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I went to a support group meeting this week. It was my first one. They gave out a FITbook. a twelve week game plan for weight loss. it is tracking your progress. I think it might be beneficial. I have had good luck since my sleeve, I have not been sick or thrown up. I heard some really bad issue people have had since surgery. I hope I don't gain any weight since, I don't seem to be afraid of eating. What makes a good support group?

Hey Gina, I was banded the day before you, I have experienced exactly the same, my weight loss stalled as soon as I started on mushies and I have really battled to keep it down since then despite adding excersise. I have to wait for my first fill until next Monday so another week of fighting to go. You should be proud of yourself, you have done really well with your loss. I had a total of 70 pounds to lose and have lost 21 to date but I've stopped weighing myself as much so as not to get too disappointed. I keep reading that this is really common and my nutritionist told me not to worry about my loss during the healing period, it will happen when we get to the right level of restriction with our fills. Keep your chin up, you made the right decision and its really easy to think it's not working but it obviously is......look at what you have achieved so far. There's definitely more to come off yet!! Best wishes R

Its hard to believe that 365 days ago I flew to San Diego and then went to Mexico to be sleeved by Dr Ramos Kelly. Oh my; a lot has changed in the past year... This was me as I left my husband in Minnesota and took off for Mx: Size 16, 239.8 pounds. Not very happy actually pretty depressed and scared to death about the adventure I was about to undertake! My initial goal was to reach 155 pounds which I was able to do in less than 10 months - November 1st, 2011: 155 pounds My journey was not all that hard - actually it was pretty easy - I am a focused person and I stayed focused on Proteins first, low carbs and exersize - working out with a trainer 2-3 days a week. Tomorrow is my one year anniversary of one of the best decisions I have ever made! I am currently 144.4 pounds (Have been this weight for about 3 weeks now - up or down only a few ounces). I am wearing a size 6 or some 4's. Here is a couple of pictures taken this week: And one last one in my new size 27 Miss Me jeans! My only regret is not doing this sooner and not taking more pictures of my journey! I am in a good place right now - do not want to lose any more weight - trying to maintain where I am currently or within 5 pounds. I am healthier than I have been in 15+ years. I have energy and finally like the person I see in the mirror. I am pretty tall so lose skin is not so bad - I cannot complain - no rolls or hanging skin, no bat wings. OH and not BOOB - could wear a training bra again I think (may address that later this year!) This journey was so worth it - I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would recommend my surgeon to anyone - the entire experience was truly a blessing. Thank you to all those who went before me and provided me with their insight and advice! Your support has made the journey so much easier and enjoyable. If anyone is considering VSG or just starting your journey - stay focused - stay the course! You can do this! I will be 50 years old this year and really feel under 40! Have a health and happy new year everyone! Kim

Well ask this question of yourself. Are you willing to have your surgery postponed so that you can have a few last meals? That is the bottom line for this, and it is something that only you can answer. Please though keep in mind you will be able to eventually eat everything again, but much smaller portions. Remember that this journey will challenge you in so many ways and maybe this is your first big challenge. You will have this challenge many times during your journey. I was convinced a week post op that I could advance myself and eat eggs. I threw them up violently. The important thing to remember is that you learn from your mistakes.

Keep calm and carry on. Make a deal with yourself - no scale for 4 days. Stalls are nothing.... just dust in the wind Chell it is the long haul that matters. Just remember poo weight is huge in this stage. It will be a while before you can count on your digestive system again. I remember having stalls that resolved themselves with stool softener.

Expect to stall out but keep working. You are worth it! I lost 60 lbs quickly and the next 20lb have been harder. They say te less you have to loose the slower it comes off. I'm 40lbs away from my goal and more determined then ever.

Cheer up! At 18 days I had only lost 16 lbs and then I didn't lose anymore until I was 6 weeks post-op. I then lost 6 lbs. I was getting in all of my protein & fluids in by 2 weeks. You might have stalls, but keep eating & drinking right & they will break:)

