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It's hard to believe that I am now 6 weeks out from surgery and down 25 pounds...I'd love to celebrate more at the moment but unfortunately I'm stuck in bed sick. What's different this time than before surgery and getting sick, is I find myself worrying more about what I take in. I made sure to get sugar-free cough syrup and cough drops, I'm trying to be especially careful about what I eat, although keeping my protein intake up. My sister suggested that since nothing else is seeming to work to keep my cough under control to try some whiskey and sugar to make a syrup like in "olden" days...is it bad that I refuse to try it for the empty calories? :cheatfree: I just really don't want to see the scale go up. I may not be able to exercise right now, but doesnt mean I can pig out either. Actually truth be told my hunger has all but vanished. Sadly I don't think it's because I've found my sweet spot but instead because I'm sick. As for the weightloss that I've had, I don't think anyone can really tell but, that's ok, as long as the scale keeps going down, eventually people will notice. My jeans are less tight, my boobs may be a little smaller, and my face a little thinner, but that's probably it. I'm not going to let it get me down, just want to keep trucking it, more like get better and get out of bed!! It's funny though the little changes that I've been going through...anything to keep the scale from going the other way (UP)....Oh well guess I'll go to bed now, attempt to get some rest.

So here it is, a tuesday night. I'm getting ready for bed, but I'm frustrated....with just about everything in my life. My boyfriend is in town and I love him, I know that, but I'm beginning to question is I'm IN love with him anymore.....? He's my best friend, but he's sooo agrivating! When he says he's coming to see me, I'd really rather tell him to keep his butt at home, but I know I can't do that to him. He's been pretty much fantastic to me, but we are soo different! Why am I feeling this way? What's wrong with me? We've dated for 3 years now and talked about marriage, and now ...I'm home, for good, love being here, love my Dad, after all the problems with my sisters and their men I sit here and wonder if I even want to get married....? Why is life so complicated??? :blushing: My Dad's out of town with his girlfriend, and of course everything around here goes to crap. All of a sudden we're getting snow and ice, our cows are knocking down fences, my uncle (God bless his heart, but he's lost his mind and needs to retire) is about like asking a 3 year old to do stuff around a farm....My friend Lauren called, her mom and hubby got into another fight. This time the cops got called, and he got taken to jail. The judge told her mom that it was her fault he hit her, HER FAULT!? WTF? Because she threatened to break his cell phone if he came any closer to her, boy did he, he got so close his fist touched her face! :thumbup: So not only am I dealing with the usual crap from my sisters, not having a job and bills piling up, I've been sick, my boyfriend is driving me crazy, my dad's out of town and everything is going to crap on the farm, my friend's mom was beaten by her husband, and yet, all I want is to lose weight.......Which while sick apparently now viruses kill my appetite, so I apparently stalled my weight loss because I couldn't make myself eat near enough during the day. I'm down 28 pounds, right at 300 pounds now, and dieing to get under it! But haven't had the time or energy since I've been sick to really exercise. figures. I feel like I'm running and running, and doing all that I can for everyone else but it's never enough. Why am I second guessing my boyfriend? Why do I feel like everything is hopeless in life? To top it all off, I really want to take a little vacation in march or july but I don't know if I'll be able to because of money, but yet my cousins apparently have money to blow and go gamble like every weekend....What's wrong with me? Why is it bothering me what they do? Are all of my questions just me being an unusually worrysome form of myself or is this part of that rollercoaster that's part of having the band? I just feel frustrated and angry right now, and I'm not sure why. I've lost 28 pounds, and I hope to go have another fill soon....so we'll see. Maybe this will just go away.

