Seaman

I had this problem immediately after a fill. Mine was obviously because I was overfilled. If this problem occurred on its own, then disregard my advice. I had my band lossened by half of what they put in the week before. My reflux went away immediately. My problem is that now my band isn't really tight enough to hold my food in the pouch.

Although, I had the surgery 2 years ago, because of moving to Houston which resulted in having to find a new fill doctor, plus my job keeping me out of the country every other month, I just recently had my band filled fully. How do I know it's filled to the brim? My last fill made it hard for me to drink Water. Also, for 3 days afterwards, when I tried to sleep, liquid and or food would come up into my throat making me cough. I even tried no food or liquids 6 hours before I went to bed with the same results. I did get some relief on the last night by putting phonebooks under the front legs on the bed. In an attempt to figure out what was happening, I did some online research concerning the problem with my coughing at night. The concenus was it meant my band was too tight. Even with this 'too tight' band, I was alarmed to find that I could still eat almost the same foods as I had for the past 2 years! I made an appointment with my fill doctor (Dr. Fill anyone? No? Well, I thought it was funny.). They confirmed that my condition was caused by my band being too tight and the doc even said during the previous fill that there was a lot of pressure when he added the saline. Anyway, he removed just a fraction of the amount he had put in the previous week, and I found I could now drink water as normal. OK, now that I've gone through my boring history, here is my question. Why can I eat amost any food, including steak, if I take small bites and chew throughly? I understand the principle behind the band and know that I can pigout on ice cream anytime I want to. I don't do this, and I always try to eat chunky meats so the band can be effective. I can eat 6-8 slices of pizza as long as I take small bites and eat slowly. Occassionally, I will eat too fast and I have to barf, but I don't do this intentionally and if I suppress the barfing for a few minutes, the food passes and I can continue on. When I told my doctor about my eating habits, his suggestion was to take bigger bites and not to chew so throughly!! This is not what I was promised by the FAQS concerning lap bands!! Is this procedure just a joke at our expense and we have to pretend it's working? What am I doing wrong? I know that if I get my band filled even more, even small bites of food will not quickly pass, but I think being able to sleep at night is more important. Any suggestions?

Coffeewench, I believe you hit the nail on the head. I remember when I got my 3rd fill 18 months ago and then 3 days later headed for Taco Bell with my daughters. I was so sure it wouldn't make any difference (the first 2 fills did diddly) that I was bound and determined to prove it. I took my typical man sized bite of burrito, took a swig of coke and spewed the whole mess back onto my tray. My daughters were scared to eat in public with me for months afterward. I have taken so long to get my band filled that I had enough time to practice becoming a chewing machine. I guess I need to revert to the old bite, chew, chew, ch... nah swallow, that I used to be so good at. I'm afraid this is going to be messy at the beginning so I'll wait till I get back home. This way while I learn how much (little?) food will fit in my pouch I will only disgust my immediate family.

Well I don't want to do it this way, but the solution seems to be to not chewing well. I'm quite concerned that as I will have in the back of my mind the thought that I can eat more if I chew well, this won't work for long.

Not being an expert in lapbands, I can only make a half-assed guess as to whether or not my band has slipped. Even though I can eat tons of food, after 2-3 bites of pizza (or other solid foods) I do feel full and if I eat another bite, I will have to barf (what does PB mean anyway). But, if I wait 30secs to 1 minute I can actually feel the pressure subside and I assume that means the pizza has gone down into my lower stomach. This seems to point to the band holding the food in the pouch as it should. The problem is that it obviously isn't keeping it there long enough. If I try to drink when this happens, then I usually don't make it to the toilet in time as the pressure is overwhelming. My best guess is that I do need tightening to 'fix' my problem. Unfortunately, I know it will cause the problem with food coming back into my throat when I lie down. If I lived at home all year, I would actually just raise the headboard 6 inches and could probably live like this. I work at sea for 6 months each year and I can not adjust my bed out there. Why does overtightening causing this reflux problem?

Well I do eat much slower than before, but I can still comfortably eat 6 slices of pizza in about 20 minutes. Even though I'm certain that I eat less than before, it's not going to make a signifcant impact on my caloric intake. The idea behind the lap band if that the majority of people will not constantly eat ice cream or candy bars just because they can. Food variety is necessary to overeat. Even the Atkins diet works by limiting the variety of food. If one were to go on a all you can eat chocolate diet, it would actually work (temporarily) because chocolate would soon become boring and you would soon dream of the day when you could eat brocolli again. I crave meat and that should work well with the lap band. It isn't and I'm curious as to why I can eat meat and pizza so easily.

Thanks for the reply, but this is what I'm on about. What you're saying is that the band doesn't stop you from eating. Instead rely on will power which is one of the things we've agreed we don't have in order to get the $20K piece of elastic. Sorry to sound so negative, but I couldn't (or wouldn't) control my eating on my own and thus I paid big bucks to have a somewhat dangerous medical procedure performed to help me. It isn't working. We all admitted that we couldn't lose weight, and keep it off, as part of the screening procedure to get the band. Otherwise, we would have just done it on our own. I want the band to do its part and then I'll do my part.