I was banded on 8/13/07 and then re-banded on 8/17/07 due to slippage and herniation. I didn't have any complications after that except starting my fills later than most people do. Since about the end of this September (2008) I've been experiencing some vomiting after eating. This was attributed (by my dietitian and surgeon) to not chewing well enough and eating too fast. I took the advice to chew better and slow down. The vomiting was almost instant and the relief was as well. I'm sure that some of you know that feeling of relief when the food isn't stuck anymore. This past week, I had a BAD experience with lunch and was vomiting for almost an hour after only eating a couple of bites of my lunch. It hurt-I had pains in my stomach that I had never had before and I've never vomited more than once after eating a meal and this time it was 3 times. In between vomiting, I had these awful sharp pains that traveled from my stomach up my esophagus and then nothing happened, and I would get another one that started in my stomach and traveled up. I had never experienced this much pain from vomiting before. I was scared, because of my complications so early on-that I decided to contact my surgeon's office. They again said it was from not chewing well enough and/or eating too fast. (This was food that I had tolerated before and not had any problems before that day) They told me to do Clear liquids the rest of the day and if I couldn't keep anything else down or got the sharp pains in my stomach again, that I would need to go to the Emergency room of the hospital that she is in-which is 2 hours from where I live. Luckily, I was able to keep some Soup down for dinner and avoided exercising for the night, just to let my body settle down. The soup made me sick to my stomach, but I think my stomach was just sensitive from the vomiting earlier that day. So needless to say, I didn't have to make the 2 hour trip to the ER. Well, this past weekend, it happened again. I had dinner on Saturday night (leftovers from dinner on Friday night, that I had tolerated fine on Friday night) and this time I had the same thing happen- I felt sick for about 10 minutes before I finally threw it up, then still felt like I needed to vomit again. This time I vomited twice, and it hurt again. The pains in my stomach weren't nearly as bad as they had been during the week when I got sick, but I still felt like it hurt more than it should have. Now I am having pain/discomfort/pressure in my port area. Sometimes I experience discomfort just because it's there and sometimes it's when I'm exercising. I had a fill on 10/14/08 and now have 2.5ccs in a 4cc band. So I am a little over half full. I still don't feel like I am all that restricted, although I have lost quite a bit of weight since surgery (although I am discouraged by losing weight slowly and wish I could lose more) The prospect of needing an "unfill" has come up, but I feel like it's counterproductive to my weight loss. I have to drive 2 hours for everything and I don't want to drive up there again to get Fluid taken out of my band- it's discouraging to think that might be a possibility. Soooo, basically- I am kind of worried because I'm afraid that my band might slip again, or might be slipping, or eroding-or some other BAD thing. I don't think my surgeon would do another band on me, and the idea of having to have surgery again is UNTHINKABLE! I had such a hard time having it twice in one week, I don't think I could do it again. Has ANYONE out there experienced anything like this? To be vomiting at this stage in the game is frustrating because you think it's something would deal with in the beginning-not over a year out. And does anyone know if a band will slip suddenly, or can is slowly slip until it's completely slipped? I know what signs to look for-because I had a slip before and it was absolutely awful. It was right after surgery, so I thought the pain and stuff was normal, until I started to vomit blood-that's when I knew something was wrong. I haven't vomited blood this time, but I'm just paranoid about this. Does anyone have anything for me? Trying to be patient and positive about this...

I'm glad your stall is over!! 60lbs is a great ... and a lot of NSV for you also!! Which is also great!

Congratulations!! Don't hold on to your old larger sizes too long. There a lot of "non-sleevers" out there that need them!! lol. I too just got over my two week stall after losing about 50 lbs. At one point I started to think I was gonna melt away, when I was losing so quickly but then I stalled and that presented a whole other set of emotions. Just wait til you get to ONEderland, it's a ONEderfull place to be!!

Last week: 168 This week: 168 I chalk it up to lifting weights and working out I'm burning fat but building muscle and everyone knows muscle weighs more than fat!

There were days I would just cry after surgery. Now I'm 8 weeks today and I'm not crying but can get cranky pretty quick esp around PMS time. Hang in there. It does get better.

I’ve been out of surgery for a little over 7 weeks now. Ever since I was cleared to have mushy food, everything just tastes so bad.. my mother used to make these AMAZING turkey meatballs, and now they taste repulsive, as do MANY things I enjoyed before. When will everything taste and smell normal again?

