mypov

Hi! Your story sounds like mine. I was banded in 06, after losing 110 lbs I got pregnant and I gained back 60. I have been a maladaptive eater ever since. I am about 115 lbs to my goal weight. I just got a fill and am trying to get my head to follow the lapband rules! Maybe we could support each other! Send me a private message if you'd like. This is definitely the tightest fill I've had in awhile. I'm Still learning/adjusting after a loooooong time of not following the rules. there is a thread around here with meal ideas but right now I do not trust myself with anything besides lean cuisines, healthy choice, smart ones etc. I mean it, I am TOTALLY relearning all of this!!!!

Hello! I was banded in December of 2006. At one year I had lost 110 lbs. I became pregnant and vomited a lot. I had a complete unfil and went crazy with food and gained back 60 lbs. My son was born in 2008 and I have lost (with weight watchers) and gained the same 10 lbs over and over. I had many fills and unfills, worries that my lapband was slipped or eroded, had it checked a year ago and it was fine. My problem is that I would eat until I felt discomfort and then it just became habit to PB to end the discomfort. I also found out all the foods that go through my band easily. Basically, I became a maladaptive eater! I've really been working harder with my diet the last few months as far as eating better but have lost nothing. I hadn't had a fill in a year, so I went in a week ago. I got a fill and followed all the rules....for 4 days! I was so happy to lose 5 lbs and be finally back to eating just a half cup of food and being done. Not comfortably full, but at least satisfied. I really started to have hope that it was going to work and I could really do this. However, today I went out to eat for a family event. I KNOW (kicking self!) I should have stuck with something same and ordered a side of pinto Beans. No, I ordered a chicken taco salad. I ate four bites and was fine....then I went for five, six, seven (all while talking and laughing with the fam) and BOOM, I get stuck. I literally can't stand that feeling of something in my throat (that's where it feels stuck to me)! So I got rid of it. I was so proud of myself tthe other day realizing I had relearned a lapband rule- stop BEFORE I feel the restriction. This is a personal rule of mine because as I said, I hate the feel of anything in there because I know over time it will get worse until I get rid of the food. I'm just so mad at myself for going back to old ways and i'm once again afraid I won't be able to do this. *SIGH*! Can anyone relate or give me advice? In many ways I'm a newbie to the band because I have been not living the rules for so long!

Ok. so today I decided I was done panicking. I drove 2 hours down to the surgeons office and brought my esophagram pics with me. I had to wait a few minutes but surprisingly my original surgeon came out to see me! He went over the esophagram with me and explained every picture. He then showed me examples of slips, erosions, and stretched esophagus. Relieved but a bit embarrassingly I admitted that no, my picture looks nothing likes. Those. He also explained that the part of the esophagus that the liquid is in opens up more and the the top squeezing behind it to keep the food moving, which is why it appeared so much bigger in some areas than others. He said the obvious thing he could see is that I was way too tight. He recommended a good amount of unfill and the nurse took me right in. I am sooooo relieved and yes, lucky. This evening I ate a small amount of dinner and was able to tell when to stop without needing to throw up suddenly. I hope I continue to remember how to use and not abuse the band since I now have 100 lbs still to lose. I don't want my journey to be over. But for now, I am not another negative statistic. For now. :smile2:

Okay so I have complained 3 times in the last 15 months about my lap band not feeling right. Each time I called to ask for a barium swallow test I'd be told my symptoms wouuldn't require that test and I just needed to be unfilled/filled etc. that would ease my mind a BIT but then the uneasieness about my band would come back because my eating problems would remain. FINALLY my doc ordered a barium swallow for me and I did it today. The xray tech gave me the pictures but the doc won't review them until tomorrow. Though, I'm starting to wonder if he'll look at them at all because frankly I don't think he wants to ruin his "stats." I looked at my xrays and freaked. My esophagus is just NOT normal. The lower portion is 3 times the size of the upper portion. I am no medical person granted and could be reading it all wrong, but to me it looks BAD. I am desperate to hear what can be done. I prefer not to have it removed because of cost but I would do it if necessary. What should I do now? Will I heal? I have already put myself on an all liquid diet because frankly, the pictures just terrify me. Will they remove it and will I heal if they do? Any experience/advice/info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This is when I typically "blow it" for the day! Especially with sweets- ice cream, cookies, Halloween Candy....though sometimes it is just an extra lean cuisine or something. I'm not hungry, I just do it to myself over and over again. Suggestions for stopping this?Thanks!

