kacee

The operative ingredient in pineapple juice seems to be the enzyme which acts as a tenderizer, and breaks up mucus. I agree with Bandit though. Drinking something on top of a plug-up can cause BAD results. You could also try something called Clear Ease which you can get through Amazon. It is dissolved in the mouth as a lozenge and has bromelain, protease and papain, all ingredients which aid in the breakdown of proteins.

Probably a little easier than that, there is something you can get on-line called Clear Ease (Amazon carries it) for sinus problems, it busts up mucus. It is papaya enzyme, which is a "meat tenderizer" ingredient. These are lozenges that you put in your mouth and let disssolve. The problem with Pineapple juice is that once something gets stuck, the LAST thing you want to do is try to wash it down with a liquid. All it does is sit on top of the "clog" and make things worse. I have a bottle and keep a tablet or two in my purse. Never have used it though because for me once something gets stuck...that's it, it stays that way until the food comes back up.

You may want to get your fill checked again. When I hit the point where I could get that kind of food down I went straight back to the doctor for a "top off". That being said, just because you have fills doesn't give you license to eat the way you did before. Nachos? Pizza? Maybe once in a blue blue moon, but NOT on any regular basis. That's just eating around the band, and you won't get anywhere fast doing that.

Yep, right on target and TOTALLY normal.

I've flown six times since I was banded and never a peep from the metal detector. It must have to do with the type of band or something. Sorry you went through that, but it's an unfortunate fact post-911. My 83 year old Mother gets everything but thrown on the ground and frisked when she goes through because she has two artificial knees and sets off every alarm known to man.

If you haven't had a fill yet, don't worry about it. BELIEVE ME, when you finally get good restriction you will NOT walk into a house full of food and expect to be able to eat much! My biggest quandry on Thanksgiving was whether or not to try the shrimp and remoulade sauce my cousin brought, knowing that two little shrimp would probably put a big dent in my turkey and dressing capacity (which it did). It's VERY hard at first without restriction to stay the course. This is when your brute will-power and determination needs to kick in. This will pass.

I can honestly say three things worked for me (though everyone is different and MANY people will argue with me about the scales thing). 1. I weigh myself EVERY day, in the buff, same time. PERIOD. I log my weight every day on my FitDay program. I am 6 months out an can see EXACTLY where I was at any give time in the process, watch my plateaus and calculate their length. My scale is digital with tenths of a pound. I watch those tenths as closely as I watch the full pounds. 2. I log ALL of my food in my FitDay program. Each day when I get home from work I enter everything I have eaten through the day. I can correlate my weightloss through the process with my food intake, see where I was doing well, and where I screwed up. 3. I set MINI-GOALS. I mean MINI goals. My goal is to lose about 4-5 pounds before the end of the year. My average weight loss has been 2.25 pounds per week (which is HIGH), so as I am nearing my goal, I think this is more realistic. I don't set goals I cannot reach. Sometimes I may even set a goal to get down "xx" tenths of a pound in three or four days. When you set goals you can achieve it gives you incentive to go on and set another goal when you meet that one. It is a leapfrog process.

Something happened to me when I got the band. I must have psyched myself or something because my determination and my will-power jumped to levels I never knew I had. For me, it has actually (dare I say it) been rather easy. I don't feel like I have suffered at all or been deprived. I have excellent restriction and I have to be VERY careful with the quantity and quality of food I ingest. If I screw up it can be very uncomfortable for me. It is a learning process for me and I think I am heading for the downside of the curve now. It has been so long since I put large amounts of food in my stomach I no longer seem to have appetite fits (you know...when your eyes glaze over and you froth at the mouth and all you can think about is getting to Taco Bell (or wherever) for that "fix"). When I DO get an inkling of the "munchies"...I go and get something to eat. Even if I head for something that I really shouldn't have, I find I can only take about three bites at best, and then it goes in the trash or wherever, and I do NOT go back to it....the appeal is gone within those three bites. I also find that a lot of these foods I just loved don't give me the satisfaction I used to get. I truly think the satisfaction came from the gobbling plus the taste, rather than just the taste itself. Now that I cannot gobble...a lot of the appeal has gone out of it and I think more clinically about my food.

Well, never say never. I would say it depends on your medical history and your family medical history (do these co-morbidities run in your family and are your parents or siblings also overweight?). I am inclined on the surface (strictly my opinion, mind you) to think that a doctor would be reticent to do the procedure on you (right NOW) and might ask you to wait a few years. I think a lot of this would rely on the attitude of your parents too....whether they were supportive and acknowledged that this would be an ongoing problem for you based on your history and your family pre-disposition. Insurance? Who knows. A lot of us "old folks" couldn't get covered by insurance and had to self-pay. Insurance coverage is a battle at best. Good luck though!

I've averaged overall 2.25 pounds a week. I am within 17 pounds of MY goal (I am 7 pounds from the goal my doctor set). My 6 month bandiversary was Nov. 23. I'd love to hit 160 by year end.

Yep, step up your protein drinks and your liquid intake substantially.

