parisshel

Yup. Word.

I get all my fills under fluoro and have been overfilled once, by .5ccs. Your barium swallow can show perfect fill level but remember, we all react differently to fills. My fill doesn't reveal itself for a couple of weeks after the procedure (once the swelling from the fill goes down) so that's my time for assessing the efficacity of the fill.

I can't eat shrimp or other rubbery shellfish, but I can eat fish such as haddock. Nuts I also tolerate.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/latest-lap-band The link says video but it should lead to an article by Dr. Fielding on the lapband. It's a lapband-positive article.

There is a correlation between WLS and depression, but WLS does not exacerbate depression. The correlation comes from expectations not met post-surgery, and a resulting depression, or an inability to integrate new body image when weight is lost.

Please don't feel like a failure. Emptying your band is actually the best step you could have taken considering the circumstances. You took good care of yourself by going back in and NOT waiting it out. Had you waited this out, the consequences could have been much worse than an emptied band, such as a band slip, dehydration, band erosion, and constant esophagal/stoma inflammation. It's a good think you acted quickly. How long until you can re-fill? May I offer you some advice for this waiting period? (I'm partially unfilled, myself). You will now be back in Bandster Hell. I am using this time to just stablize my loss and not try to keep losing (it's just too hard to eat bandlike portions with no band, at least for me). So I went back to my WW plan and thankfully I've managed to maintain my loss by keeping to a traditional (but healthy) diet. Had I not put into place some kind of eating plan, I would've very quickly put my weight back on during the three months I have to remain at this fill level. (I'm not empty, but I may as well be.) You've got a good loss going there...just strive to keep it off until you can get back to your optimal fill level. Sending strength your way...

Oh man, I would not have been able to keep my mouth shut at that cooking class. While perhaps (and I say "perhaps" with great reserve) someone with 10-15 pounds to lose might be able to lose it and keep it off with a "positive attitude", I know of no one IRL that has lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off without WLS. And in fact, even obesity researchers cannot find a substantial sample of formerly morbidly obese people who have lost weight and kept it off by traditional diet and exercise. Revisit that WW leader in five years. How much weight did she lose prior to becoming a WW leader? If it was over 75 pounds, I guarantee that if you were to see her in five years, she would no longer be a WW leader because she would have put back on some, all, or more of that weight. And it will serve her right for being so insultingly short-sighted. As if "will power and positive attitude" is all it takes!!! What an idiot.

I get my hair highlighted every six weeks, no problems. (But I have masses of hair so the hairloss following my surgery didn't even make a dent in it. It just made me invest in liquid Plumber.)

Everytime I think that (or used to think that, pre-lapband surgery) I ended up even fatter. Why? Because WLS is the only method that works on both dimming one's appetite AND reducing the amount of volume one could comfortably place in one's stomach. Take away my too-present hunger and my ability to eat as much as I like? Weight loss!

You have all my sympathy; I'm so sorry you are in this situation. Your surgeon will give you post-op directives. In terms of maintaining your loss, just know it will be tough. Be very mindful of how you were pre-surgery and how you never want to have to lose that weight again. It is extremely difficult to maintain a good loss such as the one you've had (we all know this, having dieted forever) but now that you are at a healthy weight, it won't be impossible. If I were in your position, I'd get right to a nutritionist and get advice on how best to keep you loss maintained as an unbanded person. It will involve more willpower than with the band, certainly, but it is not impossible. Wishing you a good recovery and much strength.

and maintained the majority of the weight loss 15 years post procedure. For me, this is the most important takeaway from this article, and the reason I chose WLS. I wanted to not only lose weight, but maintain the loss over time. Only WLS does this, with its mind and body-altering properties.

It would be a good question to ask. I'd be honest with them and just tell them that you'd prefer larger fills as it is costly to keep coming in for these smaller ones. Ask them their rationale behind the .33s; they may have a legitimate reason why they do it this way. But if they don't, I'd speak up and say that you'd like a more-reasonable fill so that you can get this thing going!

That sounds like a very small amount to receive at each fill appointment. Is this protocol financially-driven, or are all these fills included in your surgery cost? I'd be hopping mad if I had to pay for a .33 fill! I guess in the longterm, because we all have to look at this with a view towards the longterm, it won't matter, because you'll eventually get to your optimal fill level. But I can understand how this must be frustrating for you. We all went through bandster hell (I'm in fact currently back in that special place, but just plugging through it since I know it is temporary); your bandster hell just may be longer than the norm. Just keep in mind it's only for a little while longer...and keep front-loading the Protein, stay away from anything that sparks your appetite (for me this is carbs and sugar) and keep busy and moving!

I parboil it, shred it like coleslaw pieces, and make a cold salad, with low fat mayo and plain low fat yogurt mixed together as the dressing. You could mix in grated carrots, too.