So another week is about over. Which puts me, I think 8 weeks out from my surgery date, or 2 months and currently my weightloss is 31 pounds. Which averages out to be almost 4 pounds per week. I know this is a good weightloss, despite the fact that I think I'm just depressed because I can't see it. But, I'm going in tomorrow for a fill. Unfortunately I'm not getting any restriction and I can't stay satisfied for very long...regardless of what I eat. I really hope this helps, it's been a long week. I joined the gym (curves) on monday with my neice Ashleigh. It figures that when found our farm dog a sweet 5 yr old lab in the front yard suffering from the shock of being hit by a car. So we didn't get to the gym tuesday, and we've been dealing with trying to get her healthy. She did survive the hit and extremely lucky might I add! She doesn't have any broken bones! But she did come out with a really bad laceration on her left back hock (ankle area) and her lungs collapsed and were badly bruised. She's very pitiful looking. She was hit tuesday evening and came home wednesday night for strict monitoring for the next 3 weeks. My poor big baby doesn't understand why we can't let her go work with us on the farm, and my indoor pups don't understand why she's inside all of a sudden....or at least they didn't at first. I think they got the hang of it when they heard her wimpering. :tt2: I just can't believe, I live in a small town, on a back road where everyone knows everyone, and everyone knows whose dog is who's and yet they hit her, left her and never even hit their brakes. :mad: I really want to find the person and make them feel the pain she has had to endure the last 48 hours.....:w00t: But alas, I don't think I'll get any justice for her. I'm just glad at this point that she's seemingly ok. So, yeah my nerves have been on edge this week, my sisters are driving me crazy, my dad wants me to take a job in NC and I don't want to leave home! :eek: The lady at curves asked Ashleigh and I if we had an stress in our lives...we looked at eachother and laughed....I know she didn't know but for us to imagine a life where we didn't have an intense amount of stress would be easy street. I mean, we've had doctors tell our family, namely my Dad, me and my sister Lisa that if we don't reduce our stress levels in our lives somehow, it WILL kill us. SOOOOO, I kinda want to move to Vegas and become a dealer in a casino.....yeah right...I mean I would but I can't/won't leave this farm. I love it too much...I just want to lose my weight and get a job and make ends meet, don't need much more than that, just survive..that's all. I guess just focus on the immediate and try not to think or worry about the future. :smile:

Another night home, alone and apparently my space bar just broke on my laptop....not a good thing by any means. :frown: I see why they warn you that people who have weightloss surgery are more likely to develop an eatting disorder. I'm beginning to worry about being addicted to the weightloss. Take this week for example...I've had an extremely good week, I've lost 4 pounds so far and it's just thursday. I realize that this is a fantastic amount to lose in a week, actually even borderline too much but what can I say? I want the scale to continue to go down...no matter! :cool2: I'm currently weighing 292 lbs, the lightest I've been in a very long time! I'm down a total of 36 pounds since surgery, so 4 pounds till I hit 40 and 3 pounds till I will be back in the 280's which has been even longer since I've weighed so little. :wink: However, I do have to say that I'm getting pretty frustrated with my spacebar at the moment..:wink2: But I'm getting in my protein every day, drinking my water, exercising and don't need to snack, but my servings are larger than what the doctor wants....but I'm losing well and not starving myself....so whatever works, right? I just can't help but feel like no one can tell I'm losing and I myself can only tell that I've lost a little.....Not what I feel like I should see having lost close to 40 lbs. But oh well I'll survive whether I'm down or not tomorrow...I'd just be happier if I were down! :w00t:

Another night home, alone and apparently my space bar just broke on my laptop....not a good thing by any means. :frown: I see why they warn you that people who have weightloss surgery are more likely to develop an eatting disorder. I'm beginning to worry about being addicted to the weightloss. Take this week for example...I've had an extremely good week, I've lost 4 pounds so far and it's just thursday. I realize that this is a fantastic amount to lose in a week, actually even borderline too much but what can I say? I want the scale to continue to go down...no matter! :cursing: I'm currently weighing 292 lbs, the lightest I've been in a very long time! I'm down a total of 36 pounds since surgery, so 4 pounds till I hit 40 and 3 pounds till I will be back in the 280's which has been even longer since I've weighed so little. :thumbup: However, I do have to say that I'm getting pretty frustrated with my spacebar at the moment..:cursing: But I'm getting in my protein every day, drinking my water, exercising and don't need to snack, but my servings are larger than what the doctor wants....but I'm losing well and not starving myself....so whatever works, right? I just can't help but feel like no one can tell I'm losing and I myself can only tell that I've lost a little.....Not what I feel like I should see having lost close to 40 lbs. But oh well I'll survive whether I'm down or not tomorrow...I'd just be happier if I were down! :w00t:

