akri

I'm with betty, it may be gas pains as they can strike in the oddest places! Most common, i believe is the neck and back. I certainly had back pain aswell as neck pain. Also, it could be something to do with your posture. When i was banded, for about a week or more I noticed that i was walking almost like a pregnant lady and because of the port being sewn into my muscle, i couldn't tense my tummy muscles as normal and thus my belly was sticking out a lot more than normal, meaning i was walking different-unable to fully support myself standing up and walking around for too long. I remember I had to fly back home 4 days post op and just walking through the airport to the terminal was awful! By the end my back was killing me and I was just plain fed up!! Keep in mind also that some surgeons aren't especially 'gentle' when they're in there and alot of aches and pains afterwards can be attributed to the surgeon poking about. Tbh, all that really helped me in the end was making sure i was able to pass gas (i cant tell you how many times i burped in the first week!!!) and holding an ice pack to my by every couple of hours. Also not slumping in chairs, making sure you sleep in a sensible position and getting up and walking around little and often. Eventually my muscles got used to it, i was able to hold my belly in as normal and managed to stand up straight and better support myself. But it takes time. Don't rush it or you'll put your recovery back. Hope at least some of that was relevant to you!

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time of it When i was newly post-op, my tummy felt like it was being pummeled for about 7 days post-op and I was led to believe that this was just because of where the port is sewn into the muscle. I was actually quite paranoid of being sick so I actually stuck to clear liquids for about 5-6 days, which basically meant drinking only Water (which gradually became easier) and x3 200ml of oxo cube Soup (a stock cube disolved in hot water) which seemed to meet my Protein needs. I also managed to have a couple of suger free popsicles which i found enormously helpful and comforting. Is it possible the discomfort higher up in your chest is gas pains or reflux? In either case I do think you should speak to your dr, but everyone is different and you should definatly not worry. Also, on a side note, oddly enough I found that the more i drank, the easier it became to drink-if that makes sense! I was constantly sipping on chilled water as I was very worried i wasn't drinking enough also, and I found that this helped me to be able to get my daily requirements and get my body more used to it. So, i'd start off sipping in the morning and by mid-afternoon I was able to drink longer sips (not gulps). It is incredibly frustrating not to be able to gulp as much water as you think you need, but please hang in there and keep us updated.

I'm personally a fan of good old simple Slimfast shakes. When I was a kid my mum put me on them and back then they only had 3 flavours -Bannana, chocolate and strawberry and they were all vile!!! But now I guess they've ramped up and they're really good now! I'm partial to their Latte flavour chilled-it tastes exactly like a Frappachino you could get from starbucks and the chocolate tastes exactly like chocolate milk. The strawberry's decent but that all my local Waitrose stocks! Allegedly the Slimfast you can get in America is different from our British Slimfast (which is madness in my opinion, especially since the USA versions appear to contain less Protein and more calories ) They kind i have is the 3-2-1 plan and the shakes count as one full meal -about 220cals per bottle. It actually manages to fill me up and is perfect for breakfast-especially the latte one! I'm toying with the idea of pouring it into a coffee-on-the-go cup and drinking it on my way to work to mimic my old routine. In any case, love slimfast, they should be paying me, given how often I sing their praises.

Eeek! Pain in your breastbone area sounds like it might be reflux. Combine that with gas pains and thats a hellish combination. I had similar pain up until about 8 days post-op, by which time i'd burped up all the surgery gas, but sometimes doing this hurt a fair amount and i could not take a full lungful of air without it hurting my chest and neck. Hopefully that pain is nothing more than reflux and gas, but I agree with all above-being sick at this stage should not really be happening and calling your dr was definately the right way to go!! Please update us when you know more and hang in there!

