Knaroz

Holy smoke 400$ with no fluro?!?!

As you get more fills you will notice there is not as much "playroom" to test the band after a fill lol. It is a good habit to get into to go ahead and follow the 24 liquid 24 mushy then normal after every fill because it will be a lifesaver on down the road when the fills really add up. On my 4th I tried to each my normal breakfast that I eat on my 3rd day after every fill and was only able to eat 1/4 of it.

Yeah I loved listening to people talk about how this doesn't work, when I did it in July 2010. Now at least 3 of those "doubting Debbies" have already started their pre-op routines. Just for laughs I tell them constantly it isn't gonna work. They don't laugh. Just remember, this is for you, screw what everyone else thinks.

Yeah when you lose 100 there will be some saggy skin, but you are still very young so it should bounce back well. Just remember to exercise, and compression shirts/shorts are awesome lol.

One word... GOODWILL lol

LOL I totally agree, we went to a restaurant the other night and I had forgotten my fork and I looked at the one on the table and I turned to my wife and said "How in the world do I eat with this monster" lol

Yes if you are Pre-diabetic or diabetic you will lose weight a little slower just because of the changes in your body. Another thing good about checking that is if you have a doc that does the liquid pre-op diet and you have sugar issues you dont want to bottom out, my wife was on insulin before the surgery while on the pre-op diet her blood sugar dropped to the 40's, even with us watching her sugars very closely. Very scary thing but good to know prior to starting.

LOL good points, I actually look forward to fill days because then I can have my soups without feeling guilty lol. But yes you need to really watch how much soup you have while on normal days because it will either A) go right through the bad or if you drink it after eating it will push the food on through just like drinking.

Yeah the biggest thing you dont wanna do is gulp, you dont want all that air and excess liquid on your swollen stomach. As long as you are drinking slow you are fine

take it SLOW, it will get there but you dont want to fill restrction that soon. Take this time to learn to eat RIGHT, or when you have restriction you are going to vomit alot and possibly stretch the band or slip it. They go slow for your benefit.

You will find your sweet spot, everyone is different. My Doc is the same wont tell the CC but believe me, 0.1 CC can be the difference between loose, tight, and too tight. It just takes time to find it. While I agree you should let the band work for you, you still have to work a bit (ie no soft, mushies, high cals) Have you reduced your hardware? By that I mean what size plates and utensils are you using? My wife and I are using 6" plates that we picked up at the Dollar Tree (we are going to go get a nice set of small plates soon as we find the size that works the best for us) and also use baby spoons and cocktail forks. What this does is we cant overload the plates with food (portion control) and we can blitz through the food (portion extension). By using the smaller utensils it allows us to savor the food, takes longer to eat, and we fill full with less food. We even use them when we go out just beacuse I dont know if I could actually use a normal size fork or spoon again lol.

WoW I feel for all of you that your Dr doesn't do fills by xray, that just sounds extremely unpleasant and painful.

Yeah the first month is all about retraining yourself. That is why you take a week for each stage (this varies by doctor). Go slow, learn the habits, because as you get tighter, it doesnt get any easier so if you get stuck now, you will get stuck worse later and that is not where you want to be.

yeah the big incision is where the port/band was inserted and then stitched to your ab muscles. If it is just a sharp quick hurt that goes away you are just moving that muscle and it is irritating the stitches. If you have a very sharp burning pain that does not go away after moving suddenly or picking up something that you shouldn't I would speak to the doc because you might have popped one of the stitches holding your port to the muscle.

Yeah seeing that both my wife and myself were banded last year it makes Valentine's day easier, but harder as it takes more thought as a box of chocs was easiest and last minute savior lol. We went out to dinner with friends on Sat to celebrate and we find it easiest to just order one entrée and split it, heck most times we still have left overs lol.

Yeah just make sure you are watching that you are losing inches. I was losing like a mad man and hit 100 and then wham it just stopped, nothing changed except I started to work out a bit harder in the gym and not doing just the treadmill. But the inches keep dropped so that tells me that muscle is hopefully replacing fat lol

First rule of eatting out with the band for the first time. Before you sit down, learn where ALL bathroom exits are lol because 90% of the time you WILL get stuck and that is NOT the time to be looking for the bathroom lol. Yeah after you get use to the temptation of having water in hands reach we just order a water with our meal, sip on it til the food arrives and then push it aside. I like to leave mine half empty and see how many times the waitress offers to refill it hehe.

Please remember, the first 30 or so day post surgery are about healing, and learning your band, and learning a new lifestyle in how to eat your food (no drinking, small bites, protein first). There is really no fluid in the band when you first have it placed, except a small amount of priming fluid they place to make sure there are no leaks before they close up (of course this may be different from one doctor to another). I personally did not fill restriction until my third fill, but I had to teach myself before I got that that just because I could eat anything, I knew it wouldn't last and I used that time to learn how to eat all over again. Now that I am at restriction and took the time to learn how to eat, I find that I do not have as many "stuck" episodes or PBing that I hear a lot of others having. Just remember, the band is a tool, and with this surgery it is not a race by any means, take it slow, enjoy the scenery, and one day the weight loss will sneak up on you and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Right there with ya, once I hit the hundred wall its been a pain, thinking it just be the time of year and as cold as it is here down South not getting to exercise like I was when I was putting up the big numbers, just waiting on the big Thaw lol. Gratz on the 100 though!!

One thing to be mindful and watch during this time especially if you are exercising more than you did pre band is you may not be getting ENOUGH calories. Yeah I said ENOUGH lol. I went full blown out and out after my surgery with exercise and I noticed the scale stop completely and even start to go back up so I started tracking my calories in vs what I was using while exercising and I was having 200-400 a day only. If you are not getting enough calories and exercising your body actually can go into survival mode and begins to hoard everything you take in. I found that during weeks 3 - 4 if I added in high cal foods like full fat mayo with my tuna, or heavy cream with the potatoes it really got the scale blasting down.

So your thoughts so far Blaze21? With a $100 price tag I am gonna have to hear some really good reviews before I bit that bullet lol. Also looking at NFL Training Camp that just came out also.

I prefer Quality of Life over anyone else's feelings any day lol. At over 400 lbs I had people telling me I wasn't big enough :thumbup:

Congrats on hitting the WII milestone lol. Yeah My parents in law had bought one and I had went over to see what I thought about it and jumped on and about cried lol. The 300 weight limit was for the Japanese release of the WII, for us bigger Americans they bumped up the weight limit. Think it also had to do with the conversion of kg/lb lol. Also Just FYI for anyone looking for the Wii fit bundle, Target is doing a Black Friday deal of the Wii Fit board + Wii Fit Plus sofware for 67$. I will update if I see any other deals on it. Target Black Friday Ad and Target.com Black Friday Deals for 2010 near the bottom of the page under Video Games

One thing I would say to check is looking at the foods you listed above are very much trouble foods from most people after they have 3+ fills. Make sure you are chewing the heck outta everything, might be time to give up the rice for now, and also eggs are a really troublesome as they have to be cooked just right too dry or too wet can cause sticking issues.

I guess we are truly lucky we don't have to experience this as I was banded in July and my wife was banded in Sept, so she has kinda learned from me and then I help her as she is learning from actual experience. There is a lady that was banded the same day as my wife who we stay in contact with and her husband is not and she is having a lot of the same issues as stated above.