Wheetsin

Most people here had some level of anxiety about some complication - the surgery itself, longevity of the band, side effects of the band, etc. Anxiety before a voluntary surgery is expected. If I were you, I'd be a lot more concerned over NOT having anxiety, than having some. Do the research, see the current numbers. Don't gauge numbers from a "support" board - get the clicnical numbers. Then read experiences, look at numbers, etc. From there, it's a pros vs. cons list. Rates of incidence have gone up quite a bit over what they used to be - I suspect they will go up higher. But I don't know very many current or former AGB patients who completely regret their decision. They're out there, especially on support forums, but they're still a minority. For now anyway.

Just remember it's not the number of fills that matters, so don't carry expectations for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th fill. You can get 10 fills at 0.2cc each and in a 10cc band, it probably won't do too much. Or you can get 1 fill @ 5cc and it will do a lot more. (I met a surgeon who uses the 10cc band exclusively, and fills 5cc the first time, and 1cc each subsequent time -- yeouch! But there's something to be said for aggressive surgeons...)

Depends on your definition of success. If success = goal weight, then I have not had any success. For me, success = weight loss and/or maintenance. I am currently down about 130 lbs from my pre-op weight. I was down about 175 lbs before I got pregnant. I've not yet gotten back to that pre-pregnancy low, but I have maintained (with a little loss) this weight for about 2 years now. Siggy says I'm still fat, not that I'm a failure. I just need more success.

My fills are immediate but I know a lot of people who don't feel it until about the 2-3 week mark, and then -boom- Hello restriction! A local bandster once drew me a visual of her theory on why this happens (we were theorizing about all things band) and it was kind of like - restriction kicks in and places pressure, but then it takes time for the pressure to "collapse" the organ wall. I've never seen that verified, but it's an interesting theory.

My two cents... Since I had my band over 5 years ago, I can count on one hand the number of times I've felt hungry. For me, that has been a very positive side effect. I usually do not eat until late afternoon or early evening, and don't miss it. Unfortunately when we have company, they have to nicely "remind" me that some people still get hungry and might need to break for lunch. My stomach will growl, but I don't feel hungry. It's just like this thing my stomach is doing - making noises. I used to describe it as having an upper & lower stomach, and the lower one was pissing & moaning but the upper one -- the one that I actually feel -- is just fine. And usually when I do truly feel hungry, I'm tight as hell and can't eat anyway. I don't this it's terribly rare for this to be the case. So you may be experiencing swelling, or decreased appetite for countless number of reasons, or you might not have much hunger anymore.

I tried the snug route, and ended up having to get an unfill because I couldn't get my own saliva down. That did not make for a fun 1 hour drive down the interstate in someone else's car. I know a lot of people who prefer the tight side, tho. Unfortunately for me when I'm tight, I'm usually too tight for fluids. And getting even 1/4 cc removed can make no difference, or enable loaves of bread. Fickle b****, that band...

Before you reach good resttriction -- not even just before you get your first fill -- consider any weightloss a "bonus". Most people will lose something the first few weeks, even if just because they're afraid of messing something up and eating more carefully. Most people return to somewhat normal eating habits prior to their first fill because they are hungry and haven't yet relearned how to eat. It's very common to weigh the same (or more) at your first fill appointment than on your day of surgery. I was in an unusual situation and the band itself, without fill, gave me restriction. I lost 22 lbs in the first week after my surgery, and about 40 by the time of my first fill. But I was also one of the heavier patients my surgeon had banded, and had about 200 lbs total to lose. That makes a huge difference, and I would expect to lose more, the more you have to lose. Most bandsters I know tend to notice their weightloss pick up around fill #2.

I pesronally no longer believe in the perfect fill level, because EVERYTHING affects our fill. The number of ccs we have doesn't change, but the restriction it gives us does. The same 2cc may be too loose some days, or too tight other days. So since it's everything BUT the band that changes, how can there be a perfect restriction? My philosophy is that it's better to be too loose and have to exercise my willpower, than to be too tight and be at increased risk for bad stuff to happen. Honestly... I can go from wide open one day, to clamped down such that a glass of Water takes me 4 hours to drink. Hell, I can go from one extreme to the other in the SAME day. Yesterday I grazed all day, now I'm still working on the same 6 oz of juice I got 5 hours ago.

