Cocoabean

Glad you are feeling a bit better! I'd say after what you have been through you will have some major swelling, take it very easy. I'd advise against the aspirin, unless your surgeon allows the use of NSAIDs. Most do not. meat tenderizer will help to break down food. I believe it has papaya enzyme and some other stuff in it, like lots of salt. But hey, any port in a storm. I haven't tried it yet.

It sounds like reflux from a possibly too tight band. Not a doc here, just going by what I've read about bands and people's experiences over the years. Call your surgeon's office line and tell the answering service what is going on. They'll get a message to your surgeon or one who is on call. Don't mess around with these symptoms.

Sometimes I stay swollen for a couple of days but I don't have that gut wrenching stuck pain that whole time. Just an irritated tightness. If food is stuck and you need medical care, they can go down your esophagus to grab the food, rather than unfill. Unfill is the first defense for badly stuck bandsters. But bypass folk get stuck too...they get the food fished out. I am 4+ years out, I just used paypaya enzymes for the first time this week when I got stuck on some salad. It seemed to work very well. Coincidence? Maybe. Deserving of another try? Definitely. pineapple juice did nothing for me. One thing I have tried when well and truly stuck is to suck down a few ounces of Water. It will bring on a wave of nausea and come right back up, but it usually brings the offending item with it. But there are those times when the item is just plain stuck... Glad to hear you can get fluids down, that is a great sign!!

I understand the concern. If you aren't in pain, or feeling stuck, I would watch and wait. If it is not comfortable for you, then call and get .5cc taken out. We have to be able to tolerate our fill level.

Practicing is a good thing, but you really cannot prepare yourself. Once you experience getting stuck a few times you WILL take smaller bites. For me, it depends on the food. I can take bigger bites of softer foods. meats like steak or pork need to be about the size of a pencil eraser. It starts to come naturally with time.

6 weeks, but I chose to wait an extra month due to a scheduled cruise. Not to eat, but in case I had trouble with the fill. I only gained 1 lb on the cruise.

Do what your surgeon tells you to do. If 600 calories isn't enough, ask what you can add, or schedule a fill. I will say I'd never have done well on 600 calories a day, but I wasn't given limits. As to dairy, most surgeons agree that liquid calories aren't the best choice. They just aren't as filling as solid Proteins. You will not lose weight daily. You may even go weeks without dropping. It is just the nature of weight loss.

Right there with Marci. 5 lbs in my first 5 months as a bandster. Big whoop. After my 3rd fill, then the weight loss started as my restriction kept my food levels down. Bands don't cause weight loss. Lower food intake and exercise do. And sometimes not even then, frustrating as it may be. If you were eating 3000 calories a day before, when you needed 1500 to maintain, and now you are eating 2000 a day and exercising 500 worth, you will maintain or lose very slowly. Walking a mile burns about 100 calories per mile. Woot..not a lot. So we think we are tearing it up, but really? It's great for us, but calorie burn? ah well. When you can get your calories down to 1000-1200 you'll start to see more losses. When you reach the green zone of restriction that will be easier to do. I lost on average 0.75 pounds per week during actively losing. Not alot, but enough to get over 70 lbs off and keep them gone. Happy? Oh yeah!

If your stomach is in good enough shape at the time of removal (if your insurance will pay for removal and your surgeon is willing), you might be able to do it all in one surgery and have the band removed and change to another procedure with only paying your surgeon for the revision to the other procedure. The insurance company pays for the OR and band removal part, you pay for the sleeve or RNY. I've heard of it being done in the past. Might be worth asking the question, if you are interested in another procedure. My PCP also told me that depending on the way they write it up you can sometimes get switched to a new procedure even if the insurance company says one per customer. They are taking the band out due to complications, not due to you not following the rules. There is a difference. Medical need, all that. But we know how much insurance companies love to say no.

Lyse, thank you for sharing your story. As I was reading your first posts my brain was screaming that you had a slip. I am so very happy you saw your surgeon and got it daignosed and treated! If you have medical insurance at all, there is a good chance they will pay for the removal as this was a life threatening complication. Please work with your surgeon's office on how they code the billing (I don't know how it should be done--but I do know the fact that you self-paid for the band doesn't mean that they won't pay for removal due to severe complications!) Best wishes to you as you recover, and I hope you find the cause of your inability to lose.

Fill level has nothing to do with sliders for me. I have to be almost occluded to not be able to eat slider foods, and that is just not a happy place for me. chips, Cookies, ice cream..they all go down quite easily for me. The only time they didn't is when I was overfilled and could not even get yogurt or mashed potatoes with lots of milk in them down. Even now, while I am in the green zone but considering a slight unfil, I can eat silders with no problem. It is the good for me foods that are a challenge. I have to choose not to eat the sliders. It is way easier to grab some chips than to sit and slowly eat a salad that may or may not go down. And the chips taste soooo much better. It's a shame they cannot band the brain along with the stomach.

Add more water and thin it down. It is what I just did with a chocolate shake. My band is a bit tight after getting stuck on a pill last night. I didn't want the thinkness of a shake.

Some surgeons will allow the use of NSAIDs in banded patients, some won't. As the previous poster said, speak with yours. Mine allows for occasional use. But I did have to come off of daily usage of prescription strength as well. You might be able to take a small dose on days when you are going to walk. Approved by your surgeon, of course. I agree with Honk about Water exercise, great for arthritic joints.

