Alexandra

Amazing, Audrey! You are beautiful and look so happy! Thanks for sharing your photo. That's a keeper!!

Wow, Audrey, YOU GO GIRL!! That's amazing progress and you are doing great! Thanks for sharing your milestones with us. You're an inspiration!

I'm also a fast eater and it's been a real education learning how slowly I SHOULD be eating. In the time it takes for the signal that I've had enough to reach my brain is shorter than it used to be, for sure, but it's still long enough for me to take several more bites beyond that. And that's where I get into trouble. What I try to do now is really nibble more than bite. Or if I do bite, I chew the bite really really well and put down my fork while I'm chewing. It's this last thing that's really hard to remember to do, but so helpful. I try to make sure the bite is well and truly down my throat before picking up the fork for the next one. It takes practice, for sure, but it's the wolfing that got me here and it's something I have to conquer.

Hi Codymax, Congratulations on being banded and Welcome to LBT! One thing you'll learn if you hang around bandster groups very long is that there is no one "post-op diet." Doctors have many different approaches to this, from three weeks on clear liquids to mushy food two days out. Every surgeon is different and while of course you should be following your doctor's instructions I think you can take comfort in knowing that the doctor in the next town probably gives his patients slightly different instructions. It's very unlikely that you can cause any damage by eating thick liquids and soft pieces of meat or vegetables at this stage. Just be sure you don't push it or do anything that causes any discomfort or pain. You're still healing and that process takes several weeks. Be gentle!! Another thing you'll learn is that EVERY bandster goes through the "I'm eating too much" phase about two weeks after surgery and until their first fill. There is NO restriction in your stomach once your post-surgical swelling disappears, so you probably will be able to eat as much as you could presurgery. It's not until a fill that you'll start to feel restriction, and it's that restriction that will make eating less much easier. THAT'S the difference. Before banding I was never able to stick to a diet for any length of time because I was so hungry that just a little food would never do it for me. My personal demon was quantity. But now I'm able to eat much much less and actually be satisfied! Of course, sometimes I'm not mentally satisfied and eat more than I really should, and when that happens my band lets me know it. There's pain and discomfort involved on those occasions, which is the negative reinforcement I need to avoid them. I'm working on that--it's definitely a process and even six months out I'm not there yet. Please come back and let us know how you're doing. And don't worry about being hungry now! You are healing and this time is not about losing weight. You probably will gain back a few of the pounds you're losing on the liquid diet before you have your first fill, but that's perfectly normal. Good luck, and TAKE IT EASY!!

Hi Jennye, Yep, your restriction sounds a lot like the perfect level! You are still experimenting and will learn what your band does and doesn't like. I definitely have noticed a difference with Pasta after this last fill; before it wasn't a problem for me at all but now I can only have two or three bites before I'm full. So I avoid it, because I'd rather be eating something more nutrionally dense. Now is the time to start paying attention to what your body is telling you. I found out the hard way that I too have the morning restriction so many people talk about. I wish I'd been thinking that morning before the Cereal got stuck! Your topic header says "struggling with restriction" and I'm sure that's what it feels like. But try to think about it as "exploring" your restriction. This is exactly what the band is designed to do, and it's up to us to learn how to work with it instead of against it. Good luck, and be careful!

Wow, Elise, what an ordeal! Thank you so much for coming to share it with us. I hope you're feeling better now; be sure to take care of yourself!! Actually, the post-fill diet your doctor prescribed sounds very unusual to me. My doctor has me on liquids for 24 hours and then just tells me to use caution when eating. My guess is that it wasn't just the flaked salmon that caused your discomfort and distress. Three days after a fill you should be able to eat that, it seems to me, if you take it slowly and chew well. I wonder if it wasn't your fill itself that somehow caused the band to move out of position. Or perhaps some other malfunction along the way. In any event, it's always important to be extremely careful when getting used to a new level of restriction. food getting stuck is a very unpleasant experience, even if it doesn't result in slippage. Good luck, Elise, and thank you again for posting. Please let us know how you're doing with the new band!!

