mgmagnolia

Hello Everyone, I was banded July 27, 2009. I've lost 135 lbs. I found a wealth of information on this website and was given so much support from the forums. I'd like to give back. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about what's it's like to have a band. It's been a wonderful experience but it's hard work. Losing weight is never easy and there is no free ride or golden ticket out of obesity. I'll do my best to answer any and everything you throw at me. Maggie

Pendulum, It's hard to not eat around it. Unfortunately, the human mind is always working for ways around things. I had figured out how to cheat my band before I had the stitches out. It takes a long time to get a new mind set not to do it. There are days that I do still do it but fortunately, not every day. I think about how much I've been through, and how much work I've done to lose this much weight. All the mornings of getting up before work and hitting the gym. The financial, emotional and physical cost of it all and I try to remember what it was like getting the loan to do this. And I think about my dear friend Cathy. Cathy died of breast cancer. As I was working on lining up having the Lap Band done, she was losing her battle. She was part of how I got past the fear of failure. I saw her and heard her saying how she would give anything ANYTHING to be able to see her son graduate from high school and grow old with her husband. She would have given anything for a second chance at life and here I was sitting on one and afraid to try for it. She gave me the courage to move forward. I never take for granted this gift of a second life. I know from watching her lose that chance how precious it is and I try to live up to it for her sake is not my own. I hope that helps, Maggie

I've had my band for 2 years too but I'd never go that crazy and have it that tight! It can't be healthy and eventually it WILL catch up to them. Sounds like a vicious, contro freak cyle to me. None of us ever want to gain weight and none of us ever want to give up hope of being our dream weight. BUT the gains we've made health wise should be what matters, not if we ever make that magic number or not. They have gone to the extreme for sure.

Have you considered sitting your sister-in-law down just the two of you and telling her what is going on? Tell her that you didn't tell her because you sensitive to her feelings not because you didn't want her to know. That's important. It will be hard for her. Emotions are always connected with obesity. And she'll be threatened that you are going to be the one getting thinner and she is not. She needs to know that just because you are changing, you are still you and that you will not change how you feel about her. She might feel different towards you but as much as you want to keep her from getting hurt, you can't fix everything. Sometimes we all just have to work through things for ourselves. She will have to work through this too. I have worked in a public library for 17 years. My weight loss has been a public event whether I wanted it to or not, which I did not want. My weight loss has attracted a lot of attention. Every day I get asked about it or receive comments about it. Now that I'm getting close, people are asking me for a lot of detail about how I lost the weight, how the Lap Band works, etc. I answer them the best that I can but obviously I can't give the patrons all the information that they want. I'm happy to share it with them within reason, but it does get disruptive at the Circ Desk. I've had quite a few patrons ask if I am seriously ill thinking that is why I'm losing weight. One patron asked me if she should put me on her prayer list for church. One of the book clubs decided that I had cancer but I was doing better. I had one patron come in the front door, look at me and burst into very loud, hysterical crying shouting for the entire library to hear while I was waiting on another patron. I don't have a good answer for you. It's hard and I'm struggling with it myself. People mean well overall though. I've had some be threatened by it and say cutting or biting comments just because of that. You have to develop a thick skin but even then it's still hard.

One thing my nutritionist told me is that "You aren't going to do 100% all of the time." I fall off the wagon too, and sometimes for weeks at a time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's a good thing to do. It's not. I am never happy with myself when it happens. But sometimes life just does this to you. I'm always scared that I'll lose control and never get it back, but somehow, I always do. It's hard to stay on track when you are hungry. My nutritionist told me not to go over 800 calories a day. Maybe since you don't have good control without the fill, you should consider going up to 1200-1300 calories a day and try to keep tabs on it. You won't lose weight but you won't go overboard and binge eat for weeks this way either. It's a pain, I know. I hate keeping a food diary and keeping track of calories. And on the big day of Thanksgiving, I wouldn't try to do that at all. It's a rough patch and you will get through this!

