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I got banded at the end of Feb. My first two fills didn't work at all because the nurse was a nitwit and didn't even get the saline in the band. So....I've had five fills total, but since two of them didn't work at all (and the doctor totally recognizes/admits this) I've really only had 3 fills. First "real" fill was in May for 3 ccs. I felt nothing at all. Second "real" fill was in May again for 1.5 ccs and again I felt nothing at all. Last "real" fill was in early June for .75ccs and that one worked. I FINALLY feel restriction! I have a total of 5.3 ccs currently I haven't lost a single pound. So I finally feel restriction which is good. On the other hand, I never had a problem with watching what I eat and restricting my food on my own. I eat very healthfully. I track ever morsel of food and drink I put in my body. I eat plenty of protein, lots of veggies. I watch my calorie intake. I exercise too. I go to the gym for cardio and strength training. I rollerblade at lunchtime. I hike, mountain climb, canoe, walk with my girlfriends, bicycle after work, etc. I tried for YEARS to lose weight the healthy way before lapband surgery. Calories in vs. Calories out. Watch what you eat, exercise, get the right amount of weight training vs. cardio. I've been to nutritionists and dieticians. I was unable to lose weight. Instead the weight just kept piling on. So I turned to the lapband, and now I'm four months into the band and I haven't lost a single pound. WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THAT? I feel like a rotten failure. And now I wonder why I got the lapband because now I have to deal with food getting stuck...gassy all the time, etc. The only think I can think of that might be stopping weight loss is this (WARNING GROSS CONVERSATION AHEAD) A lot of time, maybe 3 times a week, my food goes "out" completely undigested. It looks the same getting pooped out as it did going in. I can EASILY identify...yup, there's lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion. It's not digested at all. This doesn't happen every time I poo, but it happens several times a week. If my body isn't digesting the food, maybe it's in "starvation mode" and thinking that I'm not eating at all? What could be causing my food to be completely undigested? I didn't have gastric bypass, so all my food is going through my stomach and intestines like it should be. Is this a common side effect of lapbanders? Ack, help. I am really bummed over this lack of weight loss.

Hi y'all.... I had my band in 2009. I reached my goal weight in 2011 (2 years later), having lost over 100 pounds. I've been in "maintenance mode" for 2 years now, and have been within 7 pounds of my goal weight for the 2 years since reaching GW. A few months back, I started having acute stomach pain. I visited my bariatric surgeon, and we did a whole bunch of tests and decided that the pain was stemming from my gallbladder. Last week I had my gallbladder removed. Surgery went well, and I'm recovering quickly! (It's a breeze this time, since I have "been there, done that" with my bariatric surgery!) Has anyone else had their gallbladder removed? What have been major dietary changes? Have you found it affect your band at all? I'm noticing that I've been a bit gassy this week, but that could just be post-op effect. I haven't noticed (so far) any foods that I cannot eat, but hey, it's only been a few days. I'm very surprised that I am not experiencing post-op band tightness. I thought for sure that when I was retaining Water following surgery, that my band would get VERY tight. On the contrary; it is just as loose as normal. (I think I'll probably go in for a fill, once I'm fully recovered from gallbladder surgery. Just normal, every-couple-of-month band maintenance.) Any info you can share about your post- gallbladder surgery would be appreciated!

