SuzanneG

I want to ask your opinion. I have started jogging down my road in preparation for my 5k this weekend and beyond. If I jog 1.5 miles from the house then a round trip is 3 miles. I did it Thursday night and about 1/2 way up my country road, I started to feel a little vulnerable. There were no houses in sight and lots and lots of woods. I was thinking about that black bear we saw last year in our neighborhood and started to worry that some animal, dog, bear, whatever could come out of the woods and I would be defenseless. There aren't many cars going by that time of night and no cell phone signals on that road. A guy in my vanpool suggested I carry some kind of protection, which I agree with. He also pointed out how many murders have resulted in someone jogging alone. Having said all that, I'm trying to decide what is reasonable and smart. I already bought some mace, called "the jogger". It has a holster that straps onto your hand for easy carrying. I haven't jogged with it yet to see how it makes me feel, but it's kind of small and I have to be 8-10 feet from my assailant. Another option was a taser, but you have to TOUCH your assailant for it to work and I am not about to approach an angry dog or attacker to zap them. My third option would be to carry a small handgun. Some folks are saying I absolutely should carry it and it would send a clear "don't mess with me" message to any potential attacker and would provide distance from any animal attacker. We have a small 38 special revolver with a holster at home. Part of me feels like an idiot even thinking about it, but the other part of me doesn't want to be foolish either. What would you do?

Thanks and the same holds true for me. I'll be checking in regularly again. Lets do this!

Hi, I haven't been on this site in a long time. I had a slip and was so fed up when I had my band repaired over 2 years ago that I didn't put any fluid back in. I kept the weight off on my own for almost 2 years and then I started packing it back on. Now it's like a snowball rolling down a hill. So I have a band fill scheduled for Jan 11th. I deliberately waited until after the holidays and I've psyched myself up like I did before my initial surgery. I was hoping to find someone else in the same situation and see how it worked for them. I think we both took the important first steps. We scheduled a fill and came to lapbandtalk forum.

Has anyone else had this problem? For about 3 months now, I've had nearly constant nausea with heartburn. Also, for the past year, I have had quite a few unfills, trying to loosen my restriction. Some days I can't eat at all and other days I can eat like I don't have a band. The doc has done an endo, fluro, and a pressure fill and says the band is LOOSE and looks perfect. I've also had gallbladder ultrasound and a HIDA scan and my gallbladder checks out pefect. So my band isn't tight, my gallbladder is functioning perfectly, then why do I have restriction, heartburn, and nausea? I put myself on liquids and it helped a little, but not a lot. Last night I tried chicken broth and a 1/2 of a grilled cheese (I know the grilled cheese wasn't a great choice, but I was sick of the sweet protien drinks). It went down, but very slowly. I made it extra soggy and I was able to eat the 1/2 sandwhich. Today I have severe heartburn despite the fact that I've been on 80mg daily of Nexium for a month now. My band doc wanted me to try Regland but I was afraid of the side effects. They're very severe and my mom has taken it and had a very bad reaction to it. I think he's getting sick of dealing with me. My primary care doc thinks maybe it's anxiety and wants me to try Zoloft. I was under a lot of stress a few months back when the nausea first started, but that's been gone over a month now and my symptoms haven't let up at all. I don't know what to do next....:smile2:

Thanks emjay and Mimi. I actually think I'm going to ask him to leave the Fluid out of my band for a while. For the moment I'm doing better without it and I feel amazing being able to eat real food. I think I'll just continue to enjoy it until I lose my mojo of losing with no band help, then I'll start with tiny fills when I start struggling. A lifetime of dieting has taught me that this too shall pass, but for now, I'm in the zone and I'm losing on my own. Mimi, please be careful, a too tight band is what caused my slip. Just food for thought.

Wow, Mimi, be careful. Being too tight is what got me into this mess in the first place. My surgery is scheduled for August 16th. So far, I've lost 2 pounds since he removed my Fluid. HUGE difference being able to EAT AGAIN!!! Yay! Nothing's changed for you? Still having trouble? Mabye you could request a specific amount? Mine was taking out .1cc each time, then .5cc and each time my band would tighten back up on it's own. It totally SUCKED. I'm going to be very cautious and conservative on fills this next time around!

Thanks Mimi, How are you doing now? Weren't you having symptoms of too tight also?

I just hung up with my doctor. He wants me to have revision surgery to reposition my band. He thinks I have a slip and I have a small hiatal hernia. I'm a little worried about future slips since I've read that if you slip once, it can happen again. Anyone have a slip fixed and it held? How about one that didn't? Either way, I have to try since my insurance doesn't pay for the sleeve yet and I'm afraid of gastric bypass. I'm waiting for his office to call me to schedule the surgery. The really tricky part is that I'm about to change jobs, now I have to try to squeeze in 1 week of post-op in between jobs. Just my luck. Meanwhile, it has been wonderful to be able to eat real food again. After a year and a 1/2 of being too tight, I haven't even craved a single sweet since he took all the Fluid out of my band. I hope I can get back on track and get the rest of this weight back off. Wish me luck.

Well, I just hung up with my doctor. He said he wants to do revision surgery to reposition my band. He thinks it slipped while I was too tight. I also have another hiatal hernia. I sure hope this works. I've read on here that once you slip you are more susceptible to future slips. Waiting for them to call me now with a surgery date.