Hello Everyone, I was banded July 27, 2009. Since then I've lost 135 lbs. It's been one heck of a ride! If you are considering having it done, or maybe you're still a new bandster, I'll be happy to answer questions of what it's been like for me. Maggie

I am 2 years out from surgery and I have always had the tightness in the morning that you are describing. It's because of acid reflux. Most band patients have problems with acid reflux after surgery even if they never did before. The band restricts the acid from going down into the stomach like it normally would. Lying down means that the acid just kind of sits there. Being up and walking around it's not as tight because gravity takes care of it. I take one Prilosec before bed and that helps some. In the mornings I only do liquids. Sometimes I'll make coffee and put a scoop of chocolate Protein powder in it to make a mocha coffee (not as good as the real thing but it's okay). If I'm really struggling though, coffee will come back up. I'll either drink a little bit of a store bought Protein shake or try a little hot tea first (no protein in it just tea). I'll sometimes make a protein shake with fat free milk and Protein Powder. You have to experiment. The band turns you into a bit of a mad scientist in the kitchen

I'm 2 years out. I can't feel the band at all though I know when it stops me from eating too much. I can feel the port. It's a hard little disk smack dab in the center of my belly. Sometimes if I bend over the wrong way, I can feel it try to flip. It doesn't hurt. If I wear pants that are too tight, there is a perfect red circle where it is because the skin can't sink in from the pressure the pants rubbed it raw LOL. It's a very minor thing and you really don't notice it at all.

My surgeon had me on the Medi-Fast diet, which is expensive and not very tasty and really not filling at all! But it worked and I guess it was a way that they could control what I ate.

I've had my band for 2 years. All of the questions suggested to you are excellent. I have one more to add: "If I have a problem with my band can you see me right away?" I've had very little problems with mine, but it has closed up completely twice. Once it happened because I had a nasty stomach virus and all the inflammation caused it. I had to go and have some of the fill removed. The second time was my fault completely. When you have a fill, you are given a protocol to follow as far how to eat for the next 4 days following it. I decided that being a year or so out, I knew what to do and guess what...I messed up!! I had to go back and have some of the fill removed then too. If your band closes up completely, you are very sick and can't even drink water. Nothing will go through it. If you need to be seen right away then you need to know that you can do that. I'm thankful that my surgeon's office saw me right away both times. I didn't think about that before I had the surgery. I hope that helps.

I'm the same as SageTracey. My fills are less than a minute also and my port is a little difficult to hit. My port is not sitting flat anymore but tilted downward a bit, but still accessible. My bariatric surgeon has a floroscope machine (fancy x-ray) and they looked at my port on it to check its position and the band's position as well. The port shows up on it. I can tell where the center of it is though I had a little trouble seeing that it was tilted the way it is until the dr. showed me.

Hopefully what happened is that your doctor and your doctor's staff were supportive of you and sat down and worked with you to find out why you didn't get there. Did you keep a food diary? If not, keep one for a few weeks and then see your doctor's nutritionist to make sure you are eating correctly. Write down on it when and if you exercise, what you do and for how long. It's a pain to do but your doctor can't help you unless he or she knows what you are doing. Patterns will show up by keeping a diary or journal and they will be able to pinpoint it. Your bariatric surgeon and support staff are there to help you. They work for YOU. Losing weight is hard work even with the band. You have to use every tool available to you. They should be able to get you back on track if you're not happy with where you are weight wise. Maggie

I had my band in 2008 also. You are definitely overfilled. They should have done your first fill by floriscope (an x-ray) and also checked to make sure your band is in the correct position. Also, they cannot give you blanket statements that your band should have "X" amount in it. Everyone's "sweet spot" is different. It is important to know what size band that you have. Mine is the large size. It holds 14 cc's. It currently has 7 cc's in it. It sounds to me like your care is absolutely wrong. Get yourself to the most experienced bariatric surgeon you can afford. Do not go back to these people!!! The band works and works well when done properly. I would venture to guess with that type of slipshod care that your band is most likely not in the correct position to begin with. Good luck.

Rejoyce, Preop jitters are definitely normal! For me the pre-surgery diet and the waiting and not knowing was worse than the surgery and the weeks after that. I hope it is the worst part of it for you too :-) Maggie

Thank you so much! It's been the hardest thing I've ever done and by now I thought I'd be at my goal weight of 150 lbs. But I'm much healthier than before so I'll take it! Good luck and I hope everything works out for you! Maggie

Jake, Thanks for your suggestion because I know I needed to hear it. When people ask me about what the hardest part to having a Lap Band I tell lthem it's the tinkering with it that gets old. Filling, overfilling, taking it out, etc. I still am glad that I did it though and the problems it has are not near as bad as being twice my body weight brought. A friend of mine who had gastric bypass told me that while I would leave behind the problems that the weight brought me, I'd be taking on new ones. That was the best advice I ever got before surgery and the most true. Hope you do well with yours. Mine is doing some better. Been taking the Prilosec and holding down food again. It's hard work to be this thin LOL

