donali

My doctor does not use a numbing agent either, for the same reasons your doc states, Linda. My port is close to the surface, and as phobic as I am about these things, it is really no big deal. Much less than having blood taken for tests. It is my understanding that some people's ports are very deep, and therefore they feel the numbing agent is necessary. My doc immobilizes the port with one hand by pressing down, then inserts the needle, and with the pressure of the immobilizing the needle prick is barely noticeable to me. Hope your experience is just as benign!

I had my surgery done in Mexico, as well, but had all my tests the day prior to surgery. This included blood work, EKG/meeting with a cardiologist, meeting with a nutritionist and a counselor. The day of surgery I met with a respiratory therapist, and the anesthesiologist. I did not have any post-op tests, only a liquid Breakfast. I felt that all the pre-op stuff was very thorough, and did not give a thought to any post-op stuff... lol

Sobering, indeed. My heart goes out to her family, friends and support group. Many thanks for the info and the reminder.

Mom is a very cool gal... lol

Hey Karen!! Welcome to this forum - glad to see you here. I really like this format better than the Yahoo groups. Great to see you yesterday as well! I love our San Diego group - I always have so much fun at our meetings.

The Water loading is NOT because the water stays in the pouch. Water loading is drinking as much as you can, as fast as you can in a short amount of time. Anyone with any restriction can drink faster than the pouch empties. That creates a backup, which stretches the pouch walls, and signals the full feeling. Even though the stretch itself may not last for very long (because the water drains right out), the signal of fullness can last 15 minutes or longer. For many people this is a great help in taking that edge of their hunger enough to slow down their eating, which gives them more time to feel the full signal on real food before it's "too late", and they've already overeaten (because they were eating too fast). This is true of people without pouches as well.

It would be nice if the docs could agree on this, but one thing is certain regardless of what your doc says - your stomach has gone through major trauma, and has STITCHES in it. It needs time to heal, which is the reason for no solids at first. When you eat solid food, your stomach (which is a muscle) contracts and works at the food - this motion puts stress on those new stitches, even if you're not feeling any pain. Think of a cut on your knee that needs stitches to close the wound. How fast do you think that's going to heal if you flex your knee 20 times a day? Just pulling out one of those stitches weakens the band anchoring, and may cause problems years from now. I would do what I could to stay on liquids for the advised amount of time.

Me neither. My surgery was late afternoon, and I didn't have anything by mouth except ice chips until the next morning. I was given hot tea with brown sugar, orange juice, and something else I can't recall. When the doc came in later that day he asked how everything went down, and I said fine. I was released that afternoon. No barium until my first fill.

