lellow

I didn't have the port tubing come undone but I've recently had port revision for a leak. So shoot me any questions you have. And yes it's ridiculous that he didn't listen to you the last time, but I guess they assume it will get better and only get concerned when it doesn't. I wish you all the luck with your revision and I hope you get a working band again soon.

Just back (omg at the 90 min wait) and I still have a fair bit of Fluid around my port site. Normal, he says, it'll take a while to settle. If I develop a fever or am in pain, then come back. But it's likely Alien Baby Belly will be around for a little bit yet. He also asked about the last fill of 0.5cc and I said it had done nearly nothing, so he decided to go aggressively with this fill and pushed in 5cc (taking me to 10.5cc) then backed it off until I couldn't feel the tightness in my chest anymore. So it ended up being 8.5cc in total. I'm feeling it alright. I have lost all hunger and am struggling a little with Clear Liquids at the moment but I hope that will settle in the next day or so if I really baby it. If not I have another appt next Friday and he'll take some out then.

It's to shrink your liver and different drs have different views on how strict they will be with you. I was a low BMI patient (35 on surgery day) and I was told by my surgeon that I didn't need to do a wholly liquid diet as he didn't expect that I'd have an issue with a fatty liver. That's his risk to manage. But the way I see it iis f that's the person cutting you up you probably should listen to them as to what they'd like you to do to prepare for surgery. They want to optimal result for you so I reckon just do your part to enable that too.

Hey all, I've been busy, been reading but not posting. Nothing much to report here. I hear about restriction and tightness from some of you and I'm like 'I can't even remember what that's like!'. I have 5.5cc in and I have some 'tightness' if I eat rice too fast but aside from that, still not a heck of a lot. I've still got swelling issues from the port revision, and my belly seems to go up and down with no reason. I've got another appt with my surgeon on Friday and I'm hoping for some reassurance and another fill, because frustration for me is starting to peak. I am really struggling with food and hunger at the moment and I really hate it. And with the swelling, exercising is difficult so it means my scales are starting to creep up, and that's always depressing. It's only 2-3lbs but it feels like a slippery slope to me. I'm not eating much compared to other people but more than I usually eat, and I'm not exercising, and this is the result. Sigh. Ok gonna take my grumpy self off back to work now...

Heating pads are THE BEST for shoulder pain. And the gassiness in your tummy (that causes the painful burps) can be helped with peppermint tea. I thought my lapband surgery wasn't too bad, but I just had port revision and that has kicked my butt, and it feels like I'm never going to feel normal again. But I know it's not true. You do heal, you do feel better after a while. So just take it one day at a time. Pretty soon, you'll look back and you'd have had your band 3 years, like me.

I had a healthcheck for work yesterday and it turns out I'm the healthiest person in my company of 80 people. My blood sugar levels, my blood pressure, my cholesterol, everything, is perfect. I can't imagine what those would have been 5 years ago before my lapband surgery. And when the nurse practitioner asked me what I ate and I described my regular day's worth of food to her, she almost fell over. She asked me how I possibly could eat that little and how I even had enough energy with so little food. She then started saying that I surely must not be getting enough nutrition from what I ate. Well, apparently not, because I aced the healthcheck, and my current lifestyle makes me healthier than 79 other people in my office. The proof is in the pudding. And it absolutely highlights the fact that I actually have to eat FAR FAR less than a 'regular' person to be this thin. And I exercise more than most people to be this fit. So for anyone who tells me all I needed was to eat less and move more, I say, you know what? Until I got my lapband that didn't work. Because I've lost the weight now with the help of my band, so it obviously wasn't because I was a glutton or bone ass lazy. I just needed help with portions. And you can't argue with my success now, can you? So until you've been in my shoes, you can keep your uninformed, unecessary and, to be honest, rather freakin' ignorant comments to yourself.

My ex husband and my brother are both personal trainers. I have heard for years (as has my overweight younger brother) about how I should just exercise and eat less, and I'd lose weight. The thing is, it's not that I was ever too lazy to lose weight. I would lose, then I'd gain it all back. It was so depressing feeling so out of control. So I got the band. And I exercised and ate well, and I lost weight. And just as I lost most of my weight, I got 'restriction' with my band, and suddenly, without effort, I was maintaining the loss, and losing even more. I wanted to get to a BMI of 27, I got to a BMI (at one stage) of almost 20. That's a size 0 - 2. And being from Australia, I did not do any psych evals. We're not required to a lot of the time here to be approved my insurance. I got approved over the phone on my first call, just by telling them my weight, height and my family history of obesity related disease. Just because it isn't hard to get the surgery doesn't mean you can't do what needs to be done to make it work for you. If you want this, do it. Stick by your decision and work it. Lose the weight and change things. There are so few things you can control in life. Choose to control this.

I've maintained my weight loss the last almost 4 months with no restriction but I think if I lost the band I'd gain some back. Maybe not all but some. I fight hunger all the time. I had hoped the band would have helped re-wire my brain but it hasn't. Even now my tummy is growling. I couldn't even really remember what that felt like before when my band was still working. Knowing what I know about myself now if I ever lost the band I'd revise to some other WLS. But if you're doing it all on your own heidi then I get why you don't feel like the band is doing you any good. For me the band did a lot of it.

I had po I got my port and tubing replaced last Saturday and now, hopefully, the leak is a thing of the past! I was losing about 1cc a week from that leak, but the last time my dr checked all the Fluid he put in at surgery was still there. He put 4cc in my band at surgery and another 1cc a few days after, but I'm still miles away from being anywhere near restricted enough. So I'm in bandster hell all over again. I'm working not to gain but damn it's hard work!

See, the great thing about the band is this: if you can do all the right things to lose weight, you're likely going to succeed with the band. Why? Because it takes a while to get to restriction. I lost the majority of my weight while not in the green zone. I worked out, ate well and the weight moved. Like it did every single other time I dieted and exercised. But where I'd lose before, and then either get sick, or get busy, and fall off the 'wagon', with the lapband, falling off the wagon when you have restriction is pretty hard to do. It wasn't until my leak, and having zero restriction, that I've realised how much the band does for me. I am struggling now with hunger and working really hard NOT to gain. I hate how freakin' hard it is. The band made it easy. THAT'S why I have a band. That's why I want to keep my band. That's why I'm getting regular fills again now my leak is fixed. I want my hunger to go away, I want my band to help me maintain my weight without me obsessing about food and hunger like I have been this last few months. Because doing that forever, the obsessing, is not only tedious but is driving me mental. So yes you can lose the weight, but with the band I eat the equivelant of a 5 year old and never feel hungry when I'm in the green zone. That's how little I have to eat to be this thin. I know I personally couldn't do that for the rest of my life without the help of the band.

I have 5cc in a 10cc and have little to no restriction. I've had my band long enough to know that sometimes it's takes a while to get to the point where you have enough fill in to keep you satisfied for up to 4 hours and I'm definitely not there yet. I had my last fill a week ago and I'm going back this Friday. And I will go back every two weeks (if I can get an appt) until I achieve some restriction again.

I personally think it's ruder for someone to pretend that it'll be ok when you may be causing yourself real harm by going against your dr's orders. And you know what? It's not like I haven't done it myself (more than once) so I think I'm in the right place to tell someone who is cheating to stop doing it, for their own good. You're hungry? Hell, so were we ALL at that stage. It's not called bandster hell for nothing. Eating solids when you're not healed is like picking on a wound that's still raw. I'm NOT going to tell you it's ok. But if you still want to do it, who am I to tell you not to despite the advice you've been given. You own your own decisions, good or bad. I personally would rather someone was blunt and told me to stop doing something that may cause damage than tell me it's ok only to find out later that it made me need a revision. To me, support isn't all heart and flowers and lies to make you feel better. It's about telling you the truth so you know not to do it in case you cause yourself harm.

I was pretty good six weeks out, but I have to admit, I still had a few swelling issues even then. But if all you're doing is relaxing by the beach, how could you go wrong? It sounds awesome!

I got an unfill for my lower body lift but not my BA, so I think it depends on the surgeon. Though I did get unfilled for my body lift, between the pain of the op, the hospital food and just generally trying to recover, I did not gain weight. My body lift surgeon said he did not want me reacting to the anaesthesia and not be able to throw up if I needed to, so he wanted me unfilled. Plus he wanted me to be able to eat, as he thought that it facilitated healing. Maybe other surgeons aren't as conservative?

elcee and heidib, that's crazy, both of you. elcee, I hope it settled and you're ok now. Heidi, I hope a slight unfill helps you. I personally couldn't remember being so tight I couldn't hold anything down, so when mr dr put 8cc in just before my op and I could barely drink, it was a trippy feeling. I am now reluctant to ever get that tight again. I got sorta kinda stuck on rice last night. I did the chicken dance and it went through. But I only have 5cc in my band now, where I didn't even feel anything previously until I had at least 6cc. I seem to be feeling it faster this time around. Which is weird. Good, but weird.