It might help. For me, the damage was done, but it hasn't gotten worse.

Others that have been unfilled totally have reported the same experience. Jachut had her fill removed for cancer surgery and hasn't reclaimed the same restriction, same with lellow. I don't think anyone really knows why. Speculation is that ones loosened, the band moves just a bit, or that the fat beneath the band has been "flattened" and once the band is unfilled it is hard to get it back just the same as it was. I hope given time you find the same sensation, even if it is a bit more fill than was there before!

Always call your surgeon for new/severe pain. That said.... I get pain just below my rib cage on my left side. Sometimes it can be pretty stout. My surgeon says for me, it is gas. It is also a signal to me that I have eaten too much. Unfortunately, I don't get the pain until it is too late.

Not to mention the discomfort a seat belt could cause rubbing for hours. A pillow between belly and belt might help. But for me, a passenger seat belt goes right over my port. I could not imagine 1000 miles of that rubbing.

Definitely let your surgeon know. He may be able to prescribe some sort of acid blocker for you.

Oh yeah, soup was the topic, if you are eating it and losing, then it is working. If you stop losing, you might have to reassess. My surgeon hates liquids with calories. I love milk. We agreed to disagree, and I could have it as long as things were going well. Take the calories into account, and all is good....in my opinion.

While it would appear to be a great opportunity to see California, your reason for being here is the surgery. Driving through unknown areas is not stress free. San Francisco traffic is horrid at all hours, and navigating the area is far from easy. If you had a medical problem while enjoying the Redwood Forest north of San Francisco, you are a 10-12 hour drive to Tijuana. Quicker to fly from Chicago, yes? Why not choose a nice hotel in the San Diego area to recuperate? The Hotel del Coronado is beautiful, right on the beach. Check out the Gas Lamp district downtown, lots of shopping and dining--your wife will need to eat, eventhough you won't. La Jolla ia beautiful, but pricey. San Diego has plenty to do for a week. The zoo, the wild animal park, Sea World, the USS Midway, Seaport Village, Coronado, Balboa Park, Cabrillo National Monument. If you are up to a drive, there's a nice little mountain town called Julian, great day trip. On the weekend, there is a swapmeet if you are up for walking around.

Sounds to me like you are getting the hang of it! Always go easy after a fill. As you get more fill in your band, you will actually be able to feel the band getting tighter around the stomach as the saline is added. It is a very odd sensation. If they draw all the Fluid out and put it back in to check the amount, that is quite a bit of trauma. Thinks of havivg a belt around your waist pulled too tight. Thighten it more, it is going to get aggravated. Loosen it all the way and then slam it tight again, and it will be even MORE aggravated. My surgeon says liquids for the remainder of the fill day...I am more conservative in these later fills. I domshakes and mushies for a couple of days until my band and stomach area feel normal.

Hey Dude! upper GI is similar to fluoro. Except it is still pics in the end. Very similar to fluoro, but I believe fluoro doesn't have a recording mechanism, I could be wrong, howerver. Endoscopy is done with a camera on the end of a scope put down your throat to your atomach and, I think, to your jejunum. It is very similar to a colonoscopy, but from the other end. It is pictures and a camera/live view of the inside of your stomach. They can truly see the inside of the pouch and see if the band has eroded into the stomach. All three are very useful, but the surgeon should determine which is needed. If an erosion is suspected, then endoscopy is the proper test, insisting on flouroscopy will not benefit you, other than frustrating your surgeon, because you know more than him. What is needed depends on what information is being sought.

I caught a cold around the time I was in the hospital, not fun. Mu surgeon wanted me walking around every 30 minutes for clots. IF you can stop, and IF you are neve far from emergency care, then maybe. But I'd not do it until at least 3-4 days post-op. did you ask your surgeon? What did Dr. Kuri say? The Cali coast has some areas where you'd be an an hour or so from emergency care, from hi-tech energency care? Different story. Most central coast bandsters go to Los Angeles or San Francisco. A 2-3 hour drive. Personally, i would not have wanted to be that far from my surgeon for at least a coulpe of weeks, but I did not need him. Being forced to be upright in a car and nor have my bed? No way for me. Just not an option in my book, but we are all different.

If you choose to look for the rain cloud in everything, you can find it. I am also one of the people to whom a complication will occur if possible. I went in for a quick procedure on Arpil 6. Doc said if mid -week, I'd be back to work the next day. Procedure on Friday, feeling weird by Sunday, Monday night fevere of 103.8. Tuesday at the ER. Turns out, a simsple catheter went to a bladder infection to a major blood infection (sepsis) that fast. While a UTI is common after a catehter, it is uncommon for it to go into sepsis. No one's fault, listed as a possible complication of the overall procedure I had done. Just had to happen to me. This was NOT band related. Bands are meant to be in place forever, the fact that some are not doesn't really matter at this point. Your GF has a band, she should use it to the best of her ability and deal with complications if they crop up. There is no sense in agonizing over what could happen. Do appropriate aftercare, see her surgeon once a year at the least, and have everything checked. If something doesn't feel right, she should call and be seen. That is what it boils down to. iV Fluid retention wii be gone in a few days. Hope she is feeling better soon!