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Newbie from Harlow, Essex



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Hi there

Is anyone else from Harlow, Essex? If so let me know as I would love to meet up!

My story is:

Had the op on 20 Jan and the retractor broke during surgery so when I woke up I had all the scars to show for it and the band wasn't in!!! As you can imagine I was devastated and went home not knowing if I could go through with it a second time. After my family spoke to me and said that I already had the scars I might as well have something to show for them etc so I decided to go for it.

On 26 Jan (weighing 22 st/308lbs) I and went back in and had Dr Somers (anyone from London will know him as Anne Diamond’s surgeon) who was fantastic perform the surgery. Everything went fantastically well but the surgeon explained why the first op would have been difficult and that was because my rib cage etc is tiny inside my body and they had to lift all of the excess fat to put the band in and it was hard.

I went to see the dietician on 20 March (2 months since the op) and I weighed in at 19.9st/273lbs so am very happy with the rate of everything. The only issue I had is that I was booked in for my first fill on 16 March and they could only put in 1.8 as my oesophagus kept on filling up with Fluid – has this happened to anyone else? I am now feeling as though I am the only one working at this and the band isn’t doing its job as I am not really feeling any restriction i.e. I don’t burp when full or have any tightness. Am going to see if my weight has slowed down on 20 April and if it has I am going to ask for another fill.

I am due to be a bridesmaid in July this year so it has definitely given me the added incentive to get this weight off!!!:clap2:

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Totally understand what happened. I'm very happy for you that you are atlast banded. Welcome!

Many of us are detoxing our livers to shrink them prior to surgery. It makes access to the location easier.

Best of luck to you and happiness as you slide down in number!

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
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