donali

3-4 hours for me. Someone else mentioned that it's harder for them to drink now than to eat. I noticed that too with my last fill. My theory is that food compacts with the stomach's churning action to push it through the band, and liquids disperse. I have no idea if that's it, but the only reason I could think of that made sense. My gallon of Water a day dropped to half a gallon. I just can't seem to get more in than that without concentrating every moment on drinking. So I get a quart in on the 20 minute drive to work, and quart in on the 20 minute drive home. At work I drink lots of hot tea.

Normal weight people are just not very observant, I've found...

OMG!!!!! Alexandra, NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!!!!! DeLarla, go untie Lisa THIS MINUTE. You can NOT afford to live on champagne. Don't MAKE me come over there.... :rambo :dead :speechles

Penni said: ROTFLMAO!!!! That's what I've always loved best about dead food... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH!!!!!!!

As a child I fantasized that someone would lock me in a room with everything I needed and shove only the amount of food I should eat under the door three times a day.

Teresa, I wasn't offended. I'm sorry if my reply seemed curt. What you describe for yourself is the beauty of the band - everything becomes easier. It's hard to pinpoint why, exactly, because I think a lot of our eating pre-band was done subconsciously, without a lot of analysing why. We thought to eat, and we did. If there was no physical reason to stop, like we were so full we could not eat another bite, or ran out of the food we were eating, we just kept eating. I don't know why I'm saying "we" - just substitute "I" in there so I don't have to go back and retype it. For me I feel like eating healthier was easier because I didn't seem as obsessed with food. Plus, there were some things that were just too much trouble to eat, or didn't taste as good chewed a billion times. I honestly THINK that my actual hunger switch got nudged off. It would come back on at appropriate times, but then would get turned off again. Pre-banding, it seemed as though the switch only got turned off if I was so full I felt sick, or if I was very angry. Then there is the phenomenon even post-banding where I knew that I couldn't fit another bite in, but my mind was screaming to eat. I knew I wasn't physically hungry, and it didn't seem like psychological hunger. I think that was the compulsive part. A compulsion is not necessarily driven by an event. So for me, I think my morbid obesity problem had the following factors: 1. Satiety defect (physical dysfunction of the "full" feeling) 2. Emotional hunger (eating in response to uncomfortable feelings, usually seeking some sort of sedation affect, or for entertainment) 3. Compulsion (the drive to eat in spite of the absence of hunger, like people who have to wash their hands multiple times a day, or who have to check that they really locked the door 10 times before they can leave the house) 4. The genuine enjoyment of the taste of food and the eating process, including the pleasureable social situations that tend to revolve around food. I associated food with pleasure, love, family, a sense of well being and safety. 5. Fear of not having enough, fear of going hungry (this fear seems to affect other aspects of my life, like my packrat tendencies. On some level I would think my fear of not having enough food, or enough money, or enough things is on par with hoarding syndrome) Somehow the band made it a lot less complicated. I am hoping that once it's gone the factors somehow remain toned down. I have different habits now, but they are enforced every day by the band. Not in a harsh way - my journey has been extremely comfortable. I don't feel like I really had to try to lose this weight. I felt similarly in control the year I was on Meridia - so I do think that #1 on my list is the major culprit, and 2-5 were opportunistic behaviours. Alexandra, I'm not sure why I felt like I was not going to get enough. We never had to go hungry as kids - if what Mom made for dinner got eaten all up and we were still hungry, there was always Peanut Butter and bread, or Cereal, or something. I think the fear started when Mom started to try to lose weight (about 2nd/3rd grade for me?), and she made comments that if we kept eating the way we did we would get so big we wouldn't be able to fit through the bathroom door. I truly think that is when I started sneaking food. I was a little chubby as a child and through Jr High, but not horribly so. My mentor in Jr High was over 300 pounds, and that's when I started dieting with her, and becoming obsessed over my weight. That's also when I started eating fast food, and other less nutritious choices - I started eating like she did. That's when my weight really started to tumble out of control. Add to the mix that it became an extremely complicated emotional situation, and suffice it to say I had no one and nothing to turn to for help but food. I genuinely believe my path to morbid obesity began then, at the age of 13. Now, 30 years later, I am hoping to have turned the corner on some of these things. Once I am unbanded I will have a better idea on how much physical help I will still need. I do thank everyone for their encouragement, and their suggestions.

Thanks, Kim. From what I've read, the port infection occurs because at the point of the stomach where the erosion has created an opening, the gastric juices seep out and follow the tube to the port, and cause the infection.

http://www.smh.com/sections/services-procedures/medlib/docs_articles/Bariatric/bariatric_pdf_articles/bariatric_surgery/Spivak%20&%20Favretti%20-%20Avoiding%20Postoperative%20Complications%20with%20the%20LAP-BAND%20System.pdf In many cases, the first indication of possible erosion is an infection at the access port site. The connecting tube provides drainage of gastric content to the port site, which causes the infection. Erosion should be ruled out at the first sign of port infection. http://www.inamed.com/pdf/health/94800-12_LB_Product_Data_Sheet.pdf Erosion of the band into stomach tissue has been associated with revision surgery, after the use of gastric-irritating medications, after stomach damage and after extensive dissection or use of electrocautery, and during early experience. Symptoms of band erosion may include reduced weight loss, weight gain, access port infection, or abdominal pain. Re-operation to remove the device is required.