Jake, You do sound like you need a fill to me. Maybe just a small adjustment though, not a "big fill" like they do sometimes. I really don't know how often you need a fill after losing most of your weight. The last 2 that they did on me resulted in having to go back and having some removed. I'm at the stage where they are filling it almost microscopically. I haven't had one in about 6 months. I was able to eat too much too but now I'm having some problems with acid reflux that I have never had before now. I haven't had to take anything for acid reflux at all but all of sudden I'm having to sleep almost sitting up and I'm having some difficulty eating much at all. I'm thinking that the fill I had is needing reduced a little bit. The doc told me to imagine the stomach like a Water balloon and that they band is like a rubber band around it. The stomach also "realizes" that there is a restriction (our bodies are soooo smart!) and it will try to thin itself and rearrange itselft to make the opening larger for more food to pass through. I think you will be okay to wait until Dec if you think you can hold on that long. I do the same thing being able to eat a lot one day and not so much the next. I have no idea why that is but some days it's just crabby. I hope that helps. Maggie

I did see a therapist and it did help. I haven't been back for awhile because it is so expensive, but I definitely would benefit from seeing one with the attachment to food. I went before I had surgery because I worried about the food and not being able to eat and also I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to deal with all the changes of weight loss and attention it brings. Unfortunately, my therapist wasn't very well equipped to help me. He didn't have any background with weight issues even though he was referred to me. If you can afford one and find one that can help you, then by all means make the most of it. I would like to go back. Overeating is so complex. There are so many emotions attached with it. Good luck!

Oh you're very welcome! I have fallen off the workout wagon here lately but will be getting back on track soon I hope. I go through spells when I work out about 4 times a week for about an hour at a time. I will do about 30 min of cardio and then 30 min of weight training. The exercise makes a tremendous difference on the weight loss. I think I could starve about to death and still not lose unless I exercised. At 300 lbs, I didn't have much muscle tone. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. I'll never be a body builder and never want to be. But it has helped me be stronger. I've noticed that my sense of balance got better with the weight training too. I had a tendancy to fall. Just stepping up on a step stool is a big difference in balance. I am not much on cooking so I try to eat simple things. I try to keep protein high on the list. For Breakfast I usually have chocolate protein powder mixed in with coffee (kinda like a mocha coffee) with splenda and a little fat free coffee creamer. I'm a little bit odd as a Lap Band patient in that I'm able to eat better than most. I can eat bread (some cannot at all) and I don't have much trouble with meat. Today for lunch I'm having some beef stew that I made. There is more meat in it than carrots and potatoes but it's still got some. To help me with portions, I bought a bunch of those throw away plastic bowl like what Gladware puts out. You can buy them in 1/2 cup and 1 cup sizes. This way, I don't have to measure anything. I just dump it in the bowl and off I go. Sometimes I'll cook something and go ahead a pour it into those bowls ahead of time and put them in the freezer. I eat just about anything. Sometimes good for me, sometimes not. You do the best you can. You won't be 100% on the eating all the time. Sometimes you just gotta have that pie or Cookies. But I try to eat healthy and stay out of fast food places. Things I like that I couldn't eat before: I can't think of anything but will let you know if I do. The nutritionist at the bariatric surgeon's office gave me a criteria to follow for amounts of protein, carbs and fat. 60-80 grams of protein a day. Hard to get all of that in. 45-60 grams of carbs: That is really hard to stay in. I have to work at not going over. And under 25 grams of fat per day. I don't think I've ever managed to do that but I try to not go crazy with it. It's a tough diet. Most surgeons have nutrionists in their offices and they are FABULOUS. They give me all kinds of recipes, ideas and brands of foods to work with.

Wow I hate to hear that it was such an awful experience for you. Do you have to eat a complete liquid diet? Or can you eat soft foods at all?

