OSuzanna

Name and Location: Suzanna - The 999th oak in beautiful Thousand Oaks, CA :beach: Gender - female Age - 54 Height - 5'4" Highest weight ever - 210 lbs. :shok: Band date - June 13, 2008 Weight at surgery - 201 lbs. Current weight - 184 lbs. August 16, 2008 :good2: Goal weight - 130-135 lbs.

One word - WOW!!!!!

Yeah, another man - I love it! Welcome, welcome :lb14: :-h Your going to love this forum, I started looking at posts several weeks before my 6/13/08 banding and I can't tell you how much great information I got and continue to get - man, you just feel the warmth oozing out of your computer. :give_heart: Lots and lots of good warm fuzzies coming out of this forum! Again, welcome to our world - your going to love it!!!!! :good2: '

OMG, that was disgusting - I knew I shouldn't have looked! And here we are about to go out to dinner for my husband's Bday - forget it now! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrffffffffffffffffffffffff!!!!! :lb12: :bad: :negative:

Okay, so let me get this straight... I want to drive up to the U.S. side of the border and have someone from the OCC pick me up, take me back across the border to the OCC to get the fill and then a couple of hours later take me back to the U.S. side of the border - all in one day. The fill is free, the fluoroscopy will cost me $100. Do I have to pay for the rides to and from? I'd appreciate any clarification.

I THINK I CAN SAFELY SPEAK FOR ALL MOMS IN THIS REGARD, WE ARE ALWAYS RIGHT!!!!! YOU LOOK FANTASTIC - I CAN DEFINITELY SEE A DIFFERENCE! TODAY I'M ONE MONTH POST-OP AND I HAVEN'T TAKEN ANY PICTURES YET, BUT I THINK I WILL TODAY AND GROSS, BUT I THINK I'LL DO ONE IN MY BATHING SUIT. I'M ALSO GOING TO TAKE MY MEASUREMENTS, WHICH I ALSO HAVEN'T DONE YET. SEE THAT, YOUR MOTIVATING ME - THANKS!!!!! :good3:

WOWIE - ZOWIE - HOLY - MOLY =D> :lb13: :lb10: :lb16: :good3: I'M JEALOUS!!!!

Thanks, I don't think I'd want to have fills done withouth the fluoro. and I think the $100 cost is worth knowing they can see what they're doing - right? I'm having my first fill August 9th, I now wish I would have scheduled at the six week point instead of 8 week. Oh well, I'm still looking forward to getting it!

Hi All, Always more questions... 1. When you have the surgery at OCC the fills are free thereafter, correct? 2. Do you have to pay extra if you want it done with the fluoroscopy? Thanks!

I have to share and say "thank you!", after I posted the above, a lot of you posted back saying I wasn't eating enough calories. Well, I listened to you and started eating around a 1,000 calories a day and it worked!!! I've lost 6 more pounds since that last post and I'm thrilled! So thank you, thank you, thank you - you all have been such a tremendous help for me on this journey (how funny, as I'm typing this up a Journey song came on the radio!). God Bless!

I just got done reading Weight Loss Surgery with the Adjustable Gastric Band - Everything You Need to Know Before and After Surgery to Lose Weight Successfully by Robert W. Sewell and Linda Rohrbough - it's an awesome book. It even has a section for your spouse, partner, parent, etc. to read, which my husband did and I got to tell you, he's really into my band now, he says things like "should you be eating that" and "hey, I thought you weren't supposed to drink with your meals" and the best of all, "do you want to go for a walk?". Dr. Ortiz' book is only to be had from Amazon from what I hear and I still want to buy it, but the book I read is usually in stock at all the major book stores. And trust me, I'm not slamming Dr. Ortiz (I think he's amazing!), but the book I read had a higher rating than his. At the back of my book Dr. Otiz' book was listed as an additional resources. Now for my tip... After not going to the bathroom for almost 10 days after my surgery I bought and started taking Benefiber Chewable Tablets - what a difference, I'm going almost daily and what a relief! Best of luck to you, surgery is a snap and the three week post op liquid diet is really not that hard, just put your mind to it and you'll do fine. Experiment with mixing different soups together when you get to the creamy soup stage and don't forget the baby food section in your grocery store. The strained prunes were helpful too - why do I always go back to that subject, I think I have Poopie on the brain!

