ParrotheadCathy

Glad to hear you are starting to feel better! This period of time after surgery can be very frustrating. Things feel different, you worry about every little thing, and you aren't losing much weight. I wish the surgeons and their staffs would emphasize more that the first few weeks after surgery you likely won't lose alot of weight. Your body is taking everything it can to heal itself and doesn't want to let go of much because it can't know for sure how much it will take to heal. But once you heal more you'll start losing and it will pick up to a steady pace as you get maybe 3 fills. Good luck!

Soontobe, Hi, neighbor! We should get together some time since you're so close! My surgeon is Dr. Chris Hart. I went to him through the True Results program. Their office is on Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, just down past the intersection with Hammond Drive. Kind of a long way from home but only 15 minutes from my office. (True Results offers the whole package...pre-op supervised weight loss if your insurance requires it, surgery with the Lap Band AP band, and aftercare). My first 10 fills are included in the price of the surgery. After that, I believe they are $125. The staff is wonderful! You could call and see if they do aftercare for someone who didn't have their surgery through their program.

Gas-X will help with gas in your stomach. If it's farther down, what are you eating? If you're eating gas-producing foods, try Bean-o.

No, I don't think you need to worry. Truly slippage doesn't happen very often at all. With 2.5cc in your band following surgery, and you still healing, I vote with the nurse -- between 2.5cc AND still healing, you just had too much restriction. How are you feeling after the unfill? Let us know if the reflux disappears. That will be the answer to the question more than likely.

Allergies suck. I went through 15 years of immunotherapy but I do not use any allergy medicine or asthma medicine and haven't for a very long time. Obviously, it's been a long time since I used any allergy medicine, much less an OTC variety. BUT, I believe I've seend ads for Claritin in either a fast dissolve strip or tablet.

Not all docs use fluoro for fills. I lie down, put my arms above my head. The nurse practitioner uses a little lidocaine to numb the spot so there's a little prick. Then the actual fill and it's nothing at all. Even without the lidocaine, it wouldn't be bad I don't think. You will be asked to sit and drink a cup of water to make sure you aren't too tight and then you can leave. My doc requires mushy foods for the rest of the day. Some require liquids for a day and then mushies for a day. I will tell you that I now have 5.1cc in my band and I really wasn't hungry at lunch time so I waited a bit. Ate a can of soup and a few bites of salad and I am full! I could stand for this to last! Good luck!

I'm not quite 3 months out and some days I have some tenderness around my port too. I went for my third fill this morning and actually remembered to ask about that. I was told that since the port it stitched into muscle, when you work out (even cleaning house, leaning over and stuff like that), your body pulls at it a little and that can cause a little tenderness. The more recent your surgery, the more likely you are to feel it.

And, sometimes your stomach will growl not because you are hungry but because of the types of nutrition you're taking in ....mostly liquid don't require much "churning" and your stomach is just trying to work. Eat a SF popsicle. They're pretty darned good and really do taste like one of those empty sugary treats you ate as a kid. And, they're nice in this warming weather. Go outside and work in the yard to just get out of the house and to be busy. Volunteer somewhere (volunteers are always needed!). Retirement takes some adjustment and the band does too. Give it some time!

Lots of people have texture "issues"....like I would only eat soft-serve ice cream, never the stuff in cartons. Think about the foods that you used to snack on, the textures.....was it sweet? crunchy? Then scout out possible alternatives. Fruit (dried fruit might meet the texture thing if sweet is what you crave). Veggies might handle crunchy but would depend on the texture thing.

I would wait. Every doctor seems to have a different pre-op approach....some don't even require a pre-op diet! And the duration is what they think is appropriate. I wouldn't embark on what might or might not be what the doctor wants. The "last supper" syndrome is pretty typical across the board. just don't go crazy and eat everything you see! In reality you aren't going to have to give up the things you like; you're going to have to give up the excessive quantities.

Neilkelli, have you swallowed anything yet that just didn't seem to go down right but sat in your esophagus and hurt for a little while? Well, a PB is when that food that is stuck just refuses to move. Then you will start producing a lot of saliva to pave the way for it to come back up (often called "sliming"). Then you'll regurgitate the stuck food. It will come up hard and fast. It's not vomiting! There is no heaving of your stomach. It is just that stuck bite of food, with no stomach acid or anything else coming up. It's only happened to me once, BUT I just got a fill today that for the first time (it's only my third fill) makes me feel restriction, really feel it. Not guessing. SO I know I'll have to be much more careful to keep from having another PB.

"Stuck" feels exactly like you'd think. It's like there's something in your esophagus that won't move. What you described sounds very much like trapped gas. Keep moving and put a heating pad on the area.

