2008 Junies and Friends

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LOL

yes I am thinking of doing the pouch test. I think about a lot of things but can't get motivated to do them!

Linda, i think the couch test sounds like much more fun! You know it works and its much easier to keep the motivation going. The pouch test doesn't have the same ring to it. LOL

I agree Losingit...100%!

Fancy that Delia, i never would have thought of reflux because there is no acidy taste...kind of weird isn't it.
debs

Thank you Zippy the Dr did not tell me that he just said take it when needed and to take if for a month I think then keep them on hand.
Tea and Coffee does not effect me but smoked salmon did yesterday they pain was back just about as bad as before. Not sure what is in the stuff to do that.
So I took it at night but will try the morning.
Debs my pain is just like yours does not come up and not taste.
Tara fantastic. mmm so you now know a new way to lose weight
Linda I hope you are feeling better.
Delia

Linda - truer words were never spoken.

I think of doing a lot of things too, but have trouble with the motivation.

Debs - I recall that either pre-band, or shortly after surgery, I kept hearing that the first 2 years post-banding were the best years to lose weight. I don't know why it was never explained that after 2 years one starts having issues with the band. I managed to lose a lot in those first 2 years through dieting and exercise, but the motivation left me, and I had a few health issues as well. Motivation has never returned.

It's a shame that it takes a long time for most people to get any proper restriction. All that time you're pretty much relying on willpower. The stupid thing is that most people get banded for precisely the reason that they cannot sustain weightloss through willpower only. It's almost a 'made to fail' recipe.

LOL

yes I am thinking of doing the pouch test. I think about a lot of things but can't get motivated to do them!

LOL Well done Tara, sounds like you're doing really well. Are you having the peanut butter protein as your shakes? 1.5kg is a good loss. That not shovelling crap in must really work...must be one of those diet secrets they don't tell us about. Hahahaha...

Linda, is this three day shakes diet you're talking about the pouch test? I should probably do it, my pouch and opening is probably af floppy as a wizards sleeve :)

Delia I hope that nexium continues to help, hopefully you've found something that gives some relief. My pain is not too bad today, of course my man gave me one of his nexiums this morning so that's probably helped. Its weird how it comes and goes though, you'd think acid would just be there all time once its there. Can i ask if you feel it coming up your oesophegus or if its just burning pain in your tum? Mine is just in the tum, i can't feel anything rising and i can't taste anything acidy either. Glad you had a good gym session, sounds like you've got a good trainer too. You''re making me feel like i should go back and try the gym again...aarrggghhh lol

Zip i like the idea that during the post op sleeve diet you don't have the hunger. I remember with the band it took six weeks to get any fill in and by then you were starting to eat crap again because you could and you were really hungry, and even then he would only put 2ml in and then have you back in another six weeks for another 1ml etc.... i think with weightloss surgery you need to have that good substantial loss right at the start otherwise you''re behind the eightball a bit. Because Dr P was always so cautious and made me go so slowly i felt i missed that initial window of opportunity to have a big loss which would have helped keep me motivated. I kind of felt like a kid at christmas who got a great new toy but wasn't allowed to play with it for six months...and by that time the shiny has worn off and you don't particularly want to play with it. Like it took about a year or more before i felt i had a bit of restriction, or like the band might actually help me, but by that time i'd only lost a few kilos and the excitment and motivation was gone. That was my experience anyway..everyone responds differently to things though don't they.

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I can control it if I don't get off the couch without any pills LOL

Hey Linda, whatever works for you is the way to go if you ask me! lol

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Who would have thought being super strict and not shovelling crap down my throat all day would result in weight loss !! lol

Bah ha haaaa...OMG who knew!!!!!!

Linda they are the shakes I used on my 3 day diet.. but you dont have to do just shakes... you can do cottage cheese and homemade soups... so its not that bad really.

Well done Tara

Was that on shakes?

Zips would your protein powder work for 3 days of shakes?

Rocking is constant. Half a pill doesn't work as well but a whole pill makes me not want to get off the couch. I can control it if I don't get off the couch without any pills LOL

Hi Girls,

OMG .. OMG I AM SKINNY !!!!!!!!!!! (Ok so that is just in my head) BUT ... I did actually lose 1.5 kgs this week so far YAY YAY YAY !!!!!

Who would have thought being super strict and not shovelling crap down my throat all day would result in weight loss !! lol

Eeeek anyway just got off the scales and wanted to share my excitement. Off too work now (how many calories does procrastination and not wanting to go burn ??)

