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Hi, I had my lapband oct 29, 2008. I live in delhi, la. My doctor is dr. merrian, from shreport la. I get my first fill Dec. 10, 2008. I didn't know there was a doctor in calhound that does fills.

Im 10 months post op and 7 months pregnant. Besides the slow down of the weight loss process you can expect the pregnancy symptons which can be confused with the symptons of the surgery.

Hey there. Don't give up! I heard that many sleeve patients lose like another 10-15 % additional weight in the SECOND YEAR too! You still may be able to hit that 100 pound goal. I agree that working at McDonald's after having the sleeve is like an alcoholic working in a bar. I understand you can't quit. Try to eat something before work like some of the other people have said so you are full and not tempted to eat there. I don't even know anything I would eat at McDonald's except maybe the oatmeal and I'm not even sure i would eat that. Good luck girl!

I had stitches, staples and tape. When I would change the dressing and remove the old tape, it felt like I was taking a layer of skin off too! It got very red and irritated. I only covered it because I was afraid the staples would catch on my clothing or sheets in bed. I begged my doctor to remove the staples after 10 days and the tape irritation areas went away after a few days.

It's good that you're thinking about all of this now and not going into surgery blindly thinking that it will solve all of your food related issues. Most insurances require a psych eval before surgery. Did you discuss any of these issues? That's what the psych eval is for. However, I know many just see it as a "check in the box" to get to surgery approval. I highly suggest you read Geneen Roth's book "When Food is Love". It's a great read that I only read recently (I'm almost 10 mos post op). The food "addiction" will not go away with surgery. Early on, you will not physically be able to eat much but you will want to and be suffering emotionally. This can cause you to sabotage your weight loss by not following Drs orders (and finding lots of excuses to justify it). Within about 6 mos, it will be easy to stop losing weight and start gaining if you're not in the right mind set with food. So, start working on it now. As for your lack of support from family- As you read Roth's book, you might realize that the approval of others is overly important to you. You need to make the decision to have this surgery for you and not for the approval of others. If they truly care about you, they will support you regardless of what they're saying now. If you're not sure that surgery is the best for you right now, then postpone. It is truly a life changing procedure. There are opportunities for great results but it will require many changes that you must be ready for. If it helps, I don't regret the surgery. I only regret not doing it sooner.

On January 9th of this year marked my 1 year anniversary of having the Sleeve surgery! I am so happy with my results and truly love my sleeve. I started this journey at 228lbs. I had to do the 6 month supervised diet so 10 months later, the day of surgery i was 203lbs. On January 9, 2014 i weighed in at 135lbs. I have learned to use my tool and know what my limits are and what my slider foods are. I am very aware of what goes in my mouth as opposed to before i had surgery where i ate or drank whatever i wanted. It has to be worth something good for me to eat it. Things i would have done differently: Definitely Exercise more! I didn't start going to the gym until 5 months post op. Pure laziness in my part. So if i can give a newbie any advice at all is to definitely exercise and take advantage of the first 6 months post op because that is when you will see the weight fly off your body. After 6 months i noticed that my weight loss slowed down alot. I still lost weight but it was minimal. Here is a before picture and a picture that was taken at 10 months post op.

I’m going through a trying time as well. Last Wednesday I received some very troubling news, financial in nature. It may take all my savings for my surgery to remedy the issue. I’m self pay, and my surgery is scheduled for 10/1 so this is especially distressing. I have already purchased my airfare. I’m not sure how I feel at this time. Oh well, it is what’s, it is. Well, at least that is what I try to live by.

I have no way of buying an individual bottle so I will just pass on them. Ill rely on my unflavored Protein because the nectar shakes are revolting. Starting weight 321- sleeve date 07/10/13 Sent from my iPhone using VST

No we have only GNC and Walgreens and neither carry them but that's ok I think I would rather mix my own unflavored with juices or shakes. A previous post said they mixed with g2? Did that taste ok? I'm a huge water/flavored water/Gatorade/powerade lover so that would be ideal!! Starting weight 321- sleeve date 07/10/13 Sent from my iPhone using VST

Hi, I am new to this board and will have the lap band on 10/17..I will also have my hernias repaired..has anyone had this also? My Dr is requiring a 2night stay in the hospital because of the hernias. TIA

@@Ken S. Hi Ken, I've received absolutely nothing from bariatric pal since 10/31 via email. I've checked my spam folder as well....

