Cloud_dance

So the lapband basically cut my food intake by 75% percent of what I been eating. It's been seven months and I've only lost 25 pounds since I was banded (I lost 20 pounds before that). There have been three incidences where I slipped up and ate high calorie foods, but I'm STILL eating 75% less than I was, eating nearly no bread, no Pasta, no burgers, and very little fast food (since I can't eat nearly everything.) I also don't drink sodas and I've had to check myself as I moved to a hotter climate and the land of sweet tea. I stay under 1500 calories a day and 1000 if I am careful and count things. I started going to the gym to strength train and doing yoga twice a week. It is apparent things are changing, I am more flexible, and my body isn't getting in the way anymore, but the scale still reads I am stuck at 285. I have 105 pounds to go at my height and i'm really sad that even eating less is not enough to loose more weight. Is my PCOS doing this? Do I need help?

I think I need to involve more cardio then (to burn calories) and improve my muscle mass (to burn calories). I have a mildly enlarged heart so I am trying to track my heart rate, but after 10 minutes or so on a cardio machine (like a bike) my heart rate gets too high. I'll redouble my efforts on the food. I am waiting to get a new job so I can go back to more nuts and more organic foods. Plus, I am waiting to get in with a reproductive endrocrinologist to see if we can do something more about my PCOS.

So I stopped loosing about two months about at 285. I did have a stressful move 2000 miles and was eating erratically to deal with stress. I got a membership to the YMCA and in the midwest there are lots of chubby people at the Y so I don't feel alone. I start off with yoga twice a week and then going to the gym to do cardio and muscle building 2-3 times a week as well. And fortunately I did not gain. It is sort of exciting as I haven't really regularly exercised in over 10 years. My goal is to loose 40 pounds by October. My main obstacle is that here I am in the middle of one of the fattest cities in the USA with the most restaurants in the USA. My sister buys lots of sugary foods for the kids which are my weakness, and I get tempted by fast food. I try to start my day with yogurt and nuts or berries. Then the day dissolves into leftovers and me struggling not to eat junky foods laying around. A nice personal trainer said if I increase my muscle mass, I'll burn more calories, so I'll be more likely to lose weight instead of just maintain my current weight. Any other good ideas?

I just wanted to note that I still need to take my metformin to loose weight even with the lapband w/ PCOS. I also have to avoid carbs on (which is easy on the lap band diet) or I don't loose weight. However, right after the surgery I started having periods again regularly and they haven't stopped being regular since. I don't know what the surgery did, but it was like it reset my body. I am pretty sure that if I was in a position to get pregnant, i'd be able to easily.

Thanks to everyone. I must've had a really bad blockage in the stoma which is what caused all the distress. Then eating a bunch of acidy foods after the choking made it worse. I am SURE something slipped. A week of liquids probably made the swelling go down and the band is supposedly back where it should be. I just don't feel the same restriction and they won't do a fill for me yet. I don't think they even know how to do a fill. They don't even have the equipment to do a floroscopy in their portion of the health care center. I am very sure now they want me to fail. So I am leaving this *** and joining up with this clinic as well as taking my full medical care into my own hands. I can't deal with their ineptitude. Thanks again for the support!

I've complained before about the fact I am 16 weeks in. I've had no fills offered by my PA. I am not hungry often. I barely can swallow in the mornings. I can eat way too much in the evenings. But about 9 days ago I tried to eat a chicken finger with a butter biscuit as a treat. One of them got stuck in my band and I spent the next hour choking on it, trying to vomit, and finally getting hiccups. It was very painful. My stomach was sore after that. I had a stabbing soreness behind my lower sternum that lasted a few days. Since then whenever I try to eat more solid food, I go through some pain that radiates from my sternum. And now If something gets stuck, I suddenly get a violent urge to vomit and end up bending over the commode, drooling, and try to cough up whatever it is. Then I feel a sharp pain below my sternum as if the food is passing. I've had acid reflux in minor amounts but Ive also had some portions of acidic food like chili and a greasy piece of pizza recently at a party. I'm afraid I have slipped. I sent a note to the nurse asking for an Xray to make sure. I'm so worried.

