Cocoabean

Ok, so today I did it! I went to the cafeteria at lunch at got a chicken wrap for lunch. Only weird thing is, I was able to eat nearly the whole thing! But in my defense, it was mostly veggies with maybe 3 oz of chicken, I tore off some of the tortilla (which does not give me trouble), and I did NOT have chips (or is it crisps to you Aussies?). I was also able to eat 1/2 a bagel this morning. Odd, I had a very nasty break up with bagels a while ago. Haven't dared to try them since. But I had been up for a few hours by then and had consumed my coffee. Bands are so fickle, aren't they? Now, exercise? I don't wanna talk about it.

Way to go! Keep up the good work!

Did you ask why they haven't submitted? Is there any way you can submit yourself? Ask them for the paperwork and send it off? I don't know if that is possible. But taking from May to the end of Feb to submit seems a bit ridiculous.

Just remember, you are NOT her food or program police! It's fantastic you are asking the question. When she gets stuck, don't make a big deal out of it. Laugh with her, if she has a sense of humor about it. Commiserate if she needs a shoulder. But most of all, don't make her feel bad for making mistakes along the way. It is a journey, take it with her.

You know, I am fortunate, I have a cafeteria at work, but I am too lazy to go downstairs and grab something healthy! So, I need to commit to changing that habit. Either getting something there or bringing it from home. I have a refrigerator and micro in my office area. It isn't like it is a big deal! Elcee, I am with you on the hating exercise thing. And whoever said just stick with it and you will start to love it is a damned liar! I also doubt I will ever crave healthy foods. Give me the junk, and I am a happy camper. Alien Bandit, good to see you again! Haven't seen you around in a while.

"Stretching the pouch" takes quite a bit of work from overeating and stuffing food down so that it overflows into the esophagus. It takes time for it to happen, and is diagnosed by an Upper GI. The stomach is quite elastic. A dilation is a long-term complication from overeating. Fried eggs are more likely to cause you to get stuck as they can be difficult to chew. Runny---not so much. As you gain restriction from fills you might find that eggs become more difficult to eat.

My thoughts are this: you are looking at it from an emotional reaction to feeling the device in your hands. Do you have any medical reason why you feel the Realize band would be better? Just because it appears less cumbersome to you does not mean it would be better. A spare tire in a car is much less cumbersome than a tire meant to be used at regular speeds for long distances. Does that mean you should use that spare tire full time? I don't know, ask your mechanic. I believe the mechanic would say NO WAY. Use the real tire as it is much heavier and meant for that job. I am not saying that the Realize band is not for you. I am just asking if you are qualified to make the determination as to which band is the proper one for you. I put that decision in my surgeon's hands. I figure he is the one that will see my anatomy and know what his experience shows will work best. Just because I like the Porsche doesn't mean that I don't need a Hummer for my life-style. Did you ask your surgeon about your life-style and how the Allergan band would react? With an Allergan band you can get a normal or low-profile port. The Realize band only has one type of port, to my understanding. Have you asked what difference a high pressure vs. low pressure band would make for someone doing the sports you do? Are you doing hard contact sports? If not, I cannot imagine how it could make much of a difference. There are bandsters on here who do full contact martial arts. I don't know which bands they have. But if you really, truly want a Realize band, and your Dr. doesn't offer it, then it is time to find a new dr.

We are here to help and support eachother, keep asking questions. Everyone wants the best band experience they can get. And everyone deserves that!

3 hours between eating is not bad. That's about how far I go. My surgeon says snacking is brainless eating. If I need to eat between meals due to hunger, then a planned bit of nutritious food is not snacking.

Yes, mashed potatoes NEVER tasted so good!

Lellow, I'd go crazy with no answers! I am the type who wants ALL the info, the good, the bad, and the ugly, then we take it from there. I know I rely on my band so very much. Without it I have no doubt that I would regain weight. They say we should change our eating habits so as to not need the band...yeah, riiiggghhhttt. If I could change my eating habits to where I didn't need my band, I'd not have needed it in the first place. Sort of like the fellow I work with who lost his work cell phone. He filled out an incident report that said, I lost my cell phone. Security said that isn't enough, we need to know where you lost it and when. Well if he knew that it would not be lost, now would it???? Sheesh. I am sure Friday cannot come soon enough!

So Lellow, are you totally unfilled for the slip? That would be so horrible, but it is the general treatment here in the States. Unfill and liquids for about a month, then re-evaluate. For the leak, do they put in a new port? You whole situation totally sucks.

Thanks for the technical and concise explanation of what I was trying to say!

@Success, Gotcha, that sounds like it was a very rough time. Congrats on your losses so far! Way to go! I hear that a hernia repair can make post-op a bigger challenege. I am glad to hear you are getting it all figured out.

As I sit here with my root beer float, I guess I should raise my hand! Banded 4 years. 70 lbs gone. Maintaining easily. But I could do better on the nutrition part. I need to commit to eating healthier lunches at work. I tend to be very lazy and usually do noodles like cup 'o Soup.

I am 4 years out. I go in about once a year for a tiny fill. My surgeon says a little bit of the Fluid dissipates somehow. So I get about 0.25cc added. He also does an upper GI and esophogram to be sure everything is doing well. He can see if the pouch has stretched during that test. He had me eat a bit of sandwich and then we could see my restriction, and watch it go down. Very interesting! If you are eating more, or feeling more hunger, go get a fill! That is why we have bands, to help us feel less hunger. At least check in with your surgeon to be sure all is well with your band.

