SHRINK'N VIOLETS

Hello all... I'm Tracy and I'm starting this thread because I just found out that I'm scheduled for Surgery on April 26, 2007.

fffffffffffffffffffast forward to April 30, 2007

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

We made it to the other side of bandland and now we are set to support one another while we shrink our booties and grow into our new smaller skins.

All are welcome to join in and post, but we are not a group that bickers..... please be supportive as we all have different paths to follow... but the journies to the more healthy self beckons....

Let the losing begin!!!!!!!!!!!

I am really hoping for an April Band also! Please add me to the list.

I am on my way!!! ...but this is where I am at right now...

Age 34 ; weight 281

Anthem BCBS

:thumbs_up:Feb. 15: Information seminar

:thumbs_up:Feb. 22: Consult with Surgeon

:thumbs_up:Mar 1: Consult wtih Nutritionist

(Schedlued) March 7: Ultrasound & Bloodwork

Appointment with Psychologist

Sleep Study

BAND ME!

:welcomeB:

We're all getting pretty excited!! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you two!

Thanks God I'm able to self-pay.....I'd NEVER have the patience to go thru all those various appts. that insurance requires. NEVER! My luck it would have taken 9 months to evaluate and then they'd turn me down. I would not have been able to handle that!!

Hey everyone. This is so very exciting. I am getting so very anxious and excited and nervous. I am trying to lose another 15 lbs in 4 weeks because I'm going on vacation for easter and coming home and having surgery 2 days later.

I called about scheduling my pre op appts this am and good thing, after I told them I was going to be out of town, they scheduled all my appts for the 10th of April. I'll be on the beach soaking up some sun. So I have final dates, my final approval, blessing from my pcp on the 20th, getting my gall bladder ultrasound done and meeting with the nutritionist on the 21st - and doing my anesthesia and final surgeon appt pre surgery on the 22nd. I am getting so excited I can't stand myself.

I am not required to do a pre liquid diet, and wish i could but lets face reality, I am going to be in Myrtle Beach with my best friend and lots of people she works with and I'm sure I will be having several farewell dinners and or lots of farewell Drinks. I hate to admit it because I don't see a lot of people who seem to have issues with this.... but I love to drink... not alcoholic or anything but there is an outting planned for Margaritaville...and Margaritas are one of my favorites!!!

I hope everyone is as excited as me!

Jenn--there are just a few issues with banding and alcohol that you need to keep in mind (not on your vacation--not trying to rain on that parade!!!). #1. alcohol is empty calories, and flows through quickly---with no nutrients. #2. We have to be very careful not to swap one addiction for another...food for alcohol. We used food to celebrate, to mourn, it was always there for us, and when it suddenly isn't able to be anymore, it is pretty common for us to substitute something in its place, be it exercise, or booze. and #3. Once you reach good restriction, if you have anything else in your pouch, alcohol can be sitting in the small space for some time, and it is not kind to delicate tissues, so has been linked to ulcers.

This is not to say you cannot go out and have a drink, or several! I have a margarita quite often at a little mexican restaurant we go to--it may be affecting my weight loss when I do it, but we have a nice evening, and it isn't a daily thing. I wanted the band to live as normal of a life as possible---and that for me includes occasionally having a drink, or a glass of wine. I may go months between them---but I don't want to be told I can't!!!

Bottoms Up!!

Kat

Hey Kat

I so know all that stuff, actually I have been practicing. I was even the DD at a birthday party last week. But more than food that is the one thing that I am going to miss. But to substitute for missing to drink, I have made an appt with my head dr to get me to like me again and not have to drink to have fun. I am getting prepared not to drink and think i will do good. I have to say I was a beer drinker and have totally given that up. So now i have a shot with a light cranberry juice and only one or 2 instead of drinking all night.

I have made the commitment and this surgery is way to important to me to mess up or risk loosing because I want to party with my friends. They are all starting to accept that I can't eat the food with them anymore and that I will be the DD for them once I have surgery, so they are supportive. LOL

I have improved greatly. But I do appreciate your input, and I will stay strong once I have surgery... I will make sure to have a giant margarita in honor of all us April Banders while at my farewell to the old me party!

you guys are all fantastic!

