Cocoabean

For me, pain just below my chest means stuck, not full. It also means STOP EATING. If I stop eating when I feel the pain the food might move down. If I keep eating, I am usually in for trouble, pain, and slime. There is also a difference between full and satisifed. As obese people we often search for full, not finding it. As banded folk, we need to look for satisfied. If I eat until I am full, I am uncomfortable. If I stop when satisfied, I am happy. Big difference. Once you have good restriction, satisfied will hold you for 3 or 4 hours, maybe more. Don't starve yourself until your next fill. Eat healthful choices. Feel satisfied. You are doing great on the weightloss. Keep up the good work!

It isn't a matter of being full, it is a matter of being satisfied. It takes practice to get used to that. Don't wait for the band to scream at you that you are full, which it WILL do as you gain restriction. Listen for the whisper of satiety and stop eating then. You will be thankful for it. Eat slowly, pay attention, and listen. Satisfied is comfortable, full hurts. At least for me. Best wishes!

My weight has been stable for a while now, but when I was actively losing I lost less than a pound a week on average. My surgeon told me to expect 1 to 2 lbs per week. So you are averaging 1.5 per week. That is fabulous! If you are not starving, that is even better! You don't say if you have had any fills yet. Maybe you are one of the few who needs very little fill to be sucsessful. I have been overfilled and that is no fun, so don't be in a huge hurry to get fills if you don't need them. Keep up the good work and when the weight loss slows or you are more hungry, then it is time to get a fill. Best wishes on the journey!

My surgeon told me to not be surprised if I gained during the post-op phase. He said it can happen. While the intent is not to eat to our hearts content, we also do not have restriction at this point, so the tool we had installed is not helping us. Willpower is the only thing working for you at this point. If we could live on one egg for breakfast a can of tuna for lunch and then waiting for dinner we would not have needed surgery. If that were all I ate in a day, I'd be starving by dinner time, and I have restriction. Also, what is your doctor's definition of snacking? My doctor does not want me snacking either. But for him that means I am not to brainlessly eat between meals. I can have planned foods between meals that fit into my program. When I heard no snacking, I thought it meant no eating between meals, but not so. I look at the liquid phase as a crash diet. When people go off of crash diets, they often gain weight when returning to "normal" foods. Keep practicing the portion control, but know that we are not perfect. Fills will go a long way to helping you manage the portions! This is a long haul journey. Best wishes.

he he he! I thought about Pancho! Also Paco, but we have two Chihuahuas in the neighborhood named Paco, too confusing! I never thought about naming the port. Will have to ponder that one. I love the Ben & Jerry combo!!

How is your restriction level? 9 lbs is 6 weeks is fantastic! But if you are starving to do it... My surgeon and I always have a discussion about how much I can eat before we agree on a fill. I might want more fill than he is willing to give. But if your physical hunger is under control, or perhaps you are having stuck episodes from time to time, he may be reluctant to fill you at this time. When you lose more you might have less restriction and your rate of loss will slow. He might then be willing to give you a fill. There are many factors that go into getting a fill.

I think a lot of it has to do with your age, genetics, and how much you have to lose. If you have a lot of weight to lose, I seriously doubt supplements or creams (especially over the counter) will do much to help. I am down about 60 lbs. My stomach looks great. No tummy tuck needed. My arms on the other hand! Well, I have always carried extra weight in my upper arms (Thanks, Mom!) They could really use a nip/tuck. But it would be purely cosmetic, and I am unwilling to pay for that, so I won't be wearing tank tops any time soon. Just my thoughts...

Spelling and grammar errors make me crazy. I try to run words I am unsure of through spell check. Then I preview my posts and proof them. Then I post them. When I go back to them to read other responses--THAT is when I find my errors! DRAT! Then I start wondering how many people read it...and think I cannot spell or use proper grammar. Ugh! So, I fix the ones I notice and hope for the best, and try to overlook those of others. If I can't overlook them, then I skip the post. Accdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Olny 55% of plepoe can raed tihs. I can!!!

I sooooo HATE it when I do that!! Part of the reason I started this thread was to see if anyone thought maybe naming their band could lead to over eating or something. By giving an alter ego to an inanimate object. In this instance you have accepted the blame and outcome for the action of not stopping when you feel things not moving. If I blame it on Bandit, might I continue to eat? At this point in the band game, I will not, because I KNOW I cannot eat when I feel it. Just curious and rambling.....

Hey Everyone, I keep reading about using gas-x strips for the post-op shoulder pain due to the gas used to pump up the abdomen during surgery. I am curious how these would help, as they are designed to help gas inside the stomach not outside the stomach? I am 2 years post-op, so my question is theoretical at this point for me. But I cannot see how something for the digestive system would work for that pain. (Obviously I did not try them ) Thanks!

The ports are achored to abdominal muscles. So how close they are under the skin depends a lot on how much fat we have there. My surgeon gives more cc's in early fills and goes down in amount as we progress. He prefers to sneak up on the sweet spot rather than shooting through it and chasing it. Of course, I ended up overfilled anyway. Which was no fun. But had he put even more fill in, it would have been more painful than it was!

Pickles? Why pickles? I'd have eaten every pickle in San Diego County if that were the only solid allowed!

