Jack

great story, never heard this variation before! Cheers on your journey!!!

I've known only a couple people personally who had this procedure. They both had such a 'stall'. And in reality, most of the trouble I've encountered with my own 'failure to hit Goal' really begs the question of just how what 'my' goal determined. So you're 7/10 successful??? Or 3/10 failure? Really depends on how we define such matters, don't you think? Congratulations on your progress, in any case.

re: "It was a very difficult decision and I feeling a bit vulnerable." understand the sensation, disagree that such is inevitable....having made the decision and then going thru with it, gave me a greater sense of Personal Power, as comments from the Helpful as well as the Clueless really were a form of entertainment more than anything else. Strongly opinionated people are difficult to sway, and while nurses en bloc are sensitive intelligent and professionally helpful, some of them resemble the Jerry Springer School of Personal Diplomacy. What they think or 'that' they think at all of your procedure, really has only the power over your feelings that you give them. *I* felt somewhat 'vulnerable' for a while, and perhaps 'weak' etc resorting to such a contrivance as WLS....however, it was the best rational decision available at the time. Cheers on your journey.

You might think with "10 years" nearing in my postOp Adventures certain basics might be no longer an issue. What does seem to be inescapable, is the incredible fickle nature of my Band, Symbiant....the Little Angel of the Silicon Fisssst...... Day 1 lunch stop: usually able to eat 1 egg, 1 bacon, 1 piece of toast. Not today....the Slimes took over after just a few nibbles. Didn't think I made error of eating. Recovery in ~20 minutes. Day 2 Breakfast on real sour dough pancakes. Able to eat 1 egg & 1 4" cake, plus 1/4 of second sourdough. Walked the thin line between the slimes & 'all is well'. Day 3 breakfast on 1 bacon & a couple bites of granola. Almost made it without the slime pups visiting. Day 3 lunch: Small bit of battered 'fish & chips'. Didn't work well with a few nibbles, threw it away. On the other hand, the handful of tater tots were not a problem. Day 4 dinner most excellent Prima Vera Italian. Ate about 2 cups including a bit of angel hair Pasta & some shrimp. The broccoli buds were a bit too much but managed without slime dogs. Day 5 lunch small bean/cheese burrito. Odd this was the most wretched event of the trip. Took an hour to recover. And the same place and same pinto bean burrito that worked well for me Day 1. In any case, the Observations of Modified eating really show me that some of my Old Bad Habits remain lurking. Have a check up coming in a few weeks. The challenge of eating while traveling is just as real for poor choices and inadequate chewing/etc as ever. It is easier to be distracted while traveling, hence this brief story. Conclusion: Good Nutritional Choices and Good Eating Mechanics can not be ignored just because you are on a road trip.

"Can you feel the band squeezing your stomach, connecting tube and/or port inside your body on a regular basis? " ......no.... the port is visible bump after I my Fat Iceburg melted.....I can also touch my ribs & hip bones!!! THAT was a freak out the first time since 1957!!!!

hey, my family heritage is Viking raiders/Russian steppes...... My people don't do 'excited'.

I was so tight postOp it was SIX MONTHS before my first fill. And it is crucial you learn how to eat without getting stuck OR getting NPB/slimes/throwing up. In a stricter sense, we are not "throwing up" if there is no stomach contents/acid/enzymes/etc. It took about 90 days to be able to actually nibble a soda cracker in 5 minutes without getting the slimes.... SO you for sure need to learn what is TOO tight for you. Discuss issues fully with your provider and seek tips on what phase of postOp care you are in. Cheers on your journey.

one of the ways I can Be Sure to ride the SlimeBandit Express.....is to get TOO hungry and go TOO long....and regardless of how careful I may be, the Band is VERY touchy during those moments....sort of like a reverse Boa Constrictor.....instead of squeezing/crushing the victim, simply causing the Slimes.... There's a whole Chorus of Slime Puppies I haven't even written about yet. I've still not seen much lately about "First Bite Syndrome".

