Jean McMillan

It's extremely unlike that the 5 day pouch test can shrink a stretched stomach pouch. It was developed by a gastric bypass patient who is not a medical professional. Its main benefit is that following such a strict protein food plan for 5 days can break the cycle of carb craving.

If your surgeon blames you for a weight problem caused by a medication, it's time to kiss him goodbye. If you sign a waiver so that your PCP can discuss it with your surgeon, you'll have more people on your team to help you get ready for band surgery. As for tips on how to lose weight quicker, you really need to talk to your surgeon, dietitian, or other medical professional at your bariatric clinic. It's their job to help you lose weight. Plus it wouldn't hurt to tell them what happened with the headache medication now rather than waiting another 2 weeks.

Encouragement is very nice, but it goes against common sense to encourage someone to do something that we know is foolish or harmful. And often something that we "hear" as being judgmental is actually good advice that we just don't like hearing. My parents, teachers, doctors, bosses, priests, friends, and others have often given me advice that I hated but which proved to be valuable.

In case your surgeon didn't explain to you why it's such a bad idea to cheat on your post-op diet, or you forgot the gist of it, I suggest that you read this article: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/page/index.html/_/healthy-living/whats-so-bad-about-cheating-on-the-post-op-r78 Also, it's time to face up to the fact that your band is not going to do all the work for you. I'm all for prayer, but it's going to take more than prayer for you to resist temptation and stick to the program.

No, I wouldn't do it. I've often said that if I had a needle and a bottle of saline, I'd be filling and unfilling myself 20 times a day. One of the reasons I was obese enough to need WLS was that I could rationalize just about any foolish eating behavior.

I didn't start getting comments about my weight loss until I'd lost 30-40 lbs. The only way I could see any difference in myself was to look at "before" and "now" photos side by side. And to be perfectly honest, I still have days when all I can see in the mirror is the fat girl. I'll catch sight of my reflection in window and think, "Who is that? She looks familiar somehow..."

You'd have to ask a dermatologist about that. I have a keloid on my shoulder from a mole that was removed (but none, thankfully, from any surgical incisions). When I asked the dermatologist what we could do about it, his answer was basically learn to live with it. He said that trying to remove keloid scar tissue generally makes it worse, not better. I don't know if there's any topical product you could try to soften it. Again, ask a dermatologist.

I'm glad there's a happy ending to this story. I think the small unfill was a good idea and if you go easy on your band (stick with liquid, soft, puree foods) for a few days, any inflammation will calm down and you'll be good to go.

Have you talked with your surgeon about this? Seems to me you just need more fill.

You're going to have to change your eating behavior whether you have bariatric surgery or not. Especially the part about wolfing down your food. That will cause big problems (and possible complications) when you're banded. You asked if you're crazy to have surgery and then answered defensively when other members gave you an honest answer. I don't want to intentionally hurt anyone's feelings, but I have to tell you that getting hurt feelings is pretty common in online groups like LBT. You just joined today, but I've been doing this for years, so take my word for it. And because I've been trashed far, far worse than you've been on this first post of yours, I'm not afraid to tell you that unless you have a medical condition that would be helped by weight loss or bariatric surgery (like diabetes), I think that bariatric surgery is a high price to pay for your vanity, even if it only cost you $1.00. That's because success after bariatric surgery has a very high cost in terms of education, lifestyle changes, aftercare, plus the time and expense of getting fills & unfills. Just my opinion, mind you.

It's more likely that you're just too tight, not that you have a band slip, but doing the barium swallow will help your surgeon decide what to do when you see him/her. I small unfill might be all you need, so try to not worry too much between now and then.

You'll get more responses if you post your question in the New Mexico group: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/forum/45-new-mexico-local-lap-band-support/ Also, I suggest that you give your thread a more specific title, like: "Looking for fill doctor in Albuquerque".

Bottom line: don't have WLS until you're ready to have WLS. Succeeding with any kind of bariatric surgery is going to require you to change your behavior, like it or not. If you're not ready to do that, I think WLS would be a mistake for you. Unless you have some co-morbidities (obesity-related medical conditions) that need to be resolved quickly, there's no need to rush into this.

