Wendell Edwards

I had nausea that was caused by residual effects of anesthesia. It FINALLY went away after about a month. Until then, it was rough!

food sucks up Water, water weighs 8.33 pounds per gallon. When you were on liquids, you had no food in your digestive tract to hold on to water. Now you do.

You may have "Popped a stich". It's unlike that caused a port to flip. Port flips are verified by fluoroscopic exam or X-Ray.

I highly recommend Dr. Neal and his office staff. They are competent, caring and wonderful people!

Water-Loading controls after-meal thirst, which is an issue for me. It has not affected hunger for me.

First, I let go of the illusion of control. Once I do that, I turn the stuff that I really cannot do anything about over to God. Then I prioritize the rest and SCHEDULE THEM. Then I EXPLICITLY ask other people in my life for help with those things. And if I can't get everything done, I turn it over to God.

The reasons that my Doctor, William Neal, M.D. quoted for using fluoroscope were these: 1. Easy to locate the port. 2. Increases likelihood of a one-stick fill. 3. Decreases the likelihood of puncturing the tubing. 4. Decreases the likelihood of tearing the septum, the thin membrane that goes across the port. 5. Verifies that the fill needle is in the port before saline injection. 6. Prevents saline injection into abdominal viscera. 7. Verifies the position of the port, and allows port flip to be seen easily. 8. Visually confirms lack of esophageal spasms. 9. Visually confirms lack of pouch enlargement. 10. Visually confirms an open stoma at the conclusion of the fill. 11. Allows tighter stoma because the tech can add saline until the stoma closes, then BARELY OPEN IT back up. 12. Allows checking for a slipped band, and verifies correct placement of the band with each fill. Dr. Neal believes in fluoroscope so strongly he bought one when he opened his new office in Olympia, WA last year. http://www.pacsurgical.com/ Quoting: "We have nutritional and psychological counseling resources, scales (2) to 1000 lbs., an IV Fluid hydration suite, a fluoroscopy suite for band adjustments and a large conference room for informational forums and support groups, all under one roof." Now then, about fill frequency: Think of the band as a hydraulic pressure device, which it is. When the band is tightened, pressure is applied to the stomach wall from the interior surface of the band. An equal and opposite pressure is applied to the band itself. (Newton's law) The pressure to hold back, or restrict, the food going into the stomach is equal to the pressure on the band to slip down the stomach. (Band prolapse) The greater the fill, the greater the pressure to slip. The band makes a groove around the stomach organ, which is usually covered in a layer of fat. That groove in (At first) the fat pad (Later the actual stomach) provides resistance to slippage. When you are starting out, the groove is shallow, and not very resistant to slipping. As you go along and time passes, the groove gets deeper, and more pressure can be safely applied to the band with less danger of slipping. That's the way I look at it.

The reasons that my Doctor, William Neal, M.D. quoted for using fluoroscope were these: 1. Easy to locate the port. 2. Increases likelihood of a one-stick fill. 3. Decreases the likelihood of puncturing the tubing. 4. Decreases the likelihood of tearing the septum, the thin membrane that goes across the port. 5. Verifies that the fill needle is in the port before saline injection. 6. Prevents saline injection into abdominal viscera. 7. Verifies the position of the port, and allows port flip to be seen easily. 8. Visually confirms lack of esophageal spasms. 9. Visually confirms lack of pouch enlargement. 10. Visually confirms an open stoma at the conclusion of the fill. 11. Allows tighter stoma because the tech can add saline until the stoma closes, then BARELY OPEN IT back up. 12. Allows checking for a slipped band, and verifies correct placement of the band with each fill. Dr. Neal believes in fluoroscope so strongly he bought one when he opened his new office in Olympia, WA last year. http://www.pacsurgical.com/ Quoting: "We have nutritional and psychological counseling resources, scales (2) to 1000 lbs., an IV Fluid hydration suite, a fluoroscopy suite for band adjustments and a large conference room for informational forums and support groups, all under one roof."

Hi Fred, Go to your nearest TRU-VALUE hardware store and get some soft vinyl tubing (Ask for assistance from the clerks). Because my wedding band is very big (Who would have thought it?) I used 1/4 inch interior diameter tubing. Cut off about an inch of the tubing, it's soft, so you will need an EXACTO-KNIFE or a razor blade (Be CAREFUL!) to cut the tubing. Then make a lengthwise cut down the tubing so the tubing wraps around your wedding band. With the amount of vinyl tubing that comes in the smallest roll, you will be able to make hundreds of ring-sizers. Another alternative is WAL*Mart, they sell ring sizers in their jewelry department.

Hi, I really recommend you stay off your scale if it makes your frustrated or anxious. The time immediately after surgery is time for healing and practicing the lifestyle modifications that will make you a success. If a focus on scale weight makes you frustrated or anxious, you may develop a "What's the USE?" issue which will make your journey much more difficult.

