DayOne Health

Good to hear that you've seen your doctor and everything is fine

@@Damamma We would definitely recommend you to see a physician or have the fill done under the X-ray. Usually when a physician can't get to the port it's because of the port's placement or the fact that it tilted/flipped. Looking at it under X-ray would give a clear answer to what is going on. The best of luck!

What you are experiencing is stretching of the pouch above the band. This happens when your band is tight enough for you to feel the restriction, but your portions are too big for the upper part of the stomach to accommodate them. Eating smaller portions and going easy on your stomach should make the stomach go back to it's previous size. When that happens to our patients, we do advise them the same diet restrictions as your clinic. The important part is for you to either stop overeating or deflate the band so that the excess food can go down easier. Prolonged overeating with a tight band band can put you at risk of slippage, so if you feel like you would like to eat larger portions talk to your physician. In terms of the reflux, we advise our patients to try not to eat later than 3 hours before sleeping and eat less heartburn causing foods. For many, trigger foods are tomatoes, coffee, chocolate, bell peppers, garlic, onions, and in general foods that are hard to digest. Hope you feel better! Best,

@@CherieRyde liquid diet is hard. No question there. It all depends on your clinic's dietary guidelines, but what we advise our patients is to test different types of shakes to see which they like best. In addition, you can make your own shakes (just keep them low carb and low fat - skim milk all the way) by mixing in fruit. You can add Protein powder if you are worried you won't get enough from other meals. You can also have popsicles and Jello if that's any consolation We also allow our patients to eat strained Soups (no rice, no noddles, and no floating veggies) and some cream soups (still keeping it low fat and low cal). Best!

@@Bruce120 Sorry for that! Looked at your joined date, as opposed to the surgery date. The port should not significantly protrude, at least from our experience. You should definitely ask your doctor about it because ultimately the level of protrusion depends on the surgical technique.

You should contact your physician immediately. With the slipped band you would most likely have a severe stomach ache and wouldn't hold anything down; nevertheless, even if your symptoms are persisting your stomach must be aggravated from vomiting and you may have some pouch stretching (from increase in your portions, pouch stretch is quite possible). Pouch stretching may eventually lead to band slippage, so it is very important you see the physician. With your stomach swollen after being sick, it would be good to get some Fluid out to let it rest. Please do not ignore the symptoms, and have your surgeon look at the stomach under an X-Ray. Better to be safe than sorry. Wish you all the best!

The level of port protrusion can be dependent on a few things: the way the port is placed, model of the band, and weight loss. Since you are a new patient, I'm guessing that your port was placed on the stomach muscle (right under your skin) and that's why it sticks out. Our surgeons prefer to put the port under the muscle so it doesn't protrude even if you lose a lot of weight. Earlier band models had much larger ports and therefore were more protruding - especially if a patient lost a lot of weight. Nevertheless, since you had your lap-band placed in May this year, it is doubtful you would have Allergan's older model. The level of protrusion may also differ between LAP-BAND System and RealizeBand, but that is something we don't have much experience with since we work mostly with the LAP-BAND System. The best advice would be to talk to your surgeon about it because if the port is protruding now, it most likely will in the future. Hope this helps. Best!

Congratulations on your weight loss! You are doing great Just remember not to lift more than 10 lbs until the week 4 post-op (the port) and in general don't strain yourself too much. Keep the good energy going and good luck!

First of all, you are doing amazing! Seconding other guys here, the last 20lbs or so is the hardest to lose. Sometimes you plateau, but you have to know that it's OK because it's just your body adjusting itself to the new weight. Nevertheless, you mentioned you can't eat... That's not good! Not good at all, and if that's the case, you need to contact your lap-band clinic and make an appointment ASAP. It is possible you are too tight, in which case you definitely need some Fluid taken out. Being even slightly too tight can put you at risk of stretching the pouch and even band slippage. You are definitely NOT failing at anything and definitely NOT failing the band. You are doing great! Adjustments are a part of a lap-band follow up and it is recommended that you see your surgeon at least every three months in the first year after the surgery, and at least once annually thereafter. Visiting your physician does not always mean you will get an adjustment, sometimes it's good to visit just to check on the band under X-Ray. Every bandster should remember that visiting the clinic should not only be restricted to emergencies and getting adjustments! Book an appointment with your physician at least once a year - even if you feel great. As mentioned by 2muchfun, when you lose weight it is normal to feel less restriction, so no worries there. Hope this helps. Wish you all the best.

It could potentially cause you more discomfort since it would press on your port and incisions.

