shellyj.

banded bandit- you hijacker you! i appreciate all the info and conversation started. i am surprised at how many people there are banded when i was that are all having these similiar issues. vera- thats what i am trying to find now is my *happy medium* with the band!!

when you go see your dr i would, remind him that at 1.5cc you were to tight tell him the kinds of foods you are eating NOW at 1.25cc where you are to loose. *to me* if you were to tight at 1.5 then i would get a SMALL FILL around .1 that would bring you from 1.25 up to 1.35cc. when you are close (feeling some restriction but not quite enough) then the smallest amount can make ALL the difference. what kinds of foods are you eating? when the band is restricted *perfectly* its SOLIDS that fill you up. if you are eating things that are mushy or to saucey then you can eat unlimited amounts. it is very easy to eat around the band. you can be doing it without even knowing it. sometimes foods that are technically a solid, if cooked properly is really a mushy. or you would think of them as a solid but once you have chewed the heck out of it it goes down fine. yesterday my mil made 'chicken and gravy': chicken cooked on the bone, add a can of cream of mushroom then add 1/2 and 1/2 to make 'gravy'. we had fresh green Beans with bacon, bread for dippen your gravy in and a piece of peach pie for desert. this WHOLE meal is a mushy. the chicken was so tender that even without flooding your plate in gravy- it was a mushy. it was covered and cooked in the sauce. the green beans were fresh and the peaches we picked before dinner! i had: 1 small chicken thigh 1/2 spoon full of gravy .5 cup green beans with bacon pieces 1 slice of bread 1 smaller piece of peach pie with whip cream. since this food was mushy i ate quite a bit without even knowing, i finished only a few bites behind everyone. no drinking. this was at 3:00 in the afternoon so its not like i was open from it being 'night'. if i had been at home and ate solids it would have been more like todays: Breakfast - slimfast lunch (at 3:00)- 4 oz piece of breakfast quiche (size of deck of cards). i eat this cold and i do consider it a 'solid' food because it will take me an hour to eat since it has no 'sauce'. if i heated it up warm and gooey- it would be mushy for sure and if i started slowly i could eat a big ole piece.

Gorgeous!!!! What Thighs?????

i would say the docs do a good 'educated guess' as to what their fill increments are. if they are doing the fill under flouro (Xray) then you can see how much restriction you are having. when you get your next fill be sure to tell your dr the amounts and textures of the food you are eating...that will help him judge weather you need a small fill or larger one. blind faith i guess!

i happily pay 10-12$ to go to one of those places. my father in law is diabetic and cant eat spices so its the only place he can go. i have gone when i was so tight i pb broth from the chicken noodle in the bathroom. i paid with a smile. its all YOU can eat and if you cant eat that much- oh well! the people who can eat the largest amounts dont get charged a $2 service fee cause they can eat extra!

i did the atkins pre-op and lost 25 lbs and i did it post op combined with restriction and lost 90 lbs. sounds great. BUT here are the reasons i wont do atkins again and i wont diet again! #1 CONSTIPATION!!! i developed this SEVERELY and as a girl who never had to think about her poop going to one who thought about it DAILY...it really is a painful long lasting thing you can develop. i am someone who LOVES veggies and i tried to counteract the constipation by eating spinach salads etc. but it was to no avail. i have been off atkins for a YEAR and 2 months and finally my poop is normal and daily again! 2. the fatty foods that are 'allowed'. regardless of if you eat a pack of bacon a day and are losing weight or if a pack of bacon lasts you a week- you enjoy those foods and develop the abilitly to eat more of them. 3. the whole diet mentaltity. 'i am on a diet better break it'. i used to think folks who never wanted to diet again were crazy! why not lose the weight then figure out your 'normal eating style' later. well i for one 'broke' my diet all the time the mental ass whippin you take is not worth it. currently i do defintally eat lower carbs. i have learned the advantage of that. the sugars in proccessed white starches trigger my hunger and sweet cravings. i buy the low carb Pasta although the store i used to buy 'dreamfields pasta' at quit carrieing it. where are you getting it?!?! i use unbleached flours, eat unproccessed foods, lots of veggies and i eat leaner meats. i personnally try not to eat much out of a can, freezer ready or anything thats open and eat (except fruits). its good because you have to chew more to eat your food and i think eat less. especially for us banded folks- we have to chew the heck out of it to get the texture right! we typically indulge when we have people over for dinner. i only make as much as will be eaten, any leftovers get sent home with friends OR thrown away while STILL FULL! (that's imortant cause its easier to throw something away when you are full from it!) portion control remains my best way to lose weight! good luck either way!

banded bandit- we must be twins, i posted that last week and since then have been able to eat decently i havent had an unfill. but right now i am still working on my a.m. yogurt! *shrugs* my appt is for tommorrow then my dr goes out of town. i will see what he has to say....i am hoping he can order the test for hiatel hernia. i know he just loves it when i come in with all these ideas from *people on the internet* hehehe i dont know what i am gonna do but i know i do want to lose this last 50 lbs! i also have a call in to my original band dr, who has been doing bands 4 yrs to see if they are having folks with similiar problems and if so what are they doing.