Hi, Inamed/ALLERGAN told me on the telephone that the overwhelming majority of slips were caused by REPEATED, SEVERE vomiting. Another cause of slips is eating solid food too soon after the operation, before the band has time to settle into a "Groove" that it makes around the stomach. The scar tissue helps the band to stay in place, and eating solid foods too soon may disrupt the healing process and make the band more likely to slip. One more cause of band slips is to repeatedly ignore the "Full signal" and "Stuff the pouch". That exerts tremendous downward pressure on the Lap-Band, which could cause a slip. They said that the symptoms of a slip are either a sudden, UNEXPLAINABLE loss of restriction, or a sudden, UNEXPLAINABLE severe obstruction. The way a slip is diagnosed is through either an X-ray or, more commonly, a fluoroscopic examination to verify. Although eating food too soon is, in itself, unlikely to cause an immediate slip, having the stomach "Work" (Move around to digest solid food) may create a condition where the band does not heal in place, which, in turn, could cause a future slippage. I have known several people who ate solid food before they were supposed to, who eventually had a Lap-Band slip on them.

Hi Margie, The instructions vary from doctor to doctor. I use "Water-Loading" before a meal. I drink to capacity, then sip to top it off until 15 minutes before I start eating. Different doctors WILL have different opinions on this though.

Hi, I gained weight as a post-op too. Don't worry about it. Focus on practicing the lifestyle moodifications that will make you a success with the Lap-Band. One more thing, I recommend you not weigh in except at your doctor appointments for the next few months. That will prevent frustration and "Scale Anxiety" from sabotaging your weight loss.

Hi, You have several incisions into your abdomon. Pain is NORMAL. I recommend taking the painkillers your doctor prescribed, and if they are not reducing the pain to a manageable level, I recommend you call the doctor and get stronger painkillers.

Hi, I use MATRIX 5.0 in 4 flavors, ELITE chocolate mint, (Both available on the internet) and BODY FORTRESS oin chocolate and vanilla from Wal*Mart. To make them more interesting, I use extracts, unsweetened Kool-Aid and spices. I also make "PROTEIN COFFEE". I drink protein coffee almost every day. I make it by getting a big mug, at least 12-16 ounces and putting about 4 ounces of cold tap Water into the mug. I take one or two scoops of a Protein Powder (I use a BUNCH of different ones, but usually Matrix 5.0, or Body Fortress or ELITE Chocolate Mint) and I use a FORK to whip the protein powder into the cold tap water in the mug. If I'm feeling like a change in flavor, I might add a flavoring, or a spice, or milk, or creamer, or sweetener to the mix. THEN I add hot coffee to that. If you try adding protein to a hot Fluid, it congeals to a nasty mess that smells AWFUL and tastes WORSE (If that's even POSSIBLE) So, that's how I make protein coffee.

Some people with a tightly-fitted Lap-Band NEVER require a fill. It just depends on the patient's unique anatomy. Unfilled bands are actually quite small, especially in comparison to an unbanded stomach.

The original INAMED/ALLERGAN protocol calls for fills every 6 weeks, ONLY if the patient has not lost AT LEAST 1 pound per week. So, under those guidelines, if you have lost over 6 pounds in 6 weeks, you would not get a fill. Of course, the fill frequency and fill amount is ultimately up to your surgeon. In my opinion, getting fills with less than a 4-week lapse between fills is NOT a good idea, as some people experience "Delayed-Action-Fills" of up to 3 weeks after the fill is administered.

I have heard of earting one to one and a half cups of food per meal.

Assuming that there ate not chunks of solid food in the soup, you should be fine.

Some, but not all people throw up if they eat too much after getting a Lap-Band. For those who do not throw up, stretching the esophagus or the pouch is simply a matter of applying pressure over time.

Well, that's true. But in the good old USA, very few people were banded before 2002. The Lap-Band procedure was pioneered and perfected on animals in the early 1990s, and the first Lap-Band surgery on humans was performed in Belgium in September 1993. However, the procedure underwent several years of trials in the United States before it was approved for use here; the first FDA-approved clinical trials took place in June 1995, and the Lap-Band system was finally approved for use in the Unted States in June 2001. As of April 2007, the Lap-Band procedure had been performed about 300,000 times worldwide.

They are very rare. I have only talked to a couple of people who were banded before me, and I know I was one of the very first people with a VG band. I think people who are on the boards after years either like the social aspect of the message boards, or they want to give back, or they are selling something. :biggrin1: Most people have totally adjusted to having a Lap-Band at the 18-month mark, and very few people who are beyond that 18-month point are still posting, because they have already learned what they needed to know about the band.

A pouch dilation usually requires an unfill and two weeks of liquids with a barium swallow before and after the two weeks. Here are the hard questions that I ask of people who are stalled for a long time: 1. How many calories per day are you eating? 2. How many times per day are you eating? 3. Do you snack? 4. Do you drink with meals? 5. Do you graze? 6. Do you drink non-diet beverages? 7. How many grams of Protein do you eat daily? 8. Are you eating any junk food at all? 9. How much volume of food are you eating at one time? (In cups of food) 10. How many minutes of exercise PER DAY are you getting? You don't have to answer those questions to me, but I recommend you ask youirself those questions and see if you can find the cause of the weight loss stall.

Add to that Bulimia, not chewing well enough and chronically ignoring the full signal! :paranoid

The FDA approved the LAP-BAND on June 5, 2001, New Device Approval so anyone with a band before that date was a member of the FDA trials. The normal course for people who are banded a long time is to stop posting on weight loss message boards, as the newness of the Lap-Band lifestyle diminishes. In essence, those older bandsters have assimilated the behavior modifications needed for success into their lives, and they no longer feel the need to be on weight loss message boards. By the way, I was banded September 13, 2004.