I just had my GI Floroscopy. And I found out that there is a local Lap-Band surgery center of excellence in my town. Once I get this fixed, i'm quitting my *** so I can have that doctor take over my fills. My current *** had NO intent in helping me maintain a Lapband or do my fills as required for it to work. The cool thing is the new doctor has support groups just for Lap-band people and provides the type of support I need. I should have left my *** before the surgery and started with these guys. I feel much better being on liquids, the pain is gone mostly, and I'm pretty sure the band has shifted up but its still not where it was before. I also started drinking aloe vera juice to help reduce the inflamation. So, probably one more surgery and I am done with borderline medical malpractice. A doctor who does not believe in Lapbands should not do Lapbands NOR should their *** advertise they offer Lapbands if they don't have the facilities to maintain them and do regular fills.

Thanks for watching over me. This feels like a big slip. The restriction is at my sternum. I burp and it comes from much lower. I am getting reflux. I am down to full liquids so I'm eating soft Soups and yogurt. Soup is soothing. I had two questions: 1. Is repairing a lap band (with insurance) covered under the intial surgery after-care time period or is it something i'm going to have put in a seperate claim for? 2. Could I have done this to myself by starting Ab crunches two weeks ago? I am still pretty overweight so my crunches are'nt very huge, but I am doing simple ones and cross one where I attempted to touch my elbow with my opposite knee.

Thanks for the advice. I am pretty sure it has really slipped. I am burping down low in my stomach now and I can feel it when liquids struggle to get through the lower band. I know when it happened. I know why it happed. I know that what I did after the intial slip probably just made it worse as I choked the next five days on food. Now on Monday they will tell me to get an X-ray. My doctor will tell me I should just get a gastric bypass. I will see if my insurance covers it. I will do what he says UNLESS my insurance covers only the fix for the slip. Then I get set back three months. All my job interviews go on hold. All my volunteering goes on hold. I have to find someone to take me 100 miles to the hospital for emergency surgery. I am REALLY depressed. And the whole time I just look like a lazy fatty who can't control her eating to my doctor. That is unless of course, he did a shoddy job to start. > It's going to be a tough weekend.

Dr. told consulting nurse, "...hates Lap-bands, never putting another in again." I am sad. He said 48 hours on liquids. I wish I had not gone through Group Health and just dealt with a regular surgeon in my local area. I really want another doctor with me on this. But there is only one. I know he does only gastric bypasses because he treats fat people who thinks he can't control themselves and MUST have their stomachs cut out. I still worry he did a bad job of it so I would fail and he would be right.

I was banded on Dec 18th. Since then i've lost about 15 pounds. I did my post op two weeks out and the PA did no fill. Then two weeks ago I had to make an appointment and have them check if I was ready for a fill. And again he poked around my tummy and said he didn't think I needed a fill. Everything else I read said I should not be able to eat more than 4-6oz and not get the stopping signs. I am pretty tight in the mornings, I choke even on small things. But by the time 5:00 rolls around I can eat up to 16 Oz of semi-dense high Protein food if I don't watch myself. My grocery budget is 1/4 of what it used to be. I am eating less. I am eating low-carb/paleo. But quick weight loss is not happening, even though I am just not hungry anymore. Anyways, I am loosing about 1.5-2 pounds a week since I went off mushy foods. But I should not be able to eat this much! I am part of a health "co-op" type medical group, so I don't get a choice for my providers. I also have to drive 160 miles to make these visits to the bariatric unit. So I don't really trust my PA. I had to fight right up till when I was going into anethesia to have a lap band. They wanted me to get a gastric bypass, but I was just too terrified. The lead surgeon flat out told me it would not work and he would not do it for a family member if he was asked. He had me nearly crying, trying to explain why, (though he is a fabulous laproscopic surgeon.) So now I have this nagging feeling that the staff and that unit wants to see me fail. Either that or the PA does not want to do a fill because it takes a long time to do. Anyone ever have a Dr. or PA slack off and not do a fill? Also I am planning on moving away from this health unit, anyone had any luck switching bariatric care providers for fills and such?

I did not accept I had an eating problem until the day after I was banded. I have PCOS so I always blamed my weight gain and hunger on PCOS. But one the hunger was curbed, my need to overeat did not go away. I am/was simply used to eating family sized portions of food. In fact those first two weeks I was simply MANIC for food to deal with the stress of surgery. I staved it off with lots of Fiber rich smoothies and yogurts. I also learned that sugar free stuff made me super ravenous and I stopped eating it for good. At one point, overwhelmed, dazed even,I went to a drive thru and bought two chicken finger sandwiches (before I was off liquid food) and tried to eat one in my truck. I got something stuck for the first time then. Buns are NOT your friend with a lapband and neither is non-water soluble greasy chicken coatings! I found out real quick what happens: pain and nausea. You simply can't throw up hardly at all anymore, at least not in any way you will remember. When you eat too fast, or eat a gluey, chunky type-food and it gets stuck, it feels like someone has your heart in a vice. You will heave. Pain sets a VERY strong deterrent for eating foods which are naturally bad for you anyway. Any kind of bread, pastry, pie crust, and any crust with butter or grease in it, anything that will not melt naturally with Water, can get stuck at a moments notice. Carbonated sodas are out too, because the bubbles stretch the pouch. All this sounds hard to deal with. But the GREAT thing is I don't feel hungry. That empty feeling is gone. Just having the empty feeling gone all the time has helped me emotionally and physically get over the fact I can't binge anymore. Even more so it reminds me I don't have to binge to fill that void in me to feel full again. I get plenty to eat. I am eating good food. My food budget is down to 1/4 of what I used to spend. I'm loosing weight carefully and slowly. I just can't eat like I used to. And I really avoid those foods that make me choke. Once you choke on something, you really don't want to ever go back there again. Which I think is a good thing in the end.

So has been six weeks and I am still floating at the same weight I was at surgery. I was 305, then 307, then 305 again this week. I usually weigh myself on the scale out in the hallway at my medical center. Everthing seems to be working. I can barely eat anything in the morning w/o choking. If it is mushy I can eat 8-12 oz of it like oatmeal or Soup. If its chili consistency I can eat about 8 oz of it. I've mostly been eating canned soup, tuna, homemade chicken chilli, suriami fish, homemade udon soup with lots of veggies chopped up small and cooked in. I eat carbs in the form of very crisp rusks or crisp wholegrain crackers. I have something sweet about once a week and I only buy a 1 serving size, like a box of Junior Mints. I tried toast but there is no time of the day that toast does not eventually choke me, so I gave up on that. I've also reduced my grocery shopping to one day a week AND my Jan. grocery budget spending was 1/2 of what it is normally too. Once I passed the regular liquid stage, I stopped eating yogurt, soy milk, sugar free/no sugar added puddings, and veggie/unsweetened fruit smoothies. The sugar free stuff just wrecked me and made me constantly hungry for more pudding. I'm also working on exercise. I don't like going out where people can see me. BUT I don't like walking alone in the woods or the park. I went swimming even but I tried to jump out of the pool like I used to 12 years ago, and banged up my knee, and pulled a muscle. I just want to see some results like everyone here! Does anyone know when?

I did my measurements and I lost three inches around my waist. It is a start! Also I switched out most of my carbs for protein items so I hope I can break 300 by the end of this week. *fingers crossed*

I had Lap-Band Surgery four weeks ago. It seems like eternity since I started this journey. I am up to eating mushy/solid foods with broth. I am eating much less now since the food is staying in the pouch. About every other day or so, I forget to chew something, even a tiny little squishy turkey meatball the size of a small olive, something gets stuck and it hurts so bad I feel like I want to pass out. Insofar I have managed to prevent doing this in public by not eating anywhere public or unsafe. The first few times I got something stuck, I spent the rest of the day in bed, just wrecked. I had a scare a few weeks ago when I thought I had a port infection and ended up spending five hours at the urgent care in the middle of a flu explosion. Turned out I was just pretty constipated and it was pressing on my port side. It is hard going through this alone. I had to fight with my doctor to accept I could not mentally handle a gastric bypass and that I wanted the Lap Band. My provider hardly does them anymore because I feel (after much thought and watching them) they don't think fat people can control themselves enough to handle a lap-band anymore. They also cost 20,000 dollars less. I fought the gastric bypass because I did not want to be crippled for the rest of my life and all the people in my support group looked thin, but they also looked sick too, with thinning hair, and ashen skin. A good example is none of the people in our support group even have a Lap-Band. I also had a simple thought that I am in my 30s and that in the span of my life something better will come along if the Lap-Band is not totally effective for me. I want to be able to take advantage of that w/o half my stomach cut out. So there was a lot of angst in the process. I had to keep reminding everyone I was getting a Lap-Band right up to the anesthesiologist who STILL thought I was getting a Gastric Bypass. I had this sick sense that if I had not kept repeating that to every single health care person, I would have woken up five hours later with half my stomach gone. So I am impatient. I want to get on with this. I went swimming for the first time in 12 years last week. I am walking. I also feel a bit off, I take meds for my depression and they still haven't stabilized since I take chewable now. I have yet to break the 300 barrier and I want to badly! Eating was really hard. I stuck to soymilk and yogurt, then purreed Soups and unsweetened smoothies. I've still been eating Soup mostly and I find soup goes right through me so I can eat 15 oz of unchunky soup. However when I eat something dense like chili or oatmeal, I can eat 4-10oz of it. I'd think I want a band adjust ment but many things still keep getting stuck so I can't imagine the hole getting smaller at this point. It is most hard to remember early in the morning because I used to sleep eat too. Should I have a fill? I feel like making the hole smaller might make things worse?

Thanks you so much for that response, it really helped me. I meant to write I only eat about 2oz of carbs per meal in the form of Beans or wholegrain crackers or buckwheat noodles. So i'll cut out the once a week box of candy, the sunflower seed oatmeal, the once a week baked potato, and no more canned Soup with noodles or beans. I can just get a nice roast chicken instead which is probably more tasty. I do find it funny that I basically still have to be on a diet. I thought limiting portions alone would be enough to break 300. So I just have to accept it all as a diet aid more than a cure all. When do you know you need a fill? When you never get full anymore? Soup seems to go right through me as does oatmeal. What will stay in the pouch?

I was trying to moderate/cycle my carbs. I don't eat very much than 2oz per meal of them in hopes by totally banning everything I won't be tempted to binge. I think the canned soups and the fake crab are probably what is getting me. Everything else I make from organic ingredients and from scratch. And I am trying to teach myself moderation and that comes with tiny bits in single servings only once, instead of large portions bought cheaper and in bulk. Also exercise IS key. The dreary rainy weather is hard to get out into but I do need to be taking pictures for one of my courses, so I need to be out in nature. Have to get back with swimming and accept I have to use the ladder. PS. I don't have a nutritionist. My insurance does not pay for any diet program or aftercare so I am doing this on my own. My doctor also hates Lap-Bands. I had to simply put my foot down to get him to stop telling me Gastric Bypass was the only option. So I don't trust him in some ways. I don't trust him when he says my band is fine, or when he set it, or the assessment of his staff PAs. I don't know what I should feel like or what I should do. I just know to eat low-carb, exercise, and keep taking my Metformin for my PCOS, or I will never loose weight.