my first payroll job was at Opryland theme park. luckily for me i worked in the sit down cafateria for the old folks. it was air-conditioned and at a theme park thats a good thing! i had the DORKY uniform U-G-L-Y! thank god it was only 1 summer!

i love this thread! everytime i have to go to the store i sit here with a pen and post it and take a few notes for things to try! today i am going to the 'organic' store so i am gonna buy some FRESH mozzarella and do some tomatoes, basil, olive oil and mozzerella! HEALTHY AND GOURMET! kathy- i make those sandwiches for Snacks when people come over...you can cut them with a cookie cutter for a cool design! people really think you went through a lot of trouble and ir only takes a sec! thanks everyone!!! keep them coming!

i started dieting about a month and a half before surgery and lost 25 lbs. i was required to lose 5-10.

we just bought a new set of dishes and my dinner plates are the 6" salad plates. the dinner plates were 12"!!! so i didnt buy them. it would be more like a platter than a plate! so when company comes over they use our small plates too and if they want more they go back for seconds rather than pile it all on one plate!

hey cathy, sorry to hear of all your troubles. i am glad that now you are painfree and able to drink and eat without pain. i wish you much success! michelle

i never get a fill with a trip looming. with the way my restriction fluctuates its scares the hell out of me! i agree that its not worth the few pounds you lose. if i new THEN what i know NOW i would have left well enough ALONE! the first time i got overfilled i had been at my sweet spot for 8 months and lost a TON of weight and my restriction had eased up a bit- but at least i still HAD it! my next appt is for the 17th as well. my dr is going out of town so i scheduled an appt before he left 'just in case'. i HOPE that he wont have to remove anything but if tightens up to where i am struggling with mushies i will get it unfilled. since my last puking episode on tuesday I AM HAPPY TO SAY i havent PB'd again or even hiccupped!! i havent really had any solids but that means i havent tightened up since then! :clap2: i hope it wont change anymore. yesterday i ate pretty decently and i am gonna try to work solids in for ATLEAST dinner, i can eat softer lunches. yesterday i ate: b: yogurt l: bowl of lentil soup, i saved the bits of ham for last and they went down fine! dinner- cup of lentil soup, and 1/2 cup of ham salad (meat ran throught the grinder then mayo added) if my restriction does start to fluctuate again i am sure this will be the last of my 'fill-unfill' fiasco's. i dont think i can go through this again. calvin has asked me if a new band would help, my thoughts too are that the problem is with my esophogus and not my band. IF i had to get another surgery for a new band i think i would pass on that and look at 'other options' like RNY. of course just TYPING that scares the hell out of me so i would probably pass on that too. who knows!

After a good fill. When you can tolerate mushies/liquids, and you go on to hard food, what is the ideal way to switch? when i had good restriction the way i ate my meals was...i would eat the softest mushiest items first to get my throat-banded area good and lubed. then i would eat my protien last. this usually ensured i would not PB What is the ideal size of a bandster bite?:hungry: my first few bites are always the smallest. i will take just a niblet to see if i 'feel' it (in a bad way) i give a good 3-5 minutes to make sure i am not setting myself up for a PB then i proceed with caution. And how do you know if you are truly overfilled or just doing the "band thing" incorrectly? if you following all bandster rules and still PB'ing and not tolerating solids then you are to tight. if you are having problems with liquids you are to tight. if you are having dicomfort with EVERY meal then you are to tight. reflux is generally a sign of being to tight. if you have to ask you probably are to tight. these are things that apply to me. i have had *sweet spot* restriction, i have been to loose, i have been to tight.

YAY!!!!! CONGRATS!!!! that is awesome! "UNDER GOAL"! INCREDIBLE!

when i go for a fill the dr makes us drink 20 oz of Water before we leave the office. i take it a step further and bring a yogurt with me and eat that before i leave the office. i would say have the dr remove all the fill that he added the last time PLUS .1 cc. the reason i suggest that is you sound like you were to tight to begin with. i think going with a little less than you had originally makes sense. i am sorry you are having such troubles, it is the WORST to be to tight. take it easy till monday!

