snowbird

Speaking of "patient coordinators" aka shills, one way to figure out if someone is a "plant" from a surgeon's office is to look at how many posts they have and to see what their previous posts have been about. If they are all on the theme of "my doctor's the best!" then I would beware what they say . If they have been around here for quite a while and have a history with the forum that indicates they are truly bandsters without an agenda, then their doctor opinions may be more trustworthy.

I didn't have any problem with my first fill, but did with my second. The doctor said I had lost enough weight that the scar tissue had shifted over my port. He poked around for quite a while trying to push through the scar tissue; I was watching the needle bent almost into a horseshoe shape from the pressure! Finally he said, "I need a bigger needle" and tried again with a thicker one, and was successful. It wasn't that bad, but I was a bit tender the next day. His only comment was, "You're a hard, hard woman!"

I've been losing about 10 lb per month. I haven't updated my ticker for a couple weeks because we have been RVing in Georgia and I don't have a scale, but I can tell from my clothes that I have lost a few since we left Feb. 6. Remember, 2 lb per week translates to over 100 lb per year. That is a pretty healthy rate of weight loss. I'm certainly not looking for anything faster.

I'm wondering why you say your band is working if you also say you don't get full very quickly. Why are you sure you don't need another fill?

Have you talked to your doctor? How much Fluid is he removing when you have a fill? My doctor says that the band is a pressurized system so the fluid comes out when he inserts the needle for a fill. He can then see how much comes out, which would let him know if there is a leak. Did you know at the time of your last fill what your fill level was, and you have forgotten, or doesn't your doctor discuss it with you? I think communication between a patient and doctor is essential in this process. Is your doctor open to discussing your difficulties? If you are truly filled 2.8 in a 4.0 band, you should have felt some restriction at some point for more than a day or two. And yes, getting stuck and pbing are an indication of restriction, although not necessarily the best level of restriction. Have you experienced pain when you ate too fast? Sliming? These are all results of restriction. In a perfect world we would hit a fill point where we are smart enough to stop eating before experiencing these symptoms, but I'm not smart enough and my world isn't perfect. Have you ever had a different doctor give you a fill? I don't know who your fill doctor is or anything about your doctor and do not want to make groundless accusations, but I have heard reports of doctors not giving sufficient fills in order to encourage their patients to come in more often. I see you were a patient of Dr. Ortiz; are you going to him for fills? He has two fill doctors on his staff; Dr Romero is quite aggressive with fill amounts, while Dr Acosta is more conservative. I have been very happy with my fills there and with the information Dr Romero has always been ready to provide to me. My husband has seen Dr Acosta, who seems very willing to discuss my husband's experiences with his band and give him good advice and even an additional fill although Dr Acosta felt that it was questionable that he needed one. Working with your band shouldn't be frustrating and full of failure. My daughter had plateaued early on in her banding and switched fill doctors. When she did, she found that her first fill doctor had been way too conservative and was not giving her the restriction she needs. After switching to another fill doctor, she has resumed losing weight without being too tight, and is very happy with her band. I'm hoping you and your doctor together can figure out what the problem is. Don't give up.

If you click on the Lap Band Talk logo in the upper left hand corner, it takes you back to the main page. I haven't seen a page where that has not worked for me.

I figure that if the band goes bad in a few years, by then there may be an obesity treatment even more effective. Meanwhile, I will have had the extra few years of living at a healthier weight.

My apologies, then, sophie. I can't eat 1800 calories a day of healthy stuff with my band; I just couldn't take the volume. I also don't think I would lose weight very steadily at that amount, and I need the positive reinforcement of the scale to continue well with my band. A lot of people aren't as tight as I am and are successful on less restriction, but I feel that I need this tightness to stop me from eating too much junk. Sounds like you may be more disciplined than I am!

My doctor wanted me to lose 5% of my body weight pre-op, but didn't really care how I did it. I needed to lose 11 lb and lost 17, so I guess that means I didn't cheat! He even suggested that DH and I go out for a nice meal the night before surgery "as long as we don't overdo it."

