DonnaB

Sorry I wasn't able to reply in time to help you out - I had my first PB a few days ago and the thing that helped most was walking really fast. The faster I walked the better I felt and within 50 yards my golfball went down past my band.

I've read here that lots of people have more restriction during their cycle - took me a minute to figure out TOM! If you weren't going on vacation I'd say wait out your period and see but I don't know if I'd want to risk my vacation with a too tight band - that would suck. Good luck and let us know how you're doing. P.S. I had my first PB on the day after my cycle ended - I don't know if it was related or not. Either way, it sucked!

Love it - thanks for sharing! The most amazing part to me is his STAMINA! OMG - this is ONE take! Very funny.

I was banded in Mexico by Dr. Roberto Rumbaut - he has an excellent reputation and success rates in the WLS arena by physicians, patients and by Inamed - the manufacturer of the Inamed Band. Dr. Rumbaut also does RNY. If you decide on RNY have you considered doing it in Mexico? I'm not a fan of RNY for lots of reasons, including personal experience with a friend who had RNY, but you're right about eating sweets and ice cream - the lap band won't help you with those. You should do more research about Lap Band AND RNY before going forward. After, I think it's 3 years, lap band patients have lost the same amount of weight as RNY patients without having their insides re-routed. As for my friend (and a large percentage of RNY patients I understand), she's steadily regaining her weight and has some pretty serious health issues related to malabsorption. Ultimately everyone has to choose their own path - with the guidance of their doctor and a second opinion - good luck on your weight loss journey whichever path you choose.

I danced with Chuck Norris because I hate myself!

Yay for you sneaux! Welcome to bandland!

LOL! That was funny. I read that one out loud to my husband! You gotta wonder what made her think the band was placed in the throat!

I understand some people have no problem with salad and some people can't do salad at all. I've been banded for almost 9 weeks and haven't tried it yet. Good luck.

Try soaking the capsule again - just don't leave it so long! lol My band doc (Rumbaut) is banded himself - he's the one who told me this trick. So far it's worked for me every time, no problems.

I remember tuna in oil! It was so messy. I can remember squeezing the lid down into the tuna to help drain it and a squirt of fishy oil shooting out and covering my shirt! Yuck! I like the tuna pouches - no need to squeeze. I haven't tried tuna creations - I'll have to give 'em a go. Thanks for the heads-up.

Excellent news. I've been watching this thread with trepidation. I have a history of abnormal paps (and anxiety attacks!) and I feel your worry in a very personal way. It's a little too close to home for comfort if you know what I mean. I can't help but feel a sense of relief on reading your last post. Your doctor would never tell you he wasn't concerned if he was. I think it's time to have a coctail and take a big ol' sigh of relief. The last pap I had my doc didn't get endocervical cells and I've put off having a pap for about two years now. That means that I havn't had endocervical testing in about three years. I'm so scared. Your posts have made me realize that being scared doesn't mean I won't get sick if I avoid being tested. Thank you. I'll call my OBGYN tomorrow and make an appointment.

LOL, PB stands for "productive burp." Kind of a delicate way to say throw up! It's very doubtful that your Happy Meal caused a slip. You really shouldn't worry about a slip unless you can't swallow liquid. Really, don't worry about it - its sooooo unlikely. Most doctors recommend 1-2 pounds per week for ideal weight loss with the band. At that rate you're pretty far ahead of the average. You're doing good. Relax, breath. You're OK.

