I love that title...Thanks Demmemoon!

March 2007 Bandsters! We have finally been banded!!!:confused:

We thought we'd never have this surgery behind us and here we are at the start of April and some of us are already at or close to the 1 month mark. Now, we are moving on to fills, real food, exercise, and watching those pounds melt away! I am looking forward to hearing about everyone's experiences. Keep posting!

Hi all,

I havent posted to this thread yet but have been fallowing it. I was banded mar.23. Oh, Im Mimi 36..from OK. I was banded in TJ MX. This thread has been such a big boost! I dont really know anyone thats been banded and havent really told anyone but my husband and out of state sis.

My problem is, im 3.5 weeks out from surgery and am on soft foods. Today I heated up som pre pkg pork roast, and put some salsa /sour cream on it. i took 1 bite, Chewed it up realllly well and swallowed. welp, the next 1/2hr i spent pb ing like crazy, I think I took to big of a bite to fast? not eatting that again!!! Anyway, My question is. should I stay on clear liquids for a day? Or reg liquids? I dont know? ive just been able to sip on hot tea since. Nooo fun. Ok, nice to meet yall and thanks for eny advice.

Welcome Mimi! We will all probably have this experience at some time. Some meats are just not band friendly and no matter how much chewing you do it's not enough. If you're still on soft foods you may want to stick to foods that don't require much chewing. I have never PB'd yet, but some say it is best to go back to regular liquids for a day or two. You need your protein so clear liquids won't do much. Feel better soon!

Had my first fill yesterday afternoon (1cc in 4cc band), and everything seemed fine. Liquids were going down well, etc. I was sleeping maybe 1 hour, and woke up to terrible stabbing pains in my upper stomach. Worst pain I've ever had. I got up and went in to the bathroom and ended up passing out twice in there (due to the pain, I think). I remember waking up partially in the bathtub. It was truly terrifying. I've never passed out before. Thought I was dying in the moments between conciousness. My husband heard the crashing around, and found me passed out again in the hallway and helped me up, then I felt really nauseated and spit up some acidy tasting, clear liquid. I sat up most of the night for fear of waking up to the pain again if I went back to sleep. Plus it hurt when I would try to lay down anyway.

I called my bariatric nurse this morning, and she thinks the pain might have been caused by a nerve ending in my stomach that may have been irritated by the fill and also the extra pressure when lying down. I'm drinking liquids now and can feel them trickling down, so don't think I'm too tight. I plan to see what happens today before I decide if I need an unfill or not. This was truly upsetting. Feeling good so far today, though. Had 1 cup of soup and 1/2 cup of tea and so far, so good. I will see if I can lay down for a nap later, or not. Hoping this doesn't happen again.:phanvan

So my gall bladder is comming out on Wednesday.

The rapid weight loss, first from surgery, then not eating cause I've been too freaking sick to eat, has been interesting. Sure, every time I hop on the scale I'm down. But I'm getting flabby some places. I also almost find it hard to believe I've lost fourty pounds already. Ok, yes I am a size smaller in jeans and so forth, but it is almost too fast to seem completely real. I think I will be pleased if after surgery my weight loss rate slows down some. Maybe I'll even gain a few pounds back. Thats ok too. Right now I just want to focus on being healthy. It was probably the initial rapid weight loss that caused my gall bladder to stop working right, after all. Of course no one thought I would lose so fast initially, esp me and then the chances of my Gall bladder having problems never ever occured to me before surgery either. My surgeon says its pretty low incidence with the band. I'm one of the lucky ones. Now I know that I can't have it removed twice, but it does still make me nervous about continued fast weight loss. Apparently there is one medication, actigal or something like that that is supposed to help prevent stones in this sort of situation. But I don't have stones! Or at least none that showed up on the ultrasound.

:hug: Glad you got some answers Kyethra!

Kyethra, sorry you have been so sick. I lost my gall bladder after a fast weight loss of about 60 lbs. one time several years back. But I developed stones in mine. Seems like if you started getting sick before you lost too much weight it may not be the weight loss that triggered it. But, maybe so. I am just glad you found out what was ailing you and you are getting it taken care of. Good luck and I hope you feel better soon. I don't want to be sick but I sure wish I had your weight loss! Take care and get well soon.

Karen,

Did your doctor say why no rice?

Virginia

Karen,

Did your doctor say why no rice?

Virginia

No, he didn't now but has said before that rice often causes problems. I assume that since I'm not quite supposed to be on solid food that he just want me to be extra careful for now. MMMMMMMMM, was the chicken Enchilada Suiza ever DEEE----licious!

I haven't had any trouble with rice, but I can't say that I've eaten a ton of it either, though. My doctor said try to stay away from the sticky white rice, though, most of all.

Me too. It took 14 mos to get to banded. So worth the wait, don't you think? My first fill is 5-7-07. We are doing this side by side.

Yes, we are. :confused: Hello. As of this date, I can't say that the band has yet to KICK in. I think we are at the "on your own" stage right now. But I'm trying to stay good. I look forward to the first fill cause I'm hungry. I try to eat 6 small meals a day to keep the edge off, :hungry: (cheese stick, yogurt, apple, low cal dinner) but when the evening comings my old habits have resurfaced--SWEETS CRAVINGS. I got some Healthy choice fudge bars, 90 cals. ea They are really good.

