Jnlebean

1. Name: Jenelle 2. Location:Calgary Alberta Canada 3. Age: 27 4. Band Date: January 15, 2009 5. Married: Not Yet, Still Looking 6. Children of the human or furry kind: Molly, 6mth old Bichon Shihtuz Pup 7. Hobby(ies): Hiking Camping Knitting Reading 8. Work: Landscape Architecutral Tech 9. What was the deciding factor(s) on getting banded: I just cannot control the amount of food I put in my mouth! 10. Interesting factoid: I have been to all the Provinces in Canada, expect Newfoundland and Labourdor and the Territories, and I have been to 17 States!

That was the one and only time I did something like and I will never do it again. I agree it can cause a lot of damage and pain! Just dont do it!

I had my surgery on the 15th of Jan, and trust me you want yo wait! I am down 9 pounds since the surgery and I thought on the weekend that I would try the smallest bit of my mom apple pie. We were out of town and a family friends winter cabin and everyone else was eating and I want to too. So I did, I chewed and chewed, I mean this was the smallest of bites and it got stuck and I was instantly throwing it up. I will not eat anything other than liquids until the 21 days is up. It was not a good feeling I felt as though I ate a grapefruit without chewing it first! Terraible! I have started to eat the thicker creamer soups and I can get them down just fine. Yogurt with fruit in it, chucks, seem to be ok for me. My mom mentioned to me the other day that if I really had to chew something to chew it and spit it out, gross I know but it might curve your craving?! Jenelle

I will be getting my first fill at the OCC on March 2! I hope to meet up with a few of you there! I wished that I had bumped into a few people at the Hotel while I was there on Jan 14-8 but shopping kept me away! Good luck to all on their pre-op diets, the obe thing that I would suggest to make it a little easier on you (the pre-op is hard, I found) is to start about a month before your surgery! I had to do mine over Christmas and I thank my luckly stars that I had the extra time to lose the weight! I didnt want to get down there all the way from Calgary AB to be told that I didnt lose enough! Good Luck and keep me posted, :-h

Hello, I am not able to feel my band but i can feel my port if i press and poke around! I was able to lay on my tummy just 3 days after my surgery! and I am able to bend over and roll around just fine! To tell you the truth other than the eating post op diet and seeing the incisions on my tummy I would not have known that I even had surgery! After 3 days post op I felt fine! No pain! Jenelle

Dont Worry!! I was scared to about the plane ride back bt found it more comfortable than I thought. I was with my mom. I really was more uncomfortable about sitting so long than I was about having surgery and sitting so long. Take a book and you'll be fine. I found that if I put a pillow behind my back it pushed my chest and stomach forward which made me feel better. There are so many people at the clinic to talk too! You wont be bored oe scared. I had about 5 or 6 doctors come and talk to us while we were waiting for my surgery, there is a TV! I built this surgery up in my mind way to much!! You go girl!! Jenelle

TRY TRY TRY!!! I just had surgery and lost 12 of the 14 I needed to lose. I was very worried that I would not lose the weight, the last few days before the suregery I walked and walked, I scrubbed my house down I did everything I could think of to keep me moving and not sitting on the couch to lose the last 6 pounds in 7 days. It worked for me. I drank about 6L of water a day and drank lots of tea as well. Just keep moving and the weight will come off. Remember this is not the last time you will ever get to eat something again, its just the last time you will eat somthing for a few months. Stay focused and you can do it! Jenelle

Hi Michelle, I was able to get my surgery done a day early, otherwise I would have met you and your mom at the clinic on the 16th! I was looking for you ladies at the Hotel as well but we never crossed paths. I just wanted to mention again that you are a true insperation to all of us here and I cant wait to look as good as you do! Keep up the good work, Jenelle :-h

Oh, Today is the first day that it has hit me, what am I doing? I fell sick to my stomach. I am trying to take this one hour at a time. I have 4 more hours at work and then I am going for a Pedicure and 2 1/2 weeks recovery/vacation. I hope I will be able to relax there. I'm packing tonight for trip. I will be staying in Edmonton at my Parents for 2 1/2 weeks. My mom and I fly out on Wednesday, surgery on Friday and back home Sunday. To tell you the truth I just want this to be over with already my anxiety is killing me. I know I will be fine I have been ready the posts here for the past few days from the ladies that had their surgery last week. It is making me feel more at ease. I don't think it is the surgery that I am nervous about I think it is just the whole picture, everything. AWWW, Im going for a walk to try to calm my nervous. Thanks for letting me rant a little, Jenelle 4 more days!

Way to go!! Hard work always pays off!

Oh Michelle, I am so happy that I get to meet you! I will be banded on the 16th, I will be getting in on the 15th with my mom. I have been following you on this forum since September and in the back of my mind I keep telling myself that I am going to drop the weight just like Michelle did and look as hot as she does! What a treat to meet the person that has been motivating me during the last 4 months!! Each time I think what am I doing, should I do this, I stop and look at your photos, what a motivator you are! Cant wait to meet you! Jenelle, I will be at the Lucerna! 8 more days YAHOO!!!!!

Thanks for the info! Big Help!!