Wow Thanks Mamamichelle! These are the kind of things I need to find out about, the ones that scare the POOPIE CRAP out of me. I also have the drinking problem with dinner - a lot of it is because I'm scared something's going to get stuck - I've always had this problem even pre-banded - the water always helped with whatever was stuck to either go down or come back up. My husband actually had to do the heimlich (SP?) thing on me once - it was that bad. Because of the coughing I was doing and the squeezing my husband was doing I even peed my pants and we were having dinner with my husband's sister and her husband (thank God we were at home!) - it was very, very embarrising! You have to know my sister-in-law, she's one of those women who never goes anywhere without the perfect outfit on, flawless makeup applied, every hair in place and perfumed up! She's about 5 ft 4 in and maybe weighs 125 - I hate her! Not really, she's very sweet! Several years back we met up with them in Mammoth Lakes for a week of camping and fishing, we got there a few days before them and were out fishing on Lake George when they walked up - you could smell her before you saw her and there she was in all her glory - cute little white shorts, tank top, strappy sandals and of course all made up and every hair in place! And here my 185 pound (I'm 5" 4' too) over weight slug of a body sat, dirty fish crusted shorts, a man's big tshirt, ratty old tennies - dirty unwashed hair in a pony tail - forget make up! But you know what? she didn't catch a single fish that week and I caught 8 - that totally made up for the whole thing!!! Well she better just watch out, because before long I'll be wearing cute little white shorts with a tank top and strappy sandals! I think I'll still keep a glass of water in front of me, but the adding salt thing is a great idea too! I need to write these really good tips & comments down and put them on my refrigerator!

That's not such a bad idea :lb23: , I was thinking about going on Atkins for a week or two and yes I know its one of the "Ten worst Diets", but it always worked for me, at least for a little while anyway. :-? Okay it's setlled, I'll start on Monday - remember that all you life time dieters? It was always, "I'll start my diet on Monday, I'll start my diet on Monday"!!! By the way tomorrow is my one month anniversary and when I stepped on that demon scale yesterday morning I finally droped another pound - Yeah finally! :girl_dance: I was at a stand still for two weeks!!!

Mmmmmm GNC Banana Cream - Yummy!!!! It's my lunch during the work week, but I confess to using 2 scoops instead of one and it's good and filling. I haven't tried this yet myself, but I've read other peoples posts where they say they mix them up - like the GNC Berry with Banana, or the chocolate caramel with banana.

Hi all, I have two questions, both of which have probably been asked and answered many times over, but I don't feel like wading through all of the posts and I don't think the search option works. Anyway, I was banded on June 13th, so I'm well past the liquid stage and well into eating real big people (no pun intended) food and just like most of you, I have absolutely no restriction right now. I guess I'm in what some of you refer to as "bandster hell"; I can eat anything and large quantities of anything for that matter. By the way "anything" is really good when you put "something" on top! I'm doing okay, still only 11 pounds lost, but at least I'm not gaining, which is great! I totally blew it 4th of July weekend, especially with the celebratory libations (if you know what I mean), but I don't feel guilty because It was still in moderation and sometimes, damn it, you just have to treat yourself! Here's my questions and I'm not asking because I think I've got the problems, I'm just really curious: 1. How can you tell if you do have a band slippage? Are there any signs? 2. I know the OCC sutures the band in place, but do they suture the port site as well? Thanks everyone! p.s. I have to say, I love this forum! No, I'm addicted to this forum - it's so helpful and so encouraging and above all so supportive!

On the first page of the forum look under policies and technical help - there's a post explaining how to insert the ticker

I started my first day of solids with a banana - not real solid, but more than the soup I've been eating. Well, I was kind of expecting to get a little bit of a full feeling, but no - nothing! So I then went on to eat three Holland Rusks (kind of like a cracker/bisquit very light and airy about the size and thickness of a hamburger bun) - still no fullness - whats up with that? Later on in the afternoon a couple of handfulls of tortilla chips, a sugar free popsicle. For dinner, I've been craving a nice salad so we went and picked up cobb salad, my husband suggested mixing it up, taking only half and then put the dressing (blue cheese because a cobb isn't a cobb without blue chesse dressing) on it, which is what I did, but I swear I could have eaten the whole thing, no problem, and it was a big salad! I also had a 3 x 2 x 1/2 piece of carrot bread, which was quite doughy, again, no problems going down. Where was that getting full feeling? I swear it's almost like the band isn't even there, except for still being swollen and a little sore at the port site. I feel like I totally blew it yesterday and really bumed at not having any kind of restriction; I'm almost sorry I didn't have any of that PBing feeling, because that would have have told me the band was doing a little bit of what it was supposed to be doing. Anyone else have this experience with your first few days of real food?

LOL - My sister (she went with me when I had my surgery) sent this to me and I though you all might get a laugh out of it as well.

Wow! Absolutely fantastic - You are an inspiration for everyone - pre-band or post - Your awesome!!!!