I have not lost more than a few pounds in months! I don't feel as if I eat much quantity, always protein...I do get into triouble late at night with grazing behavior but there again, even if not a great choice, not a large amount. I walk 30-60 min. every day (almost) and do weight training three days per week. I see I was talking about getting into the 100's back in the fall but am still not there...anyone have plateau breaker ideas?????????

Sorry to tell you that you will probably lose some, no matter what you do. I just read an article in a magazine that talked about crash diets and basically said eating less than 1200 cal a day can cause you do lose your hair because of nutrient deficiencies. Since we are physically unable to eat that much, it is inevitable that we are going to be losing hair. Mine starting about a week or 2 ago. I'm 3 months out as of yesterday.

Hello all, I was sleeved this past Wednesday 10/29 in St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, NY. Everything went so smoothly and quickly I am still in shock. I thought there would be a series of blood testing and everything like the pre surgical appointment a week prior but it was quick. Appointment was 8am so I was there by 730, by 8 I was already in a stretcher with blood drawn and answering questions. The anesthesiolgist came to see me and I can't remember much after that, I didn't even see the inside of the OR. I was already knocked out. Woke up and was a little taken aback by how I felt, thought I would be in agonizing pain and I wasn't. They woke me up to go walking and I did, next thing you know I am in a room with a button in my hand for dilaudid. I wasn't really in pain but I kept pressing it because I was afraid the pain would hit me hard but it didn't. I felt fine, worst part was my room mate and I were saying how much we would pay for some Water, just a sip, or ice chips. That was hard! ChapStick and mouth swabs got me thru that day. Other than that, I felt great, I even did double laps when walking because I felt so good. Next morning I was given some tea and ProStat to drink and just the 3 medicine cups had me feeling so stuffed. The staff was great, Doctor, NP and PA were all wonderful. But that morning I tried not to take any of the pain meds since I was going home and after that walk I could feel the rawness around the incisions and it hurt so I took 2 more hits before I had to go home LOL. PA said we can take tylenol also so I didn't fill the Percocet prescription. I take generic Tylenol I brought from costco that is extended release and in a capsule and I am fine with the pain. When I came home, my family was a little shocked at how well I looked and seemed. My mother thought she would be here to help me do everything but I did for myself. Even washed my own dishes without an issue. I thought it would be worse than c-section pain but it really isn't at all to me. I wouldn't call it pain honestly, it's more of a discomfort, feels like a raw abrasion you might get on your knee or elbow. Since being home I make sure to walk, I also thought that going up and down the stairs would be a problem for me but it wasn't, I was able to go up and down and much as I needed to without an issue and while I am walking around sometime I walk from the basement to the second floor 2-3 times for the exercise.funny thing is hardest part is getting the Protein and water in. I'm on pureed for 4-6 weeks and it's so hard. I get full so quickly it amazes me. 3 teaspoons and I feel stuffed. I haven't eaten to the point of fullness out of fear of vomiting but I feel good, I feel lighter and the funniest to me is prior to surgery I was always hot, now even in the house I always have an oversized hoodie over my clothes and my Uggs on. I am so cold which is welcomed since I hated sweating all the time. Not weighing myself yet but I feel great and know this was the best decision I have made for myself ever. I am wearing a comfy girdle that isn't too constricting along with moisturizing my skin constantly. I was also able to sleep in my bed the first night home with the help of a body pillow since I'm a stomach sleeper, I was able to sleep on my side and comfortably. Getting here seems like forever then it comes and I realized it was all worth it. It is amazing to me that my perception of food has changed immediately. On the way home I passed a Wendy's and Checkers and normally love to stop there but the thought alone hurt my new pouch, lol. I can't even imaging being able to swallow a bite of a burger without being in pain. I'll pass. I cannot wait to see what lies beneath all these layers. Thanks for reading!