Even though lap-band surgery is the least invasive of all weight loss procedures, it still requires of up to four weeks for full recovery. While patients go back to work 4-7 days after surgery, it takes some time to adjust back to a regular diet and to be able to perform more strenuous activities. Because your post-lap-band recovery will involve different stages, we figured it would be helpful to give you some more detailed insight into what it will look like and how it will feel. LAP-BAND procedure The lap-band procedure takes about 45-60 minutes and involves placing the lap-band device around the stomach and connecting it to the port that is attached to your abdominal muscle. Because the surgery is performed laparoscopically, in order to place the band, the bariatric surgeon makes a total of five small incisions in the abdomen. The first four are an inch long and the fifth is about two inches. The longest incision is then used to insert the lap-band and the port. Once the lap-band is inside, the surgeon wraps it around the upper part of the stomach and secures it in place with stitches. After the lap-band placement, the bariatric surgeon attaches the port to the abdominal muscle and closes the incision. The nature of how the Lap Band procedure is performed dictates the recovery process. This involves healing of the incisions, the port site, and the stomach. RECOVERY IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LAP-BAND PROCEDURE Following the surgery, the nursing staff will help you recover from anesthesia and get you moving so you can go home as soon as you feel well enough. Within about an hour after the procedure you will be able to get up and walk around. The nurse will encourage you to walk as much as possible to relieve the post-surgical gas pressure and to help you feel more energized. In general, most of our lap-band patients are on their way home within three hours of the weight loss procedure. While feeling slightly sore on the right side (where the port is placed), most of the discomfort patients experience comes from the gas introduced into your abdomen during the surgery. Feeling the gas pressure after any abdominal surgery is normal, and will subside with time. Most patients note progressive improvement within the next few days. In order to relieve the pressure, we recommend patients to stay mildly active and walk a lot to help the gas dissipate. We also advise patients to take Gassex® strips to relieve some pressure coming from the gas inside your digestive tract. The discomfort caused by gas can sometimes cause a shoulder pain, but don’t be alarmed. The feeling will go away as the gas leaves your body. Most symptoms of gas pain go away in about five days after the procedure. WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY RECOVERY – THE INCISIONS Incisions made during the surgery will fully heal in about four weeks time provided you don’t disturb the stitches. The four smaller incisions will fully close the fastest, in about two to three weeks, while the one on the port side will take about four weeks. During the first week you should not take baths, only showers and pat the stitches dry after washing. The incisions are closed with stitches and surgical glue, so you don’t have to specially care for them once you’re home. Just leave them be and let your body do the work. Outside of the mentioned discomfort, a large majority patients are not in pain following the surgery. Nevertheless, in order to minimize any soreness, the bariatric surgeon does prescribe a mild pain killer for the first one to two days after the procedure. Outside of that, you will not have to take any other medication. You will be able to return to work as soon as four to seven days following the surgery – the length of your home stay will depend on the nature of your work.. If your work is mostly sedentary and doesn’t involve heavy lifting, you can be back in only four days. For more physically demanding tasks and lifting above 15lbs, we advise our patients to wait until the fourth week after surgery to engage in these activities. The lap-band clinic staff can provide patients with documentation for their employer specifying that the patient is required to do light duty until they have healed from surgery. LAP-BAND RECOVERY DIET Following the lap-band surgery you will also have dietary restrictions to ease your stomach into working with the band. For three weeks following the surgery, you will slowly progress your diet from liquid toward regular solid meals. The introduction of different food textures at different stages of your post-operative diet is aimed at assisting in your stomach’s healing process (stitching around the band) and helping you to get used to having the band. The general dietary outline involves: clear liquid fluids – 1-2 days after surgery full liquids – 3-7 days after surgery pureed foods – 2nd week after surgery soft foods - 3rd week after surgery solid foods – 4th week after surgery and beyond Prior to the surgery you will be introduced to the details of what you can and should notin the first three-four weeks by a bariatric dietitian in your weight loss program. You will most likely receive a special dietary packet listing foods and recommendations concerning your diet. If the bariatric program has a full time bariatric dietitian on staff, so at any time during your recovery you can call us with any questions. Because dietary restrictions can make your eating monotonous we also advise you searching for lap-bander friendly recipes. By just Googling the topic or searching on Pinterest, you will find many tasty options that you can prepare at home.

The pain comes from the gas pushing against the diaphragm. The reason why you feel pain in your shoulder is because retained CO2 puts pressure on the phrenic nerve, which connects most of your internal organs. Since the pain comes from the gas pressure in your abdomen, the easy way to fight it is to walk around a lot and drink warm liquids. Walking around and warm drinks will give you "more space inside" and relieve the pressure. The pain will most likely get worse when your stomach is full or you feel bloated. To minimize the discomfort, stick to the diet prescribed by your dietitian (clear liquids) and use Gas-X thin strips. Heat, massage, and exercise seem to work best. Hope this helps!

