Jules831

I had my band for 7 months. I've lost 138 lbs. With my band about all I could eat was saltine crackers and a smoothie (milk, oj, yogurt, banana and an egg) I couldn't do anything else. Last month I had about 3 weeks where I thought I kept getting that horrible flu that kept going around at the end of the 3 weeks I couldn't even keep Water down, my family doctor was so worried that she contacted my lap-band doctor and a barium swollow was ordered. I couldn't really keep it down either, and the pictures looked like it just sat in the pouch above the band no even a trickle would go down into my stomache. So I went to see my lapband doctor and he took the fill that is in the band originally out and had me try some water and again it came up. He decided I had to have emergency surgery to have it taken out. The thought was that the band was just too tight. He gave me the option of putting a new one in in the larger size but after living on crackers and smoothies for 6 months I'd had enough and since we were paying out of pocket for the surgery I really didn't want to cost my parents that much more money. Around midnight I finally went into surgery after having 6 bags of IV fluids pumped into me. My doctor found that he couldnt put a new band in any way, the band size was just fine but my stomache had slipped above the band and then folded over blocking the opening, the probe could go through but just barely. My stomache was also erroded. He told us that he wouldn't have put a new band in at that time even if I'd wanted one. I'm now two weeks with out the band, and eating normal food, mostly fruits and veggies which was what I came to miss the most. It took me a week to get to feeling better, I'd been very dizzy during the 3 weeks I'd been sick and even fainted a few times and it took that week to get over that completely. :faint: I'm going to be starting Weight Watchers and joining Curves next week to loose the 47 lbs that I have to go to reach my goal. So to you weight you are still gonna go away!

Hi my name is Julia, I'm 24 years old. I had Lapband surgery on October 2, 2007. One month prior to surgery I weighed in at 365 lbs. I have tried diets left and right since jr. high. Now six months later I have lost 125 lbs and weigh in at 235 lbs. The only problems I seem to have are that I have not had a fill, I can only really eat saltine crackers, a smoothie that consists of yogurt, milk, juice, a banana and an egg. On occasion I can get down the middle of a baked potato or mashed potatos. I can drink milk and try to often. Cheese, Creamy Peanut Butter, Lettus and most meats do not agree with me very well and most often come up. I am finding that I can't eat mashed potatos, cottage cheese or jello any more as my stomach no longer likes those. I did try a crispy corn tortilla with beans, ground beef and cheese on top reciently (very mild mexican taste) and loved it and it stayed down. Although two days later I had the flu again and found some remains from it in my stomach still. I have had the flu 3 times in the past 3 weeks and it feels like the flu and not related to the lapband. So my family doctor called the doctor who did my banding and now I have to go in for a barium (YUCK!) swollow and travel up to see him to see what he says. I've just been reading a site (can't remember the name of it now) that has all these letters to a Dr. Rutledge trying to see if they can have the lapband removed because of complications and there was some info on there about the number of patients haveing to have the band removed. That does scare me a little because I had never seen anything to that effect during all the research I did before going in for the surgery. If I have to have it removed, I don't know how I'd pay for it, insurance did not cover the original surgery. Oh! my town reciently started a support group for those of us going through lapband and some of the ladies suggested Gas-X chewables for that constant vomiting at first and any gas. Boy does it work although I have switched to the Gas-X thinstrips as they go down better for me and the pepermint taste sooths a little better. If anyone has anything that could help me I'd really appriciate any comments or even an email. Thanks! Jules

For my 2 week presurgery diet I was told to drink SlimFast only for the two weeks, SlimFast makes me sick so I did the Danon Light 'n Fit soothies and just made sure to stay with in the calorie in take level and I lost more than enough for surgery.

I just reciently learned that Gas-X chewables (I now use the thinstrips) really help with that gas and that constant throwing up. I started using them about 4 or 5 weeks ago and they have really helped me. Thanks to the gals at the Lewistown Montana LP Support group for that tip to me!