lellow

I had a similar story where it took me a long time to get my dr to believe that my band was still leaking. First time, he replaced the port and tubing, but I kept going back saying I had no restriction, and after irrefutable proof that saline was disappearing from my band, he did another port replacement surgery, but this time he didn't replace anything because he couldn't detect a leak. He told me it was just my band being 'finicky'. Fast forward a few months and countless fills and back and forth, I went through a time of feeling like I should just give up hope, I finally decided to go see him aagain and it was his wife who saw me. Because it had been months since I last saw them she could not deny that I'd lost over 3cc from my band in that time. So I then was given the opportunity to revise, either to another band or to a sleeve. I've decided to roll the dice with the band again because I had incredible success with it, and I'm looking for something to help me maintain and not lose anymore. Plus my issues were, like you, with my dr (who bless him, was NOT being malicious in not believing me) and not the band. I'm happy with my decision and feel like for the first time in almost 2 years I'm almost at my green zone again but wanted you to know I feel your pain and completely understand your decision. I wish you all the best for your sleeved life!

My last band took a lot of fills to get me into the green zone. 8.5cc in a 10 cc band, and when I was leaking, it got up as high as 10cc. With my first band, at 6cc, I couldn't even feel my band. And yet here I am now, at 6cc again with a new band, placed by a different dr, and I feel like I'm in the green zone. Maybe because of my history I keep expecting it to disappear but it's been 4 days since my fill and I still feel like I can't eat more than a couple of poached eggs tops. I actually think it's not swollen or anything anymore, and I'm either at the green zone or close to it. Also my hunger is almost completely gone, which is also another sign for me. After 15 months of my band leaking, this feels almost too good to be true.

I love food but I don't love eating, if that makes sense. I don't think I used to be a foodie pre-band coz I ate so much rubbish. Once I could only eat so little I wanted the food to be AMAZING, otherwise I'd feel like I wasted the small amount of space I had. So I eat good food but for the enjoyment of the taste but not to get full. Funnily enough though by wanting premium food I actually ate nutritionally better food than when I could eat anything I liked.

Anxiety is SO normal. I think you wouldn't be human if you didn't get anxious. But it's exciting too! Best wishes to the both of you.

The fact is, most people don't post if they don't have a reason to. Posters in this forum tend to fall into the following categories: 1) people investigating the band 2) people who have just had the band 3) people who are in the process of losing weight 4) people who have complications 5) people who have lost the weight, have no issues with the band and now no longer require support from others That last group is probably the smallest group here on lapbandtalk. I hazard a guess they make up less than 5% of the whole forum. But outside of the forum, they would make up the majority of lapbanders, conservatively speaking. So this forum is NO true representation of the success of the lapband. If you want that, you need to find real statistics regarding the band's success.

You can take the band out once you've lost the weight but chances are without the band you will gain it back. So mostly you keep it at the right fill level and you keep it in to help you maintain your weight loss.

Me either. Maybe they think me being in Australia is too far away? I don't have anyone on a block list either. Never had call to.

If I'm not yet in the green zone, then I go back for fills every 3 weeks or so until I get to that point. Once you're in the green zone, you really don't have to go back except once or twice a year for check-ups. When I was maintaining, I saw my dr 6 times in 3 years and some of those times I'd get a teeny tiny top-up fill, but really, there was very little maintenance when I was in the green zone and lost the weight.

See, unlike a new bander, I know how good the green zone is to me. It's like those first few weeks after surgery when you don't feel hungry, have no desire to eat, can't imagine eating. That's what my green zone is like. But I also know it took ages to get there the first time. I got to 8.5cc in a 10cc band to get to that point. At 4cc, which is what I have in my band now, I felt nothing. I feel nothing now. I know my surgeon doesn't want to go too fast with the fills. He put in 2cc the last fill and I know that's aggressive, and I understand that it's a sensible thing to do to go slowly. It's a new band, I may have a different green zone, so he doesn't want to just throw 7cc in like they did after my body lift. But it's killing me, the hunger. It's so freaking pervasive. And doesn't it now make complete sense that I used to be big? My boyfriend eats the same amount as me and 2 hours later I'm hungry while he's still coasting. This ISN'T my head. I know better. I lived in my green zone for 3 years. Unless I eat to the brim I'm going to be hungry 2 hours later. So I used to eat way too much to feel as 'full' as my boyfriend does and for as long as he does on half the food. In the green zone, I ate 1/3 what he eats and it lasted 4 hours at least. I'm eating healthy and am exercising to maintain my weight now but it's HARD. No wonder people fall off wagon. It's bloody miserable! It wasn't this hard before. This is why I love being banded. I know it works and works well once you have the right fill level in your band. I miss that feeling so much and I am hanging out to get there!

CG this post took me STRAIGHT back to that moment when I first crossed my legs. I hadn't been able to do it for 16 years before that moment. And in the years since I'd forgotten how damned excited I was at the time. Thank you for reminding me and congratulations!

Lol sorry! I'll explain! A lot of lapbanders find that they get a 'sign' that they're approaching satiety. Satiety is not the same as fullness, it's not the same feeling. And while non-banded people sometimes forget and they eat and eat and before they know it they're eaten too much because their tummies take time to catch up and send that message to their brain, the band sometimes gives you an indication that you're near the point of having had too much, and ignoring it won't make you 'too full' it actually may make you sick. That indication is called a 'soft stop'. And it's different for different people but there are some common ones. Hiccups, nose leaking (because the food is too high in your oesophagus) and shoulder pain are pretty common ones. You will hear the veterans talk about their soft stops a lot, because they have had bands long enough to recognise what they are.

