Paige Dukes

237.

238! Surpassed my goal with another week to go. Didn't think I would make it.

As of 2/1, 240 lbs. After that frustrating stall looks like I might make the goal I set!

243.5. Back in the game!

247

No change, but I'm not getting discouraged!

I'm in! Starting weight: 249 Goal weight: 239

Hi everyone, I'd like to share a horrible experience I had this past weekend while attending a holiday get together with family. This is a pretty long post so I apologize in advance for any long winded-ness. I was banded back in July of this year. So far, I have had no complications and few, if any, side effects. I have had one fill and so far have lost 73 pounds. I have been very pleased with my experience and results and I do not want anyone to think that the following story is meant as a deterrent to those considering the lap-band, or gastric surgery in general. I am sharing this as a way to provide a perspective from a first hand experience with band abuse/misuse. A little background: I have struggled with binge eating disorder since childhood. A lot, if not the majority of people on this forum, can relate to this. I was diagnosed at a young age with major depressive disorder, and I believe that the eating disorders that have plagued me my whole life are a direct result. During a major episode I would purposefully and mindfully eat until experiencing severe abdominal pain. Looking back I can recognize this as an act of self harm. These episodes ultimately led to stomach stretching and weight gain. I struggled with weight my whole life, and after hitting my highest weight of 325 and my blood pressure reaching stroke level, I decided enough was enough. I took a long, hard look at how I was living my life and did extensive research on how I could turn things around. I knew my track record with weight loss (up and down, on and on), and after reading and talking to a few doctors, I decided bariatric surgery was for me. The rest is history. I have done very well sticking to the prescribed diet. I recognize real hunger cues, head hunger, and signals that I am full or satiated. I only keep good, nutritious food in the house and when I eat out I preplan my meals. I track my calories and macros and micros. My Water intake is on point. I work out hard 3x a week. I made the lifestyle change happen and have stayed on track. That is, until this weekend. My husband and I traveled to his parents' home for an early Christmas celebration as I have to work during the holiday weekend coming up. Extended family were in attendance, presents were exchanged, and of course, there was a plethora of food. All of it fabulously rich and fatty. Some absolutely swimming in cream or oil. Every single item smelling and tasting delicious. As the evening wore on my guard dropped more and more. A bite here, a nibble there, and before I knew it I was painfully full. By the end of the festivities I was miserable, my stomach feeling stretched taut like a balloon. Feeling guilty and sluggish, I retired to the sofa after helping with the clean up. Sitting bolt upright, I concentrated on relaxing and allowing the food to travel through the band and into the lower part of my stomach. After some time, I felt enough relief to shower and retire to bed with my husband. I chocked it up to poor planning and bad decision making and resolved to learn from the experience and get back on track in the morning. Around 2:00 AM I began experiencing the absolute worst abdominal pain I had felt in my entire life. I can only describe it as someone reaching inside of me and trying to squeeze and rip out my stomach while I was alive and conscious. All of it was located in my stomach. I was not experiencing intestinal cramps or discomfort. I did have some mild nausea but nothing that indicated to me right then that I may need to vomit. I chewed some Tums. After the powder hit my stomach I immediately felt the urge to vomit. The problem with vomiting with the band is, if the food has already moved past the stoma created by the band, then it is near impossible to actually produce any vomitous. Each time I wretched small amounts of mucus or saliva were produced, but little more. I tried drinking small sips of water, only to have it come right back up. The pain only became worse and worse. I became pretty scared at this point. My husband kept asking if I needed him to take me to the ER. I held off, thinking "if I can just wait it out, maybe it will go away." I also knew with the symptoms I was presenting any small town hospital would just pop me with some phenergan, maybe give me a GI cocktail, and send me home with a huge bill. My husband was concerned my band my have slipped, which was a major possibility at this point. My father-in-law heard me wretching and came out to check on me. The pain in my abdomen was so severe that I was unable to even sit down. He offered me a phenergan tablet and a lortab. I took both, hoping maybe I could hold them both down long enough to get some pain relief and to stop dry heaving. (I know, I know, never take anyone's medication but your own. But I had scripts for both of these things at home). Suddenly, after 5 more minutes of suffering, I felt it coming. I can only liken it to the pulling back of the shores of an ocean before the tsunami. You just knew something bad was coming. I knew right then sh*t was about to get REAL. I ran to the bathroom, and almost immediately everything came up. I finally, FINALLY vomited, but it was not the cathartic experience vomiting normally is. The narrow opening of the band creates a high pressure area, and it takes a ridiculous amount of force to get partially digested food from the lower part of the stomach back into the pouch and then up and out of the esophagus and mouth. I'm trying to NOT be completely disgusting, but it was very much like when you place a thumb over the end of a water hose. With the force of a thousand suns, out cam every rich, fatty, and greasy piece of food I had eaten earlier in the evening. The pain was magnified 10 fold for the duration and I felt like my head was going to explode. I have never in my life had my abdominal muscles work in such a fashion. But finally, mercifully, after everything came up, the pain and nausea were immediately gone. Afterwards I went to bed and slept like the dead. Being so thankful that I was no longer in such searing pain I didn't notice the aftereffects of my episode. I have petechiae covering my cheeks, nose, temples, and forehead. It is so severe it looks from a distance like a bad sunburn. I have included two photos of this. The hard lesson I learned from this is that I can never, EVER become comfortable or complacent now that I have been banded. Just one night of poor decisions can cause serious damage. I know that I am very lucky that I didn't have a band slip. I don't ever want to experience that kind of pain again. My stomach can no longer handle the kinds of foods I used to eat all the time. Be careful this holiday season, my friends. Do your best to stay on track while enjoying time with family this year. I discovered on my own that it is all too easy to fall into the over-eating trap again, and I paid for it.

Best Wishes to you, too! And I imagine vomiting from a stomach bug would be similar to my experience, depending on how much food was in the stomach.

I definitely learned a major lesson that night. I have never been so thankful as when the pain immediately went away after. I just thank god my band didn't slip.

I am much better today, though I still don't feel quite right. I have definitely learned that I can no longer tolerate the foods I ate at the party. And I definitely count myself lucky that I didn't cause permanent damage. Next time I want to eat anything similar I am going to think back to how I felt that night.

This may have already been answered in the past but I am having a hard time finding a previous thread related to my question. Is it possible to get too much Protein? I am using myfitnesspal and I seem to be staying between 120 and 160 grams of protein daily. This is sometimes over 50% more than the suggested intake. The vast majority of the food I eat is loaded with protein. Lots of lean fish, beef, etc. I also supplement an atkins Protein shake for one meal and eat a Quest bar once a day when I am at work to help give me energy and sustain me during my shift on the unit. The upside is I am definitely feeling much less hungry between meals now and have more energy. Most articles I have found on the subject are from sites that aren't fact checked or reputable medical journals. The only medical study I could find was not based on long term effects, however it did show that in obese subjects short term excess protein intake caused hyperfiltration and increased kidney size. However, there was not found to be any detrimental change in function and the previously mentioned changes were attributed to normal kidney function and adaptation to the diet. Can anyone tell me if they have had any effects from a diet this high in protein? Should I be concerned about cutting back? It feels so counter-intuitive because the general idea is that more protein=good.