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How i built up was on the treadmill. I started with brisk walking for 60 minutes at 3mph. Thats 3 miles a day. Then, I added to the speed slowley every couple of weeks. You will be running 5 miles a day in no time.

Yes that is were most of the pain is because they work mostly through that hole. Also the stitch they use to close it is sort of like a spider web. As they pull out it closes. They usually use it when a person has a chest tube and they take it out after a lung has re inflated. It hurts for the first 3 to 4 weeks but better after. Sleep side to side and take pain med before so you can get some sleep!

I found that I really had to stay on top of everyone to make this happen. When I had my psychological eval the psychologist took two and a half weeks to send documentation. This was after she said it would be sent within three days. (I am a psychologist...I know how long it takes to write these reports...not three weeks). I also stayed in contact with the surgeon/insurance and made sure everyone was communicating. I believe this helped to get a quick approval and now i am headed into surgery January 29. Good luck! Don't be afraid to advocate for yourself! Jennifer

I was also told wait for two weeks, and then to take it easy!

Have to start my two weeks of puréed food on Mon. And I'm not sure where to start. What are some good recipes?

Hey, just wondering if anyone knows of a good fill doc in the Torrance/El Segundo area. We are moving there in four weeks and I need to find someone! amy

I am on my third week too and on pretty much normal foods per my surgeons diet plan. I have to either eat with others and engage in conversation to slow down or I try to read while I eat to distract me and keep from shoveling. Also I have noticed if I go too long between meals I am starving and tend to eat faster than I should. Have not had any vomiting, but have had a couple uncomfortable stuck episodes. It is all about changing behaviors and habits. Don't get discouraged, you will get there!

I can not get the hang out this chewing 20-30 times and only eating small bites. i dont know what my problem is but i am still shoveling food in and i regret it 5 mins later. i puked two times today and once yesterday. when i eat only liquids, i over eat and consume to many calories a day. i am really upset and frustrated and scared i am going to screw something up with my band.

I am 12 days post op. When I went for my one week check my Dr told me I could eat what I could tolerate but not to overdue it. I have been doing well eating extremely small portions of what my family eats. I had my small dinner and then we had a party to attend. We were there for about an hour and I couldn't stop grazing. I finally went home because I knew I was eating too much. Now here it is 3.5 hours later and I had to have a few bites because I was hungry. I feel fine but am scared I did some kind of damage. Advice?

I find that I can eat anything that I want, but I have defiantly slowed down in weight loss. I just broke a three month stall and lost nine pounds this month so I am thrilled! You can have anything you want, but just don't go overboard.

Ya, I had a hernia repair with my sleeve and the hernia caused the most pain of any I had. I took the pain meds for exactly 2 weeks, then it just....stopped. I went through both bottles. It's all normal stuff. I also had the dry heaves the first 24 hours after surgery. I would fall asleep, and a bunch of gunk would collect in my throat, so when I woke up, it'd make me hurl. (no liquids until leak test the next morning!! ) After the liquids came, I stopped. The doc assured me i didn't bust anything throwing up.

I had a major hernia he fixed. We had no idea I has it until he went in. It was making my stomach pull right up under my diaphragm and stick out. I also had my gall bladder removed. It was "hot" he said. Probably the reason why I felt bad all the time he said. He also found some abnormal lymph nodes he cut out and sent to pathology. All ok now. My hernia is still giving me fits and I was sleeved in November. The scar tissue is so much it is trying to wrap around my esophagus I have a striction they call it. This week makes two of having my esophagus dilated to help stretch that scar tissue ao hopefully he won't go back in and cut it back. I hope you recover quickly. It did take me about 2 weeks to feel "good". I am down 62 pounds now. Good luck

BTW, I don't struggle at all with maintenance. This is all through the foods I eat. I had two back surgeries in the last 5 months and have basically stopped all exercise for the last 8 months due to a blown disc in L4/L5. When I dropped my exercise, I dropped my calories. I was at about 2,200 calories when I was exercising rigorously and now I am around 1,600 ... I would guess as I no longer track. I have found the balance that works for me. I eat nutritious, well balanced meals. I don't have food cravings and I cheat like a M/F at times. Had me a big bowl of ice cream the other night. Same size as pre-sleeve. Ate the whole thing, no problem. I'm hoping to be back in exercise form once I finish my physical therapy in another 6 weeks or so and at that time, I'm sure I will be upping my calories again. I try to get out there and post my experience, strength and hope as much as I can. I have learned a lot from here and continue to research nutritional information and share what I learn. I feel like we all were rescued from a sinking ship. I want to pull out as many people from the freezing Water as I can. I'm glad to see you are back. Why did you leave? Was it for the reasons you stated?