I was born weighing 10 and 1/2 lbs and was always big lol. My highest was 280 and lowest 140 which I was happy with. I had my surgery 4 almost 5 years ago and I have not gone back to my prior weight

I had surgery 10/18/21 and remember thinking a lot initially about this, like ok should I be drinking all the time when not within 30 minutes of eating???? You develop a routine and it works. Like others suggested, maybe changing one thing at a time like drinking more or eating at regular intervals. My surgeon said I wasn't eating enough at 3 months, told me to increase to 5 times per day. That's a struggle sometimes but at 6 months I was at 77% of excess weight lost and I noticed it's better with less plateaus when I do that. You can do it, and btw I was 49 on surgery day and now I'm 50 and in better health than I was at 49!

I am 19 weeks pregnant and found out I was pregnant 6 months after having surgery.. I was also afraid and so happy I found this site.. Learned soo much and was able to calm down seeing I am not the only one!! I have only gained 9lbs.. I am filled 8.5CC and so far have not had any troubl;e...No port pain, no morning sickness, the only thing is I may feel the band tighter some days than others... Congrats and enjoy it... Stay active and watch what you eat!!

Yes ma'am - here you go: Here are a few ideas concerning the post op diet Day 1 thru 5 ( Clear liquids Only ) fruit juice ( apple, grape, cranberry ) Propel broth Jello-O Water Tea Protein Water by Kellogg?s Water popsicles Clear Protein drinks only ( example Isopure, unjury ) Day 6-10 ( thin liquids ) All of the above and: Natural Vegetable Juices ( example Carrot, V-8 juice ) Protein drinks mixed with water ( example Matrix ) whey nectar Protein Mix Day 11 thru 20 ( full liquids ) Cream soups Yogurt Jello-O Boiled pureed fruit ( example apple, pear) applesauce Watermelon, papaya or melon in small pieces Low fat milk 1 or 2% Water, Propel, tea Soy beverages sugar free pudding Protein shakes and protein powders mixed with milk Day 21 thru 30 ( soft food ) Soft food should be the consistency of a thick liquid ( no chunks or solid material ) and it should be chewed very well before swallowing until it is a liquid consistency ) Tofu Low fat cottage cheese Cereal Oatmeal Precooked pureed rice Low fat Yogurt Yogurt mixed with fruit very well blended Cream soups eggs Boiled pureed fruit ( example pear, apple ) Watermelon, papaya or melon in small pieces Boiled pureed vegetables Beans Day 31st and beyond ( solid food ) Fish, Chiken meat Turkey Vegetables Fruit A diet consisting of 800 calories and 70 grams of protein should be your goal.

I was not aware that fruit was included in full liquids. It seems like the fibers in it would upset the sleeve at the full liquids stage. ???? At the very least it seems it should be a "mushie". I have been on full liquids for 3 days and my sleeve was not happy with cream of chicken Soup the first night. I had some awful spasms so backed off to clears for a couple of more days. Today it is doing OK with the cream of chicken soup. Guess it was having a "bad soup day" or something. Just gotta listen to it and back off when it's cranky! I sure was glad to have the toradol sublingual when the spasms started...they are pretty awful. I came real close to vomiting...was sitting in front of the toilet just trying to think of something else...and luckily it passed after about 10 minutes or so. Lucky me. I'm not going to try any fruits until I am on solids. Maybe the fact that I had a hiatal hernia repair makes it a bit more "touchy" too. So far, I'm getting in all the liquids and Proteins necessary, and am doing some treadmilling too. I am so pleased with all the post-op instructions from Dr Aceves and his staff, as well as advice from this forum. Being informed in advance of things that can happen, and how to manage them, makes the process so much easier. I have hit a little stall the past 3 days, but I suppose this is the usual adjustment period. So I'm going to try hard to stop weighing daily now, and just do it once a week. It's so hard to do that because I love seeing it go down!...but when it doesn't budge...not so much!

