Miss_A

I know all too well about the unpredictability. And, quite frankly, I'm tired of it.

So in 2009 I had lap band. Lost 25 pounds. November of 2011 I developed severe pain and other issues . Doctor removed the lap band stating that I developed a sudden allergy to the silicone. March 28th of this year I had gastric bypass. To date I have lost 80 pounds. Best decision I have ever made! I hated the band. Was either too tight or not tight enough. Not much weight loss either. My husband had the lap band in 2010. Due to not losing weight he got it removed and had the bypass 3 weeks ago. He's lost 30 pounds in the first two weeks. I'm so happy that I did this revision!!!

i am so happy that you are getting this out. i am too. SOME people on here are just vicious rude people who dont get it. 40 lbs then nothing. now slipping. im done with the complications, the vomiting, food getting stuck, the extra expenses, the fills...i wish i had never done it. i should have come in here originally instead of making my own post because some people are not compassionate.

I want to sit without my underwear "rolling" under my stomach roll!!!!!

You're exactly right. If he were to move back in the problems would still be there. Sometimes people grow apart. It happens. And I'm sure it's a difficult adjustment, but if you're happier, then you've made the right decision. Good luck to you on your weight loss maintanence journey.

Just read a review about PB2 on Amazon and the reviewer mentioned Netrition.com. That site has PB2 for much cheaper than Amazon and Netrition charges a flat shipping fee of $4.95 no matter how much you order.
I'm ordering both the regular and chocolate and look forward to trying your recipe.

Today I went shopping with my 16 year old daughter and we both bought shirts at Maurice's. Before I began this journey even the largest of their plus line clothes were too small for me. It just felt so good to get to try things on with my daughter in the next dressing room and then give each other our opinions on how things look. Especially when she told me one of the dresses I tried on was too big!
Sharing time with your kids and not having to worry about them being embarrassed by your size is PRICELESS!!!!

I had this exact same conversation with several friends at dancing tonight. Two guys both told me not to lose any more weight or I would be too thin. Too thin for whom? For what? Neither of them asked about my health, my blood pressure or cholesterol levels. Both assumed that because I was sick with a gastro last week that is was because I had lost too much weight!
Then another friend asked how much more I planned to lose. She wasn't suggesting that I needed to stop losing but it was just one too many and I replied that I wondered why people felt it was okay to discuss when I should stop losing weight yet no one had ever said that I should stop gaining weight!
Most people in my life have only ever seen me when I was morbidly obese so I understand that they have to get used to the new me....so do I. But I have to find a weight that is both healthy and comfortable for me to live with and that will be my decision and no one else's.

One thing I've learned from my daughter having type 1 diabetes since she was 3 years old(now 20) is that if you don't go to a specific doctor that specializes in what your issue is, you might as well diagnose yourself. Doctors are just as CLUELESS as us when dealing with specific issues if they are not trained in it. But, bc of their arrogance they rarely say, "I don't know". If any one of us goes to the drs right now complaining of a headache that won't go away and the dr finds out you have the band or if you have say, diabetes, it will automatically be blamed on that. Its an easy, quick diagnoses and its gets you out of his/her face so he/she can get on to the next patient/paying customer.

Okay, I'll start off my saying I love my band. Was banded in October and have lost over 70 lbs so far including the 9 I lost on the preop diet. Life is good...I'm the thinnest I've ever been, in the best shape of my life. I ran a 10 mile race and I have a half marathon coming up next month. I bought a pair of freaking size 10 pants for Pete's sake, which I have never done in my life. I only have 30 lbs left to my goal weight. I love my band and would do it over in a heartbeat.
Of course there's a but....
I miss eating, the way I used to eat. I miss going to the Outback and eating bread, and salad, and the big onion and steak and fries. And it's not that I'm starving...I have enough restriction that I feel full off of a pretty small amount of food.< /p>
I miss just "grabbing a quick bite" which is not even an option anymore. I just want to eat something without chewing it to death. And I know some people say they enjoy food even more now because they take the time to savor each bite, but I like it far less. To me, food chewed to the consistency of appleasuce tastes almost putrid in my mouth at times...hell I don't even like appleasauce! Add that to the fact that it's usually cold by the time I get done. Food is not enjoyable to me, which is depressing because it used to be so enjoyable. The exception, of course, is food like ice cream, chocolate and chips that are so easy to eat and as enjoyable as ever, but of course I try not to eat those too much.
I realize it's all in my head, and my therapist and I are working on it ...just wanted to see if anyone else felt the same way. Like I said,I'm happy to be banded, happy with my success so far, and I would take being at goal weight, healthy (and hopefully wearing a size 8) over a huge meal at the Outback, but still....

