ParrotheadCathy

Thanks, Susan! When I got the PM early yesterday morning, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I never win anything! Alex has asked me to post a picture of me and my Nano when I receive it, so I guess will have to finally figure out how to post a picture, LOL!

What Restless Monkey said. The reality is that you have to eat 3,500 calories more than what it takes to maintain your current weight to gain a pound. That's 21,000 extra calories. You might have a little that's actually body weight, but I point a finger at Water retention. Check with your doc about a cause for sudden water retention. As obese individuals, we are more prone to heart conditions, etc.

You are either too tight or you are taking bites that are too big/not chewing well enough/eating too fast. My suggestion would be to cut your food (all of it, before you start eating) into bites the size of a nickel. Take a bite, put it in your mouth, put down your untensil, chew well (about 20-25 times with Proteins especially), swallow. Only then should you pick up your untensil to take another bite. If you eat this way and don't feel stuck or slime or PB, then that's your problem. If, on the other hand, you still feel stuck, slime, or PB, then you need a slight unfill. Ask for .2cc to be removed. It's just a little but it can make a HUGE difference. The weird thing is you can get a bit of an unfill and later get filled to that level or even a little more and have no problem....

I have a shoe question. I have Haglund's Deformity on my left foot (had it on my right but it's been fixed, but after all the complications, I'm really not willing to have another food surgery). Basically, Haglund's is a significant build-up of Calcium underneath the achilles tendon where it covers the heel and goes to the bottom of the heel where the tendon attaches. My specific question: Is there a way/source to have the INSIDE of the back of my shoe made where I could truly run in it without getting huge blisters?

I can eat all of those things but some people have a problem with rice. As far as the chips go, just consider that they really are "slider" foods and are something you would do better without so really eat them only occassionally and call them a big treat! Steak, pork ....ANY dry meat can pose a problem. I eat my steak rare to medium rare, marinate it often and as long as I chew it well, which is pretty important for anything you eat. I often cook my pork tenderloin as a roast either marinated with Italian dressing or in some chicken broth to keep it moist. Spicy foods....gawd, I would die if I couldn't eat hot peppers. I can my own sliced jalapenos because I eat so darned many of them! Grow them, can them, eat them, LOL. I cook with other peppers but don't usually eat peppers raw, which is a personal preferance rather than a necessity. I will say that the Band is not meant to deprive you or make you suffer. All things in moderation. Go for whole grain when you can. For instance, I usually eat long grain wild rice rather than white rice. More questions you think I can answer, just let me know!!

I vote for dehydration! I keep a glass of Water at hand all the time. I drink water consistently right up to the time I eat my meal, do not drink with my meal or for 30 minutes after. Then I immediately start drinking again. At first it was a little harder than I thought it would be but you do reach a point where you actually crave the water if you aren't drinking it. Note that I said I drink right up until the time I eat my meal. I was told by my doc that as long as I stopped about 5-10 minutes before I prepared my meal, I was fine. Things I do to make sure I get in plenty of water. (1) I mix up a large container of water (equal to two drink bottles full) with a package of Crystal Light, with a tablespoon of Benefiber and my dissolvable Vitamin and I drink that in the car on the way to work. Finish it at my desk if I have to to but the longer I do that, the more I find I have finished it before I get to my office. (2) I keep a glass of iced water on my desk at all times, next to me on the couch when I'm sitting or the stove when I'm cooking and even by the bedside. If it's close at hand you will drink at least some of it. (3) If I'm going to be out and about for a good period of time, I take bottled water with me and at least drink part of the bottle while out. I used to be a terrible Diet Coke addict, drank it constantly, to the tune of at least a couple of cases a week. Water doesn't taste nearly as nice but I got over it. Now I find that water suits me just fine. It's just an adjustment, I guess.

Okay, I'll give a shot to answering this. "Restriction" is not something you feel. "Restriction" is what gives you a premature feeling of satiety....the feeling that you've had enough to eat after much less food than would have given you that feeling pre-surgery. Getting stuck frequently means one of two things to me... (1) you are taking bites that are too big/not chewing well enough/eating those bites too fast OR (2) you're too tight. Try cutting all the food in your meal into bites no larger than a nickel. Then take ONE BITE and put your utensil down. Chew well, perhaps 20-25 times, until the food is broken down. Swallow. Then and only then should you pick up your utensil and take another bite. If you still get stuck eating this way, then #2 applies. Other signs you are too tight involve things like a nighttime cough, a lot of heartburn or even acid reflux. I had none of those symptoms but I was getting stuck at every single meal at least once, and often more than that. A very slight unfill of .2cc solved the problem. I can eat without suffering, my weight loss has picked back up and I didn't even consider blaming being too tight for my weight loss slowing down.

