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Greetings Everyone, I found this app/forum while searching for info on the lap band procedure. I've read a lot of stories on here good and bad. I'm here because a year ago I complained to my doctor about not being able to lose weight. He suggested the lap band surgery and I simply looked at him crossed eyed. Lol! Well last month I had my yearly visit and the same complaint with 10 extra pounds...this time when he mentioned it I did not roll my eyes...I gave serious thought. I've always been active but since the birth of my daughter (16 yrs ago) I've been in the struggle with this eating and binging. I'm 5'10" and weigh 285. (I will only share that on here for no fear of judgement) I have felt the slow onset of joint pain, back pain, heavy breathing after the stairs, fitting room disasters, tears, depression, lack of libido, the list goes on....I'm tired y'all....real tired. Therefore my activity is decreasing because I can't do a good work out for the pain. I had my seminar this past weekend, a support group coming up on Thursday and an appointment with my surgeon in 11/1/13. I am seriously considering this because I am at my wits end. A once sexy diva is no longer that and I want it back! I am still in serious thought of trying to do this without the band but if could have I would have. I need the help of not eating. Something has to stop me. Since I can't stop myself maybe the band can. Sorry for the rant. Thanks for reading. Any encouragement will be gladly accepted. Much love in life.

Thank you! I've spent the last 10 years of my life fighting them, FINALLY just decided to embrace it and go with it

OK OK I CHEATED!!!! I feel so guilty, I have been on this diet now for 10 days and I have been doing everything I am suppose to be doing and then I got really nervous and started talking about all the stuff I am not going to eat anymore then it happened we went out for dinner and I ordered steak fajitas I didn't eat the beans, rice, sour cream, or guac. but I did eat some steak, green peppers, tomatoes, and of course tortillas!!! I only ate about 1/4 of the meal but I felt so guilty afterwards. I am starting to doubt myself.... Can I really do this?! Am I cursed to being FAT forever?! I am praying for strength!!! 4 days until surgery!!!!

I was scheduled at 7am. Had to be at hospital at 5am. My sister went with me. We went to admitting and were directed to 10th floor for prep. I went down to surgery waiting about 6:30am. Anesthesia, surgeon, Circulating nurse all greeted me. I remember going to the OR and getting sleepy medicine. Then it was 9:20am and the nurse told me it was over and to wake up. I stayed about an hour before being transferred to a room. I slept off and on until about 12:30 - 1pm. Then I got up to bathroom, took a walk in the hall. I had a hernia that had to be repaired before they could band me. The surgery should have been 45 min to 1 hour for banding. I was up when the surgeon came in and he let me go home that night. I had pain for a week after surgery and still have problems with the hernia site. The prescription liquid pain medicine made me nauseous so I could only take tylenol liquid. It was okay. My first check up was 10 days after surgery because I didn't want to wait till after the holidays. He told me to try soft foods like Soup, mac n cheese, flaky fish. I had a lot of trouble with solid foods except sweet stuff. :eek:I was bad during Christmas, but resolved to stick to mostly liquids to help in weight loss. I went about 3 weeks and didn't loose. In face I gained unless I stuck to less than 1000 cal / day. I am resolved now to loose the weight. I don't want to have gone through this to fail. I'll do whatever it takes. I see the surgeon Tomorrow. Angie

Let's see. Each bag costs 12.55 plus 4.99 shipping. If rounding to nearest. 50 cent increment, that is 17.50. There are 60 chews in a bag, so that means a bag will last 10 days. If there is an average of 30 days in a month, you will be spending an average of 52.50 a month on chews. For me, I think this is a good amount of calcium (recommended by NUT) because it placed my calcium blood work right in middle of standard range when I did my 6 month labs 2 weeks ago. My seller has been really reliable in delivering quickly each time I place the order on Amazon.

congratulation on your band, I was banded August 19, 2009. After surgery I was in pain too. I couldn't lay down either. What I would do is prop up all the pillows behind me and sleep that way. I couldn't lay down on my back for at-least 4days. I also had a lot of stomach gas. the Tylenol with codeine worked, but it always put me to sleep, within 3days I stopped taking it. I didn't want to sleep all the time. Well I hope you feel better, and good luck..

