Jodi_620

I was on two weeks liquids then two weeks mushies before I moved to soft foods-then solids. I don't know when Munequita was banded, there is not mention of that. But it appears based on doctors orders Munequita is to follow the soft foods stage right now. My reply was only to answer the OP's question on how much and how often to eat. But doctors do vary on what should be eaten how soon.

teacherica, After a fill I go have liquids the rest of that day and the next day then go to soft foods for two days then back to solid food on day 4. If I can't get solids down then I know I am too tight. I might wait it out for a couple days to see if it corrects itself but I wouldn't go too long. You should go see your doctor. Any time you are too tight you should have it corrected ASAP. If the doctor is not available right away then schedule an appointment to see him. Being too tight can cause slippage or erosion. My doctor would schedule a fill appointment and do a fluoro just to make sure everything looks good. He does fluoro every six months or so but also when anything out of the ordinary like discomfort or sudden loss of restriction happens. You probably just need a fill but I would have the band looked at too.

You are welcome Carolyn. Honestly, I don't use shakes anymore and never used powders. I eat high protein foods like eggbeaters with meat for Breakfast and lean meats, Beans and dairy for lunch and dinner. I feel like that is the healthier way to go. I don't care to drink those processed canned shakes too often. But I did supplement between meals during the height of the hair loss. I bought the Worldwide Pure Protein Shakes. They are dairy based and taste a little better. They have 35 G of protein per shake and the sugar content is not too high. You can get them at Vitamin Shoppe if you have one local, they also have a website: Pure Protein Shake Frost Choco by Worldwide Sport - VitaminShoppe.com I would sip on one of these between breakfast and lunch. I just take the Flintstone chewable daily vitamins. I tolerate them well. For Calcium I take the Viactive chews and they are like a daily treat to me (chocolate is good but my fav. is caramel).

cee gave some great advice. I would add, make sure you are giving yourself enough time to heal. I listened to people at the seminar and on this site that said they bounced back from surgery and were shopping the same day or the next day and back to full duty at work in a couple days. Having a high tolerance for pain I thought for sure that I would enjoy the same luck. It took me almost a full week to be able to go back to work and I still had to do two 1/2 days. It took me 1 1/2 week to be able to lie in bed. Don't get me wrong, I can't begin to relay how very much it all was worth it. But I think that it would have helped if I had been better prepared and not overly confident about recovery. That is the only "unknown" there was for me.

This is the beginning of your learning process. Take very tiny bites, chew well, give the food time to go down before you take your next bite. It should take you 20-30 minutes to finish a meal. I was told to eat as soon as possible in the morning. Wait a minimum of 4 hours for lunch and the same for dinner. The idea is to eat until you are satisfied but not too full. So of course, it will be a learning process. Start out by measuring 3/4 cup of food. Eat it as directed above. Note how you feel and how long it takes until you are hungry again. If you are still hungry or get hungry soon after (tummy rumbling hungry), add a little more for your next meal. If you feel the food in your chest or feel uncomfortable then eat less for the next meal. Understand that since you probably have not had a fill yet, you will be relying on some willpower to keep from eating too much. Eventually, once you get a couple fills, you want to get to the point where you can eat a fixed amount of food three meals per day and stay satisfied at least four hours before you take your next meal and of course are losing weight.

Pain in the abdominal area for the first 4-6 weeks is normal. Just take it easy, don't overuse your ab muscles and don't do any heavy lifting.

I agree with others. You need an unfill. The idea is to get to the point where you can eat real food comfortably, stay satisfied and lose weight. Sometimes it takes some tweaking with fills to get you to that point but you should never be sick or unable to take in proper nutrition. You should be able to tolerate solid foods. It is more natural, it will fill you up better and keep you full longer. You should NOT be getting sick on solids. My docotor didn't tell me that I have to eat "X" amount of food. Only to eat when hungry and stop when satisfied. I followed that guideline and based on that we guaged my hunger and weight loss and fills were done accordingly. I don't measure but I know that I have been eating more than 1/4 cup per meal since being on solids. My band and pouch are checked regularly and they are fine and my weight loss has been steady.

Yes, you both need fills.

No reason why you shouldn't be able to, are they large pills?

Couldn't agree with you more Plain...

I understand exactly how you feel but just remember, there are a lot of us out here who are living proof that it can be done. I can't tell you how many times during that month that I whined "I just can't wait to chew again". I dreamed of which foods I would eat in the mushy stage. Not sure if you've tried it or if it is allowed, but popsicles were considered liquid for me. I would bite and chew them and it did help me mentally. One week down and one to go!... You can do this, if I did it anyone can and it is so rewarding when you sucessfully get to that last day!

I felt restriction with each fill. The first didn't give me much restriction The second and Third gave me temporary restriction. Then I lost weight rapidly and the band got loose again. The fourth gave me even more restriction than the first three and lasted a couple months I am going on three months with the Fifth fill, no sign of needing another.

It probably will be the most painful part in healing but once you are healed you should rarely feel it inside you. Sometimes if I twist my body in a weird way I will feel a faint pinching and now that I have lost the weight I can easily feel it with my fingers but you should generally feel no discomfort.

It depends. I had an extremely hard time with the pre-op diet. I was starving, moody, had headaches and even cried a couple times. But I did stick with it and I consider myself to be a success with the band. It is okay to be having a hard time at it...it is NOT okay to give in.