How I lost 102 pounds 8 Easy Secrets of My 102-Pound Weight-Loss Success I was banded in February of 2009 and just shy of 2 years later, in December of 2011, I reached my goal weight! I started at 225 pounds, a size 22/24. In December I reached 123 pounds and a size 2/4. I wrote this little excerpt in the hopes of helping some newly-banded people as they start their journey. I hope this doesn't seem too cheesy! Please let me know if any of you have any questions of need any help. It's hard not to compare my weight loss this time versus all the attempts at weight loss that I've made in the past. What am I doing differently this time versus previous times? What's working? What tips do I have for others that want to lose weight? This post explains exactly what I've learned so far, and why this is working for me and other attempts have not. I want to preface this list with a quick comment about weight loss surgery. Two+ years ago I had the gastric banding surgery. Yes, the surgery has helped me lose weight, but NO the surgery is not necessarily a magic tool that has enabled my weight loss. In fact, my surgeon told me that most people who have weight loss surgery aren't successful at all! Why not? Because some people don't change their habits, or learn to "eat around the band," meaning that they are gobbling up ice cream and milk shakes, which may be "easy" to eat, but are smothered in calories. No, the surgery isn't magic cure-all, but it has helped. Weight-Loss should be easy. I can't stress this enough, and I know you're probably sitting there looking at me like I'm off my rocker. I'm serious though. I'm devoting far less effort and energy into losing weight this time around than last time. Sure, this may be due in part to the weight-loss surgery, but not entirely. You see, prior to my recent loss, I was: counting calories, measuring food. I was going out of my way to eat healthfully. I exercised a minimum of an hour a day, six days a week. I worked hard to find the perfect combination of cardio vs. weight training. I paid for a personal trainer. I paid for weight watchers. I obsessed over the scale. I tried Atkins, South Beach, Zone, Master Cleanser, and a zillion other fad diets. And you know what? Those fad diets are HARD because they force you to live dissimilarly than your usual lifestyle. Fad diets are hard work. Let me repeat this: weight loss should be easy. If you're spending hours and hours a day actively "working on losing weight" then you need to take a step back and re-evaluate how you're going about your weight loss. This time around I try hard to make good eating choices, but I don't always get it right. (In the past, I'd be 100% diligent to my plans, but with ZERO success on the scale.) I try to get some exercise in, but I don't always succeed. The point is, I'm just trying to live well and do the best I can, but I'm not obsessing and going nuts over trying to lose weight, and you shouldn't either. After all, don't we have families and careers and more important things that we should be spending the better part of our time on? It's 80% about the food and 20% about the exercise. When I first started out losing weight, I had all but given up on exercise. I don't like working out. I don't like going to the gym. At the start of my current journey, I had given so much blood, sweat, and tears at the gym with ZERO reward that I flat-out burnt myself out. So when this new weight loss journey began, I wasn't exercising at all. It didn't matter. I'm no scientist, but just an observation of mine: the more weight you have to lose, the less your weight loss is about the exercise. Instead, focus your attention on getting your eating under control, picking healthy options, eating often (more about that below). As you start to lose weight, you'll naturally have more energy and will pick up the exercise factor, as it fits into your life. As you inch closer to your goal weight, you should exercise more and more. Exercise is crucial to weight maintenance, but not so much about weight loss. Because I'm so close to my goal weight, I exercise perhaps 3-4 times a week, but I don't freak out about it if I miss a gym session. Eat small meals, and eat often. I realized about 30 pounds into my weight loss journey that I was no longer eating "meals" at all. Instead, I was grazing. Snacking. All day long. I'd nibble on this, and I'd nibble on that. This is entirely due to the band, and without the gastric band I never would have discovered this important aspect of weight loss. So this is what my prior-to-weight-loss dieting attempts would look like: I'd either skip Breakfast or have some oatmeal. For lunch I'd have a 6 inch