mztmom

well today is my 1 year anniversary and i have only lost about 35 lbs the whole year. i have had alot of difficulties with the band but now i think i may be on track just recently learning after having to go back almost every month to have some taken out of my band, that i can only have about .2 cc at a time. i hate that it took 1 year to learn the hard way but maybe i will have a better 2nd year. i guess i was expecting to lose alot more and that is why i am so depressed. especially on days like today where i can eat the house down because i do not have any restriction because i had to have some removed and i dont go back until november 7th. i just hope and pray that things get better.

Okay so I have had my band for 11 months now. I have only lost 34 pounds. But I have had ALOT of issues with this band. I go in for a fill and they put anywhere from .5 to 1 cc in each time usually but then i end up having to go back days or a couple of weeks later to have some removed because i was too tight. the last 2 times i have gone in for a fill the lady put 1cc in each time but when i go out into the waiting room to drink my water after my fill to see if everything fills fine, i immediately have to go rush back in to have some taken out.so yesterday when i went in before my fill they did an xray and it looked perfect then she gave me 1cc and took another xray after i drank water and it immediately was too tight. so she had to call in a "specialist" and ask what the problem is and they said I am just a unique person that can only have about .2 to .3 cc's at a time each fill. and she wants me to come back once a week to get my fills. this is a problem for me because ONE i live 1 and 1/2 away and TWO because as of next month my fills will no longer be FREE i will have to pay $125 each visit. the nurse practitioner did say it was her fault because she has been giving me TOO MUCH each time and she should have seen the reoccuring issues but didnt. I am to the point where i want to have the band COMPLETELY removed. I knew i should have had the gastric sleeve instead. I am one very disappointed overweight female right now just looking for help. HELP ME!!!

all of you have been incredibly helpful in everything you all have said.I am going to talk to my doctor to see if I can work out something to receive a few more "free" fills and take one slow fill at a time. I sure hope this works better this way around because I felt like all the times before have been hell.

Hello everyone. I am wondering if any of you have switched doctors or been able to go to a different doctor to get a fill. I ask this because I drive 2 hours to my doctor but I work in a hospital doctors office and there is a lap band doctor in our building and I thought it would be incredibly easy to go any time down the hall to get my fill than to drive 2 hours. Advise please!!!!

ok well thank you all for your advise. i think tomorrow i might just go down the hall and ask. wish me luck everyone! lol

It is harder than I thought it would be. To say it honestly it is a pain in my butt. I wish I had know then what I know now because I would have had the sleeve instead. Too much maintenance and one day you may be fine and the next day wake up and be entirely too tight where you have to go get an adjustment. It s painful at times too. Just really research it and see if it is the surgery for you. I wish people would have told me the good, the bad, and the ugly before. Good luck.

It really sounds like your gallbladder with the diarrhea and the what seems like acid reflux. I would see your doctor about it. You may have to have it removed.

I had a fill 4 days ago. yesterday i am not even able to drink my coffee or much of anything at all. i have such bad pain in my chest area. my question is, if i fight this for awhile will it eventually go away or do i need to go get some taken out? I am getting so disappointed in this band because this is the second time this has happened in the 7 months that i have had it. and i have to drve 2 hours to my doctor.

ok ladies. i went to my doctor today and it was well worth the 2 hour drive. I had .6cc removed and now i can finally drink liquids. she said i was entirely too tight. It was bitter sweet because I lost 8 pounds in 5 days. lol crazy but scary too. that was absolutely miserable. thanks for all of your help and advice.

Thank you so much "lovethenewme" i am going to try and sip on a protein shake today if it doesnt get better i will just have to make the 2 hour drive back to my doctor in the morning. "pnsbamafan" i actually just had a cc removed last time and i gained a few pounds which is fine so now she only added .3 cc back in and i think i am too tight but i just cant seem to find that sweet spot. hopefully it will happen soon because i am getting really irritated.

thanks for the info guys. "love the new me" I think it all may have started yesterday when I ate a couple of crawfish and it got stuck so I had to make myself throw up to have some relief. Ever since then I have had a hard time getting anything down. do you think that I could still have something stuck? Like this morning i drank my coffee and instantly felt tightness in my chest but before yesterday I could still eat some and drink alot. could this be the cause of something still lodged or just to full? what is your opinion on this?