Totally normal, Summer. Too bad your doctor asks you to wait 60 days for a fill. You are still healing now and your band is NOT WORKING FOR YOU YET, so don't give up the ship! If you find yourself being hungry, by all means eat....but eat to fill yourself with low cal and filling foods. I kept fat free/sugar free jello around all the time. Every time I got the muchies I ate one (10 cal) or two.... Don't deprive yourself, but don't push a cheeseburger in your face, either. You WILL get full faster than you did before, but until you get a good restriction, that band isn't kicking in yet.

Tell your doctor what's going on and see about getting an aggressive fill. Not responding to the first fill is totally normal. The difference that I see is that you are just "giving up". Believe me, when the restriction kicks in it will be MUCH easier to stick to it. But you have to retrain your eating habits. I have yo-yo dieted my whole life (45+ years) and considered it completely impossible for me to lose weight and keep it off. I have been SHOCKED at how well I have done with the band. I have worked at it, let there be no doubt about that...but I am also human and I have slacked off on my exercising though my diet has been carefully watched. I am still losing. When I approach food I actually THINK before I eat or order now. I never did that before. The band isn't a license to retain your old habits and if you do, you will find a way to "work around" your band...but with determination (and I don't mean like you've had to do in the past) you can change it!

I give that a big AMEN. I highly recommend Spivak to everyone I meet who is considering lapband surgery (two friends of mind right now are considering....one has her consult this week with him). I can say nothing but good about him and his staff.

Hit my 50 mark too and boy is that encouraging! The most I had ever lost in my LIFE was 30 pounds (and I STARVED myself for three months...that was back when I was very young) and within a year I had put it back on. This loss feels different. It feels good. It feels permanent. It feels possible.

I think it was about in the third week when the shoulder pains ceased. And not to be indelicate, but encourage farting and burping because that is the ONLY way it's going to expel the air from your body.

Yep...you really need to EASE into public eating when you first start out. My first public experience I was already on solids, but I chose to have a lobster bisque because I knew I would be safe getting down a liquid in public. I have had two instances since then of having to PB at the first of a meal in a restaurant. I pretty much have it down to an art now and I can tell within the first three bites it things aren't going well. These two instances, I excused myself from the table, went into the restroom and let those two bites slide out. Things seemed to relax after that and I was able to finish my meal. I am VERY aware of eating VERY slowly when I go out to eat though.

Yep, probably the gas. I watched a video of a procedure being done and I was amazed to watch the surgeons go in and fill the entire abdominal cavity with air just before starting the procedure...the stomach blew up like a balloon!

In addition, take a good close look at what you are ingesting. Look at the ingredients. Are you sensitive to certain artificial sweeteners? I drink a clear protein drink every day (Isopure) and I gave some to my Mom to try. It gave her HORRIBLE runs, and apparently she is sensitive to the specific sweetener in it. However, it does sound like you had a stomach bug of some kind.

You are doing OUTSTANDING!!!! That's about 2.5 pounds a week and that is fantastic! The average weight loss should be around 1-2 pounds a week. The idea is NOT to drop 50 pounds in a month. Your skin and hair will thank you for it. Trust me. This process is WAY stressful for the body, and you don't want to stress your body out any more than necessarily, hence, the slooooooooooowwwwww but steady loss. You have absolutely NOTHING to be discouraged about!

You are going to feel twinges and pulls and gurgles and bubbles and all kinds of little sounds and feelings for a month or more. You're not going to drop dead and your body is trying to accommodate its new condition. Don't fight it. Things will sort out and settle down and stressing yourself over it is only going to slow things.

That's always a possibility. But I wouldn't think nausea would be the result. I went through a period about two months ago when I would get actually nauseus when I would eat. It went on for about a week or so and then stopped. It wasn't something getting caught, it was REAL nausea...the old "Uh oh, I'm gonna PUKE!" But afterwards I never felt bad at all, and it didn't feel like that HORRIBLE feeling you get when you are SICK and your head and stomach is swimming and you FEEL SICK TO YOUR STOMACH and horrible. This was like all of a sudden, and then it was gone completely and I felt just FINE! Weird. I don't know if it was a bug I may have had, or if I was slacking on my proteins or liquids or what.

Dave, you are ROCKIN!!! And you are doing exactly the RIGHT thing....mini-goals. That's what kept me going....not the old "Heavens I have to lose 70, 80, 150 pounds....like climbing Mt. Everest" but "Hey, I have an event to attend in 6 weeks. Wonder if I can get down 5 pounds for it!" That way you have a reachable goal in sight....sometimes I would even make them "baby mini-goals" (super easy to attain) and then when I would pass the goal "long" before its date I'd feel SOOOOOOOO good! Right now I am trying to knock off another 3-4 pounds before Christmas. I KNOW I can do it, though things are slowing down because I am close to goal.:whoo::clap2:

I'm in Houston. Mine was done in May of 2007 and I paid a total of $12,900.

Two years ago at 225 Night before surgery, 05/2007, 218 Six months Taken in November...about 20 pounds ago. Sorry I'm not smiling. I was feeling very chipper but I take such atrocious smile pictures when staged I wound up frowning.....