I think your fears are normal. If we hadn't dieted and failed numerous times, we'd not have turned to surgery. Your success on South Beach tells me that the band can help you! It will give you control of the physical hunger allowing you to battle head hunger. For me it has been the tool I needed to gain success at portion control. For the first time, I am able to put a small portion on my plate and not want to go back for seconds. Today, I went out for lunch with my hubby. Before I ordered my meal I had a plan to get a box and take half of it for my lunch at work tomorrow. This is something the band has given me. I knew things like that could happen before I was banded. But I could never follow through with it, because I always wanted more food! As to the Cookies? Well, the band will NOT take away the desire for them. Nope, and they go down easily. That is something you will have to deal with if you get a band. Some people choose gastric bypass for the dumping sydrome that foods like cookies can cause. So they get a negative impact when eating foods like that. For me, I LOVE junk food. But don't keep it around, so I am doing ok with it. I have it as a treat from time to time, but don't have it in my life all the time. Best wishes in your journey!

There is nothing you can do short of plastic surgery to spot lose. Sad, but true. Crunches and the like will firm up the muscles underneath, but won't do anything for the fat layer above.

Could be a sign of a slip, you should call your doctor to check in.

Yaahooo!! Gotta love it!! The crossed legs are wonderful!!

A 35 lb loss is great! My question would be, how long would you be able to keep the weight off without surgery? Surely you have dieted before, and lost weight. Are you confident you can lose the remaining weight and keep it off by yourself? My guess is you have lost it only to gain it back. You would not have considered something as drastic as surgery if you had successfully lost weight and maintained that loss! None of your friends have walked in your shoes. Surgery has risks, and only you can weigh those risks. But constant yo-yoing is not good. Don't you deserve to be healthy? Don't you deserve a tool to help you achieve that goal? Best wishes!

I am curious what the doctor based the statement on. If JHYLER reports not being able to eat without getting stuck or having pain, or perhaps the doc did a barium swallow, he might say that he won't go any tighter based on medical findings. If it is purely based on the amount of fill in the band, then I'd argue the point as well. I also like the statement that we need a band on our brains. That would go a long way to help me to get the last bit of weight off!

I weigh in every night before bed and in my jammies. This gives me the "oh, these jammies weight 10 lbs and I had too much salt today, so I can subtract 11 lbs" excuse! In actuality though, I just look at the number and say, "oh, ok." Realizing that it can vary so much from day to day. Also, the scale is in the master bath and I get ready for work at 5:30 a.m. so I use the guest bath so as not to wake the retired DH. So I cannot get to the scale in the morning. See how considerate I am? So I do my strip and go naked weigh in on Saturdays. As to tricks? My scale is right next to a towel rack. If I put my hand on that, (for balance, of course) I can take off 30 lbs! That is a wonderful sight!

26 lbs in less than 2 months is wonderful weight loss! How much did your surgeon tell you that you can expect to lose? I was told 1-2 lbs per week, but I averaged less than 1 lb per week. Taking the 20 lbs during the 2 week post-op into account, you have done 1 lb per week. Once you find restriction, you will likely be able to get that to a bit faster rate. When you are sick, your body does what it wants to do. And getting IV fluids just pumps weight into you. Don't even look at the scale. What you list for meals doesn't sound like enough calories. Is this typical or just because you were sick? You should be taking in 1000-1200 a day. If you go much less than that, you will not lose much. Your body can go into starvation mode and hang onto every last calorie. Have you talked to your nutritionist about what might be a good program for you? Best wishes!

Hi Juliansmom, For me it was one of those I knew it when I had it moments. Sort of like my first slime episode was a "what the heck is all this goo? OOOOHHHHH" moments. I didn't get restriction until fill #2. For me it is: Feeling satisfied on a small portion, but not getting stuck, provided I have chewed well. A meal will last me 3-4 hours. I don't obsess over my next meal. food doesn't rule all my thoughts. Yes, I still have head hunger, but with physical hunger under control, I can better fight it. When I was overfilled, every meal was torture. Even yogurt was painful. I got stuck on string cheese and mashed potatoes. As a side note, one of the first foods I got stuck on was a banana. I didn't eat one agin for a year. Then I was fine with them. After my last fill, they bother me again.

Were you dieting prior to starting the pre-op? This could make a difference. If you were already restricting intake and had already lost the water weight, you might not have had that to let go of once you began the shakes.

I did the medi-fast program. This is 5 of their shakes/soups/bars per day and one "lean and green" meal, which is a salad/veggie and lean meat meal. I did it for two weeks. I lost 8 lbs. I was not sick or dizzy, just hungry. I took my normal medications. However, your pre-op diet will be what your surgeon tells you to do. You don't want to change what you are told to do without his/her permission. It seems each doctor is different. They have their reasons for their choice of pre-op diets. Stick with what they tell you to do

I've never coughed or snorted during a stuck episode. Also I've never heard of an infection from stuck food? Anyone have any resources/information about this? When I get stuck I get pain/pressure just beneath my sternum. Then I get the slime. This is a thick mucous the body creates to facilitate the stuck item's removal. Either up or down. As the passage to your stomach is blocked, the slime has no where to go but up and out the mouth. Walking helps the pain and if it is not a bad episode, it will help the food move through. If it is a bad episode, I will gulp some Water down which will immediately trigger the item to come back up. It is not really vomitting, as I don't retch or gag. It just comes up and out and it is over. Before I learned this trick, an episode could last for a couple of hours. Now it is over in minutes. Once you find what works for you, a stuck episode isn't really that bad. It IS possible to get something stuck that won't clear. Then your stomach swells making things worse. In this case, you need medical intervention. The Fluid needs to be removed from the band so that the food can clear and the swelling go down. Then the fluid can be put back in. Denise

I cannot answer the SSI question. But the first place to start would be your primary care doctor who can make a referral. Denise