I think there's more of us out there than any of us thought before!! I'm the same aswell. Banded 05-05-11. Didn't do the pre-op so no weight lost there, lost 15lbs in the 2weeks post op but actually GAINED back 4lbs in week 3! (which essentially made me want to kill myself lol) but then I spoke to my surgeon and he said exactly whats been said above: that it's completely expected that the first 2 weeks you drop, stall or gain in weeks 3-5 but after 6 weeks is when the body and stomach should be healed more or less completely and thats when normal weight loss happens. Kinda wish I'd been told this pre-op though. Or rather, I wish my ears had been a little more open when my surgeon told me not to expect miracles hahaha

i was banded on 05-05-11 and wont get my first fill till mid june and I've noticed that in the past week or so I've been as you described:-Getting hungry quicker and feeling as if i have no real restriction. I've actually been a bit naughty this week and tested this theory with solid foods such as Pasta and even the odd crouton (i have a bit of a thing for croutons) and so far have yet to come up against any blockasge related to hurdles. What I have noticed, however, is even though in theory I can eat what I like, I become fuller much quicker and after much less then i ever have done before. I mean, lets face it, I didn't become this big by being sastified easily, but now I am. I felt very stuffed (the normal feeling of stuffed-not a stuck feeling) after 1 tin of Soup, 1 Protein shake, 1 tin of tuna (drained) and a bag of crisps. This kind of portion would have been laughable pre-op as a means of satisfying me. Especially since the above is what i ate over a full day, not in one sitting. By the end of the day I was concerned I had pushed myself too far but at no stage did I feel i might be sick. Unfortunatly this doesn't help with the desire to eat as I've noticed that even after feeling full, i need only wait an hour or so before I want to graze again but then if i did eat a bit of whatever, it would take mere seconds to feel very full once more, whereas in the past i've had leway at this point. So i think the question of whether or we newbies have restriction can be answered by both Yes and No. Or, at least, this is all how I've so far encountered it and I guess it's all trial and error before it all works out in the end.

Hey guys, possibly i'm being silly here so forgive me if i sound it :S I was banded 3 weeks ago and was relativly pain-free except for the standard aching around the incisions. About a week ago all the usual aches went away and I guessed I was healing well and normally. But a few days ago i began to notice some swelling and discomfort on my left side and just under my ribs. I believe this is above my port site and in the surrounding area of my spleen. It is uncomfortable in pretty much any and all movement, including breathing deeply. It's not 'painful' but it is very uncomfortable and pushing in gently on the area feels like it is harder than the other side. There is no external bruising i can see and I've not been sick, no fevers, no headaches etc. I guess I'm a bit concerned because during my op i had what my surgeon called 'sticky spleen' where my spleen was stuck to my stomach and they had to 'peel' it off, leaving my spleen bleeding. My surgeon put what I think he called 'hydrostat' bandaging on the area and said it would prevent further bleeding and be naturally absorbed into my body and every time i've had a check up since I've been fine. Except a week or so ago when I was unfortunate enough to get a mild chest infection and my doctor said there was a slight chance i was aneamic but ironically i was too faint to take a blood test as he just could not get to a vein. Aside from that I've felt fine. If i had to reach for something I'd say I'd been sleeping a bit more than is normal for me. I'll call my clinic in the morning anyway but i'd love to know if this is normal and if anyone else has experienced this. Thanks guys

I feel so much better now, I want to give you all hugs!! Thank you so much everyone, you've really put my mind at complete ease and after what you've said i realise that while i thought i was getting enough protein and water, looking at what i consume more carefully, i'm really not drinking enough and my protein could definatly be higher! I was also under-eating by nearly 400 cals! (completely not deliberate) Can't thank you all enough for all your words of wisdom, i really was upset this morning but now i'm back to my hopeful norm and thats down to you guys, so thank you all, once again Lot of love for everyone here today!

