WASaBubbleButt

What city and state are you in? We might be able to come up with some suggestions. You might be tighter if you flew. For some reason some people get tighter when they fly on airplanes. Did you fly?

Well, for ANY new drug or procedure someone has to be the human lab rat. We are it.

Yep, everything GayleTX wrote. I agree with it 100%. I have to laugh at a majority of bandsters (not talking about you, Sooz) but so many throw a fit over not being able to get in healthy amounts of each food group. How many of we fatties actually know what a healthy amount of food is? We swear we'll die of malnutrition with a band because we can eat (gasp) normal portions. Sooz, I think you might be surprised at how little nutrition and how much sugar is in many fruits. Nope, I'm not suggesting people eliminate fruit, not be a long shot. I'm saying it doesn't take as much as you think. How many of us had great diets before banding? Yet the thought of cutting down on the sugary fruits is a horror to us. Kinda funny if you think about it in perspective. We used to eat chocolate but banding cuts down on fruit intake. uh huh... (again, not directing this to the OP)

Sonic ice?? Details please? Sounds fun!

When I had surgery I was in it for the long haul. I seriously wanted a lifestyle change. I don't want to live off the bad stuff anymore. I eat bad things about once a month and I'm done. Most of all for me it is a matter if I start on bad carbs I can't quit. For me it really is all or none. I choose none. I could eat Cookies and candy, that stuff just slides down. But I know if I start I can't stop. So I avoid it. Over time you start to lose some of your obsession for food. Look at the posts, the newbies are ALL about food... what can they eat and how much can they have. There are people that decline banding because they might not be able to eat bread again. That is a serious obsession with food! Then look at posts from the old timers... it's rarely about food their posts are about living life. See the huge difference? Check it out. The only time old timers even talk about food is if they are answering a question or they have a funny story to tell. For me I can't say the obsession with food is gone but I can say that for the most part I gained control over it. Nothing nicer in the whole world. And Bandorita... you are making serious mistakes if you are bumping up the post op diet. It is NOT designed to be in place just until swelling goes down. There is a great deal more to it. The post op diet sets the tone for the life of your band. Swelling is minor, that goes away in a few days. It's a matter of adhesions on your stomach. Do you know that since US docs started easing up on a strict post op diet the stats for slips have gone from 3% to 7%? Those are just the reported stats, not all of them. You are playing with fire and you are risking your band for potatoes. I'm telling you, it's just not worth it. While I totally understand it I do not support it. I want to see you keep your band for life.

The truth is, nobody really knows. Theoretically it should last forever. But nobody has had a band longer than 20 years or so and those people are few and far between. The honest answer is... hopefully things will be the same as they are today. We are kind of test rats in an odd sort of... willing way. We all know going into this that we don't know what will happen 20+ years from now. There are banded people in their 60s and 70s, but they have not been banded very long. I'm not sure the real concern here is if a senior can be banded, but will their unique issues be a big surprise if they were not banded as a senior.

For 10 years my NYR has been to lose weight. I busted my butt, I exercised all the time, kept calories at 600 a day. I lost 100% of my excess weight. I'm taking this coming year off.

Yes, people tend to have a warning. You get immediate nausea, then there is sliming (heh, that's always a treat for newbies to hear about), and sometimes it goes down, sometimes it doesn't. You LEARN to chew well and not make mistakes in public. I drink alcohol once in a while but with any WLS you get drunk VERY VERY fast. I used to be able to put it away, not anymore. A half glass of wine the other night and I wanted to climb the palm tree outside my hotel room balcony, it seemed more reasonable than taking the elevator.

HA! Sorry, this made me laugh! I think exactly the same way you do. I relate all too well! This kind of thinking keeps me from eating those 12" frosted Cookies the size of a cake!

If you dare to ask, you likely know why~ If I swallow something too large to go through my stoma, well.. it's not going to go through so it has to come out somewhere and it comes up. It's also very painful. I don't eat new foods around anyone, but I will eat known foods around others.

0.10cc can make ALL the difference in the world. If 0.3 makes such a huge difference you can get an idea of what 0.1 would do.

Might want to read this: Lap-Band Surgery FAQs and References - Lap Band Talk Forum - The largest forum for Lap Band Surgery Discussion and Lap Band Surgery Support

The port is sewn into the fascia tissue. It's connective tissue we all have. The fascia is above a muscle and below a fat pad. So they have to cut the fat pad to get to the fascia tissue. Some surgeons believe there is less chance for a seroma if they suture the fat pad back to where it was. This could be one reason for the dent, perhaps your doc isn't one that buys into the seroma theory.

Unless you are consuming gluten why would it affect your band at all? What specifically are you worried about?