Do you think you could if you were unbanded today? What is different for you now than before banding? The absence of hunger. Without your band, that hunger will return. Do you really think that without your band would would still get that nice full feeling off the amounts of food you are eating now?

Thanks, Topsy. Since I am selfpay, I am not planning on being rebanded at this time - I kindof shot my wad on the first time around. Plus, so far it seems as though once you've experienced erosion, the chances that you would erode a second time increase (even though Dr. Carmen said that was not true, other literature states that it is.) As far as WHY? That is a question that does not have a definitive answer. Some patient behaviours are thought to increase the likelihood of erosion, like consuming stomach irritants, vomiting, and overeating. Also, if there was a surgical injury to the stomach at the time of banding that could increase the chances of erosion. However, after doing a small search on erosion of implantable devices in general, it appears that regardless of the type of implant, erosion of the surrounding tissue is always a possible complication. The lapband is reported as having erosion as a possible complication in 1%-3% of cases.

When your pouch is full, and the food you ate is going through slower than the food you are eating, there is no place else for it to go but to back up into your throat. The band is WAAAAAAY stronger than the push down motion of your esophagus, so in the battle between the band and the throat, the throat loses. Hence the feeling of a lump, or in severe cases, the feeling that an elephant is sitting on your chest. If the existing food in the pouch does not go through fast enough to relieve that feeling, the body starts producing huge amounts of saliva to help slick things through, which makes it worse, 'cause there's no place for the saliva to go if you swallow it. So if you start "sliming", spit the slime out, don't swallow. If the feeling doesn't go away in a timely fashion, you will usually end up throwing up what's in your pouch. Throwing up is to be avoided as much as humanly possible, as throwing up is directly related to increased slippage rates. Almost everyone throws up occasionally (less than once a month), but any more than that and you should really make an effort to be more careful. People who are throwing up everyday, or even multiple times a day, are on a collision course with slippage. If you are throwing up that much, YOU ARE TOO TIGHT. And you MUST get at least a small unfill, and probably a total unfill to let everything settle down and heal.

Maybe your throat implant is eroding.... lol Sweetheart!!!!!!!!!!!!! What you are experiencing is RESTRICTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what banded people search for! But see, this is what happens when you get restriction too quickly - your mind isn't ready for it. This is how small your pouch is - a bite or two of chicken. Chew chew chew chew, eat slowly slowly slowy. Practice that, and eventually you will probably be able to eat a little more than two bites without feeling the lump. I personally think "two bites and I'm done" is too tight, but you're going to have to learn to work it since you have no options for a slight unfill, Miss Portless. You got a good fill. YOU ARE A FULL FLEDGED BANDSTER!!!!!!! :banana :banana :banana

More pictures! More pictures! (hic)

Fill the glass with chicken first....

I certainly hope so - that's what I'M counting on! Whooo hooo! Congrats!

Kenneth - This is everything I know about erosion: http://lapbandtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2250 http://lapbandtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2256 http://lapbandtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2274

Debra, I LOVE your idea. It sure beats my original thought of paying someone to stand over me with a sledge hammer and give me a whack everytime I ate too fast or too much, or whenever I looked at a 15 foot sub and thought, "Hmmmm.... THAT looks good...." lol Birdee - Thanks! It's one of those back and forth kind of things - I inspire you, you inspire me, repeat ad nauseum. Sue, Sue, Sue. I'm so sorry I keep forgetting it's all about you. I haven't created a SUE post in a long time, and I have no excuses... The bad news is, now that I've created so many posts about ME, I see how addicting it is. lol Actually, this could work in your favor, this addiction. How could I leave the board and miss someone saying something nice about me?!?!?! I have a feeling you guys will keep me tuning in for a very, very long time... I did confess to Alexandra that as time went on, my ability to give advice on band-specific issues would most likely become less and less valid. I imagine eventually I will start to forget what this wonderful 17 months felt like in terms of the odd ache and pain. And I wouldn't be able to "witness" about my 6 successful years with the band, like Jessie Ahroni. But maybe my input could still be valuable in the emotional eating arena. And fingers crossed, maybe I could witness to others that even if the worse happens, all that was lost might not necessarily have to be regained. OH! Good! I have yet another reason to find a way to maintain my loss!!! YOU GUYS!!! Alexandra, I think there's something wrong with your post... There seems to be a lot of little words at the top - waaaaay too tiny to read. We'll have to get Alex to look into this problem. Weird computer glitches... Rebecca, thanks for your support. I have the feeling that eating like a bandster is one of the very least important reasons as to why I continue to hang out here. Don't tell anyone, but I'm kind of attached to you guys.

