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Well, I have been on this forum for about a month now, and decided I really want to keep a running commentary on how things got started, and continue with how things progress. And so it begins.... I was born a very sickly child. Sickly as in multiple colds, ear infections, and cases of bronchitis. Because I was so sickly, I was pretty small. Until I turned 5. At that point, my tonsils were beyond bad - they were literally rotting in my throat. The doctor chose to remove them, and my adnoids, and put tubes in my ears. It was a miracle solution to a recurring problem, and I responded almost immediately - gaining weight when I previously could not. So, approximately from the age of 5 I have struggled to keep my weight under control. And when you are going to school and have required Phys Ed classes, it isn't as difficult as when you are out on your own. But by the time I graduated high school I was 5'0.5" tall and 165lbs - a weight I now look back on with desire, but an unacceptably high weight none-the-less. I "tried" every diet out there that didn't require spending excess amounts of money, since I didn't have any extra laying around. I finally found some success with Atkins and lost about 30lbs (down to 180), but I was living at home and mom was paying the food bill, so when I moved out on my own and tried to pay for it...well...once again, it's cheaper to feed a fat person than to maintain weight loss (at least, that's the way it felt in the checkout lane). I was in the pool 3-5 days a week doing laps and learning SCUBA, but it wasn't keeping the weight off, and I slowly regained 20 of the 30lbs I had lost. Three and a half years ago, I met a man and fell in love, and he seemed to love me as I was, so I stopped trying so hard to be "acceptable", and the sh*t really hit the fan in the weight department. I regained ALL of the lost weight, and added about 20 more. I was MISERABLE, but couldn't seem to break the cycle. Every time I went to my closet I wanted to cry - it was full of clothes, but they were progressively getting smaller and smaller. I realized I was spending a fortune - in food, in clothes - to make myself miserable. My back was getting bad - I'd throw it out of whack sleeping funny. My legs were looking liked stuffed sausages in my jeans. And I work with the public, so it's REALLY evident how bad you've gotten when your customers look at you in shock when you can move a heavy item - like, "oh my - how did she just manage to lift that?! She's so fat!" So, a coworker of mine, who was much larger than me, made the decision to have gastric bypass. Around the same time, another coworker much closer to my size had the lap band surgery. I began to get interested. Both women have been highly successful over the past 9 months - improved mobility, improved attitude, and improved appearance. I started asking questions in early November about the lap band (I wasn't interested in rerouting my internal organs, if avoidable), and was really happy with what I heard back - it's reversible, it's minimally invasive, low downtime...etc. I called my mom and asked her what her thoughts were and she started to cry, telling me she'd been waiting for me to make a decision. I talked to my boyfriend and he was totally supportive - he says he loves me no matter what I look like, but that if it means I have a longer, healthier life, I should do it. We want to have kids soon, and I know this will also increase my chances at getting pregnant. There are some people I haven't told - my father, for one - because I am not ready to face their reactions, or because I don't need negative feedback at this time. Others that have found out have been supportive, for the most part. So, at 33, with my loved-ones' support, I have joined the banded bandwagon. On December 30th, 2009, I began my life again. I am sorry if this is a ramble and difficult to follow - it's 345 in the morning and I am still slightly drugged :biggrin: I appreciate if you have taken the time to read this. And if you haven't, well, that's ok too - this was more about me laying it out there and being honest with myself than anything else. I think by saying it out where others can read/hear, I am making myself accountable to me.