I had surgery 4/9, I follow up with the doctor next week and hope to get approval for pureed stage. I have so many questions for those who have been through it already!!!! What kind of foods did people start out with? Did any foods cause problems and what kind? Did anyone have trouble with the texture of baby food verses solid food? When shopping what do you look at calories or carbs,sugars? Did anyone have issues with sugars, I didnt think you got the dumping syndrom with sleeve but it sounds like some poeple do?

Last week was the MISS Conference (Minimally Invasive Surgery Symposium) in Salt Lake City, UT . The first part of the week is laparoscopic general surgery and the latter part of the week is the bariatric surgery section. There was a lot of enthusiasm and interest surrounding gastric plication. It is now a hot topic on the agenda of these meetings and the interest is growing substantially. There was a GPS course at the meeting and surgeons advertising future courses at their institutions. We have begun GPS training courses as well. There are a lot of surgeons wanting to learn how to do GPS and offer it to their patients. The GPS is still considered experimental/investigational since there is no long-term data in the U.S. There is longer-term data internationally that looks good and a couple of surgeons in the U.S. like us are seeing good weight loss averages with the procedure but it is certainly an early stage technology. There were surgeons at the meeting who felt that this procedure looks promising but is not ready for prime time yet due to the absence of long-term data and there were surgeons like myself at the meeting who have experience with the procedure and have successful patients and we feel it is a good operation with the caveat of long-term data. What I see is that patients are driving the interest in GPS because it doesn't involve implants, staples or intestinal malabsorption. It is wonderfully simple - it's just your stomach, only smaller. I have also been fixing plication cases done by other surgeons so I feel strongly about proper technique. I will keep you updated as we gain information on this new procedure.

My name is John and I am from Idaho Falls. I am 30 and had the surgery about 3 weeks ago. I have felt totally fine with no vomiting and little pain. However, I am very hungry and have cheated 3 times since surgery and had no problems. I have lost 15 lbs but am now scared because I have been able to each much more than I thought. I don't get my first adjustment for another 3 weeks. Did anyone else have this problem? I am not sure what to do. I don't want to cheat but it is getting more and more difficult not too. By the way, I appreciate this forum and look forward to learning from everyone.

12/26/08 Well I went back to the gym and worked hard. I have been gaining and losing the last 2 lbs over and over for about 10 days. I was so smug before thinking that I was lucky and doing so well….I guess it happens to everyone. Christmas is a hard time to diet. No doubt about that! I guess I should be happy if I don’t gain any weight this week. At one point I was 0.2 lbs away from my New Years goal. Now I am about 1.5lbs away. I don’t know if I will make it, but if I don’t make it by New Years it will be okay because I will make it soon. Ever since I really started focusing on that goal I haven’t done very well. I need to go back to the philosophy that said even if I mess up or don’t lose as fast as I want to I will lose it. It is ok not to be perfect. It is ok to mess up as long as I get back up and keep going. I am going to mess up. I have to expect it. That way it won’t hit me so hard when it happens. It will be ok and I will keep going and keep losing! I have to accept a new chapter in this Lap band book. I have to give up pizza. :embaressed_smile: I have been eating pizza occasionally. Too often lately. It has been around a lot. Today we helped some friends move. (I am actually exhausted and I don’t think I am going to make it to the gym tonight. I will tomorrow.) Anyway they ordered pizza for the group. I got stuck and started sliming at lunch and at supper. I thought I just wasn’t watching my bites well enough and I probably wasn’t, but I think it is time for me to accept that I have gotten tighter and that means no more bread. Not even pizza crust. I thought I would be upset and just want it more…but to tell you the truth I am kind of relieved. I think I needed an excuse not to eat it. My will power had failed me recently. It is time for me to get back to basics. I found out today that my grandpa passed away. I wasn’t close to him and the only reason I am going to the funeral is to support my mom. She needs some closure. Now my sister her 4 boys and my mom are coming home. That means I don’t get to surprise them this spring/summer with my weight loss. Oh…I guess I still will when I hit onderland, but it just won’t be as big of a surprise. I am still not planning to tell them about the lap band until I in onderland and much closer to goal so now I have to watch what I eat and not let them figure out what is going on. We’ll see what happens. I know that they will think that I went off the deep end if I tell them before there are more results. I need them to say “WOW! I wish I had done that!” Anyway….good bye Christmas. Parting is such sweet sorrow. I love you and hate your snacks and I can’t wait until next Christmas when I plan to be at goal! I pray it will be true!

