ParrotheadCathy

I was told no regular pasta at all and whole wheat pasta in very small amounts. Really, why would you want the plain pasta when the whole wheat is simply healthier, regardless of the band? I switched over to whole wheat pasta when it first hit the marketplace. You have to cook it a couple of minutes long but I like it just fine. haven't eaten ANY pasta since getting banded, but that's by choice.

You say she had weight loss surgery but not whether it was lap band or gastric bypass. Gastric Bypass causes such a rapid drastic weight loss that the skin never has a chance to catch up. Lap band affords you a more normal weight loss and your skin can tighten up. I started at 284 on 1/2/09; surgery on 2/10 and today I am down 51 pounds. A lot of my weight loss is around my hips. I'm 58 years old and I will tell you that I worried about the possibility of loose skin but so far, my skin is tightening up nicely. I will not have the hard body of a 25 year old no matter how much I exercise or how much weight I lose but I feel like I will be pretty typical for my age. And, like others have said...you have two choices: stay fat and die young without POSSIBLE wrinkly loose skin, or lose the weight, live a longer and happier life and MAYBE have some wrinkly loose skin.

I'm thinking a BMI of over 40 for three years is a stand-alone on qualification. The BMI can be less if there are documented and under-treatment comorbidities.

Are you taking prescription pain meds? If so, try to substitute liquid tylenol. Pain meds cause nausea in some people. If you do without them and that "ick" feeling goes away, you have your answer. Abdm 5 days post op, you should be able to give them up.

I have one incision that is 2", where the port is; another that is about 1"; and 3 "poke holes". All the poke holes were "lumpy" at first but I'm just over 2 months post-op and they are flat now. I have a friend who has an addition incision and another who has a 4th "poke hole", so I'm thinking you're typical.

Relax, you haven't stretched your pouch out. The problem is simply (!) you have virtually no restriction with only 1.5cc so when you eat, it passes out of your pouch fairly quickly and (2) you are so eager to feel that mystical restriction that you're stressed out over not feeling it. Your description of a dinner isn't bad really...especially with no more restriction than you have. Maybe try changing up meals...for breakfast eat eggs instead of cereal. Change the type of exercise you are doing or increase it some. Make sure you are drinking at least 64 oz Water a day. And, as I posted on this same thread earlier: "I was told to eat the kind of meal I'd been instructed ... about 3/4 cup of food, Protein first (at least 20 grams), steamed veggies and if I was still hungry a small serving of carbs. Then I was told that if I got hungry between meals, to eat 1 oz of low fat cheese or a boiled egg (I only eat the whites because the yellow is where all the cholesterol and fat are located)." If you are so hungry, eat a snack .... but make it protein. Protein takes longer to digest than anything else you can put in your mouth, so it will stay in your pouch longer and hold off hunger longer.

By my first fill, I was so darned hungry it was strictly bare knuckles to not eat anything in the house (and since I don't live alone, there is stuff here that I certainly have no business eating, LOL). At my first fill (on 2/10), they drew out all the fluid in the band ... .6cc was left in when the doctor tested the band for leaks before he placed it. The nurse practitioner added 4 ccs and I was told to sit and drink a glass of water. And it just got tighter and tighter, until I couldn't swallow any water. So they drew out 1cc. It was like a rock in my chest melted away as she withdrew that little bit of saline. At 3.6, I certainly wasn't at my sweet spot, but I went on a cruise (can you say 24 hour food?) and didn't partake of the desserts, the french fries and cheeseburgers and pizza that was in my face. So I will say that the fill that I had was enough to get me going. When I got home, I weighed .... no loss, no gain. And I was very happy with that because I've read (and experienced) so many times that people gain an average of 10 pounds on a week long cruise. And after that, the weight started dropping consistently. I went for my second fill on 3/31. The NP and I discussed it and I really didn't want to go back to 4.6 and maybe experience being too full again...plus, I had been in a pretty bad car accident the day before and was bruised pretty badly across my chest and lower abdomen from the airbag and seat belt. The guy that caused the wreck got out of his car and he was fine. I have a broken finger and torn ligaments in my hand, too. Anyway, we mutually decided to go with .5cc, which puts me at 4.1. Still not at my sweet spot but closer. I still get hungry between lunch and dinner, mostly because I have to eat lunch 12:30 - 1:30 and don't get home until 7:00 and that is way too long between meals. My NP told me to eat solid protein at lunch (no soup, which of course is sooo easy) and to eat an ounce of cheese or an ounce of meat before I leave work at 5:30. That works for me. I'm losing consistently still, and a little fast than before the second fill. I'm happy! I hoped to lose 50 pounds by June 12 -- my 40th high school reunion is 6/12-13 anda 50 would take me to less than I weighed at the last one 5 years ago. Well, as you see by my ticker, I've already made it. I get my third fill on 4/30 and I'm planning on losing another 20 if I can by June 12. I've never met a weight loss goal like the one I just beat (setting a date and meeting it, much less beating it) and if I don't lose 20, I'll still be happy with whatever I do lose.