sub from subway, with vinegar as dressing. For dinner I'd have some steamed veggies and grilled chicken. Period. The end. The food choices were seemingly good, but I was eating too much, and only at two sittings. Your body apparently doesn't like this. Today, I eat 5-6 times a day, but only 150-200 calories of food at any given sitting. I never eat a "meal" anymore. The great thing about eating small portions of food is that I can pretty much eat whatever I want, and I think the variety is really healthy for my body. I'm less obsessed over eating "diet food" and allow myself to eat "real food" during these mini-meals. (I eat a lot of Soup these days, especially at restaurants, because it's the perfect portion size!) Pay attention to your body, not the USDA. Okay, do a little math now. If I'm only eating 150 calories per meal, 6 times a day…that means I'm eating….900 calories a day? Say what? Are you crazy? No I'm not! So in my Quest to lose weight, I scrutinized how many calories a typical woman should be eating, according to the USDA. They say 2,000 for a sedentary female 19 to 30 years old. BMR calculators told me I should eat 1,774 calories. Well, no wonder I wasn't losing weight! I was either trying to eat "just right" and follow one of those crazy guidelines, or pretty much starving myself trying to save as many calories as humanly possible.Now look. I'm not going to tell you to eat only 900 calories a day. I also don't think you should listen to the USDA. Instead, listen to your own body. I truly believe that every person has their own calorie setpoint that they like to be at. For me, I think that my weight-stabilizing point is around 1000-1100 calories. To lose about a pound or two a week, I need to target 800-900 calories per day. This is the point that works for me, but it may not work for you. You need to experiment a little bit to figure out what your calorie setpoint is, but the only way you can do that is to pay close attention to your body. Avoid carbs, but don't eliminate them entirely. I mostly eat whatever I want these days, but there are a few nit-picky little trends that I've identified. I don't know if these really contribute to weight loss or not, but I figure they were worth mentioning. Because of my gastric band, I avoid carbs. They get stuck in my stomach and it's quite uncomfortable. Consequently, I just avoid eating bread products, pastries, Pasta of any kind, French fries, rice, and things like that. That means no pizza!! Boohoo!! My favorite food is forevermore off limits to me! On the other hand, I don't completely cut out the carbs. My opinion is that if you're going to eat carbs, take them from real living plants: rice, potatoes, quinoa, etc. Stay away from things that are mixed with man-made products (bread, pasta) and are refined, processed, and look nothing like their main ingredient anymore. Eat real food. Quit feeding yourself "fat-free" and "sugar-free" and "low-calorie" garbage. Look, the stuff is gross and for good reason: it's not real food. Treat yourself to real food, and yes, please eat foods that are rich in fat. I'm talking about real cheese. Avocados. Almonds. eggs. Even indulge in real ice cream on rare occasions, and butter, and olive oil. (You know that candy bars and potato chips aren't "real food," so let's not even go there.) Stay away from foods that are processed and refined and look for food that has real flavor. Now, remember that I only eat 150 calories at any given sitting, so 150 calories of butter or cheese is not going to go very far. I might eat some hummus with 1 Tbs of feta cheese on tomato wedges. Or Peanut Butter on an apple slice. Watch your portion sizes carefully, but ahead and eat the real stuff. Stay away from soda, even diet soda. For that matter, avoid anything with man-made sweeteners, carbonated fizziness (which only helps to EXPAND your stomach), corn syrup, or processed crap. Okay, I'll have a beer maybe once a week, which I probably shouldn't, but as a general rule I don't consume sodas anymore. I used to drink Diet Pepsi like it was going out of style. No more! Drink Water, but do so carefully. This is a little trick that my weight loss surgeon taught me. One hour prior to eating, chug a ****-ton of water. Then while you are eating your meal and for one hour following your meal, don't drink anything. The theory behind this is: (1) the water prior to your meal fills you up, and (2) avoiding water during your meal means that you are not physically flushing the food out of your stomach. Because the food remains in your stomach (3) you end up feeling fuller, for longer. It really does work. Try it sometime. A fun before pic! Me now:

