La_madam

Trust me if any of those people who are on WW or Atkins had the opportunity to havethe band , I am sure most of them would do it, so not let them fool you. When you are at goal and they are still struggling to lose or struggling to maintain what they lost, I'm usre you will be more then happy to talk aboutthe band with them again and Iam sure their attitude will have changed some

Carbs crave carbs,so the more carbs you eat the nore you want and the same applies for sugar. Try starting your day with strictly protein and see if you notice a diference in your hunger and carveings throughout the day. It works great for me, but if I start my day with any kind of carbs in the morning I am carving carbs all day long and feel like I am starving.

Love My Band! Would do it again in a heartbeat! Firstt ime in my life I feel I will never re-gain the weight I have lost. I finally have control.

If it were me and I was 2 days post op I would not put anything otherthen clear liquids in my body...You do not want to jeopardize anything so soon after surgery. This is just my opinion

I'm like Greg with a crazy shchedule My work scheudle is different then most, I am up at 3:50 am and at work by 5:00am so when I eat breakfast it is usually around 9:00 am where I have been up for 5 + hours and I got to bed at 7:30 and I do not eat any food in the evening past 5:00 pm so we are talking 16 hours between dinner and breakfast.

Congratulations to both of you Jim & Celeste Great News, glad to hear you are both home and recovering nicely

Sounds like my husband, looks like we are in the same boat!

Throwin up is NOT good for the band, an occassional vomit is expected. If you are throwing up more then once a week you are at higher risk of slippage is what I was told by my Dr. If you are thrwoing up more then once a week from a PB then it is possible your band is too tight or you are not chewing your food enough or taking to big of a bite. Try to avoid PBing or vomiting, if it is vomiting from an illness , they have suppositories to help with that but if it is vomiting from food getting stuck ( PB) , that is not a good thing for your band. I have been banded 13 months and have PBed 5 times and had the flu oncewhere I vomited. So far my band is fine and no slippage. It will not slip off, it will slip down and when it does , one of the sypmptoms of it is not being able to keep any liquids or solids down without vomiting. SOme have had slippage with out this symptom. When you go for your fills, if your doctor uses flouro, he can tel if your band has slipped.

That could take any pain away you are having

Sherri, every Dr. has his or her own set of post op rules, what my Dr. told me to follow post op is not the same as your Dr. but that does not make either one of them wrong, I would just stick to his instructions, that is the best thing that you can do for you and your band. When I was allowed protein drinks I stayed clear from the rice protein they were higher in carbs andweall know eating carbs crave more carbs. I am like you I needed a very quick and ready to use protein drink in a can, to just pop open and drink. My preference was the Atkins Advantage chocolate flavor, those are the ones I drank. We all have our favorite protein drinks and you will get many different opinions on this. As far as the gas, it takes some time to get rid of all of it, it was about 3 weeks for me. It sounds l;ike you are doing everything right per your Dr.'s instructions, I would not worry that you are doing anything wrong, I know it is normal to worry, I think when all of us were newbies we all had the same fears. Good Luck to you

I eat breakfast, for me when I eat breakfast even if I am not hungry because then I am not so ravenous in the evening or afternoon, my breakfast is strictly protein. If you skip breakfast, are you eating 60 grams of protein a day? That is the question, protein is very important to us bandsters. If I do not eat breakfast, I know for certain I do not get in my 60 grams of protien a day, and I know my protein has been key to my success.

Tee, Have you had a fill yet? If not this is why you may not be losing, the first 6 weeks post op are mainly for healing only any weight loss during this time is a bonus.Did your doctor not tell you this? If you have no fill it is quite normal to be able to eat anything without restriction, with no fill you have no restriction. The band was designed to be filled to work at it's best capacity. So if no fill it is no woner you are not losing, hang in there and do not fret, once you start getting your fills you will undertand what restriction really is and will lose weight. You are NOT headed for total failure.

All I can say is I am living proof that the Lap Band is affective 92 lbs in 13 months is just a good as a bypass patient with no saggy skin, no dumping, no malabsorption I am extremely happy with my Lap Band and am glad I chose Lap band over bypass

I take Xananx and anaprox is not the generic for xanax ...Alprazolam is the generic name for it. Vicodin is OK to take it has Acetaminophen in it which is basically the same thing in tylenol there are no NSAID's in Vicodin NSAID"S can cause gastritis which can lead to have your band unfilled until you heal. They can also cause ulcers which will also cause gastritis. Gastritis is not a single disease, but several different conditions that all have inflammation of the stomach lining. Gastritis can be caused by drinking too much alcohol, prolonged use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin or ibuprofen,

My doctor does the same thing on the first fill, it is important to remove all of the air in your tubing or you could have less in your band then you originally thought when they go to pull it all out on your next fill.