elisabeth, thanks i will defintially check it out. Are you loosing weight? right now, yes. but my calories for yesterday were like 500?!?! NOT HEALTHY! since my fill 1 week ago i am down 8 lbs Are you hungry? not now. before the fill YES i would wake up with a growling stomach and be hungry before meal time. Other than eating issues, are you in any kind of physical distress? no not really. i just remodeled calvins office and our downstairs bath and i pulled a muscle in my back but that has resolved itself Are you near your weight goal? HAH i wish. i dont have a # goal. i EASILY need to lose 50 lbs. my weight today is 235 from 350. my lowest was 207. the most i regained after all my unfills was...270 i got back to 240 through EXERCISE and determination. when i get a fill i can easily lose 15-20 lbs but as soon as i get to the point where i am *to tight* i have to be unfilled and as i rehydrate and start eating again i gain what i lost. Just for information purposes, is it only the act of eating (anything) that produces misery? What liquids can you manage without problems? well this varies. the first few days after the fill i could eat anything just a small amount 1 cup roughly. mushies obviously more. today i have been on liquids after 3 PB's yesterday. i have some lentil Soup that i am gonna run though the blender (because of the hulls) the liquids are going down fine today- and thats GREAT i will stay on them for a few days, then progress to mushies. the problem IS/HAS been that instead of ever moving to mushies my band keeps getting tighter and tighter to the point that i am spitting my own saliva in a cup. this has happened EASILY 10 times over the past 2 years. Is it the unpredictibility that the Band continues to do what it does that is the problem? the problem is i can not get STABLE restriction. it might be fine for a week or 2 weeks but it gets tighter and tighter till i am reduced to liquids only, then even those will not go down. before my fill i was TOTALLY unrestricted on amounts, textures etc. and i was hungry ALL the time. so i went for the smallest fill i could get .1 cc. Have you charted out on a daily basis for a month or two to correlate with possible other factors (period, etc) that may affect you so much? well i havent charted it out but i can tell you that my period doesnt seem to effect my restriction. in almost 3 years since banding it never has. i am not on it now, i am about 2 weeks from starting it. the ONLY thing i have noticed is when my nose/throat get dry my band gets tighter. my dr thinks that does not play a role. i am from humid TN and now live in the desert of WA state. i have a industrial humidifier at home that puts off 15 gallons of moisture a day because my nose/throat is SO dry. i drink 2 gallons of liquids a day. What would your idea right now be, of 'perfect performance' of the Band this is EASY. during my banding i have had 9 months of *sweet spot* (for me) restriction.... i lost 90 lbs during this time. i could eat: breakfast: 1 egg scrambled OR 1 yogurt OR 1 packet of oatmeal lunch: roughly a cup of food. i would eat 1/2 cup of veggies of some sort then roughly 4 oz of solid unprocessed protien dinner: same as lunch maybe a little more not more than 1.5 cups of food though. i LIKE to be able to eat solids for most of my meals. i would say the restriction *i* desire is not as tight as what most people want. currently i am going from one extreme to the other. i was WIDE open so i needed a fill. my band was offering no restriction. a .1 cc fill has reduced me to liquids. WTF!?!?!

hehehe leatha i need laymans terms! is that like scar tissue? when i first had restriction i was at 3.4 cc's. currently i am almost sealed off completely at 2.0. thats a CONSIDERABLE amount less than before and neither of my dr's had any explanation on that?!?!

donna- calvin and i were just talking about trying a different dr for fills. the problem is there are VERY limited ones in the area. i go to idaho now to see my current dr. there is a NEW dr in town that we just found that does has done the band for 6 years so i have his name and number. i will think about seeing him in the future. as far as liquids after fills, my dr's (both of them) just suggest liquids-mushies the first 3 days and move on as you are able. i chew my foods till they are liquids then chew more! right now i am going on liquids for SEVERAL days. kathy- i will definitally try the aloe vera juice. thanks to everyone for the support. i am SOOOO frustrated. i have done this so many times (fills - unfills) i just feel like at some point i have to realize that i may not ever be able to have restriction. *sighs*

hi dr c. thanks for responding. the last time this happened they checked me for a slip and assured me that it looked great, no slip, no pouch stretching, band placed perfectly. this was back in feb. i have never been checked for a hiatal hernia BUT DEFINITALLY will be now. i am sure i will be checked again for a slip and have another endo. as well. btw- i have never had acid reflux with all these times of being to tight. thanks josette for the well wishes. kim- i am sorry you are going though the same thing. i will ask the dr for a small unfill in the hopes it will leave me with some restriction but i think he will want to take more than the .1 - .2 he added.

you shouldnt be sliming on a daily basis. sometimes but not daily! i would try the warm liquids to help 'lube' you. also the food you are eating may need to be 'dipped' in something saucey, also like the other poster said make sure you are chewing the HECK out of your food. whatever you are doing now add abouit 10- 15 more chews. if you are still sliming after all that then maybe ask for a .1 unfill. you want to be able to eat comfortably at every meal. but you also want the portions to be under control!

i am closer to idaho so i go to Cour'da'lane (i KNOW i spelled that wrong!) anyway dr pennings is about 15-20 miles across the idaho border from spokane WA he charges 125 for a fill. michelle

i buy boneless skinnless thighs. chicken breast (my old staple) is just to iffy. it CAN NOT be dry at all and even then sometimes is a no go. do you have a meat grinder? one of my favorites for leftover meat is to run it through the grinder, put in small size freezer baggies ( i do 2 level icecream scoops of meat) freeze and then when you want to eat it, defrost in fridge or on counter, add mayo and YUMMY. i eat it with a spoon if i am restricted or on a cracker, bread or wrap if i am not!

when i was first banded i was filled to 3.4 before i had any restriction. the BOTTOM line is you keep getting fills (and following rules) till you have the desired amount of restriction. my dr made me wait 2-3 weeks between fills. it may take several more fills! the last fill i had (tuesday) i got .1 fill and i went from eating three eggs for Breakfast or one of those jumbo 1 inch thick porkchops to yogurt for breakfast and 4 oz meat with small side of veggies and that was from .1 cc.