Oh you're very welcome! I have fallen off the workout wagon here lately but will be getting back on track soon I hope. I go through spells when I work out about 4 times a week for about an hour at a time. I will do about 30 min of cardio and then 30 min of weight training. The exercise makes a tremendous difference on the weight loss. I think I could starve about to death and still not lose unless I exercised. At 300 lbs, I didn't have much muscle tone. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. I'll never be a body builder and never want to be. But it has helped me be stronger. I've noticed that my sense of balance got better with the weight training too. I had a tendancy to fall. Just stepping up on a step stool is a big difference in balance. I am not much on cooking so I try to eat simple things. I try to keep protein high on the list. For Breakfast I usually have chocolate Protein powder mixed in with coffee (kinda like a mocha coffee) with splenda and a little fat free coffee creamer. I'm a little bit odd as a Lap Band patient in that I'm able to eat better than most. I can eat bread (some cannot at all) and I don't have much trouble with meat. Today for lunch I'm having some beef stew that I made. There is more meat in it than carrots and potatoes but it's still got some. To help me with portions, I bought a bunch of those throw away plastic bowl like what Gladware puts out. You can buy them in 1/2 cup and 1 cup sizes. This way, I don't have to measure anything. I just dump it in the bowl and off I go. Sometimes I'll cook something and go ahead a pour it into those bowls ahead of time and put them in the freezer. I eat just about anything. Sometimes good for me, sometimes not. You do the best you can. You won't be 100% on the eating all the time. Sometimes you just gotta have that pie or Cookies. But I try to eat healthy and stay out of fast food places. Things I like that I couldn't eat before: I can't think of anything but will let you know if I do. The nutritionist at the bariatric surgeon's office gave me a criteria to follow for amounts of protein, carbs and fat. 60-80 grams of protein a day. Hard to get all of that in. 45-60 grams of carbs: That is really hard to stay in. I have to work at not going over. And under 25 grams of fat per day. I don't think I've ever managed to do that but I try to not go crazy with it. It's a tough diet. Most surgeons have nutrionists in their offices and they are FABULOUS. They give me all kinds of recipes, ideas and brands of foods to work with.

(1) I lost approximately 40 lbs before I had the surgery done. I was determined not to have to have surgery to lose weight, but I just couldn't get anywhere. So it's taken about 2 1/2 years for me to lose it. (2) NO I don't regret it The best advice I got was from my friend who had gastric bypass. He told me that you are exchanging some old problems for new ones, which is true. But the positives outweigh the negatives by a landslide! (3) To not lay on the couch and watch TV and eat chips and junk food mindlessly. You can't lay down and eat. What you eat just sits in the esophagus and feels like it will come back up. Broke that habit for me but I still miss being able to do that. (4) The surgery itself wasn't that bad so I guess that's the easiest. I thought it would be more physically painful than it was. (5) I had doubts all the way up to the day of the surgery. In fact, I was lying in pre-op thinking, "it's not too late to back out. I don't have to do this." If my best friend and sister hadn't been there and been allowed to sit in pre-op with me, I'm sure I would have backed out of it. They got me through that and I'm grateful they didn't let me do it. I think it's absolutely natural to have doubts. You are changing your life forever and there's no going back. It takes a lot of long, hard work. It's not just the diet part of it. I joined a gym and learned to lift weights and do circuit training. There's no way to know how it will turn out. I was scared I'd go through all of this and not lose any weight. The mental attachment doesn't go away. They fix the belly but not the brain. It is not that hard to cheat it. Last winter I gained 18 lbs and it had to work hard at the gym to get it back off. I'm still a big eater at heart and will always want to eat a lot. It corrects you from eating as much as you used to though. You just cant or you throw it up. I gave up diet sodas for about 6 months but I drink them ocassionally now. Not every day.

I had Lap Band surgery 2 years ago. Your dad is scared because once you have it you are changing your life forever. Your dad loves you so much and he wants to protect you. You will do great. It's hard work, harder than I ever dreamed. It's a tool, not a miracle but it's absolutely, positively worth it! If God doesn't want you to go through with this, He will make sure that you feel it too.

