Cocoabean

Check in with your surgeon. Those are classic symptoms of a band that is too tight. My last fill was in November, it did not get too tight until February. I just posted a long post about that fill's journey. The tightness went on far too long. Go be seen just to be sure it isn't the band.

I am here! I've been lurking in the background lately.

I call my husband the food Police. He's gotten better, but has stared up again recently. I got too tight after my last fill. Due to an unrelated illness and an insurance goof, it took several months to get into my surgeon. Now I've been half cc less for over a month. My weight is stable, I am fine. No stuck episodes. I can eat anything, but am easily controlling the volume. For some reason he keeps picking fights over it. Keeps telling me I don't need another fill (I agree), keeps telling me I am eating more than before the unfill (again I agree, that was the point, I could barely eat!), and that if I gain it is OK (again I agree, but only to a point, if I gain too much and NEED a fill to control it, my surgeon and I will make that decision together. When I agree, he wants to argue his point. I say I agree, and he tells me that I say so, but I really don't. Ok. I sae my surgeon a month after the unfill. My weight had gone from 146.2ish to 146.8. That is NOT a gain in my book. My doc rounds weights, so my chart says 146 then 147. That is a different time of day, month, or outfit. Or even as my doc pointed out, the earrings I had on could be the difference! I don't obsess over the scale at home. I get on it once every couple of weeks. Gotta love it when they just don't understand!

If you haven't had liquids in 3 days, call your surgeons office and tell the answering service this. If they are non-responsive call your primary care doctor, or go to the ER!! NOW. Dehydration is nothing to mess with. You are too tight. Get help.

Pre-op diets vary by surgeon based on their experiences and the patient's medical needs/history. Same with post-op diet phases.

Full body scanner, I did once, no issue. If it were me, I would postpone until after the trip. I always tighten up when I travel, no matter what the mode. I believe it is the stress. But if you have trouble, you'll be far away from your surgeon. I'd rather wait and be home. Fills can take up to 2 weeks to kick in. I've needed 2 unfills. I went to Las Vegas after the fill when I needed the first unfill. It was a miserable trip. I was urping in public toilets the entire weekend, and could not wait to get home to see my surgeon. I did not get to enjoy myself at all. Just my 2 cents..this is a long journey. There is no rush to get fills.

I see it as consideration, for the most part. Others don't what to encourage you to cheat, or make you feel bad. They also don't want the guilt of eating in front of you, or possibly being reminded of their own bad eating habits. There are many reasons behind it. I had a very short post-op liquid/mushy phase, but I made sure to tell the people around me that they are not the ones who had surgery, I was. Please eat as you normally would. It is no different from any other procedure. If I'd had knee surgery, I would not expect them to walk on crutches just because I had to use them.

Satisfied is lack of hunger, which is a totally new concept for most of us. I do not get the "soft stop" that many of us get...the hiccups or burps. So, when I was first learning to eat, I kept asking myself, am I no longer hungry with each bite. When you reach the point that the answer is, I am no longer hunger, and yet, I am not hurting myself from being full...it is time to stop. It can be hard to do. After a few times of hurting from being full, you will understand. Full hurts. As you reach that level of not being hungry, you will learn to stop, but at first, you need to keep asking yourself, and listening closely to learn what it feels like.

That is sooooo awesome! Great work! Enjoy the journey!

I did a 14 day cruise once. We had coffee, fruit, and croissants delivered in the mornings. The first 4 days I kept getting stuck. Could not figure out why. Until our first port day when we didn't have the delivery. I was back to my NORMAL habit of just coffee, then something light a couple hours later (brought a Protein bar with me for our shore tour). Then I didn't get stuck. So, I stopped eating the fruit with the morning coffee, and no more stucks! I am talking every day, all day, for the first 4 days. I thought something was wrong. I'd been fine before the trip. Then I had to learn where EVERY bathroom was on that ship. Add a bit of IBS...you get good at learning where bathrooms are! :-O Like B52 said, the band makes you stick to your habits. That's why we have it. I snack more on a cruise as well. But not like a fiend. I just cannot do it.

Way to go JennyBee!! When I cruise I do the buffet most often. I check out the entire thing to make my choices first, then get a small plate and dish up my selections. They always have healthy choices available. Too bad they don't band our brains to enforce the healthy choices. The good news is, at least on Princess, the deserts are just tiny. So one piece is enough to satisfy my incredible sweet tooth without going way high on calories. I HAVE had stuck episodes on cruises. At least even the public toilets have private stalls. Be sure you learn where they all are. Then again, I have stuck episodes just about everywhere.

