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Starting Again...Help Appreciated!



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I was banded in July, 2010. I lost 70 pounds and felt great, even though I was still 20 pounds shy of my goal. I don't know what's happened. I've lost all motivation and feel like I have failed again...it was my biggest fear and it has come true. I think it's why I never wanted to tell anyone about being banded - the fear of failure and judgment. I guess I called THAT right. I want to get back on track but don't even know where to start. I'm embarrassed to go back to the doctor. I had gained about 15 pounds about a year ago and realized I was not in the right mindset and just quit going. Then I gained another 25. I know my band needs adjusting, I'm just not sure which way. When I first started gaining weight, I was pretty tight and thought I was gaining because I could really only eat slider foods. My doc agreed, so he took out .2 which scared me to death. It was a great feeling to be able to eat again (I can eat most anything now) but I still can get myself stuck sometimes. I'm not sure if the band is adjusted right (it needs to be this loose for me to be able to eat protein) but I got used to making bad choices again and can't seem to get off the roller coaster. I also ran a half marathon the year I was banded and lost 70 pounds. Now I'm lucky if I walk a couple of times a week. I know this has to change. Looking for help from anyone who has had a similar experience, or just words of wisdom that I really need to hear. I'm so frustrated because I thought I was done with all this after deciding to have this surgery. I just can't believe I'm here again at this point.

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Welcome back. First, quit beating yourself up. It is time to love you, put you first. How?

1. Call your doctor and make an appointment. Nothing to be ashamed about. You are not the first and you won't be the last.

2. Go see a nutritionist. Work out a food plan fir yourself.

3. Read up on the rules if eating with the band and relearn them.

And last but not least find some support. If there is a support group you can go to locally great. Or hang out here, lots of great support here.

You can and will get back in track!

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Welcome back. First' date=' quit beating yourself up. It is time to love you, put you first. How?

1. Call your doctor and make an appointment. Nothing to be ashamed about. You are not the first and you won't be the last.

2. Go see a nutritionist. Work out a food plan fir yourself.

3. Read up on the rules if eating with the band and relearn them.

And last but not least find some support. If there is a support group you can go to locally great. Or hang out here, lots of great support here.

You can and will get back in track![/quote']

Totally agree.

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Welcome back. First' date=' quit beating yourself up. It is time to love you, put you first. How?

1. Call your doctor and make an appointment. Nothing to be ashamed about. You are not the first and you won't be the last.

2. Go see a nutritionist. Work out a food plan fir yourself.

3. Read up on the rules if eating with the band and relearn them.

And last but not least find some support. If there is a support group you can go to locally great. Or hang out here, lots of great support here.

You can and will get back in track![/quote']

I completely agree as well. There's not much I can add to it, except... You know what you've got to do. Start loving yourself enough to do it.

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2B, I am in the same boat! I am looking at my 5 year anniversary and I am so disappointed in myself. I have gained back almost all I have lost. I too just lost motivation and all those bad habits came back. What finally lit a fire under me was a recent back x-ray I had taken because I hurt my back. The x-ray techs were all staring at the screen and I was getting a little nervous and wondering what they were seeing. The nurse came back, asked me if I had on any jewelry and I said no. She described what she was seeing and I knew immediately that my band showed up on the x-ray! They let me see it. It was amazing. I had never seen it before but there it is, plain as can be. Evidently not too many medical people in my area see a banded person. They didn't know what it was. Wish I had a copy of that x-ray; that would be real motivation.

But it got me thinking again and I made an appt to go see my bariatric nurse to check out my band and fill level. I am ready to start again. I have had no support of others, I live alone and no one sees how much I eat. I am going to make frequent visits to this web site to find support here. I also advertised on Craigslist for anyone interested in a support group in my area but so far no takers.

It's hard to do this alone. Hope you find support here and are able to get back on track. You deserve this!

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You and I were banded the same month, same year and I'm happy to tell you that you CAN start things over again and be successful. Due to some health issues (Vitamin deficiencies caused by really bad food choices) I stopped using my band for almost a year.

I "re-started" last August and am happy to say that I'm only five pounds away from hitting the goal that was set for me by my weight loss center. My weight loss has been very slow, but I've finally learned what fill level works for me (looser instead of too tight), how important logging my food is (I use the My Fitness Pal app religiously) and most importantly, how exercise plays a key role in keeping me healthy and happy. I've lost 25 pounds since my restart, but I've dropped four clothing sizes and many, many inches because of the exercise.

Best of luck to you. Please feel free to PM me if you'd like to chat.

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    • BeanitoDiego

      Oh yeah, something I wanted to rant about, a billing dispute that cropped up 3 months ago.
      Surgery was in August of 2023. A bill shows up for over $7,000 in January. WTF? I asks myself. I know that I jumped through all of the insurance hoops and verified this and triple checked that, as did the surgeon's office. All was set, and I paid all of the known costs before surgery.
      A looong story short, is that an assistant surgeon that was in the process of accepting money from my insurance company touched me while I was under anesthesia. That is what the bill was for. But hey, guess what? Some federal legislation was enacted last year to help patients out when they cannot consent to being touched by someone out of their insurance network. These types of bills fall under something called, "surprise billing," and you don't have to put up with it.
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      I had to make a lot of phone calls to both the surgeon's office and the insurance company and explain my rights and what the maximum out of pocket costs were that I could be liable for. Also had to remind them that it isn't my place to be taking care of all of this and that I was going to escalate things if they could not play nice with one another.
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    • BeanitoDiego

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