You guys are all super - when I read all your reponses this morning, it was just what I needed! I love this forum, it helped me in making my decision to have the surgery, it helped pre-op diet, post op diet and it's especially helping now. I don't mean "it" helped, I mean you all helped - Thank you!!! When I got done posting yesterday I had a can of Trader Joe's Organic Split Pea Soup - don't bother, it was not good, neither is their Carrot Ginger soup, which I had the day before. Stick to Cambell's or Progresso or Anderson's, which is probably the best split pea soup. (can you get in trouble for slamming products on line?). I also had a 6 oz carton of Trader Joe's Apricot Mango Low Fat Yogurt, which is very good and a 100% fruit popsicle. But then I took a dive and had two six oz glasses of red wine - bad, bad, bad!!! I paid for it with a nice little headache this morning. I'm sitting here at my backyard patio table in sunny (getting hot - :heat: ) Thousand Oaks, CA trying to come up with a meal plan for today, being my first day of solids. My mood, intent and desire is to make it healthy (yesterday I felt like eating half a cow with the most fattenting potatoe dish I could think of, topped off with some Cherry Garcia) and as suggested in your posts somewhere around 1,000 calories. Wish me luck and you all have a wonderful 4th of July! Thanks again everybody! p.s. One thing I know I have to stop doing is standing on that darn scale every morning!

I go for my first fill August 9th - does it hurt?

I'm so frustrated, today is the last day of my three week post op liquid diet and I've only lost 10 lbs and nothing for the last week - I expected to lose at least 15 lbs. :lb20: Here's my daily food intake, since creamy soup stage started: 1 cup of coffee with low fat non-dairy creamer & Splenda 1 Vitamin Water 1 Protein Shake (GNC Creamy Banana - yummy!) 1 can of Cambells soup - Cream of Mushroom, Celery, Chicken, Split Pea 1 8 oz glass of orange juice. That's it - every day for the last two weeks - that's got to be under 500 calories a day! :lb6: I've been walking my lunch hour about three times a week. I'm hardly going to the bathroom at all - maybe three times since surgery. WHAT IS GOING ON?????? Tomorrow is my first day to eat real food - one minute I'm scared to death to eat anything for fear of gaining and the next minute I just want to blow it all this weekend (being the 4th of July and we're going to a party on Saturday). Sob Sob Boo Hoo Boo Hoo (

Hi, I was banded on the 13th and I had to remove my nose ring. As soon as I "woke up" I put it back in. I did have make up on, but very, very light - tinted moisturizer and mascara - that's it and nothing was said. Your day is almost here - good luck!

Hi All, I was banded June 13th and everything went real well. Absolutely nothing to complain about the entire experience, especially OCC!!! Here's the problem, I am still quite uncomfortable sitting up straight - It feels somewhat like when your in your last month of pregnancy when you sit down it feels like your squashing everything from your breast on down to below your belly. It's mostly my left side that's bothering me so much. Also, can't bend down without pain. Have any of you had this sort of discomfort? p.s. Had my first yogurt today and some applesauce - tasted great! I'm not having any trouble with post op diet - I'm just not hungry. p.p.s. First day back at work tomorrow - It's a desk job and I'm kind of worried about how I'm going to be able to sit all day long. Thanks! Suzanna

Well, it's finally arrived, my Band Day - yahoo! We (my sister and I) will drive from Palm Springs, CA to San Ysidro (Mexicoach) tomorrow morning at O'Dark Early (4:00 am), its going to take around 2.5 - 3 hours to get there for my 8:00 am pick up to take me to the hospital. I couldn't go today because my daughter graduated high school this evening (actually, it was yesterday considering it's 1:30 am Friday the 13th). So......... I'll get to the hospital, have all the pre op work done and then have the procedure in the afternoon I suspect; stay the night at the hospital and then the next night at the hotel???? Whatever, (as my teen used to always say) as long as I can get some shopping done (God, please let me feel okay to go shopping - you know how I am!). I'll leave Mexico on Sunday and then (thank you Lord!) have a full week in beautiful Palm Springs to re-coup before having to go back to work. The only huge bummer is I guess no swimming allowed and I love to swim! So there I'll be, going back to work with a real nice tan and hopefully a pound or two lighter - nobody's going to beleive my story about having surgery and needing a week off to re-coup. Anyway, you've all been a big help just reading all of your posts and I wanted to let you know that for those contemplating the surgery, just reading all of your posts really helped, especially concerns about going into Mexico for surgery - although the thought of going into Mexico was exciting as I think Latin men as the most gorgeous creatures around! Wish me luck and throw in a prayer for me - I mean surgery is surgery, and it's always a little scary..... Suzanna