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My surgery was at 8 a.m. and I was home by 2 p.m. My lift restrictions were 5 pounds the first week, 10 pounds by the end of the 2nd week. Then 'normal lifting' ok...until he found out that normal lifting for me was 50-75#. Then he revised it to no more than 15-20 pounds *max* for 4 weeks after surgery.

I am 11 days post op and yesterday I noticed a lump the size of a quarter under the skin under that incision. I called the surgeons office and the RN said that it was only a sack of fluid/blood that collected and that my body would take care of this in about 3-4 weeks. Anyone else experience this problem?:biggrin:

gingerkid: You might want to try and get up in the middle of night and have a big drink of Water. I think that sleeping a long time dries out the pouch and that is what makes it so difficult to swallow things in the morning. I sat in the sun for a couple of hours today and didn't bring a drink with me. When I got home I took three sips of iced tea and it all came back up. Again, I think my pouch got dry and made it difficult. Mention it to your doctor and see what he/she says. Sue

hi plum007, i have been reading your blogs and was interested. i too didn't loose heaps of weight on the opti like most people do, i have lost 6.5kgs since the begining which i thought was quite low compared to others. however i did start on more solid food about two and a half weeks post surgery which to some is quite soon. but anyway i feel good and i will be watching this site to keep me broad minded about the whole experience. i guess its not always text book for everyone. keep up the good work.

I was told 100mcg a day for the b12. I was tired too on the 10th day...I am 22 days out now and i went back to work this week and I still feel better than i did on day 10. I too thought that something was wrong but there wasnt i had blood drawn and all that good stuff. just keep the water bottle to your lips when you are supposed to and sip sip sip. I know its so annoying when we say that but I promise you that you will be able to suck it down much faster very soon.. I can get through 66 oz and more at this point. you just have to focus on it...and if you need a nap take one..it will get better I promise.

Started last weekend with heartburn , turned into a few days of vomiting and not being able to eat now i can do scrambled eggs and yogurt but nothing with any more texture than that- dehydrated because i have to drink super slow.. getting scared and mad and upset. unfill?? Slippage? what the heck is going on.. had a fill last wed.. did fine for 2 days after.. now this..going to have to go back tot he dr next week,, i so dont want them to drain the band,, i am down 68lbs! granted 6-7 lb is from the past week of being sick and not eating but still... ughh.. :frown: i am burping up foam.. spitting out slime and saliva eveytime i try to eat something beyond yogurt and i swear its starting to affect my brain lol my coordination is off,, my spelling sucks more than usual,,, damn it to hell.

I have noticed that same phenomenon.....my co-workers ttell me, "You have got to stop!!" and I will have just regained 3 pounds!!!!! Go figure!!! I am sorry you are going through a down patch and plateau. I hope it passes soon as you are too nice a person to be worried and depressed. When I stall I evaluate my journal and find all the "little" places I have slipped up and often find they add up to the problem. Best wishes and good luck. Mimi PS...where did your avatar go?

I hate getting stalled! It frustrates me to no end. I have to stay off the scales and then all at once, I "feel" the loss and it's there.

Thank you, just feel like I am so easily winded... Hoping maybe in a week I won't feel so weak!

I have 6.5 in an 11 band...I am still stuck, not losing...I have another fill in 1.5 weeks...hope that charges my loss again. I have not faltered in my intake...no fast foods, no junk, etc...being good, but not seeing results these days....was banded March 12, 09 and have dropped 46, but that was all prior to first fill...got any ideas?

I went on a cruise in November. This was before my first fill. I had little to no restriction and I ate 3 meals a day but I did drink more than usual. I gained about 3 lbs after the week. And it came off quickly. Have a great time on your cruise!

My husband was banded about 3-4 weeks ago. He also suffered from the bad breath, we didnt notice that when I was banded, but when he started moving onto things other than protein it helped - vegetable juices, soup etc. He also moved quite quickly to mashed potatoes, fine minced meat, dahl and very thin curries - this helped fill him up and eased the bad breath. For both of us - chicken breast can be difficult unless very small and in some sort of sauce. I also find meats cooked in caseroles, curries etc are easier to eat. I find that many meats are a bit stringy for me so unless they are cooked down well, I can get stuck. I like all veggies, cooked preferably and just chewed well :-) Good lcuk

Real food in small portions. Try one item at a time to see if you can tolerate it. After you find stuff that you can't tolerate, try that food again in a couple of weeks.

Also I start seeing a new PCP next week (soon as my insurance gets it changed in the computers at least) And I will see what he thinks. I know he is gonna order a SLEW of tests (my BF just recently started seeing him) So I am going to ask him to check for any deficiencies while at it.

Mine is set for 12/5---I will start my pre-op diet this week. Im anxious but nervous too about what to expect

My experience is.. As long as I can drink sips of any liquid. I am fine.. I dont care how long it takes (well all I ever did it for was 3 weeks) IF I am having chest pains or spitting up.. on my own saliva.. and sipping warm liquids is impossible... then I need an unfill so I dont risk my band. OTHERWISE, I would let the fill calm down... be it a few days or a few weeks.. (AS LONG AS I DONT HAVE ANY PAIN OR SPITTING WHICH I DONT CUZ I DONT ALLOW IT) BUT, this all PISSEs me off.. (I am stressing out now that a fill is a week away).... I swelll so much, that I dont end up getting a good fill.. Well, I didnt last time.. I DID the time before and I realize I was real lucky cuz there is a fine line between chest pains and spitting up your own saliva (NOT OK) to being able to sip in the AM and drink liquids in the PM (OK for me) So.. SOMEHOW I have to come as close as possible and not go over.. ITS STUPID.. But its the only way I will lose weight.. and thats been prooven so far.. People said when i looosened up.. I would lose weight.. But I stopped loosing just like I thought I would. I dont see anything wrong with never eating solids again.. DONT MONKS do it or something?

