EmmaWang

La38, I think the problem is you are hardly eating at all. Your body thinks you are starving to death so it automatically slows down the metabolism. How many calories are you eating per day? If you are eating below 700-800 calories per day, you should try to bring the calories back up to 800 calories per day and see if the scale will move again. If you are not able to eat a cup of food at each meal, my suggestion is not to get a fill. But do give your doctor a call and hear what he has to say.

Hi Luluc, If you eat sushi often, will it slow down your weight loss pace? After all, Sushi is still mostly carbs. I am not trying to preach, just wondering. Sushi is also one of my favorits.

I think having 1 or 2 pieces of sushi on a weekly basis is okay. It won't do much of damage. That way you don't feel completely deprived of it.

I've had my first fill last week at 4.4 cc. I thought the fill would bring a lot of restriction on me, but in fact it didn't. I could still eat a lot of food and feeling hungry again after 3 hours. Of course this does not mean I could eat as much as before the surgery. It is much less than that (probably just 1/3 of what I used to eat). But I definitely eat more than 1 cup of food at lunch and dinner. I have no problem eating all types of food: chicken, bread (I was only testing), fish, shrimp, pork, vegetable, fat free cheese etc. I could eat maybe 5 OZ of meat, 2 OZ of tofu and 2 OZ of vege at lunch or dinner. After the meal, I could even have a kiwi fruit. I am not discouraged because I know it might take a few fills to reach the sweet spot. I'm going back to my doctor again at the end of this month for my second fill.

I am also one month out. I had my first fill on 04/09/09. I had to stay on liquid diet for two days. In these two days, sometimes my lower tummy (also 2 or 3 inches below belly button) felt this combination of pain/bloating. It almost felt like that time of the month. Finally last night, I took some Gas-X. It then got better. I don't know if it were really the gas or something else that just disappeared after a while.

Marthh, I completely feel your pain. I don't like friends that I haven't seen a long time coming over to visit coz I would see how shocked they are to see my current size. I also avoid going to my school reunion coz I felt bad about my appearance. But things will get better. We will achieve our goal weight gradually if we don't give up. We will enjoy all sorts of parties and meeting with old friends once again. Since you haven't even had your first fill yet, don't worry about the weight loss right now. Do something nice for yourself on this Easter weekend and hopefully enjoying the holiday as much as possible.

Martyh, don't feel discouraged. I lost the majority of my weight on pre-op diet (16 lbs). 2nd week post-op, even though I was still on liquid diet, I only lost 1 pound. In the third week, I even gained 3 lbs. Then I lost all 3 lbs in the fourth week. You were in a time period called "banister hell" . Don't feel bad that you didn't lose any weight before your first fill. A lot of people even gained 1 or 2 pounds during that period and it is okay. Are you feeling any restriction after the first fill? I had my fill yesterday and I definitely felt some restriction. If you do, I am sure the band will help you starting to lose weight again. Do you exercise? Try exercising at least 3 times per week.

Long, Thank you for sharing your first two fills with me. I am glad I am not the only one who got aggressive first fill. LOL. But occasionally I got this "congested" feeling in the chest" and sometimes my lower abdomen had this feeling of bloating & pain (bearable). Well It felt like when I was having my period and it is definitely not the time of the month for me yet. I don’t know if this symbols that my fill might be too tight? I hope you have a great Saturday going into the mountain and shopping at the outlet.

Yes, I've had the back pain as well after the surgery. It was the gas pain. You should keep walking from room to room and take some Gas-X to help relieving it.

I hope I won't have the extra skin problem as well after I reach my goal weight. I am 32 years old and I haven't had a baby yet. I do plan to have a baby one year after my surgery though. Hopefully I would have reached my goal weight at that point.

Thank you. But occasionally I got this "congested" feeling in the chest" and sometimes my abdomen felt pain (bearable) just like the feeling I had when I have my period. I don’t if this symbols that my fill might be too tight?

I am not able to feel my port. I was told by the nurse that my port is located under my long incision. However, I touched the area around it, actually I touched and felt my entire abdominal area, but could not locate the port. Does this pose a potential problem for filling? My first filling is scheduled on next Thursday. I am very concerned with where my port it. I hope this does not mean I would have to do a band reposition. I mean, I ony had the surgery about 1 month ago.

I was banded on 03/09/09. Up till yesterday (exactly one month after surgery), I lost 10 lbs since the surgery. I had my first fill yesterday - 4.4 cc (pretty aggressive compared to others in the forum) and had some gas pain from time to time. I need to stay on liquid diet for two days. Because I was on liquid yesterday, I seemed to losing 2-3 lbs this morning. The scale has not been so generous to me for a long time. However, I think this is just water weight that I'll probably gain them back when I start soft food tomorrow. Therefore I am not counting the 3 lbs into my weight loss total yet.

Hi Everybody, I'd like to report that I just got my first fill this morning. After I went into the doctor's office, I told the nurse that how much I have been eating at every meal. She laughed and said "yes, you do need a fill". The PA asked me to lie on my back on the table, bump up my tummy then lift up my head. It was like doing an exercise. She then rubbed my tummy and found the port. My port is actually located right above the big incision (only 0.25 inch from the incision, very close) She pushed the needle in (it hurt a bit, felt like a sting) and moved up and down for a minute trying to locate the port access point. It hurt a little when she was moving the needle up and down, but it was bearable. Finally she found it. She gave me 4.4 cc to a 9cm realize band. She said that my port just sucked all the saline in. I was told that my band could hold maximum 11 cc of saline. The entire procedure took about 10-15 minutes. So it was not as scary as I thought before. My stomach felt a little different than before after drinking one cup of water. It felt a little like after the surgery. But I wasn’t burping or feeling nausea. So she released me. She also told me to stay on liquid for two days then soft food for another two days. Then I could go back to regular food. I know that 4.4 cc is pretty aggressive comparing to most of the first fills that I read in this forum. Hopefully it would work out fine. I bought 2 cases of EAS brand protein shake (coffee with caramel flavor). It tastes much better than what I had before. I drank half carton down, I was not hungry anymore. My weight loss has really slowed down for the past three weeks. I hope with this fill, it could help me to get the scale moving again.