"so consensus is that Protein coming from good powders/bars is just as good?" disagree depending on your research and which source you have confidence in being accurate, there's a world of academic disagreement as well You might try the old 'grind it up & spread it out' approach on your hard animal source protein, until you get adapted to the tricks of eating larger chunks. Yes the 'protein amino acids' may be 'the same' from veggie to animal source, yet in fact they are not 'samo-samo'. If you are looking for academic research you can keep busy for years reading research and reports that contradict each other. And while some present clinical evidence they absolute can NOT eat animal protein due to some rare genetic issue, there are many micro nutrients in animal protein just not present in veggie protein. The various protein-powders all have certain advantages along with their disadvantages too. There is a ton of necessary physiologic gyrations than go on during the digestive cycle that aren't stimulated by long term protein gruel and Soylent Green ingestion....but it's good stuff for the short run and for variety.....particularly in lieu of such as starch/sugar/simple carbs. Good luck, you can spend a LOT of time picking & choosing which theory sounds best. In the end, how it works on your frame is the answer.

we all put on some kind of 'face' either to deal with the world, or with our own expectatoin of how we *should but don't* look. Someone sent a link on celebrities without makeup. I didn't recognize many, but here's one to illustrate what I'm trying to talk about: I think at times in my preOp life I tried to apply OverEating as some kind of cosmetic enhancement for my imagined physcical defects. Don't think that old script plays in my eating behavior any more.

congratulations....you've helped a LOT of people Alex.....thanks a BUNCH from one of them

there's a handful of us TimeGeezers laying about..... so far I'm still a happy Bandster.....

home made Soup in a thermos is a favorite and there's just tons of recipes that work well with the typical Bandster sometimes those gritty Protein bars are a decent choice home garden produce this time of year is a treat as well, although such as 'tomatoes' and 'sliced cucumbers' may not work well with the horses re: "self-conscious and the thought of people stood around all day watching me petrifies me but I know it's something Iv got to do to get over" fortunately (or not, depending) it eventually strikes us all that in reality NOBODY is the focus of such attention for very long. Most of such concerns are merely part of our own individual internal dialogue and over sensitivities. It's a cruel reality out there, but in my own world no one actually is as thrilled watching me as watching themselves and hoping for positive feedback on their OWN style. You'll make it just doing what you know is best for you. Cheers on your journey.

"on Septembe 7, 2014 I had my 7 year lapBand anniversary. I have a 4cc band which has just a little over1 cc of Fluid in it." congratulations on your success there jfc!!!! And there's not so many of us antique 4cc Bandsters around these days....

Odd science here, depending on your point of view, regardless of what the study showed, there is considerable disagreement on what it means: " NEW YORK (AP) -- Using artificial sweeteners may set the stage for diabetes in some people by hampering the way their bodies handle sugar, suggests a preliminary study done mostly in mice. The authors said they are not recommending any changes in how people use artificial sweeteners based on their study, which included some human experiments. The researchers and outside experts said more study is needed, while industry groups called the research limited and said other evidence shows sweeteners are safe and useful for weight control." read more at http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_ARTIFICIAL_SWEETENERS_?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-17-13-11-30 further quote: " The results are not pretty: In a series of experiments, researchers found that several of the most widely used types of non-calorie sweeteners in food and drinks — saccharin, sucralose and aspartame — caused mice to experience increased risk of glucose intolerance, a condition that can lead to diabetes. "We are talking about very dramatic increases," said one of the study's co-authors, Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. The same scientists also monitored what happened to seven human volunteers who did not typically use artificial sweeteners but were given regular doses of saccharin over the course of a week. Four developed significant glucose intolerance, and the others saw no blood sugar benefits from using artificial sweeteners. [The Washington Post]" NOTE: I've followed similar link around and various articles list either SCIENCE or NATURE as being the source of the study. In any case, depending on your link, the emphasis of the report seems to mutate. Good luck. ....oh, and don't use the stuff, IMHO.....

I had tried 'everything' save RNY. In 2004 there were far fewer choices than now. And had I know what was coming, I would have done the Band in 1994 in preference to 2004!!!

yes, there has been considerable and vastly under reported NON scientific results of far too many 'scientific studies' being affected by 1) who does the study and THEIR biases admitted & otherwise; 2) who funds the study; 3) various non scientific interests surrounding any given 'desirable' result. Actual 'science' is difficult enough without such influences.

