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I have had something since last week! It has hit me hard, and I hear it is going around. A virus? I dont know. The runs and throwing up like never before. Does anyone know if you have on a band and get this sick, are ya able to throw up, what happens with this? Please, anyone know?

I got the flu last week and threw up violently....I called my Dr and he called me in Phenagren (spelt wrong I am sure). I took it for several days and it helped but then I threw up so much that My band swelled and I couldn't even get water down. He met me at his office and took out 1.4 cc at 8:30 at night. He said it was very important to not let yourself get that way. It hurt sooooo bad and my port area was very tender. It was an awful feeling. I recommend if you get sick to call the doc right away b/c I was severely dehydrated by the time I got to his office. Good luck in not getting it....it sucked!

I️ am 8 weeks post op RNY and I have had nothing but issues since surgery. I have had constant acid reflux and vomiting. This weekend I was rushed to the hospital with horrible vomiting and abdominal pain. That episode turned out to be cause by kidney stones but the weird thing is I was vomiting food from 9:30 pm the night before. Has anyone had major issues with their stomach emptying? I’ve only advanced to puréed foods no further and keep getting put back on liquids. I’m scheduled for an upper GI tomorrow but my surgeon just keeps telling me this will get better in 3-6 months. I’m absolutely miserable and I regret everything about this surgery. Any advice would be welcomed.

I'm just curious. I'm reading quite a few posts where people say they were instructed not to eat more than half a cup of food at a time (I'm not talking about the post-op period, I'm talking about after you are on full solids). My doctor never told me that, and even though I now have restriction, I need more than half a cup of food at each meal. I don't know how I could get all my nutrients in for the day with a total of 1-1/2 cups of food. My doctor's instructions once I got onto solid food were to eat until I felt satisfied (not full), whatever that amount was. The goal was to eat about 4-6 oz. of Protein and 1/2 - 3/4 cup of vegetables per meal. When I go in for a fill, they show me these plastic plates with plastic food on them and ask me whether my portions look like that. Those plastic plates have more than half a cup of plastic food on them! I've got the level of restriction I want now.... so far I can eat anything I want with no problems, but I'm satisfied after what I consider a healthy portion. I try to eat 1200 calories a day but usually it ends up being closer to 1,000 - 1,100. Here is a typical day's menu for me: Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with 1 egg and 1/4 cup Egg Beaters. I'll add a little bit of cheese or tomato to that 2 turkey bacon slices or 2 low fat waffles with 1/4 cup sugar free syrup 2 small Jennie-O turkey sausage links Lunch: Low carb wrap with 3 oz. of deli lunchmeat, a piece of low fat cheese, and low fat mayo or gaucamole. Sometimes add lettuce, diced cucumber, etc. Dinner: 6 oz. salmon or a grilled chicken breast 1/2 - 3/4 cup veggies I am usually able to eat everything on my plate and it seems to be a perfect amount -- I'm satisfied, but not "full". I don't get hungry for another 4-5 hours. No between-meal Snacks, nothing to drink except a cup of coffee in the morning, and Water. I'm losing about 2 pounds a week and feeling great. But it sounds like I'm eating a lot more than some people. I'm just really curious now how this compares to the diet that some other doctors have their patients on? Will I maybe need a little more restriction to help me eat even less once I've lost more weight and it starts being more difficult to lose? But still, that doesn't seem healthy....