I really hope i'm normal here but today I just want to bash my head against a brick wall. I was banded 5th may and last weeks, exactly 7 days post op i weighed myself and i was down by 14lbs, which was great, but not unusual i hear, due to the fact that i was only consuming 3 200ml cups of stock Water per day. Since then I've gone onto mushies and Protein shakes (Slimfast meal shakes -220cals per bottle). I have 2 shakes per day and 1 small tin of weightwatchers Soup (88cals) and as much water as i can drink. Thats pretty much been in for the entire day. I weighed myself this morning expecting to be down another few pounds. didn't expect the same large results by any means. I would have been happy with 1 or 2 pounds. But I got on the scales and I actually weighed 4lbs MORE than I did last week. Not to be dramatic, but i bascially wanted to throw myself out of a window at that point. I've not broken my regime, ive not sat on my bum all week but i've somehow managed to gain weight on what I see as a pretty restrictive diet. and what really gets me is that physically, i dont actually have any restriction. I'm unfilled (wont be getting first fill until june) and know i could eat more. But i've really stuck my heels in and havn't given in to cravings and I just feel completely bummed. I refuse to weigh myself religiously so I thought once a week was a happy medium, but now i feel completely let down. Anyone know whats going on? Any help/advise would be gratefully recieved. (also, no ticker, but i have about 150lbs to lose total so one would think now is the time for speedy loses before it stabalises)

hey folks, sorry if these questions come up like very 5 seconds, but i couldnt see a thread that answered all my questions. First off, hello! I was banded 5days ago and so far not finding it too bad, just some general discomfort. I'm able to burp normally, which ive seen is apparently a bit of a godsend. What I'm having most problems with is coughing, which im only able to do without feeling like i'm ripping my stitches out by standing up and holding a pillow over my wounds. I've completely given up hope of sneezing. Don't think I'll be doing that until after i've had the stitches removed! lol. Also i find it generally uncomfortable to stand for long as breathing becomes more laborious (not hard at all, just uncomfortable) as my stomach is hangin down more than usual due to not being able to tense my abs as i normally would have done. Also, while I can now, thankfully) sleep comfortably on my right side, i'm completely incapable of sleeping on my left. Back is not a problem. My belly is generally a little bit bruised (a LOT less than I was expecting, can only assume that my surgeon was very talented lol) but enough so that i notice my clothes brushing it. I guess what I'm really asking is how long other people have experienced all these easing off? Especially the coughing/sneezing/standing up bits. Any advice/anecdotes are welcomed. Thanks!

Hello all! I'm Kate, from Jersey (the first one) in the channel islands and I was banded 5th may this year, so only a few days ago now! Surgeon was the wonderful Dr Van den Bossche out of Southampton Spires clinic. Not certain what 'model' my lapband is, I've seen a few names bandied about, all my patient card says is 'large' haha. Like patient, like band, so it seems! I've wanted this surgery for years now, since I saw my best friend go through it 4 years ago under the excellent care of my surgeon (one of the main reasons I chose him) and she has since gone from 310lbs to 150lbs. Singlehandedly one of the most astonishing things I've ever seen was to see her shrink before my eyes. So far I seem to have been blessed with the 'easier' post-op side affects. No sickness, no dizzyness, only minimal gas pains when i lay on my back, i could burp almost immediatly post-op and I seem to have little-to-no problem drinking a fair amount of Water. Although, to be honest i'm keeping it to a reasonable mimimum out of sheer fear of sickness. I used to guzzle my water like a wilderbeast at a water hole but now i have to take my time, which is incredibly frustrating, but i've found using a very thin straw helps. Also, I've quite taken to having only 200mls of stock flavoured water 3x a day and find that so far, thats enough for me. (But we'll see how that pans out later on!) I've been told that i could now start my mushies, but i just don't feel mentally comfortable just yet. I have an almost phobic fear of being sick so the longer I can put that off, the better! The only thing I can really find to gripe about now is that sickening clench that you feel when you unintentionally use the tummy muscle that the port is sewn into, like when loweing yourself into bed. Or, actually, that it feels like i'm ripping my stitches apart when i cough unexpectedly, and sneezing? Forget it. Won't be doing that till after the stitches are out! lol. Apart from that, i seem to be bonding with my band fairly well, which i see as good because the more i like it now during the easy hours, the less I'll hate it when it makes me bring up my solids hahaha. So, hello again! Hows every other newbie getting along?