Fae

This is probably a situation of, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Most doctors won't even suggest getting pregnant until you have had the band for over six months. Your body needs time to adjust. Most of your weight loss will happen, when you first have the band too. You can't be dropping weight for the band, then putting on weight for the baby. The best thing to do would be to space things out. Get the band, wait six months to a year, then try to get pregnant. But not both, you have to decide what you want the most too. A band or a baby.

I'm sorry to hear what your going through. I had a very similar problem. However, the only thing I found that worked was raisins. At least 3oz of them a day. I tried a lot of the same alternative methods to constipation you tried. But really, when it comes right down to it, your body can't exist without fiber. Natural fiber, not something from a pill ether. If you don't have bowel movements, your in for a world of pain, as you have experienced first hand. You really have to find someway to get fiber into your system or you will have to live with how you are now. That can't possibly be a healthy thing, long term ether.

I actually didn't exercise at all for 3 months after surgery. Getting up the stairs was a choir or even walking briskly was hard at first. It felt like my whole body was weakened and was beaten up. It did eventually go away and I returned to normal. It just took time. It had nothing to do with what I was eating. I have a feeling some people's bodies go into shock after banding, a combination of the surgery and the new eating plan. Your body needs time to adjust. Some people bounce back, others need to go through an adjustment period.

Some people, no matter how hard you exercise, cannot get the weight off. I know I was one of them. I rode my bike everyday and I didn't lose a pound. It wasn't until I got banded and cut my portions in half that I could lower my BMI at ALL. From what I am reading from this program, it's just to shame the students who are heavier. It's not going to make anyone lighter or fitter. That take a drastic lifestyle change, not a 3 hour class. Things like this make me angry : /

The thing that really sold me on the idea of global warming was the the pictures of the arctic from the 1950's. The pictures of the fields covered in snow and ice and not that same snow and ice has vanished today. Why is it gone now? If nothing is happening, shouldn't the arctic still look the same? If it's not global warming, something bad is happening : /

Most people that live in countries that have government run health care, usually get it for free, by it being put straight into their taxes. This new healthcare reform and I do think the system needs to be reformed by all means, basically does not entitle every Amercian to health care. You still have to pay for it and if you don't, you get fined. How are certain people, who can't even afford to barely feed themselves, going to be able to afford this healthcare? That's my main question about it. I'm not talking about bums here ether. I'm talking about people with jobs, factory workers, waitresses, cashiers. People that live pay check to pay check. How will they pay for this? What will happen to them if they can't pay the fine? You can't buy auto insurance, you can't legally drive. What happens when you don't have health care insurance? I wonder about this. This system is not our own and it's not something that has been well established in other countries that have free insurance for all. It's something totally different. I know in the state of Mass, they did try something similar to this. Making health care mandatory for all, but making everyone pay to have it. A lot of people simply didn't purchase it and they just complied fine after fine from health care they could not afford. Everyone *needs* health care, don't get me wrong. Thousands of people die every year simply because they do not have insurance and cannot afford treatment in the US alone. However, I don't think forcing people to pay for it, will help the situation ether. There will be tons of people that can't afford it for good reason, they have bills, they need to eat. Or for bad reasons, they rather go to the strip club or go bar hop. Ether way, people will fall through the cracks. And personally, since this health care is supposed to make everything "better", that really bothers me.

This sounds more like a band problem than a mind problem. The band is in there to make you stop eating after a certain point. You can't go on and on forever no matter how good the food is, because you will simply throw up and make yourself horribly sick. You ether need some more fill or it maybe that even though your throwing up, you eat anyway? I know some people won't stop even after they are pain : /

For eating out, I have found most food eaten in restaurants is very fattening and very bad for you. There are some exceptions to the rule, like Quiznos/Subway. I like Quiznos best. If you get the wheat bread, most of their sandwiches aren't bad for you or your band. Breakfast places like the village inn/denny's. There are many omelettes there, that are great for you. Now if your talking home cooked food, the best way to go about this is to cook in large quantities. Good things to eat are like chicken legs/fish/steak. Cook a dozen chicken legs, but you only eat 2 or 3 at meal. That's 6 meals almost. You only had to cook once. The only bad thing about this, is you cannot take these foods on the road with you, since you need to heat them up before eating them. If you cannot eat out or you cannot cook at home, cheese is always a good option when you need something. You can eat fruit too, like bananas or apples. However, these foods will not keep you filled up very long, as fruits are mostly carbs and sugars.

As far knowing anyone on the boards that has, no I never heard of this happening. Bands that slip lead to erosion, major reflux, throwing up to the point of not keeping your saliva down. People cannot live a normal day to day life with these issues, even if the final results weren't deadly anyway. If your band majorly slips, you need to have it out or repaired. Really, I think your doctor is not being straight with you.

This happened to me as well. They kept on taking little bits out at a time to relieve it, but nothing really helped except when it was all gone. I kept my restriction too. It might go away due to swelling, but right now it's just staying right as it is.

Jachut is right. An infection in your band can result in different symptoms, but most importantly, it can also result in death. Can you live with that? Go to your doctor the first chance you get.