I love my internist (my PCP) and he's one of the top 100 docs in Atlanta....BUT he freely admits he knows very little about lap bands and if I were to ask him a technical question, he would just tell me I needed to talk to the surgeon's office. I think part of being a really good doctor is not to try to handle things out of the scope of your practice. Why would your PCP even attempt to address a band issue? Baffles me! Thank goodness you didn't let it sidetrack you for long. I mean, I was in a pretty serious car crash in March (just over a month after surgery) and took a hard hit across my abdominal area. Lots of bruising almost immediately. But I wouldn't even let the ambulance take me to the hospital because I figured the chance of getting an ER doctor who would even know what could possibly go wrong with a lap band or be able to determine if anything had happened related to my band was somewhere around slim to none. l just went to my surgeon's office the next morning first thing and told them what happened.

At first, I was very aware of liquids and very mushy food passing through the stoma (band). Now, almost 8 months later, I am occasionally aware of very cold liquids (like ice water). I think that's pretty typical.

To me it's pretty straight forward. If you are getting stuck and then PBing frequently, have frequent heartburn, acid reflux or can't take in adequate protein, then you need an unfill. It might not be that you need much of one, but an unfill would make all the difference in the world. I recently got a .2cc unfill because I was getting stuck at every meal...and I mean EVERY meal. My weight loss had been slow, a bit less than a pound a week and, of course, I didn't want to slow down further but I knew I had to do it. And, I feel 100% better AND I've started losing again. Make that phone call and get in to the doc's office! Good luck

Emerald, my questions are as follow: 1. What size band? 2. How much fill in that band? 3. When was your last fill? It could be that you need a fill. If you haven't had one in a while or if you stopped at a point where you thought you had good restriction, that restriction may not have held for the long term. Beyond that, what are you eating? I eat 3 oz of Protein (about the size of a deck of cards) -- grilled, broiled, roasted, baked -- vegetables and sometimes a serving of whole grain carbs. Are you getting 60 or more grams of protein per day? Protein makes you feel full longer which can curb the desire to snack. Are you drinking at least 64 oz of Water a day? Hydration is crucial. JOURNAL your food. I suggest you write down what you eat and what time .... you may see that you are really eating too many calories per day but you may also see a pattern to your eating. By that, I mean that you may find you are eating too much at a particular meal or are snacking at a particular time of day and that can help you change your habits. If you find yourself snacking while you are preparing dinner, then perhaps you need to eat a bit of low fat cheese when you get home so that you are a little protein in your tummy and then are not feeling so hungry and therefore tempted to eat/graze as you cook. I've been quite successful with this this but from mid-June until last week, I was losing about a pound a week. I have had to work hard to keep eating right (and I've slipped some) but it is starting to pick up again. It should for you as well.

It is quite good! Has a taste of its own. Remember, though, it is quite lean and since dry meats are often a sticking problem for bandsters, try to cook it in a way that preserves moisture.

What I use is not manufactured for sale in the US. Bayer Australia manufactures "Berocca Performance" for sale in Australia and Canada. You can buy them from Canadian pharmacies. They are tablets that effervesce just like an Alka Seltzer tablet but you don't drink them when they fizz. They come in three flavors, but be warned that the flavor isn't enough to hide the vitamin-y taste. The solution is simple...buy Crystal Light packets in the same flavor. I use the original citrus (orangey) flavor and add Crystal Light Natural Citrus Splash. Stir in a little Benefiber and you've got a great start to your day. I drink mine in the car while I drive to work. It is not a complete multi-vitamin but has all the B vitamins, C, D, E, magnesium, zinc, biotin, and a few others. There's no iron, but I eat enough red meat that I really don't worry about iron.

Sarah, I will say that many of us had no hair loss issues. Usually, if you eat at least 60 or more grams of Protein per day you'll be fine. Many take a Biotin supplement as a safeguard. I never took any biotin intentionally but there is some in the performance Vitamin that I use as my daily supplement. But one way or the other, I've not have any hair loss. My hair is baby fine, but there is plenty of it and it grows like weeds (more than 1/4 inch a week, consistently). It's natural to fear that you would be the one the band wouldn't work for. After all, just about everybody who has the band, or thinks about it, has lost and gained weight numerous times!

It's not a true plateau until it lasts at least six weeks. Just keep doing what you're supposed to do and the scale will move!

Don't know what kind of "horror" you're looking for. Most band problems are limited to slippage and erosion, and even that is a somewhat small statistic. There was one guy on here who actually had to have his band removed because he was allergic to a component of the device. Many docs actually stitch the band into place to precent slippage and if it does slip, often a return to a liquid diet can move it back into place and that is the first treatment for slippage. There are people who have their band removed for a variety of reasons but you can read some about those choices here on this website. For almost all of us, the surgery is a simple, short out-patient procedure; for some it's an overnight stay. The worst side effect I experienced was gas in my abdominatl cavity following surgery (they pump carbon dioxide into you to make a little more working apce) and that has to be absorbed by your blood stream and filtered out.

