lellow

I've been unfilled three times, once for my body lift and twice for port revision surgery, and each time, the restriction level to get to my 'sweet spot' changed. I have needed increasingly higher levels of fill to achieve the same restriction. Mind you, even people who have never been unfilled but who have had the band for a few years start to find that they move out of the 'green zone' and then have difficulty finding it again. But don't be alarmed that you're up to 5cc. I currently have 9cc in my 10cc band, and have had 10cc in it before. You have some room yet to find the right level of restriction again.

No real lssues with my band until it started leaking. Then realising that it's still a new science in a lot of ways and it's kind hit and miss sometimes. I have an issue with the band potentially (and likely) having a 'use-by' date but I got a breast augmentation understanding that it would not last my lifetime so I'm learning to see this as similar. I will use it while it's there to be used, and if it screws up, I'll fix it if I can, and if I can't I'll look for something else that will work in a similar way. Life doesn't have any guarantees and I expect that this won't either. And I'm getting better with accepting that.

I can run along with my 6yo son, and play soccer with him. My 23yo daughter and I share clothes. I can walk for hours with my partner, and he and I went hiking in New Zealand, and he got winded before me. I also realise that big and healthy is better than skinny and living off cigarettes and coffee. I have a healthier relationship with food than I have had in my entire life.

Yes, going under scares me. I am angry that I'm looking at having to go through that, and the pain, and the healing all over again. But losing my ability to run, or swim, or travel scares me more. I've discovered a whole new life after losing the weight and I don't want to lose it.

The sad thing is that I don't think there are many veteran bandsters without complications around. I know when I wasn't having trouble with my band, I didn't come to this forum anymore. You tend to set and forget, and you go on to live life in your 'new' normal. I came back because I'm having complications. That's when I need support so I'm back looking for it. Mind you that's a generalisation based on my own experience but I don't think I'm far off the mark. I guess what I'm saying is that you probably wouldn't get a true representation of long term bandsters on a site like this.

Depends on where the leak is. My dr believed that because it was a slow leak it was in my tubing and port. He fixed that the first time (and there was a visible leak in the tubing) and I am still leaking. So now he's assuming it could be anywhere so it will probably mean a whole band replacement.

I kept losing restriction and kept reporting it to my dr. And when they took the fluid out I'd lost fluid out of my band. I can't physically feel the leak but I feel it in that I can't hold any restriction.

I've had two port revisions, but only once was the port and tubing actually replaced. Both times I needed a week off work due to the swelling associated with the operation. But it wasn't as bad as the lapband op itself. I had a fair bit of swelling in my tummy (I called it my Alien Baby Belly) and you can see how I reacted in my gallery. I don't know if this is typical though. My dr also did the replacement via a 2 inch incision in the middle of my tummy through my old body lift scar. That may have accounted for the extra trauma, but I appreciate not having extra scars. Though I'm now looking at full band replacement (as my leak is still there) so I may not be so lucky as to avoid substantial scars the next time. Ports are usually replaced due to a leak. That's the most common reason.

My dr set my goal as a BMI of 27. I got to a BMI of 21 and he believed that it was too low and was mentioning unfilling a little. I actually made a concerted effort to gain weight after that and settled on a BMI of 23. I'm now at a BMI of 27 again (due to a persistent leak) and my new dr has said that he doesn't want me to lose any weight, just not have to work so hard to maintain. He thinks my current weight is healthy for me (I'm a size 8 US now). I don't expect that he will continue to fill me to achieve weight loss, nor do I expect him to. But it is my intention that with a functioning band, that I will get enough of a boost to get back to a BMI of 23 again. I guess what I'm saying is if your dr believes you've hit your ideal weight, and he's anything like my dr, he won't fill you again until it is obvious that you're really struggling to maintain the weight. If you want to lose more, it'll be up to you to do that.

As are you! Right now I feel like I'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth! But thank you, sweetness, that made my day!

Hi Neenband, I saw you post in the old-timers thread but I thought I'd reply here. I had great success with the band. I lost a substantial amount of weight with it, it stopped me being hungry and I lived off very little food and was quite happy with that. But 13 months ago, the band started leaking and despite two operations to fix it, but I'm still losing Fluid from it. I won't lie. I was feeling very disheartened about it all and very disillusioned about the band. While I know that a full replacement of the band is next (or revision to sleeve) I felt like, yet again, it would lead to nothing. But I figure I have to try again. I want to try again. Even though after each op I swelled up like a balloon and was in pain for weeks. I'd rather try again then not have it there at all. That's just me.

Thanks jenc87, but I guess being older means I actually understand where the not-so-nice part of her is coming from. Jealousy is an awful thing for anyone to feel. I know coz I was jealous of her being so skinny for years. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Coz even though I've gained, I'm still thinner than her now. That's got to be a kick in the teeth, dontcha think?

After 3 years of band success, my band started leaking and I started gaining weight. My sister started calling me Miss Piggy, I kid you not. She took my weight loss the hardest - I used to be the fat sister, and suddenly guys were walking past her to talk to me. It was hard for her to take, so she was very excited when I started to struggle with my weight again. Funnily enough it was also her that made me take stock after 7 months of weight gain and make the decision not to gain another lb. I have struggled but have managed not to gain anymore for 4 months, and in the last few weeks I've started losing again, despite a malfunctioning band. I also realise more than ever now that it's her insecurity that makes her this way, and I can't help but feel a little sorry for her!

It took me several fills before I really felt any restriction. A fill would make me feel 'tight' for a day or two and then it would disappear. Wasn't til I had about 6cc before I got my first stuck episode. I still could eat a fair amount between fills. I finally got to the green zone at 8.5cc in a 10cc band. I ate according the the band rules mostly in that I ate slowly, ate only a small serving and stopped after I finished my serving. I used to take out a small serving and then halve it and put one half in the fridge. I told myself if I was still really hungry after 30 mins I could go back for more. I only went back once in all the time I did that (coz it takes about 10 mins normally to stop feeling hungry, and longer if you have a band). That was a great tip that was told to me that worked for me, so consider this me passing it on. It has worked well for friends who aren't banded either. The good news is that for the majority of banders, the time WILL come where you get enough restriction in your band to only be able to eat a small amount and be satisfied for hours. If it works like it should, it should also stop you feeling hungry most of the time. When that will happen is different for every bander, though. Also I remember when I first got banded, my tummy made these AWFUL rumbling sounds all day. I figure it was because for 20 years it was used to being filled to the brim and it was grumbling at the huge reduction in food. But after 6 months or so, it settled and it nearly never growled. It got used to be being 'drip fed' food from the above all day, I guess!

I know it's different in the US but here I found that a lot of places wanted to charge me a significant amount to 'change' into their care when I moved states. I just kept calling around until I found someone who didn't do that, and he happened to be one of the most experiences lapband surgeons around, lucky for me. I think the thing about emergency is that unless they have people there trained to deal with the lapband, you will find it an incredibly frustrating experience. I once spent 6 hours in agony while they waited for the only registrar in the hospital who knew anything about lapbands to answer the phone and give them instructions. In the end, they called my surgeon at his home. Then two interns pricked and poked me what felt like 1000 times to actually find the port and withdraw the one measly cc it took to give me relief. If you have complications then sure they will look after you as best they can, but did your dr say that emergency would do fills for you? Coz I don't think that they do (hey, I might be wrong) My suggestion is keep looking until you find someone close to you who will take you for aftercare. Before you do your surgery.

When I wasn't holding down my saliva, I was pretty much throwing frothy, colorless liquid back up every 10 - 15 mins for 24 hours. You can't miss it if that's what you're doing. Take it easy, corilyn, and I hope you feel better soon.

Are you holding down your own saliva? If not, go get an unfill asap. Just 24 hours of not being able to swallow your own saliva can cause significant and dangerous dehydration. If you can hold down your own saliva then it might be that you drank the gatorade too fast, it made you PB and now it's caused your stoma to swell. What worked for me was sipping on pineapple juice (for some reason this would 'sit' even if water or hot tea didn't) and not doing anything to throw up again and usually it settled enough to have mushies within 24 hours. If you keep pbing, you're going to keep irritating the stoma, so slow and steady. If you don't feel any better tomorrow despite not pbing anymore, then in my opinion, you're over-tight and will need an unfill.

The first time I was overfilled, he put 2cc in at once and took me to 9cc in my 10cc band. I also think I had food poisoning from something I ate earlier in the day because I already felt off. I ended up in hospital the next day and had to be put on a drip because I'd thrown up every 15 mins for over 24 hours and was very dehydrated. They unfilled me in emergency by 1cc as per my dr's instructions and I got immediate relief. The second time he filled me to 10cc and again I starting throwing up my own spit. So I went back in the next morning and got him to take a cc out and again, immediate relief. The last time I saw him 4 months ago, he pushed it to 10cc again and this time, I didn't have the same over-fill reaction. And it took less than a month to feel zero restriction again. Last week they found I only had 6cc in my band. She put another 2cc in to bring it to 8cc but really, that did nothing. I'm hoping to go back on Monday to get her to put another cc in (my surgeon is currently away), just to help with the hunger until I manage to actually see my surgeon. I'm soooo sick of the yo-yo so I feel you.

The diameter of my ponytail halved in the first year. But about 6 months in, I started getting little 'baby hair' appearing around my hairline and 4 years out my hair was back to normal.

5 years out and I think my struggle with food got easier as I went along. I cheated with 'bad' foods more in the beginning but as I went along, I lost a lot of that 'connection' with the foods I loved and they lost that power, as you say. So think of this episode as a learning experience. You succumbed, you went back and you realised it wasn't the temptation your head made it out to be. I remember the first time I geniunely wanted a piece of salmon over KFC. I knew then that KFC had lost it's temptation status for me, and I actually wanted to chose good food because, being able to eat so little, I craved quality food that would give me the right energy instead of empty calories. Even now, when my band isn't working and I'm struggling with actual hunger, I don't want KFC. Or soda. That makes it sooo much easier that having to be 'strong' in order to maintain discipline against food temptations. Better to learn that the bad foods no longer tempt you than having to fight that head hunger. Does that make sense?

it's awful to hear that someone else is going through it. Did you find you gained weight while the band was leaking? The only times I was too tight in the last 12 months was when he tried filling me right up to try to 'test' the band. Both times I had to have an unfill the next day because I wasn't even able to hold down my own saliva. It proved, I guess, that I could get over-tight if he pushed it too far too fast. But aside from those two days, I've not really had restriction that's lasted more than a week after a fill before I could eat anything I wanted again. I am pretty sure I'm going to be asking for a band replacement instead of a revision to a sleeve, so am going a different route from you. I hope both of us manage to get some peace from what we're choosing. Good luck.

Even at my thinnest (BMI of 21) I didn't have a space between my thighs. Luckily I don't like that look anyway so I wasn't too bothered but we can have particularly stubborn areas that remain 'fatter' than anywhere else. Mine was my thighs and my mid-section (I looked very straight up and down, rather than have a small waist, no matter how much I lost). You could see my ribs easily but my thighs remained nice and plump. I have a friend who is still round in the middle despite her weight loss but man she has legs to die for!

I can't believe you've gone a whole month on just liquids. I think it's incredibly important you see a dr right now. Throwing everything up could be a slip.