Ok, so what am i eating in a typical day. First, i want to of course say that this is just what is working for me at this moment. It might not be right for everyone and who knows, it might not even be right for me as time goes by, but here goes! To give you a fuller picture, up until 2.5 weeks ago i had been pretty much trusting my band to limit my portions. I had pretty good restriction and I was eating Protein first and eating light during my work day and then i got home and had a "much smaller than pre-band" protein first dinner but then i would start with the grazing. In a night i would typically have at least 2 WW Ice Cream Dixie Cups and then sometimes pudding, or some pretzels or some Cereal, just constantly getting up to go get something that went down easy with the band. Bad behavior, but i was still losing... until about a month and a half ago. I spent a whole month stuck at the same weight. It was not a hard month and i did maintain while still pretty much eating whatever i wanted as long as i chewed well. But i was also PBing a couple times and found myself definitely eating around the band using slider foods like low cal ICE CREAM! Bad behavior. :thumbdown: And you know what, lost 32 lbs during that time, but 20 of them were during the 2 weeks pre-op and 6 weeks post op. And after that most of my loss came during the return to liquids then mushies that followed each fill. (I would lose 3-4 lbs in that week and then stay the same or drop maybe 1 more pound for the rest of the month so i felt like i wasn't making much progress). But frankly, it was pretty easy, and i didn't count calories and i was losing ok. But anyway, on to the real question. What am i eating now that busted my plateau. Here are the changes i made based on my conversation with my psych last week. Got a Fill - I hadn't had a fill in 6 weeks. I got 0.6 cc added bringing me to a total of 7.6 cc in my 10 cc APS band. Portion size - psych told me for my size (which she said is small in the world of bands - 5'2" and BMI around 30) that my portions size per meal should be 1/4 cup (or up to 1/2 cup) of food. I have started measuring my portions and am currently eating 1/4 cup. Meals vs. Grazing - the psych told me to eat 3 meals a day (with 2 Snacks if necessary). My snacks tend to be Protein Shakes. I drink either Profect protein shots (Protica Research - 25 g protein w/ 0 carbs in like 2.5 oz) or AdvantEdge Protein Drinks. But i wouldn't hesitate to have a cheese stick as a snack or something similar. Hunger Level - my hunger has really diminished with this fill. I don't get hungry in the morning until lunch time and i stay "unhungry" (not full, but not hungry) for about 4-6 hours. At the first sign of hunger i drink first. If the doesn't do the trick, then i'll eat something. Restriction Level - My restriction level is very good. I can eat solid protein but i feel full with my 1/4 cup of food and i have not PBed at all. Cooking & Planning Meals - I decided to start cooking & planning over the weekend so that i have meals available for the week and don't eat my fill portion just during the time i stand in front of the fridge deciding what i want to have for dinner. I have made a bunch of recipes out of the cookbook " Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery" by Patt Levine. It is very protein based. Behavior change - No more eating in the TV room. I was good all day then came home, plopped in front of the TV and grazed all night long. She told me to make a new rule that i do not eat in the TV room. This means if i want to eat i have to go sit in the dinning room. This makes me more conscious the act of eating. Before i was mindlessly grazing. Exercise - sadly i have still not started exercising. I know i should be doing it. I have no excuse. So that really looks like a lot of changes, but in truth, the most important thing i've started doing is eating 1/4 cup meals 3 times a day. I eat until i am no longer hungry (which is definitely not the same as full). Sometimes that seems really extreme to me, but then i remind myself that my stomach is the size of an egg now. Having proper restriction is really important for making this doable for me because i don't get hungry until 4-6 hours after my meals. I do a lot of drinking in the morning before i eat lunch. I have also been sucking on sugar free hard candies (like 3 - 4 a day) just to get a little sweetness and to give myself something to have in my mouth (sugar free gum also works). So that is the SERIOUSLY long version but honestly it really helped me that my psych point blank told me that for someone my size i should be eating 3 meals a day of 1/4 cup in size with 2 snacks if needed. I'm going to keep seeing the psych every now and then just to keep up the motivation i think. She really helped me focus on the task at hand. Oh yeah, and one last thing that helped me. I have been reading "The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients" by Colleen Cook and i have really learned a lot about portion size and eating for satiety. And of course i am a professional lurker on LBT and it such an amazing resource! Again, i'm still learning and tweeking and messing up and growing along this journey, so take the above as what it is... just another glimpse into a fellow bandster's journey.

I know this has been presented a million times (hyperbole appropriate). At the same time, I am a week out from my monthly dr. visit and am concerned. My goal from this post is to get your advice: - Is this something I should fix by altering my eating habits even more? - Is this something I should head to my dr. for immediately? I am currently getting sick often. On the weekend, usually once or twice a day. During the week, usually three times. It happens when I eat the following foods/foods of similar consistency: 1/2 fork of cooked chicken breast 1/2-1 hard boiled egg 2 bites of a hamburger patty, 10 minutes to eat both bites Ground beef/turkey/chicken - any I am not having any trouble at all eating the following foods: single serving mac and cheese whole tomatoes with salt/pepper Desserts (cupcake, no icing texture) I have avoided rice, most pastas, real breakfasts, Cereal, etc. I have been eating a lot of Greek yogurt, Peanut Butter, milk, turkey rolls, cheese sticks, soups. I am eating around 1200 calories a day, have lost 22 pounds (10 in the last month with the LB finally working!), and am seeing success---I also feel great! The daily/weekly throwing up combined with a vile stomach virus/the flu last week has me incredibly nervous that I'm going to mess up my surgery. It seems that any hard Protein I try to eat, ends up making me immediately sick. Any advice? JB

Hello everyone I am now 10 days post-op and things do get better and better everyday. A nurse from the hospital has been calling me to check on me on during the last call on Tuesday (8days post-op) I told her that I felt ready to try puréed foods and she said that if I felt ready to go ahead and try it ( my dr. Is on vacation that's why I asked her). Since then I have been eating puréed foods and I feel much better. My body needed some real food in its system. These are my stats so far : Height 5' 7" Starting weight 221.5 Surgery date (after 2 weeks pre-op diet) 208 Current weight (10 days post op) 198.5 Good luck to everyone and I forgot to mention I'm still unable to drink my Protein shakes they just taste so nasty to me and I am still struggling to get enough liquid in. I just have to be more diligent about the Water.