I got 1.5 the other day and feel nothing, but I supposed I might within the next 2 weeks. But to me, being banded feels like being on an appetite suppressant. I dont have any trouble with any foods and I dont have any real STOP signal, no feeling, no pain, I just know I've had enough. But the main effect is just no interest in food whatsoever. I was getting a little peckish before the fill and it's gone away again and I actually forgot to eat all day to day, but actual restriction? Nup. Nor do I think I need to actually feel restriction at all as long as my appetite stays away like it has. I dont care because it's working anyway but I guess the point is everybody's completely different.

Mine changed! It came two weeks earlier and then again a week after it ended! It also lasted longer. I went to see my girly doctor last week and she said my weight loss was the culprit, my hormones are out of whack! I am on birth control pills and so she switched me to another form to hopefully get it under control.

I should think so! I'm about 3 weeks out and feeling relatively normal. Everyone is different of course but you should be able to move around just fine. The only thing you might struggle with is your energy level-- be sure to get enough Protein so you can spend the day sightseeing without needing a nap! I'm planning a trip to NY for xmas and I'm hoping all that walking around will do me some real good

Well, I had my band on Feb 11th, and am about 2 lbs lighter now than I was then. The £6000+ package I paid for included 2 years of aftercare, but I wish I had not taken their aftercare. You get nonsense phonecalls from dieticians, who don't know their jobs. I was told to snack on cheese and crackers (low-fat cheese, but still very high in fat), and eat paella, fish in breadcrumbs and fruit and fibre Cereal, all of which I did, but none of which filled me up, and I found if I cheated with fish and chips etc I could still eat just as much as before. I told them I had a problem with portion size, which I hoped the band would help me with, eg I can eat 6 fish in batter in one go. I don't always do that, but I can eat a lot in one go. Their answer, "you need to adjust your portion size". Er,,, yes, but you could have told me that before I paid £6300 or what ever the price was. As I still didn't have restriction, I have been for a number of fills, and at one fill, there was no X ray machine and they couldn't find the port, and after stabbing all over my stomach (which I regard as assault, battery and actual bodily harm), decided that they couldn't do it, and just sent me home, as if my travel expenses were neither here nor there. I have now been transferred to Colette in their manchester clinic - I find her about a thousand times better than the other person, and she managed to find my port. Also, she told me only to have cheese and crackers once a week, and never to have paella, fish in breadcrumbs or fruit and fibre cereal - the 100% reverse of what the mickey mouse dietician had told me. I still don't have proper restriction. I could easily eat fish and chips right now, but I am feeling more positive after meeting Colette and trying her foods out. I have boiled egg in the morning. I find 3 boiled eggs fills me up until lunch time. They are full of Protein, and much better than what I was having (the fruit and fibre they told me to have). New potatoes, baked potatoes, low-fat Alpen bars - these are all producing a greater feeling of fullness. So I am hoping it will get better from now on. Unless you are seeing Colette, I would say the THG aftercare package is legally fraudulent. If I don't get proper restriction after a few more band fills, then I want to explore legal options. Colette told me not to have Tesco pizzas any more (they were not very high in calories, carefully chosen not to be an oily pizza: it was the Tesco Pizzeria Barbecue chicken, 385 calories and 5g of saturated fat per half-pizza), and so I have followed her word, but before then I was easily able to eat a whole pizza in one go - and then still be hungry - and I don't think that should be possible on a band. To say "you shouldn't be eating that" is not a sufficient THG response. I regard this company as essentially negligent.

I'm a month out and still cannot even think of rolling onto my stomach because of port pain. I can FINALLY sleep on both sides, though I sometimes will get a twinge from my port in the readjusting. My doctor did not seem concerned by this though it was certainly not usual-- he had me in for a fill at two weeks post op (the normal time for his patients), but since I had the port pain issue-- not even side sleeping at that point-- he didn't give me a fill and put me off until next week. If mine were as bad as you're describing, I'd definitely call though. Are you stomach sleeping?

Throwing up is the worst thing you can do the first few weeks. What did he try to eat on Thursday that caused the vomiting?

I've been keeping track of everything consumed since before the surgery--calories, protein, carbs, fat, cholesterol--learned that in my nutrition class. The reason I was asking about what your doctor or nutritionist advised is because I seem to see different standards here often times. I was a week into my recovery and called my doctor's office with the a question about calories. That's when they said since I was on protein shakes and soft food, to watch protein more at that time. I think you'll see some loss soon. It really didn't take that long for me to start losing--I was just very strict with following the schedule of when to add foods and documenting everything. You can do it!!

My post op diet liquid diet is only one to two weeks. I don't technically have that much longer if on day 7 I want to try to add some mushy. I just need to get through three more days and I am having a very hard time. I got the family a rotissarie chicken and ended up taking a tiny sliver, I mean tiny, chewed it to nothing and swallowed it down with water. Just for the taste of something other then chocolate, strawberry or berry. I never thought I would ever be sick of those flavors. LOL Once this is done I am sure I will not eat chocolate for a few months. Which is good because you are not supposed to. LOL

I have been drinking shakes everyday for about 2 weeks and today I have noticed being bloated. Is this common from the shakes? I dont use milk but buy the slim-fast or special K ones pre-made. I also have lost of gas regularly.