Clynn

The best way to calm down is to have a positive fill experience with a competent doctor. Unfortunately, that won't help you short term. A trick I learned when I had braces was while they were doing all the unpleasant, hurty, spiky stuff in my mouth to wiggle my toes. Really really concentrate on wiggling my toes and then my mind wasn't dwelling on what was happening to me further north. Good luck. Hopefully this time you'll get someone who knows what they're doing and you'll be in and out in the blink of an eye.

Cut out the soda, that stuff is pure concentrated evil. Even the diet stuff will sabotage you. You'll have to go at least six months after surgery without it anyway so now's a good time to practice.

I believe it's because smoking lowers your circulation and also makes it so your body isn't able to take in as much oxygen per breath. When you're under anesthesia that's bad times.

What kind of air conditioner and how much do you want for it?

Is Swedish the brand name or country of origin? Inamed, the makers of the band Dr Ortiz uses, is a Swedish company.

Get a slow cooker and slow cook your meats. Anything cooked on low for about 6-8 hours will be juicy and tender. Tonight for dinner I had chicken that had been slow cooked with taco seasoning and about a half cup of water. It was fall-apart juicy. If you don't have time for that, consider marinading or brining your meats for a few hours before cooking as that will also make things tender. Of course this does require a bit of prior planning on your part . . .

No it's fine. The reason they say stay away from ice cream is due to the sugars. Sugar-free popsicle or fudgicles are also acceptable. The rule is anything you can get through a straw and those things are melted by the time they get to your stomach.

Not sure but I think some people were just having difficulty with it, so it got removed. Never gave me a problem though and was a staple of my post-op diet.

There's a period of time after real restriction when you'll have to re-adjust your brain for eating. I found I was still putting the same amount of food on my plate even though I could only eat a fraction of it. Of course, we were all taught to clean our plates, it's good for us!! If you are eating slower and smaller bites, you can still get the same amount of food if you keep eating. Try smaller portions for awhile, you may find you are satisfied much sooner than you're currently stopping eating. One trick is to use smaller plates. I know it sounds silly, especially since you know why you're doing it, but your brain will look at a meal which is overflowing a small plate much differently than the same sized meal which is a small island on a much larger plate. While shopping at an outdoor swap meet I found some very small plates and bowls which are the perfect size for me for less than a dollar each. I bought four of each and use them almost exclusively for meals.

Summer's finally here!! Yeay!

When I got my surgery it was ok and I started eating it the next day. Since then it's been taken off of the approved list. If you feel fine you haven't done anything negative to your band.

Stress will certainly increase your restriction among other things. Have you spoken to the doctor who prescribed your meds? Perhaps there is a liquid version you can take while your heal or they can decrease the dosage for a short time without being detrimental to your health. You really shouldn't be forcing anything down at this point and pasta is probably the worst thing you can eat so it's time to find other solutions. Chin up hon! You'll get through this and it will make you stronger for having done so.

What's your daily caloric intake? Are you getting enough protein? Are you eating enough for breakfast? Not eating enough is just as bad as eating too much as your body will go into starvation mode and hold onto every bit of fat with white knuckles.

If nothing feels irritated and you were able to eat it ok then stop worrying you're fine. The rule for after a fill is pretty flexible depending on who you go to. What happens is that when your band gets tightened your stomach can become irritated. This can cause things to get stuck until every thing's had a chance to settle down again. It's not like after the surgery, by now your band has pretty much made a home for itself and you're not going to do any damage to it unless you start throwing up or get some kind of infection. After seven fills and one unfill, my stomach hardly feels any irritation after a fill anymore and I'm able go back to solids after a few hours. Just listen to your body and don't push things. When you feel ready, start with soft and easy to manage foods and if you feel yourself having trouble, you need to reel it in a bit. If you pb then you've gone way too far and need to learn your body's warning signs as well.

This question gets asked every couple of months or so. Do a search and you'll find lots of good information.

Liposuction is a far more traumatic surgery than lap-band. Have you ever seen a video of those? It's like the surgeon is doing their vacuuming on the patient. You'll do fine. Just remember to walk walk walk. It has the benefit of getting your blood flowing which will aid in healing, and getting the gas they inflate your stomach with moving which will ease gas pains. Occasionally we'll hear of someone having more than soreness but it always seems like those are the people who are letting themselves lie in bed all day. People have come back and stated once they get up and start walking they feel much better. Oh and one more thought: if you have cats you may want to shut your bedroom door at night with them on the other side. My cats learned pretty quickly that if they jumped on my stomach while I was sleeping I made the best faces. I think they had competitions.

You can defiantly drink faster than the water can drain from your pouch. Slow down and you'll be fine. Also, where did you hear that you can't drink 1 hour before eating? I've never heard that rule and it means that there's a significant chunk of the day you cannot drink when you need to be getting fluids as much as possible. On an empty stomach fluids will not take long to move through your stomach. Take a bottle of water and hold it upside down and let it drain out to see what I mean. Not drinking for an hour after eating is important though as it will move the food through your pouch faster than it would be otherwise.

My sympathies for her but I just don't see how anyone would want to buy this, especially not for the asking price. She'd probably have more luck going through her house and posting items she doesn't need anymore.

I'd like to reiterate that if someone is spreading harrassment, let the moderators know. We moderators are human beings (as opposed to robots) and so are not on the forum 24/7 due to, you know, having lives and stuff. An email or a pm will draw our attention to something much quicker than letting us stumble across it and hopefully we can nip stuff before it gets too out of hand. There's alot of information that gets put up during a day and it takes time to sift through all of it.

If you band had slipped you would not be able to get anything down, including water. If you can drink you're fine as far as slippage. You're probably just sore. Remember, your tummy muscles had gone through some serious trauma 3 week ago and needs time to heal. Avoid lifting heavy things for at least 6 weeks as that can cause a slip.

Doing just fine. I've adjusted and it's just the way I live now. Staying away from certain foods is old hat. There really isn't a whole lot to say about it unless you have specific questions.

I've never done any of the weight tickers so I can't really help you there. If you use the search function of the forum there's been several topics about pictures.

You mean like a bruise? What makes you worried your port is not attached?

Is it uncontrollable? Can you put a band-aid over it and otherwise be fine? You glue is probably coming loose and putting some pressure on your incision. If the bleeding is unstoppable, you start showing signs of infection such as swelling or fever, or you can see your port through your incision it's time to call the doctor. Otherwise put a band-aid on it and let it continue healing.

Hmmm, call me cynical but it could be shinnanigans. I could see some of the people I went to high school with putting that up and using my picture. Just sayin is all. The whole will tattoo your face on my body thing is what makes me suspicious.