1/3/09 I can’t believe it has been so long since I’ve posted. Well my family did come. The entire first day no one said ANYTHING about my weight loss. After 45 pounds gone and not one word! DH tried telling me they were just too tired to. I couldn’t believe it. About noon the next day dad said something. Then they said oh, yea they noticed right away. I asked why if I gain 2 lbs on they apologize and asked if I gained weight. It goes something like “I’m sorry, I know you don’t want me to ask, but have you gain weight?” HELLO! :crying:When I asked why they make negative comments so quickly about my weight, but not positive comments my mom seemed kind of set back and honestly said I was right. :confused: This is how we grew up. Looking back I wasn’t BIG growing up. In high school I was heavy, but not big. My grandma would tell us we were so big and overweight and needed to eat less and exercise and my parents seem to agree by omission. They never stuck up for us. I’m not saying I am the perfect mom. I have to work at not making comments about my daughter’s weight. She is overweight, but not big. Kind of like me. I don’t want her to follow in my footsteps. I work at saying positive things and biting my tongue when a stupid comment wants to slip out. Sometimes they do. I’m not perfect, but I apologize for saying something so stupid. Anyway….I am finally off of the stupid plateau that stuck around for two weeks.:grouphug: I know Christmas/New Years snacking didn’t help matters much. I am down 47# I hope to lose another 3 to make it an even 50 by the time I get a fill on Friday. I would like to have lost 100# by my birthday in June. Getting to onderland will be great too! If I lose 2 #/week I will be there by May. If I lose 3#/week I can be there in April. I hope the plateaus go away till then. I think part of my problem was that 45# seemed like such a big number for me to lose and I am feeling good about myself that I started to think I could ease up a little. I guess it isn’t a bad thing to slip off the wagon every now and then. I have to find my commitment and I think getting of the plateau will do it. I promised myself no matter what I ate or how little I worked out I wouldn’t skip a day on the scale. I know weighing in daily isn’t for everyone, but it helps to keep me accountable. At 8:00pm at night when I’m not hungry, but want to snack the thought of getting on my Wii Fit and weighing myself at 6:30 in the moring helps to keep me honest. I also see how my actions affect my goals. I like the Wii Fit because it graphs it all out and tells me my BMI. I don’t work out on it much because I have been hitting the gym every day that I can. Some weeks that is only 3 or 4 times and every once in a while I get there 5 times. I have started a Valentine’s Day challenge and have set 15# as my goal. Someone on one of my groups make the comment about size 9 in ’09. :scared2:That seems like a HUGE goal to set since I haven’t worn that since jr. high. (I guess…I really don’t remember wearing that small of a size.) I have always told my kids if you want to succeed then you have to aim high. If I hit my goal this year I will fit into that size 9! Good luck to everyone and I hope each of you reach your 2009 goals!

1/3/09 I can’t believe it has been so long since I’ve posted. Well my family did come. The entire first day no one said ANYTHING about my weight loss. After 45 pounds gone and not one word! DH tried telling me they were just too tired to. I couldn’t believe it. About noon the next day dad said something. Then they said oh, yea they noticed right away. I asked why if I gain 2 lbs on they apologize and asked if I gained weight. It goes something like “I’m sorry, I know you don’t want me to ask, but have you gain weight?” HELLO! :crying:When I asked why they make negative comments so quickly about my weight, but not positive comments my mom seemed kind of set back and honestly said I was right. :thumbup: This is how we grew up. Looking back I wasn’t BIG growing up. In high school I was heavy, but not big. My grandma would tell us we were so big and overweight and needed to eat less and exercise and my parents seem to agree by omission. They never stuck up for us. I’m not saying I am the perfect mom. I have to work at not making comments about my daughter’s weight. She is overweight, but not big. Kind of like me. I don’t want her to follow in my footsteps. I work at saying positive things and biting my tongue when a stupid comment wants to slip out. Sometimes they do. I’m not perfect, but I apologize for saying something so stupid. Anyway….I am finally off of the stupid plateau that stuck around for two weeks.:thumbdown: I know Christmas/New Years snacking didn’t help matters much. I am down 47# I hope to lose another 3 to make it an even 50 by the time I get a fill on Friday. I would like to have lost 100# by my birthday in June. Getting to onderland will be great too! If I lose 2 #/week I will be there by May. If I lose 3#/week I can be there in April. I hope the plateaus go away till then. I think part of my problem was that 45# seemed like such a big number for me to lose and I am feeling good about myself that I started to think I could ease up a little. I guess it isn’t a bad thing to slip off the wagon every now and then. I have to find my commitment and I think getting of the plateau will do it. I promised myself no matter what I ate or how little I worked out I wouldn’t skip a day on the scale. I know weighing in daily isn’t for everyone, but it helps to keep me accountable. At 8:00pm at night when I’m not hungry, but want to snack the thought of getting on my Wii Fit and weighing myself at 6:30 in the moring helps to keep me honest. I also see how my actions affect my goals. I like the Wii Fit because it graphs it all out and tells me my BMI. I don’t work out on it much because I have been hitting the gym every day that I can. Some weeks that is only 3 or 4 times and every once in a while I get there 5 times. I have started a Valentine’s Day challenge and have set 15# as my goal. Someone on one of my groups make the comment about size 9 in ’09. :scared2:That seems like a HUGE goal to set since I haven’t worn that since jr. high. (I guess…I really don’t remember wearing that small of a size.) I have always told my kids if you want to succeed then you have to aim high. If I hit my goal this year I will fit into that size 9! Good luck to everyone and I hope each of you reach your 2009 goals!