Had my fourth fill on Saturday. I went from 2.1 to 2.6. I was instructed to be on Clear liquids for 2 to 3 weeks. Well, I am hungry already - actually, I was starving Sunday, so out came the blender and the chili and the V8 juice for thinning. I wanted a very tight fill where liquids passed slowly, and this one is close, but not quite there. My fills also tend to "kick in" at about 4 weeks, so I am happy with this transitional fill. Now for the exciting part of the story... lol First, I am a SUPER weenie about any kind of medical procedure. I have fainted more times than I can count just from having blood drawn for a blood test. I was slightly concerned about my fills because of this, but surprisingly have never had a problem. I've been so proud. lol However, this time... As I had feared, my port was flipped. I know exactly when this happened - at the end of July I was stretching to reach something in the back seat of the car, and really struggled that last teeny tiny centimeter, and I felt the sharp sting of my port. For two weeks I was in agony - I could not even lay on my back, my port just screamed. Plus, it was sticking out waaay more that it was before. Of course, this was when I was on vacation, so I stuck it out with the help of liquid Tylenol, and after two weeks it was bearable. Uncomfortable, but bearable. Dr. Carmen gave me the bad news, but said perhaps she could manually manipulate it back. The pushing and turning was not particularly painful, but it was uncomfortable, and I could feel things moving around, and I got wigged out. I was feeling a little nauseous, but then she had the needle inserted and accessed the port. Whooo hooo! Temporary success! Her new technique is to give the fill standing up with fluoro. She says that the gravity helps the barium go down, and gives a more accurate picture of restriction. I was all for that, particularly since I was up for a super tight fill. So I sat up, and waited a minute or two, as I was still creeped out from my port manipulation. Then with a big breath, I slipped off the table, and stood comfortably between the fluoro apparatus (turned sideways, it's like a giant rack of bull's horns with big squares on the tips.). I had one hand casually resting on the apparatus, and looked down as Dr. Carmen came towards me with the saline syringe. I could see the giant fill needle sticking out of my abdomen with the little plastic receptor for the syringe needle, and I had just enough time to say, "I'm feeling REALLY dizzy...." When I came to I was comfortably arranged on the cool tile floor with several faces hovering over me. I hit my head really, really hard, Dr. Carmen told me, and suffered a seizure while unconscious. I found this information interesting, and could already tell I was going to have the mother of all headaches - very soon. After assuring herself that I was cognizant and knew who I was, where I was, who she was, and what I was doing there, she asked if I still wanted my fill. Was she kidding?!?!?!? My band was now completely empty!!! Damn skippy I wanted my fill!! It took a few minutes for me to be able to crawl up on the table, and Dr. Carmen adjusted me while I was lying down, as I had always been adjusted in the past. She put me to 2.8, and based on the fluoro took me back down to 2.6 and removed the fill needle. Then they put a stool between the bull's horns, and I sat up while we watched the barium finish going down. Hey - I'll be sure to use the stool next time, instead of trying to stand!! I think I would have been okay at the 2.8, and can really see how helpful it would be to have the fills done in an upright position. Needless to say, I will NOT try to stand for my next fill, but I will beg to have it done while I'm seated on the stool. Luckily Mom had come with me, and she drove me home. I had four violent retching episodes thanks to my concussion, and I spent the rest of the day and night in bed. The room still spins wildly whenever I first lay down, and when I turnover in bed. Reminds me of my college days and the times I over indulged in alchohol... Kind of fun in a scary kind of way... lol However I have no other residual problems, and I expect the dizziness to go away within the next two weeks. Concussions are interesting animals. Last note in this extremely long post - I can already tell my port did not stay where Dr. Carmen had turned it. :think I will have to find out how much it will cost to have it surgically repositioned, but for now will live with the slight discomfort. For all you newbies out there who made it this far through my post, please bear in mind my first three fills were uneventful!!! Hoping to be able to change my progress numbers soon...

Once upon a time, there was a girl that needed a fill. She went to her doc's office, lay down on the table, felt the doc push down on her port. A little pressure, and he claimed the fill needle was in! Where was the pain? Repeat 2 more times... lol

Alexandra, that is SO frustrating!!! I have no idea why so many American docs seem to be so reluctant about fills. I mean, THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!!! If you were on a medication that wasn't working, they would change it. Same dif HERE. I feel your pain. Hang in there, eventually you will get to your "sweet" spot. It's just unfortunate that they make it so hard to do. Thinking about you!

Congrats! Glad your experience was basically boring. lol How long were you told to be on liquids after, if at all? Since this is your first fill, just be aware that they can "kick in" 2 to 4 weeks out, so don't freak if you're suddenly a lot tighter than you were right after your fill. Mine take about 4 weeks for some reason. Isn't losing inches more important, anyway? Just more of a pain to measure.

See, I was afraid of this. No one hears that the first three fills were a piece of cake!! lol Please bear in mind I'm the one who fainted off the toilet because I was reading a magazine article about varicose veins and totally creedped myself out... lol Really, IT'S NO BIG DEAL!!! You'll be fine! If you have a tendency to faint, however, take it easy and do it lying/sitting down, and have a game plan. If I hadn't gotten so cocky, I wouldn't have had such an exciting story... lol

I don't think seizures are any fun if you don't get to EXPERIENCE them... lol Too bad there wasn't a video going. I asked if they caught that all on fluoro, but they said no. lol You are going to be FINE!!! You'll probably be one of those lucky ones that does a walking tour of France the day after your surgery. lol That wasn't me, of course. I spent the weekend curled up on the couch, but I did go back to work on that Monday (surgery was Thursday), and made it all the way through until leaving a few hours early on Friday. My head's not thumping, but I can still get the world to spin wildly if I move my head fast enough. lol Cheap thrills! I am so excited for you and your upcoming date. You know my thoughts are with you!