Hello Kitten, First and foremost congrats on being banded, it takes a lot of guts to get to that point, so good for you. I can totally relate to the snacking thing. I have always been a grazer, picker, whatever you wanna call it. Even up until the last couple of months I have had difficulties with that. I finally made that decision that I HAD TO CHANGE. There was no one there to tell me not to eat that chip or that scoop of ice cream, I had to do it for myself. I have also incorporated daily exercise in the last month. I needed to get moving, I held off for a long time with that, and now that I am moving I feel wonderful! I now try to eat three small meals a day with two snacks (try to have it be protein) and that is really helping. I drink a lot of water and am trying to stay away from the picking. Although I have lost some weight I still have a life long battle to fight and I know that means staying away from my bad habits. As far as words of wisdom I think you know what you need to do. Try and avoid problem areas such as grazing, and junk food. Easier said then done I know, but you have to want to succeed bad enough and that should taste better then any junk. Are you exercising, walking, riding a bike , gym? That has helped me immensly. The lapband is a tool and it took me a while to understand it is not going to do the work for me. I wish you luck and remember we are all here for each other. Email me if you ever need someone to talk to. Keep your head up !:confused:

I was going to post something to this same effect, but then I read your post. I, too, have hit the proverbial wall, so to speak, following my fourth fill (3.1 cc in a 4 cc band). For the first few days, I had trouble swallowing anything (so stayed on liquids). The next week or so, I was hungry all the time, and though I could eat only small portions, I did not have that feeling of fullness. I've slipped into some old habits over the past few days, so after having a long talk with myself, I took the bull by the horns and threw out those foods that were tempting me. I also filled up four large glasses with water and left them by the frig so if I was tempted to eat something, I would see them and choose them instead. Today was much better, so I hope to see the scale moving again soon. The good thing about this board is that we can encourage one another in our struggles and rejoice together over our victories. In the long run, I'm still down 52 pounds and feel better than I have in years, even if the scale has slowed down recently.

My insurance is Aetna, I'm currently working on my 90 day dietician supervised diet program. I'm trying to get all my bases covered before I'm finished. I just had a sleep study and I'm going to be scheduling lab work/chest x-ray when I see my doc this week. I figure, as much as I can get done now makes things that much quicker at the end of my 90days. All insurance is different, my friend had her surgery booked and done within 1month of her seminar, but she didn't have any pre-req's besides her BMI.

Yes, I am a very Happy Girl today! You see I have been extremely sick for the last 4 days with a severe sinus infection. :redface: I finally was able to get myself to my regular Dr for diagnosis and meds. Anyway while there they asked how the Lap banding was going... and when I said it had not been done yet, they kinda looked at me funny. Well, anyway I went to the drug store and then came home and in my mailbox was a letter from the insurance company telling me that I was APPROVED!!!:tt2: I was so excited... can I just tell you that the first thing I did was call my surgeon and say "what do we do now". :confused: And when they told me that all I needed to do was wait for the scheduling call! Well I got it last night at about 4:45. Due to my trips out of town that have been planned, one being next week... I could not take the first option of next Friday... 11/13/09 :eek: UGH! I was kinda happy that I couldn't do that on a Friday the 13th, I'm not superstitious but still... Then the second option was 12/15/2009. And again... Just as I figured :confused: I will be out of town on the 18th - 27th for the holiday. UGH #2. HOWEVER, Option #3 was January 15th 2010. :thumbup: BINGO!!! Scheduled... It is a Friday and it it 2 months away but I AM SCHEDULED!!!! Can I just say I am a happy, happy girl right now! My New Year's resolution to lose weight and live a healthy happy life as a smaller person will finally come true. Hooray for me!!! :thumbup:

I did it... I told my boss... and as it turns out she is very understanding and had all the answers I needed to get the week of surgery off. Or at least however many days I need... I'm happy I took your advise and told her! Plus she understands that I do not want anyone else in the office to know. AAHHH!!! :-) Now to complete the time off paperwork so she can "approve" it!