I love these!!! Literary Insults A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults." - Louis Nizer "I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill "A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston Churchill "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway) "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner) "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas "His ears made him look like a taxicab with both doors open." - Howard Hughes (about Clark Gable) "He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr "There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." - Jack E. Leonard "He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - Abraham Lincoln "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx "He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." Robert Redford "They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed "He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them." - James Reston (about Richard Nixon) "In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain "A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity." - Mark Twain "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West "She is a peacock in everything but beauty." - Oscar Wilde "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde "He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Birdee - There is no true "book" to go by - we all have to find how to use the band to help us where we need it. We are all bandworthy - we all deserve to have a tool help us to become healthier people. I have heard that some bandsters acquire a lactose intolerance after being banded, when they had no problems before, so perhaps that's where your gas is coming from? Again, if you really are concerned (and I do believe in gut intuition) there is no harm in getting tested out.

I've thought about springing for it too, and I probably use fitday even less than you do! For $20, I figured even if I never used it, it wasn't going to break the bank. I'm interested in seeing how you like it. I'm still toying with the idea of getting it myself. Thanks for being my guinea pig!!

Sultana, you are not a freak!!! There are many people who need fills greater than 3.0. I am filled to 2.6, and can eat reduced amounts of anything. I can eat a whole yoghurt slowly.

Kennth - I haven't heard that specifically before, but based on this information, I suppose it would be possible under certain circumstances. Where did you hear of a case of the band causing gangrene? http://www.ehendrick.org/healthy/000561.htm

Newlapper - Are you eating a lot because you're still physically hungry? I always let my band stop me, instead of me stopping me. I didn't make it stop me HARD, with pain, but I definitely made it stop me with thoughts that not one more bite would go down. I definitely wasn't too tight. But where I'm going with this is, now that I'm losing my band, I wish I had practiced stopping on my own a little more, because now I won't have my band to MAKE me stop. If you are unable to stop eating because you are still hungry, and you are eating solid, good quality foods with no problems in at least a healthy amount, then I suggest a fill would be a good option. If you are eating more than you would like just because the band hasn't stopped you, you could for fun see if you can train yourself to stop on your own. I think it's easier to let the band stop me. But... I wish now I had learned to stop on my own. Not sure if any of that was "advice", but those are my thoughts at the moment!

Hi All - I wanted to post a reply I made on the SmartBandster board regarding someone's strongly stated opinion that band erosion is almost always the patient's fault. I think it is important to accept responsibility for our actions and their possible consequences. However, I also think it is equally important to be able to accept that certain outcomes of events may have not been under our control, or may have happened anyway. Perhaps my occasional overeating contributed to my band erosion (frankly, I was doing a lot of that in the past four weeks). HOWEVER... erosion is a possible complication for ALL implanted devices. ********** //It is actually the stomach that erodes or is damaged, not the band. Usually because the band is too tight or most often because the person is eating too much and trying to force too much through the band. Usually the fault of the banded person, and NOT the surgeon or the band itself.// Dan, I realize that it can be reassuring to think that WE have ALL the control over what happens to us and our bands - if you NEED to believe that to have peace of mind, then I leave you to it. However, if the erosion rates are indeed 1%-3%, I would be hard pressed to believe that only 1%-3% of bandsters ever eat too much. I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of bandsters at least occasionally overeat. I mean, that IS our nature, after all. BUT, the vast majority of bandsters do not experience erosion. Do a google search on erosion of implanted device, and educate yourself on the realities of having a foreign object in your body, and what can happen to it. The following links cover products that range from heart implants to penile implants to ports - all of these devices list erosion through tissue walls as a possible complication. It is extremely unlikely that overeating (or patient behaviour, period) could be held responsible for these erosions. You know - sometimes it just happens. http://www.guidant.com/webapp/emarketing/compass/comp.jsp?lev1=prod&lev2=crtp_ifu http://www.clevelandclinic.org/urology/patients/rsurgery.htm http://www.medtronic.com/neuro/enterra/physician.html http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/mda/docs/p010020.html http://my.webmd.com/content/article/71/81224.htm?z=3199_65247_2010_00_10 http://www.bostonscientific.com/templatedata/imports/HTML/infusion_therapy/devbsc_vaxptpsv_ifu_us.html We should all try to avoid behaviours that increase our risk of erosion, but there are no guarantees that even if you do everything 100% correct that you will escape this particular complication. Sometimes bad things just happen. Donali Dr. Lopez, 1/23/03 303/204.5/135 Diagnosed with erosion 6/19/04 Band removal scheduled for 7/2/04

Hi Birdee - I sent you an email. As far as losing restriction during that TOM, I think most people gain restriction. Is this the first time you've lost restriction at this TOM? I know everyone is skittish since my erosion, but if you are having unusual pains and are concerned I think a trip to your doc is in order for your peace of mind. The good news is that the odds are it is nothing... But best to know for sure. ***hugs***