Thanks to everyone that has replied so far. I hear all the time on this board how people get fill and feel no restriction. I just hear little or nothing about people magically keeping their restriction with little or no fill in their band. Now that I think about it, I do feel swelled up. I am calling my surgeon's office on Monday. The restriction is not leaving me at all. Sometimes I feel like I can eat a very tiny bit more, but it's more or less where it was before. My throat is still sore and I'm still taking cough drops to help myself along. Not as much as before. I just think I want all the fill gone, if that is what needs to be done. Whatever if giving me restriction, it's probably not the fill anyway. I'm so sick of my throat feeling tight and sore constantly. I also very much think something is up with my band. I just don't feel much better from the time they reduced the fill x_x;;

Well, I came down with reflux and had to have most of my fill taken out to relieve it. The week before I had the fill removed, I went into total depression because I thought I was going to start overeating again or just eating too much and gaining. Well, here's the thing, even if the fill has become reduced, my restriction didn't change a bit. I was at 1.6cc, got reflux, defilled to 1.2cc, still had reflux. Then it was reduced to .8cc. The reason I got filled to 1.6 in the first place was because when I was at .6cc, I was eating too much and gaining. I was eating like 8 to 9 ounces of food at every meal. Now at .8cc today, I'm eating under 4 ounces, sometimes 3. .2cc can't make that much of a difference, can it? I wonder if something is wrong with my band. My throat still doesn't feel right. I wonder if the reflux is entirely gone or just greatly reduced. I feel like there is goo building up in the back of my throat. I'm going to try to take some mucinex for that since I think it doesn't have to do with reflux, but something else. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I didn't lose restriction. But this doesn't make any sense? >>;;

Hi, I had the lap band installed in August 2008 and I had great results with weight loss with it. However, when the fat pad around my stomach began to diminish, I started to need fills to keep my portions small. Unfortunately, the fills give me reflux. I am going in a few days to get most of my fill taken out to keep the reflux down. But without the fill, I overeat and gain again : / I have tried everything to control the reflux, nexium, other pills, stomach enzymes, apples, papayas, mangoes, pickles, pickle juice. Nothing really works unless I get rid of the fill. I also had reflux and heart burn before the band as well. So the band never solely caused it ether. I have heard of surgeries like the nissen fundoplication, where the stomach muscles are tightened, so your stomach will not throw acid up anymore. I wonder if this would help me? So I could keep my fills and my stomach would not revolt with acid. I have heard of surgeons that will do surgery on you, if your stomach muscles are not strong enough to control the acid. I saw one mentioned that was in New Jersey. There was a thread where he was posting his advice on this board actually. He did the lap band surgery and acid reduction surgery. I just cannot for the life of me find his thread again. Anyone know which surgeon this is or know of other additional surgeons? The only option my own surgeon is giving me is to remove the band and do the nissen fundoplication. He does not combine the two like some surgeons do. Right now, I'm sucking on cough drops all days because my throat is sore because of the constant acid build up and feel rather miserable about my position. Help? : (

I heard the minimum age was 16. They do lap band surgery at 14 now? Is this a new thing?

Filet mignon and crab are band friendly foods anyway. They are high protein and low in carbs. You will be able to eat them once your stomach heals. I would just stick it out and wait. I know it seems hard now, but it will be worth it in the end.

I actually make lots of my cooked food in advance. Like I will make a bunch of fish or hamburgers, which will last for several days. It is possible to cook all at once and leave that in the house for them to eat. Once you have the surgery, you can't cook, but the cooking is done xD That was my suggestion anyway. It's great you offered to get things from the store. But from the looks of what happened, they just wanted to eat now and we're not willing to do a thing to prepare anything except order out.

I don't think you are. Strong smelling fast foods, like french fries and pizza drive me up the wall : / Not because I don't like them, but all I can think about is eating them when I smell them. I can't eat right when I smell things like that. To tell you the truth, if you don't want them eating in front of you. You should provide cooked food in the house for them to eat, so they won't have to order out. Since if there was nothing in the house for them, they will probably eat junk. The thing I dislike and I find rude in their behavior, is they could have at least eaten at the restaurant. Not bring it into your home and maul you with the smell of it : /

Funny, because if it wasn't for me having access to good medical care and a surgeon, I would still be fat. I would still have co-morbidities that cost the system tons of money. Deny healthcare access to fat people? Are they insane? That's like shooting yourself in the foot. As for being called fat myself, it hurt. It always did. And it didn't matter if I was called obese, chucky, or big boned. It always had a sting to it. They only way that went away was when I lost the weight. Now I'm skinny-minny, doesn't hurt nearly as bad though ; )

There is no way to tell whether you can lose that amount in a certain amount of time. You just have to keep on eating right and exercising. If the weight is coming off, your doing good to begin with. I would also recommend bicycle riding, it's not hard on your stomach muscles, but it's good for losing weight.

Generally speaking, the band creates portion control, which you will not have when you don't have a band. Sure, you can eat healthy and exercise, but how much food will you be taking in when you have no band? Will you eat a full three course meal at dinner or a half a cup/cup of food? That cut off of intake of food will make a huge difference in your weight and eventually your overall health. This is why people need bands/bypass/sleeves. Portion control just is not achievable without help, because with a regular sized stomach, you will end up starving all day on band size portions of food.

Not to totally burst your bubble, but after surgery, especially from a tummy tuck, you will have a long scar where they tightened the skin. Yes, you will look a lot better, but you will not have the "perfect" body your sister has. She has always been thin and her skin is flawless. But congrats on the weight loss anyway. I'm sure your looking good, with or without surgery.

Restriction is when you suddenly want to stop eating. You are full and you want no more food. At least, that is how it's always been for me. The food going down weird is probably you not chewing enough. If the food is going down easier now, your probably chewing better. If you feel full after you eat and your not going over the limit your supposed to eat, then it looks like you should be fine.

With food like that and the obesity problem rising, why even worry about alcohol and nicotine anymore? You'll die faster from eating at Domino's xD

I was 23 and very close to your weight when I had my surgery. It was one of the best things I ever did for myself. But also, I know what it's like to be told by a doctor that you don't need surgery and your just fat/depressed/need to exercise. The too young excuse is stupid. Just keep on trying, go to another doctor. You don't need them forcing anti-depressants down your throat when you have a totally unrelated problem.