Cheers
Tara

How is the rocking going Lindapinda

Glad something is happening Debs

Sounds like a rare nice dietician.

I hope you dont mind me butting in with the following advice but I always give it to people just starting on nexium ... I had so long with the stuff to work this out so here goes.

Make sure you take it a half hour before food in the morning. It works at its premium then and also remember it takes approx 2 weeks for it to work at its best so for now you will still get the break through pain.

Yes alcohol will cause acid... it is one of the worst foods you can have along with tomatoes and anything super carby, or fatty and tea and definitely coffee...capsicum is also bad or pickled foods.

Try stick to bland foods for a few days to give then nexium a chance.

I agree with Jody about the not eating enough .

Yesterday because I was with dad I had a shake for breaky and then forgot about food and had a cheese stick stringer at 4... then a chicken skewer for tea with a lil salad...

I did eat 2 squares of choc after tea cos my daughter got out the block and plonked the 2 on my lap... I had not wanted them but ate them anyway.

So as you can see you do lose interest. Though I do freely admit there are days sometimes 3 or 4 in a row where I crave crap....and I do eat it at those times but to be honest even though I complain about how much shite I have eaten its really not that much..

Now I get more excited over steak and salad than deep fried stuff. I attribute that to 4 years with the band... deprivation makes for an excellent driver.

The only shitty thing I find is not being able to eat and drink at the same time... there is no physical way I can do it...nor swig down a drink when I am really thirsty..that one really sucks balls. You want to down a glass but one or two mouthfulls and its backing up. Not very pleasant so the key is to stay hydrated.

As for the 6 week diet. I found it easy but then to me it was no different than the post band diet however easier cos I wasnt hungry as it healed like I was with the band and in need for a fill.

I found that the lil bits we were allowed in the healing stage (as long as it were protein based and not high in the carb scales) were enough cos you got full on them but with the healing band it all just slipped through and I was still hungry. Carbs will always trigger me to want to eat out of control. Its not a tummy thing for me but a head craving and insulin thing that pushes me in a crazy way to want more carbs. I think its referred to as being stalked by the carb monster. It is akin to being an addict. No reasoning with it, you just want it. SO as long as my post op diet consisted of the type of shakes that were high protein ( not up and go's etc) and home made chicken soups blitzed etc... I had zero and I mean zero hunger or thoughts of eating.

Like I said the band was a good master for my sleeve. It taught me to be grateful.

Girls I went to Dr today and now have nexieum (not spelt right0
He said to ditch the pariot and just take this for a while when all healed then take it if i feel it coming back.
He seems to think that mylanta will help also but take it every hour so I must get some of that.
I was fine today till I ate 50g smoked salmon and the pain came back bad. I had a nexueum and it eased it down so I will take them for a month and hope it all clears up. It sure is still there and I think wine does it as well but don't want to try.
I loved the gym had a pretty good work out after the assessement and see apersonal trainer tomorrow at 8.00am and then for the next 3 Fridays so got the 4 in before I go away again.
I had already brough the lycra pants a few months ago but not a top. I must have been sub conc. thinking of joining back then.
Delia

Des,
I am really proud of you for keepin on keepin on. And I hope you feel better super soon.

Also ..neon lycra - nooooo ... wash your mouth out young lady !!!! I'm sure those words should never be said out loud.

Oh, ba ha ha just realised if I said and in fact WORE neon lycra perhaps I would not have gotten to 500 million kilos in weight !!!!

Tara

Thanks Losingit, thanks Zip. It is such a relief just knowing that they are taking me seriously now. I'm glad i persevered, i probably wouldn't have if it weren't for all you guys pushing me on...so thankyou girls...Zip, Losingit, Linda, Delia and Tara. Muah!
Yeah i can see how virgin sleevers could think that...i've got a sleeve now i'll never need to diet again. I think i thought like that a bit when i got the band...i hoped the band would give me that sense of security, like something had your back if you did mess up, and things wouldn't be so bad as if you were just dieting alone with willpower. I never felt that though, it was still all willpower and that's what i said to Jody today....i said its 20% band and 80% willpower, and that's if your band is working...if its not working willpower won't even work because the band will only accept slider foods. I can believe that exbandits have a different experience with the sleeve because we've learnt the hardway that surgery help is not the be all and end all, we've had to adjust our diets to rediculous measures just to get food in, we've had to put up with pain and vometing and sliming just to get something good down....so the simple pleasure of being able to eat nice food, only a small amount, sounds like bliss by comparison.
I asked her if she thought there were any disadvantages to the sleeve and she said the main one that she finds with clients who have had it is that they often just don't eat enough, or they forget to eat, or they don't bother because they don't feel hungry. I said Ýeah right!'and she said ýou'd be surprised deb', they all say that but i have to badger them into remembering to eat.' lol I can't even imagine. She said the other disadvantage is its a bigger op and you have to be really really strict in the first six week healing phase or you can so some damage. Fair enough. Still sounds better than the band in my opinion.
Delia, how did you doc visit go today? Did you buy some neon lycra for the gym? :)