Yay for all of us re-committers!!! I know that's not a real word, but I'm using it anyway. I, too, am a re-committer. I was banded in Jan of 2011. I didn't even lose 20lbs. And then gained more weight. It's been a smidge over a month since I re-committed and I've lost ruffly 10lbs. And I'm learning to work with my band. I now realize that when my pouch isn't stretched out, I can only eat around a cup to s cup and a half of food. And I'm learning a lot from this site. It's been pretty exciting.
Next week I'm making an apt. to see my doc. I'd been too embarrassed to go see him, but I've lost some weight so now I don't feel as bad. Plus, I have issues with my port, so it's probably going to have to be moved. Sucks, but I'm tired of being in pain.
So, anyway, I said all that to say.....way to go ladies!!!! We can do this!!!!!

Hi there. I was banded May 2008 and initially lost 85 lbs. I am 5'-4" and started out at 228. I got down to 143 and hoped to get to 135. I am 62 years old. I was doing well and then I was T-boned in an auto accident when a young man ran a red light. I sustained some back injuries. Then 5 months later a woman on a freeway on ramp rearended me when the car in front of me came to a dead stop. I sustained another spinal injury. Needless to say I have been dealing with lots of pain and mobility issues and many spinal treatments. I have slowly gained back 15 lbs due to decreased activity and exercise and then not following my "lean and green" program. Anyway, I am making a new start today with baby steps. I will start a light walking program and adding a Protein Shake meal a day. I haven't been on this site for three years and thought this would be a good place to look for support. I haven't been back to see my surgeon in a year because I am embarrassed over my weight gain. I feel like my port is okay but I should check in just to be sure. Any positive words of advise will be greatly appreciated. I don't want to hear any negative posts. I want to hear from others who have overcome challenges and helpful encouraging stories. It is really not all about the weight loss but how we feel about ourselves and how to improve our health and wellbeing. I know that I felt so much better when I was in my 140's. I want to get back to that weight. I look forward to hearing from you. Maybe we can help each other on our journey to health and happiness.
P.S. My ticker is really out of date since I haven't been on to log in my weight loss. I tried to edit it but forgot my PIN. I can't figure out how to set up a new PIN and new information...any tips????

Thanks everyone! I visited my new bariatric doctor on Tuesday and am scheduled for a fill next Tuesday! YAY!! I found out that the doc that did my band placement is no longer in the lap band business, which is good because he was a general surgeon that got into the lap band business for one reason $$.....
Going to the Bariatric clinic was night and day from what I've experienced at the other office. I met with an RN, my new doc, a dietitian, and an insurance person. Everyone was very supportive and I have access to the dietitian any time I need her.
My only concern right now is that things are very tight financially for me right now, so I hope I can put together some budget & band friendly meals.
I'll be reading posts, hoping to learn how to use this tool to reach my goals.
Thanks everyone!
Nicole

No.

So I believe that after 6 or so fills, I am finally in the green zone! I now have to take itty bitty bites and must chew chew chew or I'll get stuck. I also had my first stuck episode this weekend and it was horrifying. Took about an hour to go down. I'm not excited about that but from that experience, I now know this thing is really working! I know that this could change at a drop of a hat, but I'm still excited to be here.. .for now. Just wanted to share! :-)

