Arley

My favorite mushy food is to take some ricotta cheese and spoon out a thick layer on the bottom of a pyrex dish or whatever container you want to use. Spread some jar spaghetti sauce on top of that and then sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of it all. Bake it until hot or put under the broiler if you can keep an eye on it. It tastes almost like lasagna. I love it!

I forgot to add: I have sleep apnea and you do get used to wearing the mask...now it is no biggie at all and I feel so much better with it. I expect that when I have lost all my weight, that maybe I will be able to stop using it, but until then, I will continue with it. I have used it nightly for six years.

Hi Suzpat! I am 63 and I have had my band since October. I love it!! Yes, I am sure that the size of an M & M is correct, because I have to break even the tiniest pill into halves or even fourths. Some of my larger pills, like potassium, I just dissolve in a teaspoon of Water. At any rate, the band is well worth any inconvenience and I am so happy to have it. I went from 240 to 173 and am still losing, although the loss is slower now. My surgeon said that it may take me a year to lose the last 30 pounds, but I am fine with that because I now feel alive for the first time in years! It is a wonderful thing...I am so happy that I made the decision to do this! Good luck to you!

We toured a lighthouse in Oregon last week and I was able to climb all 111 steps to the top without huffing and puffing and my face didn't get all red either!

My doctor is wonderful. He said that because of my age, 63, he would be happy with a loss of just two pounds a month! Of course, I am trying for more, but really, slower is better for the skin when you are older. Sorry that your doctor is hard on you. Maybe he thinks it will motivate you more, but it can also do the opposite. Hang in there!

I know the feeling that you are talking about. I sometimes get it when I am eating something too fast. For me, it doesn't mean that I am too full, it just means that I need to wait for the food to go down and then I can continue eating. It can happen after just a couple of bites, so you know that you are not too full. The food is just stuck a bit. I have learned to stop at that point and wait. If you continue to eat it will just get more and more painful. Just remember to eat slowly and chew well. I have found that the texture of the food makes a difference for me. I don't eat salad at the beginning of a meal. For me it just doesn't work well. I need to put a denser, Protein food in first and then towards the end of my meal I can add the veggies. That might just be me, but actually that is how the Lapband makers want us to eat....protein first, veggies, etc. last.

Yes, mine felt like a baby porcupine was living just under my port site. Getting out of bed was the worst! You have to use those muscles to get yourself up and I believe that the port is sutured to that muscle....this may not be accurate, but it is what I think is true for mine. Anywho, it sure hurts!! Try pushing yourself out with your arms and let the muscles by your port relax and not do the work. It does go away eventually. Hang in there!

I had a hiatal hernia which the surgeon repaired during my lapband surgery. Now I am off of the Protonix which I had been taking for years. No sign of acid reflux at all now....love it!!

Don't feel all alone. I had my surgery on Oct. 9 and so far I have lost only 28 pounds. I am well past menopause and my surgeon said that he would be happy with my only losing 2 pounds a MONTH! At first I was upset, but when I got to thinking about it, this is just fine. With the 32 pounds that I lost pre-op and the band's 28, that makes 60 pounds off that there is no way I could have lost without the band. It helps keep the edge of hunger away and keeps me from being obsessed about food. Hang in there...they say slower is better because your skin has more time to catch up with the loss. We will get where we are going....let's just keep up what we are doing and even if it takes a year, where would we be a year from now if we DIDN'T have the band? I know I would be bigger than ever. I was walking daily, but I was hearing so much about how as we age we need to build muscle to get our metabolisms revved up....so now I am doing Curves, too, and I just love it. I feel so much stronger and the weight is starting to come off again, too. Be thankful that you haven't told many people. I kind of wish I hadn't because now they keep asking how I am doing and they are expecting a faster loss. If I had to do it over I wouldn't tell so many people. Good luck to you!

Yes, I had something similar. It wasn't in my port scar, but the one below it. It looked and felt like a tiny bit of plastic thread sticking out just a bit. I asked my surgeon and he said that it was just part of the suture that was sticking out and it would fall off. The sutures are soft when they are inside, but outside where the air gets to them they get stiff. It did fall off shortly after I spoke with him.

Shannon, I soooooooooo understand your problem. I was having a problem too, and since we can't use Metamucil with the band and Benefiber did nothing for me; I started eating Fiber One Cereal with raisins every morning and it corrected the problem right away. It has about 14 grams of fiber and it tastes good, too. Now that I have a good fill, the cereal has staying power. Good Luck

Hi Malby, When you say that everything you "eat" makes you throw up, do you really mean "eat"? Are you eating food already? I was on Clear liquids for the first 5 days and then moved onto full liquids for the next two weeks. If you are eating food, maybe that is the problem. Just wondering. Hope you are feeling better now.