There are only 2 times that I notice any difference drinking liquids compared to before being banded. The first is every morning. The band doesn't change tightness but in the mornings, it feels like it is tighter. This is something that is very normal. Because the band is restricting your stomach, you will have more stomach acid. Almost every band patient has acid reflux after surgery even if they didn't have it before then. After being in bed all night, I have a build-up of acid. I don't have any symptoms at all except that the band seems really tight in the mornings. I have to sip slowly and a little at a time. I don' t know for sure, and I'm not a medical person at all, but I think that maybe there's just a little bit of swelling in there when I first get up. Kind of like when I put my rings on in the morning and they are tight because my fingers are a little swelled but after an hour or so I can wear them fine because it goes away. The same thing happens with the band. Once I'm up for an hour or so, I can drink normally like I did before being banded and really not notice any difference. The second way I feel a difference is right after I've had my band tightened. When they tighten it, not only does it make it smaller, it also causes some swelling in there for a few days. You will have to slow down, sip slowly, and wait for it to go through. You will learn to recognize how you feel whether or not if you drank too much at a time. It doesn't hurt, but it's very uncomfortable. Think of your new pouch like a funnel. If you have a funnel in your kitchen that holds about a cup get it out and put it in a bowl and pour thin liquids then thicker ones through it if you want a visual to help. The pouch is like the cone part of the funnel. It holds about the same amount of liquid. It takes awhile for it to work all of it through the spout. Same exact thing going on in your stomach. How does it feel when you've taken too much in at one time? You feel bloated and tight right behind the breastbone and up through your chest maybe even up to the throat. Your mouth might even Water like it does when you are about to be sick. You will not be able to lie down. In my case, I can't stand to sit with my back against anything until it goes down. You find yourself swallowing a lot. That's because your esophagus is trying to push it through the band. It is a series of muscles and when it (your body is soooo smart) realizes something isn't going down like it should, the muscle contractions get stronger as it pushes harder to make it go through. It also pours on saliva to help grease up whatever is stuck to get it through. This is a natural defense mechanism that our bodies do to help alleviate choking. Sometimes with food, the contractions get so hard, you have chest pain because of it. This is why you hear about people (people without a band that is) going to the hospital for chest pain and are told it's acid reflux and not their heart at all. What to do if you drink too much and this happens: if you are sitting down, get up and walk. Keep walking until it moves through. Standing up automatically gives your body more room. Gravity also works in your favor. Walking helps get it moving through a little quicker. I've done all kinds of things to try to help something go through it when it doesn't want to. Walking is by far the best cure. This actually happened to me yesterday morning. I was at a meeting 8:30 a.m. at a regional facility with a room full of people I didn't know. There were about 30 of us there and we were sitting at tables of 4. I was having coffee. My band was tight. Normally, I'm up and moving a lot at that time of day, not sitting. I forgot about that and I drank too much coffee at a time not thinking about it taking longer to go through. Of course as luck would have it, I was sitting right smack in front of the presenter. I tried not to draw attention to myself, but it makes you burp like when you eat too much and I started "burping" myself by patting my chest with my hand. I was swallowing a lot. The woman across the table asked me if I was okay. The presenter stopped in the middle of his talk and asked me if I was all right. I told him what was going on (very quickly of course not wanting to cause a scene) and asked him if he minded if I got up and just stood in the back for a little bit. He was fine by that. I was able to not miss anything being said and by standing I was able to work it through. Of course I stayed close to the door in case it decided to come back up.

When I woke up from surgery, it hurt but not the out of your mind kind of hurt. It was like when you have a really bad stomach bug and have been throwing up hard all night. It felt really upset. The nurse gave me some pain med through the IV and it worked pretty fast. I kept dozing off to sleep but they sent my family back and both of them helped me get dressed and sit in a chair. They gave me ice chips. I was very careful with those and barely ate any. I was afraid of upsetting my unhappy stomach, but they seemed to go down ok. My surgery was at 8:30 a.m. I think I was home by 1 p.m. The pain medicine was liquid. I think I only used it that first day and maybe a day or two after that. It was summer, so by 6 or 7 p.m. I was outside walking around. The post-op nurse told me that when they do the surgery, they blow up your belly with a gas to be able to see what they are doing laproscopically on the camera. He told me that when I got home that I needed to get up and walk around in my house, even if it was just a walk from one room to another one. Otherwise, the gas could get trapped in there and really cause some pain. I did do that and didn't have any problems with the gas from the surgery. I tried to do that once an hour or at least every two hours. The doctor's office gave me a copy of directions of how to eat for the first few weeks. I had to eat in ounces so I bought a teeny-tiny measuring cup that only goes up to 3 ounces. It's about the size of a shot glass. My sister helped me since I'm single. We wrote down everything I took in. We wrote down what it was, how much and the time that I "ate." Keeping a food journal is really important after surgery. It is the first thing they look at if you have any post-op problems eating. The big concern with having Lap Band surgery is that you want to avoid throwing up as much as you can after you have it. When they put the band around your stomach, they fold a piece of the stomach over it like a belt loop and sew it to help anchor it. You have to give it time to heal up. I don't want to scare you because the odds of the band slipping is very small. They were not concerned about this and most people do have nausea and vomiting after surgery and they do just fine. So please don't think that if you get sick to your stomach that you are making that happen. I was worried about it, but I'm someone who worries about everything. I wanted to give it as much time to heal as I could without that happening. I was lucky that I did not have any vomiting. I followed the post op orders exactly as they told me to do. The only real pain I had was right after surgery. It was mostly sore after that but nothing bad at all. It was nice out, so I would walk a little bit in the yard or just putter around the house a little bit. Honestly, this surgery was not bad at all. It's not nearly as bad as having something say like the flu or a bad cold. I didn't take any pain medicine for the surgery after the second day. The worst part of this whole thing for me was the 3 weeks liquid diet before surgery. That was way worse than going through the surgery itself. I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, let me know!