Jules, anesthesia issues happen. And you should mention that to your surgeon. Before surgery you should get a chance to talk further with the anesthesiologist. One good thing is that this is a very short surgery (less than an hour for most of us).Your surgeon may want to get the file from the surgeon who did the gallbladder removal so that he can review the notes regarding that surgery and specifically, the anesthesia drug used and the details of the complications. You might want to ask for your files now so that you will have them. Just to pave the way...and to relieve your mind.

Doc, I'm not sure I can do justice to describing "full" but I'll try. If you eat slowly and chew your food well, your stomach (vagus nerve, I think) has time to tell your brain it doesn't need anymore. What does it feel like? We're a board full of former overeaters, so I'm hoping you'll know what I mean when I say it's like before surgery, when you'd get a plate of food and dig in....and before you were done you slowed down and maybe had a fleeting thought of quitting but you kept going until the plate was clean (or until you had seconds....been there, too). It's not that stuffed full like after Thanksgiving, no where close. And I've had to pay attention to really recognize it. My nurse practitioner suggested leaving a few bites of my recommended size meal on the plate and if I did feel like I needed it, perhaps I had not quite made it to full. I find I can usually leave a couple of bites on my plate and not find an hour later that I wished I'd eaten those bites. So I'm learning.

They pump your abdominal cavity full of gas at the start of surgery to give them a little more room to work it. It has to be absorbed by your body and disposed of in urine. Give it a little time.

Have they ever tried just a small unfill? Like .5cc or less? You have all the symptoms of being too tight (night cough, reflux) but I can see you really don't want a significant unfill. Sometimes as little as .2cc removed can make the difference between where you are and where you want to be. The situation you're in happens a lot... and should just require a small adjustment to correct the problem. I would ask the doctor to remove .2 or .3 and see what happens.

Never heard that....are you sure it's not gas? the darn stuff moves around. Does a heating pad help any? If I were you and deciding what doctor to go to, I would call my surgeon first and just talk to them. If they have an answer (or an idea of the problem), great! If not, call the doctor who has treated you for kidney stones.

From Day 1 post op, I have taken a "dose" of Benefiber, With the exception of one little bit of constipation when I went from liquid to mushy, I have had no problems whatsoever.

Lipstix, what you describe is the difference between "head hunger" and true physical hunger. Most of us who have been overweight ate a lot of food and usually ate much too quickly. We ran right past the sensation of fullness and hit head-on the OGM I ate too much. And that contributed a great deal to our weight problems. The band requires that you take the time to chew each bite well and that makes you take more time to eat your meals (and, I've found, more time to appreciate the quality of the food you eat, so it's turned me into a picky eater, LOL). When you get to "full" you actually have the chance to feel it. When you feel like you want to keep eating in spite of that, it's not true hunger. It's your head telling you to keep eating. That's "head hunger".

My doctor's office offers numbing but the way I figure it, I get one stick I'd feel no matter what. And it's not a bad stick at all. I was told they withdraw the fluid in the band to make sure what's there. Apparently, over time, there can be a small amounto f evaporation and they want to keep you at the level you were and then add to that.

I believe the old 4cc bands dropped from use completely and are not even being manufactured for more than a year now.