I know each person is different and this is a personal thing, but how many fills did it take for you to hit your sweet spot? How long from your surgery date did it take for you to get to your sweet spot? Do you think you might need another fill after you have hit that spot? Just Wondering, Jenelle, Yahoo 8 more days until the new me!!

Wow, thanks you so much for the info! Jenelle

Wow, I had no idea that I could apply for this, I live in Calgary and contacted AHC to see if they cover the surgery but they said no. I have a few questions: 1. I'm having my surgery next week, Can I apply for some reimbursement when I get home from surgery? 2. What type of information, receipts do you need? 3. I have the Out of Country Claim form, is this what I fill in? 4. Do I need my family Dr to send in a letter? 5. I was questioning as to where or not they thought this surgery was cosmetic or not? I know on the AHC website it says that if you go out of country for surgery they don't cover cosmetic? This is fantastic I will have this loan paid off sooner than I thought! I knew about the tax break but I didn't know until yesterday when i read this post that I could get some money back from AHC!!! Yahoo!! Thanks Guys, I hope you can answer some of my questions. 10 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!! Jenelle

OMG I am so thankful that I am not the only one that cant seem to stick to this pre-op diet!! I have 16 days to loose 14 pounds and I am freaking out about it. I am going to call Dr. Miranda here in a day or two if the scale does not move. But knowing that Im not the only one is making me feel more at ease! Thanks Guys and Gals, All the best tonight with your New Year Celebrations, Jenelle

Hi Kristy, I fly in on the 15th, I will have my pre-op meeting that day and the surgery the next on the 16th. Im sure we will meet up. My mom and I are coming down from Calgary Alberta together. I will ask around if i dont see you there. I hope you might have time to talk for a few mintues. Can't wait to meet you, Jenelle

See I knew you guys would have the answer for me! So I guess I will wait on the fruit, and watch the salt, which I was never a big fan of, makes me swell to much! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Jenelle

I start mine on Monday and Im not looking forward to the limitation of the diet. But I know it is for good cause. Im going to do opition 2, I think the hardest part for me is eating the green veggies! Im not a big veggie eater and when Im hungery the last thing I want is green veggies, oh how I wish I could add fruit! I think I might do that once a day, eat an apple or orange! Do you think that might be ok? Any suggestions on how to prepare those borning green veggies? Do you have a favorite green veggie I forgot about? I seem to be stuck on peas, broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts! Thanks Guys and Gals, Jenelle

Those are great questions. I can answer this one for you, as i am waiting to have my surgery on Jan. 16th!! 5. Can you recomend protein or meal replacements that taste good. They are pretty pricey and dont want to stock up on a nasty one. I really like the myoplex shakes. They are thick and creaming tasting. If you find them to thick you can add a little more milk or water to them. Whats also great about them is that they are filling too! Good luck with your up coming travels and life journeys with your new body! Jenelle

Hey tnm75, I hope to see you there! I am being banded on the 16th! It will be good to have someone there to talk to that knows what i will be going thourhg in the up coming weeks. Im sure i will have some questions for you! See you there, Jenelle

So in two weeks I start my pre-op diet! I am finding myself thinking about all the things that I wont be able to eat for a while (or ever again) and just how much of it I can eat before I start my pre-op diet. I want to be down 15lbs before the surgery and I know I can do it, but I just want to get started already enough of all this waiting! I would start today but I know that one month of pre-op diet will be enough for me! Only a few more weeks and I can get start! I should be happy that I dont have to do this now I suppose, it will be hard enough then! Will I see any of you there?? Im under the "knife" January 16th!!

I finally made it!! My count down is less than 3 months! I cannot wait to have this done. I started the pre-op diet 2 weeks ago to see what it is like and what types of things I will be struggling with prior to having to do this for real and having to lose 5% before the surgery. I lost 3.5 lbs. not bad considering that I did have a few cheat nights. And that’s when I learned that I truly am a night eater. The diet wasn’t too bad but I found myself pacing back and forth between the kitchen and the couch. I made a quilt in those 2 weeks; i knew that if I didn’t keep very busy there was no way that I was going to stick to this diet. It's amazing what you learn about yourslef when you stop and think about what your doing and why your doing it! So in January when I have to start the diet for 12 days before I go to the occ, I am going to do something different every night. I might go for a swim at the pool or go for a walk around the mall. Anything to get me out of my kitchen! My surgery is on January 16th and I couldn’t be happier! Thanks for letting me blab a little about my first minor experience on this new journey of mine.

Thanks, Dr. Mitchell now charges $5000 for 5 yrs post op care! but I will phone Dr. Botha Thank you for the names!! Jenelle

Thanks Gals for your replies. I knew that you would only have great things to say but you never know! Would you have the lapband over gastric bypass? I guess this whole thing about not being able to find a fill doctor in Alberta has me second guessing having this surgery. I know that I could go down to Montana and get filled but that would cost me upwards of $1000 each time I needed one. And what if I was filled and needed some removed having to go back down to Great Falls Montana would be just to much money for me and the time too, its a 5 hour drive. I just hope that my family doctor will be able to help me find a doctor here in Alberta to do my fills even though I am having the surgery by one of the best in the world in Mexico!! I will let you know what he says after my appointment next Sunday with him. Jenelle