I bought a new $2000 mattress a few years ago and it did absolutely nothing for my sciatic or other pain. Unless you're categorically against chiropractic care, I'd see a chiropractor next. And/or get a referral for some physical therapy so the PT can at least tell you what kinds of movements or body positions to avoid.

Do you expect weight loss surgery to pull 100 pounds out of a magician’s hat? Our expectations of surgery can have a greater influence on our success or failure than you might think. Recently an acquaintance told me about seeing an obese man on TV who claimed that bariatric surgery hadn’t worked for him. “How can it NOT work?!” Patsy exclaimed. There’s no simple answer to that question. In the past I’ve written about why weight loss surgery fails (read the article here: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/page/index.html/_/support/why-does-weight-loss-surgery-fail-r88). Today I’d like to revisit the topic and focus on how our expectations affect the perception of as well as the ultimate success or failure of WLS. BARIATRIC MYTHOLOGY Some powerful myths influence our beliefs about and expectations of WLS. An especially insidious one that affects both bariatric patients and the general public is that WLS is essentially magic, requiring little or no effort on the patient’s part to achieve the desired weight loss. Hence the infamous and heinous phrase: “Weight loss surgery is taking the easy way out.” This magic myth has a corollary one that purports that the weight lost as a result of bariatric surgery is weight lost forever, again without any effort on the part of the patient. Sorry, but that’s not true either. While the whole point of bariatric surgery is to make weight loss easier, it does not eliminate the need for hard work by the patient. No bariatric surgery can cure obesity, which is a chronic, recurring disease. That doesn’t mean that succeeding with WLS means you’re sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor, dragging heavy chains and digging ditches, but it does mean that in the long term a successful patient is one who takes responsibility for his or her eating behavior, weight management, and general health. Reading the paragraph above may serve to shatter some illusions that you held dear, but when would you rather face the truth: early in your journey, or later? Although I was once a bandster like you, I lost my beloved band and recently converted to vertical sleeve gastrectomy. I have to tell you that despite all my advance research and preparation, the reality of living with a sleeved stomach is giving me a bad case of buyer’s remorse, but there’s no going back now. Seventy-five percent of my stomach is gone forever, but living with what’s left and finding a way to eat and to manage my weight now is an ongoing challenge. And I’ve heard countless stories from all kinds of bariatric patients about the challenges they face after surgery. Anyone who promises you a completely sunny picture of the future is either mistaken or trying to avoid bursting your bubble. BAND MYTHS There are a number of myths related to the adjustable gastric band. One of them is that slower weight loss with the band will prevent sagging or excess skin, and that just ain’t so. A more dangerous myth, peculiar to bandsters, is that fills cause weight loss and unfills cause weight gain. While fluid adjustments are an important part of how the AGB works,the fluid is NOT what causes weight loss. In fact, there is absolutely nothing in any part of the band system (the band, the tubing, and the port) that causes weight loss. The band does not directly affect the way nutrients from food are ingested or metabolized. It releases no weight loss instructions into the patient’s bloodstream, nervous system, or endocrine system. It doesn’t directly affect the patient’s eating behavior or exercise habits. It doesn’t compel the patient to make good food choices, limit portion sizes, eat slowly, or resist the urge to graze or binge because of boredom, stress, cravings, etc. Weight loss results from eating fewer calories than you burn, and the band helps with that by reducing your appetite and causing early and prolonged satiety. Those features are related to the pressure of the band against the stomach and the consumption of solid food whose mechanical digestion triggers the vagus nerves in the upper stomach to send satiety signals to the brain. If the patient ignores those signals, the calories taken in may exceed the calories burned, slowing or preventing weight loss. And since weight is affected by many other factors entirely unrelated to the band (like medications, hormone imbalance, etc. etc.), all we can do is to concentrate on the ones that are within our control and understand that it’s a fallacy to attribute weight loss to the band or to fills. One harmful consequence of the fills=weight loss myth is that the patient seeks more and more fills in the quest for “perfect restriction” (also a myth) or the legendary (but also mythical) “sweet spot.” This patient tends to tolerate side effects and eating problems that can cause serious damage to them and their band because they’re so focused on finding that perfect but elusive fill level and believes (erroneously) that the more fluid in their band, the better. When you suggest to this person that they may actually need less, not more fluid in their band (so that they can eat healthy, solid food instead of not-so-healthy slider foods), they react with panic, so aren’t able to make a good decision and may not even be willing to tell their surgeon about the eating problems they experience. Please don’t read this article thinking that my purpose is to discourage you. I’m the eternal optimist who believes in self-fulfilling prophecies. If you’re determined to lose weight and work hard at it, you can indeed use your band to reach your weight goal. The key phrase in that sentence is “work hard at”. There’s just no getting around that, so if your expectation is that you’ll lose weight effortlessly, you’re probably going to be disappointed in your band, yourself, or both. Your band can assist your weight loss efforts by providing early and prolonged satiety, but it’s not going to make good food choices, control portion sizes, make you exercise, be vigilant with aftercare, win you cash and prizes, or turn you into America’s next top model. On the other hand, believing that you will succeed and working hard to learn and change what you need to in order to lose weight will greatly increase your chances of becoming a bariatric superstar. And when stardom comes from hard work, it is much, much sweeter and longer lasting than stardom that falls at random out of the sky!