Hi ladies--- I'm 10 days post op, and I've noticed that if I try to wear an underwire bra I get a strange indigestion kind if pressure. Let me just say--- I need an underwire. The tatas are not so fluffy since I've dropped 40lbs;(. Will this last forever or am I just moving too fast? Appreciate your thoughts, Sara

Had the gastric sleeve on May 10. I can hold way more food than what I was told I could and it has me scared I'm gonna bust my seams. I think I jumped ahead to eating soft foods so I'm going to stop and go back to puréed for another week. I'm losing but I'm so afraid of causing a leak it's making me stress out about it.. Any help out there?

my pre-op diet was pretty much simple, but yet efficient. Can't say it wasn't hard, but I managed my hunger. My only food for 2 weeks was a full protein shake every 3 hours (got an alarm reminder on my phone) - at 9am, 12pm, 3pm and 6pm. Plus lots of water in between. With Premier Protein (30mg) it was nearly 260% of daily protein value, about 20% of daily fat and less than 10% of carbs.

Be carefully gentle with your stomach. The nurses had me drinking 1 ounce about every 10 to 15 minutes. Be patient, I'm 11 weeks out and instead of 2 swallows at a time I can drink 4 swallows. Try to stick to Clear Liquids. Carbonation will upset your new stomach for a while. Sent from my SGH-M919 using the BariatricPal App

Well I started my journey at 315 lbs pre surgery. I got to 275 on surgery day with 10 months of dietician. Today I am exactly two months post op. And it made my day this morning to weigh in at 239!!!!! I cant ever remember being this weight. Besides buying new clothes and having them not fit in a month this has been the most rewarding, hard, scary and fulfilling thing I have done in a very long time. I hope all of you are feeling fulfilled and proud too. Keep up the good work!

Doddie, She's here to push her book and to speak about having the band so she's not representing Inamed at all. She didn't even mention CIBO's actual name, she said she was holding an information seminar with Tom Saridis, who we all know is the founder of CIBO and she pushed her book. She didn't discuss anything about the actual clinic other than her comment about it being the best in Canada. Hard for her to comment on a clinic that isn't even built yet. They have a name and some offices but no surgical suites. All their hype about their clinic is just that hype and nothing more. They are up to maybe 10 bands at most by now and aftercare is still in the very new stages so hard to comment on it when very few patients and very little time. It's all a paid for smokescreen and anyone with half a brain can see through it all. Just be glad we were banded at some of the best clinics in Canada already and didn't have to try and decide now with all the advertising they are paying for to get their name out there. Actually most of us are smart enough to see through it all and probably would have still picked our respective clinics with proven stats.

So what are you snacking on? There's really no protein in pizza or egg rolls so they would be wasted calories at this point. 30g protein is actually a pretty low amount....most postop plans call for 60g or more. Too little protein now can lead to hairless later. here's a lot of stuff I snacked on.... Refried Beans Hard boiled eggs Baby bell cheese String cheese Avocados (I actually ate a lot of homemade guacamole) Greek yogurt flavored with Protein powder Spam Deviled ham Tuna fish chicken salad Peanut Butter P3 snack packs Split pea Soup Bean Soups Cottage cheese Quest bars are soft, come in a variety of flavors and have 20g protein each For fluids I drank diluted fruit juice, diluted Vitamin Water and Sobe, skim milk (lots of protein there, too), flavored water, and herbal teas. I had a water bottle with me at all times and never stopped sipping. Even at 10 months out I drink a large protein smoothie everyday....30-40g protein and 24-32 oz fluid in just one "snack". With so many different powder flavors and extras like Torani syrups, fruit or PB2, the variety is nearly endless.