What does your doctor say about your current weight? Is your BMI below normal? How do YOU feel at your current weight? I kept hearing that I was getting too thin. Check my BMI. I am hardly too thin. My PCP says I could stand to lose about another 5 lbs. My surgeon said I could get to 130 and be very healthy. That's another 15 or 18 on his scale. I wear a US size 10 now, sometimes an 8. That would put me in about a 4. That is pretty thin. I care about what my doctors and bloodwork say, not so much what people say. Especially people who were used to seeing me overweight. I think that seeing someone thin when you are used to seeing them overweight can seem like they look ill, when in fact they are now healthy. I remember looking at pictures of myself before my surgery when I had lost weight. I thought I looked ill when I was thin, because my perspective was my chubby self. NOW I look at my before surgery pictures and I see how uncomfortable I was. People will get used to the new you, and you won't hear it after a while. Now that I've maintained for over two years, I hardly ever hear about my weight from anyone. When I meet new people, if I tell them I have a band...they always ask, "why? You are so thin!"

Many surgeons add some fill on the day of surgery. The band (well the AP band anyway) is primed with some saline. Some surgeons leave the prime, some don't.

Why are you drinking shakes? Does your surgeon require it? My surgeon said NO shakes. He wants me eating my calories. Solid protein will sustain you longer than a shake. You may find if you consume solids foods rather than liquid calories you will consume less calories and the weight will start to come off.

I think that is what I did??? Although I had a typo...I *needed* to lose 68 lbs to get to a normal BMI, I lost 77. I read the Original Post to be asking how much of your total weight have you lost. So that would be the weight I've lost divided by my starting weight...no? I now weigh about 2/3 what I did when I started..another way to look at it! I've lost a third of myself. And 5-6 pants sizes (seven if you count the odd pair of size 6 capri jeans I got last weekend!!). Also 2 ring sizes and a shoe size. Oh, and my pants got longer before I started dropping sizes! A 16" Tiffany heart necklace that was very tight now hangs perfectly. Woot!!! :-)

It sounds to me that he has a standard protocol he follows, but listens to the patient as to how things are going and will divert as needed. Nothing wrong with that.

Fills sometimes don't kick in until days to weeks after. It is not uncommon to be able to eat for a while and then tighen up.

Personally, I don't think you should leave LBT. You can still be a valuable member of our community! You were very successful, and even if you weren't, if given in a positive manner, we all have something to contribute. Sharing your experiences can help others facing similar situations. That said, I do hope you can get bypass approved and continue on in your journey to good health and weight loss!

I just had a 0.5cc unfill. So I hear your anxiety. All we can do is count on our good habits that we have developed to keep us moving forward. Don't concentrate on the scale. Our focus should be on our health. How is your blood pressure? Your sugar? Your cholesterol? There are other methods of measuring success. Being banded is a lifetime journey to make our health better. It is NOT just about the scale. Yes, we want the weight gone, and we want it gone yesterday, but that isn't always going to happen. This is a marathon, not a sprint. It is time to change your battle plan for the time being. Adjust your outlook. As obese people, we ALWAYS fear regain. Hasn't it happened every other time we've gone on a diet? We don't exactly have track records of success to help calm us down. But we didn't have our bands to help us in the long run. Over the course of your lifetime, Augsut 3, or 3 weeks, is miniscule. You will get through it. After my unfill, I was able to schedule a refill for July 16, now I have to travel for work that week, so I have to reschedule..ugh... I REALLY am right there with you!

Most likely, you pulled an internal stitch, or are feeling some new scar tissue. But if something feels wrong, give your surgeon a ring, that is what we pay them for, even on the weekends. Mine came into my hospital room before my discharge to tell me specifically that. Don't mess around if it doesn't feel right. Go with your instinct. I'd rather cry wolf and be assured it was gas, that assume it was gas and find out too late it was a huge infection raging away.

Geology Rocks..not being a statistician, I am not sure what you mean, but when I redid my total loss, I came up with 35.5%...which is what Elcee asked for originally 77 pounds lost divided by 217 starting weight. The other number..well, To get to a normal BMI I needed to get to 149 lbs. I am less than that now...so I have lost in excess, or more than 100% of the excess I had to lose. I need to lose 68 lbs to get to normal, I have lost 77. I divide 77 by 68 and got 113% of my excess weight lost.. Am I incorrect?

Being banded should mean that you no longer have to do liquid diets and go hungry. It may take a while to reach the proper level of restriction for you to be in that state, but have patience. The band is not a set it and forget it procedure. It takes months of aftercare to get it right. After 6 months I finally started losing weight, but I didn't lose it steadily. On the whole, the trend was down. but it would be a few pounds one week, none the next, up one, down two..same, same, same, down three, up two. My goal was to concentrate on an eating plan I could live with for the rest of my life. Yes, I wanted to lose weight, don't get me wrong. But I also knew that with proper eating habits comes weight loss. It's been 4 1/2 years. I've been maintaining my weight loss for about 2 1/2 now, without thinking about it much. I try to make fairly healthy choices. I quit when I get my satisfied signal. I see my surgeon when he tells me he wants to see me.

Same here, basically. Smaller portions have become second nature after 4 years.

Eating should not be painful. At least not all the time. Getting stuck once in a while maybe, but if happening often, go see your surgeon.

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