Smiley

Tummy wise, I may have the top spot in regards to scars. 5 for the lapband, 3 for the gallbladder and 2 for the tummy tuck as well as 3 more a wee bit lower. The port incision was part of what was removed with the tummy tuck, but that scar goes from hip to hip. I think I might have a tattoo put over it some day - yes, I am starting to feel a little rebellious. My will be red two weeks from tonight.

I am a daily weigher, unless I am already dressed and forgot to weigh. I consider my scale an accountability partner. I also play a game each morning to try and guess how much I will weigh that day. I am usually withing half a pound one way or another because I already know what I have or have not done the past couple of days. Although I do enjoy those days when the scale says I am about 2 lbs. less than what I am thinking considering how bad I had been the past few days.

I used vitamin E oil and 2+ years out mine are just a thin white line that really isn't very visible. They could be seen if I were to wear a bikini, but you would have to look hard. The ones on my arm from my arm lift however are another story. The good news is that my scars usually take 15-18 months to completely heal, so there is still hope. However, my plastic surgeon said that it can sometimes take up to two years for scars to heal. If your leg did that well I am guessing these scars will as well.

I do not know as I was not banded at the OCC. If I could find the book I was given during my consultation I would post what it says, but of course I cannot find that book. Wish I could because I need to refresh myself on the basics at the present time.

It kinda makes sense. I know for me I have to stand up when something gets stuck which sometimes help it go down. I also know that if I give up and bend over that the end will soon be near, so I try to remain as upright as possible.

You wish you had bought your clothing in not only your present size at that time, but also at least one in the next two smaller sizes. I am tired of having an article of clothing that I really like and then trying to find something similar to it when I need to go down a size. This is mainly an issue in regards to pants.

Thank you for opening up and sharing with us.

For me, part of my goal with having the band was to still be "normal". By that I mean that I fully participate in family BBQ's and such. I just carefully pick only those things that I know I will like and I only put a one or two bite portion on my plate. We know we eat for nourishment, but on those days I am seriously eating for the taste of things and one or two bites will give me that taste. I typically limit myself to a cup portion, but at the same time I have been known to eat those slider foods first just because I don't want to cause any damage to my band. Doing this at a maximum of 10 meals a year is acceptable in my book considering I eat over 1,000 meals a year. I am on a life long journey with this band and a few meals a year is not going to set me back so much that I will not succeed.

I think one of the symptoms is that you can't keep anything down, including liquids. Of course part of that may depend on how much it has slipped.

I have been paranoid for the past 2 years and 3 months. I let out a huge sigh of relief everytime I have a barium swallow. Things can always happen regardless of how good you are, but follow the rules and do what you know is right and more than likely things will be fine.

That is a huge fluctuation over two weeks. Is your scale battery operated? Maybe it needs new ones.

Curious what "one condition" he thought it was?! :-)

I have not been very open with those around me about my surgery. I have told about 5 people. I figure that if they need to know I will tell them (and likely will eventually tell everyone) but for right now, I would just prefer to keep it to myself. This is time that I am using to focus on me and I don't need to deal with other people and their issues at the same time. Its not that I don't think they would be supportive, I just don't feel like taking that risk. I guess if they start noticing I will let them in on things.

I was like you in the beginning in that I didn't tell too many people. Over the past 2.25 years I have opened up to a lot more people, but there are still those who are just too nosey for my liking so I never give them the information they are digging for. When people would ask me before I was ready to tell I would simply say that I was eating less and exercising more, which was correct, I just happened to leave out the band part. I think I was concerned that this would not work for me just like everything else I had tried and I didn't want to set myself up to receive pity from others if it did not work. More than likely it would not have turned out that way, but in my head it might have. When I did tell people I let them know that I didn't talk about it too much and that since it was my story to tell that I preferred they allow me to do it in my own time. Besides my mother who always find a good excuse as to why she had to answer someones question, I have only had one person blab.

Wow, you were reading my mind today! I have been thinking about the same thing! I didn't postd because just by observation it seems that just about everyone on the board is taken. But if there are folks that went through this i'd also be curious. I've dated, but nobody worth a 2nd date so I didn't have to worry about it!

What can I say, great minds think alike. I went out with a guy a couple of months ago and because I had just had a fill the day before I was still in the 24 hours where I have to eat full liquids. He wanted Chinese, I suggested a place where I could get soup. I did not order a drink, but he ordered one for me. I felt like I kind of had to tell him since he knew I liked Chinese and he caught the look on my face when he ordered the drink for me, which by this point I am sure I had a slightly weird label on my forhead. In the future I will just order water and sip on it before the meal arrives.

The good new is, I told my friends I could take him or leave him. I didn't care for some of his comments and I'm not sure he was really over his wife's death enough to be dating because he talked about her at least 50% of the time. However, I just can't help but wonder if my "confession" was a factor or not.

Anyone met a "significant other" after being banded? If so, at what point did you tell them about the band and how did they take it?

I understand and remember too.

I wasn't a big soup person before, but now I love getting a nice cup.

Although I still don't care for straight broth, ugh... LOL...