Did you immediately start on solids after the unfill? Most surgeons have you stay on full liquids for a period of time after a fill or unfill due to the swelling caused by the fill. Try chewing really, really well and then pause before taking the next bite. I find that if I do that it is much better. If you get that stuck golfball pain, stop eating right away and just sit there and wait for it to go down before taking another bite. I also find that rotating the bites of food helps, too....such as, a bite of chicken, followed by a bite of the veggie, etc.....not just bites of chicken all in a row. Plus I always keep a tad of sauce on my plate for dipping the bites of chicken into so that it is moist. Diet salad dressing works for me and I also like the low cal BBQ sauce. Hope this helps.

I have only slimed once...it was caused by a stuck pill. It hurt like crazy and was very scary because I didn't know what to expect. My mouth just kept filling up with really thick (TMI) saliva. I think the reason the body produces this is to help the stuck food to slide on down. Now since I have had my second fill, occasionally a bite of chicken that is too dry will cause that stuck feeling and my mouth will get a bit of slime, but not nearly as much as when I got the pill stuck. Once you know what is happening it is no longer scary and it reminds you to slow down and take smaller, moister bites. Now I always have a bit of diet salad dressing on my plate to dip the fork into before chewing a piece of dry chicken. If you do vomit or PB (productive burp) it is no biggie. It is not violent like vomiting and it is not gross...no stomach acid in it so it doesn't smell bad. You just don't want to do it too often as that might cause problems for your band.

I ordered a bunch of protein powder samples right before my surgery from Vitalady.com - Protein Supplements, Vitamins & Minerals, and Safe Snacks! It is a great way to sample them and then go buy what you really like. I think I paid about $1.50 or a bit more for each sample, but after all, it was my whole meal, so really that isn't bad at all. I kept the order printout with the samples and wrote next to each one after drinking it whether I hated, liked or loved it.

I totally agree with you...it makes no sense at all. If the pouch has food in it, then the food that you eat after that should just sit there. If the food is all falling on through and then you forget to chew a bite well enough, then I can understand that it might get stuck or if you eat beyond your full point, then it might come back up. It is all just too strange. After my first fill I forgot about the swelling and that my stoma was smaller than usual. I tried to swallow a Tylenol PM and it got stuck. I slimed for about five minutes and then it went down. I have never PB'd yet, but my first fill is not giving me restriction now and I will get another one tomorrow. Maybe then I will know what everyone is talking about, but I sure hope not...chew, chew, chew!!

I have the exact same thing. I had my lapband surgery Oct. 9 and my first fill on Nov. 30. Right away I had this feeling that I needed to burp, but couldn't. It was the same feeling I had right after the surgery. I think it is trapped air in the pouch, because it would happen with my first drink, but after a bit the air would be replaced by the liquid or food and then it felt fine. Now my restriction from the swelling is gone, and I need another fill...and I no longer have that need to burp feeling. When I have my next fill next week, I am sure that that feeling will come back. It sure is an odd sensation. I think maybe drinking a bit of warm water or tea before trying to eat....especially in the morning would help with that trapped air.

Also, one of the main reasons for having the patient lose the 10% is to shrink the fat on your liver so that the surgery will be safer. That is what my surgeon says and so do many, many others.

It's me again. I just wanted to add that it isn't my gallbladder (already had it taken out) and my port is on my left side anyway.

Patty...I have the exact same thing!! I am almost three months out and had my first fill in my AP band on Nov. 30. I have a total of 4 cc's in it now. I get this pain at different times, but last night it was about an hour after eating my Christmas dinner. I have no real restriction yet and yes, I did eat more than my 1 - 1 1/2 cups of food. My stoma didn't feel any restriction and my stomach didn't feel too full at all, but then an hour later....yikes!!! We had to leave early and I thought I might even have to go to the emergency room! It really hurt...more than before. But once I got home and put a robe on, it was fine. Like you said, sometimes it is after eating and sometimes it is just after drinking. I wrote about it last night on another message board and no one else wrote that it was happening to them. So strange...I can see your stoma or your pouch hurting if you eat too much....but this is under or near my port site. I am so happy to read that you know what I am talking about!

Donna....go online to Vitalady.com - Protein supplements, Vitamins & Minerals, and Safe Snacks! . You can order all kinds of flavors and brands of Protein powder from them in sample sizes. I ordered around 40 samples before my surgery and am still loving having a variety. Most or all of the flavors are under $2.00 each. More expensive, but at least you aren't stuck with a whole can of something you hate. The package came quickly. I kept track of which ones I liked best so that I could order a whole can.

Hi Michelle...my surgery is on Sept. 17, 2007 also, so I guess that makes us band buddies. I am so ready for this surgery to happen! I am new to this forum as I usually post on ObesityHelp.com. I don't know if I am even doing this post correctly...we will see what happens. Arley