Hello! I am very new to this message board. I've been reading around the board and have finally found a place where I fit in! I have a lapband date of 4/5/07 - YAY! My journey has been really fast - I started the process January 10, 2007, went through 8 pre-op clearance appointments (nutritionist, psych, bloodwork, upper GI series, ultrasound, chest xray, pulmonologist and cardiologist) and then I was approved by my ins in just 2 days after my band dr submitted the package! YAY! So it took about 6 weeks to get through all of that. The April surgery date was my doing - the dr had openings in March, but I needed to push the surgery to April because of my husband's work schedule, etc so April 5th it is!

I have a pre-op/results appt with my band surgeon on March 28 - just a week before the surgery. I am not on any "pre-op diet" ....should I be? The dr recommended that I try to lose some weight before the surgery, but didn't have specific guildlines or requirements, etc. I've cut WAY back on the "junk" but haven't eliminated it - same for fast foods, desserts, etc. I've lost just a few pounds, but nothing major. Should I be REALLY trying to slim down before the surgery date? I keep telling myself, "ok - today, I'm going to exercise, today, I'm going to go walking, etc." and to be honest it hasn't happened yet. I have 3 young kids (ages 6, 4 1/2 and my youngest will be 2 this month) and keeping up with them is just exhausting let alone trying to squeeze in official exercise time! BUT - I know I'm GOING to have to exercise after surgery so I better get started before!

Any suggestions, ideas, please help! Thanks!!!

Bandedme (well, almost - April 5, 2007)

BMI 41.1, weight at first consult = 262, current weight 258 (goal = 155)

Bandedme-

welcome! I am far from an expert but my Dr. required a 10% weight loss and I do not have a pre-surgery diet where some people are not required to lose weight but do have a 2 week pre-surgery diet so all Dr's are different.

Personally, having to lose weight as a requirement has changed my life and my eating patterns, so I think it was a great thing for me. Do you have the post surgery liquid diet where you can see what to expect after surgery? That kind of freaks me out a little, and if I was not going to be on Vacation, I would be doing a liquid diet to just adjust to no solid foods for a couple of weeks after surgery until the mushie stage.

I hope some of this helps.

CONGRATS on your date. It is so exciting and this is a great group of people, and the April Banders are full of knowledge.

I actually have a friend I met locally at support groups getting banded on March 21st and I am going to be there to support her, so that helps me a little too.

Good luck

:welcomeB: Bandedme!!!

My doctor hasn't been very strict about a pre-op diet either but, like Jennifur, I am trying to get used to a new way of eating and to drop a few pounds. I don't want to go from 60 to zero in 24 hours, y'know? I have been scaring myself the last few days with the "Last Supper Syndrome"...eating stuff I normally don't eat....and that's gotta stop. We gotta get our heads in the right place because, if not, in the end we'll end up messing up our bands and wasting our money. I know we all have such high hopes but it's not going to happen by magic.

It's great that we all have each other to go thru this with.

Great attitude

Because I have been 100% devoted to my new way of life mon-fri, I started having what ever I craved on the weekends. My first weekend was Homemade sauce and eggplant parm, next week was a meal that had lots of bread, so on, so by this weekend, my bad meal was a piece of roast beef, a small portion of mashed potatoes with just meat juices and no actual gravy and broc. I have come a long way but I think training and getting all the cravings out of the way 1 day a week was very helpful.

My birthday is the 12th and my best friend is going to make me dinner on Saturday and honestly, I don't even know what I want to eat. I think that is huge improvement and have also learned that portion control is a big part of it

Today I went to Luby's (a cafeteria) and had a slice of roast beef, cole slaw with very little dressing and cauliflower with a little cheese sauce. I tried not drinking with my meal (not very successful), eating very slowly and cutting my meat up into tiny pieces. I paid very close attention to how full I was getting. The roast was very tough so I only ate about 2-3 oz. of that, most of the cauliflower and by the time I got to the cole slaw I was feeling 'satisfied'....I ate a few bites of it and then I was done. A far cry from how I normally waddle out of there! My surgeon explained that with a 'normal' stomach you can stretch it "this big"...and he held his hands up to about the size of a basketball. Maybe he was exaggerating, but the point is that we are not going to have anywhere NEAR that kind of capacity again and if we try to stuff too much food down our gullet we'll only stretch out the pouch and mess up the band.