But this weeks i started eating 2 or 3 in a row. :omg: These have put my Calorie Count past 1200. Bad girl! Seem to be losing more inches than LBS. Hubby notices. Old cloths(size 22) are resurfacing too! How about U?

G&R-

I too shoot for 1200 calories a day but it's more like 1500. I lost a lot quickly after surgery, close to twenty pounds in 3 weeks. But in the last two weeks I've jumped around the same few numbers on the scale and not losing anything. I'm working out and still trying to be good but I could eat giant portions like I used to. OMG, I want sugar too. I reduced that back in January and now the cravings are killing me.

I'm frustrated. Logically I know my body is getting used to the loss but I want a fill and I want the first fill to work. Know what I mean?

I've dropped two pant sizes, down to a 26. I have 24s and 22s waiting for me in the closet. After that I'm going to have to buy clothing! Yeah! Good you for tracking your cals, even when you don't want to. Are you on Fitday.com?

Wow! It has been one month since surgery! Has anyone had second thoughts since being banded? I'm reading all the posts from people who are having difficulty and wondering if it will happen to me. I am not having any difficulties at this point - knock on wood.

It has also been one month for me!! Before surgery I was hoping to lose about 25 lbs the first month, well, I made it to 24 lbs. I am going to get a fill soon (I hope) I just want to eat and eat and eat. Why is it that when you know you shouldn't it is sooooo easy to eat the wrong stuff? Last night I was out with my 11 yo DD and she wanted Taco Bell around 8:30pm, big mistake. I got one of those steak torquitos (sp) and ate the all of it. Then I got home and and vegged the rest of the night. Bad girl, band girl.

I have my 6 week post-op appt on monday 4/23. I called the office to see if I need to follow a liquid or any special diet that day. The nurse said, the Dr. will determine IF you get a fill that day. What?

She said it depends on how i'm doing on weight loss. Well, I'm not. 2wks post I had lost 12 lbs. from surgery,

today i'm up 1 lb. so a total of 11 lbs since surgery.

I've been working really hard! tracking cals and carbs and fat and protein and activities on fitday..I'm not even hitting 1000 cals a day!

Been doing the treadmill 4x week, so walking around 6 miles a week!

They better give me a fill on monday!

I need to get this party started!!!!!!!

I hear ya Mary! I am 5 weeks post op and feel I could eat just about anything and really want a fill now. I am not going for my first fill until May 01,. Can't wait. Not been able to do much in the way of exercising either, I have Fibromyalgia and had a bad flare of Pain last week and was flat out on my back in bed on the heating pad and Pain killers. This week is going to be so much better I hope. Sun is finally shining and I am going to get out to walk. I have gained back a couple of pounds this week, hoping to find them gone again soon.

Good luck with your Fill on Monday. I agree...lets get this party Started!!

Rosie, I hear ya on those flairs. I have fibro too. I blame the weather. Seriously! Its been crazy here with the temps going up and down and while I may be young chronilogically, my body thinks I am at least 20 years older or something. The weather starts acting up and old injuries start to ache and I'm feeling it in my joints. I like it when it warms up and stay warmer.

Originally I was planning on trying to start exercising around the beginning of May since then I would be able to start abdominals probably. I have an entrapped nerve ending in my abdominal wall so not doing any sit ups or crunches at all is actually strange for me, even when I am in lazy mode I try to get a few in each week because doing those helps my condition. So I have been reminding myself to not do all that lately. I think I would feel wierd going to the gym and just leaving those out. Now that I get to have a second surgery I'm sure my projected gym time table is going to get pushed back a few weeks. I'll get there eventually. I'll also have to start working with my chiro again at that point and maybe physical therapy too. I had a hip injury last summer and I also have these insoles from my podiatrist to help me walk more correctly because I have really high arches and I walk more on the edge of my feet. But the insoles and walking correctly buisiness agrivates the old hip injury... LOL. At the moment I'm still trying to make it all work rather than just choosing which pain I prefer, foot pain or hip pain. I'm a little suspicious of it all. Seems like such trouble.

But I figure gyms and workouts and stuff will happen. Sometimes our bodies just need a little more time to get coaxed into all of that.

I didn't have any problem with rice when I ate it before. But I had it in a frozen meal-- stuffed pepper caserole. I think sticky white rice must be like bread in the whole sticky nature issue and that is probably why we are supposed to be careful with it. I actually haven't had any problems with bread at all or anything else. I hadn't tried beef yet, but I had had some fish with no problem. I don't eat chicken.

I think I am one of those few bandsters to actually go back on clear liquids after starting solids. But its not because of the band at least.

Even though I guess I have had a sort of complication from the band-- from the rapid weight loss anyway, I don't regret it. I should be able to get all better and then go on to utilize my band. And even if it was the cause of my problems and I had to have it removed next week instead of my gall bladder I wouldn't have regretted it either. I think that in life people tend to regret the things they didn't do more than the things they did. I probably would regret not giving myself this operuntity and wondering about it as the weight kept piling on more than i would trying it even if it didn't work out for me. One thing it has taught me is that I feel that for me, personally, I really do need WLS to suceed at this. So even if I did have to have my band removed at some point (knock on wood I won't) than I would likely want to convert to verticle sleeve I think. I've spent most of the past year working on my health-- I'm also the resident narcoleptic here-- and for me weight loss is a component of improving my health, both my current health and also preventing more future problems related to that.

Ok I'll shut up now. Way more than anyone ever wanted to know, I'm sure. I've yet to learn the art of conciseness.