I'm in the same boat. Lost 120 lbs the first year, got pregnant unexpectedly, put 60 lbs back on and really need to lose 100 lbs to be at a healthy BMI. I don't know why, but my band just doesn't feel like it used to. The food just feels like it goes through easily or gets stuck. Even when i really try to "feel" how much is enough, it's just 0 or stuck. I never ever get a feeling of "just enough" or satisfied feeling from my food. I think that was what i was missing right after banding but i was unfilled through most of my pregnancy so i got used to feeling that lower stomach satisfaction- if ya know what i mean. I just dont know how to get back to feeling okay with food when it just sits in the pouch. I want that back so bad. If I had the money, I would totally have my band removed, wait a few months and do it all over again! Since I can't, I need to relearn somehow... i just don't know HOW!

This is similar to what I am experiencing. I was banded end of 2006, lost 120 then got pregnant in early 2008. Nothing has been the same since then. I think I learned how to subconsciously eat around the band and then BOOM I am "shocked" to realize I am stuck and pb. My husband is concerned I am bulimic but I don't do it on purpose- it really is subconscious up until I am stuck. I zone out when eating to be honest. Its just my old disordered overeating manifesting in a new way bc I have a band now. I have gained lots of weight back and am on meds and weight watchers and have lost ten pounds in 6 weeks but it is a huge struyggle every meal. I feel so guilty about all this. I feel I have let myself down and realize I may have to get the band removed and it will be my own fault. I am just always craving that preband full feeling and of course- it never comes. I PB my main meal every day and eat lightly the other meals- Cereal or other things I know will get me closest to that full feeling. I want to change but don't know how!!!

My dreams of the cute basketball belly never came true. I seemed to gain weight all over and just looked pudgy. A week befor delivery I was still having to convince others I was pregnant. It bothered me a lot but I am not sure why! The end result of my beautiful baby is nothing I have to explain but I always felt I missed out on looking pregnant. Ah well, what can you do?

Waiting to be pregnant can drive you crazy for sure. I unexpectedly got pregnant after thinking I was completely infertile for the previous 8 yrs ans the adoption of my 3 kids. I noticed the vein thing starting near the end of the first trimester. Everyone seems to notice something different as symptoms it seems so its so hard to depend on what others noticed. The positive stick is your best clue! :laugh:. I bought a preg test the day after I would have conceived. My hubby and I were both thinking I'd lost my mind since we WERE infertile and didn't think we even wanted another kid. My weird impulse buy paid off two weeks later even though I completely forgot about it bc I had NO symptoms!!! Try to relax, put it out of your mind until you can test and take good care of yourself physically and mentally in the mean time. It will work out when the time is right. Good luck!!!

I just re-joined weight watchers for the umpteenth time. Since surgery in 2006, I have lost 120 lbs, been pregnant, had a baby and regained 50 lbs. Those close to me know what a struggle I have had to lose weight before and WITH the band- whether emotional or physical struggle. I WILL NOT reveal to ANYONE at WW about the band, even though in my small town and the same ww leaders as always I know them fairly well. First, it's none of their business, second- these particular leaders ARE ignorant about weight loss surgeries, and third- this surgery saved my life and they would never understand that. Finally, I have heard these same instructors discuss WW corporate view on ANY OTHER weight loss method and of COURSE they are anti. They want to be known as the only REAL way to lose weight. It comes down to dollars. So, that's the message they pass on to the leaders, who pass it to the members, who spouted it off to you. The combination IS working great for me though. I take their recommendations and modify them to work for me. Having a set amount of points, finding healthier foods, being accountable to someone on a weekly basis for gains or losses and the group support is what is helping me get back on track and relosing the weight I gained with pregnancy. If this surgery were "the easy way" then 3 years out I would not STILL be 100 lbs overweight, even though I'm 70 lbs from my highest. It's helped- but emotionally and physically it will always be a battle for me.