Jennifur, I think you're right to watch portion sizes. And I'm all for going a little crazy on the weekends because it's my belief that loading up on calories 1x a week helps to prevent starvation mode. Not 6000 calories in a day, but at least 1.5-2x what you normally eat while dieting.

Do ya'll keep a food journal on fitday.com or something like it? I haven't since my LC days but I do remember that it was essential to keeping me on track. Obviously, I fell way off the track somewhere along the line!! So instead of deluding myself into believing I'm cutting down on carbs and calories, I decided to go back to fitday yesterday. HA!! Good lawd!! No wonder I'm 75# overweight if I think this is a "light day"....

<TABLE class=data_sheet cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1><TBODY><TR><TH>

grams

</TH><TH>cals</TH><TH noWrap>%total</TH></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Total cals:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight></TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>2067 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight></TD></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Fat:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>124 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>1112 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>55%</TD></TR><TR><TD>Sat:</TD><TD align=right>35 </TD><TD align=right>312 </TD><TD align=right>15%</TD></TR><TR><TD>Poly:</TD><TD align=right>30 </TD><TD align=right>270 </TD><TD align=right>13%</TD></TR><TR><TD>Mono:</TD><TD align=right>47 </TD><TD align=right>421 </TD><TD align=right>21%</TD></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Carbs:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>129 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>443 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>22%</TD></TR><TR><TD>Fiber:</TD><TD align=right>18 </TD><TD align=right>0 </TD><TD align=right>0%</TD></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Protein:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>121 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>483 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>24%</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>:cry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went back and checked it and sure 'nuf, there was an error....here's the correct counts (whew!!) although it's still too high.

CORRECTED:

<TABLE class=data_sheet cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1><TBODY><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Total:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight></TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>1592 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Fat:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>96 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>867 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>55%</TD></TR><TR><TD> Sat:</TD><TD align=right>26 </TD><TD align=right>236 </TD><TD align=right>15%</TD></TR><TR><TD> Poly:</TD><TD align=right>23 </TD><TD align=right>205 </TD><TD align=right>13%</TD></TR><TR><TD> Mono:</TD><TD align=right>37 </TD><TD align=right>331 </TD><TD align=right>21%</TD></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Carbs:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>90 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>299 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>19%</TD></TR><TR><TD> Fiber:</TD><TD align=right>15 </TD><TD align=right>0 </TD><TD align=right>0%</TD></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Protein:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>101 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>403 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>26%</TD></TR><TR><TD class=data_sheet_highlight>Alcohol:</TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>0 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>0 </TD><TD class=data_sheet_highlight align=right>0%</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I'll have to check that out. Honestly, since i started this venture monday - friday i eat exactally the same thing. This week i decided to add in 1 whole wheat wrap as i was not eating any carbs at all. I might have to do that log this week just to see just how bad i am, but I did create a journal for myself in power point that i log into almost daily. LOL

Hello everyone!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that I didn't post on this board all last week!!!!!!!!!!

I think I almost forgot that I was having surgery! (not really, but I was obsessing SO much that I needed a break)

Hey everyone~~

Today I had my endoscopy... man, they prep you like it's major surgery... I hadn't been that tubed & poked & monitored since my c-section 8 years ago! :omg: And it reminded me how much I HATE, HATE, HATE medical procedures... ugh... so this band had better be the LAST thing I have to have done! Bleh! And the actual procedure really wasn't bad... I was awake... asleep... awake in like a blink! No pain. But all the paraphernalia... ah! They said I have a hietal hernia (sp?) and gastroenteritis & they took a biopsy... but they said that neither of those things should stop the surgery, thank goodness.

So now it's psych on Sat., then nutritionist & exercise folks next Tues... and then they submit for insurance!

PS... Hi Tracy... I've wondered where you've been! Hope all is well! Miss your energy & positive thinking!!!

Count me in for the April banders board! My date is 4/5/07!

It's just around the corner! AAAHHHH!!! Less than a month away! Excited and nervous about it!

Today, I really stepped up on eating less and healthier. I don't have a pre-op diet to follow although my doc suggested that I lose some weight prior to surgery. Just need to get the actual exercise in. although doesn't picking up after 3 young kids all day and running around the house count for something?!

Any advice out there?

Thanks!

Bandedme (almost! lol)