dquoiya

Hello I am 3 years out and still love my band. I have not had a fill in over a year but have one scheduled for next Monday as I have lost that great feeling of restriction that I have grown to love. I will say that although I don't have as much restriction I am well aware of the things I should do to be successful and put into practice those things everyday ( although sometimes I slip). My band is a tool to keep me in check and I appreciate it for what it is the choice is ultimately mine to make. I would like to be a part of a community of "lap band veterans" not just gastric surgery veterans. Good luck to you all I am proud of you and your commitment and keep fighting the good fight you are worth it.

Hello Band buddies: It has been a while since I posted anything but I am 2 years post-op and wanted to update everyone. After many years of struggling with my weight and loosing more than 100 pounds the "natural" way I decided to have lap-band surgery in March of 2012. What a great decesion I made for me, my family, and future. At my highest weight I was 326 pounds and on the day of surgery I weight 242 pounds. Today I have maintied a weight of between 152-154 lbs. The surgery is not a quick fix and requires that I stay in tuned with my body and my band but the small amount of effort required has ceartinaly paid off in better mental and phyiscal health. For anyone who is struggling with your band or considering having the surgery please remember that you are worth it and begin again or start your journey.

Hello Waiting... you look great congratulations on your surgery and weight loss. I am 70lbs down and happy to be doing well in onederland. I am a mother of 3 and oldest 19 and youngest 14 and self paid for my band and ready to get this belly/ highway removed. If you would be so kind as to share where your located ( rogughly) and also the out of pocket cost of your procedure. Cazzy if you dont mind sharing the same I am intrested to know what I should be planning to dish out for my 35th birthday gift to myself. thanks

Mine was 9,999 flat fee paid cash included fills for a year. I went thru Ture Results in Texas, Dr. Carter is my surgeon and he is great.

I totally agree with this post. My only solution to this problem is to wear a full sew in regualry which allows me more flexablity to work out and still mantain my style. Thanks for sharing.

Good morning B- I was as concerned as you are when I got to my 3rd fill and felt no restriction and litteraly spent hours a day carying my eyes out because of the amount of money and time i spent to have this surgery for it not to work for me ( I too am self pay). However let me provide you with hope. It took me 5 fills to get to my sweet spot and i have been there for almost 6 months and will have my 1 year bandaversiry in March. Perhaps the nurse mis spoke as I can only imagine she meant to montior your calories and portions untill you start to feel restriciton. Eventually you will get there I promise so stay positive. If you still have concerns I recommend you schedule an appointment with your doctor to clear up any concerns you have. Take care and I am praying for you.

I had my 6th fill last Monday and have a total of 5.6 cc in my band. Everything has been fine eating small meals taking really small bites and feeling full for 4-5 hours. I beleive in the green zone . Sunday night I had 2 glasses of wine felt fine and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night with a few slight coughs drank a few sips of water and all was well. Monday I started my period (sorry if guys are reading this) and felt a little tighter than normal but seemed ok. Since Monday I have been having a bit of acid reflux an nausea but no vomiting. I am able to eat and drink as a normal bandster with good restriction no pain and small meals. I have never had acid reflux before or real issues with heartburn. I really have never had to throw my food up and have had minimal stuck episodes. My question is do any of you experince these types of issues when it is your TOM or could this be a sign of a band slip. Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated.

I am so blessed. I went thru true resluts in Hurst Texas but my doctor is Dr. Carter in Arlington. He is amazing and has great bed side manner. He has always done my fills under fluro and anytime i need to see him for anything he makes time for me. I am self pay so my fills are covered for the first year. In my opinion its not true resluts that is the scam its the insurance companies. They are the ones that want to make more money and bill your employer and end you more money for care. I beleive that true results can justify charging more to the insurace becasue of all the hoops the doctors have to go through to provide basic follow up care and as a self pay this was the most important thing to. As far as fills go my co worker who decided to user our company insurance for her LB surgery was billed an extra 6,000 by the insuracne and cant afford to see her doctor for follow ups or fills now ( she did not go thru true results). I saw a billboard for Barker Bariatrics her in Dallas they do $50 fills once a month on saturdays she went a few weeks ago and says she had a good experince. They dont do fills under fluro so which i like but it is cost effective and works if you cant see your surgeon . Maybe look around on the internet to see if you can find companies like this in your area i am almost posititve they have services like this in Houston my sister in law had LBS 4 years ago in Mexico and gets fills for this price in Houston i will ask and post what i find out. Good luck.

I took a 5 weeks off work because I could and needed a vacation anyway to take care of me. I was on a plane to Florida 3 weeks after surgery for a friends wedding wearing a swim suit and playing in the ocean. I had soreness still but not any real pain. You should be fine good luck and it would be nice if the Cowboys went to the superbowl If they do I will see you there. Best wishes.