You know what??? I can do that now! Didn't used to be able to do it but I can now. With sugar I can, with other carbs it's a no-go! HA! Insubordination: Yeah, it takes getting used to in order to get a taste of something vs. eating 4 of them. I was laughing to myself yesterday at the grocery store. I saw one of those decorated 12" Cookies the size of an entire cake. I was thinking that a year ago, that was A cookie. ONE cookie. Heh...

Not a myth at all. It's a country wide problem. There is a doc about 20 miles from me that will do fills, the next doc is about 2.5 hours from me. ALL other docs refuse to fill Mexican banded patients or patients they did not operate on. I just go to my surgeon, most of his patients do. It's about a 3.5 hour drive and we have fun while in Mexico. We spend the night, go shopping, do all kinds of things.

Anyone is welcome to go with us to Mexico for fills. Dr. Aceves, he is about 50 miles west of Yuma. We go as a group and have fun while we are in Mexico. He'll fill people he did not band.

I don't think we are aiming for a diet, we are aiming for normal eating habits. Normal people and naturally thin people have a piece of cake sometimes. Isn't it odd how we don't really know what normal eating is? I still think about my own thinking of food and I have to stop and think, is this considered "normal" or not? ;o) Today I bought a brownie from the bakery. I ate about 1/8th of it and pitched the rest. To me, that's normal. I don't do it often, I'm not gaining, I'm maintaining, so what's the big deal? People eat holiday food on holidays, I think it is okay for us too, don't you agree? Now, if you are a sugar addict and it will start a huge month long binge... no, avoid it. But if you can eat one piece and walk away from it and not start a carb thing that lasts for days then go for it.

A few weeks ago I went to the best Italian restaurant I have ever been to, amazingly it was in Mexico! It was the best meal I have had since banding, loved it! I decided I was going to eat the whole darn thing and I did! (I don't have a lot of restriction so I can pretty well eat any quantity I want to, I just usually don't eat much) It took me between 1.5-2 hours but by goodness, I ate the whole damn thing. People with me were doing the eyeroll, sighing, the works. I didn't care, that was some seriously good food! I didn't care if they left, I was finishing my food.

There is a part of it that is harder for you because you don't HAVE to do it. We HAVE to do it or there is a great deal of pain and/or discomfort. When you have to do it, it's not as big of a deal. It just becomes a way of life. I do find that I prefer foods that are supposed to be cold because they all end up cold anyway.

I think they are likely looking for obvious issues people have that would make them not great for WLS. I have a friend that I swear to you, I think if she was banded I think she would do serious harm to herself. She will go to a restaurant and quite literally order "page two" of the menu. I have never seen someone put food away like she does. There is nothing on God's green earth that is going to stop her from eating. If she was banded she would eat/purge/eat/purge and continue until her pouch exploded. I'm seriously not exaggerating. I don't even tell her about my band because I know she isn't ready to give up her quantity of food yet. I hope one day she is, but today she is so completely and totally dependent on food you just have no idea. I've never seen anything like it. Very rarely does a PhD deny you for surgery. I only know of one person personally and the person had to jump through the doc's hoops before she would sign off on the surgery. Just happens to be that the doc offered every bloody weight loss gimmick on the market. Everything down to phone chats at $100/chat three times weekly. When my friend ran out of money and was going to give up on surgery then the psychologist decided she was cured enough to have a band. I really don't think that is the norm, I think they just want to make sure you won't be like my friend that cannot and will not give up quantities of food. Some people really are not ready for WLS, they simply aren't. They can get surgery but it isn't going to work. So the bariatric docs cover their butts and make you jump through hoops.

Every new band has a sales pitch and it's a reason why that band is better than any other band. Truth is, it's a sales pitch. I'm not sure any of them are better than another as far as quality of weight loss speed. Some bands claim faster weight loss, some claim fewer slips, others claim fewer erosions. Bottom line is they all tend to do the same thing. They limit your ability to overeat.

Usually the first few days the gas is being absorbed by the GI system so GasX works. But after a few days you are experiencing the effects of the gas that was there. Remember, when you have surgery they fill your gut with gas so they can see what they are doing. This pushes and pulls on things inside and it can cause a bruising type effect as well as irritating a nerve in your diaphragm that extends to referred pain in your shoulder. Walking, GasX (for 3-4 days), a heating pad, rocking in a rocking chair... they all seem to help.

Nobody wants to be MO but not everyone is ready to do what needs to be done. It's very frustrating, isn't it?

Are you getting fills under fluoro? Sounds like you need to keep hanging in there until you get good restriction. One frustrating part of the bigger bands is that sometimes it does take longer to get good restriction. Keep on getting fills until you get there, it will happen.