Mary, it will be over before you know it, hang in there and I wish you a speedy recovery, Hey I hear when a person gets their gallbladder removed they lose weight so that is something possitve out of this whole thing

Christina, Iam happy for you, you have waited so long for this day to finally come I'm so sorry to hear of your back being out, I can relate very well to your pain, my husband lives with chronic back pain every day of his life, his back has been out for over 11 days now. He lives on a pain patch and vicodin & muscle relaxers at night. The pain you are feeling now will be nothing compared to the jubalation of getting your your band! Countin' down the days

There is a slim fast shake out now that is a Protein shake. For me I preferred the pre mixed in the cans, they were more convenient for my lifestyle, and yes they were sweet You aregoing to get many opinions here on what others liked best, only you can decide what works best for you. Trial and error is how I had to figure it out, but by the time I figured it out my liquid phase was almost over, then the need for Protein shakes was no more

Congratulations on your new band and your weight loss. What you are feeling is normal about gaining the weight back, but once you get into this journey a little deeper you will start to realize it most likely will not happen as long as you use your band wisely and work with it instead of against it. Mental hunger is a tough one in the beginning but again it gets easier as you progress, when I have good restriction it helps me forget my obsession about food We all are successful here If you want to see just how successful many of us have been go to this thread http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=4642

Tylenol is fine, it is what was reccomended by my doctor. I stay away from all NSAID's

Betty is right, having as little as .2cc's removed can make it where you cane eat sloids comfortably and yet still haveenough restriction to still lose weight. I will second what she said on PBing,, if you ate tuna and it came back up then you PBed and anytime you PB it is reccomended to do liquidsfor 24 hours to reduce swelling from the PB, trust me on this one I speak from experience. If you continue to PB you can cause a vicious cycle of eating and Pbing and then you can get esophagitis which is what happened ot me, and it was not pleasant!

Print this link out for your friend to read, then maybe she will understand where you are coming from, if she is your best friend then maybe reading something like this she will get it. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=4750

Amber, if you are waiting to feel full with the band, it will not happen like it did pre band, you will never experience that "Thanksgiving Full" feeling again When you say you are doing everything you are suppossed to, exactly what do you eat? Do you eat your hard Proteins first? Do you eat atleast 60 grams of Protein a day? You should feel some restriction at 2.3 cc's My concern would be that you are over half filled and just had surgery in March of 2005, if you have alot of weight to lose you only have 1.7 cc's of room left in your band. Have you been checked for a leak? When your doctor did your second fill did he pull out all the Fluid that he put in from the first fill? Was the ammount the same? The other thing is, we need to work at tit to not eat until we are full any more, it is hard but eating until we are full is what got usall here in the first place. I now eat until I am satisfied and know I have eaten enough for nutritional reasons only, if I ate until I was full everytime, I wouldnt ever get there nor would I probably have lost 92 lbs in 13 months Remember , just because you could, doesnt mean you should We bandsters have you use some mental willpower also to make our bands work, we can not just rely on the band to do it all

How may of you have your fills done by mexican docs and how many of you have your fills by U.S. docs? Those who have Fills by U.S. docs- are you happy with your restriction levels? Do you feel they fill you enough each time? How many fills have you had in what time frame? Those who have Fills by Mexico Dr.s - areyou happy with your restriction levels? Do you feel they fil lyou enough each time? How many fills have you had in what time frame? I ask becasue I have read that U.S. Dr.s are much more conservative on fills, they like to sneak up on your restriction level, where as Mexico Dr.s like to get you to good restriction much sooner. Personally I have had 3 fills for a total of 2.5 in 13 months and have done extremely well with my Mexico Dr. However I have nothing to compare it to since I have not used a U.S. Dr. for my fills. I just would like to hear others feelings on this subject.

http://lapbandtransformation.com/Adjustments.htm Here is a great site to help you with deciding to get another fill or not, when I felt that I needed a fill I went to this page and read it over and over again to make sure I really needed an adjustment in my fill or an adjustment in my attitude, hope this is helpful Sometimes it was just an attitude adjustment