In our clinic's decade of experience we've seen maybe a total of 5 band erosions, and these were mostly patients who underwent surgery outside of the U.S. or in the early 2000s. In the beginning, erosions were more prevalent because of the surgical technique used to place the band and it has changed substantially since then. The device itself has also changed over the years. Some studies report higher percentages, but one has to remember that occurrence of band erosion is highly correlated with the surgeon's experience. In other words, check years of experience on your surgeon's bio and whether lap-band surgery is something he specializes in (ask how many lap-band surgeries he has done). We haven't seen any erosions for quite some time now, and we know that other clinics in Chicago see them very rarely. Most lap-band complications requiring surgical intervention are issues with the port or band slippage, and even these happen very rarely (3% or less). Band slippage can be prevented in large majority of cases by keeping the band comfortably adjusted and not overeating. Good luck!

The reason for the pre-op liquid diet is to help shrink your liver. Your liver and stomach are close together so making your liver nice and thin will allow your surgeon better access to place the band around your stomach. When you follow a calorie restricted, low sugar, liquid diet, your liver will shrink enough to allow for a safer and quicker surgery. The purpose of the diet is not to make you lose weight, although that is often a side effect. In regards to cheating preventing you from getting the surgery - your surgeon will cancel the surgery only if you you will still have solid food in your stomach just before the surgery. In other words, if you feel like you need to cheat, stop 3 days before the surgery and you should be fine. Words of caution: Liquid diet is hard, but its additional benefit is to upstart your diet and lifestyle change. Following the surgery, you will need to stay one more week on a liquid diet, and then slowly progress toward solid foods (week 4). Without the prior prep in dieting, you may find it even harder after the procedure. Diet following the lap-band surgery is intended to get your stomach used to the band and slowly ease you into a new lifestyle. Good luck!

Growing up being the "fat friend" was never easy. There was always something I couldn't do that all my friends could. I thought that as I got older that would change. After being diagnosed with PCOS and hypo-active thyroid I realized that my being overweight wasn't because I was just "lazy" like so many people want to label me. The hormonal challenges that come with PCOS make it difficult to lose weight and many doctors have encouraged me get weight-loss surgery. They said it was has even been shown that all symptoms of PCOS can disappear with weight-loss. For someone who has struggled with their weight all their life I wanted nothing more than to have weight-loss surgery. So I looked into it.I first sought out information on gastric bypass. After sitting through meetings and talking with people who have had the surgery, even taking care of a friend who had gastric bypass, I didn't feel that was the best avenue for me. And then I saw a commercial for the lap band and was intrigued. I requested information and was totally psyched about getting the surgery. Then to my dismay when checking with my insurance I found that they don't cover anything bariatric or weight-loss related. So I had no choice but to go back to the diet scene. You hear people say over and over, "I've tried every diet there is." For me, I can honestly say that is true. From Weight Watchers to Slim Fast, Jenny Craig to Atkins and even the most obscure weight-loss antics via the Internet…I've tried them all. With some I had short term success. With others…not so much. Years went by, and on top of the PCOS and the weight challenges that brings, I now have three ruptured disks which has put on even more weight. This left me even more desperate to find a new diet I haven't tried that would get the weight off, not just quickly but for longer than a month. Enter a friend of mine who had lap band and told me about the contest. I met Andrew and found out he had the surgery so I gave him the third degree about it and made him tell me all about his experience. I expressed to him how much I would love to have the surgery but unfortunately my insurance didn't cover it and I didn't have the money to pay out-of-pocket. A few weeks later Andrew sends me an e-mail saying that the DayOne Health clinic in Chicago was having a contest giving away a free lap band surgery and he sent me the link. Knowing it would be a long shot I submitted an essay saying why I think I would be a good candidate for the surgery. Months go by and forgetting all about the contest I receive an e-mail on my birthday from Gladys at DayOne informing me I am one of twelve finalists for the free lap band surgery. I was asked to come in and interview with the doctor and staff at DayOne and was told they would be making their decision at their annual holiday party on December 3rd. My husband and I arrived to the holiday party and were anxious to hear the results. When that time came, I'm sitting there listening to Dr. Elli explain about how the contest worked and when the surgery was going to take place. When he said my name as the winner, every thought, feeling and emotion hit me all at once. I am now starting my weight-loss journey with DayOne. Even though I was ecstatic I found myself a little nervous because everything was happening so fast. In one day I found out that I won a free lap band surgery and that I was going to be having it three weeks later. Which brings me to present day, on the eve of starting my two week liquid diet. I don't find myself having the anxiety that I've been warned other people experience. In a strange way I'm kinda looking forward to it. I've spent the last week having all my favorite meals. Kinda like a seven day farewell party. Good bye old…Hello new. I know the two week liquids only diet is going to be hard but I'm ready to face it head on and do what I have to do because the end result is so worth it. Granted my zealous attitude could change on day three of my liquid diet but as of right now I choose to stay positive.