"THOU SHALT NOT?"
Somewhere in the dark mists of my distance past, the term “reverse psychology” entered my awareness, especially as applied to child-rearing. The idea was that if you told your child “Please slam the door when you leave the house,” the defiant devil in that child would shut the door quietly in opposition to your instruction. I don’t have human children and never observed reverse psychology work magic in my childhood home. No matter how firmly you told my brother not to brush his teeth, his teeth went unbrushed. Telling him to jump on the bed would trigger a marathon jumping session (causing the box spring to violently part company with the bed frame) instead of a peaceful bedtime story. And I was no angel – I rewarded my mom’s laissez-faire attitude towards teen dating by involving myself with the worst losers I could find.
Despite all that, I know there’s a kernel of truth in the concept of reverse psychology. If you told me I must never, ever eat chocolate again, I’d get started on a chocolate binge before you even finished your sentence. And if you told me, “Thou shalt not even think about potato chips, ” my every waking and dreaming moment would be filled with potato chips.
Unfortunately, this principle doesn’t work in both directions, at least not for me. If you told me, “You must eat nothing but ice cream this week,” I’d be happy to comply. I’d grab my car keys and ice cream scoop and race to the frozen foods section of the nearest supermarket (after a quick stop at Baskin Robbins).
Author and eating disorder expert Geneen Roth tells a story about a mother who worried about her daughter’s weight. Even when the mom locked sweets up in a cabinet, the daughter managed to smuggle sweets into the house and hide in her bedroom to gorge on them. When the mom took Roth’s advice to give the child free access to sweets, the girl tired of them and began to make healthier food choices within a few days. This was a clear case of what I call Forbidden Food Syndrome, in which forced abstinence increases the person’s desire for the “bad” food.
I don’t doubt that Roth’s advice in that case was sound, but in my personal experience, food rules aren’t the only cause of secretive food hoarding and gorging. My mom’s food rules had more to do with good manners than with nutrition. I had to take at least one bite of each food on my plate, chew with my mouth shut, ask for permission to leave the table, and dirty no dishes after supper. Other than that, I could eat whatever I wanted, in any quantity. Even with that much freedom, I would hoard and binge on sweets, alone in my room, at every opportunity. I wasn’t eating out of defiance, but neither was I eating for “good” or healthy reasons. Even at age nine, I was eating for emotional reasons – comfort, numbing, entertainment, you name it.
As an adult, I have a better handle on my emotional eating than I did at age nine. I’m well aware of the food-obsessed Jeannie who will run without hesitation right into rush-hour traffic if a brownie might be waiting for me on the other side of the road. I know intimately the defiant Jeannie who insists on eating a piece of garlic bread even though she knows that the third or fourth bite could easily get stuck in her esophagus or stoma and cause a lot of discomfort. I have to monitor myself every day in order to maintain the delicate balance between choosing not to eat a piece of birthday cake because eating it doesn’t serve my weight management goals and choosing to go ahead and eat the entire cake simply because I know it doesn’t serve my weight management goals.
Sometimes I feel like a freak because I have to deal with issues like this. I watch “normal” people making carefree eating choices and enjoying complete eating freedom with no awful consequences (or at least, that’s the way it looks to me), and deep down inside, I hate those normal people. They’re not yoked to this heavy burden of disordered eating like I am. It’s just not fair. But I’m gradually relaxing about my eating issues enough to be able to listen better and to hear more messages from my normal friends and acquaintances, and to realize that they too struggle with things like Forbidden Food Syndrome from time to time.
I have a disgustingly healthy co-worker who told me once that she can’t eat chocolate because it gives her bad Migraine headaches. She avoids chocolate, but she confessed that she wants it all the more because she can’t have it, and when she tells herself it’s OK to eat one small piece, she finds that she can’t stop – she eats three, five, seven pieces even though she knows she’ll pay for it sooner or later. She doesn’t pay with obesity, she pays with pain. She doesn’t know the pain of obesity as I do, but she and I struggled with the same basic problem. Little does she know how valuable her chocolate story is to me. It reminds me that I’m really not a freak – I just have a more intense and widespread eating problem than hers. It’s a matter of degrees. She’s five degrees off-center while I’m 45 degrees off. Neither of us is perfect. We both have to work at making good choices – not just in our eating behavior, but in every piece of behavior that could have good or bad consequences for us or for our family and friends. To my mind, this is just part of human existence, part of the responsibility that adult humans bear for maintaining a civilized and (we hope) peaceful co-existence with each other and ourselves.
All this may be too philosophical for you, but I’m telling you about it because thinking about my eating problems this way has helped to put them in perspective, and putting them in perspective makes them a lot more manageable. Perspective is the art of seeing things in correct relationship to each other. As I wrote in Bandwagon, without perspective, my computer’s monitor looks ten times bigger than my neighbor’s barn across the road. In fact, my computer monitor is tiny compared to that barn. Without perspective, my weight management challenges seem enormous. I lost all that weight in just one year, but my maintenance job goes on forever. But consider the alternative. I could go back to obesity. I could have a stroke and become a human vegetable, reliant on others for everything from speech to toileting. I could lose my limbs to diabetes, reliant then on others for everything from tooth-brushing to transportation. I could suffer cardiac arrest and die at age 60. Or I can work at maintaining my weight and my health, with a huge payoff of mobility, independence, and longevity.
So…back to Forbidden Food Syndrome. Although I’ve said that reverse psychology doesn’t always work with me, I must also say that one of the reasons I chose the band was that living with it would allow me to choose from a wide variety of foods I like. My nutritionist told me I might have problems eating certain foods, like celery or Pasta, and I was willing to take the chance because life without celery or pasta still looked pretty good to me. But when my surgeon, speaking at the bariatric surgery informational seminar I attended, said that gastric bypass patients need to avoid all foods that are high in sugar, fat, or simple carbs because of the possibility of dumping, I mentally walked into a barbed wire fence and backed right off. At the time, I had one gastric bypass friend who didn’t dump, but the bypass patient who spoke at the seminar reported that he does dump, and when he described a typical day’s eating, I thought, “That’s not for me.” That guy was justifiably proud of his weight loss and didn’t mind a limited list of food choices, but I knew that limited food choices would send me running straight for the junk food if only out of sheer boredom. The night of that seminar, I hadn’t eaten a chocolate chip cookie for several months, but just the idea of giving up Cookies forever made me want to stop at a bakery on the way home.
I chose the adjustable gastric band, and the breadth and flexibility of my “OK Foods” list is one of the things that makes my post-op life enjoyable. I do overeat from time to time, but not because of Forbidden Food Syndrome. Taking foods off the Forbidden list has robbed them of some of their power over me. As a pre-op, I would attend a co-worker’s birthday party and eat two pieces of cake (Forbidden) because I’d been avoiding cake and missing it so much. As a post-op, I recently walked through the break room at work and saw a birthday cake on the table. I briefly wondered what flavor it was (impossible to tell from the decorative frosting, whose neon colors can’t be found in nature) and told myself I could try a little piece of it later, on my official break. Lo and behold, come break time I was quite hungry and not in the mood for cake. I wanted my chicken salad, and when I was done with that, I had no room for cake, so I went back to work without another thought about birthday cake. Now, that’s freedom!

