ParrotheadCathy

Probably just gas, coming back for a visit. I remember when I thought it was gone for good....and then, suddenly, it came back.

My pre-op diet was for two weeks. I was supposed to drink a protein shake (with whey protein, specifically) for breakfast and then again in the late afternoon. For lunch and dinner, I could have 3 oz of lean protein (about the size of a deck of cards), some steamed or raw vegetables, and a single serving of whole grain carbs. I sometimes waited to eat the carbs later (so I could have a snack if I was hungry) and discovered that I usually didn't want it at all. I lost more than 8 pounds you're still looking to lose.

Brockbabe is so right! You are still healing. Between now and your first fill, you may not lose anything. I gained and lost the same 4 pounds several times. But once you get a couple of fills, start feeling some restriction, and are better able to eat as you are supposed to, you will start that consistent weight loss you've been impatiently waiting for! Also, understand that you can eat TOO LITTLE! If you don't give your body adequate "fuel", it will store everything you take in for fear it's going to stop completely. Track what you eat ... write it down or log it on one of several websites. Try to aim for 1,000 - 1,200 calories per day. Drink 8 glasses or so of Water.

Jill, most overweight people have a history of eating fast. That means they don't chew their food well enough and, even worse, they have eaten right past "full" so many times that they forget what it really feels like. We know "stuffed" really, really well. "Full" not so much, LOL. Try keeping your meals to no more than a 1 cup of food. Cut things into bites no bigger than a nickel. Take a bite, put down your fork, and CHEW. If it's drier texture foods (some meats are dry), a tiny bit of water can help you break it down. (I know, we're not supposed to drink with meals, but a small sip can help you adequately chew (especially meats) and I don't feel that that has prevented me from staying full.) Then swallow. Then take another bite. Somewhere along the way, you're not going to feel so hungry anymore. Then pay close attention. Some people burp, some people hicccup, some people feel pressure. "Full" doesn't feel exactly the same for everybody. I feel pressure. If I eat past that, and I have, I get stuck and PB.

Are you actually vomiting? Or is it PBing? There is a big difference. PBing is bringing up a bit of food that is stuck -- not stomach acid, no heaving. Vomiting usually brings up the entire contents of your stomach. A lot of people don't distinguish between the two. If it's PB's, you might be too tight. Or eating too fast. Or taking bites that are too big; Or not chewing well enough. If you are vomiting, you may have a virus and should talk to your doctor. Even food poisoning can make you vomit for what seems like forever. When I got food poisoning a few years ago, I thought I would throw up my toenails before it stopped. It went on for 14 hours. Vomiting involves that horrible heaving where your stomach convulses to push back everything that's in your stomach. That could have made your abdominal muscles sore, and your port is stitched to muscle. SO, how much actually comes up? That's the easiest way to decide if it's vomiting or PBing. Then address the problem. Hope that helps!

There should be some fill in your band unless they did a complete unfill instead of just taking out some saline. If they say that they only did a partial unfill, make sure they remove all the saline before they push it back in along with what they are adding that day. That way you know absolutely how much is in your band. Some amount of saline does "evaporate" (for lack of a better word) over time so when they did the unfill recently, you may not have had as much saline in your band as you thought. Now's as good a time as any to verify the level of fill. The very few people who have mentioned slippage on the forums I read have pretty much all said that they had a complete unfil followed by a week or two of liquids only, and then re-start the fill process.

There's a couple of things you might try changing to see if it makes a difference. First, try freshly prepared foods instead of Lean Cuisine or Hamburger Helper. HH, in particular, has a pretty high load of sodium which isn't good for you and helps you to retain Water (like you need help with that, right??). Trye writing down EVERY BITE you put in your mouth for a week. I think you might be as surprised as I was ... the couple of crackers I didn't think about added up to more than 100 calories a week; the spoonful of nuts in the late afternoon was more than 300 calories a week; the "smidge" of extra this or that, added up to as much as 200 calories in a week. Look even at the calories in Crystal Light and other flavored waters. Those little "stick" packets say to mix the contents of the package with about 16 oz. of water BUT if you read the nutritional panel, a serving is ONE-HALF A PACKET so that 1 packet is 10 calories, not 5. Some people drink several of them a day because they don't like water very much. That adds up to more than 100 calories a week if you're drinking them steadily. Pretty soon you've got 1000 calories which is an extra day's worth of calories. It's the little things. I have a friend who was hooked on those Vitamin Water drink bottles -- until she realized that one bottle had more than 50 calories. She was focusing on the Vitamins but realized she was taking in more than 1000 calories extra a week JUST with those waters. Try doing a different exercise. If you're going to the gym and working out on elliptical or whatever, try a few days of circuit training. If you're walking every day, try swimming every day We tend to settle into a comfortable rut and eat the same few selections of food, do the same exercise....shake it up! And, let us know if it makes a difference.