Gastric bypass patients get stuck, also. So don't let that be a deciding factor for you! Go to the info seminar and listen. Talk it over with your surgeon. Pick a surgeon who does all three procedures. Hear what he or she recommends and why. Read on all the forums around about the different types of WLS. I chose the band because I mainly needed portion control, and it seemed far less drastic than gastric bypass. Although the qualifications for both were the same, bypass just seemed too extreme for someone in my medical condition. I was a lower BMI, I was not yet diabetic, but heading that way. I just didn't think the risk of Vitamin deficiencies/malabsorption/malnutrition was worth the benefits I'd get from bypass. I can't speak intellectually about the sleeve other than to say that most of the risk of it is immediately pre-op. The risk of a leak on the staple line is significant, but it seems that if you come through that period, then further complications are very rare. Best wishes on your decision!

If your band is too tight, you generally stop losing weight because you tend to gravitate toward slider foods because they are easier to eat. Most slider foods have more calories and don't keep you satisfied as long. For example, 1/2 cup of tomato Soup has 90 calories, and 1 skinless chicken thigh has 109 calories. Which one will hold you longer? If you have the soup, you will be looking for food sooner. So, you have more soup, because you cannot get the chicken to go down. Now you've consumed 180 calories, but you aren't satisfied. So, you grab a milkshake, or some chips, or Cookies. At least they have some substance to them, and they taste oh, so good. And chips and cookies and anything highly processed goes down so easily, and is generally so much higher in calories than fresh foods. But even cookies and chips don't keep you satisfied as long as solid Proteins like chicken, beef, and fish. And a tighter band can lead to erosion (where the band goes through your stomach wall to the inside of your stomach). We are far better off with our bands at a reasonable restriction level where we can eat solid proteins without vomiting often (which can put us at risk of a slip), and have the solid foods hold us between meals without the need to graze.

Many people have left shoulder pain. Often it is remainders of the gas from the surgery. Walking helps to dissipate it. For others it can be a signal that they have reached full. For you, at only a few days post-op, it is most likely the gas, a few more days ought to do the trick. A heating pad can help with the pain, and walk, walk, walk. Many report gas-x strips help also, how it helps that pain, I'll never understand, but it does. Hope you feel better soon!

Get all your prescriptions filled in advance. Have them set up by wherever you will land at home. When you wake up from your first nap, you will need the pain meds. I found that out the hard way. Very glad DH was there to help me sit up! Have a heating pad nearby. It felt great on the tummy. Be sure to wear easy on, easy off clothes to the hospital. Along with slip on shoes or slippers.

I had surgery in Feb and didn't start losing weight until the end of June. My surgeon doesn't have patients diet during bandster hell. So, no one who didn't know what kind of surgery I had would make a connection between it and my weight loss. And yeah, thyroid surgery leaves a scar at the base of your throat. Radio-iodine treatment of the thyroid requires you to be away from people for a while, and leaves no scars. But you might research the laws, your boss might get himself into trouble if he broadcasts what medical treatments you are undergoing.

Lap Band's literature says we can only expect 1-2 pounds per week. This is a restrictive only procedure. It is NOT a rapid weight loss procedure. An average of 1.9 lbs per week is fantastic. During my weight loss phase I lost 0.75 per week on average. And it was not steady. I'd go up and down, but it was mostly down. Sometimes I'd stay the same for a few weeks. Being banded is about creating habits that will stay with you for life.

Vomiting should not be a normal part of your routine. If you cannot eat dense protein foods, then your band is too tight. Are you certain you are not over 1200 calories? I used to estimate mine, and when I started journaling was shocked to see I was actually eating around 1700 a day.

Our pouches do grind some. We differ from gastric bypass that way. Their pouches do not grind at all. They depend on gravity to move the food out of the pouch. Our pouches can sometimes eventually work a stuck item through. For me, if I feel the first inkling of being stuck and I stop eating, I might just have some pain for a bit and it will go down. If I pile more food on top, then it gets truly lodged, the pain becomes intense and I start to slime. Once I start sliming, it generally means the food is coming up, not going down. The sooner that occurs, the less trauma in my opinion. I'd rather urp quickly than have my pouch grinding for hours trying to get something to go down. Of course, the book answer is to chew, chew, chew and not get stuck. And if you do get stuck to seek medical attention. Uh huh. My worst stuckage was on loose cooked hamburger. It was shortly after I was banded. It went on for about 5 hours. Pain and buckets of slime. I had NO idea the body could manufacture that amount of saliva and goo. So, the onions or pita might have had a hard time going down and now you are irritated. Go way easy until you feel back to normal. There are speed bumps along the banded road, that is for certain.

You actually had something stuck for a month and a half? Or did you just get into a cycle of irritation/swelling/stuck? I sometimes go through cycles where if I have a bad stuck episode I get some swelling. Then I don't lay off long enough, so I get stuck again, more swelling...so on, so on, so forth. So now after a bad stuck episode, I tend to do liquids for at least a day afterwards. Grider, I hope you are feeling better!