My hiatal hernia was found before surgery and was repaired when my band was put in. My acid reflux was to the point that it would come up during the night while I slept and cut off my air way, so I would wake up gasping for breath. I'm thrilled to say that I haven't had any reflux since it was repaired
My suggestion would be to keep your band and just repair the hernia.

Yes it IS possible to stay satiated on 800 calories. IF you are at a proper restriction. First off, I think you need to go in and have your fill level checked and add more if you feel like you cannot stay satiated on small quantities of food. Before you do that though, you really need to measure your food intake and pay attention to how long you are staying full.
I am a struggler and have had my fair share of complications. I just recently re-committed myself in an effort to save my band. I was just DX'd with a hiatal hernia and severe esophagitis and was so fed up I told my surgeon I wanted it out. Then I sat down and REALLY evaluated what I was doing and whether or not my expectations from the band were realistic.
And you know what. I don't think they were. I am FOUR years post op and I am JUST figuring this out. Talk about a slow learner. So I decided to re-commit. I have spent the past few weeks drastically altering my diet, following the band rules, measuring and weighing my food... and you want to know what I am discovering.. my band works when I work with it.
I was doing all the wrong things for too long. Eating slider foods, downing waaaay too much ice cream, snacking, drinking with meals, etc etc. I wasn't chewing well enough, getting stuck and frustrated.
Now I am making good choices and paying attention. That was the hardest thing for me. PAYING ATTENTION. I actually think my restriction is pretty good right now. Some nights I can eat more than I should, but other nights I am too tight. I still HATE that part about the band. It is damn finicky. Salmon is great one night, and a no go the next.
Anyway.. I digress. My point is, YES, this is NOT an easy journey. It takes work and commitment. Some people have a sickeningly easy journey, and some people, like us, struggle. But right now, in this moment, I truly believe it is what you make of it.
Today my calorie intake was approx 825 calories (I didn't finish my dinner) and I am satiated physically. Mentally, not so much. Mentally I still want more. Head hunger is a byatch. It takes time and practice and WILL POWER to listen to those stop signals. You are retraining your brain.
Sorry if my post is all over the place. I feel your pain. I have been there. I lost 100 pounds and gained 56 back. I am on my way back down right now and feeling positive. I hope some of the positiveness rubs off on you.
Find a doctor who will work with you. I am VERY fortunate to have found an amazing Dr who took me on as a patient even though he did not perform my surgery. I am self pay and my fills cost me $100 and my office consults without a fill cost me $50. He check my fill level when I request and he always tells me what he is putting in. ADVOCATE for yourself. Sometimes he wants to add more than I am comfortable with... and I will request only .25cc vs .5cc. A SMALL fill can make a huge difference.
I have a lot of money invested in this as well. I paid $9995 for my surgery, countless more in followups over the past 4 years, and $1300 for a port replacement. Sometimes I wonder if it was a sucky investment. Could I have done this on my own? Yes... I could have made these food choices before... but the small amounts of food I eat now would not have kept me full.
Get your band checked out. Really evaluate what you are eating. I wish you tons of success!! Hang in there.
Here is my meals for today... just to give you an idea of what I ate and stayed FULL on. I wasn't even able to eat all of my dinner... my dog got half my quinoa and asparagus.. lol. I try and stay under 1000 calories. My Dr recommends 1200.
TOTAL
825 kcal ... 66.5g Protein
Breakfast
Peach Chobani w/Kashi Go Lean Crunch
235 kcal ... 18.5g Protein
lunch
Protein shake w/lactose free milk
240 kcal ... 29g protein
Dinner
Scallops w/quinoa and asparagus
250 kcal ... 16g protein
Snack
Skinny cow ice cream bar
100 kcal ... 3g protein