Some of that's an easy answer, some of it isn't. I do fine during the day at work. There's nothing much here to snack on that appeals to me. I eat a few dry roasted nuts if I get hungry mid-morning. Once I get home, I'm hungry. Since I don't live alone, that means there is food in my house I have no business eating (crackers, cookies, etc.). So I get dinner started, change my clothes and go outside and do yard work. That's exercise from me and I'm not milling around the kitchen, waiting for my dinner to cook, grazing on whatever is in the kitchen. The harder part is sometimes you will find youself looking for something to eat when you aren't hungry. One Saturday afternoon, I found myself standing in front of the refrigerator with the doors open, just looking. I literally had to laugh at myself, shut the fridge and walk away. Sometimes you don't pull yourself up and you do snack. I try to keep reasonably good stuff on hand for those moments, and I keep that stuff front and center in the fridge so that if I do snack, it's on stuff like low fat cottage cheese, SF pudding, etc.

First, make the doctor's appointment. Ask them to do a fill BUT to withdraw all the Fluid in your band to check how much is in there before they add anything. My doctor always does that. I asked why and was told that it was the one sure way to know that my band is not leaking. You've had had unfills and fills and the totals haven't added up so, get an accurate read of how much is in your band and go forward from there. IF it is still less than they believe should be in the band, push them to explain why they haven't used the word "leak". It happens. Not so very often, but it does happen. Second, start writing down every bite you put in your mouth -- and you are probably doing that for WW. Finally, I was told from the start, even before I had the surgery, that anytime I felt I was hungry in less time than 4 hours to EAT SOME Protein....a boiled egg, a half cup of low-fat cottage cheese, an ounce or less of low fat cheese. Protein keeps you satisfied longer than veggies or carbs. If you are satisfied, you will not end up looking for something to snack on. Note that I said EAT rather than drink. I read a lot of posts where people DRINK Protein shakes in between meals if they are hungry. I was told, and have found it to be very true, that drinking anything, even protein shakes, does not satisfy you the way chewing and swallowing solid protein will. And, GOOD LUCK!

I haven't had a problem with them. I certainly don't eat them in the quantities that I did pre-band, but I eat them regularly. Most often, it's a few whole grain crackers or part of a roasted potato. But I'm down 64 pounds in exactly 4 months which includes the first month after surgery where I didn't lose a darn thing.

Except for the past 10 days, I've PB'd twice and both times, I was at fault for eating way too fast once and the other time for taking too big a bite. The last 10 days, it's been every day but it is related to having a crappy cold with a ton of mucus drainage that has caused me problems. Finally, last night, I ate my dinner without a problem so I think I'm back to "me". Try cutting your food into small bites before you eat, not while you eat. Take a minute to really make those bits no bigger than a nickle. Then, when you sit down to eat, take your time. Put your fork down between bites. If you still have a consistent problem, then it's time for a small unfill.

BigJedda, I'm so sorry he's feeling threatened by your changes. If you love him enought to work on it, couples counseling (even just one or two sessions) could help him to communicate what is really threatening him. Yeah, you've certainly changed physically, but you're also happier and a little less emotionally needy and maybe subconsciously he sees that as a sign that you need him less and it scares him. Sit him down and talk to him GENTLY and see if he'd consider a session or two. Love is damnably hard to find in these times. So don't say goodbye unless you have no choice. Good luck!

I have a 10cc Lap Band AP with 5.6ccs of fill.

I had mine out 26 years ago .... 3 HUGE gallstones were killing me. My doctor told me stone forming was an inherited tendency. I don't know if that's really true, but my Dad had gallstones and also had kidney stones several times.

Pick your fast food carefully. Some burgers are flame broiled, and those would be less greasy than those fried on a griddle (i.e., Burger King is flame broiled and Mickey D is fried on a griddle). My favorite fast food is Zaxby's My big treat is a Blue Zalad with buffaloed chicken on it. It has some blue cheese crumbles in it. i don't use their full-fat blue cheese dressing but use my own lite blue cheese. I have eaten this about once a month since I got back to "real" food.