This is a tough situation because restriction can come and go with no change in fill amount. I personally would not get an unfill just yet, IF I could comfortably get & keep fluids down (and if I couldn't, I still might not as long as I usually couldn't and it wasn't some new thing). The foods we tolerate, times of day we tolerate them, etc. really can change with no apparent reason. Mine have changed completely about 3 - 4 times over now. If I could get the fluids I need, and I was in your position, I would go back to fluids (only) for a day or two and give everything a chance to calm down. I would then do a day of mushy foods, and work my way back to a regular eating schedule. If you can do the mushies, but cannot progress to anything solid, then I might consider an unfill -- but for me personally, it's so "routine" to have drastic fluctuations in my restriction that I've only gotten unfills when I could not tolerate fluids.

Just sharing another complication story in case it helps anyone out there. This one involving a miserable band experience, gastroparesis, and a suspect vagus nerve. My dad was banded in 2009. Despite numerous fills in his 10cc band, he never achieved what I would consider good restriction - he was constantly hungry, didn't have portion control, had no food type intolerances, or any of the 100 other indicators one might look to as a gauge for proper restriction. But he would say he was "PBing". Which, after questioning him, was not "PB" at all but was bona fide vomiting. (I no longer feel like a linguistic school marm for insisting there's a difference, and an inherent danger in not understanding the difference). I think he was banded about a year, and in that time he probably went in for 30+ post-op visits. He'd have some trouble and they would unfill him. He'd do ok for a while and they would give him a slight fill. He'd have more trouble and they'd take more fill out. Up & down & around. So finally it gets to the point where he's just manifesting really strange symptoms, like super delayed vomiting: eat peas on Mon, feel fine Mon - Wed, and Thu out of the blue vomit up peas. Violent, wrenching vomiting. And then he eventually got to where he'd vomit even if he hadn't eaten, and was starting to bring up the ubiquitous coffee grounds. I told him enough BS, demand a swallow test. Dr. agreed, he had one done, and he passed with flying colors. Esophageal motility on track, no prolapse, no erosion, pouch cleared in under 5 minutes. They scheduled him for an endoscopic procedure and he was absolutely riddled with ulcers. Poor guy looked like a pizza covered with white pepperonis on the inside. AGB Dr tried to say "need unfill" so I had a talk with him, during which time I reminded him that the band doesn't work on a vacuum concept & you can't take out ccs from a band that's already empty. (Note to people out there -- never, ever, ever feel sheepish about advocating for your medical care). So he put my father on a 2 week liquid diet to see if things would calm down. 2 days into that diet the exact same symptoms are occuring, and now we're vomiting 24/7 with virtually no liquid/solid intake. So he calls me and I tell him to go to the ER, get hydrated, and don't leave until they tell you something. I drive out to see him in the hospital and they have him forcing liquids down because "maybe" they'll stay down. Uh uh. We switch to IV hydration, and the vomiting continues. He's now afraid to swallow, and vomiting on a pretty regular 45 minute schedule despite being chock full of antiemitics. After 4 days in the hospital he's diagnosed with gastroparesis & xferred to AGB surgeon's care for immediate "let's see what's going on" surgery. During surgery, a significant slip is noted (that apparently was not there during the tests about 2 weeks prior) and the band is deemed irrepairable & removed. As soon as he woke up from surgery he felt 100% better, and has not had a single problem since. This includes the past 6 - 8 months during which he was rebanded. The best guess out there is that something in his band positioning was irritating the vagus nerve, which caused all the problems up to & including the onset of gastroparesis. Slippage was attributed to the vomiting attributed to the gastroparesis. AGB surgeon says "he had the problem before banding, and the onset/worsening is coincidental." Everyone else says it's the other way around. I know he had no problems, ever, before his first banding. And I'm probably forgetting a couple things in there. My reliable memory is about 8 minutes, and we're talking months & months. The end.

He gained 30 - 40 lbs during his unbanded time. But he is also far from a model bandster (very bad choices). He has not lost anything since his new band was put on, but again - bad choices, and he's having to chase restriction. When he started talking about getting re-banded, he was hopeful that his insurance would cover a VSG but it was still deemed experimental. Thinsistasoon - I just now saw your response. Thank you for the heads-up. He had a suspected heart attack a few years ago and a family history of heart disease so his doctor has him come in for labs every 6 months. His blood sugars are steady and in the normal range (and somehow, his cholesterol numbers are great - I hope I take after his side of the family, medically speaking!)