I was informed by another bandster that I had NO idea how small my pouch was, because without real restriction food passed through very quickly. So once I got restriction, I was SHOCKED at how little it took for the pouch to be overfilled. So, although the pouch size itself does not change (I don't think, anyway!) with successive fills, the emptying rate does. Only then do we get a true sense of how small the pouch is, and how much room those first bites take up when there is no place for them to go. I also tend to have discomfort on the first couple of bites, particularly if I am very hungry. It's almost as though my stomach needs a chance to get "primed" before it's ready to receive food. I also believe that the first two bites are bigger and less chewed than the following ones, which adds to my discomfort. Someday I will learn to take very small, well chewed first bites, and start out slowly to give my stomach a chance to catch up. Someday... lol As far as your feeling of restriction changing throughout the day, and from day to day, this is a very commonly reported phenomenon, and has been chalked up to many things, the most popular theories being stress and hydration. If you wear rings, chances are they are very tight first thing in the morning, because your hands are swollen when you first wake up (that's true for me, anyway). Throughout the day the swelling in my hands go down, and sometimes by evening my rings are so loose they're almost falling off. They rarely get THAT loose, but sometimes they do. I imagine it's the same with the band. Those days when we'd swear someone stole our band while we were sleeping because we could eat a FULL restaurant meal AND dessert, are invariably followed by a day when we can hardly eat anything at all. Flexibility is the key, and being emotionally prepared to roll with the "punches".

It is true that some people do not lose with the band, or do not get to their goal. However, I have not read ANYONE's posts on this board where this is true. Most of the people who are complaining that they are not losing REALLY mean that they are not losing "fast enough" - there's a big difference. And of those, most of them are pre-fill. Some people lose well pre-fill - many don't. The "bible" saying is pre-fill is for HEALING - not for losing. If you lose, that's a bonus. However, the band is REALLY designed to be adjustable, and MOST people will need several fills before they reach that happy medium between being able to eat enough but not too much - the "sweet spot". I was banded 1/23/03. I have lost 60 pounds. I still have 108 to go. That's 60 pounds in 9 months - an average of slightly less than seven pounds a month. An AVERAGE. Some months I haven't lost ANYTHING. I am not dieting, or even exercising consistently. I consider those 60 pounds gone FOREVER, because as long as I keep my band at its current restriction, there is no reason why I should gain that weight back, because I'm not doing anything "special" that I might stop doing later on. I do try to eat healthy most of the time. 60 pounds in 9 months does not sound like very much to many people, but my journey has been very peaceful. Do I wish I could be at goal tomorrow? Of course! But that is not realistic or reasonable. And you know what? It's not even necessary. I KNOW I am on the right path now, and as long as I keep up with my fills when I need them, I WILL get to my goal. This is my LIFE. This is forever (God willing). Many, many, many people have lost in great excess of 100 pounds with the band. Some do it faster than others. I expect the majority of my journey to take 2 years. This Saturday I go in for fill #4. Good luck! Make sure you have reasonable expectations. This is a process, and for most of us it takes time.

20 pounds in five weeks is a lot of weight. Concentrate more on how you feel instead of what the scale says. Are you feeling hungry between meals? Do you feel like you are eating more than you should? If so, and you are following the basic rules (no drinking with eating, eating real food and not soft foods, Protein first, then veggies, then carbs) and the scale isn't moving, then it's probably time for a fill. Try and be realistic about the weight loss. Remember that a pound of fat takes a 3500 calorie deficit - a body can only lose weight so fast. Go more by how you feel, and then look at the scale.

Good luck, Megan! And congrats! It'll be over before you know it.

It is NOT all about dieting. If you are hungry, and not feeling full/satisfied on a smaller amount of food, then you need another fill. How will you know if you're at the right fill level? When it feels right to you. It doesn't feel "right" to you right now, so you need another fill. I believe the "sweet spot" is different for everyone, and even different for the same person at different times. Trust me when I tell you that there is a point where your band can COMPLETELY close off anything from going through the stoma - where you CANNOT eat OR drink ANYTHING. If you accept this fact, then you KNOW that somewhere between where you are now, and being totally closed off, is your "sweet spot". How does the band work to help you lose weight? It creates a barrier very high on your stomach that slows food from passing through. When you eat faster than the food passes, it backs up in the stoma and stretches the nerves, giving a "full" feeling. If you continue to eat past that point, the food backs up into your esophagus (or tries to) resulting in a very painful feeling, like you swallowed a golfball and it's stuck before it reaches your stomach. That's generally a precurser to the infamous PB, although sometimes if you relax and STOP eating/drinking, walk around a little, the stoma has time to empty a little and relieve the pressure without bringing anything back up. We are not making this stuff up - you've already felt the stuck feeling and PB'd. You're stoma is very, very tiny. You don't know that, because most of what you're eating is slipping through with little slowing. At your next fill, ask your doc to show you what it feels like to be totally closed off. Have a little barium, and you will see that your stoma is only a swallow or two big. Once the doc lets up on the restriction and lets the barium trickle out a little, you will see how you still feel full as the barium trickles out. Once enough has gone through to release the pressure in your stoma, you will feel like you could take another swallow. Having that "I couldn't possibly take one more bite, there is no where for it to go" feeling is what you're looking for from your fills. The only question is, how many bites do you want to have before you get that feeling? Some people want it in 3 bites, some in 10, some in one. Your "sweet spot" is the number of bites you want to feel full at. Restriction is the key, and fills are what get you there.