The lapband isn't going to keep you from eating MOST foods. It gives you control to make better choices but there are plenty of blow out (blow it!) foods you'll be ABLE to eat - and unfortunately some of the BAD foods are easier to eat than the good foods. If you choose to eat unhealthy, fatty, high carb and high calorie food, you won't lose weight even with a lapband. You'll still have to work at weight loss, the band isn't a miracle cure. What the band does is help you from binge eating. It's a tool that will help you maintain control of the quantity of food you consume. The biggest benefit is that it's much easier to choose better, more healthful foods if you don't feel like you're starving all the time. At least this has been my experience so far. Ahhhhh. Maybe he's worried that if you lose weight you'll push him to lose weight. Maybe he's not ready to make that choice yet. It could be that by having a band and losing weight you'll inspire him to lose weight. He may even consider being banded himself when he sees your results. There are couples here on LBT who have both been banded or are both following 'bandster rules' when it comes to eating. Sometimes people are reluctant to change because they don't want to have to change themselves. The thing is, everything in life changes. Almost daily. Better to make positive changes than to just move along with the current of everyday life. I think that's an excellent plan. Keep reading, keep seeking information. When the time is right, you'll know. I had heard that. I guess I'll have to plan a February trip and look around away from London, which is really what I want anyway. I've been to London twice so I'm ready to branch out a bit. Any recommendations? The day of surgery was pretty rough but I had IV pain meds so it was manageable. I stayed one night in hospital and then went to a hotel the next morning (I had surgery in Mexico or I would have gone home). The 1st day back at the hotel I took one of my prescription pain meds and that was all I needed. After that I used liquid Tylenol PM which helped me sleep easier. On day 2 post-op my husband and I went to a local up-scale mall where we did some shopping - I bought a new handbag that I love! The day after that, we did some sight-seeing and shopping in Monterrey, then caught a flight home that afternoon. I took the Tylenol PM for a few nights and then I was fine. It really wasn't that bad honestly. The port wound was the area that hurt the most and for the longest - I'm almost 9 weeks post-op and the port wound stopped hurting about 2 weeks ago. I get a twinge every now and then if I've exercised for too long or if my waistband is pushed against it for too long. For the most part I've completely healed up and am feeling fine. As of today I've lost 27 pounds so far. 27 pounds in just under 9 weeks. Not bad. The best part is that I've never felt like I was starving or sacrificing - pre-op liquid diet notwhithstanding! I know it's early days to think I don't have a struggle ahead but I feel like I can handle it when it comes. I feel like I'm in control for the first time in years. It's a great feeling. There's a thread in the Support forum called "Scar Stages Share Yours!" you can see lots of post-op incision sites - mine included - so you can get an idea of what it looks like. There's also a forum called Lap-Band Complications. I recommend not spending too much time in the complications forum. It's a good idea to know what kinds of complications can occur, but if you stay in there for too long you'll freak yourself out. At least I did. The thing to remember is that most lap-band surgeons have a less than 1% - 3% complication rate - that means a greater than 97% 99+% success rate. Those are pretty good odds. Do your research, find a good surgeon and you should be fine. Good luck. Keep in touch and let me know how you're doing after your move.

Hi, Welcome to LBT. Good luck with your insurance companies and on your weight loss journey. LapBandTalk was a great resource for me while I researched the band.

Nah, I have 5 scars! The one you can't see at all is in my belly-button, then the next visible is right at my bra-line in the center, really tiny, then there are two about the same size and symetrically located on either side of my belly-button, and then, of course, the port wound. You can see all but the belly-button scar easily in the first picture. The other ones are healing up nicely but I'm thinking about switching to Vitamin E on them. Seems like the Maderma isn't working as well as I thought it would. Or maybe I just see the scars every day and have unrealistic expectations of the product. Wouldn't be the first time I expected too much! Anyone want to chime in on the Maderma vs. Vitamin E for reducing scar visibility? Maybe I should start a new thread for that question.

Hi Stacey, it seems like I don't realized someone has gone missing until they come back, and then I go, 'Oh ya, I HAVEN'T seen them post for awhile.' Glad you're back now that I realize you've been gone! Sorry. I had my first PB yesterday so I feel for ya. It was awful and I never want to do it again. I take it you're on soup for the week? The best (only) part about life after PB is that you don't feel hungry at all - at least that's been my experience. I had a couple of cups of coffee this morning and wasn't hugry at all, all day. I forced myself to have some soup a little while ago just because I know I need the nutrition and I didn't wan't to realize all of the sudden that I was starving! Campbell's Cream of Chicken and Mushroom. Mmmm. Eh. Welcome back.

Wow, this one is going to be tough. I can't speak from experience because my husband supported me from the beginning about having weight loss surgery. I think that if your husband requires you to eat the same types of food and quantity he does, the lap-band might not be a good choice for you. If he's not concerned about the quantity of food, or the type of food you eat then it probably won't be a problem. I eat with my husband, but I don't always eat the same things he does, and it takes me a lot longer to eat about half of what he does. You have to take small, small bites and chew, chew, chew each bite. It might be time to consider couples counseling to find out why your husband becomes upset if he's eating and you're not. I do understand that spouses can become insecure about potential weight loss in their partners. Perhaps he's worried that you won't stay with him after you've lost your weight and have more confidence and energy than you do now. If I were you, I think I would work on getting to the bottom of this eating-together issue with your husband before you go forward with surgery because your eating habits WILL change. They have to change to make a difference in your weight. This is a tough one. Welcome to LapBandTalk, please come back and tell us how it's going with you. P.S. Love, love, love the UK. Matter of fact I was married there! I wanted to be married in England but you have to be a resident for 6 weeks to do that - so we 'ran away' to Scotland to be married. We wore Regency era clothing a la A&E's Pride and Prejudice, and were married in a beautiful Castle in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Scotland. It's called Duns castle and it was used as Balmoral in the movie 'Mrs. Brown' with Judy Dench as Queen Victoria. Lovely movie, lovely castle, lovely wedding. Love the UK! Someday I'd like to visit during the winter just to see it dressed in snow!