I wish the band had been this perfected when I was 20-30, too, but it wasn't so in a way we are lucky that we didn't attempt this then. I have to say I must be an outlier because I see no difference in the rhythm of my weight loss now (I just turned 55) and when I used to do traditional dieting (all my life). In fact, my weight came off faster and more consistently with the band that with traditional dieting. But that's because with non-surgical dieting, once I fell off the diet...I'd binge for the week "until next Monday" or "until my next Weight Watchers weigh in" and of course gain. With the band, it's always in there, so there's no on or off. What a blessing.

Everyone reacts to fills differently. Usually there will be immediate restriction due to the "trauma" of the fill on the stomach. This is just the stomach swelling due to what it senses is irritation. However, if you just got a small or initial fill, you probably wouldn't feel this because you'd still have a largish stoma, so any reactive swelling isn't going to be felt. In any case, your sense of restriction will always vary, day by day, as long as you are banded. Sometimes it will vary hourly! Most bandsters notice the band is tighter in the morning, and will loosen as the day progresses. Personally, my fills take two weeks to set up, in terms of judging the real fill level. Right after my fill I'm always restricted, but that's just the irritation and not the actual saline level. Two weeks later, the irritation was calmed down and that's when the fill level reveals itself to me.

This is not meant to sound harsh but I invite you to seriously reflect on why you would chose to eat pizza 1) so soon after WLS and 2) after all you did to GET surgery. You are not on Weight Watchers here. You've chosen voluntarily to have major, invasive surgery because your weight is impacting your mental and physical health. To be 20 days out and to eat pizza? Please consider adding a mental health person to your bariatric team. You want to have your head in the game in order to be successful with the tool. Don't put pizza into your body, at least until you are securely at goal, if then. Don't waste this gift.

One day I'm going to make a list of everything I didn't get told pre-band, and "Your feeling of restriction/satiety will vary day to day" will be at the top of the list. I think it is important for people to realize this, so they don't think it is odd when the tight feeling fluctuates with one's stress level, temperature, state of health, exercise, morning/evening, alcohol consumption, etc. In a way, it's a neat thing to realize that the band is capable of modifying itself according to what is going on with your body and mind. But it would be beneficial for bariatric teams to share this information from the outset, just as they tell as about pre and post op eating directives. My surgeon, like many others, never once said it is perfectly normal for a band to feel tighter in the morning (and then explain the mechanics behind why that is), or when one is congested with a head cold.

Hmmm. I'm sure the author was never obese. These platitudes are not workable for the obese. Especially the "everything in moderation" because we don't eat anything we like in moderation. If we could, we never would have been candidates for WLS in the first place. "Mindful" or "Intuitive" eating does not work for obese people either, because our state has altered our mindfullness and intuition, rendering both of these inexistant or at least unreliable. Seriously, have you ever known a 350-pound person get to goal and stay at goal through mindful eating? It's an interesting read now that we are banded, and have an appetite dimmer/mechanical brake that allows us to adopt the mindset that permits the type of eating described in the article. But there is no doubt in my mind that without my band, the strategies this author describes just wouldn't work for me in the longterm. I have a huge issue with non-obese writers writing weight loss tips. Can you tell?

Six months after I had been banded, my boyfriend (who is 45) went in to get a little chest pain checked by the doctor. He was on the operating table 48 hours later, getting a quintuple heart bypass. "Stressful time" does not begin to describe last September. But because I have a lapband, which at that time was at optimal fill (it isn't currently), I did not have to worry about my food or gaining weight or eating away my stress. What a blessing my lapband was then. It really was so wonderful to not have to add that OMG I completely went over my calories today feeling, and to not have to wake up and see a gain on the scale every morning. I know that had I not been banded, I would have ate my way through this stressful period, adding more emotion and despair to what was already going on with my BF's health. Instead, I just powered through my BF's surgery and long hospital and cardiac rehab stay, and the very slow climb for him back to normal. The lapband gave me no other choice, thankfully. So my advice to you and anyone going through a rough patch is to make sure you are at optimal fill and just keep your food plan clean and going strong. It really isn't hard when you are at optimal fill. You don't need derailment thrown on top of all the other stresses you can't control. Your lapband and its power? You can control that. Keep it right and keep it clean, and it will give you the strength to put order in your house.

As the above commentors state, check the type of medication. If it is slow-release, don't break it! You must take slow-release pills whole or the results can be fatal.

This reminds me of my boyfriend's complaint that our Saturday afternoon bike rides are disruptive to what we used to do on Saturday afternoons. I'm all "So we'll just shift our routine a bit, dear."

THIS~! Brilliantly stated.

Totally normal to be fearful. The thing is, part of why WLS is effective is it affects your brain and your stomach. You can't know this before you do it, and it is very hard to imagine. (Like becoming a first-time parent, as a previous poster states.) Your appetite is turned way way down, similar to what happens when you have the flu (but of course you don't feel yucky with WLS, just not hungry) so really, you brain won't seek food like it did prior to WLS. So while it is really normal to have this fear prior to surgery, trust that the surgery will give you the peaceful mental state of not even wanting to use food for something other than it was intended....fuel for your body, not an escape for your mind.