What caused you to have to unfilled? I was recently completely unfilled too. I had lost all of my weight in the first year, then got too tight 10 months out and haven't lost weight since. I didn't realize that entire time that I was too tight. I kept dancing around it, I got fills, unfills, fills, unfills, nothing seemed to be working. Over the past few months, my band seemed like it was getting tighter for no reason. I'd get an unfill, it would feel better for a while, then slowly get tight again. Finally I started having heartburn, nausea, and PBs constantly. Docs checked my gallbladder, did and endoscopy and pressure fill/check with fluro and nothing looked out of place. They finally took all my Fluid out on June 25th and all my symptoms are gone. Now my doctor's office is ignoring me about what and when to do next. I'm doing WW and during the week I'm great, then on the weekend I don't do so well. I'm so happy to finally be able to eat solid food, I went on a bit of a bender and had hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza (the real thing, Pizza Hut Pan pizza) not to mention beer. It all tasted like haven. This was all before starting WW. I'm doing the old Core plan and its working pretty well for me if I can just keep it up through the weekends. Hopefully I'll be starting over again soon with my fills. I gained 15 pounds while being too tight. I hope to at least get those back off. Good luck to you and keep us posted on your progress!

For me, I buy the Skinny Cow or WW ice cream in single servings, like the nutty buddies, the ice cream cookie bars, etc. Then I allow myself one per day as my snack. I could never be trusted with ice cream in a 1/2 gallon or quart container. How could I stop? ha ha

Mimi, I guess it's true that great minds think alike! :-)

I had problems with getting too tight even when tests revealed my band was loose. We're still trying to figure it out. Right now all Fluid is out of my band and I feel 100% better. However, has anyone mentioned gallbladder to you? That sounds like it could be your gb. Keep us posted.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Sharon, You sound like you are having very similar problem as me. I'm having my second endoscopy done tomorrow, but I doubt they will see anything. They did one last October and it showed that everything was fine. The only problem with that was that my symptoms slowly got worse. Not sure what they will find tomorrow, but after reading LBT my symptoms are consistent with a slip. However, when they check me, they say my band looks fine. I read where a couple of people had the same experience and they took the Fluid out for a few weeks, then put it back in and things were better, until it happened again. I don't know what they are going to do with next. Let's keep in touch and compare notes.

How can you get an endoscopy with Fluid in your band? Are you sure they didn't remove it first? I've had one since banding and they took all the fluid out, did the endo, then put the fluid back in. I'm having another one tomorrow, the doc took out all my fluid last Friday. I was having symptoms of being too tight one minute and I could eat like a lumber jack the next. I also had heartburn and nausea. Both heartburn and nausea are symptoms of being too tight, but I've had fluro, pressure test (new way to test pressure in the band), and endo, all say my band placement is perfect and nothing looks out of place. After doing some research on here, it almost looks to me like it could be a slip. Some folks say your band can slip in and out of place, so that it appears fine during tests but slip out of place randomly. Why did your doc order the endo to begin with? What kind of problems were you having? I'll be very curious to see what they do wtih me. My doc kept telling me my band was loose, but I was PBing on Soup, yet starving. Bad combo for sure. BTW, as for fill room, I've heard they can fill your band to capacity and even a little beyond that, so hopefully they will be able to get you to correct restriction. Let us know what they find out.

I was low BMI when I started and my insurance company denied me the first time through. Don't be surprised if you get denied as I think many insurance companies automatically deny anyone who isn't Iron clad with the requirements. Be prepared to appeal and if you don't get through on the first try, you likely will on the appeal. Save the weight gain as a last resort, but it would probably work too. I have offered my appeal letters up many times on this site and have shared them with many people with 100% success. If you end up needing an appeal, I'd be happy to send you what I have for a sample. Good luck to you and let us know how it turns out!

You definitely need a fill, you are in Bandster Hell. It's tough, but you'll get through it. Try to focus on low carb and high protien and that will help alot with the cravings and your weight. Plan some healthy Snacks that will allow you to munch without ruining your weight loss efforts. For me, calorie counting is very sobering if you are eating too much. Not a long-term fix because it's too much trouble, but if you count your calories for a few days, it'll help give you pause the next time you reach for the double cheeseburger. Call your doctor and schedule a fill ASAP. Keep us posted and good luck to you!

I would eat what you feel comfortable with, your body will give you honest feedback. As long as you aren't gaining inches, I wouldn't worry too much about the scales. Especially being a man, you have a lot of muscle and if you are building on that, the muscle you gain will weigh more than the fat that you are burning off. I know for me when I'm working out, I def have to eat more and I never lose weight, but I do drop in size which for me is the most important thing. Keep up the good work, you're doing great!

Dang, I just discovered Muscle Milk and liked it. Anything on Unjury? That's my gold standard.

Definitely sounds like you need a slight unfill. If you keep going the way you are, you'll do what I did and develop some seriously bad eating habits. Soft foods are inharently higher in calories. Do yourself a favor and call, you'll be glad you did.

So glad you are feeling better. Being too tight is never a good thing.

Oh, OK. I have family in Cincy. South Point is right across the river from Huntington, WV and Ashland, KY. Not too far from you....