Care Credit lets you apply online and gives you instant response. I applied for $10,000 and got instant approval. My credit's not horrible but it's not perfect either. And when I say instant, I mean instant. You put in the whole cost of your surgery and it approves you for up to a specific limit.

They call it "tough love". Tell him that you've initiated marital counseling three times before, that you still believe that route has merit but if he wants to work on this, then he has to pick a counselor and make the appointment. Reassure him that you will go, that you will work on this but that he has to prove his commitment to that by doing this first. If he doesn't, then you may truly have come to the end of the line. But talk to him, tell him what you are willing to do, invest (if you prefer looking at it that way) in the relationship, and tell him that you need to see the same commitment from him.

Leftover, I'm so sorry that this has happened. I do agree with Mrsyellis ..... perhaps this person was not the friend that you thought. How do you tell a friend from an acquaintance....the friend's shoulder is wet from your tears. The true friends have been there through good and bad times and supported your choices and respected your decisions. They might have said "are you sure" and listened to your reasoning, but the true friend would not have done what this person has done. This person is one who doesn't know enough about lap banding to understand that you are not "cheating", that you will still have to work as hard as she has making the right food choices and exercising. But have you made the right choice? I believe so. Why? Because only about 5% of the people who lose weight through diet and exercise actually keep off the weight the lose. The other 95% do what we've done.... lose and regain, often multiple times. I hope your former friend is in that 5% but the odds are against her. One day, she may realize what an ass she was to you, but I would never, ever consider that person a close friend regardless of any apologies or whatever.

It's normal to be scared or nervous before surgery...especially if you've never had surgery or anesthesia before! The operating room staff and pre-op nurses deal with this all the time and all you have to do it let them know you're nervous and they will help you through it!

Mary, two years ago I had surgery for a ruptured achilles tendon and got an infection in the insicion area. The hospital in Key West (I was out of town, on vacation) was running basic blood work to prep me for emergency surgery to clean out the infection and discovered my iron level was a big 6 (needed to about about 13). They gave me a transfusion to raise my levels and did the surgery, but when I got back home, I had to go to GI doc to find out why my iron level was so low. They did the edoscopy thing and found digested blood in my stomach and a bleeding ulcer. Medication took care of if (I took Aciphex for a year, but at the follow up endoscopy, it was already healed up). Be sure to tell the GI doc that you are trying to get cleared for lap band surgery and hopefully he can take care of that for you along with the examination for a possible GI bleed.

Restaurants do serve outrageous portions....many have anough meat in a dinner to more than meet your Protein needs for an entire day, and we won't talk about the fat, salt and carbs! Read restaurant reviews...and I'd say that more than half comment on the size of the portions, usually to praise the 'hearty' portions. I always read the appetizer selections first. Many, many times, there is enough in an appetizer to make a meal, or if I order a vegetable to go with it, I'm in business. Restaurants have contributed to obesity in America in their own way, by helping (enabling) people to think that a portion like that is "normal". That's a hard thing to overcome. Often when I order a true dinner portion, I immediately cut my entree in half and push half the sides over with that and then get a "go box" .... and I have lunch or another dinner.

I would hazard the guess that EVERYBODY who has a lap band tried dieting more than once. I know I did. I lost more than 100 pounds twice and 75 pounds once and numerous attempts knocked off 30 or so each time. All those pounds lost add up to well more than what I weighed when I got the surgery. Yeah, like Restless Monkey said, there are about 5 in 100 who really do lose weight and keep it off without something like WLS. Was I going to be one of those? No, and I proved it more than once. That makes me sad but at least there was this wonderful HELP that the lap band gives me. At last, I can lose weight, which I was reasonably good at AND keep it off, which I was abysmally bad at doing. It's a big step when you're working toward it....and when it's in the rearview mirror, you realize it was a giant step that started a wonderful journey.

Nana, every doctor is different about what they allow. I'd hate to tell you yes, you can have a smoothie and have you find out that your doc says no. My doc did allow them. "Regular" liquids included soups (if it had any chunky stuff in it, I just ran it through the blender, which makes it look weird but it taste the same), SF pudding, SF jello, SF popsicles, juice, protein shakes, skim milk, broths (though I wouldn't drink that stuff that comes in cans and boxes; I made my own stocks)....

Discuss the amount of unfill with your doctor. At the previous level of fill, you didn't have this problem, correct? Then I would not ask to be unfilled to less than level and probably not all the way back to that level. A very small unfill, even .2cc can make all the difference in the world!