More answers than you ever expected: It's time for my first "Fill" - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum My port (and everybody I know who has the lap band) is to the left of center and is inserted at the largest incision (about 2" long). The port is stitched into place and that location will be sore at first and tender for a while after surgery. I cannot feel my port if I press on the area but my nurse practitioners know exactly where it is. The whole process is painless for me, even without a numbing shot. It takes less than a couple of minutes to swab the site, prepare the hypodermic, draw out the fluid in the band and then put it back with a little extra. I can kind of feel the decrease in pressure on my stomach when they take the fluid out and I get a sensation of a little pressure when they put the fluid in.

You have the Realize band (made by Johnson & Johnson) which has been on the market for about 3-4 years. And, you have the brand name Lap Band made by Allergan/Inamed which was the first one. The present iteration (10cc/14cc) has been in use for about 7 years. They work the same. Unless people are told by their surgeon what brand they have I'm betting they have no way of figuring it out. Most surgeons have a preference; mine uses the Lap Band band. I've never heard of a patient being asked what they thought would work best for them on anything....I mean, on what would you base your decision about a prosthetic leg? A pacemaker? An ICD (in-chest defibrillator)? Or, a lap band? We're not medically trained. The size band, etc. are decisions I WANT my doctor to make for me. After all, his experience and knowledge about what works best is what I'm paying for.

I can only offer what I've been told, what I've experienced. I have had two fills. I have 4.1cc in a 10cc band. After the first fill which put me at 3.6cc (they actually took me to 4.6 but had to do an unfill because I couldn't swallow water). I was told to eat the kind of meal I'd been instructed ... about 3/4 cup of food, protein first (at least 20 grams), steamed veggies and if I was still hungry a small serving of carbs. Then I was told that if I got hungry between meals, to eat 1 oz of low fat cheese or a boiled egg (i only eat the whites because the yellow is where all the cholesterol and fat are located). That has worked wonderfully for me. By the time you add all the liquids you need to drink (at least 64 oz of water a day), you have something in your mouth almost all the time it seems like. After my second fill, I realized I am getting very close to my sweet spot. But I have days where I do get hungry between meals, so I eat my little snack of protein.

I should also have said that you have GAS. Try Gas-X strips and a heating pad over the area that hurts. And, walking will help gas a lot!

Reflux usually occurs when you are lying down. The sphincter valve at the top of the stomach, where the esophagus connects to your stomach, leaks the contents of your stomach back into your esophagus. That means partially digested food and stomach acid. As someone just mentioned on another thread, Zantac 150 which you can buy over the counter is excellent for heartburn, etc. But you don't have reflux if you don't have liquid coming back into your esophagus from your stomach.

My cardiologist wanted me to take a baby aspirin every day. At the time of surgery, I discontinued all my medications for diabetes, high blood pressue and elevated cholesterol ... BUT my surgeon said any pill that was small would probably never cause me a problem and that I could take a baby aspirin every day AS LONG AS IT IS ENTERIC COATED. That keeps it from dissolving in your stomach; instead, it dissolves in your intestines.

They do introduce gas into your abdominarl cavity to give the surgeon more room in which to work. That has to be absorbed to be removed from the body.

I added some pureed vegetables to my chicken stock, pureed tomatoes to my beef stock...that sort of thing. Pureeing whatever rings your chimes is an EXCELLENT way to eat around the band and not lose an ounce. And if I want the taste of a Snickers bar, well I do have a stash of liquer called Nutz 'n Rum....tastes just like a Snickers bar washed down with rum, LOL. Funny, I never did like to actually EAT a Snickers bar but sometimes a little of that stuff tastes so good.

Stuck feels like a large rock stuck in your esophagus. Your first instinct is to drink something .... small sips.....but even that can feel sort of stuck on top of whatever is already stuck. Be very careful. Standing up very straight seems, for me to make it a bit more comfortable and with the exception of only one time, with continued small sips of water it finally moved. The one time it didn't ended in a PB (productive burp). That's when you body says whatever it is isn't going on down, so you start salivating like crazy and then up it comes. Some people have thought they were having projectile vomiting the way it comes right up and out your mouth. It's not mixed with stomach acid, you don't really heave, and once it's out, it's a relief. Most people who have had a PB said they were eating too fast or didn't really chew their food well enough....so watch out for that!