Hang in there! Remember the first few weeks are about healing, not losing weight, the weight loss is just a byproduct of the VLCD. You're successful, because you faced your faults and learned from them. By the next few weeks, I'm sure the weight will just be falling off of you! Good luck on your road to skinny!

I began this journey towards a healthier life in March. Finally I have a date, August 1, 2012. Today I spent the morning at the Barix clinic in Pennsylvania. I had preadmission testing. After agreeing to give them my first born child if I couldn't pay my bill, (haha, no one wants a .22 year old journalism major), the fun began. I stepped on the scale. I was down 6 pounds from my consult. This is only about 1 1/2 pounds a month, but apparently was not expected. Everyone who entered my room started with "Wow, you've lost weight already." I thought this was the expectation, after all we all want a tinier liver before surgery. In my exam room I was given a gown that actually met in the back. Wow, love a bariatric specialty hospital. Next came the blood draw. My phlebotomist was excellent. As she says, "I do this every day" Thank God, because I really hate when people go fishing for my veins. Next the nurse came in to do an H & P, however the computer put a hate on her, so on to xrays. Had a total of 5 takes for 2 pictures, the first was fine, view 2- into the developer too soon. Repeat of view 2- artifact on the film from the developer. Shot 3 of the second view, I coughed which is not a good idea during a chest xray. Shot 4 after juice and a break=success. Next up- Respiratory therapy. First up, she did my EKG- no I am not confused, small hospital- every one has multiple jobs. Lesson for the day- Powder and EKG tabs don't mix. Then on to spirometer practice. You get to bring this home to practice before surgery. One more thing on the list- looks like a hooka attached to a piston. Next pulmonary function tests or PFTs. Does anyone ever realize how hard it is to exhale forcefully over 10 seconds? Apparently the 4th time was the charm. Yeah! Jen the nurse is back and has conquered the computer gremlin. She does a history, then gives me my preadmission and discharge instructions. What a great system. Patients should know what to expect before every surgery. My next visitor is Elana. She is the dietician. I am now the proud receipent of a glossy magazine style book with all my rules and recipes for taking care of my sleeve. She also reviews how to read a label and gives protien shake samples. I wish you could sample all, because some taste like medicine instead of food. My last hurdle- the independent physician exam. The good news, I passed, the bad, I still have low iron and ferritin levels as well as low B-12 levels. Back on supplements. How can someone who weighs almost 300 lbs now have enough nutrients? One of life's ironies I guess. After 3 hours I am on my way with a very heavy tote bag, B-12 tablets and overwhelming information. Now to digest everything in the next 2 weeks.

Hi All, My appointment is on Monday. I had a rough few days after surgery but things seem to be getting better now. I went back to work yesterday and MAN WAS I DRAGGING!! :thumbup: Today was not as bad and I've been able to increase my activity every day. I'm at 5300 steps today. When I started last week i could barely make 1000. Last night was my first night of real sleep. I had to get up twice to run to the bathroom..... Just in case... I can't put my CPAP on though my chest just gets SO tight with air and I feel like I'm going to explode. I am going to talk to my dr. about that on Monday. One thing I'm worried about right now is that I think I'm getting a UTI. :w00t: I haven't had one in years but I drank 2 liters of Water today and I really am not peeing that much. Any thoughts? I called the dr. office today and didn't get a call back. And if my scale is right, I'm 17 lbs down. I'm not going to officially get happy about that until I see the dr. on Monday though.