Trish, how much fill do you have? It sounds like you are too tight. Did it just start happening recently or even closer to when you just got your fill? You can get tighter. And, I've had a rough week and a half because I caught a head cold and have had so much thick mucus draining into my throat and then to my stomach that it was partially blocking the stoma. Heck, masked potatoes got stuck and PB'd one night last week. I felt like I'd hit bottom or something. Mashed potatoes??!! Anyway, I feel like I can relate right now. Talk to your doc. Sometimes, even a slight unfill, like .2cc can make a ton of difference.

I understand completely! I never let being fat keep me away from my precious beaches, but to know that people aren't looking at me and wondering what I was thinking when I put on my suit is a very good feeling.

Since it's a bite of toast, I agree...drink. That will soften it to mush and it should go ahead and pass.

I was told not to use them. Growing my, my Dad had a couple of hard and fast rules -- no chewing gum and no straws. As a result, I never ever chew gum and the only time I ever used straws (after I left home, LOL) was in sodas from fast food. Since I now do not drink soda OR go to fast food places, they simply aren't even a question. In case you're wondering why no gum and no straws, I had a great-aunt who smacked her gum and sucked on a straw until it made that loud, rude noise that told everybody she was at the bottom of her glass. Daddy didn't think that was very lady-like! Guess that gives my age away a bit since not so many females worry so much about being lady-like. Of course he also gobbled his food and I learned to eat too fast by sitting at the table with him. And now, I'm having to really work at unlearning that. So, maybe it's just as well I only have that bad habit to unlearn instead of two extra ones.

Well, I don't crave sweets, really, but I do sometimes miss carbs, LOL. I don't eat very many carbs anymore and sometimes silly stuff like croutons or crackers look very tasty, indeed! I won't say I "DIET" but there are those days when sitting down to the "right" meal isn't very appealing. Back in the old days, I sometimes had a bag of popcorn for supper because it was late, I was tired, etc. Now I do feel that I have to prepare something appropriate. I don't ever really get hungry now unless it's been about 6 hours since I ate -- and that is perfectly normal. I eat my meal and I'm satisfied. I do occasionally eat a bit of something sweet. Yesterday, some evil person brought 2 dozen hot Krispy Kreme donuts in to the office and I ate a bite of one (way less than half). And I usually have a very small slice of the monthly birthday cake. I enjoy the heck out of those little treats. This isn't about being punished on a daily basis. It's about living with healthy moderation. I only recently got to my sweet spot and it's actually pleasant to not obssess over what I'm going to eat and when. I have to make those right choices but it's not the hard work that it was only a few weeks ago.

I read an article on this today. TOGA, as it is called, is in clinical trials (not accepting any more patients for the trials). Basically, it is stomach stapling done from inside the stomach. There is a risk of esophageal damage because the device inserted through the esophagus into the stomach is about the diameter of a garden hose (has happened once so far in the trials). The article also said that after 18 months, patients had lost about 45% of their weight. Obviously, no long term statistics or information on long-term complications. They are uncertain whether this is truly an improvement over the old stomach stapling procedure. It sounds interesting in that there is no cutting. I'd imagine you might have a sore throat for a while afterwards. They have not yet applied for approval in the US because they have not completed clinical trials. It is being performed some in Europe, where approval procedures are less stringent.

Consider contacting a battered women's shelter. Many of these women come in with the clothes on their backs (along with their children). They have no job, etc. They need clothes like you're describing to go out job hunting. A women's shelter I give things to is ALWAYS looking for nice clothes for this purpose.

Sounds more like anesthesia after-effects to me. It's not like they touched your stomach in any way. A slip doesn't just happen; something has to cause it. I'd call the plastic surgeon that did the lipo and ask if he can prescribe something for the problem.

On the news today, here in Atlanta, there was a piece that local food banks are struggling on a daily basis to keep up with the demand. They have set up a day in Atlanta (June 19) where you can drop off all donations at Publix grocery stores. I will add my 75 pounds (yeah, I'm only down 63 and a smidge but who's counting?)!

Millie, this is an ethics violation by your surgeon's office. I would report it to the medical board. I mean, this is so against several laws that their office is supposed to disclose its privacy policy on an annual basis. As for finding a new doctor, I can't help much (I'm in Atlanta, GA) but I would think if you explained to another surgeon's office that your surgeon's office violated the HIIPA Act and you don't feel comfortable going back there that they would be more amenable to seeing you. GOOD LUCK!!