kimalicious

mmmm cookies....I have gone through an entire pack of sugarfree gum today all the whilst sitting next to a spread at work that included candy and bbq weenies. I almost stapled myself to my chair to stay away. Be strong Lisa, be strong. Everyone needs a cheat day once in a while!

Good to know we weren't the only ones. It does scare me, but I swear sometimes these bands are made of steel, all the crap they can take.

I have recently had a fill and am still getting used to it and a lot of foods are getting stuck at the band site. I had chicken get stuck and I felt the stuck part like normal, but then I felt like my heart was beating around my band. Like my esophagus was convulsing to get the food through. I finally just let it come back up and it stopped. I have never felt this in the past and wonder if anyone else has gone thru this also? I just knew my band was going to come flying out of my chest the way it felt. Any thoughts?

You would have thought I would have learned 11 months in about the bite sizes, but with this actual restriction from my last fill, I feel like I am a brand new bandster all over again. I do need to watch my bites and pay more attention while I eat. That is something I am still learning.

Good luck and please keep us posted on your recovery and new surgery! Kim

I doubt this is your problem and I know I sound stupid for worrying about it when it happened to me, but anyways, I hadn't had a regular period in a while and once I started losing weight after my surgery they came more frequently and I thought my band was messed up the first early one I got and thought I was bleeding internally. I, of course, wasn't, but it did scare me to start normal periods again and that tends to happen when you are losing weight quickly like you do right after surgery. Just a thought...

A definate congrats is in order...you have a healthier body now to carry your new baby around and just worry about nutrition rather than weight loss now. GOOD LUCK!

bwahahaha, the look on his face says it all.

Thank god for your sunshine. That is the best attitude and I could learn a lot from your positive thinking. Good luck with all you have going on and keep us posted.

I agree about the restriction. I'm guessing some, no matter what the fill is like, can have the greatest of restriction. I'm guessing that has to do with the physiology of our bodies. I have lost 7 pounds in 9 days, but was on liquids for 3 of them. I have also stopped the cokes, so that is probably 90 % of it right there. I just hope this restriction is permanant and the ease to eat doesn't come back slowly. Good luck to you...now I have the Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtle theme song in my head, TURLTE POWER!

I was on the slow loser list being that my surgery was in Nov 04 and I am only 44 pounds down. I didn't get a fill for 6 months and could eat what I wanted unless my band was in the mood to work that day. Now that I have had my 4th fill, a generous 1.0 cc, I understand what restriction is supposed to feel like and wouldn't dream of even trying to eat a full anything. Pasta and bread scares me. This morning I could only eat half of my oatmeal packet before feeling that restriction of not being able to eat another bite. I had 4.5 oz of chicken salad from lunch and couldn't possibly eat another bite. I'm sure I will have more room at dinner as always, but for those who can eat entire meals in 1 sitting I say you need a fill. I'm betting in a few weeks it won't be this tight, but I am enjoying not needing my self control...I need to save it all I can for later when the fill doesn't seem so tight. I am hopefully in the rabbit realm now. I think I was enjoying eating what I wanted for the last 6 months, I had forgotten why I had this surgery to begin with. When I came to reality that I was eating the same as every unbanded person around me, then I knew a fill was in order. Everyone has to judge what speed they want to go themselves. My surgeon was upset I hadn't been there for 6 months for a fill and told me it was like ordering the tools to help me get thin and then never going to pick it up. TURTLES RISE UP!!

Hiccups are the sign for me that I am full now. I get them more after I eat and I will get bouts of them after I drink. They can really hurt too if there is still food in the pouch. The only way I can get rid of mine is to drink 10 small swallow sips in a row of Water without stopping, if you hiccup in the middle you have to start over. But it works every time for me. Unfortuantely, i just live with them after I eat because I don't want to wash my food through, so I need to come up with something else for when I get them after I eat. I have never heard of them meaning slippage though, so don't be worried about that. Kim

Restriction feels more like the food is stuck and sitting there in your pouch rather than a full feeling. You simply can't eat anymore or you start to feel it coming back up your esophogas (sp). I rarely get that feeling of actual fullness in the pit of my stomach since I can't eat enough to ever get that. But I will take the restricted feeling anyday over never feeling full. That is just my experience, hope it helps.