I can't stomach straight broth either, but what I can stomach is the seasoning packet inside a package of Ramen Noodles. They are super cheap and you don't even have to cook the noodles.

I think you have received the answer to your question. What you need to remember is that slow and steady wins the race. The weight didn't go on overnight and it will not continue to fall off overnight. Besides, you need it to come off slower so that the rest of your body can keep up with the changes.

Congratulations! Sorry to hear that is had not moved in a while, but proud of you hear that it also did not move up since you don't have much of a fill.

Way to go!!!

I and my co-workers are famous for standing in the doorway between our front and back offices. A couple of times I have almost taken out a co-worker who was just standing there when I was trying to make a mad dash out the door and down the hall. I have also had to throw up an "I'm ignoring you hand" on my way thru the front office to both the front desk staff and a parent when I was truely the only one that could solve the problem. I felt bad about it, but I would not have been able to have even talked at that point. I just told them that something I ate just wasn't setting well with me, which was true, just not the way they were thinking. Then, each time I come back in after one of those episodes they always ask if I am okay because I ran out rather quickly and I look like I have been crying, which I kind of have because my eyes water a lot when something is stuck.

You have to go buy some "old clothes" in order to stain your deck because everything else that you own is either less than a year old or way to big to even wear in your own backyard.

Andrea! I was thinking of you yesterday......funny how that happens. You have been missed, welcome back!!!

Thank You! I missed being on here.

I am 99% sure I'm going to need this surgery too. My port has always moved around and has always felt like it was rubbing on my ribs, and I've never been able to sleep on my left side and now it is suddenly sticking out like an alien inside me and hurts ALL THE TIME. I called OCC and it's only a 15 minute procedure but it will cost me about $1000 for flights, surgery and transportation so I'm holding out thinking the port revision could be done for free when I get a tummy-tuck, something I ALMOST have enough money to do in the next few months. I am trying to hang in there but it's really bugging me so I may have to get it taken care of before tummy tuck which sucks `cause I'll have to use tummy-tuck savings and then I'll need to save that $1000 again and who knows how long that will take. Let me know what you decide.

Sabrina:)

Just make sure your TT doctor is willing and able to move the port. Mine would not move it.

The fact that you have even had restriction prior to having a fill is pretty amazing. It took me a few months before I ever had restriction, I just had to mentally make sure that I limited myself to one cup of food at each meal. Just remember that the weight did not go on overnight and it won't come off overnight. Follow the rules and as long as the scales are not going up, you are doing great!

Call and hopefully get in to your doctor before you go on vacation because it definitely sounds like you are a little bit too tight.

Thanks Pammie and Shelby!

Angie - glad to hear that you have support with the walking thing, having others to walk with will definitely help to keep you motivated. As for the unfill, sometimes eating bad stuff can be a sign that you need an unfill b/c that often means that you know the good stuff causes problems and you are trying to avoid those problems. Besides, not eating enough calories can slow your weight loss just as much as eating too much. One of my banded friends said the other day that our fill guy told her that the amount of calories wasn't what we really needed to worry about, it is the amount of protein that is key to our success. I adopted that policy for a few weeks and saw the pounds drop off and it was lovely.

It is so good to have a computer at home once again! I have missed so much not being on here the past few months that there is no way I can ever catch up. So, I am going to give you a little update on myself and hope that you all will do the same for me. From here on out I swear I will check in a few days each week, providing the mother board doesn't go out on this computer. I know I need to update my pictures and such as well and I vow to get that done in the next week or so.

Against my wishes I had 2 cc's removed in mid-March. The issue was caused by one bite of cold, leftover chicken that I had eaten 6 weeks previously in an attempt to take the edge off one morning about 10 am. It hurt like no other and I ended up leaving work to go home and lay down, which finally allowed it to reposition itself and go down. I evidently irritated things more than I knew and 6 weeks later it took me 2 to 3 hours to get breakfast to go down a couple of days in a row, so in I went. The person who did my unfill was the one that had bought me that chicken for lunch one day so I made sure to give him a little bit of a hard time about it. He had already told me that he wanted me to have a partial unfill before my gallbladder was taken out, but I had no intention of having it done. In the end he got his way.

I did have my gallbladder out on Apr. 22nd. Everything has gone well with that and I was back at work 2 days and a weekend later. Wasn't supposed to lift anything over 15 pounds for 4 weeks, but I may have forgotten that rule a few times. I was hoping to have my port relocated at the same time, but I could not afford to have it done, so needless to say it is in the same place as always, which means it is kind of in the way.

Now it is your turn to update me on yourself and if you are a newbie please introduce yourself.

Andrea

I have gained about 3 pounds in the last couple of months. This unfill is starting to get to me as I have become a Starvin' Marvin. I e-mailed the fill guy and he is supposed to be checking with my surgeon to see if it has been long enough since the surgery for me to get refilled. I hope so b/c my fingers are getting pretty sore from trying to hold on. Other than scrambled eggs cooked in the microwave, and the stupid bite of chicken, I have always been able to eat pretty much anything which is still true and not in a good way.