hey there,
im sure that i have pretty much the same story as many out there, but i just need to get this out. i had my surgery on april 1, 2010, which is really ironic. i am 23 and i started out at 267 lbs, needing to lose about 110 lbs. weight loss has been a struggle my whole life, and i have tried literally everything from jenny craig, to weight watchers, to liquid diets with no results. before the surgery i saw an endocrinologist and was tested for many different hormonal and endocrine issues that could affect weight loss and i showed up negative for all... great so i had my surgery, went through the first six weeks on basically a liquid diet. now my mother had the surgery done by the same surgeon and had experienced about a 15 lbs weight loss the first month, so to be honest, i was expecting something similar. i stepped on the scale and i had lost three pounds, and thats pretty much where my weight loss stopped. about six months after the surgery i was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, and told that that is the reason i have not lost weight. i went on medication, and now my thyroid is normal once again. its been a year and four months since the surgery, and i have tried everything, i got a personal trainer, i have eaten what i have been told to eat and not eaten what i have been told not to eat. at this point i moved from NY to australia for school, and my new doctor informed me my band is either too tight or has slipped. i got an upper GI radiograph done, just to find out it has not slipped. he removed some of the liquid at that point, stating that since i was vomiting on nearly a daily basis it was too tight, and to see his dietitian as i am eating incorrectly with the band. he says i should eat what i hard for me to eat, ie bread, Pasta etc so that i feel fuller faster. i was not eating those things because i couldn't, they would come right up, but now he says i should be able to since i have less of a restriction.
i am sick and tired of this. i understand that band is a tool that needs to be worked with. what i do not understand is if i need to watch what i eat, and go see a dietitian about what i can eat, when , how, and how much then why do i have the band? both the new doctor and my old surgeon have told me not to give up, but its so hard to not feel despondent at this point.