I agree with what the others have said above. It's fairly normal to not feel restriction until after several fills. Keep going to the doctor and getting fills, and eventually you WILL feel something! (When you feel restriction, there's no mistaking it!) That being said...it is possible that your doctor is missing your port area and not getting the saline into your band. That happened to me....for the first 6 months (approximately 8-or-so fills) I felt NO RESTRICTION. This is because the physician's assistant SUCKED and wasn't injecting the saline properly. Going this long without restriction is unusual; if it continues after, say, 4 visits and you still don't feel any restriction, insist on a consultation with your surgeon to see what he has to say. No restriction after several visits could be an indication that any number of things have gone wrong (bad injections; a leaky band; malfunctioning port; etc.) So....yes, it's normal after 2 visits, but just be aware that you should be feeling restriction SOON! And don't be afraid to speak up and talk to your doctor if you have any questions or concerns!

In my experience, little, somewhat constant burping after eating, following a fill, is very normal! So is some acid reflux. Of course, large amounts of burping or extremely painful acid reflux (esp. to the point where you want to vomit from it) is NOT GOOD. But yeah...small amounts of burping is all normal. The next time you see your doctor, you may want to ask about a prescription for an antacid, or look into getting some prevacid.

Wow! Thank you for all the lovely responses! I admit, I'm a bit surprised that this thread has been revived after so long, but I'm glad that some people find the advice useful on their own journeys. As for me, I've been at my goal weight and in "maintenance mode" for 2 years now...and I'm doing great! Every day is a challenge, and I still find it difficult to: (1) eat small meals, (2) choose healthy options, like Protein over chocolate, (3) to listen to my body instead of what the mainstream media tells me, (4) exercise more. Despite the every day challenges, I'm doing okay; I'm still in my maintenance zone. YAY for the band! I love how it has changed my life! And I love how it has allowed me the self-confidence to make even bigger and more profound changes in my life, as well. In a lot of ways, getting the band has just been the start of a positive snow-ball effect in my life. :-)