For me it all depends on my restriction. I can swallow most smaller round pills. So, for pain relievers I go for tablets. The capsuls and caplets go down most of the time but if I am tight like just after a fill, I avoid them. Gel caps slide down better than the coated capsuls/caplets. I find that breaking a caplet before swallowing is even harder to get down, the uncoated broken edge gets stuck. I get chewable vitamins because they go down easily and so I am more likely to keep up with them.

Is your port that high?

I donated them to Goodwill, first my size 18's, then later my size 14-16's, then a third load of size 10-12's. It was a huge tax deduction! Add the medical deduction I was able to claim this time (adding up all our regular doctor visits, prescriptions, plus my share of surgery costs helped us be elligible for that deduction) and my tax return is going to be a good one for a change, first time in years that they will be paying me!

Without actually being able to see you it is hard to know for sure but it sounds like the sensation is happening in the lower part of your esophagus or the diaphragm. The band would be just below and to the left (your left) and behind your liver. At any rate, getting a new style bra probably would help but I would mention the discomfort to the doctor, you can point it out to him/her and they can verify where the pain is coming from and why. Not sure of your size, I was a 40DD when I started out and I wore a wireless minimizer soft cup bra (still do sometimes) although with weight loss, my size went down a little (36D) and the girls have are hanging a little lower so I've recently started to wear underwires for some lift, and with no discomfort. Hopefully I'll be able to get them reduced and lifted someday.

Your stats are very close to what mine were: 39 yo female 5'4", 234 pounds. Do I miss food? Not exactly. There is really not much that I can't have now that I couldn't before, I just eat less. There are a few items I miss like pizza from a particular local restaraunt that doesn't offer thin crust or having a beer or two when DH and I go to a hockey game or a Redskins game (besides Water, there is little I can have at events like that). I have to plan ahead when we eat out, there are just a few restaraunts that no longer work for me (for example, one we went to only serves Pasta and bread-like items-foods I avoid). Sometimes when we are having a particularly delicious meal I fill up quickly but wish I could eat more. Sometimes (rarely now) I get in a rush and eat too fast then get stuck which ruins my entire meal. But none these incoveniences make me sorry I got the band. You adjust. The way I feel now far outweighs anything mentioned above. I had a lot of food addictions. Ate fast food and sweets a lot. Once I started my pre-op diet and cut out all the processed foods and white carbs I kept that stuff out of my diet. It was hard at first but once I got it out of my system for a few days it got easier and 10 months later I rarely miss these foods. Having the band keeps the hunger away and forces me to eat my food properly. All of this made it much easier for me to deal with the self-control issues.

Allow the abdominal area to heal for six weeks before you do anything too strenuous (heavy lifting or major abdominal exercise). Otherwise, being active as soon as possible is best. Just listen to your body, if you feel pain or pulling stop what you are doing.

I was diagnosed with PCOS six years ago. I was put on Metformin 2000MG which helped control it. Then when I was banded, I couldn't swallow the pills so I stopped taking them and decided I would talk to my doctor about an alternative at my next appointment. During this time all of my PCOS symptoms started going away and blood tests a couple months after surgery showed no sign of PCOS, this was even before I lost a good deal of weight! My advice: 1.) If you are not doing so, see an Endocrinologist or a Reproductive Endocrinologist for treatment, they specialize in this area. 2.) Watch your processed carbs. PCOS is a form of insulin resistance. Cutting out white flour, Pasta, rice and starchy veggies (potato, corn, etc) will go a long way to help get it under control. 3.) Don't let your doctor treat it with birth control pills alone. That is like a band-aid treatment. Sure it may force your body to start having cycles but it does not treat the underlying problem-insulin resistance. Insulin Sensitizing drugs work much better (Metformin/Glucophage). 4.) Get the condition under control with weight loss and/or Medication and there is no reason why you can't conceive.

I may be experiencing Gall Bladder issues now, I go in for an abdominal scan on Thursday. I had two gall bladder attacks years ago and they were at least a year apart and the pain was unbelievable. What I am experiencing now is nowhere near what I had then. For the past several months I have been getting this sensation more like a stitch in my side (that feeling you get when you run too soon after eating). It isn't really painful, just annoying. I can't really tie it in with eating or activity. At first it happened for 30 minutes once or twice a week but lately it has been several times a day. I swear, when I move a certain way I can actually feel something shift in there. I mentioned all this to the surgeons assistant at my last fill appointment and he didn't seem to think it was gallbladder. Comparing this to the pain of my previous gallbladder attacks, I agreed. He decided it was probably musculoskeletal and we should just watch it. Last week I went to my family doctor and decided to mention it to him. He seemed pretty confident that it is gallbladder and ordered an abdominal ultrasound...so I guess we will see. With the rapid weight loss and my family history (I think I am the only remaining adult in my family who still has theirs), it wouldn't surprise me if they find mine needs to come out.

I am not sure which area the pain is coming from. The part of the bra that goes around you should be being supported by your ribcage. Your band is lower (toward the left just below the ribcage and behind your liver). Where was your port inserted? Mine is near the belly button but I have read that some surgeons put them in higher.

My surgeon didn't require it but I know that some insurance companies do. It will be hard but worth it in the end.

Sounds like it may be gas in the esophagus causing the pain. I had something similar but was unable to actually burp properly...the episodes of pain lasted about a week. Try not to drink too much too fast, just take small sips. I started to get hungry after several days. It is hard, but once you start taking in more solid food you will feel a better. Take it one day at a time!