I am no longer a PB virgin. What did you think I meant? My husband and I made a wonderful Italian dinner together - ravioli with pesto and mushroom carbinara, tortellini in garlic and olive oil marinara, a tomato and cucumber salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and herbs, and a glass of rose wine. Mmmmmm, right? Well, I wouldn't really know. I took two small bites (aparently not small enough) of the ravioli and it stuck. I mean STUCK SOLID. Like I swallowed concrete or something. I walked around and did the chicken dance, held my breath, swung my arms like jumping jacks (all while my delicious dinner getting colder and colder) for more than a half and hour, all the while sliming madly. I even heaved a couple of times but got no relief. Just slime. Finally I went out and walked around the block (carrying my wad of paper towels in one hand and my plastic 'spit' cup in the other). I noticed that it felt better the faster I walked so I kept up a pretty brisk pace and before I made it to the corner I felt two very distinct lumps pass through my band. Ahhh. Relief. It's weird how you can feel stuff moving through, huh? Not pleasant at all. I went back to my house and asked my husband to get rid of the rest of my dinner, which he did, and I made a protein shake for myself. I guess I'm on liquids for a few days. I'm really disappointed in myself. I really, really wanted to avoid a PB and I guess since I never got a "productive burp" I can technically claim no PB, but it was a PB for sure, technicalities notwithstanding. It hurt, I slimed and heaved. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck . . . it must be a PB. It really sucked and I never want to do it again. I think I'll make that liquid diet a week - just to be sure.

Hi TIDGE, PB's aren't good. PB (productive burp - nice euphamism for throwing up!) can cause your band to slip. If it slips it almost always has to be surgically replaced or taken out. Best case scenario the slip falls back into place on it's own but the way most band doctor's are now securing the band in place by stitching a portion of your stomach over the band, means that if it slips the sutures or the scar tissue keeping it in place have come apart - which means it will probably slip again. Sometimes a slip will keep you from even being able to get liquid down which means you have to have surgical intervention right away or you become dehydrated. Not good. I think the chance of PBing and tearing out stitches is the most likely reason for doctors ordering long liquid post-op diets. You'll see lots of information and arguments, er, discussions on LBT about the length of the post-op liquid diet. You REALLY, REALLY want to avoid PB post-op for as long as possible to give your stitches and stomach and chance to heal and create scar tissue to keep your band in place. Having said that, almost everyone at some point will PB. Not everyone. I really thought I'd be one of the ones who didn't but lo and behold, here I am post PB. I've been banded for just over 8 weeks now and feel pretty confident that my PB didn't cause any damage. My PB lasted for about 30 minutes and it was pretty scary. I felt horrible while it was going on too. I was sweating and sliming and had that burning golf ball feeling going on in my chest. I also have Irritable Bowel Syndrome - not the kind with constipation - and the discomfort and panic of the PB brought on an IBS attack at the same time. It was awful. 30 minutes feels like FOREVER when you feel like crap. I don't know how long a PB can last - I've heard hours in some cases. Yikes! I do know that I was scared while mine was going on and I'm going to try like heck to never have one again. I think the most dangerous time to have a PB is during the first few weeks post-op. Other than that I wouldn't worry too much unless it goes on for hours and hours (I'd be in an emergency room if it lasted much longer than the one I had - although I don't know what they could do about it) OR if you do it repeatedly during a short period of time. PBing causes your stomach to be irritated and can lead to another episode of PBing if you don't let the irritation and swelling go down for long enough. That's why I'm going back to a liquid diet for a week. Hope this answers your questions. Welcome to LBT, I look forward to hearing from you how your journey is going. (I didn't scare you too much did I? Just enough to stay on your liquid diet and then chew, chew, chew to goo after you move on to mushies and solids? LOL You'll be fine.)

Yay for you Mandy! Enjoy your new house and that yard!

If you want to track your food/calories, I HIGHLY recommend www.FitDay.com . It's really made a difference for me and I wish I had known about it before surgery. There is a free version and I recommend you sign up for it and try it out for a few days. If you sign up for the free version you get a discount on the downloadable version WHICH IS MUCH BETTER. With your membership, the downloadable version costs $20 which has been the best $20 I've ever spent on myself. I know money is tight for you right now but it's a great investment in your future success. At least it has been for me. If you like the free version, don't wait too long to buy the downloadable because you have to start over with your custom foods - it won't let you transfer from the free version :-( The free version will not store your portions on your custom foods so keep a cheat sheet with your portions so you won't have to figure it out every time you log your food! That's the biggest fault I found with the free version. The downloadable version also has LOTS more features. It's worth the $. I heard from my band doctor that SlimFast isn't a very good protein drink - has too many carbs or fat or something - I don't remember. I used Isopure which you can get in GNC. It gives you 40g of protein with zero carbs in a 20 oz bottle. It's not GREAT tasting but it's not horrible either (the blue one tastes the best IMO). Watch out because some of the flavor DO HAVE CARBS. I also use Body Fortress protein powder you can get from Wal-Mart. I use the vanilla flavor, 2 scoops mixed with 1 1/2 cups of fat free milk, 3 tablespoons of sf ff chocolate pudding and 1 tablespoon of reduced fat peanut butter. It tastes like drinking a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup! Yum. Having said that, this mixture is pretty high in carbs and fat so I alternated days with this and the Isopure. I lost 8 pounds in the 7 days before surgery using this liquid diet. I hear good things about Unjury unflavored protein powder too. Good luck with your weight loss journey - I'm sure you'll succeed. You sound like a very strong woman to me. Most importantly, remember you're not alone. Come to LBT anytime and there will always be someone to offer you support when you need it.