As the Lap-Band Queen and World's Greatest Living Expert on Everything, I hereby command that everyone participating in this thread abandon the bickering and move on to something more constructive. Pretty please, with Splenda on top?

Hey, dude - be careful when you throw the word "leak" around. While it's possible (but not likely) that the needle pierced the tubing, or that it completely missed the port, the more likely explanation is described below. Fills (especially first fills) don't necessarily yield instant restriction. A fill isn't like putting coins in a vending machine, hitting the button for restriction, and pulling out your very own bottle of restriction. Even a fill done under fluoroscopy is just a snapshot of the band and stomach. It often takes more than one fill to achieve optimal restriction, and I've had fills that took 2 weeks to kick in.

I have the feeling that Allergan hasn't updated the patient info material published here in quite some time, because according to my Allergan rep, the passage that you quoted is no longer part of their Lap-Band benefit statements.

You're very welcome!

Sounds like you have soft calorie syndrome from being too tight (or having a lot of inflammation in there from so much vomiting). As you've discovered, that can cause weight gain instead of weight loss, and you're probably hungry because soft and slider foods provide virtually no satiety. So going back to your surgeon, 'fessing up about what's been going on, and getting a small unfill is probably the best course of action. Under no circumstances should you let anyone not experienced with band fills, least of all your own child, attempt to add or remove saline from your band. Someone without experience in that is too likely to fail to access your port and can puncture your tubing. Also, band fills are done with a special needle, and I'm not telling you what it's called because that's not something your daughter needs to know unless she plans a career in bariatric care. If your surgeon yells at you, it'll probably be out of sheer frustration that you didn't come back for help earlier. The surgeons I've talked to all hate it when patients are lost to aftercare, because it's impossible for them to help a patient who never comes back for follow-up.

(1) It takes more than saline to cause a bandster to experience restriction, and (2) it also depends on the person's expectations of restriction. For example: (1) You will not experience restriction when eating soft and slider foods, even healthy ones like Protein shakes, yogurt, oatmeal, etc. (2) If you expect your band to sound an alarm when you have optimal restriction, you will probably miss your soft stops and other, more subtle signs of restriction.

My band slip was fixed by a complete unfill and 6-wk rest period. If it's a bad slip and/or the unfill doesn't help, surgery might be necessary to reposition the band. In the past 5 years, I recall encountering only 2 people who had more than one band slip, so i think that's the exception and not the rule.

Down "only 40 lbs"? That works out to 3.3 lbs/week, and the average with the band is 1-2 lbs/week. Do you have any ideas about why the barium wouldn't go down? Had you been vomiting or having any eating problems? I know it's frustrating to have a big unfill but it's not good to live with a band that's too tight. It doesn't increase weight loss, and it can cause more serious complications like band slippage, or esophageal or stomach dilation - things that would be treated with a complete unfill. As for the surgeon not being willing to re-fill you, I'd call back and ask how long is "quite a while." Is it a month? 2 months? Or what? Also, keep in mind that smart surgeons let the patient's upper GI tract rest for "a while" after an unfill because whatever prompted the unfill has probably caused a lot of irritation and swelling that won't resolve as long as the band is tight.

You'll be the first one I invite to my coronation ceremony.