Good luck, Tosha!! We'll be thinking of you.

Hi Cindy - You sound very tight, but if you can eat 4 chicken nuggets in 20 minutes, you may have found your "sweet spot". I will say, though, that you may want to consider switching to a Protein Drink for your morning meal and skip carbonation. I know the jury's out on carbonation, and I don't agree with the examples given of soda expanding in a closed plastic bag (our stomas are open on both ends), but carbonation is very acidic, which is why I stay away from it, plus, just in case it does advance possibilities of erosion or other damage. It's not worth it to me to risk it, however it's sometimes worth it to others. Also, if you've got a "deadline" goal coming up (your wedding - when is that?), you might want to consider roasted chicken instead of chicken nuggets, and keeping your high quality Protein intake high, with lots and lots of Water. Once you reach your goal, you may want a slight unfill to "rest" from this super restriction, but it may relax naturally by then as you lose more weight. I'm going in for my fourth fill this Saturday, looking for a super tight restriction for at least a couple of months. Good luck!

Although it is unlikely you have done any damage, the two bites of mashed potato is my vote for your current level of discomfort. It sounds as though you are very tight right now, as I was right after surgery. I had painful burps for a week. I was so tight that I could not consume the amount of liquids recommended - I was just so full, and so very not hungry. So I would not be surprised if those mashed potatos are still sitting in there. No more non-liquids for 2 weeks, at least!! I was getting hungry about 2 days shy of my two weeks - that's how long it took for my band swelling to go down. Be gentle to yourself, and don't overdo. Welcome to bandland!

According to the height/weight charts I am familiar with, 5'5" at 238 would be more than 100 pounds overweight. I think it's a certain BMI, or 100 pounds overweight, so if that's the case you should qualify. Life would be bleak without friends, but sometimes... lol Sometimes, they just don't say the right things. We love them anyway. Good luck to you!

Hi Birdee - Your symptoms are the classic response to impending deprivation. Some how you have it in your mind that if you let the band restrict the amount that you WANT to eat, that somehow you will be hungry and deprived. This is NOT a diet! You can trust yourself and your band - honest. You should not be going hungry - if you are, then you are going to increase this psychological response. Don't worry about how much food you think you are supposed to be able to eat - eat until you feel full. If you never feel full, then you need another fill. Be sure you are not waiting too long before meals. Many people do better on six small meals a day than 3 bigger ones. I agree completely with Megan - BABYSTEPS! Don't try to fix everything at one time (remember, you are for all intents and purposes banded for LIFE - not just the next year). The most important thing is to get in all your Water. I need a schedule to do this. My goal is a gallon a day, 4 quarts at a time. One quart on the way in to work, 1 quart between Breakfast and lunch, one quart after lunch and before I go home, and one quart after dinner. Once you start getting in your water, hopefully your lips won't be so chapped, and you won't feel so tempted to drink with meals. Let go of the diet mentality - the band will help you to be full on smaller portions naturally - you won't feel deprived, you'll just be full. Plus, as soon as you're hungry again, you can eat again. A therapist specializing in food addictions and complusive eating disorders could probably help you immensely. Hang in there!!

Hi Cindy - I rely heavily on good old fashioned prune juice to keep me regular. I have a problem with constipation anyway, long before my surgery. Right after banding I tried some dissolving fibre, but was too paranoid that it would start expanding in my stoma before it could funnel down into my stomach, so stopped that before anything bad happened. I will also use Epsom salts if prune juice didn't do it, or I'm out of juice. Be careful with the Epsom salts, though, and only use a little bit, or you'll be super sorry.:think