Don't know if this is at all like your current issue....I've had episodes where there seemed to be absolutely NO Band at all....yet my 'hunger' level and interest in eating very much --compared to preOp levels---was impressively minimal. Personally I've had much more satisfaction attending to the symptoms of 'hunger' and 'satiety' than 'restriction'. IMHO the notion of 'restriction' or sensations thereof is over hyped. But that's just my opinion. Pay attention to your own symptoms, yet without pain or other sign, and ability to eat in a 'post Band manner' without issue, would mean to me, that there's nothing of concern. YMMV.

It was a couple years postOp for me before I was ready to try 'em again. Raw is absolutely no trouble and a real delight; cooked is important to avoid 'rubberizing' them and cut into SMALL pieces. Let's pretend 'a friend' showed me how important CHEWING THOROUGHLY is to avoid unpleasantness....

Not sure I understand your question....although for sure the 'restriction' I feel really now is related to actual appetite/hunger far more often that 'Band tightness'. absent the perhaps confusing issue of 'tom' visiting, other vague and uncertain causes abound at times....yet in reality, it isn't what *I think* is going on with my Band, it's what is going into my mouth, under every circumstance. Sometimes I eat more that postBand 'normal'.....and more often less and always FAR less than in preBand days.

story filled with unusual events I've never heard before Wouldn't know what to say about your situation. If it were me, I'd be looking for a second opinion on everything. I've lost track of even wanting to eat the quantity you mention. If you find a solution please post details.

re: "What has not happened is any change in my appetite or eating habits or ability to eat. DOES THIS EVER REALLY OCCUR?" yes it does....although not in a linear progression It wasn't until postOp I actually experienced what "SATIETY" is. Among the many triggers that remain active though, for in in "sport eating"....is ANY amount of corn-syrup-fructose. I'm not claiming to be 'allergic' to it....what I do notice, is after just a few bites of unguarded non-hunger eating of something with this poison in it...my appetite mechanism kicks into high gear and I lust after moreMoreMORE of anything I can stick in my mouth. My impression with lower BMI patients, is they seem to work a lot harder to lose fewer pounds. And the high BMI patients usually seem to lose more slowly as their size comes down.

carmen3529: the fears and frustrations you mention are shared by many of us, and many of us have difficulty in accurately seeing our own bodies 'as they are'. In a complex mental/emotional relationship called "body dysmorphia" there is a hint of how we try to juggle 'what we think we see' with 'what we think we want' with 'what we think we should be'. To me, our Weight Loss Adventure is symbolized by the great wagon train migration across the Plains circa 1849. We have all heard of the riches of the new lands to the west. We are all familiar with reasons to abandon the annoyances of our old homes in the east. We embark upon our journey, often times ill prepared with and far too much unnecessary baggage, that is sequentially jettisoned the more rivers and mountain passes we encounter. All we have is dedication to our vision at the end of that long trail. Along the way the dust and sweat and fears and anxieties must be overcome a step at a time. Eventually we get to our Goal. Whatever our path and whatever efforts, each day we must find the resources to invent ways to overcome what hinders us. We must learn how to succeed and leave the fail of prior efforts behind. We must abandon the burdens of fear and anxiety that steal our strength for the next river crossing. The process becomes self reinforcing. Cheers on your journey.

Geez Carmen......'a lot of inches' and 5 pounds a month? BMI 28??? What are your expectations exactly? We all get frustrated and no one can exactly tell what "they" should be exactly. If you're in a race with your friend, I wouldn't know what to say or do about that either. If you are headed for your own goal and still making progress, but 'too slowly'.....lots of people still find reasons to Celebrate. Maybe others can offer some suggestions. Cheers on your journey, and welcome to the forum!

I had 'weak voice' issues for months....no real distress but 'loud voice' was broken and crackly. I think my vocal cords were traumatized.....but now 10 years later I can NOT sing just as poorly as I EVER could not-sing.... I'd encourage you to make the issue known to your provider ASAP.