Definitely call and ask, at a bare minimum. FWIW, the pain you're describing can (please don't take that as "is") be caused by the stuck food. When I'm stuck, my pain changes but usually starts as a dull ache near my sternum and eventually evolves into an intense pain between my shoulder blades that wraps down & around to my hips, an intense squeezing pain just above my belly button, and a radiated pain from my belly button out to my sides, first the left side and then the right. It will also hurt down my spine between my shoulderblades. My father had gastroparesis related to the removal of his band. However, as soon as his band was actually out he felt find and had no problems. But while the gastroparesis was active, it was a different story and he was in a great deal of discomfort. So your gastroparesis continues despite band removal? I'm surprised you're eating -- were you not put on a severely limited diet? Are you on any Reglan, Domperidone, etc.? Until you can see your doctor I would suggest sticking to liquids. Water, Protein drinks as needed. You can go without solids, but you need to prioritize getting your liquids in. If you can do liquids with nutritional value, even better. That old "if it hurts to breathe, don't breathe" adage has some truth to it. If your problems come when you eat, and it's causing you that much pain & discomfort, you might want to hold off until you can get in for treatment.

I always just have a cookie. A cookie. If I see something that looks appealing and ti's a will power struggle, usually I just get to the point where I'm craving it and if I crave, I overeat. So I will usually find someone to split a cookie with, or just take half of one. Since you can't really change your level of willpower quickly, it's all about "in the moment" fixes, IMO.

Don't equate pain to band slippage. Most slips don't know they've slipped aside from changes in restriction (or nothing). GB symptoms are different for different people. Mine was atypical and would be a moderate combination of ache & nausea that moved around between my breastbone and belly button. I could function through it, but could not ignore it. It would usually wake me up around 1am, and continue for 6 - 10 hours. My mother's symptoms were much more typical, and she would compare it to heart attack (since she's never had a heart attack, I'm not sure how valid that is, but it gives you an idea of the location and/or pain levels). They're often mistaken for heart attacks. When my cousin had his first GB attack, he thought something ruptured and called 911.

It's very common with weightloss period, not specifically banding. Little gall bladder doesn't know what to do with itself anymore and freaks out on you. I'd estimate about 90% of bandsters I know or "know" had their GBs out post-banding. My GB came out almost exactly 18 mos after band went in.

Now let's talk band. Being tight doesn't necessarily mean you can't eat too much. That sounds contradictory, right? But restriction is different for everyone. Lots of people out there (including) me experience all kinds of can'ts with restriction, without ever seeing a physical roadblock to how much can be eaten. Of your initial weightloss, you should probably expect about 50% of that to be fat loss. The rest is Fluid loss in various forms, and the like. With any major change in eating there is typically an initial period of rapid weightloss (not to be confused with fatloss) as your organs do weird things to try and adjust. And then there's usually not a lot of anything (which is when most diets fail, because people think they're going to continue to see the same loss rates, don't, and give up because "it's not working"). Try switching up the times of day you eat, or your first meal food, and see if you notice any difference. I usually can't eat comfortably until after 4pm. I usually can't drink comfortably until around noon. And I do best if my first food of the day is a warm liquid (e.g. soup) or something dry & crunchy, but not potato- or bread-based. You might just need to experiment and see what works best for you. With regular workouts and no weightloss, you need to take a close look at your caloric intake. Do you know your BMR? (Basal Metabolic Rate - basically the number of calories you need to simply exist and nothing else). Do you know about how many calories you eat a day? BMR calculator here: Calculator How BMR & activity levels work: Article

So many different thigns going on here. Bear with me. I'm going to break this into two posts so it's not so intimidating. Let's start with the one that's not related to what you're eating, how, etc. -- insurance. What type of plan do you have? Indemnity? HMO? PPO? That may impact this, but I'll go based off what most people have. When a physician isn't in network/doesn't accept a particular provider, there is usually a stipulation for "reasonable and customary" reimbursement (I'll call it R&C to make this shorter), meaning your insurance company pays you back a percentage of R&C charges -- typically the average negotiated rate they pay out to contracted providers. So R&C is usually less than the full bill, sometimes significantly less, and R&C payments are typically capped at a percente -- that's a percentage of R&C, not a percentage of total bill. Phew! For example, you see an OON provider and get billed $400. Your plan covers 70% of OON care, and has determined that $200 is R&C for your procedure. You will get reimbursed 70% of $200, not 70% of $400. Call your doctor and find out what the out of pocket cost for the procedure is, and what procedure code they bill out under. Then look through your SPD or call your provider and find out what the % cap for uncontracted/out of network providers is, and ask them what their reasonable & customary payment for the procedure code is. Most of the larger insurance co companies offer online estimators to find all this out, as well. That should get you really close to your OOP payment.