Yes you are tooooo tight. This happend to me a few weeks ago when I was at 5.5 and I waited 2 days to see if the swelling would go down and after sliming and not being able to drink anything I went back to my doctor he took .5 out and I instantly felt better. I was able to drink warter and I cant tell you how good that felt. I was so tight that i could not swollow my slavia and had to pull over in my car on the freeway several times throught out the day to get spit it out ( TMI) I know. Please do yourself a favor and go see your doctor for an unfill, a small unfill can make all the diffrence in the world no amount of weight loss is worth feeling this way. Also as a side note i went and got my 5th fill yesterday he put .4 for at total of 5.4 and I feel great its not to tight at all. So just because you are tight at one number doesnt mean you will be that way forever thats the beauty of the band it works with you if you work with it and I think i am in the green zone YIPPIE.

Good morning it took me about 4 fills to get any really restriciton and 6 to be at my green zone. Its diffrent for everyone and it LB is process that takes a very long time in a lot of cases to see real weight loss. I would encourge you to speak with you doctor and ask him how does he or she feel about giving you a larger fill than they normally would to help you get there sooner. I did this on my 4th fill when I was completly frustrated and upset with my slow progress and he was happy to help, sometimes you just have to push the doctor a little to get you there. Hope this helps and good luck.

I call mine Judge Judy

Hello all, I want to start to off by saying I work out everyday 2 miles walking and weights included, i use my fittness pal every day and a super dedicated to it and keep my self on a 1200 colorie diet or less. This past monday I had my 5th fill to 4.6cc I have lost a total of 10lbs since my surgery on 3/23/2012. I am not sure what to do or what is happening because it seems the weight is just not comming off fast enough. I am so concerned that the band may not work for me. I know its a tool and dont expect it to do all the work and I put in the work to do what I am supposed to be doing. Are there any slow loosers out their that can offer support or insight as to what i can do to help my band work more with me. My doctor says I cant have another fill for another month and i think he needs to be more agressive. All my fills have been under fluroscope and there are no leeks or issues with the band from what we can see. Now the funny thing is my doctor showed me a picture of my stomach and said it is unusaly small and thats why its taking so many fills to get me to restrictoin. Has anyone heard of this before. Any help or guidance you can offer would be most apprecaited. Thank you,

I had my surgery March 21st and was very unhappy with my results and had my doctor do a big fill on Monday. This morning i went in for a sligt unfill because i really could not swollow water for 2 days. Today i have about 4.5 in my band and drinking water comfortably. I am a slow looser and have only lost 16lbs.I am self pay i did not have a pre op diet to follow and my liver was in good condition. So all in all I am happy with my progress and at this rate i will be in Wonderland by the end of the year. Slow and steady wins the race. I went thru True Resluts Dr. Richard Carter and if any of you live in the Dallas Fort Worth area and need a good doctor for follow ups Dr. Carter is the best in the business. Good luck to you all.

Congradulations good luck to you the new you is waiting to make her debut.

I agree sounds like you are too tight.

@ Almajuanes .....Well usually about a week or so. I am self pay and my first year of fills are free or included in the 10k i paid so I am taking advantage of this WHOLE year. Every time i feel like i need to talk or that i am eating to much or not going fast enought i am right back in that office, I feel like I am my doctors customer and he needs to take care of me. If i wanted a 10k hammer I would have bought that tool and left it on the shelf in the garage but I did not I bought a 10k weight loss tool and I am doing everything I can to make sure I get what I need out of it.

I just had my 5th fill and now at 5.5cc's. The amount of fill does not really matter some people dont have any fill and loose weight with just placement. There are a lot of people that say the band is just a tool and you have to work at it and thats true but lets be real we all paid ( at least I did selfpay ) nearly 10k for a tool that needs to work. So today I spoke with my doctor and told him i am unsatisfied with the results and that we need to be more agressive and he agreed so I got a full cc that brought me to the 5.5cc. I am a slow looser and eating a cup of food on empty stomach with no restriction is like being on a diet before lap band hugry all the time and feeling defeated. My suggestion to all paitence is to be agressive with your doctor he or she is employed by us and we need to be assertive. If you are not loosing and you feel like you have been doing your part tracking calories and walking or some sort of excersize 30 min a day then he or she needs to do thier part to help get you to the green zone. Thats my two cents I hope it helps someone. As for me I am 5 months post op and have lost 10lbs, but feel like Im finally closer to my green zone.

For my first 3 fills i went every month now because i am such a slow looser i have been going in every 2 weeks. Today was my 6th fill and i have an appointment set for next monday for a 7th if i need it and just to check. I have a total of 5.5cc in now.

Puppypaws, thanks for the information. Can you please tell me if the upper GI could see something that the fulorsope would not catch. Each of my fills are done under flurscope and my doctor says it looks fine and has good placement. I have a little restriction but wish he would be more agressive based on my slow loss.

I am so sorry to hear you are having issues.. I went throught tru resluts and all my fills have been under florscope which is great because i get to see and confirm placement of my band and see the fluid pas thru. My doctor also uses lidocain soaked gauze rubs to reduce the pain and I have no pain at all. I would suggest you ask your doctor use a local or these swabs to reduce the pain, fills should not be painful. Good luck I will be praying for you.

I bought some peppermint tea for the gas pain. The gax ex strips really did not help me so a friend suggested the tea and BOY was it a help, the warm liquid coupled with the mint helped me ALOT with the pain you get due to air being pumped in your body during surgery. Good luck to you I remember the day before my surger I was so pumped. Good bless you :-)