O Deb I am so very glad you have some help. I have been so worried about you all day.

I dont think doc loves me... I annoy the living shite out of him but so far if you add up all the proceedures he has done on me I am his lil money pit. I get on well with kylie but then I have been going there every 4 weeks religiously for 4 years so love me or hate me I am a regular blip on the radar...truth be known he prob gave in and gave me a sleeve to get rid of me.. in fact I said that to him and he laughed and said "I wish"

Kylie told me that they have had a couple of sleeve patients complaining that its not fair you still have to eat diet like to lose weight with a sleeve (virgin sleevers) and that she just wants to scream with frustration at them. I think that they are just sick of whinging women.

We know that regardless of what ever WLS we have we still have to eat sensibly and that the surgery is a tool. However in my opinion the band is a lousy tool and never gave me the help I needed to eat the healthy food, in fact it stopped healthy stuff going down and only accepted crap.

I knew when I got the sleeve that scarfing KFC and chocolate wouldnt cut it and I was ok with that but I wanted a tool that would reduce my hunger and give me a fighting chance to diet...which it has. I can comfortably choose healthy foods and eat them and be satisfied on small amounts and not be still hungry and looking for more to fill the hole.

However I could eat small amounts of rubbish or slider foods and not lose weight. The key is to use the lack of hunger or reduced hunger and the small capacity to your advantage.

Nothing is a magic wand and as I have said before I have heard a lot of virgin sleevers squeeling about how tough it is but you NEVER hear an exbandit whinge a minute... we are most content... having been to hell for a holiday makes a sleeve fell like heaven.

Great news Deb... I knew he would pull through for you... even though it took Jody to give him a push. I think doing a gall scan and hopefully a down the shute camera is the best possible thing you can have done right now.

Big hug Deb...you deserve it!!

Sounds like good news all round, Debs. Good for you!

Well guys, finally some news. I went and saw Jody the dietician today and told her about my pain and the issues i was having with the band. She said it didn't sound right and she was going to ring Dr Peck personally and tell him. Well about half an hour after i left her office i get a call on my mobile from Dr Peck. He asked about my pain, i roughly explained it and he wants to do a gallbladder scan to check that...if nothing shows up he might need to do a tube down the throat thingo. So now i'm just waiting for him to send a referral down for the scan to be done. So yay, things are finally getting looked at. Such a relief as this sick in the gut feeling is awful.

I stopped on the way home to buy some zantac but after speaking to the pharmacist he recommended what Rosebud just mentioned... omeperazole...so i'm going to try that in the mean time. The dietician weighed me too and i was 95kgs....jebus! I started out at 112 or something so its going back on. She took a waiste measurment though and i've lost 11cm off my waist which is something i guess. She said sometimes it comes off in inches more than kilos so its best to go by how your clothes feel. We all know thats true but we still love seeing the scale drop :)

She also so said that quite a few people are now swapping over from band to sleeve and that there are a lot of sydney surgons who try and talk people out of bands now, preferring to do the sleeve from the get go...as she said once its done and healed its a 'set and forget' procedure...unlike the band that needs longerm maintance.

Oh and she said if the band is in the right spot you should only be able to eat half a slice of toast and feel satisfied. What the?! I've never been like that....if i could get toast in i could have two sliced easy, otherwise i couldn't get a mouthful down at all...it was either feast or famine. She said that's sometime docs are finding with the band also...it is much harder to get that sweetspot and its not in our imaginations that we can't get there. feel much better having seen her. So now its just waiting on the paperwork to get my scan done. Yay!



debs

hi Debs
one time pre band was getting quiet abit of burning irritation( heartburn)they did a scope and found I had the small area of irratation that could lead to a stomache ulcer so they gave me a course of anti biotics (canr remember if I had ant ant acid meds with it ) no problems for ages after that then banded was fine for awhile but now get heart burn again so we took some of the fluid out and that helped a lot now according to the swollow xray guy iam at a good leveal but still get a mild irritation so took zantac for quiet a while but then found it wasnt working as well so now use omeperazole which seams to be working better for me I have never tried the mexium unless it was post op many years ago.
gee typing this gets me thinking maybe i sould go get a tad bit more out, its not like im loosing any weight with the band iam back where i started at ????