Have you received the e-mail that starts of with(?): You gotta love Robin Williams...... Even if he's nuts! Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect Plan. What we need now is for our UN Ambassador to stand up and Repeat this message. "I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for Peace. So, here's one plan." It Is Another HOAX But even if Robin Williams had said it, it is still BS. 1) "The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those "good 'ole' boys", we will never "interfere" again. Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the US. We did not defeat Stalin. Noriega and Hussein were tools of the USA who had outlived their usefulness to the USA and most of the rest of the world was not concerned about them. The USA only did themselves a favor by ousting them. Oh, they also did Iran a big favor, by disposing of Hussein. Now Shiites dominate the region. Maybe if BuSh had read his father's book, instead of blaming his father for 911, Iran wouldn't be in such a strong position. 2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence. I wish we would withdraw our troops. The USA has troops in over 130 nations. Can you name 130 nations? Can you name even 100? But your tax dollars are going there. If we stop the Mexicans from coming in, who is going to pick your fruits and vegetables? Either we will be faced with tripling of produce prices or we will get our produce from overseas, putting farmers out of business. That also goes for chicken and other meat-packing operations. 3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They're illegal!!! France will welcome them. It is estimated that it would cost $20,000,000,000 (that's 20 billion dollars to deport all the illegal aliens). I would rather see that 20 billion TAX DOLLARS used for rebuilding New Orleans or so many other important projects. And what do we do with illegal alien mothers who have American children? Do we split the family up and put the children into our overtaxed foster care system or do we send these American children to a live of poverty in Mexico? Punish the children? 4) All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers. I guess the person who wrote this had not been in an hospital lately or else he would know that the USA does not produce enough doctors, so many of our doctors are now from terrorist countries and many other countries. The USA is also raiding other countries to get nurses to move here to relieve the nursing shortage. I guess the author also did not know that because the USA does not graduate enough nuclear engineers, that the USA imports over a quarter of a million people from (terrorist) Pakistan every year to do our nuclear engineering. As far as cab-drivers and 7-11's are concerned, the next time you need a cab or want something late at night, I bet you would rather have a cab with a driver of any nationality than to stand waiting for hours. Same goes for 7-11; better to have a foreign clerk than find the 7-11 with a sign, "Closed". Not many "real" Americans want to ruin there health staying up all night for minimum wage. 5) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby. #5 is too stupid to even comment on. 6) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while. The USA was making an effort to become energy self-sufficient under under Jimmy Carter, but Ronald Reagan canceled all of Carter's programs. Drilling in Alaska will not produce enough oil to make a dent in our energy problem and it will be 10 years before that oil will reach the market. There are ways to start becoming energy self-sufficient today. People do not need 300 horse-power trucks to drive around in for pleasure. Brazille is energy self-sufficient, because it's government had the gumption to pass laws to push business in the right direction. Using vegetation to make fuel can help make the USA energy self-sufficient and it will reduce the green-houses gases causing global warming. 7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.) This e-mail must have been written by a man from China or India. China and India would love the USA to do that. Hey, I have a way to put drug dealers out of business. Tell all the junkies to offer their dealer $1.00 for a dime bag. When I stop laughing, I will refute #8. 8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything. I guess no one read the news about all the countries that contributed money to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Mexicans were helping before FEMA got there. The author should not be so flippant about Allah. Allah is the same God as the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament (the Bible, to those less informed). Allah is the Arabic translation of "God". If you travel to Italy and land at Rome's airport, you will not see signs saying Rome. The signs will say Roma. If you travel to Venice, you will not see signs saying Venice. The signs will say Venezia. If you are in Spain, and are thirsty, and someone offers you aqua, do you refuse it and say, "No thanks, give me some water"? Aqua is water, Roma is Rome, Venezia is Venice and Allah is God. 9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens. Then why was BuSh so adamant about enforcing UN resolutions against Hussein in 2003 that he invaded Iraq? Then why was BuSh so adamant about enforcing the UN's Gulf-War treaty against Hussein? 10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it...or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan? "The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses." She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, "you want a piece of me?" If you agree with the above forward it to friends...If not, and I would be amazed, DELETE it!! No, the language of this country is not English. It could have been if the original 13 colonies had not stolen so much land from Spain and Mexico. Did you ever wonder why so many cities have names like San Fransisco, Las Angeles, Las Vegas? Because we took them from Spanish speaking countries and they were full of Spanish speaking people. Maybe if we hadn't brought so many Chinese to the USA to build our railroads, we could be a English speaking country. Maybe the Statue of Liberty should also say, "No WOP's allowed". Isn't WOP (With-Out Papers) the same thing as an illegal alien? WOP is what my Italian ancestors were nick-named. How soon we forget. I saw a border guard complaining on TV about the "illegals" coming over the border. His name was Gonzales. I wonder how his ancestors got here. Maybe, instead of forwarding this e-mail, the people who are so dissatisfied with the problems in the USA should have just packed up their belongings to go back to where there ancestors came from. If you are Irish/Italian-American, well then cut your head off and send it to Ireland and send your body to Italy. Sounds stupid? Not much more than the e-mail being forwarded. Love to all, TOM PS: BS means Balogna Sandwich