You know what's the lie in all this? The lie is that you are going to be miserable after your surgery forever and long for foods that you will pine for. When I'm in the green zone I don't pine for food the way I did when I was heavy. And yet I will say I enjoy food SO much more now. I don't want to waste my tiny pouch on KFC or crappy junk food when there is salmon and truffles and lamb and lobster. I can only eat a little bit, I want to enjoy it, and I really really do. And the difference is, it's enjoyment and not binging. You have a whole different life ahead of you. Look forward to it!

Lapbandster, I spoke to my dr on Friday and even the band I got as a replacement is different to the one I got 5 years ago. I didn't get restriction with that band until I was 8.5cc and now because the band is different and placed by a different surgeon, I think I may be in my green zone already at 6cc. My port is WAY smaller and deeper in, and I have a new soft stop (hiccups, where my nose used to leak). Banding is not an exact science and you roll the dice whenever you chose to do something, whether it's get weight loss surgery or walk across the road. I think risk and complications need to be taken in context.

Honestly this topic can't die a natural death and it should. I have had band complications, and I take exception to people saying band complications are only possible from non compliance. That's not true, complications are possible even if you get a freakin' pedicure. I should know, I broke my foot slipping on Water while getting a pedicure. What annoys me is this: If you have a complication and it's your fault, own it. If it wasn't your fault, I'm so sorry you're going through it, but it is not the norm and there are many people for whom the band is a godsend. I completely understand bitterness and regret when you experience a complication that impacts the quality of your life, but please don't tell me I'm an idiot because I'd get a band anyway. I have no doubts that anyone would regret something that ended up hurting them, but it's something else to expect everyone to make your regrets theirs too. I went into this believing that I would experience some complication in the lifetime of my band. I hoped it wouldn't be debilitating. I prayed I'd be the 95% of people who didn't have complications, and I got it done. Because if someone said to me, you have a 95% chance of winning the $5 million lottery if you buy a lottery ticket but a 5% chance of losing half of everything you own, I'd buy the damned ticket coz that sounds like pretty damned good odds to me. Complications suck. I should know. I come here talking about my complications to get support not to bash people's choices. And if you think you're doing it to 'spare someone else the pain' look at your motivations again. Because this surgery saves more people than it hurts. And that's a fact that cannot be disputed.

Well I'm booked in for the 8th July for those three areas. He thinks I won't ever have a wasp waist but he can make it look a little more 'athletic'. I originally booked it for the 13th June but my boyfriend really wasn't happy about me doing it so soon after band replacement so I pushed it back a few weeks.

Failing at losing weight was what ALL of us were good at. So of course when we go into this, we almost expect to fail because that's all we've ever known. I psyched myself into believing that failure wasn't an option. That's why, unlike most banders, I told everyone about my upcoming surgery. Because I acted like, from the very first day, that it was going to be a roaring success, and even though I spent a lot of time having to convince myself most of all, I would rather spend my energy doing that than succumb to the fear of failure. I have talked to and made friends with SO many people on this site who all started out thinking they might fail, and along the way, resolving that they wouldn't. That's all it took. Tell yourself you will not fail. Start telling yourself from now. And when we see you in a year, you will have succeeded.

pineapple juice works for me every time when my stoma is irritated. It's my go-to because you can buy it from regular shops (well you can here in Australia) so if I get an unexpected stuck episode, even my partner knows to run to the shops and get me pineapple juice. If you can get some, try it. Slow, small sips. And cold if you can take it.

Yes this place can definitely be a downer. And sometimes I come back to give perspective. I liked my band enough to get it not once, but twice. But my sort of voice will be in minority because if your band is working, and everything is going well, why would you post in the forum about it? It's like saying 'yeah, today I breathed, same as yesterday, same as the day before'. There is only so many times you can answer the same question, only so much support you can give when you don't need support yourself. I have taken hiatuses from this site that have lasted a year or more. So I guess what I'm saying is, this site needs to be taken in context, Forums are where people go to discuss things, and learn, and if the band is working, there kinda isn't much to discuss or learn anymore.

Banded 5 years ago, lost 130% of my weight, maintained easily then sprung a leak 15 months ago, had two port revisions tgat didn't resolve the leak, gained some weight, lost a little on my own, got a band replacement 1 month ago and now hoping to get to the green zone again so I don't have to work so hard to maintain.

I have a few tattoos An angel on my left arm, an armband on that same arm, a rosary on the forearm, a bull on the inner wrist. An angel baby coming out of an egg on my right arm, Bealtes lyrics on my fore arm, a memorial tattoo for a friend on my inner wrist. A pheonix on my back, 13 stars on the back of my neck, a unicorn on my left shoulder blade, a wreath of vines around my hips that branch up to 4 lilies on my tummy, two cardinals (the bird not the religious person) on each side of my body up near my ribs and cherry blossoms on my left shoulder. The 7 deadly sins on my right thigh, 4 flowers on my right calf, my kids names on my left ankle, and a Scottish saying on my left foot. And yesterday I got a mermaid covering my whole outer left thigh. It's only half done (I need another 1, maybe 2 sessions to finish her) but I already love her.