Welcome to the board, Nikki!

Hi Chris, and welcome to the board! Please keep us posted on your band journey and how your insulin is affected. It will be terrific if you can manage your diabetes better with some weight loss! "PB" is the bandster term for what happens when some piece of food gets stuck and can't go down. It stands for Productive Burp, but I think that's a misleading name for it. (At least, the way I experience this, it is.) When something gets stuck and can't go any further down, you could be in pain until it comes back up. There is a wide range of sensations that people experience, from mild awareness to significant pain. And when the food does come back up, it can be a startling experience because it's often accompanied by copious amounts of "slime" (saliva and mucus your body has created to try to relieve the discomfort). But it's not like vomiting as you know it, because the food never made it down to your lower stomach and there are no acids involved. The idea is that you learn from it to chew better and eat more slowly. It's negative reinforcement of a very effective kind.

Hi Shana, My doctor and many others I have heard of take the "right amount the first time" approach. That means they fill your band until there is a certain level of restriction that you can live with, as evidenced by the way Water or barium flows through. There is simply no way to assess what actual amount of Fluid is going to create that level of restriction in your band. So the numbers are completely meaningless. My doctor refused to tell me how much my first fill was, because he was so against comparing that number with that of other people. Other doctors take a "sneak-up-on-it" approach, and for them it might be appropriate to put in .5 cc the first time just to see what that does to you. If that's your doctor's approach, you may not feel any appreciable restriction after your first fill. In either case it's probably not likely that they'd want you to return for at least a few weeks. It's important that you give it some time to see how you react. I'd suggest you should ask the doctor which of these approaches he's planning to take with you, and if he says the latter you might ask him why not the former. If he says the former, you have a great chance of getting the fill you want no matter what the numbers are. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Hi Tina, If I were in your shoes I'd probably go ahead and be the guinea pig. Self-paying and traveling to Mexico just weren't things I was going to be able to do, so if this were my only choice I'd have jumped on it. Someone has to go early, after all. Presumably the doctor will have supervision and proctors, right? He's been trained by Inamed or whoever and is experienced with other kinds of lap surgery? I probably wouldn't want to be someone's first lap surgical patient, but if he's used to that type of procedure that's probably the most important thing. JMO.

Welcome Felicia! How was your surgery experience? Things went well, I hope. Are you starting on solid food yet? Take it easy!!

Hey Baileym, Good luck with all of this! I also work in insurance, and my boss too was a big help. It's nice to have a little of an inside track, isn't it? At least we're not afraid to complain, like normal civilians might be. As for the time frame, that all depends on your surgeon's schedule. All of the preop testing could probably be done in a couple of weeks, and from that point it's just a matter of the doctor's appointment book. I've heard of waits lasting months, but where I am the band operations come around pretty quick because they're outpatient surgery and are short procedures. Keep us posted!

Hmmmm, I really don't know about 70 lbs in 3 weeks. That's very unlikely. 3 months, perhaps. Can you check in the next few days to see if they run a correction? The doctor will be flooded with questions from people who think that could happen for them. And while it's certainly nice to see an article about the band, I hat this sort of thing: "It's similar to gastric bypass, but without the cutting, stapling and intestinal re-routing." Um, OK, so how exactly is it similar? Duh...

Hi Denise, and welcome to the board! I and many other bandsters can SO relate to the issues you describe. I just had my second fill last week and are pretty much where you are. It's really hard not to go for dessert when dinner was only a couple of bites of something, and it never really seemed to get past the band to the place in my stomach that is really the hungry part. This is a really hard thing to get used to, but I'm confident it will happen for me sooner or later. In the meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying my 35-lb loss and smaller clothes! I'm able to fit places I couldn't before, and move in ways I couldn't before. It's a really cool thing! But the band wasn't a brain operation, as we all know, and I'm definitely struggling with just a few bites being all my body needs. I know it's true, now how do I get my stomach to agree?!?