I have discovered roasted red pepper hummus and I'm in love. lol I use it with lettuce wraps.
Next, I'm going to try hard boiled eggs with hummus.
I also tried the Fage 0% Greek yogurt (I find it to be absolutely awful by itself.) with a packet of spicy ranch seasoning, slice up a cucumber and dip the slices in some yogurt. Pretty tasty.

Stop being so hard on yourself.
You have lost 85lbs in a year. That is HUGE. Appreciate what you have done and realise that if you don't get to 100 in a year it doesn't matter. It's not a race, there is no cut off date. If it takes 13 months or 14 months then so be it.

and I'm gonna eat it !! Hope everyone is having a good Easter!

Ok, My Sunday Morning Rant.....
First let me start with this...My brother died at the age of 60. My sister at 64. Both confined to a Nursing Home at a early age.
So, there I was, 58, sitting in my Dr's office. Diabetes, cholesterol, triglycerides all off the chart. Already had one Heart Attack resulting in Cardiac Surgery. My Dr. looked me right in the eye and said the Dominoes have already started to fall, and unless I loose 50-70 lbs I will surely die soon.
When I had my first consult for lap band surgery, it was looked upon as a "Aggressive, radical, last resort option" So when I was informed it would force me to give up foods I like, make me sick/vomit if I don't follow the rules, etc..what choice did I have??
I informed all 3 of my Dr.s, PCP, cardiologist and Surgeon, that I was not going to be a "namby pampy" and I wanted to be as aggressive as I could be. No backing down!
BTW, it is these same Dr.'s that either want to put me on display and/or write me up in their journals, all of which I declined.
I have noticed since then that this surgery has become more acceptable, almost fashionable. People's motives are not so much life or death, but how they will look in that new summer dress. Which is fine, the more eye-candy the better. There are many roads people take, with many different viewpoints. I will NEVER tell anyone they're wrong, so as to deter their motivation.
But there are still some out there, like me, who feel they have one foot in the grave and are thinking about funeral expenses. It is for THESE people that I still hang around these websites. I want THESE people to know that I am here...I took this thing as far and hard as I could, and I am standing out here on the edge....successful in 13 months. And it can save your life. I want THESE people to know that IF you choose the same road as I did, I will be there.
I WILL dance at my Daughters wedding this October, and God Willing, I WILL spoil my grand kids to no end!
I exercise like a person possessed. When I first started, I use to look at the young 21 y/o staff member and think to myself "I sure hope she knows CPR!" But I feel I'm now past that. If it was going to happen, it would have then. I always say I'm running FOR something when in effect, perhaps I'm running FROM something always keeping a few steps ahead.
OK that's it. So much for ranting, wanted to get it off my chest. Sorry If I offended anyone, that was not my intention.
So Adios, have a good day, springtime is just around the corner.

Hi all
This is giving me a whole new enthusiasm for my liquid diet!!! throwing away the cookbook and grabbing the cocktail menu!!
Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Sarah

So, for 13 years, this outfit has been, as my daughter would say, "mocking me" in my closet. It's a size 16 pants suit. I wore it one time to a friends rehearsal dinner. After that, I started putting on weight and hung it in my closet because "someday it would fit." Well, my "someday" is here. I tried it on, and it FITS!!!!! So, off to the dry cleaners to get 13 years of dust off of it. Its a beautiful suit, bright mustard yellow, and very well made, so it's still in excellent shape. I am wearing it on Easter Sunday with a brand new pair of rainbow colored sling back wedges! Color, open toe heels, and size 16, oh yeah!.
Then, I went shopping and was looking at size 16 dresses, and well, they actually looked to big, so I began looking at the 14's. I found a real pretty one, and decided to try it on for fun, because I was only window shopping. Well, what do you know? That dress fit too! And it just zipped right up the back, with room to spare!
Who says the band doesn't work? I started at a size 26, and didn't wear dressed because me legs rubbed together, and here I sit talking about getting into a 14 dress!

Everybody!
I stopped snoring!!!! 20 lbs and I have pretty much not been snoring for the past week. It's amazing!
I have enjoyed reading all of your post's, I wish everybody all the success in the world. It's a new day and I am so excited for everyone!