Your story of yo-yo dieting and self-loathing is probably a familiar one to nearly all of us here. What I don't understand is your reluctance to embrace the fact that you have to eat a lot less to reach a healthy weight. Isn't this, forgive me, a desire to have your cake and eat it too? You may not get down to 130. After the age of 40 it is very hard for any of us to get down to what we would have considered to be an ideal weight when we were younger. However, a band would probably help you to lose at least some of the weight and give you a healthier, happier body and life. It isn't a cure-all, though, and you have to accept that the pleasures of overeating are no longer for you. You already have multiple health problems stemming from obesity. You have to decide what is more important to you: your love affair with food, or a longer and healthier life. I've said before that the week before I was banded I felt like my best friend (food) was dying; now I feel like she and I have just grown apart. She's still out there, but she doesn't mean as much to me anymore.

Wow! There's candy you don't like? I'll eat just about anything sweet. When we were in the bandster hell portion of this journey, after our surgical swelling had gone down but before any fills, my husband came home with a bunch of junk food--sugar free, but junk food nevertheless. I went nuts and yelled at him for buying the stuff. A day or so later I found a bag with a little padlock on it. When I asked him what was in it (sex toys?? Old girlfriend's letters???) he said it was his treats that I told him he couldn't have.

Since my band doesn't let me eat more than a quarter of any restaurant meal, I have to admit I don't worry about the calories much anymore.

I look forward to eating, but don't really enjoy it once I'm doing it. Actually the first bite or two is good, and after that it's a chore to chew thoroughly, wait between bites, be sure I'm not getting stuck. . . However, as someone said before, nothing tastes as good as being thin. (not that I'm quite there yet!)

Glad to hear you are feeling better. Slow and steady is better than fast and painful!

My daughter lost 100 lb with the band in 10 months. I am losing about 10 lb per month so far, 4 months into the process. There are success stories on both processes, and horror stories too. I would definitely get a second, and possibly third opinion, and also consider if the doctor has any other reason for suggesting one procedure over the other: has he done a lot of GP and is he more comfortable with that surgery? How knowledgeable is he about both procedures. How well does he know you and your personality--that has a lot to do with success, I think, though it isn't the sole reason for success or failure by any means. Your personal feelings count too: does gp really go against your comfort zone? It does for me, so I am biased towards banding.

You can sabotage bypass too. I have a friend who lost over 100 lb with a bypass and gained it all back. Now she wants lapband, but the doctors have said her stomach is too messed up to do it. Personally, I think she would fail at lap band too. She Snacks constantly and never gets out of her chair all day long. The band gives you the ability to cut down drastically on food quantity, but it doesn't stop you from eating ice cream and Cookies. For me, it also stops cravings that last for more than a bite or two. Yesterday I fell off the bandwagon and went out to eat barbecue, then had ice cream for dessert. But I couldn't eat 3/4 of the meal, and have no further cravings for the 2/3 of a pint of ice cream that I have left this morning, so I threw it out. You have to work your band and understand how to help it. If you go into this process believing that the band will magically make you skinny, it ain't gonna happen.

Josh, for me the band reprogrammed my brain to look at large quantities of food as a source of pain and discomfort rather than pleasure. I enjoy the smell of food but can be satisfied with small portions because after that, the pain kicks in. I went out to dinner this evening to a rib place. First, I ordered just the appetizer basket instead of a full meal. It came with three ribs and fries. My husband ordered onion petals. I ate 3 or 4 onion petals, one fry, two small nibbles of bread and butter, and 1/2 of one rib. I knew if I ate more it would hurt and I would probably have to run to the bathroom and puke. After a few episodes of that, I have no desire to overeat. You just don't feel like stuffing your face when your stomach is approaching nausea. By the way, this isn't my normal diet. I usually eat oatmeal for Breakfast, Soup or yogurt for lunch, and something like a lean cuisine meal for dinner. I just want to stress that the usual opportunities for overeating, like eating out, are squelched by the band. You still have to make the right choices and eat healthy food on your own, without help from the band. In fact you have to be even more of a healthy eater than a nonbanded person, for the simple reason that you can't hope to get in the nutrients you need AND the junk food when you are banded. I can't snack very much either without getting uncomfortable and having to stop. It's more a matter of aversion therapy than feeling full and satisfied. On the other hand, the positive reinforcement you get from weighing yourself, looking in the mirror, and watching your clothes grow too large is a strong incentive to keep going, especially when you know the band will catch you if you fall too hard.