I am very fortunate to work in a wonderful place where my principal (boss) said to take the tiem I needed...even when I told her that I was going to try and delay the surgery until the Christmas break, she said no way. Do it in the fall when they can. I took the week off that I had the surgery. We were lucky to have a break for a couple of days as well, so I got to have longer recovery without work. I did feel like I could come back to work after about 2 -3 days though. I think that if you tell your boss she will be supportive, or at least that's how it sounds, especially for the fill appointments. For me, I have to get a sub and drive 2 hours to Atlanta every time I have to be out. There's no half day working for me. I have to take a full day because of the distance. As I said, I am a lucky person to work where I do with those I work with. Good Luck.

Hi! and first of all I really need to say I am really slacking in my blogging latley... ! When I got my surgery date I was on my way out of town for a week and then Thanksgiving and Now Christmas seems to be getting in the way! Where does the time go??? Anyway I have been thinking alot latley about writing a blog and just haven't gotten to it. SO that said, here I am to "Vent" a little. I got a phone call yesterday, actually a message left on my maching at home, from the Surgeons scheduler. Stating that after January 1st they are only doing surgeries on Tuesdays... UGH! Talk about throwing a wrench into my not telling my boss at work and only taking a Long weekend to have it done!!! Now I have to take almost a full week and they have bumped the date up to the 12th instead of the 15th of January. I've been feeling a little nervous and anxious lately, and I'm not exactly sure why... I really do not want to tell anyone about this. At least not right away... not until I know that I am a success and I'm feeling alot like a failure right now... Other life hassels that always come into play around the holidays are getting to me and then I think a plan is coming together and ... well, somthing messes up my plan!!! I'm so sorry! I don't like discussing weight issues with anyone, mine OR theirs! It's just a topic that is plain uncomfortable for me. My husband is behind me with my decision to have the band completely and knows that I want no one to know. I have 3 friends that know... I know that they will not tell anyone. One has had the RNY proceedure and is as secretive about it as I want to be, One is in North Carolina and is a friend from College and doesn't really know or correspond with anyone up here, AND the other is contemplating the band herself and doesn't want to tell anyone either. MY 2 BFF's aren't in the state any longer so I WILL NOT tell them, I want to surprise them with the "final product" or at least a partially finished new me, when I see them again... I have told people that I am going to do the normal New Year Resolution to lose weight this year and have asked them if they want to join me and do a challenge between ourselves! Of course my friend who is 5'4" and maybe weighs a whole 125 lbs., laughed and said she'd support me! LOL. I just got the call back from the scheduler... the 12th is going to be my definite day now, Afternoon, probably about 2:30 she says... Now tonight/tomorrow/this weekend, I need to figure out how to take the time off work and not tell the boss what I am taking it off for!!! UGH

My insurance was good about covering it and I more than met the criteria. I was banded a month after attending the seminar. I was able to skip certain tests because I had just had a physical and they already knew I had sleep apnea, so it might have taken an extra couple of weeks otherwise. My insurance did not require physician supervised diet to prove anything though.

I found a good article on stalls- http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/carmelita/blog/tag/stalls+and+plateaus/

I've been in a stall for 3 weeks now, but my clothes are fitting better so I'm trying not to think about it.