I also have the constipation problem. The hospital nurse suggested benefiber. It is a food supplement. I've been taking it and it works out well.

Are you allowed with fat free pudding? If so, you should try some fat free sugar free pudding. The pudding itself has around 9 gram of protein, with the protein in the skim milk, it will make the total protein intake around 20 gram each serving.

Hi Marmit, Yeah the "lump" is obvious. Is "lump" resulted from your surgery or first fill? Have you talked to you doctor about this? If it were hematoma, I am sure it will be absorbed sooner or later. Everybody is different in healing over an injury. My Mom is a slow "healer". She needs almost twice as much time to get healed as others. I hope the lump gets down soon.

Hi Everybody, I'd like to report that I just got my first fill this morning. After I went into the doctor's office, I told the nurse that how much I have been eating at every meal. She laughed and said "yes, you do need a fill". The PA asked me to lie on my back on the table, bump up my tummy then lift up my head. It was like doing an exercise. She then rubbed my tummy and found the port. My port is actually located right above the big incision (only 0.25 inch from the incision, very close) She pushed the needle in (it hurt a bit, felt like a sting) and moved up and down for a minute trying to locate the port access point. It hurt a little when she was moving the needle up and down, but it was bearable. Finally she found it. She gave me 4.4 cc to a 9cm realize band. She said that my port just sucked all the saline in. I was told that my band could hold maximum 11 cc of saline. The entire procedure took about 10-15 minutes. So it was not as scary as I thought before. My stomach felt a little different than before after drinking one cup of Water. It felt a little like after the surgery. But I wasn’t burping or feeling nausea. So she released me. She also told me to stay on liquid for two days then soft food for another two days. Then I could go back to regular food. I know that 4.4 cc is pretty aggressive comparing to most of the first fills that I read in this forum. Hopefully it would work out fine. I bought 2 cases of EAS brand Protein shake (coffee with caramel flavor). It tastes much better than what I had before. I drank half carton down, I was not hungry anymore.

Hi Everybody, I'd like to report that I just got my first fill this morning. After I went into the doctor's office, I told the nurse that how much I have been eating at every meal. She laughed and said "yes, you do need a fill". The PA asked me to lie on my back on the table, bump up my tummy then lift up my head. It was like doing an exercise. She then rubbed my tummy and found the port. My port is actually located right above the big incision (only 0.25 inch from the incision, very close) She pushed the needle in (it hurt a bit, felt like a sting) and moved up and down for a minute trying to locate the port access point. It hurt a little when she was moving the needle up and down, but it was bearable. Finally she found it. She gave me 4.4 cc to a 9cm realize band. She said that my port just sucked all the saline in. I was told that my band could hold maximum 11 cc of saline. The entire procedure took about 10-15 minutes. So it was not as scary as I thought before. My stomach felt a little different than before after drinking one cup of water. It felt a little like after the surgery. But I wasn’t burping or feeling nausea. So she released me. She also told me to stay on liquid for two days then soft food for another two days. Then I could go back to regular food. I know that 4.4 cc is pretty aggressive comparing to most of the first fills that I read in this forum. Hopefully it would work out fine. I bought 2 cases of EAS brand protein shake (coffee with caramel flavor). It tastes much better than what I had before. I drank half carton down, I was not hungry anymore.

The EAS brand caffee and caramel flavor tastes okay. It also has 17 gram of protein and only 3 grams of carb.

Thank you all the responses. I'll come back and let everyone know how it goes on Thursday.

My husband is the main subscriber to the BCBS POS and I am also covered through him. I've had my surgery on 03/09. Before my surgery I called several times to make sure that the surgery is covered. I did the 6 month weight management with my primary doctor, my BMI was 43 before the surgery and I also did the all the medical tests they required. My doctor's office submitted all the medical records, my 6 months weight management proof and a letter from me stating why I wanted this surgery to the insurance. The insurance told doctor's office that if it were out-patient surgery, I didn't need an approval ahead. I called twice to making sue that this is the case. So after the surgery, my doctor's office submitted a claim for $9K to BCBS for payment. I have to mention here that my doctor was in my network last year, but he moved out my insurance network this year. However, I do have out of network benefits (I pay 20%, BCBS pay 80%). I just checked online that the insurance refused to pay a penny of the $9K and in the statement it said that I might be responsible for all the cost. I was very upset. So I called the insurance right away. They said that they couldn't find any medical records related to my surgery. They will send a notice to my doctor's office and ask them to submit the medical records. Before this issue this gets resolved. I think I would still be unsettled and frustrated

I tried last night laying on my back to feeling around my incision area (both up and down, left to right). I still couldn't feel it. My concern first was that if I couldn't feel it at all, would it create a problem to the doctor or nurse who is going to do my fill on Thursday. Yes, I was worried that my band was tilted. Since Good4me's doctor and nurse had no problems doing her fills while she couldn't find hers. I guess I shouldn't worry myself so much. Cathy thanks for the advice. I have a worrisome nature. I'll come back and let everyone know how the first fill goes on Thursday.

Brandy, even though you couldn't feel it before the 75lbs lost, your doctor had no problem finding it when he did your fill, didn't he/she? That is such a comfort to hear. I was afraid my doctor wouldn't be able to find it since I could not feel it at all even after I tried feeling it while standing, sitting down or laying on the bed.