dietingqueen

[Pamela, glad to hear your surgery went so well - it's mary, i met you and your friend in the lobby - good luck with everything - i know you'll be successful. I got an unfill and have loved every day being able to eat without every bite wwondering if it will go or not. I'm suppossed to eat more to lsoe weight so i'm loving it. Still watching my portions but very happy. I'm not going to weigh for one month unless my pants get tighter. Remember to stick to the diet for the first 21 days - most imp. good luck! mary

Hi Chase, You are very articulate and insightful for someone so young. I pray you are able to go through weight loss surgery as it seems you are ready to change your life. You are definitely on the dieting and yo yo pattern I also suffered with my whole life and I know how painful it is to try and try and not feel successful. You don't want to wake up and be 30 years old and in the same place or worse then you are now with your weight. Plus, as you know the health problems you are facing are already great. You will have to make many lifestyle modifications and changes in your eating and exercise with the lapband but the band will help you make them - you still have to work. My brother had gastric bypass and went from 460=190lbs in less then a year. he has some health problems and issues from the surgery but he didn't gain it back like some people i've heard that had gastric bypass. I've been a yo yo dieter my whole life and now and 40 years old and had lapband - i was lower bmi and haven't had much weight loss but like you could gain easily 40;bs in ayear and at least i haven't gained. Most likely you will lose quite a bit fast with the lapband and then it will slow down a little. Your younger age will hep you lose as your metabolism is probably faster being a man and younger, then me! I say go for it - I would tent to lean toward the lapband over gastric bypass because you are younger and it's not as serious as an operation and you seem motivated to make changes, just not ones that are working. With the band, you will be able to eat three small meals a day and even have snacks (think weight watchers) and you shouldn't be overly hungry although it doesn't do squat for that head hunger that tells you to keep eating even when you are full or not even hungry - you'll have to work on that. you sound very talented and ambitious but let's face it - the world is very predjudiced against us overweight people - you will always experience discrimination and its sad but true, you wll be held back due to your weight. I wish every day i had done this sooner rather then struggle all these years. Dr. Ortiz has done a lot of procedures on teenagers so you should seek a consult with him and other docs you may like. Good luck to you and don't give up - mary

Hi pamela, hope your surgery went ok - i met you and your friend in the lobby - I ended up with an unfill and have been loving life since i can eat again without every bite being a struggle. Martinez suggested i should be less filled so i can have three regular meals and a snack or two every day - at least if i continue to not lose weight i will feel better about it cuz i can enjoy some food again. i've noticed my willpower is more called in to play with each meal but it's not uncontrollable. i've had breakfast two days in a row and i almost cried. anyway, hope you are doing ok - just take it one step at a time and things will fall into place - remember to stick to that liquid diet for three weeks - honestly that is the most imp time - it's not to lose weight though you should with no solids but to heal and make sure that band stays in place. let us know how things are going for you and it was nice to meet you and gab. thanks for your support and advice to me too -we are all in this together, Mary

Hi Becki, Thanks for your comments and I will post more of what was said soon - still recuperating from my quick trip. I did want to say that for breakfast I had a scrambled egg and two deli thin ham slices 'fried' (with Pam - lol) for breakfast. I was going to try a 1/2 english muffin (it is ok to eat bread) but I didn't really want it. I'm happy to say while my head still wants more I am able to stop before 'full' - that took me about 1` year to figure out - full to me pre banding was stuffed to the gills. Anyway, I almost cried i was so happy to eat a normal meal - a friend was over and I didn't have to worry about throwing up or eating so slow it was noticeable. I feel like this is the first normal meal i've had in a while. It's been 1+1/2 hours and i'm still 'full' and not thinking of food - just having something to drink. I also just love breakfast and normally I might try something and it just feels like lead so I wouldn't eat until 11 or noon and then that might work, might not - just infuriating. I also met a mom and dgtr at the clinic who were banded 3 and 5 years - both were so tight the whole time they were banded the dgtr had to have her band out and the mom has to have hers repositioned - very sad - the mom was adamant folks shouldnt be too tight. take care,

WARNING LONG AS HELL I went to TJ for a consult to get my band removed as I feel like I haven't had success with weight loss - i've always been happy with surgery/Ortiz/staff etc. just not with my result. I've also always said the result i'm happy with is not gaining weight and changing my very bad eating habits - however, i was there today to talk about getting this thing out. Well several things happened - I'm unfilled quite a bit - I was examined by Romero (thank god band and other parts are good) and then Martinez talked to me AT LENGTH about evrything and he suggested I am eating erratically and not getting properly nourished (duh - i kept saying with what I'm eating I should be a toothpick) and my metabolism is probably messed up. Plus if you can only eat liquid caloires all the time (even for breakfast) you aren't getting good bandster foods in and will probably be hungry sooner - so now i'm unfilled, not to weigh for one month (is that possible) unless my pants get tight and to eat THREE meals and day with TWO snacks (god, I'll stay fat if i can eat that much lol) and eat a regular times and see what happens. AND dr. miranda spent a good amount of time with lots of good new info and reminders - i'll write more on what she said later as it relates to that 4oz totoal nonesense everyone is talking about at a meal. Also, I got one fill local without flouro (i was at 2.2 from OCC and they took me to 2.4) when romero took the fill out i was at 2.1! He would not let me say or think anything bad about the local doc and i still like him but romero said it is common when not using flouro to lose some fluid when they take the needle out - incredible. I did want a local doc for any emergencies,prescriptions etc but ALL futurevisits will be at the OCC. So here i am again - i've given myself two years to get the weight off and even though i won't make it due to pretty much no weight loss yet - i have until November and I ll continue to fight this battle. I will keep the band as long as it keeps me because unfortunately i still know my head is screwed up around food and i need it to keep me eating like a normal person. iF ANONe else out there is struggling you have to know you are not alone and try not to give up . i still wish i had a local support group to go to as for strugglers u need it. But at least i have occ behind me and that's a lot.

[i'm a longer term bandster +13mons and don't post much anywhere because i didn't get the results i wanted - in fact, now i would be thrilled to death to lose a total of 20lbs -its about 7-10. never thought it would happen, can't figure out why, eat less then 1/2 of previous food consumption, exercise, etc and here i am. no one really wants to hear it and i'm pretty sick of saying it - it's very embarrasing, very depressing, etc to not only share this but to always read of everyone else who dropped a million pounds in a week. I still say go for it because at least my weight is pretty stable - in thepast i'd be up and down and up and down and probably up a lot B"UT i paid an awful lotof money to lose about 10pounds - it's about 1400 per pound and i kinda wish i went to bora bora something - Some other sites have a wider range of posters and experiences but you wont find many failures posting - we hide.

Fills can take up to two weeks to kick in - be careful and give it some time. Also be careful of stuffing yourself jus to test the fill as you can expand your pouch / cause damage to the band by overeating. Being 'full' with the band is a whole new sensation - not stuffed to the gills as most of us tended to do before banding. It also takes about 20 minutes to feel your level of fullness so it is very easy to overeate and then be sorry. I wouldn't rush back to get a fill - i would wait a bit and see how things settle.

I think all are welcome but it is primarily a site for Dr. Ortiz's patients and you will find mostly all happy/successful folks. For a wider range of experiences etc you might try lapbandtalk.com - good luck!

Hi - I'm going to TJ on Feb 8 - arriving around 4:30pm and planning to stay at the Lucerna one night - have my consult on the 9th at 9:00am - anyone want to share van costs either way and/or the hotel? I've taken the trolley several times and would do that too if anyone wants to tag along.. Thanks