Yesterday I had my surgery to replace my gastric banding port. I was replacing it because it became detached and was floating around quite obviously and was a nuisance. (However, the port's ability to give me "fills" still worked.) Here are some "before" pictures of why I wanted to get it fixed: This is from about a week ago. This is a more extreme angle (looking down on it)…here is what it looked like yesterday before going into surgery: Prior to this surgery I had met with my surgeon twice to discuss my options with the port. You'd be surprised at how many options there are! My options were slightly more complicated since I've lost a lot of weight and have less fat on my body, which means there are fewer places to hide this bad boy. (I discuss this in more detail, with some photos of how the port is actually attached on the abdomen,in this post.) The options included: 1.) Putting it back where it was originally and just re-attaching the brackets into the abdomen. With this option the port would still be seen through the skin, slightly, since it is raised up an inch or so. The port could be moved to another location, such as under my breasts or on my side, but to be honest it would show even more there since there is less fat and skin there. However, it could be moved to another location.; 2.) Place the port UNDER my abdomen, which would require any future fills to penetrate through the abs and "guessing" where the port is located underneath. This would make the port unnoticeable under the skin; 3.) Cut a hole into the abs and embed the port in the abdomen. This would allow the port to lay flat and would be completely unnoticeable under the skin. However, this may comprimise my movement with my abs; 4.) Of course, because I have reached my goal weight (more or less), there is always the option to remove the port entirely. He could plug any remaining Fluid in the band, cap off the end of the hose, and just take out the port. If I wanted any fills in the future he would actually have to make an incision into my skin, find the hose, and do it messily and manually, but it could be done. I met with another bariatric surgeon at another hospital to get a 2nd opinion. He recommended re-attaching the device exactly where it was originally on the abs, and just securing the port properly this time. I agreed with the logic of this, and returned to my surgeon and requested that this be done. Yesterday was the big day! Pre-Operation I had no pre-operation testing done, as I had to with the original gastric banding surgery. I had no psychological exam, no overall physical. I did not need to get a referral from my general physician. I did not have to do the breath test. I did not have to drink that horrible barium drink. I did not have to get X-rays (probably only because you could clearly see the detached port, without the need for the X-ray!). I did not need to get any blood tests done. No pre-testing at all. I simply called my surgeon to say, "I'm ready for this to happen; can we please schedule it?" I was told not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before surgery. I did not have to do that full line of laxatives. Day of Surgery I showed up at the hospital yesterday at 9 a.m. and checked in at the main desk. They took me to the surgery's waiting room where I checked in a second time. They gave me my wrist band there. After waiting for a few short minutes they ushered me into the prep area. They asked me to undress and put on the room (disrobing everything–no bra or underwear). They gave me booties and a saucy little cap to wear. I took out all body jewelry. They asked me 1010 questions about my overall heath and medical history, my emergency contact information. They had me sign a few forms of paperwork consenting to the surgery, the anesthesia, etc. The nurses took my vitals (blood pressure, temperature, pulse, CO2 levels). There was nothing invasive about this, nothing painful. I was in a good mood, actually–I couldn't wait to get this done! My surgeon had originally requested that I only have local anesthesia, which means that I would be drugged up but essentially awake during the surgery. However, when my anesthesiologist came in, he recommended that I have a combination of local and general anesthesia, and I wholeheartedly agreed with him. I did NOT want to be awake for a single moment of it! I happily signed the consent form for the combination treatment. My surgeon, Doctor P, came in to say hello to me and to discuss exactly what was going to be done. We agreed that we would replace the port on top of the abs, in the same location (he uncovered my robe–with a nice view of my cootch of course–to look at any other options for putting the port. We didn't really see any, so we decided to keep it in the same spot. He explained that he would go over the old incision this time, then place the port a few inches to the right of the incision. (The port can't be directly under the incisioin because it would probably pop through it.) He could, however, replace the port with one that is smaller in circumference and lower profile. What do I mean by "lower profile?" Well, you can kind of see the difference in these two photos. The picture on top clearly is higher/more raised up than the port in the 2nd photo. I believe he changed my port to a smaller/lower port. He said that the port is attached using something comparable to a nail gun that is strapped into the abdomen. During this process Doctor P asked if he could look at my body to assess my loose skin. He asked if I was interested in getting a tummy tuck or have loose skin taken care of. I said, "HELL YES and please feel free to take care of that today if you can!" He laughed and said he couldn't. He looked at my skin and it's honestly not that bad, but the worst area is definitely my lower tummy. He asked if I would like to meet a plastic surgeon, and I said yes please. I thought me meant a referral, but no–he walked out and returned with a plastic surgeon friend of his who was in the hospital today. That plastic surgeon took a look at me and said he could help. (again, lifting my gown–another full cootch shot! I swear I was a vagina-flashing machine yesterday) and actually laughed when I asked if insurance might possibly pay for the cosmetic surgery, to which he said, "oooh definitely not. You don't have enough loose skin." But he gave me his card and said that we could definitely negotiate a price–he chargest flexible rates that vary depending on the amount of work that needs to be done. When he left the room my nurse whispered, "I've seen his work and he's VERY good, if you were interested in that." Hmmmm….interesting! After that it was just a few minutes of waiting. They added some pain killer to my I.V. and then they wheeled me into the Operating Room around noon. I remember looking up at the lights in the O.R. and they were a little fuzzy to me, so I asked the nurse, "Was that pain killer you added to my IV back there?" and she said yes. About .000005 seconds later I blanked out. And that was it! The surgery itself lasted an hour and a half, which really surprised me that it took so long! I woke up around 1:30 in the recovery room. I remember during my original surgery I took about an hour and a half or 2 hours to wake up from my anesthesia fog. This time it was about 20 minutes tops. And I felt really rested and recooped too! My abs ached a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. On the pain scale (0=none; 10=lots) I was about a 4. I felt pretty good! I drank a little apple juice, changed my clothes (a little painful, since it involved the use of my abs), played a game on the Ipad with my husband, and then they wheeled me out of the hospital. That's it! After Surgery I was really surprised at how painless this surgery was, especially compared with the original surgery. I had my hubby pick up my prescription to pain meds on his way back from taking the cat to the vet. They prescribed my Oxycodone, which surprised me! That's heavy duty stuff! Well, let me tell you what….about 2 hours after I got home the medicine they gave me started to wear off, and the pain level significantly increased. One oxy, and it was much better. I went to bed at night with no problem. But when I woke up, ooooh my pain was up to a 6!! OWCH! I took 2 Oxys and I'm feeling significantly better now. As for food, yesterday I had soup–tomato Soup and then chicken noodle soup. I realized afterwards that it went down SUPER easily. I am not sure, but I suspect some saline came out of the band when they replaced the port. (((insert sad face here))) I hope that's not the case, but I have to see my doc in a week anyway, so I can just get filled up at that time. I wonder how the surgeon knows that the new seal around the port is working properly? Hmmm. Today I will move to more solid foods to see how my tightness level is. Here is a picture of my tummy today…already I can tell that there is less "pooch" to my stomach because of the flatter port, even though my tummy is significantly swollen from the surgery. I think that pretty much covers everything. If you have any questions, just ask!

Sounds like what happened to me! Some of the clamps holding down one side of my port came loose. It wasn't noticeable when I had more weight to lose, but man did it become noticeable after a while! http://www.phoenixrevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/IMG_4888.jpg Here's some posts on my blog about different options for putting the port back on... http://www.phoenixrevolution.net/archives/248 http://www.phoenixrevolution.net/archives/1942 http://www.phoenixrevolution.net/archives/248 Hope that helps a little bit! If you have any questions, just holler.