Tanks Delia and Zip. I think i will buy some zantac and try it. I woke in the middle of the night last night with a burning feeling...like you described Delia as feeling 'raw' inside. It took me hours to get back to sleep and i keep doing these big burps that come from nowhere. Ugghhh! lol



This is all new to me as i've never felt anything like this with the band before...the cramps, nausea and now burning (it does sound like acid doesn't it) and i've never had reflux or acid in my life so i don't have anything to compare it to...but going by its description is seems to be the likely culprit. Does Zantac heal it or does it just manage the symptoms? I know nothing about reflux. I thought i had reflux going through my band journey but i think that was just acid in my mouth from puking because it felt nothing like this.



I was in seeing the GP yesterday and mentioned that i had band pain, well what i thought was band pain and she said to go and see the band doc. LOL So no one wants to see me!

I think you might be right zip...maybe things are going on behind the scenes and they're all over it, plus, not all patients are considered equal. I think they love you as we all do, because you have such a gorgeous personality, me on the other hand...well i'm pretty shy and clam up when i see him and probably come across as a dumbass or something. lol



Not to worry ladies...i'll be fine. As far as i know reflux never killed anyone and i'll take some zantac and hope it settles down. I might wait a week and if i haven't heard from him i'll ring again and try and get kylie to give me an earlier appointment than six weeks.



Let us know what those new shake flavours are like Zip when they come. They sounds yummy.

And don't forget to pm me your address Delia and i'll send you some up.



debs

I agree with Delia too...try the Zantac... its instantanious...or works with in the half hour where Nexium takes 2 weeks to take full effect.

Give the Zantac a go, if it helps you then you have your answer to what it is ...if not then you definitely need some answers.

Plus if the zantac helps you can got to gp and get nexium then take that info to Peck to investigate furter as acid can be a symptom of lots of band related things....ooooor it can be something unrelated all together.

Tara and Debs you are both so sweet and generous but I cant take your PB shake...honestly my new shake will be here in a couple of days and I can tell you all about it.

To be honest I havent had any shakes for over a week as I have found Jarrah chai tea and have that instead for breakfast at the moment.

I have to say though I am sooooooo releived you like the shake. Its always a worry when you suggest something to people and they might think it tastes horrible. Espesially when they fork out money for it.

If you think its nice in water...put it in the unsweetened almond milk...its extra creamy and yummy.

Debs go to your GP you need some resolve with this pain then if he thinks its band related he will ring them and shove you through.

I have heard of a couple of band people goint through the other guy... I think from memory they said he had bad bedside manner...and was a bit more expensive...but anywhoo I have not heard anything about the sleeve through him.

I feel so aweful for you but I do remember how he refused to take a functioning band out and swap it for a sleeve for me as well. I suppose that is a good thing but when you just want it done it can be frustrating.

I have never experienced the difficulties you are with either doc or Kylie... they have always been so gracious when I have contacted them.... but then we dont know what is going on behind the scenes at the mo do we there could have been a big bitch up with a client that has soured the air for them.... who knows.

Deb did you try the zantac? I would if I were you.
Delia

I'm glad you're feeling a bit better Delia, sounds like the Zantac is really helping. Let us know what your doc says tomorrow. I feel too embaressed to go into my docs tomorrow...he's in theatre for the day so i'd have to see kylie and she already said she'd get him to ring me. I feel like they'd get the shits, like i'm a stalker. lol Silly i know. I feel quite sick tonight, not that clawing pain thankfully but really nauseated like i want to spew...i do have a headache so of course it could just be that.

Not a prob Delia, just pm me your address and i'll send you some up in the post asap. Same goes for you other girls if you want to try it.

debs

Debs
I would just trun up at the surgery and say I have to see him. I would do that with my banding doctor if I had really bad pain and thought it was the band.
And yes I did think in the begining it was the band but after a couple of day I could eat and drink so did not think it was the band. Mind you it could be related.

Delia

Debs I would like to try a small amount of it. Thank you
I must have missed the posts about this. I can have it if I need to on Duken but not make a habit of it.
Delia