That amount of protein is should not cause kidney complications, assuming everything else is normal. If you're posting here to ask if you should be worried because your organs don't appear to be functioning properly, you should have already made an appointment with your doctor. How is your fluid intake? Specifically water. The main danger high protein diets have on the kidneys directly is, greatly simplified -- your kidneys are filters and high protein diets can clog/damage your filters with excess gunk to filter out. Current dietary guidelines suggest 0.36 gm of protein per lb of body weight, so for someone who weighs 150 lbs 54 gm of protein is the ideal intake, which is 216 calories' worth. Or more generically in RDA: 0 to 6 months: 9g 6 to 12 months: 11 g 1 to 3 years: 13g 4 to 8 years: 19 g 9 to 13 years: 34 g 14 to 18 years: 46 g for females and 52 g for males 19 to 70+ years: 46 g for females and 56 g for males * 71 g during pregnancy and breastfeeding Lifestyle can require more protein, but I don't think many of us here live that lifestyle (or we wouldn't have the band).

Hi Alex, I've tried to login there using my account info from here, but it just tells me username & password are incorrect. I can register over there, no big deal. But if using your same LBT info somehow populates/ports data from here to there (settings/preferences/etc.), I'd prefer to do that.

Marcy, you might want to try changing the Protein type or the way you are mixing it. Especially if you already have a problem with dairy, whey (mainly whey concentrate) Proteins tend to cause very bad gas. Even if you don't have a history of problems with dairy whey concentrates can hit you hard because, well, they're concentrated. If you're using a whey protein, maybe switch to a soy, or hemp, or egg, or a higher quality Protein Powder (that's why bodybuilders don't buy WalMart protein powders -- there really is a difference in the quality & what it does to your body). Try a 100% isolate protein. I suspect your problem will get much better.

The surgeon is a bit of a sore spot for me. I understand things change, but you don't normally buy a Lexus and wake up to a Pinto. When I had my surgery, I selected my surgeon (in part) because he personally supervised aftercare, I adored his nurse, the facility wasn't too far away, appointments were easy to book, etc. His personality/bedside manner was never stellar, but I didn't care that much. Steady hands & procedural experience were much more important to me. Now there's a PA who manages fills & complications. You don't even see the surgeon unless you're having surgery. Kinda makes since because of the whole SURGEON thing, but I really liked the idea that the surgeon maintained your care comprehensively. The nurse left, then last I heard came back in a different position, and some crazy wenches were manning the office. (As in, they would monitor patient activity here, and then pull you aside & criticize you when you came in for an appointment - for one example). The facility has moved twice. I don't even know where they are now. sigh...

Oh yeah, weights. These are all -ishes, because I just really don't remember the specifics anymore. Pre-op weight: 390s Perpetually stuck at weight: 248 Lowest post-op weight: 220s Current weight: 265 My goal: 190 Surgeon's goal for me: 210 190 ought to be a sz 10 or 12 for me. If I didn't have this droopy mess of skin, that is. Lowest post-op weight was thanks to a drastic drop during my first trimester. That weight & I had a wild & crazy time together, and I thought we were meant to be, but he dumped me for some floozy.

Oh yeah, same here. Initially my band behavior was completely random. Then went to specific foods I couldn't do. Then add in routines with times of day that I can/can't tolerate foods. Then the hormones/TOM/etc. started to impact me, barometric changes, etc. I have 0.25cc and sometimes day to day, week to week, month to month can range from being able to eat any food in any quantity, to being so clamped down that a sip of water will leave me feeling oogie. I'm starting to notice trends over long periods of time, so I may be tight for say 12 weeks, and then almost overnight I'll be loose for 8 weeks, then back to tight... and once baby came, forget it. I don't know what it is about pregnancy that seems to make "sweet spot" a thing of the past, but it definitely seems to be a frequent occurence. Overall, I need a fill but I'm not getting one because I figure -- when it's bad now, it's pretty bad. That type of refluxing is so gross, painful & miserable... and so it trying to stay awake all night so it doesn't just keep happening. A fill is just going to make those bad times worse. So I'd rather try and deal with the lack of restriction during loose times, than have to sleep sitting up on the couch. I've talked some with Allergan about things they can do to improve overall patient experience. I think they're more focused on the newbies/pre-op (that's where the money is made), but I've suggested to them that if they want to build up resources for long-term patients, they might definitely want to address what it's like 5, 10 years down the road. Things are not the same.

Significantly tighter about 4 days before, until about a day after. This did not start for me until about 3 years into my band. BTW, other things that tend to make bandsters tighten up include: * Barometric changes * Pressure changes (flying, diving, etc.) * Humidity changes, but that's not wholly separate from barometric changes, I don't suppose * Stress The resident theory used to be that it was related to Fluid levels in the body. That makes sense. The pressure changes not so much. Period = Water retention = "swollen" insides = tighter band. Or something like that.

Hmm a bunch of "old" people hanging out. If this forum were real life, this thread would totally be Old Country Buffet (local social mecca of the AARPers). That's awesome.