Hi whitezgirl, You're almost certainly fine. I'm not a doctor or I'd say that with certainty! Lot's and lot's of people don't get restriction with their first fill OR it takes a couple (up to four I've heard) weeks until the fill "kicks in". I'm one of the lucky (?) ones and have had restriction from just the band and haven't had to have a fill yet. Here's the thing, I think you're misunderstanding how your band works. You don't 'stretch out' a fill. When the doctor adds saline to your band, it fills up like a balloon that's been wrapped around the top of your stomach creating a small pouch. Picture it as one of those long thin balloons that clowns use to make balloon animals, tied around the upper part of your stomach. That's an oversimplification but it gives a pretty accurate idea of how the band works. Adding saline to the balloon portion of the band squeezes the opening (called a stoma) between the pouch and the rest of your stomach. This means that the food you eat sits in the pouch making you feel full on a smaller amount of food and slowly falling through the stoma into your stomach where it is digested as normal. This is also why you shouldn't drink with your meal - if you drink it washes the food through the stoma and you feel hungry sooner than you should. As you lose weight, your stomach also loses weight (size) making the stoma bigger and allowing more food to fall through more easily. As this happens you get hungry sooner and your weight loss slows down or stops, you go back to your doctor and get more saline in the band, the stoma is smaller again, you eat less, your weight loss picks up again. You repeat the process until you reach your goal weight. yay! The reason you shouldn't eat solids following a fill is that the process of filling your band irritates your stomach and can cause swelling. The swelling makes your stoma smaller and increases your risk of PBing which increases your risk of slippage. You should go to a liquid diet following a fill to give any swelling around your band time to subside. Some doctors say a liquid diet for 24 hours, some say 3 days, some say a week. Whatever your doctor recommends is what you should go with. I had my first PB last night and it wasn't pleasant and I really don't want to go through it again. Trust me on this one! lol I don't think you've done any harm, but you should probably call your doctor and see what they recommend. You should probably be careful with your food for the next few weeks too, just because a fill can 'sneak up on you' or so I understand. Another thing to know is that doctors are different in the amount of fill they give their patients. Some doctors will only give .5 saline fills until their patients reach restriction. Some doctors give more aggressive fills, I've heard of up to 2.4 on a first fill! That's a huge difference and their patient's reactions are very different I'm sure. If your doctor only gave a small fill, I would think swelling would be reduced, but so will restriction. I hope this was helpful information and I hope it wasn't too preachy or too much information you already knew. If it was, I apologize and justify it (at least to myself lol) by saying that maybe it will help anyone else reading this post that didn't get the full info from their doctor. Good luck on your weight loss journey and please come back and tell us when you do get restriction.

If it's a CAPSULE you can soak it for a few minutes - when it gets a saggy, overrripe-grape look to it you'll be able to swallow it down no problem. I learned this trick from my band doctor who has a band himself! Thanks Dr. Rumbaut.

How wonderful you must feel! Congratulations!

I bought the pc version of FitDay and it's a lot better than the freeby version. With the free version the food log doesn't keep the portions when you create custom foods - the downloadable does. The download version has A LOT MORE types of reports - it'll give you more ways to see your patterns. You can set a goal weight date peramiter and FitDay will tell you exactly how many calories you need to restrict to reach that goal by that date. It logs what you eat, who you eat with, what your moods are, food triggers, lots of stuff. It has a place to log your activities, which can also be customized to your daily routine. It's been a while since I used the free version so I'm having a hard time remembering all the differences. The main difference, besides all the different reports, is the custom foods section. You can put all the ingredients to your favorite dish and then click on that one dish instead of having to put each thing in. You can also change the portion size of a dish or food item and the download version will recalulate calories, fat, protein, carbs, nutrients. FitDay has made a big difference in how I eat. I actually plan my meals so I'll be within my caloric limits to maximize weight loss. I can 'cheat' at any given time and see exactly what I need to do to minimize that cheat. In short - I love it. The downloadable version of FitDay was the best $20 I've ever invested in myself. Much more useful than the $2000 on hypnosis! What was I thinking?