imb316

In the media you always hear a lot about people who have weight loss surgery and then since they cant squash their pain with food they turn to drugs and alchohol. I dont see much about this on this forum but unfortunately I am one of those people. Has anyone else turned to alchohol since being banded and not being able to stuff your face? I am also curious if anyone has even gone to a detox center to cleanse your body from the alcholol? I am scheduled to go next week and wonders if it works.

Thanks for your response. I find it hard to believe that I am the only person here that has turned from food addiction to alchohol addiction.

Has anyone ever gone to a detox center for alchohol?

I had my surgery in Dec 2007 lost over 100 lbs and was finally skinny. Why did I go for an unfill so that I could enjoy myself by being able toe eat again? Now it has been a good 4 months and I have been trying to lose the same 10 pounds. I am either too tight and lose the weight right away but get sick or too loose and gain the weight back? What is wrong with me? Why didn't I just leave it alone. Why did I need to be able to gorge myself with food? Will this go on for the rest of my life?

I know I will get a lot of negative responses but I ate whatever I wanted up until the day before surgery. Who are we kidding, if we could stick to a liquid diet we would not need surgery. BTW I am over 2 years out and over a 100 pounds lighter.

if you are not losing weight then you are eating enough food to sustain your body - think like a thin person not a fat person if you want to lose weight get a fill

stop using money as an excuse - if you get a fill you will save so much more money on food!!! stop making excuses.

Maybe you were not ready to be banded. It sounds to me as if you don't really want to lose the weight. As someone who always turned to food for comfort I can tell you that if you use the band by having it filled you will lose weight. I had to speak with someone to deal with the depression of not being able to comfort myself with food. I am now taking cymbalta and it has worked out great for me.

I will tell you what my Dr told me. Stop thinking like a fat person and think like the skinny person you now are. If you are eating too little you would be losing weight. She told me this when I asked her to losen my band. I insisted that I need to eat more so she loosened my band. Needless to say in 3 days I had gained back 2 pound and went for a fill.

For me it's more like a "gurgling" water sound than a "growl". My kids find it amusing though.

My husband was against it as well. After seeing how miserable I was being fat (and 2 years of kvetching) he finally said I don't encourage you but I won't stand in your way. Do what is best for you. It has been 15 months since my surgery and I have lost 103 lb's and never looked back. Good Luck!!

I had a box of clothing that used to fit me when I was at my thinnest after a fad diet about 8 years ago. Once I lost all my weight with the band I took out the box to see if anything fit. Well nothing fit because they were way to big on me. That was when I realised that I will never be fat again and threw out all my fat clothing (including what was my previous skinny clothing!)

I was also having a very hard time dealing with the emotional side of not eating. I spoke to my Dr and am now on Cymabalta for about 6 months. What a difference it made for me.

Anyone bored being skinny? Now that I am officialy skinny I feel like whats next. I miss being able to eat. Is it worth it?

if you have good restriction you can not binge. No matter how I try I cannot eat almost anything! Hang in there.

It sounds to me like you may have seasonal depression. This is the first time I was proactive and am now taking Cymbalta so I do not fall into the usual cycle of gaining weight all winter. It's hard when you work and never get to see light outside.

What I did was tell the dr. that you will gain the weight and if you don't you will self-pay. That way you can do everything necessary to get a surgery date - psych test etc. without having to wait.

Dr, Eric Sherman - Concord Medical Group - 404 Park Ave South NYC. I can't understand why they would be against it. If you decide that going through SURGERY is worth it - after all it's your body - who are they to say no. Just say you can't function anymore doing day to day things BECAUSE of the extra weight you are carrying. Say you have tried everything else and after extensive research you decided that this is worth the risk. BTW I also had a BMI of 37-38 and could not exist being overweight anymore. I spoke to a good friend who had the surgery 6 years ago and she said just gain enough weight to have a BMI of 40 so your insurance will cover it. I thought she was nuts but she said that it will be worth it. It took a few more months of misery (and trying to diet etc.) until I realized this is not something I could do on my own anymore. I gained the weight - actually went to a BMI of 41 and had the surgery. That was 10 months ago and I have lost 102 pound and would do it all over again. Good luck!

If you have sleep apnea you MUST get help. As someone who does NOT have it but is married to someone who has SEVERE CHRONIC sleap apnea I can tell you treatment is NOT an OPTION but a necessity. My husband resisted getting a sleap study for 2 years until I set it all up. During those two years he was literally a dead man walking. He would be irritated all the time, fell asleap whenever we sat at a meal - even at other peoples house - snap at the kids, if I was not able to drive him it would take him 5 hours to make a one hour trip because he would stop at every rest stop to nap. His ability to work was comromised because he was so forgetfull. I can go on and on but I think you get the idea. At the sleep study, they said he woke up 187 times in ONE hour. The following week he went back to have a study using a machine - so they can figure out what the machine settings should be - when he came home the following morning he said he felt like a new person. Since he has the machine I have become like a policewoman making sure he uses it every night because there is no way I want him to go back to being the tired unhappy person he was. It is so nice to have him back. When I think back to those two years I realize how much he missed out on as well as our family. GOOD LUCK and I hope you get some sleep soon!!!

I had my surgery with Dr. Ren on 12/31/07. She is FANTASTIK. When I first discussed the band with my husband he was against it. After a while he said he would not stand in my way but he difinitely did not come with me to meet Dr. Ren. I have lost 102 pound and am thrilled. GOOD LUCK!!!

My teary moment was when 2 nights ago my son fell asleep in my bed. After my shower in order to avoid waking him by going in my room to get a change of clothing I remembered that last winter I had stored all my sweats in the guest room closet. I pulled out the pants I wore to the hospital the day of my surgery, Dec. 31, 2007 and when I put them on they literally fell down. My husband and older kids could not stop laughing when I came downstairs. Even though I knew I had lost a lot of weight I think what hit me was realizing how big I had been. I started out at 231 pounds and am now down to 129 pounds.

I had my surgery on Dec. 31, 2007 and have lost over 90 lbs. I have been on such a high losing all this weight. Now the summers over, the kids are heading back to school and my seasonal depression is kicking in worse than ever. All I want to do is have my band loosened so I can eat my way through this horrible depression. I have an appointment today with my Dr. to possibly get some anti depressants but I was wondering if anyone else felt depressed once they lost all thier weight and what they did about it. THANKS FOR READING MY RANT!!!

I had my surgery December 31, 2007. My starting weight was 231. I now weight 140. I am soooo thrilled but now that I have lost the weight I keep wanting to have my band unfilled so I can enjoy food again. I keep going back and forth thinking should I just continue not being able to eat (I know I am to tight) or should I get unfilled. I guess my question is has anyone lost the weight and then took a break? Did you then get back on track once you were re-filled? I know people are going to say just get a slight unfill, I did that already, but a huge part of me wants to eat like a normal person!

I know everything that was said in response to my post. I guess my question was has anyone unfilled thier band just to have a break from the restriction (small bites, no drinking etc) and then had a refill. Is it possible to get back on track or does it just make it harder.

How could it be that you are so tight that the amount of space for food to go through is like a thread width yet you can eat so much food? I am pretty tight (7 in a 10 band) and I can't possible stuff food down. If I drink it just backs up like a stuffed toilet (someone else described it like that!). Something does not make any sence to me. If you have restriction then you cannot get mass quantities of food down no matter what you do (unless it's liquid calories - which btw it's sometimes hard for me as well)