Finally!!! I lost 4 pounds last week of the weight I had regained! I am now back on the right track and it could not have come at a better time. To see the scale go DOWN the week of Thanksgiving gives me even more motivation NOT to overeat this Thanksgiving! I always tend to gain weight at this time of the year, and trying not to do so is hard. If I can just lose 17 pounds I will be below 200 pounds!!! :thumbup:

*Warning - A totally non-WLS rant posted because it's my blog and I'll post what I want to:tt2: My s-i-l hates to drive at night, so I'll be trucking down to the city to pick up my college age niece. Apparently she has a medical issue which she could've had taken care of at her university health center, but when her mother(my s-i-l) suggested this, my niece had a meltdown and demanded Momma make her an appt at home and fly her in. What a surprise! Momma does what baby wants. She may be 19, but emotionally more like 15...like her group of college friends who hang out together living a "high school but away from home" type of lifestyle. 20-some years ago when I was in college, we were a lot more mature and aware of key world issues. The effect of helicopter parents?! It's scary when my niece tells me she doesn't like kids but wants to teach 'cause she'll get lots of time off. Wow - just who I want educating the future! Back to the "Apple" topic - my niece is now upset because her mother told the doctor about the problem when she made the appt. Apparently, my niece wanted her to just say that it's for a "check up" (& no - this is not a woman issue)! My s-i-l (rightly so) told her that the doctor needs to know the real reason so as not to waste time. S-i-l wonders what her baby is thinking?!! RU kidding? Here's where it "falls from the tree"...my s-i-l is a DM2 who tries to deny it. It took 3 years of warnings of pre-diabetes and then 6 mos after diagnosis to get her on oral meds. She's still not testing and tries to "trick" her labs by fasting for several days prior or eating "healthy" the week before. Of course, the numbers are still bad because she's non-compliant and hasn't educated herself. She calls me post doctor visit to report that the doctor wants her on more "meds" because her "numbers are bad" and she feels he's probably getting paid by the pharmacutical companies to give her more "stuff". So I say - "Could be - what new meds does he want? what were your labs?". She says..wait for it.... "I dunno - I wasn't paying attention!". Excuse me? What is more personal than a visit to your doctor - how can you not pay attention when it's your health?? This then leads to a conversation we've had before of how her health plan works and me telling her again to print me a copy and I'll review it...which she forgets - as usual. I guess I'm not too surprised as this is some one who wishes she were back in high school, doesn't read the paper or watch the news, and threw a fit when her boss told her she was going to have to take some tech classes - started crying and shouting that she "didn't want to learn anything new!" I'm actually fond of my s-i-l as apart from the tendency to gossip she is a very kind and non-judgmental person(wish I could be more like that) - but I often feel like I'm dealing with a child. Not surprising - her mother (my m-i-l) is the same way. No, she doesn't want to go back to high school - instead she's fiercely independent...sort of. She's moderately more aware of what's going on in the world, but so flightly she only grasps half the story. When she doesn't get her own way - or doesn't get buy-in from the "fam" she just goes off and does whatever she wants then let's the rest of us pick up the pieces, the tab...whatever. When it comes to medical issues - see above. She takes whatever scripts the doctor writes but doesn't know why..."I'm not going to take this Liptor anymore - I don't feel any different...". She's still seeing this ancient doc-in-box who treated her mother. She nixed her prior doc because the doctor did an Alzheimer's test on her and was concerned enough to contact my s-i-l. Par for course, my m-i-l wanted my s-i-l to keep it a secret - Right! Her driving skills have always been sub-par and now they're even worse. Sunday night was a classic - when after two glasses of wine she was red-eyed, staggering and slurring but refused to give up her keys or let someone else drive her home and my s-i-l tells me, "She's not drunk - I'd know!"(sorta like, "She doesn't have memory issues - I'd know!") I'm torn between making a confidential call to the DMV before she hurts someone or herself or just stepping back and letting her kids take responsibility. Sigh - good to vent and hope it gives my readers a laugh; I'm sure plenty of you are in the boat.

oK I'll start at the beginning I had my surgery in Aug. the day after my mouth and throat felt like a coating was building on my gums. Well this never got better finally went to pcp she said it was thrush. Well I took 3 different meds over the last 6 weeks and this gross stuff never went away. Finally I got fed up throat and mouth so sore I went to the ER and was diagnosed with a bacterial infection! This had to have come from the surgery it is just to coincidental that it started within hours after my surgery. Now I am on antibiotics and they are a large capsule. I opened them and put the powder in juice and once in ice cream to hide the taste. OMG they are absolutely digusting making my gag and almost vomit. Can I take a capsule normally I dont think I can keep doing the open thing. I asked pharmacy about a liquid she said that is awful and has a very foul odor and most people gag and can't tolerate it. Please help I just want to swallow the capsule but I'm terrified of it getting stuck. Any suggestions please I'm desperate. Lisa.