Day 6 status post roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. The past five days of a clear liquids diet has made it abundantly clear to me that if I thought I had turned a new leaf, I definitely hadn't. Me: I'm hungry Ed: Oh, that food smells so good, doesn't it? It would be so good to take a bite. Look at it, just sitting there. Me: I'm going to turn away and not look at that Ed: Yeah, but whoops! There it is again. One of your kids left a perfectly good bowl of noodles drenched in Alfredo sauce just sitting there. Oh, the thought of eating it! Me: Distract! I'm going upstairs! Ed convinced me to just try purees a few days before I was supposed to. I did. It went okay, so he talked me into advancing the diet to purees a day early. I countered and decided on full liquids (liquids you can't see through but that still go through a strainer, like milk). Except he talked me into cottage cheese at night, just for fun, and I struggled to resist him. Me: One cup, and that's enough. Ed: Fill you up! Fill you up! Oh, it feels so good to fill you up! Don't you love that stuffed feeling? Don't you feel better now? Go take another cup. You can, you know, it's legal. Me: But I felt sort of full even before I finished the first one. I won't have a second one. Ed: DOOOO IT! Get up! That's right! Go over there and get another one, and make sure you pack it tight too! Level it off so it looks legal. There. Make an excuse now. Me: (to my daughter) "And I even get to have seconds! To think that this would have been two bites in the past -- haha! -- sigh." I don't want to eat another. Ed: But it does look so good. Really savor it. That's how you can justify it. You have 30 minutes to eat and it's only been 15, so you may as well. Me: But it doesn't taste so good any more. And I feel full. Ed: EAT IT! Me: Okay. And then later when I was in my daughter's room: Ed: Look! It's those powdered rice crispy things. What are they called? Puppy chow? There's three on her desk -- no SIX! Jackpot! You can take them without her looking. Do it! Me: I am not going to take them. They are soooo not on the diet! Ed: Take those three! There. You got them. Now the other three, right back there. She can't see you. Me: Why am I doing this. I'll throw them in the trash can. She noticed I'm doing something. Ed: No you won't. Walk out. Hide your hand. Real casual like, by your side, as if nothing were in it. Me: I'm going to dump them in the trash when I get out. This could really hurt me if I eat them. Ed: Eat them. Just chew them up good. Me: But the carbs! It's pure refined flour and sugar! Ed: Eat them! Good, good, now another... and another... Chew them slowly if that makes you feel better. Me: God. I hope I don't get dumping from this. How can I have cheated the first day I'm off clear liquids? Ed: Except you weren't, right? We ate that baby food meat for two days now, didn't we? Me: I feel so awful. Ed: There you go. You blew it. You didn't need any more food, but you had it anyway, didn't you. Didn't it feel good though? Me: No. It didn't. I feel horrible. Ed: You should. You never really will learn. You're going to start a blog, aren't you! You think you'll stick to that daily schedule you made today? You won't. You'll get bored like you always do and walk away. Sure, sure, maybe you'll get published some day, or maybe you'll just help someone. But really, you're going to quit like you quit everything else. You probably just gained back some of those pounds that you lost. And you didn't exercise today either. Hah! Fat lotta motivation you had for that, right? Me: But I thought... I was at least trying... Ed: But you failed as usual. Put it off. Screw this. Go to bed like you always do. Me: Okay. I'm not trying to shift the blame. There is no other person who is "forcing" me to eat the way I do. These are conversations I have in my head all day long. However, I've begun to read a book called Life Without Ed (Jenni Schaefer, 2004). In it, the author describes how she became the patient of Thom Rutledge and conquered her eating disorder by process of separating herself from these thoughts that had become so very internalized to her and later, as a separate "being" was able to end the relationship she had with the eating disorder/ED/Ed. I'm hoping that by blogging along as I read the book, I can experience some of the recovery that she has. Although the author describes a cycle of "starving, bingeing, then purging," it is just as easy for me to substitute the words "eating until I can't feel any more." Too easy. I have sought help for the craziness that causes me to eat when I'm not hungry, to eat until I'm stuffed, and then to eat more, but I'm told this is not an eating disorder. Like hell it isn't! So for now, those of us who don't binge and purge or starve ourselves, those of us who just have a problem with "poor food choices," or "portion size" and "not enough exercise" can go through the motions and get ourselves weight loss surgery. But why do so many of us not reach our goal, or gain so much of the weight back, eventually? Because we still are in the grips of disordered eating, or whatever you want to call the process that makes us want to eat when we're not hungry. I didn't even know that another way of eating existed until I had my third daughter. If she is not hungry, she will not eat. Plain and simple. She "saves up her hunger" when she knows she is going to her dad's for visitation, because she doesn't want to disappoint him by not eating. You see, if she forgets and has a snack after school, then she literally cannot eat dinner at his house, and ends up having a late dinner with me when she comes home. Or she will just skip dinner altogether, since she doesn't like feeling full at bedtime. One time I found a third-eaten Reeses Peanut Butter Cup laying on the counter. I had just enough restraint to ask her what that was all about before I devoured it in one bite. Her answer? "I took a bite and then I wasn't hungry any more." I gave birth to this child? Seriously? She definitely has her dad's genes, those of the calm observation that "If you just stopped eating after supper, you'd lose a lot of weight. It worked for me!" And of course it did. He snacked out of boredom or because he liked the taste of the food, but he really could take it or leave it. So he left it, and reached his goal weight within a month. If only it were that simple for the rest of us. But I see that I've gone on a rant, so I'll just shut up now and go to bed.

Thank You, Paula. It's pretty tough to eat your words, which is what I've had to do, but as soon as I'm off puree's, serve it up, I'm ready to eat them. (Because I swore anytype of bypass was the DEBIL!)

Like I said earlier in this thread, I still do 2 or 3 protein shakes a day, 2 of them are 4 oz and one is 16 oz. There are some great flavors out there, and if you get a little creative they are even better. My favorite at this time is Summer Melon mixed with Sugar Free Watermelon/Kiwi Koolaid. I purchase the Summer Melon at Bariatric Eating. That is my afternoon drink, it is a mixture of flavors of Watermelon, HoneyDew and Cantalope. I also have 2 mocha latte's a day just a simple scoop of vanilla powder, or sometimes chocolate, a mazel coffee packet and 4 oz water, sometimes I will add a shot of sugar free caramel syrup. I have an Atkins shake when I wake up in the morning, and then the others are if I get to want a snack during the day, I bypass the snacks and grab the protein, sometimes I will grab a cheese stick, or a babybell round but normally a drink.