Not long for me I have Blue Cross insurance and it only took them 6 days to approve my surgery. First appt. was on 8/16/10, pre-op testing done 08/23/10, insurance approved on 09/16/10, and I am having surgery on 09/30/10!!! Good luck!!!!

I am only a month out of surgery so you can take my thoughts with a grain of salt. Almost 2 years ago I started slightly modifying my diet and began swimming every day; because of a knee problem. A year later I had lost 30 pounds; but out of nowhere I had a mild stroke, I was 39. I recovered (knock on wood) with no side affects. As part of treatment and searching for a cause one of the doctors asked if I had ever considered weight loss surgery. Had I ever thought of it seriously? No. While attending the presurgery classes and nutritional appointments I realized that I was eating a less of the unhealthy foods but they were still unhealthy. Changing my diet presurgery I lost 52 pounds. Do I occationally have cracker or a small piece of cake at a party? Sure. But I don't keep them in my house. I think of my "thin" friends and most of them eat healthy choices most of the time with the occational treat. Kind of the 90/10 rule (healthy 90% of the time).

I had a prescription patch to wear behind my ear for 10 days (new one daily). I told the Dr. I never usually had a problem, but he insisted I use it as it is not good to vomit.

I had the sleeve and so did my hubby between the 2 of us we have lost 280 lbs needless to say sex is hotter when you are missing a whole person, or 2! And I'm more limber with less weight. 10 times better than pre surgery. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using VST

It takes two weeks before I know exactly how a fill is working. I notice it right away, but 10-14 days it seems to really settle in.

Today I am 24 month, 2 years post-op. I just went back today to read what I posed a year ago. At that time I was super happy with my weight loss at the time. 4 months later I was not as thrilled with my weight loss. I was fairly miserable and in the middle of a complete identity crisis. Now 8 months later I feel a lot better about everything. At this point I am pretty scared about long term success because there is so little support for long term “successful” WLS patients. If you are regaining or never reached goal that is a lot of support but if you are “successful”, it is mostly a pat on the head and “keep doing what you are doing”. The change from being super morbidly obese to being a “normal” size and under 200 pounds has been very mentally taxing. Like I said there is little support for it. There is little support in the bariatric community because most people never do it and there is virtually no support outside of it because it is a real rarity. I spent a lot of time and money trying to find a therapist that could help and there are basically zero with any experience, so I was left on my own to find my own plan to work it. Which luckily I was able to do. Everyone, even medical professionals (perhaps especially medical professionals) seem to think losing weight solves all your problems and that is really not the case at all. Losing created all kinds of new problems for me that I never even knew existed. Weight at 1 year post-op 231 Weight at 2 years post-op 186 If I was just going by the scale as a measurement, I would be disappointed right now because I have only lost 45 pounds in the past year and I wanted to be down 50 by now. I stopped eating for weight loss about 5 months ago, and while I am not necessarily trying to eat for maintenance, I am not eating to lose either. In that time period I have still managed to lose 10 pounds. The goal right now is to lose another 15 pounds total over the next year, and hopefully lose another 5 pounds before the end of the year. I could lose it faster if I tried but it is better for my mental health to stay weight stable. Physically I am already at a size I like. 8/10 is pretty perfect for my height/frame. I am pretty sure with skin removal I will be a 4/6. I have lost a lot of inches, and more interestingly my body shape has changed and adjusted a lot. I have a 34 band and I don’t even think my band size was that small in HS. I can’t ever recall buying anything with a 34 band, so that a huge shock, NSV for me. Last fall I really wanted skin removal surgery very badly. Now I see that would have been a tremendous mistake. The surgeries I would have picked last year and the results would have been lackluster. I definitely see the advantage of waiting for plastic surgery. Your skin, fat, body distribution changes. The body is amazing thing and watch it repair and rebuild itself is amazing to witness. I always took a lot of pictures of myself. I have never been camera shy even at my heaviest. Now I take multiple pictures a day as a way to become accustomed to how I look. Pictures and my clothing sizes are my size validation. My face is so different now, the shape is totally different. It has gone from round to square, which requires different makeup application and accessories. Inch loss I have lost 65.5 inches total since last year Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 6 Pecs (just above the bust line): 4 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 5.5 Waist: 10 Abdomen: 5 Hips: 8 Right Upper Thigh: 4 Right Lower Thigh: 4 Left Upper Thigh: 4 Left Lower Thigh: 4 Right Calf: 2.5 Left Calf: 2.5 Right Upper Arm: 3 Left Upper Arm: 3 Totals 65.5 I have so many NSV almost daily it is impossible to list them all. I appreciate the wonder and amazement of what I can do now. In some ways I look forward to when this is more normalized but I kind of hope it never is so I don’t forget. I love my new sports car, I worked hard for it, and I look great in it. I would have never been able to fit in it comfortably before or get in and out of easily. My lap dog really enjoys my lap now that I really have one. I can fit anywhere and shop anywhere. My total losses HW 377 SW 358 CW 186 Size 28/30 at Surgery Currently 8/10 Measurements Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 26 Pecs (just above the bust line): 19 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 26.5 Waist: 35.5 Abdomen: 28 Hips: 25 Right Upper Thigh: 12.5 Right Lower Thigh: 13.5 Left Upper Thigh: 12 Left Lower Thigh: 12.5 Right Calf: 4 Left Calf: 4.25 Right Upper Arm: 9 Left Upper Arm: 8.5 Totals 236.25