Hi everyone, I haven't posted in a while, but I'm back. Last April someone yelled at me because I posted that I wasn't going to get another fill, even though I could eat a lot, until I had lost some weight on my own. They posted back stating what was the point of having the surgery if I wasn't going to use the band to it's fullest potential. I was worried about filling it too tightly too quickly. Well, I waited 6 months before I got a new fill on 10/03/05 and am now at 2.9 cc's in a 4.0 cc band, and I finally understand what real restriction feels like. I want to say I never gained the entire 6 months, but didn't lose either. Now that I am back to having restriction I remembered why I got this surgery to begin with. My 1 year bandiversary is less than 1 month away and I still don't have a hng of this. Since I took basically 6 months off from my band, I had lost touch with the thought of losing weight. Now that I am tight, not only in the morn but all day long, I have lost 6 pounds since Monday. Which is a nice kick off to water weight loss. Now that I have literally rambled for a paragraph my point was that even though we think people are being hateful on this board by not agreeing with us, if you are posting on this board you have our best intentions in mind, and even though not everyone has a kindergarten teachers way of explaining things, hopefully we can all learn from everyone's experiences here. I know I did and if you aren't getting your fills correctly then your band can't work correctly. Thanks for listening to me ramble.

other than the usuals I really want to have to size my wedding ring and possibly upgrade it when I hit my goal weight. I also want to look in the mirror and be happy with what I see.

Hi Randy, You are on a lap band sight so I'm pretty sure that we will all tell you to stick with the band and not the bypass, there are so many more problems with the bypass and the band experience has been quite easy for me. Read all of the posts and go back through the before and after pictures and get yourself excited all over again about what the band can do for you. Again, I am partial, but don't give up either way. Good Luck. Kim

The past two weeks I have felt anorexic. With my band so tight I am loving the restriction and upset with myself if I eat more than 500 calories a day. I am an extremeist. I binge or I purge. I can binge for months at a time and vice versa. Unfortunately I tried to eat everything in sight on Sunday and just kept pukin it back up, goin back for more and pukin more. I felt like the band was making me bulemic. Like it is the bands fault or something. That just goes to show the band doesn't get rid of the bad habits and you can hurt your body even more with these habits + the band. Why can't I be in love with my body no matter what the size or shape? THose Ana web sites are so sad, thank god I'm a fat girl, and will always be in my head no matter how much weight I lose. My temporary Anorexia always goes away when I crave something bad enough and my chub inside gives in. Maggie, I know you know all of this and think the band will help everything, but unfortunately it doesn't. Please don't take that to mean it won't help you to get to your healthy feeling because it will if used correctly. Just a short rant. Good luck with your band sweetie.

Creepy...the only psychic I went to was at a girls house who liked the guy I was dating. I still swear she told the psychic to say this. But the psychic said by guy by actual name and told me we were not going to end up together. Since the psychic was friends with the girl who liked my man, I still wonder if she put her up to that. I have been married to him over a year now and that was at least 4 years ago. SO I haven't been back to one since.

HI Loop, I hope you have talked to your doc. If this is a new med or something that you have been on for a while, either way, checking the progress and having the correct meds make all the difference in the world. I hope this doesn't sound stupid or childish, but I know when I can't pull out of the doldrums I sit back and think of the best times in my life, I even get out the pictures and call old friends to make them remind me of where those feelings came from. Most importantly I remind myself that these feelings will pass and I will wonder what I was ever worried about as long as the meds are right. Stay strong and stay with people and keep talkin about it and ask as many people you can what they think life is. I for one still don't know and I'm not religious but knowing I can at least get through my days is good enough sometimes. Good luck sweetie.

I understand your horror. My husband just had an infection from a hurnia surgery and had to reopen the surgical wound and heal from the inside out. The nurses came to the home and tried to teach me how to pack it. When they saw how horrified I was at the sight of the wound and how deep and raw it looked they ordered him up a wound vac asap. 2 weeks later (and 2 weeks laughing at the farting noises from the wound vac) there was no hole and he actually looks like he has a fake belly button again. Your ordeal will be over in no time and you will be good as new. Take this time to heal and keep us updated on your ordeal. GOod luck with the wound vac noises, they are funny. Kim

This sooooo did not work for me. I don't eat much at any meal, but anything solid before noon just doesn't work. WHat are the other reasons for this. I have heard because you are laying flat at night your esophagus constricts and then takes time in the morn to stretch back out. Are there any doctors that have a real reason that this happens. I know almost every bandster has this issue. Is it medical or mental?

You are so right Cindy, I love hearing the back and forth on this site. It can ease me one day and scare me another, but I can't believe I lived without it for 6 months. Pink Mary, I just hope we can maintain as easily at 130 as we can at 230. We will only see. Thanks, ya'll Kim

Please keep us updated and I hope you feel better. Kim

I still pout when I can't eat a full meal. As much as I know that is why I got the band in the first place, it doesn't help my brain any. This is a lifetime learning process. Take your time to heal and know that everyday is a new day! Kim

Way to go Lisa! Made it through the night without a coke!! Woohoo! Maybe you are having drainage and it is clogging you up. Have you had any allergies other than the goup in the throat? I am having to do liquids right now since I think my band it too tight with allergies, I could not have lived this past week without the Light Caramel Mocha Frappachino from Starbucks. It really soothes the stoma and only 240 calories. Keep us posted. Kim