Well, for many of us we weren't holding steady at our higher weights while eating so much; we were actually gaining weight all the time. I think also for many of us our activity level goes down right after surgery, so we are burning fewer calories. Plus, it is very easy on the liquid diet to drink high calorie liquids, so even though we aren't eating anything we are still taking in a lot of calories. I lost 12 or 13 lb from the time of my surgery until my first fill 7 weeks later. Most of it came off in the first week or two. I didn't gain weight, but it didn't fall off after the first week, either. since then I have lost around 10 lb per month, most of it coming off in the week or two after a fill, then the loss rate slowing down for the next few weeks. But everyone is different, as we have all said many times before. You will just have to figure out what your body is going to do with this new tool, and learn to work with it.

I am curious why your doctor would fill you so tight. You said you had a fill 6 weeks ago. Did you end up getting that entire fill unfilled, so that you went back in for a refill now? What symptoms were you having before this fill to make you feel that you needed another fill? How much saline did you get in your fill, and what size band do you have? I have a real question as to why your doctor would let you go when you were having trouble with liquids. Or is it just that you experience some swelling after leaving the office? If so, cold liquids may help. I had my second fill last month of .4 in a 4 cc band, bringing me up to 2.1 cc. Before I left the doctor's office i could tell I was having trouble with liquids and was starting to slime on a few sips of gatorade, so I went back into the doctor before I even left the office and had him take half of the fill out. Since then (January 10) I feel that I am still a bit too tight, since I often have difficulty eating and pb a couple times a week. I would never tolerate being as tight as you describe. It just isn't healthy. I would be back in his office for an unfill.

I never took the pain pills my doctor gave me because I didn't need them. I did have soreness around the main incision and it hurt to lie on my left side or to twist. Yes, getting up from a chair was hard the first day or two. I guess it is all how we perceive things: I knew I had just been cut open and expected it to hurt a bit, so I didn't perceive it as a lot of pain, just soreness as you would have after a minor injury. Lifting, however, puts a lot of strain on your abdominal muscles. The band is stitched into your stomach and the port is stitched into your abdominal wall, so any straining of those muscles will cause pain, and excessive straining may cause tears and hematoma. You do need to avoid lifting for several weeks after surgery until everything has healed thoroughly.

This is an unanswerable question. At what point are you talking about? One month from surgery? Six months? Two years? The fill I have today may be perfect, but not enough next week. In the beginning, at least, it is a constant process of re-adjusting to you and your weight loss.

You beat me to that one, Trystelle. Both DH and I had the same experience, and it makes sense if you think about it. In fact, one of his comments was, "How can I be constipated and have diarrhea at the same time!!!??"

As my daughter says, "I'm not on a diet; I'm in a new phase of my life that is going to last for the next 70 years." She realizes (even better than her mother) that the calendar isn't what makes you a success or a failure on this journey. The time it takes is immaterial; you become a healthier, and probably happier, person as soon as you take the first few steps. She was banded in October 2006 and had lost 100 lb by July 2007. She is now down 124 lb and continuing on her path.

Jenne, What you are feeling with the Water is the restriction at the band. If you were really stuck with something solid, you would probably start sliming, which is when the mucus and saliva get backed up against the solid stuck in your stoma. The water pressure is a bit uncomfortable, but when solid food gets stuck it is a lot worse, with real discomfort. I have learned how to bring up the stuck food to stop the pain, but that isn't how you should live with your band. There's a difference between filling up the upper portion of your stomach above the band (a good occurrence, and how the band is supposed to work), and getting stuck, which is food actually lodged in the stoma or small opening created by the band. The first creates a feeling of fullness and the feeling that if you eat another bite it may come back up on you, but is not painful. The second is an acute pain in the middle of your stomach, which is not good for your comfort or the band's well-being.

Mine is, "I haven't eaten much today, so now I can eat anything I want." Thank heaven for the band that stops me from REALLY eating anything I want.