On December 31st at 10 am I underwent weight loss surgery. This is something that had been weighing on my mind for about 3 years and I finally took a leap of faith and jumped. My first day was very pain filled but luckily I had some great nurses. Day two was a little better and I walked at least every two hours so the soreness and gas pains really started easing up. That evening my doctor visited me and said he didn't see why I couldn't go home. It was so nice to be able to sleep in a bed that wasn't in a hospital. Day three my soreness was a lot better and now here we are on day 4. I actually have eased up on my pain meds and took a small walk outside down the sidewalk. The fresh air was amazing. I'm still stirring up gas when I drink but I'm hoping that will pass with time.. I also weighed my self on the scale and it said I've already lost 10 pounds!!

I am getting 10 weeks of iron infusions. My surgery will be about half way through them . Hoping it won't interfere. See my surgeon on Tuesday. Have you had surgery yet?

You have a lot of peoplr who care for you and that you care for in some way. You HAVE to make time. Even if its just 5 or 10 min several times a day. It may hurt to do so but its necessary. If you dont take care of you there wont be a you to take care of them. Ive learned that people should receive their "flowers" while they are still here..... take care.. Sent from my SAMSUNG GALAXY SII Skyrocket using LapBandTalk

This is the original I use low fat cheese or reduce fat cheese to cut all the calories 1 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 pound deli-roasted chicken, skinned, boned, and coarsely shredded 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 14 ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth 1 1/2 cups milk 1 teaspoon bottled hot pepper sauce 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese (6 oz.) 1 1/4 cups crumbled blue cheese (5 oz.) 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (2 oz.) 1/3 cup all-purpose flour Bottled hot pepper sauce (optional) Directions 1. In 4-quart Dutch oven melt butter over medium heat. Add celery and onion; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in broth, milk, and the 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce. 2. In bowl toss together mozzarella, 1 cup of the blue cheese, Parmesan, and flour. Add gradually to Soup, stirring after each addition just until melted. Stir in three-fourths of the shredded chicken; heat through. Top with remaining chicken, blue cheese, and hot sauce. Makes 6 servings. Nutrition Facts (Buffalo Chicken Soup) Servings Per Recipe 6, Calories 490, Protein (gm) 45, Carbohydrate (gm) 12, Fat, total (gm) 28, Cholesterol (mg) 145, Saturated fat (gm) 15, Monosaturated fat (gm) 8, Polyunsaturated fat (gm) 2, Dietary Fiber, total (gm) 1, Sugar, total (gm) 5, Vitamin A (IU) 729, Vitamin C (mg) 2, Thiamin (mg) 0, Riboflavin (mg) 1, Niacin (mg) 10, Pyridoxine (Vit. B6) (mg) 1, Folate (µg) 40, Cobalamin (Vit. B12) (µg) 2, Sodium (mg) 1134, Potassium (mg) 471, Calcium (DV %) 475, Iron (DV %) 2, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

I am on blood thinner injections for 10 days.