Drove 45 minutes through a driving rain/snow mix to my mandatory CPAP fitting/sleep study. Dutifully put on my PJ's at 7pm and had wires attached to my scalp with what looked like balls of lard. Add to this 2 EKG moniters, an elastic sensor belt around my chest and another on my waist, moniters on each leg and a pulse-ox moniter on my finger. Gee - don't I feel snoozy? Then put me in a too warm room(again) where the hospital's over head central heat system sounds like the runway at JFK and hook up a miniature torture device complete with a built in bubbling humidifier - the CPAP. Started out with one that covered my entire nose attached with straps around my head. It felt like an octopus was attached to my face. Not good for a claustrophobic like me. I tossed and turned for a good 2 hours before begging them to take it off. I was feeling stressed out, heart racing and panicky. A trip to the bathroom revealed a big red ring around my nose. The nurse insisted that because I was doing this for surgery I had to put it or an alternative back on. The alternative - what looked like two mini button mushrooms; one in each nostril. Again strapped to my head - this thing was pushing air up my nose to the point it felt like it was breathing for me. Attempt to open your mouth or pull it a bit away from you face to adjust it and it clamped on like an alien life form. Laid awake for another three hours before asking to get up to use the bathroom. Since it was 5am the nurse said I could just go ahead and get up - she'd unwire me. I asked her if she got what she needed and she said that she hadn't since I didn't sleep. I apologized, but I am a serious life-long light sleeper who needs a cool, dark room and quiet. I asked if this would hold up my surgery - she told me I'd have to discuss this with my doctor. Odd thing is - earlier in the evening I asked her if everyone having elective surgery has to go to sleep lab. She told me that it's pretty much standard that all bariactric patients go...Interesting, considering I have no markers for sleep apnea. Does make me question how much of this testing it just wheel spinning and profit driven.:tongue_smilie:

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About four weeks.

So I am 10 days post op and the incision where my port is has started hurting like crazy! It didnt hurt for the first week but the past few days has been hell! Every time I lay on it or push it against something it hurts so bad! And to make matters worse I sleep on my stomach. Ughh has anyone else had this problem or is something wrong? Im kinda freakin out

It was during week two when I started full liquids such as creamy Soups, oatmeal and grits before I had one. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I have had a lap band slip. After the slip, I started having heartburn and has difficulty eating foods that were normally easy to eat (string cheese, quest bars). I suggest getting a barium swallow done to get objective evidence of what is going on. When I first went in, the dr said to try to follow the rules better because I thought maybe I was talking bites that were too big or not chewing enough. A few weeks later my dr got a fluro machine and I did a swallow and found that the band had slipped. No horrible pains, just a lot of heartburn at night and difficulty eating food that should've gone down easily.

Ok, so had a tough day today, have just come home from holiday this afternoon, which always leaves me a little blue, and then weighed in, and have GAINED 2lb (ok, so I wasn't perfect wilst away, but 2lb feels a bit harsh!). So I'm in a bit of a mood, then I start to download my holiday pics, and I come across the only one of me, and I think on reflection that I look fairly average in it, I certainly didn't look at it and think woah I look soo fat (my usual response to any photo of me). So I am claiming this as an NSV (photo attached), please feel free to argue I don't want it sugar coated, I am still only 1/2 way to goal, and know thats still going to take some doing, but I think I look really very average, which was the pick me up I needed! Plus as a mini NSV along the way this week - ended up at the beach without swimwear, so stripped off to just my knickers, and sunbathed topless (I have NEVER done this before, let alone in the UK!!) - although this did result in all over sunburn!! Anyway enough from me! xx

Hi all - I had my surgery on March 31 and have no fill in my band. When I switched to solid food things were going well. I can eat everything with no problems (no PB, no sliming, no vomiting) I do eat a lot less and try to stay on the healthy side. In the last few days however, I am eating a LOT more and craving the foods I used to eat. I have my first fill scheduled for 4/29 and don't quite know what to expect afterwards. I understand the process, as I had an unfill the day after surgery (3 cc to none.) But what will happen after? Will I have to fight the horrible gas bubbles and pain I had at 3 cc post-op? Will it keep my appetite more in control? I haven't lost anything this week, but have lost 34 pounds since surgery so I can't complain...but I'm just so frustrated to feel like I may be failing my band.

Hi All, I am a little worried about my calorie intake. I am in my third week post-op and I average around 300 calories a day. I drink one high protein shake in the morning and then eat about 2/3 of an egg with a little reduced fat cheese in the evening. Also I supplement with protein water to get that in. I just don't feel hungry and I am losing weight well but I am worried that my body is going to suffer taking in so few calories. My surgeon's office says don't eat if you are not hungry but still... I appreciate any advice. TIA, Pennie