CompletelyRevised

Have lost 40lbs in 7 months. Lately my avg. is about 5 pounds a month. I'm hoping to kick it up a notch real soon. I am at my sweet spot with my fills, however like everyone else I struggle eating the good foods. I will do well for 2 weeks (during which is when I loose 5 lbs). Then the next 2 weeks I will fall back until I start over again. Plus I drink occasionally. Gotta step the game up!

History about self: Taking anti depressents for past few years. Was bulimic for a year (before having a baby and on and off when I was younger) and got down to 200 from 280 (size 28 to size 14). Got prego and gained everything back because I refused to do anything harmful to the baby. Started back into the bulimia after the baby, I knew it was horrible and stopped doing it about a year later. In july of 07 I was seriously researching ways of suicide that could be untraced. (I had also been taking alli which I later found out that suicidal thoughts are linked with the drug). Found a way and was on the boarder of going through w/ it. For some reason or another was talking to someone (she is a close family member to me, and I won't say what relation because we are both keeping the procedure secret.) and she mentioned getting lap banded. She knew I had wanted to have some kind of WLS and she was considering it also. She had already talked to someone about it and if my memory serves me right, had already scheduled an appt to get it done (not sure though). She knew the things I'd already been doing and I had told her about my recent "researching" on suicide. I think that is the only reason she told me that she was considering it, because she knew that I deathly hated myself because of my weight. There is/was no way I could pay for it and so WLS was not an option or thought. She offered to pay, and said she doesn't expect me to pay her back. I said I would and she said that's fine if I can someday but she wasn't expecting it. I was able to talk my hubby into it. Thus began my new life with much hope!!! Wow, I've never really sat down and thought it through like this! I'm so thankful for her (family member) I can't even express it. Not just because of this situation, but because of our friendship. But wow, this really makes me appreciate her even so much more. Who knows what I would have done had I continued taking Alli w/o knowing that was a side effect.

I ordered Optifast through the occ website. It was kinda expensive but I split it w/someone. They tasted okay, but not filling. so I added half a banana and some strawberries and made a smoothie. I liked that. I figured that it equaled out buy the time I over ate on other crappy food. at the hotel, If you are staying in your own room, you need to take your stuff w/ you. If you are staying in a room w/ someone you can leave your stuff at the hotel. We had to ask to find out. I went with someone but we got seperate rooms which was nice. We figured we are still paying the same amount, might as well have the room to ourselves. We just requested it in advance. It was nice having the bathroom, tv and time to yourself. For my first fill, we shared a room cause we obviously had to pay for it:) I'm sure that slimfast would be fine also. For me it was more getting used to drinking liquids before the surgery so any liquid supplement would have been fine for me. Everyone is different though.

Name & Location: Kelly, AZ Age: 29 Gender: F Band Date: Sept 11, 2007 Height: 5' 9 1/2" Highest Weight: 298 (before pre op) 287 day of surgery Current Weight as of 3/11/08: 256 1st Goal Weight: 165 Ultimate Goal Weight: 138 {for my records cause I'd like to track progress:)} Current weight as of 4/11/08: 251 Current weight as of 5/11/08: 244 Current weight as of 7/21/08: 239 (trying to get back on track) Current weight as of 10/3/08: 230 (just trying to maintain cause I'm pregnant) 11/11/08: 227 (morning sickness:() 1/23/09: 232 (23 weeks prego) 2/19/09: 235 (27 weeks prego) 4/8/09: 242 (34 weeks) 5/4/09: 244 (38 weeks) 6/5/09: 213 (baby is 3 weeks old:) 7/18/09: 200 9/17/09: 187 10/17/09: 179 12/16/09: 170 (pretty sure I updated in nov but ???)holiday foods bite!!! 4/15/10: 186 (got unfilled 3/6/10) 9/24/2010: 180 11/2010: 192 2/2/2011: 212 18weeks prego

The only people that know are my sister and my husband. I didn't feel like it was anyone else's business and I didn't want to feel like I was being watched with every move I make. Honestly I just didn't want to deal with other people's stupidity:) I mean how much research did I do before I got the surgery? Many many hours, days altogether. Other's don't understand because they don't want to take the time to actually listen to what you are saying. I don't know what I would tell people if I got those questions. I guess I would just say: I want to lose slow so I can keep it off, because stats have shown that most people who lose fast end up gaining it all back plus some.

Okay, I have always passed out when I get my blood taken and am really afraid of needles. I've even been put to sleep for a filling (from the dentist) before. I think I toughened up after having a c-section. Anyway, this was nothing. It felt like a pinch and then a weird feeling (the part where the needle is going into the port-all you feel is a little pressure). I think the feeling is kida cool, but unexplainable. I've had two fills in TJ. Hope this helps ease any worries that you really shouldn't have:0

Karen, I'm not pregnant but hope to be at the end of the year. When in your pregnancy did you get an unfill? Also, was it at the OCC? I have one child right now and want to wait until I lose weight to have another. I have researched the band and pregnancy and there is not a whole lot out there. How has your pregnancy been with the band (other than the port sticking out?) I ended up gaining like 60-70 pounds when I was prego with the first and I'm scared to get pregnant with the second after so much hard work to lose the weight. I'm hoping the band (even if unfilled) will assist in not gaining so much the next time around.

Thanks for the directions! Did this for my first fill and will be using it again.

Can anyone tell me what the hours are for Saturday? Also, if the Train and Buses run the same? What kind of lines are there at the boarder now that Passports are required? Thanks for the help!

Hmmmm, I'm right there with some of you, even worse! Starting on like day 7 I messed around with eating little bits of things (the size of my pinky nail) got stuck a little but flushed it down with water. That was painful so after that I just ate soft stuff. Then I was just so hungry on day 9 I couldn't take it and ate a grilled cheese with a small bowl of tomato soup, totally fine had no probs at all. Then to make it worse I didn't even stop there, I had ice cream to top it off. For the past couple of days I've been all emotional because I know I suck. 4 flippn ounces of liquid doesn't fill me up and I feel like something's wrong with me. Today I've done okay. The idiot I am, I ate a couple of tortilla wraps the size of a quarter and 4 little smokies. What's my prob? I still can't do things right even after a major surgery to stop my actions!