@@kathykb If you lost hair before on a diet it might be likely that you lose it again. The good news is it does come back. I had a very thick head of hair prior to surgery (I am Italian). I got my Protein, Water and Vitamins pretty quickly and have remained there since so it was not from a lack of protein, I took Biotin nearly from the beginning, that has nothing to do with your hair falling out but it will help with regrowth....maybe. There is a lot of debate about that. Mine started falling out a lot right around 10 weeks post op and the more weight I lost, the more and faster it came out. I will be honest I was scared but I wanted to get healthy more than I care about my hair. It kept falling out until the rapid weight loss stopped around month 13. I continued to lose weight until I reached goal at 18 months post op. The whole time, my hair was coming back in like crazy and now I have a very very thick head of curly (very curly) hair. In fact, I have to get it thinned out just to make lay properly. LOL Whatever you lose it will come back and should not leave bald spots however mine got thin enough to see my scalp. I lost it from all over and I swear I have hair growing even lower at my temples and scalp than I had before. I stopped taking biotin right around 15 months post op simply because my hair was coming in like crazy and I am not convinced it did anything that would not have happened before.

So I woke up this morning with a runny nose and sore throat! I'm at the "minute clinic" and may have to get antibiotics because orange juice, soup and DayQuil is not working I even took a clarinex tablet! This is happening 10 days BEFORE my scheduled surgery what should I do? Has anyone gotten a cold before surgery? What's going to happen?

Hi everyone...I'm at post op day 10 and have gotten better but am still not taking much in. I have learned so far that I can only tolerate a max of 4 ounces of liquid at any one time and then I am done for a few hours. I've inadvertently drank liquids during that time and got so bloated that I could barely stand it. We are told not to drink and eat together and I understand why that would be a problem later on, but I think it is a problem now. Today I had this very sweet Protein drink called "New Whey" - awful but has 42 grams of protein in only 4 ounces. Problem is that it is so sweet I found myself 'rinsing' my mouth with other liquid while I was taking this and within 4 hours I had consumed 22 ounces total liquid. I was in bed for the next 3 hours! Has anyone had this type of trouble i am experiencing now?

@@Kittymappus At 10 months I was probably close to 1400 calories a day, doing cardio 5 days a week. I know I had to quickly push up over 1100 calories a day in order to do any sort of intense cardio and once I got to the point where I was running 5k's again, I needed closer to that 1400 mark.

I will also be 60 in September and my surgery date is May 16th. I have been thinking about this all my life, well ok since I was 10 and I finally made up my mind to do this and enjoy my life without worry of food controlling me anymore. We are strong, and have a lot of life to live and we have got this! Good luck and keep in touch all of you

I think its great that you chose the sleeve. If i knew of the sleeve i would have done the same thing. I had the lap-band 10 months ago and very little weight loss (18lbs). I an having problems with the band not holding restriction for no more than a few days after a fill ( i have had 10 fills in 10 months) i have another appt. On aug5 to discuss the band. I wonder if insurance will cover the sleeve if i would need to have surgery again to replace the band???????

I have afib arrythemia as one of my co-mobitiay. sorry, spelling not my thing! Anyway, I'm using my cardoligist as my pcp since I see hi the most and he give me all my meds. I was lucky that my insurance approval did not take more then 10 days. It is worrisome to get the EKG and chest xray on August 6th, 2 weeks beore surgery. Shouldnt WLS help us with the arrythemia? I've had an ablantion and has been paddled into a regular heartbeat several time. I needed to get a thyroid blood test prior to approval. After approval I needed an Upper GI and 2 weeks prior to surgery more blood work in addtion to the above mentoned. Of course I go into a little afib every time I remember how close the surgury date is getting. Good Luck to you.

I am an a"MAY"zing bandster too! I missed the list, but here is mine. . with a few already checked off!! 1) Ride a roller coaster again (I couldn't fit in the seat at Dollywood a few years ago. . I was mortified). CHECK!!!!! 2) Buckle my seat belt in an airplane (haven't traveled yet, but we'll see) 3) go jogging. CHECK!!!!! 4) buy jeans at the Gap. CHECK!!!!!! 5) not huff and puff walking a flight of stairs. CHECK!!!!! 6) go skydiving (this is my prize for hitting my goal weight) 7) wear shorts w/out being self conscience. CHECK!!!!!! 8) not weighing over 200 lbs 9) being smaller than my husband (I'm close) 10) no longer caring about food (I'm getting there)