Carnie Wilson and Al Roker both gained weight back post RNY bypass, not the lap band. You have your surgeries confused. However, you have to work at keeping the weight off, regardless of which surgery. I suggest you talk w/your surgeon or maybe do some more research, however, before you decide. Only you will know if surgery is required for you, or not.

Actually Carney Wilson and Al Roker had gastric bypass, not the Lap Band. There are actually people who have had gastric bypass and end up getting the Lap Band because they started gaining again. The great thing about the Lap Band is that it is adjustable, any time you ever start to gain weight you can go and get an adjustment. If you think that you can keep it off on your own then by all means, that is the best way. I have always been able to lose weight, done it about six times but I always gain it back and then some. The final decision is yours, nobody can tell you for sure that this is right for you. But make sure that you are 100% ready before you go forward.

Hi everyone....just getting back on the computer and catching up today. Had my band Jan 14th (8 days ago) and doing pretty well. stayed overnight at memorial and was glad to get home in my own bed! I was pretty nauseated the first several days and had to take phenergan, but doing much better now. went back to Dr. webb yesterday and incisions are healing well. i get my first fill on Feb 14th. :biggrin: Still have some pain at port site but it is very manageable...just more uncomfortable when I move a certain way. I am going back to work tomorrow so that will be a test of endurance (I guess I am just tired from limited calorie intake.) I am on mushies now, and probably around 350 calories day. today i was really hungry in the evening, more so than when I was on liquids. I have found if i keep drinking througout the day like I should, it helps with the hunger. But when i get full, it seems to come on rather quickly. I have been BURPING like crazy....and I mean all day long. My kids think i am joking, I am trying to explain I just can't help it! i have never said excuse me so many times in one day before..... What side of town in everyone in? I am in Mandarin. I would love to try and get together. Dr. Webbs office has a group called LWLSC (laprascopic weight loss surgery center) in Baymeadows and they have support groups as well....I have not yet been to one but plan on attending. they just separated out the bypass from the lap band patients and said that is working out much better. Thanks so much for wondering about me, that was so sweet. What a great bunch of threads to come back to! Hope everyone is doing well.... Take Care, Lori

Yeah...that dietitian (the hairy eyeball woman, as I like to think of her LOL) kept getting us lap banders and the bypassers confused. She kept thinking I had GBS...I am pretty thick skinned but after the 5th time in 30 minutes I started to take offense LOL I'm going to buy viactiv. So there! :tt1:

December I think there was a big problem with your surgeon. I was a self pay as well. Banded in April 2009, list some then regained. In March 2010 my surgeon (who couldn't have been more unsupportive if he tried) told me the band was full and I had failed. He told me to consider bypass which I of course couldn't afford. I went to a new surgeon this month since my insurance now covers weight loss surgery. I was set on getting bypass. He checked Fluid in band and it was nowhere near full!! He added another cc to what was in there and it made all the difference. I actually have restriction now! I would strongly encourage you to get a second opinion. And you are not a failure! You're trying to get healthy. Don't give up please.

I had to ask myself those questions too when almost 2 years ago my 3 year old band sprang a leak. In the end, despite having the option of revising to a sleeve, I opted to be rebanded. And the reason is I had great success with the band, I live with it easily and for me, the success of it is known. The sleeve would have been a complete unknown for me, and not a risk I was willing to take. So yes, you can say I don't regret getting not just one band, but two.

Hi-clearly I'm on this site...so I have a bias towards the sleeve and you should take that into account. Like Tiff--I am a band to sleeve revision. I had many problems with overfills/underfills....and such bad acid reflux it effected my vocal chords. I am only 2 months out from my revision surgery....I've lost 38 pounds since my surgery date and feel 1000 times better with my band removed. I travel on business and eat out 4-5 times a week...with my band...I had so many times in the 3 years it was in where I had to run to bathroom to throw up because something was stuck or I would start sliming. I gurgled from my throat to the point others could hear it... One other thing...be SURE if you have the band that your doctor will do your fills. I had my surgery done in Mexico and had a dr in NYC who would do my fills...but when I moved to Philly for a new job...not a single Dr. in Philly would do a fill on a band they didn't insert...how's that for a bad surprise... Whatever you decide to do...band or sleeve....I wish you a happy, healthy...safe experience. Grace

Sleeve over Bypass? Just curious as to what everyone's reason was?

Am four weeks out of my gastric bypass. I was 250 and now I'm 227. I'm in the third stage but even with my shakes I'm not getting in more than 500 calories a day. Is something wrong with me? Why does it seem like everyone else has lost way more than me at 4 weeks?

I lost 24 before surgery and 42 since surgery. I weight myself once a week. The first week sucks really bad. I'm still taking nausea and acid reflux medication. I had a sensitive stomach to begin with. Bypass surgery patients tend to lose weight faster than everyone else.

they don't usually do iron infusions on people with the sleeve, but I've heard of a lot of gastric bypass people having them done

I had Nasir trauma surgery in 2013 car accident I'm getting bypass 11/30. I will be having 2 Hernias removed as well. A binder has already been discussed by my doctor due to my individual case. It doesn't hurt to ask. Sent from my SM-A125U using BariatricPal mobile app

I don't have any banned foods. I chew gum -- there's no way swallowing this will harm you stomach. As a sleever, we still have our original pyloric valve. I could see if we had the gastric bypass since those folks have a man-made one. I go through probably a pack of gum a day - 18 pieces. It keeps me from mindless eating. It just loses its flavor so fast. sugar-free... bubblegum, chocolate mint, lemon square, orangesicle, sherbet, etc. I probably have about six different flavors stacked up at any given time. Soda? Yep, I have that sometimes too. Not every day as it just takes me too long to drink it. (Baby sips, not swigs like pre-surgery.) Alcohol? Meh, doesn't appeal to me. My 21 year old self would be appalled to hear my 44 year old self say this. LOL Of course back then, I wouldn't have dreamed that I'd go to bed at 9:30 pm either. Candy? Meh, doesn't hold much appeal. I don't keep chocolate at my desk. I do have a HUGE bowl of hard candies and Tootsie Pops up on a shelf in my cubicle. They don't call my name. Ice cream? Sometimes. Maybe less than once a week, but a small cone. At least the Dairy Queen is ice milk, not ice cream. Actually, a small cone is too much. I usually get it in a dish to avoid the cone. pizza? Once a week. 1/8 of a frozen pizza is less than 200 calories. Considering I used to be able to eat an ENTIRE frozen pizza, this is a good compromise. I am finally able to eat steak again, but it does have to be tender. Grapes and other fruit? Heck yeah. But after the Protein. (Except for tonight. I had some cold washed grapes on the counter that I was munching on before supper - way too filling.) I just wish vegetables didn't fill me up so fast!! I now have spinach and baby carrots in my morning Protein shake. I can't taste or see them.

How much have to lost to date with revision?

GO WITH VSG. I'm a college student, so I'm all about convenience, and the lap band fills/unfills/underfills/overfills have been HORRIBLE. I actually just called my doctor yesterday and I'm going to get a revision to the VSG. With the lap band, I was doing well in the beginning, but 6 months out, I started gaining weight again. I have PCOS, and that's what happens with PCOS, but after WLS it shouldn't happen at all. I eat correctly and exercise - I'm doing p90x right now - and since the band doesn't allow me to eat some things, I'm not getting enough nutrition because I can't get a lot of food THROUGH the band, my body is rebelling and I'm gaining weight again. Please save yourself the trouble and money and go with the VSG.

Oh so not the traditional gastric bypass. Don't let @MiniGastricBypassDudesee you type that it's the same as Gastric Bypass, lol. He actually has a fantastic thread on here that you should read about the MGB. Thank you for the well wishes!

Hi, I had my lap band put in 2007 and I’m getting it taken out on February 6th along with bypass surgery. I never really lost weight with the band, always stating around my original 220 range. This past year I put on over 30 pounds, I’m sure because of inactivity ( the heat living in South Florida last summer) and new pain medicine, Gabapentin. I don’t have any advice, but I do wish you well and best of luck.

Finally down a little this week. 174.0 now. I am thinking of having a third fill since I am not losing at 1-1.5 per week. At least it's moving in the right direction again. John I am glad to hear you are on the other side of the revision, and feeling better. 114lbs, you are amazing!

Down 1 lb. Slow but sure as I get nearer my goal. Two lbs. from my original goal. 17 lbs. from my revised goal. I must say, I'm happy!!

Congrats on your initial success and for the birth of your girls! Before considering revision - try doing the pouch reset to see if you can get back to losing. Welcome back!

I would go back to basics: lean Protein and vegetables. Cutting out any empty carbs, alcohol, and anything that slides down easily. Not drinking while eating. It may be that the steroids and depo shot are really messing with your weight, but in that case switching to a bypass wouldn't change that unfortunately. Good luck to you. I wasn't trying to be sarcastic with my last post, I just meant that your sleeve is still there and they don't really stretch out so if it's not working you need to consider whether you are "eating around it" by eating stuff that goes down too easily meaning you don't get full. Another expensive major surgery won't fix your food choices when you already have restriction built in if you use it as intended. Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App