The reason for me askijng is because,I have tried so many liquid vitamins that taste badd. so for the last past week I have been taking my centurm pill.. am I the only one doing this? please advice..thanks

Background: Started pre-op diet at 299 pounds. Was 284 on day of surgery (3/14/16). At one week check-up was 268. Anyway, when talking to the nutritionist at the one week appointment she said not to spend all my time worrying about getting 60-80g of Protein a day during the pureed phase (which they recommend for 3 weeks total). She said that protein can help with the healing but that I'm basically burning fat to live, and that's a good thing. This is different than what I've been reading, and wanted to know if anyone else had a similar comment? I'm eating protein first, doing Premier Protein shakes, not eating any appreciable real carbs, etc. but the portion size is still small and I'm not trying to force protein g into the day. And I'm at 259, down 25 pounds in the two weeks since surgery so it's not like it's killing me yet.

I saw last week on Channel 2 News a segment on a doctor who hypnotizes people to believe that they have had lapband surgery so that they lose weight. He charges $1200 for 4 sessions! They highlighed two clients of his. One lost 20 lbs over like 6 months, and the other just tried it. And guess what, she lost 1 lb that week! If you want a laugh you can google it and see if it pops up. They built up "going under the knife" to such an extreme. And I was watching the segment, 7 days post op, thinking "these people have no idea what the heck this feels like!"

@Josey Quinn, Thanks for this great article. The training wheels analogy is a really good one! We need to learn to use our new tools properly without rushing them along. I agree, you are so right that cheating on the post-op diet by caving in to cravings can lead to continued cravings and more cheating later on, not to mention possible complications and safety concerns. I think there is another relevant point here: the need to build good habits. The pre-op and post-op diets last long enough for us to build new, healthy habits, and get out of the habits that got us to need surgery in the first place. It takes a few weeks to build new habits. If we cheat on the diet early and often enough, we will never have that chance to break the habit of having cravings and giving into them. Thanks for this perspective on why it is so important to be good post-op!

I developed a rash, and it took about a week for it to resolve, after the steri strips were off.

I'm almost 4 weeks out, and I still can't sleep through the whole night. Even right now, it's 3 a.m. and I'm supposed to be up at 9 to go to a doctor appointment. When I do fall asleep, I usually wake up every two hours. Never really had problems sleeping before surgery.

Good luck!! Mine was submitted last week!! I should hear something by Friday at the latest they said! Waiting is sooooo hard!!!!

I am trying to deal with anemia right now, my paperwork from my 1yr labs got hidden in some other stuff. I started having all kinds of issues and went to the dr. yesterday. I'm on Hemocyte plus till my new labs come back next week. I have to take 2 a day and they've got over 300mg of iron. I don't want an IV infusion but I don't want to end up in the hospital either. If you've not had new blood panels done on your next visit I would strongly INSIST that they do that because it's better to keep things up and going smoothly instead of waiting until things go "south".

Hi, I went for my second fill today, and after he filled me another .5cc, he drew the entire amount out of the band. He had previously given me 1cc. But when he drew the entire amount of my first plus second fill out, I still only had 1cc. So does this mean that I have the exact same amount I have had these past five weeks, or does it mean .5cc evaporated after my first fill? He said he thought some was "hiding in the tubing" but is it hiding in the tubing now after my second fill or was .5cc always hiding in the tubing? My main question in a nutshell is: will I be more restricted now, or the same amount restricted as I have been the past five weeks?

Copied this from "The Cardiologist's Wife's chocolate Too Diet: No Sugar, No Fat & Luscious." It's from the updated health information in the first section. Here goes: "1. Your blood sugar drops with just a 1-pound weight loss. In fact, with just the first ounces off, you’ve made yourself immediately healthier. (Overweight is also a huge risk factor for breast and ovarian cancer in women, prostate cancer in men, and colon cancer in both men and women.) 2. Your heart, which is the size of your closed fist, is a small, overworked muscle, pumping 24/7. And for every extra pound of fat you carry, your body has to grow seven new miles of blood vessels-- primarily capillaries but also small arteries (arterioles) and small veins (venules) -- and your heart has to work that much harder. Put on two pounds and that’s fourteen new miles of blood vessels; fifty extra pounds requires 350 miles of new blood vessels. On and on, do the math. But good news: the opposite is true. For every pound of fat you lose, your body sheds seven miles of blood vessels. They just re-absorb, break down, and get excreted. Lose two pounds and that’s fourteen miles of blood vessels gone, lightening your heart’s load. I’ve told you these two things so you’ll know that even a little is a lot. Repeat that out loud to yourself: even a little is a lot. Let it be your mantra. Because dieting is a slooow process, like watching the grass grow. Try to accept that, and the next time you catch yourself groaning, “Oh it’s almost a week and I’ve only lost two pounds” – understand that that’s good. You’ve already brought valuable change to your body; taken a literal load off your heart. Try this too for reinforcement: take a can off the shelf that weighs one or two pounds, and heft it. Or, in the supermarket, keeping your elbow straight, lift some wrapped meat weighing two pounds. It’s heavy. And you’ll think, Wow, I lost this much?" And another fun fact for every 1 pound you lose, you take 4 pounds of pressure off your knees. Wow, my knees are feeling 124 pounds lighter.

