it stays this way! I am eating watermelon for dinner and then off to the gym. The fill was a good thing but the rest of the day has been shit. Husband got a speeding ticket on the way there and then bad news from our attorney regarding his child custody battle. MY GOD am I sick of all this crap. I am trying so hard to focus on me, me, me so I don't go into a tail spin. Good thing I can't eat much or I totally know i would be on a binge on my drug of choice....FOOD. Instead I am headed to the gym to try and sweat out some of this frustration. :bored:

Today I got started with Lori a personal trainer with 23 hour fitness. She got me set up with a simple full body workout. She kicked my butt, but that wasn't so hard to do. I am such a whimp and have no staminia...I can't wait to feel like exercising instead of dreading it. My arms are so weak 20lb weights are all I can bare to lift. On another note...looking forward to tomorrow, I get to see the Doc for my second fill. Hopefully this time it will be an effective one. I am bouncing between 181 and 185. I want to see 179!:bored:

Am I feeling restriction yet?....NOOOPE! I am doing the happy dance because I expected to have to beg to go in for another fill, but heck no! I had ZERO resistance, just sweet, kind, gentle understanding. My doc's staff are so nice and i think most, if not all are patients of his too, so they know what I am going thru. I love that I am not treated like a fat woman there! They make you feel like family. So without asking when I told her my name she says, "oh, do you need another fill?" So, she read my mind and without asking anything else she says can you be here Friday, June 11th? HELL YEAH I CAN BE THERE!:eek: I have been so bad, really bad the last two days since I know anything and everything will go thru my band. I am too ashamed to even tell the truth about what I have eaten..and I won't waste time beating myself up...help is on the way YIPPEEE! I can't WAIT to see what restriction feels like on Friday.

I was very nervous about the fill needle and being poked, but turned out to be pretty simple. When I was laying there with the needle and syringe sticking out of my body the doc says, "ok, now I'm going to have you sit up and drink some water'. At the point I started laughing hysterically, tears and all. I said, "REALLY! :w00t:With the needle sticking a foot out of my body?!" The doc and my hubby looked puzzled or maybe they decided I had really lost it, but I seriously couldn't stop laughing. Doc said this was a first, lol....I guess most people aren't that easily amused? Oh well, now I am NOT laughing...:sad:I don't think I got enough of a fill! The doc filled some and had me drink water to see if it went thru, and with each fill and each big gulp, it always went down, no problemo. A few times i felt a little bit of what felt like a bubble in my throat but no feeling of water being stuck or backing up. i think it was just that it was a little air since he was requesting that I GULP the water. Not knowing what i was feeling I thought the bubble feeling and my husbands bulging eyes was maybe an indication that I needed to stop, so I took 4.4cc as good enough. I have read so much on here, but for some reason it never occurred to me to read about other people's first fill experience. So I really didn't know what was a little or a lot in terms of 1cc, 2cc's etc.:eek: Since I have a 10cc band, 4.4cc's sure did sound like an awful lot for a first fill when I hear others say their doctor doesn't even let them participate in the decision and 1 cc is all they get whether it good enough or not. I really cheated myself darn it. So, since my appt was at 11:30am and I was told to fast before the fill, I decided to have a junior frosty on my 2 hour ride home since I had a free coupon for one...skim milk later in the day and mashed potatoes for dinner. The doc said start with liquids & rapidly progress to full liquids and then soft foods as tolerated for the next 24 hours. NOW GUESS WHAT??!! I AM HUNGRY AND IT HASN'T BEEN 24 HOURS! Grrrrr..thank goodness for me it's only a short drive for a fill. I have a feeling I will be heading back up there next week. I am so mad at myself! What the heck was I supposed to feel to know I was tight enough??? Next time I won't let him stop til water is backed up in my nostrils, lol....guess that would mean I am filled enough???

The only reason I ate those things was because the Dr. said all I could have liquids and mushy stuff although maybe not the best choices.:thumbup: Well, yesterday I went back to solids and still absolutely no restriction. I was just surprised that for a first fill if 4.4cc I feel nothing. That sounds like a big first fill to me. For breakfast this morning I had a packet of instand oatmeal and I feel satisfied. Now I am just curious to see how long before I feel hungry again. Yesterday I was very hungry between meals. Seems as though I feel more hungry now after the fill than before. The trial and error part kinda stinks, but again, I definitely don't want anything to go wrong and risk hurting myself or the band. I will be calling ASAP tomorrow to go for another fill.

I had my first fill today too and didn't know what to expect. My doc puts the needle in then has you sit up and then injects 1 cc at a time and has you drink water to see if it goes down. It always did! I felt what kinda felt like a bubble in my throat when i swallowed one time so i thought we should stop since i was at 4.4cc at that point. Soooo...that is where i sit now. I WISH I would have waited until it wouldn't go down but i had no idea that many people get 6cc+ put in during their first fill. I was thinking I was over doing it and worried I may go home too tight, so I had him stop. Well, now I am super hungry. I have been getting more hungry at night anyway for some reason? I am so mad at myself, but luckily a fill is only an hour drive away. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel some change. Otherwise i am headed back to Denver next week! Don't feel bad 1cc or 4cc..still hungry:crying:

I was very nervous, but turned out to be pretty simple. The only thing is that I don't think I got enough of a fill! The doc filled some and had me drink water to see if it went thru, it always did. A few times i felt a little bit of what felt like a bubble in my throat but no feeling of water being stuck. I thought the bubble feeling indicated a need to stop, so I took 4.4cc as good enough. So, I had a junior frosty on the way home, skim milk later in the day and mashed potatoes for dinner and guess what?! I AM HUNGRY! Grrrrr..thank goodness for me it's only an hour drive for a fill, but I have a feeling I will be heading back up there next week. I am so mad at myself! :thumbup: What the heck was I supposed to feel to know I was tight enough???

I have never done a blog before so this is more of an experiment in...can I figure this out? I was banded on May 5, 2010 by Dr. Gerald Kirshenbaum in Aurora, Colorado. Before the pre-diet I weighed in at 212 pounds. At my pre-op appointment May 1, 2010 I was 196. May 16th, I weighed in at 186. Today June 1st I weighed in at 181, but that is what I have weighed for the last several days now. I guess I have hit my first plateau??! Uggggghhh! Hate those! So, I am super excited to have my first fill on June 4th. I am feeling the desire to eat these last few days...not sure I can really call it hunger, but I am wanting to eat. That feeling scares me and I just want it to go away!..FOREVER!! In fact I think I am hungry now, but i also think I have eaten plenty today so I am trying my best to ignore the feeling. I am looking for others who are going through this journey as well so that we can use each other as a support system. I know this is going to be more difficult than I had invisioned...I just have to keep motivated. I am a self pay patient. I paid $9,875 all on my credit card...so with the monthly bill coming in, guess that should be motivation enough huh??? LOL I know in the end it will all be well worth it. With no restriction though...these next 2 weeks are gonna be rough. OK, enought for now...tell me about you. :smile2: