RestlessMonkey

I think you're too tight. When you can't eat anything but liquids or "sliders" you have too much fill...go get a LITTLE taken out (sometimes .25 cc or so makes a HUGE difference) And Slimmap...slimeing usually (not always but usually) means you aren't doing the basics right...not chewing well, too big bites, eating too fast, etc. An occasional bout of slime and/or PB just means you didn't watch it...or you found a food you have trouble with. Doing it all the time, turning to soft foods etc, means you're too tight. So don't let an occasional "slime" episode throw you off; consider what might have caused it, see if you can correct it by behavior modification before you go get an unfill. It's so much to learn! Slimmap if you can't keep liquids down you ARE too tight, probably. If you can, give it a day or two. You are probably swollen from the fill and doing an all liquid day or so will give your stomach time to settle down. No liquids=dehydration as you know....bad thing! But you can go a day or two without eating; it won't hurt you.

As a student nurse I was taught "Pain is what the patient says it is". The flip of that, of course, is that pain is individual and only you will know the answer to that. However; I'd "guess" it will be on a par with your hernia surgery. Please realize there is a difference in the ability of surgeons...good grief, we know barbers and hairdressers all cut hair differently...well think of what all a surgeon has to do, even laparoscopically, and you begin to see there's room for a lot of variation. It's not straightforward, like an oil change. I think my surgeon, for example, must remove most of the gas they pump into you because I had little gas pain of that type. Not all do that. If yours doesn't, but your hernia doc did, then you'll feel more pain post lap band. But odds are you'll need a little pain med but find it "do-able" with tylenol, or positioning and distraction. The patient's attitude towards pain (and how much is tolerable) also plays a big role!

This is in line with what my surgeon told me: Dehydrated patient=Tight band well-hydratedpatient="normal" band Now that your hydrated, your band has loosened up, it sounds like.

i LOVE coffee but avoid it. It can have a diuretic effect and right now you need Water WATER WATER i don't think there's anything wrong with coffee (not a doc just headstrong LOL) but right now it isn't your wisest choice. You want to improve your hydration, not make it worse! Unless you just have 1 cup a day...I'd pass until later tonight or tomorrow...or at least until you have 64 oz of water under your belt and are keeping it down.

I'm not "newly banded" but I am banded and I am definitely a Texan (born and bred) so ... welcome and good luck!

Because of my doc's conservative fill schedule, I've been slowly adjusting downward the quantity I can and do eat. I am still pleased and surprised that I get full on less but I wouldn't say it gave me trouble. I still sometimes think I can eat more than I really can, but frankly I did that when I didn't have the band. It's not like I used to have a perfect ability to gage what would satisfy me and now its gone. The difference is preband if I took too much I'd probably just graze on it and eat it anyway. Now I don't!

I am sorry but want to state my opinion on this...firstly, taco shells and candy bars don't swell up after we eat them and fat doesn't make food swell. Pasta and rice, if not well done, can take on more Fluid, so my Nut. said to cook them well done. And you may (and will!) do what works for you but for many of us, treating food as "bad" and something to be scared of is counter-productive My surgeon said his goal is for his patients to eat anything in moderation. Life is full of choices and we make them every day. You apparently are tight enough that you have issues with some foods and you of course should do what works for you. But I want to counter that food isn't bad. Our choices may be less effective or more effective, but a candy bar never stole a dime, kidnapped a child, held up a store at gunpoint. Food is fuel; some types work more efficiently than others. Food is charged with enough emotion for many of us. A taco chip is just a chip.

Celery can't get tangled in the band so you should call her on that. The band is OUTSIDE our stomachs, the celery will be INSIDE. It might make a ball and get stuck, or some such (depending; I eat it fine) but it will NOT get entangled in the band. If it does, you would have a way larger problem than some celery!

It's one thing to eat slow, and another altogether to eat in slow mo! :smile2: I always say trust your doc but I think we have to be able to live with what we do. Waiting 3 minutes between each bite is something that I think would be problematic. Especially since I was told to stop eating at 30 minutes, that would mean I'd get, what....10 bites? LOL I think we need to use our own good prudent judgment...eating slowly, chewing well. I have also read/heard to take SMALL bites the size of pencil erasers. I find bites that small harder to chew! I do well with a bite about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of my "old" bite. My point...we have to do what works for us. To me it isn't even the time between bites that's the problem but how long I spend on each bite that counts.

I think your surgeon was really really lax in the preop education for you...and you already know I think anyone who fills during surgery has, at the least, a mean streak! May I suggest buying a book about the band? I expected going in that I'd be able to eat anything, and I CAN! but I didn't expect to feel full. It was made very clear to me that the feeling i was going for was "satiety"...not full. I can describe it best as "not hungry". I'm hungry, then I'm not. I didn't like that full feeling and so don't miss it. I think you need some good band lifestyle education and maybe some sessions with a therapist. It is different; if you've read on here you know we have to do things differently like no drinking while eating, generally avoid carbonation, chew small bites well, etc..and that much of the "good stuff" doesn't happen until we hit the sweet spot...usually AFTER we've healed (not during week 2) If you've read on here you know you are in what we call "bandster hell" right now. You just had a medical device implanted around your stomach. There will be a learning curve and a time for healing and if your surgeon glossed over that with you, then shame on him.

It's so very individual! I've had 3 surgeries (gallbladder and 2 lap bands) and each one was honestly a breeze. I came to quickly in recovery, had minimal pain, recovered quickly. That's sadly not true for everyone but it was for me. IMHO the more you know about the band, the more you've mulled it over, the less likely you are to have depression. I guess that's true because I wanted the band for years...when I finally got it I honestly never had a moment's regret, sorrow, sadness, etc. Some do, though. Not me. I was ready for it. I've never thought of food as a friend, however. In fact I aptly describe it as a hated master who kept me on a short leash. So the band has meant freedom to me, not loss. People who feel differently, of course, have a different reaction!

Hi Jaci and welcome! there are bunches of stories all over this site; you'll surely find what you're looking for! Good luck!

I'm glad to see you got good answers to this. There is NO food that will hurt the band... We might hurt it if we progress too soon on our post op diets (our stomachs churn) or if we continually eat something that gets stuck...but that old band is on the outside and immune to most of this. I don't think that's exactly how you meant it though... If you can eat celery there's no reason band-related why you shouldn't and in fat most of us need about 28 g of fiber A DAY. When you consider that one "dose" of benefiber only has 3 g, you begin to see a problem! That's one reason I incorporate things like high fiber tortillas and Fiber One cereal into my diet. :smile2: What stretches the pouch is overeating, as far as I know. I've heard "drinking while you eat" does that but I'm not so sure about that (there are 2 openings in the pouch; that liquid is more likely to come back up before it goes sideways and stretches the pouch, IMHO) so you don't really need to worry about a specific food hurting it. Now if you eat too much celery then you're going to have trouble!

I can see how maybe an anti-inflammatory would help, where tylenol wouldn't. And again, to be honest, unless you have stomach problems, as long as it goes on THROUGH the stoma, a dose occasionally shouldn't hurt. It's repeated use that causes issues. The problem is progressive. I don't mean this to countermand ANY doc's orders but to put it in perspective. NSAIDS aren't poison, any more than any other drug. But used over time, they can cause erosion. For example my doc told me I can take motrin "because I know you'll be careful". So for Mimilou, a little children's motrin tonight isn't going to cause her any more trouble than she already has, and it might help her.

From what I've read, ghrelin levels are normal in women with PCOS who are not overweight, or are overweight but don't have any insulin-resistance issues....so I'd think that banding or bypass can only help the disease, but I think its a little easier to loose initially with bypass. (i don't have the disease). Besides anecdotal evidence, your doc can probably help you. There are many conditions (like being post-menopausal, which I AM) that can make it harder to lose weight, but it still comes off! :smile2:

Eggs have about 6 gm of protein each, beef and chicken close to 10 gm per ounce; in light of this I find I don't need to supplement much. I learned in my nutrition class it's always best to eat the food rather than take the supplement so I try to get my protein in the natural way. I don't worry about calories; done enough cal counting to last me the rest of my life.

Each doc is different; mine is adamant about no Snacks so that "meal before the meal" thing wouldn't fly for me. What I did is this: i cut my food up before I sat down, in smaller bites than usual. I sat down and thought "now concentrate". I ate alone the first few times. I took a bite and chewed it well, then kept on. I counted once; to get to the proper texture is about 40 chews. NO I don't count each time; but I'm easily bored so I counted a couple times for "entertainment". I'd swallow, then sit for about 10-15 seconds and see how it "felt". If all was good, I'd have another bite. Etc. Until...I started to think...hmm one more and it may not go and then I quit. I PB'd like 2 days in a row when I finally got restriction. It was mechanics (PBs almost always are) not "too tight". Give yourself a chance to master the basics better. You may have practiced them before but there's still a learning curve.

I think you're learning. I went through that for a day or two. Don't give in to the "slider" stuff (shake, cottage cheese)...just CHEW the devil out of whatever you have. You'll learn! :smile2:

I never wait 3 minutes and this is the first I ever heard of that requirement. I chew well, and eat slowly...but thank god am not expected to time each bite. I wouldn't do it!

It takes it a while for most of us. I am pretty sturdy and slept on my left (port) side 1st night, etc and I still occasionally get a twinge there. It's minor...more like an "awareness" than a pain. They are sewn into the muscle in our abdomens (for most of us...realize I think are attached differently) and it takes muscle a while to recover, I think.

Hi all! We read so many problems/issues on here (nature of the beast, I know)...I just wanted to post and say...that for me at least, life is good! I started at 405 pounds (53 YO 5'5" female) and have lost almost 75. I'm still really fat. I don't look that different. BUT life is good. I feel different! I have about a billion times more energy. No wonder, I've lost a couple of toddlers! My wrist watch that dug into my chubby little arm now spins around. It is so cool! Sometimes when no one is watching I spin it around just to amuse myself! :frown: I had a day of "wild abandon" yesterday. I ate a piece of white bread (mostly because I always post on here that I can eat anything and don't want to intentionally lie). It was bland but went down easily. I had chicken enchiladas for supper! I had a "fun size" bag of M & M's w/peanuts (rarely eat candy...don't really want it) Today without even THINKING about it I got up and was back in my "bandster" routine. The Water, the eating at set times, the shake for Breakfast, sugar free "stuff" in my coffee...I just realized I'd slipped back into my groove without even being aware of it, even after my odd eating from yesterday. I'd have NEVER done that while "dieting". Any aberration from the norm meant a free-for-all, or a struggle to get back on track. I love my band. Thank God I don't have GERD, acid reflux, pain, frequent PBing, problem foods. I have a long way to go and feel totally 1000% sure I can do it. It is working exactly as I hoped it would. I am eating way less of whatever I want and losing. Whatever I want is changing and becoming more healthy, but it's an easy process, not a paradigm shift. This is so do-able! I got my blood drawn yesterday for my annual check and for the very first time in my adult life I wasn't worried about it. I know the figures will be good and improved over the last time. That is so great...to be 54 and be getting BETTER instead of slowly going the wrong way! Just wanted to share, with people curious about the band, with my fellow bandsters. These are little things, nothing huge. But they keep you going, you know? Anyone else? :crying:

I don't count calories or weigh unless I'm curious...I have obsessed over food enough in my life. I'm done with that. I know what's healthy and what isn't, what has more fat, more carbs, what has less...generally. Finally for me I don't give a rat's rear if my meal has 200 calories or 250... LOL I just eat, choose healthy, and generally lose. Can you beat that? :biggrin: Some like the accountability of the cal count etc...but I've been there/done that.

Ok if it goes on through the "stoma" then while it isn't GOOD to take on an empty stomach, to be honest once probably won't do you any harm whatsoever. And I ask about the Water because I've just recently learned dehydrated person = tight band. That explains a LOT of schizo band activity. If you don't get 64 oz a day, you run a risk of the band tightening up on you. I don't know if that might be your issue or not....but just in case I'm throwing it out there. Off to cell phone store w/husband but hope you feel better quickly!

Until you got too tight, are you getting in your 64 oz of water daily, do you mind me asking? (again I don't mean to hijack your thread to Jacqui; just want to help if I can)

Mimi...Suzanne is right; you might want to call your surgeon. I haven't seen Jachut on lately..but that doesn't mean she hasn't been around. I am assuming she gave you some kind of "insider tip" and you have questions? I know you shouldn't take ibuprofen on an empty stomach, whether it's liquid or not. And if you are so tight that you are vomiting liquids and take it, it can just sit above your pouch and do you some harm. Give your doc a buzz, ok? I know Jachut is VERY sharp and knowledgable; has lots of good tips. But you maybe shouldn't take the time to wait for an answer from her this time... You know yourself best of course.