I took a big sip of my fiance's dr.pepper in a dark movie theater last week by mistake (thought it was my tea!) and let me tell ya, it was the most uncomfortable feeling I have experienced with the band, worse than getting stuck, gas or PB'ing, PLUS it tasted horrible to me.. I was uncomfortable for almost an hour.... The coke you knew and loved won't taste the same to you no matter if you can drink it or not... I didn't find the taste or the feeling of it in my mouth pleasant at all!!!!:thumbup:

hi kia! first of all, welcome and CONGRATS! i'm almost 7 weeks out and these are the Protein drinks i've been using: Isopure black tea lemon flavor (40g of protein, 1 carb, zero sugar), it's a 20oz bottle and it's the only isopure flavor i can tolerate. it's sorta like a diet snapple flavor. for me it's quite tolerable as long as it's super cold. sometimes i pour it over crushed ice and squeeze some fresh lemon juice in it. when i'm at work, i tend to dilute it with Water and then i'm killing two birds with one stone. i just like that it has a ton of protein and is easy on my sleeve. the other is in powder form, Gold Standard 100% whey Protein. they have several flavor options, you'll just have to see which ones you prefer. i like the chocolate or the strawberry banana. i use 1 cup of unsweetened coconut milk, 1 cup of water and 2 scoops of the powder (48g of protein, 5 carbs, 4 sugars). i stick to about 20-25 carbs and less than 10 sugars total per day because carbs have always been a problem. i tried the gummies because i couldn't stand the chalkiness of those chewables, but the gummies have additional sugars that i didn't want to add so i switched back to the chewables. it will get a little easier to tolerate them, at least it did for me. i have a follow up next friday and i will be asking my doc if i can go back to pill form for all supplements. i take omeprazole, Vitamin A, Vitamin D and feverfew supplements as pills, so i assume i can do the calcium and Multivitamin like that as well. good luck!

Wont get to talk to surgeon again for three weeks. surgery is in four. need to book vacation before then. of course i would ask the surgeon if i could, but i cant before we book, so, i dont want to waste money on a vaca that i wont get to enjoy. its not really a matter of, when can i technically be submerged, its a matter of, im a germ freak and if everyone's scabs arent healed but are given the go, im still not going under nasty Mexico Water, haha! =) i think we will skip international, skip the beach and just stay somewhere around here. thanks everyone! really appreciate your input!

Worm how weird is it that we both had it done at McGee and I have to have mine done twice at 2 weeks out I was blocked and was vomiting everything even Water very painful as well I was regretting my surgery and I didn't want operated on again I was very scared about that so I think I know Ur pain we both prepared ourself well but I still believe I didn't prepare myself enough the mental part of this all is just a lot I say it's getting easier I'm a month out now but I hope it gets better for us both

My doc stresses Protein (my doc does 1 week of some allowed carbs for some volume, then cuts them out again) and exercise. Just follow your doctors orders and the plan he gives you. I just started mushies today too and I'm expecting the weight loss to slow some but I'm still eating such small portions, I can't imagine gaining. Let's hope!

Really, clear liquids for 2 weeks? You should call your doctor, explain that you are having difficulty following that, and ask for advice. Either he tells you to stick to it or he lets you advance on to regular liquids (like tomato soup and meal replacement shakes).But you need to stick to what your doc told you or you risk screwing up your band in the long run -- you do not want your stomach churning to digest solid food like cheese when you've just had surgery.

Hi all. I am two weeks post-op. I feel great in the morning - no problems whatsoever - can barely tell I've had surgery. Incisions look good. Around 2 or 3 pm every afternoon I start to get pain in the rib area on both sides. Almost feels like sore muscles rather than tummy pain. If I take pain meds, it goes away. It happens like clockwork every afternoon. Mild but annoying! Anybody else have this? Thanks.

I once ate too fast, same feeling. Had to walk around the house many times. Never again will I eat fast. The experts know their business. I go for a follow up next week. Maybe a fill, don't know and maybe stage 5 of the food plan. That would be nice. I miss salad and pasta. Good luck.