Potential Revisioner from Band

[juliep]

Hi,
I'm Julie and I'm on week two of the LSD at Luton and Dunstable. I had a band back in 2009 and lost 5 stone, and then the lead to the port snapped. I had it replaced in 2010 and it never gave me restriction since. The weight slowly crept on until 2013 when we moved house, I started a new job and my dad died. Then the weight piled on especially with some of the medications I take. Scroll to last year and I had to stop driving for six months due to OSA, I can't walk unaided for more than 20 metres and everything hurts and some symptoms for my disease are getting worse, mimicking MS (makes a change from mimicking crohns). I decided I couldn't carry on, and I went to a weight reducing scheme for families and got referred by them to my GP and onto Luton for assessment. I'm currently uses crutches or wheelchair so I can't wait to throw them away if my weight was causing my mobility to disappear this year.

I am very ambivalent at the moment about further surgery - any surgery I take may cause a flare up of my condition but my weight will kill me sooner than later. I'm guessing removing the band is a first step and then I'm not sure what the surgeons will suggest. I'm angry that I am so undisciplined to have gained all that weight and more but very grateful that the NHS may help me.

I have stuck to the milk diet so far which has been a big surprise, and I'm hoping to show a healthy weight loss when I go back for my second appointment with the nurse before I see a surgeon. I'm just not convinced I can keep my weight stable while waiting for surgery once food comes back into the equation. How does every one else cope?

 

[countrywench]

To be honest I found the liver diet extremely hard .. mentally I though I was losing it at one time lol !
But I think that when faced with the final choice , you can find the strength to do anything .. when you know you have to do this for your own safety on the table , under the knife , you just know you cannot mess it up ..
xx

 

[nafpnd]

@juliep , do you mean you've been put on a tier programme? I thought the milk diet was in preparation for surgery, that's how my team did mine, tier 3 for 6 months to lose 10% of excess weight and then milk diet two weeks before the op to shrink the liver (lsd) for surgery, some people do lsd for 4 weeks. Losing on tier 3 was really hard for me, I lost just under the required 5kg but the team were ok with it as I still had the lsd to do and they knew I would lose the rest before surgery which I did, a whooping 8kg more. So whilst on tier 3 and struggling to lose what seems such a small amount, I think attending the gym helped quite a lot but you probably can't exercise but maybe try sitting/chair exercises if you are up to it (google this) and seeing the eating disorders team also kept my motivation going by talking about the issue and brainstorming ways of dealing with things, I only managed to see the dietician right towards the end of the 6 months. Have a look at my diaries to see how I coped and some of what I did. Good luck with it all.

 

[juliep]

Hi, yes at Luton and Dunstable you have to do tier 3, so I have just started their milk diet to prove commitment- but because my BMI was so high and I have a rare autoimmune disease I think they probably want to get the band out in case it's causing / contributing to inflammation. I'm struggling because there's pizza/crisps/chocolate/cheese etc still in the house. I'll google chair based exercises- thanks for the tip. It's sad because in 2011 I was going on runs. 5 years later and I struggle to get upstairs or out the bath.

 

[juliep]

Milk, milk, milk , milk. Over the halfway point now... until I can eat again!

 

[juliep]

Day 17 and I am so hungry today. I am finding it really hard this evening- I think it may be the culumative effect of not managing my four pints of fluid + drinks over the past couple of days. My skin has gone really dry and itchy too and I've not lost much this week (1 lb). I can also smell food far more intensely than before. My husband told me off for watching recipes on Facebook which probably isn't helping.

 

[Ian2Big]

Hi @juliep,
Well you are in the second half of the milk diet and so the end is insight. You know you can do it.
You need to follow it and drink the required amounts of fluid daily, otherwise you get dehydrated, constipated. Unfortunately temptions are everywhere and the diet is about control and helping you lose the weight that the NHS requires for weight loss surgery.
I split my additional 2 litres into a number of smaller drinks and drank that between the milk ( which I drank at meal times.)

Info from the web :
Water curbs your appetite because being thirsty tricks you into thinking you're hungry.
Water allows your liver to burn more fat.

 

[juliep]

I'm chugging squash from a 0.6 litre bottle because I am so parched. Because I already have a gastric band in situ I can't take large volumes of fluid at a go so finding it hard to manage it all during the working day. How's the refeeding plan going Ian?

 

[Ian2Big]

Hi,
Have to say reintroduction of food is not going well at all. It has been 30 days since coming off the milk diet and have not lost any weight. Have tried talking to myself, writing everything down. Managing to organise food when you only have 900 calories for the day is a nightmare. The real issue is not been set a target weight for the next appointment. Seriously thing of going back on milk diet for a couple of weeks to get some weight off.

 

[juliep]

I was thinking of continuing the milk diet for at least a few days a week to ensure my liver stays small and focus on high protein foods.

 

[juliep]

Managed to sit here while everyone had 3 course meal while I nursed a Diet Coke. Apple crumble and custard , fish and chips - all my favourites.

 

[Ian2Big]

Yes, I know that feeling of sitting there with your pint of milk followed by a couple of diet drinks while the rest tuck into 3 course lunch. Glad you did not falter.
When do you go back to L&D, I am back there on 5th May.

 

[juliep]

18th of April - I can't wait to start the refeed diet. Every day is a struggle particularly with being on holiday with my youngest, my mum, sister and her kids, so they all eating really irregular patterns and so I'm struggling to fit in enough milk.

 

[Lottiewishes]

Hugs hunny. You are doing well and the end is in sight...stick with it hunny. Xxxx

 

[juliep]

Hugs hunny. You are doing well and the end is in sight...stick with it hunny. Xxxx

It was fish and chips with Apple crumble. That's what got me to this state - but it's so good to have lost what I have so far. Maybe getting smaller doesn't seem an impossible dream.

 

[juliep]

Oh dear - 2 days to go, and I had to spoil it with a chocolate cake that matthew (10) made. It's his first 100% solo effort at baking so it seemed churlish not to try it.

 

[Lottiewishes]

Aww hun, it's so hard when our little people make nice treats. We made Easter nest yesterday xxxx

 

[nafpnd]

How is it going now milk diet's over?

 

[juliep]

Mmm not so good. I went to my appointment on Tuesday and weighed in at 19stone 5 but then had a night off that day and had a Chinese prawn curry (I know) Tuesday night as a treat with the family, which I ate a good 1/2 and a chocolate bar out of my Easter egg. Now my periods arrived and I weigh in at 19 stone 9 and feel really fat and fed up. I am staying on my milk diet for an extra two weeks and refeed for a fortnight because the dietician thought I'd done so well on the milk diet and I go back again on the 16th May. Need to get myself back on track because I think this is the hard part - trying to lose when there is no restriction and you are back to "normal" foods.