This is the second time I'm trying to write a journal entry. The first one was deleted when I clicked on spellcheck. No more spellcheck for me. Today, my husband told me that he was going to eat out after work, close to his work. That left me to fend for myself. As soon as he told me that, I decided to find a fast food place close to the house and buy something there. I ended up at Long John Silver's. I ordered two fish and its fixings: soda, fries, fritters, and lobster. When I got home, I could only eat half of one piece of the fish. I wonder why I eat fast food as a last resort. I could have come home and cooked for myslef, as I did all week long. Breakfast: one slice bacon, hot chocolate Lunch: two center slices sausage pizza, two school-size chocalate milk Snack: Venti Java Chip decaf Frapaccino I need to think about why I resort to fast food, instead of healthy choices. This is a sign I ned a fill. Also I need to think about why I let the band do my thinking for me instead of thinking for the band. If I can't eat it, I don't eat it. But if it'll go down, then I eat it. This is not healthy. I've lost weight because I can't eat much food, not because I've made healthier choices about my food. This is serious and something I need to pray and think about. Also, I keep saying that I'm going to start exercising at home. I've been doing physical therapy on my back and considering that my exercising. Now that my PT is on hold until after my heart procedures, I don't even do any exercise at all.

My weight loss has stopped - I haven't measured yet - in a few days I will, but since I'm all healed and I've been consuming more calories I've just been bouncing back and forth on a few pounds 233-236 (still better than 255!~). I have been a little irresponsible with my food choices - not keeping as low carb as I should - not too bad, but obviously it's affecting my weight loss. My portions are larger than right after surgery (duh) but not nearly where they were pre-op. I think I'm just not going to be able to postpone a fill - I'll get it done in a week or so and start fresh from that point. I've heard it said that the first 6 weeks is for healing and not to worry about weight loss during that time (rrriiiiiiiight!) so I am not beating myself up too bad. I landed my dream job - and start on Monday - the place I'll be working has an on site gym. My plan is to work out at my lunch break. Whoohoo. I'm moving out of sales into account management - for auto dealerships with search engine marketing accounts. Great pay and benefits - my first "corporate-type" job. No weekends.

This has been a learning week for me, although I still have a hard time getting all the fluids in that I need, I am up moving around and feeling better, thought I was going to die the first night home. I think I made a good decision, going to work it and do what I need to do.:smile2:

Hey, if the steroids work, at least I can start walking again. The orthopedic guy has me on a five-day steroid burst; with luck, I can stop ASAP. Anyone else have weight-gain issues this week?

Just when you think you've figured out your band(BAM) IT TAKES A NEW TURN!! I have resceduled three fill appointments because one minute I'm loose and the next minute I'm tight! How and when do I know it's time. I'm not rushing to get a fill and then be fustrated when I'm to tight. It's been almost 2 1/2 months since my last fill. But sometimes I can eat way to much and then sometimes I can't hardly get water down. I have been almost the same weight for the last 1 1/2 months, but scared to get a fill because sometimes I am just to tight. It's 7 months and I would like to know if it will get a little better for me ? I just don't know what to do! If someone could relate please let me know!! Oh and I started walking for the last few days and lost 1 lbs. I was so excited this morning when I got on that scale.

When was your Band placed? How much weight have you lost to date? How much fill do you have in your band? What size band do you have? Even not knowing these answers, I would say you may not have quite enough restriction yet. Also, you may just be in a plateau phase. BUT, all that aside, when I got frustrated because it was taking so long to get restriction, I did go back to the liquid phase for 2 weeks. (I was 6 months post-op and had had several fills and not enough restriction yet). I found that it got me motivated again and I did lose. Since then I've had 2 more fills and now I have really good restriction. Nothing keeps me going like seeing the scale move in the right direction and seeing my clothing getting too big. Keep up your good work!

I was banded a couple weeks before you and I'm down about 50 lbs so we're right where we belong. I don't know what your family situation is, but if I was in your position, I'd have Thanksgiving with my family (or as close as I could get) and have dinner, in reasonable quantities, and try to enjoy myself as much as possible. I've been through a lot of holidays with people who were miserable because they couldn't repeat the experience they had as children. If you have a family, try to make these times as pleasurable as possible for them, and maybe you'll find that you bring yourself out of your funk, as well. Anyway, have a happy Thanksgiving.