Wendy, that is so cool about the Endless Pool! We were just talking about that here in my office. Where in your house does that go? Do you have to dig a trench in the livingroom or something?

Oddly enough, Robin, cottage cheese is not something I can eat. I would happily, but two bites is just not enough to get me through the morning, and that's all I can get down before feeling stuck. Maybe that will change with time; I hope so!

Hi Kim! I can't imagine 7 kids--how on earth do you stay sane? My two are enough to send me around the bend on a regular basis. Good luck with insurance!!

That is SOOOO true!! Every "diet" I've ever been on created a mindset of short-term deprivation. Banding is for life, and that piece of silicone isn't going away--it won't BE gone in a few weeks or months. It's scary, realizing that I will never again be able to gorge the way I used to find so satisfying. But there will be other sources of satisfaction in my life--ones that are not so hurtful.

That's a great idea, Tellie. I'll give it a whirl! Lately I've been having some success with a bit of smoked fish. It seems to slide right down. But I have to eat it plain--not the best way--and my breath suffers for a while afterwatds.

(Bambam, I hope you don't mind my moving this but I think it's really important that your thoughts get a thread of their own. You'll get a lot more feedback if this is not buried in a thread about meat. :confused: ) Bambam said in another thread: I was banded in July and initially lost 40 lbs in the first 3 months. This was mainly due to me eating liquids and soft foods. I was also afraid to eat much because of fear of slippage. Once I got past that fear and started eating solids my weight loss stopped. I was able to eat way too much. Now I've had two fills. My appetite is still strong and since my initial loss, I have gained twenty back, and now am standing at a total of 19 lbs lost in seven months. I am very distraught. My doctor tells me to eat less. eat lower fat foods, and excercise more. I haven't had a lot of success with this advice in the past. This is why I spent nearly $20,000 of my own money for this surgery. Needless to say, I feel like I wasted my money. The ONLY discourgement I have from overeating is when food gets stuck in my band. This must be extremely frustrating for you and I'm so glad you came here to share it! Being told to eat less and exercise more is about the LEAST helpful thing any of us can hear. Like, DUH!! What I find most instructive in your comments is your last sentence. Do you not feel any sense of fullness, ever? Getting stuck is a result of eating something that's too large, but what about food that is chewed well? How much of, say, an average sandwich can you eat, and how fast? If you can eat the whole thing, bread and all, in roughly the same amount of time you could pre-band, you are definitely not restricted. The fact that you've had two adjustments is meaningless if those adjustments were insufficient. Please give us more information specifically about what you're eating, how much, and how your band reacts and we may be able to help you pin down what the problem is.

What she said. (Wow, this is easy!)

What she said.

Kim, since Mary hasn't popped back in yet I'll answer your question. Many doctors ask patients to stick to liquids and/or avoid fats completely for a week or so before banding, in order to lose some weight and possibly shrink the liver prior to surgery. My doctor and lots of others I've heard of don't subscribe to that requirement, and so for a lot of people there is no pre-band diet.

Another one raising my hand, 32-35 lbs down and stuck. I'm working on getting back to the basics. I also had a fill yesterday which I'm hoping will serve to remind me which way is up with my eating habits.

Tina, I think (as do many others) that the fills are the whole POINT of having a band versus a different surgery. I just went for a fill this morning and sure, it's a little more trouble than not having gone, but now I have another goose in the right direction of losing weight. A fill renews motivation AND OPPORTUNITY for weight loss. It creates a new reminder when too much food is being taken in, or it's being taken in too quickly. I need that reminder, as a chronic wolfer of food, and it's been fading as I lose weight and restriction lessens. So now I have a chance to renew the restriction and start again on the downward slide. I say YAY to that!! The hassle is largely internal, but it's less of a hassle than hating myself for having eaten too much at the last meal. The agonizing you see on the boards about having another fill or not are just people thinking out loud.