WOW! That's too bad. But hang in there!!!

I think that is a question for your two surgeons....the general surgeon doing the gallbladder and your lap band surgeon. I would definitely discuss with both.

Well, a first date might not be my choice of where to tell a guy what I've done. But if you've been out with him a couple of times, it is different. I would wait for him to ask (he really might not, you know!). Then he might ask if there's something wrong with your food. Then you have to either tell him the whole thing (well, you see, I battled extra pounds for a very long time and I finally had lap band surgery to help me get the weight off and keep it off, but as a result I really cannot eat the huge portions most restaurants serve or just tell him that you used to be much heavier and you've finally learned portion control. That would be the truth, pretty much but you might find yourself having to tell the rest of it later if the relationship continues. But I think you might be surprised at the minimal reaction. Anybody I tell asks a few questions about the surgery and then goes on.

If you didn't regurgitate the grits themselves, I'm not seeing that you were stuck on the grits. If, on the other hand the grits came up with the liquid, then I'd call it a PB and say the grits were just too soon.

Way to go, girl!!!!! And I know how you feel. I didn't set pounds lost as my mini goals....my goals are based on when I move from one category to the next. I'm now "obese" and 33 pounds from "overweight".

Jason, this time you aren't doing this alone. You have the surgeon's office, the trainers at the gym -- and some great support here. It will take work, but you can do it. You have a goal in sight that will make all the hard work worth it because unlike other times, once you get to the surgery, you'll have a tool that will always be there to help you stay on track!

It sounds to me that your friend was putting all her positive identification in another person's attention to her. It hasn't worked the way she wants it to and she's depressed, among other things. I highly recommend counseling. The simple truth every person must learn is that happiness doesn't come from another person. You have to be happy within yourself. Another person can give you happy experiences (and, of course, the opposite as well) but another person cannot fill all the blanks and empty spaces, so to speak. I understand your friend's pain but she's not coping with it very well at all. Depression is insidious and many people who are depressed simply do not see themselves as depressed. If she is someone who will listen to you and understand that your only wish is for her to feel better, happier, more like she did not so long ago, then try to convince her to seek counseling. The failure, if there truly was one, in the "relationship" is that it didn't work out, not that she did anything to keep it from working out. I will say that it sounds like it was an online relationship, something which is notorious for not succeeding. It can start that way, but it takes real time togetherness to create anything lasting.

Haven't been there (thank goodness) but I would imagine recovery would be the same or less than the original surgery, and likely without the all liquid restriction, etc. since they aren't doing anything to your stomach. I've heard they really anchor it down if they have to do anything to it after it's first placed, so it might be a little more sore than after your first surgery. Good luck, and keep us posted!

CONGRATULATIONS!! Hope to join you in a couple of months. Soshal, I know what too full feels like! You cant even swallow your own spit and it feels like a huge rock in your chest. I had to have an unfill and literally it felt like that rock melted away in a matter of a couple of seconds. What relief!

When I was on mushies, I was still drinking protein shakes. I could eat gritns, soft-cooked eggs, cream soups, mashed potatoes, oatmeal, cream of wheat, farnina, grits, pudding, yogurt, that sort of stuff. And don't forget your water!!!

Relax, after my EKG I was told I had to do the stress test thing. I wasn't thrilled but what do you say? I have no achilles tendon in my right leg and can't wear a shoe with a back in it, so no athletic shoes so they did the stress test with an injection. No big deal at all. They'll probably do an echo cardiogram with the stress test which involves a radioactive isotope being injected and "photographed" a couple of times. Don't worry about it, I doubt they'll postpone your surgery for any reason.

No, you haven't stretched your pouch. Post-op swelling is just going away. That offered some restriction but as that goes away and you progress through mushy foods to "real food", you'll be in bandster hell....no restriction, able to eat pretty much anything and everything, and hungry. It's very trying but you'll be fine.

Resin, by then you should be able to eat pretty much anything. You'll just need to be conscious about getting in all your protein and not eating the abundance of junk and slider food available in a place like Disney. You can usually get semi-decent stuff (I've even gotten salads at Disney and Sea World before); they won't be fantastic but they'll pass. In a pinch, get a burger and throw away the bread (i've done that a couple of times too). Your first fill will be a relief from bandster hell but will certainly not put you at your sweep spot, so you'll have to make good choices and not go crazy. I went on an 8 day cruise just a few days after my first fill. I survived. Sometimes, there was a lot of temptation (24 hour pizza, ice cream and cookies in the afternoon, etc.) but I managed to steer clear 99% of the time. You should do just fine!