I was banded 6 months ago and i still have port pain. not always only when i move a certain way like if i stretch the wrong way. last night during my sleep i must have turned the wrong way because i woke up with horrible horrible port pain. now today i am very sore and it hurts to cough or laugh. my doctor is 2 hours away and i just wanted to know if this has happened to anyone else, is it normal, and will it get better?

I dont remember why my doctor said so can someone help me and tell me why we can't drink coke anymore?

I know that we are suppose to have protein shakes and I drink my EAS Myoplex shake daily but I wanted to try something different and I was wondering if the Whey Protein is allowed so that i can make my own blended smoothie.

oh okay makes sense. thank you.

I got my 1st fill 1 week ago and I still am not getting the full sensation and I can still eat quite a bit of food. I dont know if they did not put enough into my band or what but I am worried that I am going to be one of the people that the band just doesnt work for me. Any advice feel free to give it please.

thanks so much for the advice guys, it makes me feel a whole lot more "normal" and at ease. thanks again.

Well I was on my pre-op diet and had a surgery date set for Friday October 28, 2011 but I called and cancelled everything. I have just been extremely worried about the "long term" of this surgery. I have done alot of research and I dont think i should do it so I talked it over with my family. I am very sad about it because I was looking to starting a new life but I just cant see or afford to have ANYTHING go wrong either during or after surgery. I just keep thinking about what is going to happen when I have had the band for 10 to 20 years is I make it that long. I know it will eventually stretch once at its maximum fill. so then what? I have to pay to have ANOTHER surgery to be rebanded and take that chance of complications all over again. I jsut read alot of negative things about this surgery, short term and long term, and it has made me change my mind. I hope i am not making a huge mistake because i am now lost at what to do!

I am 3 weeks post op and for the last 2 weeks I wake up in the middle of the night with a bad pain in my throat area midway down and a weird pain like in my chest bone area. not sure if it is coming from my stomach area or something in my throat but It is a really weird pain and I have to immediately sit up in the bed to make it go away. then when i wake up a few hours afterwards i still have an awkward feeling in my throat. Oh and all this also gives me a headache. So I wake up feeling like a cant breathe with a pain in my throat and a headache. Remind you this only happens when i lay flat for too long. Has anyone else had this problem or do you know what it could be and will it ever go away?

Hopefloats, I am glad to know that someone else had this similar feeling. but i am even more glad that you said yours went away. did you feel like something was almost like blocking your air way? oh and my throat really hurt when i was laying down and if i would breathe through my nose. it is so weird. and i havent gone to the doctor. i have an appointment on the 29th which is 1 week away so lets just hope i dont die in the meantime. lol

I know exactly how you feel. I know this is a subject most people dont like to discuss but hey we are all human here and it is life. I was so miserable at times that i had to give myself an Fleet Enema. Cost you about 2 dollars at your local dollar store and it will be instant relief. It doesnt sound like the best thing to do but nothing else was working for me so i used this as a last resort and BOOM!!!!! IT WORKED! lol So I figured I would try this or else let it get worse and have to go to the hospital where they have to manually (by hand) scoop all of your "backed up poop" out of your rectum. And my biggest worry was that it was going to be some really hot doctor, so with that said, I did the enema myself and thank god it worked and worked well. So good luck!!

I believe this is common. I was the same way. It was a good week before i could get even 40 ounces of liquids down me. you are still swollen and in the healing stage and you will be for a few more weeks so just make sure you follow all of the rules. it will get better. good luck in your recovery.

Why are we not suppose to drink out of straws?

Yes I have called my doctor and I am waiting on a call back from them but not feeling too thrilled about that because I have left 2 messages already. I will call everyday until i get someone to call me back!

thats exactly what I do Jewel. Wake up roll over and sleep for a bit longer till i wake up again with the same feeling. GOSH I HATE IT!!!