Hmm... I am only two weeks and one day into my weight-loss journey. On May 17, 2008 I attended the little seminar and then saw the surgeon. He sure was one self-absorbed little so and so. He seemed VERY impatient, with ALL of us. :smile: He said that my BMI was only 37 and my ins. prob. wouldn't cover the surgery.:thumbup: May 23, Julian the ins. coordinator called and asked a ton of questions. I swear, if they ask me ONE MORE TIME do I pee when I sneeze, laugh, or cough and do I want surgery for that I am going to ask if they have a surgery that prevents me from cutting one when I sneeze, laugh, or cough. LOL!!!:sneaky: Then I found out that they were trying to say I have stress incontinence, one more co-morbidity to add to the list so insurance will cover me. We have BXBS FEHB and they cover lap band if your BMI is a little low but you have two or more co-morb's. I have GERD, athritis, DDD, and hip joint pain. May 27-phone interview w/psych. She said I raised NO red flags that would prevent me from surgery. In fact, she said I 'was mentally boring.":tongue2: May 29-Phone interview w/nut. We talked for a long time. Boy, do I wish all these services were closer but it's all good. What I am dreading is the two hour trip through LA for the surgery, should I get that far. May 31, received literature about the diets, both pre-op and post-op. One great thing about my insurance is that they do not require months and months of supervised dieting pre-op. YAY!!!! June 1-Now it's just time to sit and wait for insurance approval. No one has told me what will happen once I get approved. I have no idea of what types of testing I will undergo. I have been laying off the soda pop and I am learning to like Crystal Light and Wyler's Light drinks. Now I have to start cutting out the smokes. Nasty, stinky, dirty habit anyway. Cost too much, both in the checkbook and in the health departments. That's it for now. Lisa, grama to three on and one more on the way!

Tonight my family and I went out to eat for my Dad's 65th birthday. It was a good meal and generally a good time...except... My brother-in-law doubts me. I told him that though I am not being banded till the 19th next week (while I have been working on it) I am going to cut drinking during meals completely, and make sure I'm taking a long time to eat, and really chewing my food. I really want to be ready for the surgery to make this life alterring transition as smooth as possible. He laughed at me and told me I wouldn't do it. I don't like what he did but that didn't bother me to terribly, I don't generally care what he says. But then, the surgery was brought up to my Dad's girlfriend, and from her facial expressions you could tell that she doesn't approve of my getting the band. Which I suspected all along as to the reason why my Dad may not fully support this decision...but I need his support. I was talking to my 15th yr old neice Ashleigh on the way home about the fact that this isn't just some little surgery, ohh I'll heal and all will go back to normal, this is changing my life! And how much I need my family's support on this! We both started crying and so I guess even though I haven't been banded yet, infact I still have a few weeks, I guess my emotional rollercoaster has begun. Here's to the final countdown. And praying that I get the support I need to help me properly use my tool, even though I'm determind I know the road will get rough, I know that this is going to be hard, and I just need them to help me through it. :thumbup:

I'm just over 2 weeks out from surgery and I'm feeling really good. I'm down 16 pounds from where I was the day before my cleanse, and the soreness is all but gone. I still get little twinges of pain in the port area if I twist wrong or if one of my little chihuahuas steps on it playing, but otherwise all is well. I'm working hard to get my protein and water in during the day, and I'm picking up my exercising. It's just been slow because I've had to take this week to move out of my college apartment back home, which was good exercise because I had almost no help. Anyway, I had hoped that the weight would come off a little easier, but it hasn't. At least I'm down 16 lbs, I mean I have to celebrate the little things right? I knew this was going to be a big undertaking and not a cop out to lose the weight, so if I can just stick with it, it'll be ok, besides I haven't even had my first fill yet! Anyway, hopefully my 3rd week out I will see another pound or so come off, I'm going to check into joining a gym this week, a curves and see because I know I need to be doing some cardio and strength training, not just walking and wii fit, although I have to say the wii fit hula hoop can get you sweating if you get into it, same with dance dance revolution (ddr)! I did that the other night with my neice and it was a quite nice little workout. Anyway, I just need to take it step by step and eventually the weight will come off....:confused: