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I was banded March 28th 2013. I was 23 years old and had enough money in my pocket to pay for my lapband without borrowing. I woke up miserable. The first 3 days I cried because of what I had done to my body. Then the weight started falling off. It's pretty hard to be upset when you lose 30 pounds in 2 months. I didn't have many issues. Pretty much normal lapband stuff. Eat slow, chew everything, choose your food carefully. I vomited (like every other bandster out there) but for the most part it was fine. December of that year I started having more issues. More food intolerance than before. Vomiting became an everyday occurrence. I ignored it until July 2014. I started vomiting up when I drank water. Eating normally was completely out of the question. I had put myself on a soft food diet without realizing how ridiculous that was. My diet consisted of soup, soup, and more soup. and then I saw blood in my vomit for the first time. I'm a nurse and when I saw the blood there was no more delusions that my band was just not working right. I saw my doctor and he removed all the saline out of my band. I experienced relief temporarily. My heart burn was manageable, I could eat at least a decent supper and I put it out of my mind. Now, I have the worst heartburn I've ever had in my life. My normal day goes a little something like this: wake up, get ready for class, try to drink powerade while I get ready, drive to class, more than likely throw up powerade, sit in class, watch my classmates eat lunch as I chew on tums and sip water, go home, make myself a soup at hand, drink 1/4 of it, get full, throw up and throw it away, work on homework, make supper, sometimes I can eat, sometimes I can't, shower and repeat. My grades have slipped. I can't concentrate anymore. I am constantly fatigued. I can't wear enough layers to keep myself warm. In all sense of the word I am malnourished. I write this in hopes not to scare off a future bandster but that one person out there will recognize that they are not alone. It is a sad life to walk into a new place and immediately scope out where the bathroom is, or obsess about food. Monday I see my doctor to discuss scheduling a lapband removal.

It still hurts for me to sleep on my side so I don't. I get the occasional port pain as well. I think you should keep on top of your pain meds. Take it as the dr directed which I am assuming is every 4 hours? This is hard to do while you sleep but you may just have to plan to take your pain meds before bedtime.

No problem, Donna. How is everything going now?

Have you tried mixing in fruit or sugar free pudding and putting it in a blender? I did that and it made it much more tolerable. Are you feeling hungry at all? After my surgery I wasn't hungry and forced myself to eat soft foods. I've never heard anything about not being able to swallow a capsule after surgery. I was given Hydrocodone pills for pain and had no problems getting those down. It's totally normal to think about food!!! How often did all of us think about it before?! That won't go away quite yet, but I find myself now forgetting to eat because I'm not hungry so it'll come. It will help you a lot in the next weeks to keep yourself busy! You may not have much of a restriction and your surgeon won't likely give you a fill quite yet so you'll need to keep your mind off of food. It helped me to work out and catch up on some reading. I felt much better a couple days after my surgery because I started dropping weight and I'm sure you will too. This website is an amazing support group and resource for anything you need, especially venting!

Hi Donna! Congratulations on taking your first step to losing weight!! Just like you when I came home from surgery I instantly regretted it. I was so upset I almost cried. However, I reminded myself how unhappy I was with my weight and how sick and tired I was of letting it get in the way of my life. It DOES get better. Right now you are absolutely miserable, but within a few days you will feel better bit by bit and the weight will start falling off. Now as a nurse, are you keeping up on the pain meds that they gave you? It is much easier to control pain before you have it, then after. If it helps, maybe you should try making a list of the reasons you had the surgery and what you want to accomplish from the surgery. It will help you see why you did it in the first place and get you EXCITED for what is to come! I had my surgery on March 28th at 253 pounds. Right now I am 212 and in desperate need of a fill, but feeling GREAT!! Don't give up yet, you've just began the first step of your new life! -Ash

I had surgery March 28th and have lost 36 pounds since then. I have been at 217 for about a week and a half now, but I have lost 7 inches from my hips, 5 inches from my waist, and 2 from my bust. I'm attributing this to the fact that I run on the elliptical everyday and I lift weights which is toning my muscles. Has anyone else lost more inches than actual weight?!?

You look so happy in the 2nd pic! Congratulations!!

Nah, he said I only had pain because of the seroma, but that it would likely only be painful that time.

I was banded March 28th. My first fill was April 8th of 3ccs. My fill was particularly painful. I had a fluid filled mass over my port so the dr couldn't find it at first. Hopefully no one else has to go through that because OUCH! I've lost 22 pounds as of this morning so it was worth it!

I had my surgery on March 28th and had my first fill today. From what I've read it's not common to have a fill so soon, but my physician put in 3cc regardless. Apparently I have a seroma, or a fluid-filled sac that formed over my port causing my first fill to be extremely painful! I really hope fills aren't as painful from here on out. Has anyone else had this problem?