Anume -- You can survive anything for 10 days! It'll be challenging, but at least there's an end date in sight. The surgery is so worth it in the end! Every time it becomes a challenge, just remember all the reasons why you want to go through with this. Write those reasons down and carry with them in your pocket if you need a reminder.

What was your original instructions from your doctor? I was only allowed to do the Medifast shakes -- no solid foods at all. I think some people combine shakes + 1 small meal a day. Are you overeating? Consuming too many calories, too big of portions? Are you drinking more shakes than you were prescribed?

I know my doctor had different prices for self-pay patients, so I KNOW that they would talk to you when it comes to payment options. However, your BMI is pretty low...they required me to have a BMI of 40. Still, it wouldn't hurt to have a consultation. It'll be a 2 hour drive for you to come to Schenectady. Talk to Ellis Bariatric Hospital: http://www.ellishospital.org/bariatrics/our-bariatric-surgeons.aspx

Yes! I was successful after a bad start! I didn't lose a single pound for about 6 months following surgery. It turns out my dumbassed Physician's Assistant wasn't actually injecting the saline into my band, so I wasn't getting restriction. For those 6 months I felt like the biggest failure, like I made the biggest mistake in the world! I then demanded to see my surgeon (I received my fills directly from him afterwards) and then started to see results slowly. It took me a total of 2 years to lose the weight after surgery, but I made it to my goal weight eventually! Hang in there and be patient! If you get frustrated, be honest and talk to your doctor about it.

I think your doctor can also give you a novacaine (localized anesthetic) shot in the stomach before going at you with the big needle. I had that done once, but found the novacaine needle was more painful than the big needle, but perhaps you'd feel differently.

I agree with what the others said -- it depends on your doctor. I have a friend that got her band done in Mexico. She got a HUGE fill pretty soon after her surgery, and she only had to get it tweaked once after that. I suppose that works out well because Mexico is a long way to go for a fill from New York. (This was when the surgery was new and there weren't many doctors doing them in the USA.) On the other hand, I went in for a bajillion little fills during my journey. I can't imagine my surgeon ever agreeing to giving a BIG fill if he has the option. So yeah...I think it just depends on your surgeon and circumstances and whatnot. Talk to your doctor about it -- the worst thing that can happen is he'll tell you "no."

The adderall could be causing the band to feel tighter if the adderall causes you to retain water. The gastric band is absorptive and can actually absorb water--causing it to feel tighter. That's why a lot of people find that the band is tighter in the morning or when you have PMS. So when you're taking adderall, be sure to drink some extra water to flush any "bloat" out of your system. And make sure you're not eating salty foods. If the tightness continues, you should ask your doctor about it.

Don't worry! Your doctor will be able to find it. In the begginning stages of the band, it'll be a little bit more guess-work for your doctor to find it. He'll have the general location in mind, but he'll need to "jab" around a little bit with the needle to find the exact center of the port. (I remember my doctor jabbing around, which was uncomfortable but didn't actually hurt unless he jabbed my abs. THAT hurt. The rest of the time it was just weird.) As you lose weight, the port will become easier to feel, easier to find, and perhaps eventually able to be seen through the skin. (You can see my skin bulge ever so slightly where my port is.)

http://www.phoenixrevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/gastric_banding_incisions.jpg You can't even see the scars on me, really, without really looking: http://www.phoenixrevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Port2.jpg You can see the largest of the scars here: http://www.phoenixrevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMG_5098.jpg

My blog reader Kris was able to link me to an article explaining why our gastric bands feel tighter when we are stressed (or PMSing). How very interesting! The article can be found here. The answer is that the gastric band is a semi-permeable membrane that actually can absorb fluids in the body! Often times patients will come in because their Lap-band feels too tight. They find more difficulty with some foods, and are uncomfortable. They ask me “does stress cause the band to tighten?” The answer is, yes, it does. The biology of stress is this: when you have stress, be it physical stress (like an illness) or mental stress (like your mother-in-law coming by for a short two week visit)…the body reacts by retaining fluid. You may notice that wedding rings are tighter, and there is more swelling in the legs at night. The balloon of the adjustable Lap-band is a semi-permeable membrane, meaning it is osmotically active. In plain English: the more water you retain, some is transmitted to the band, so it swells. If a patient has 5.5 cc in their band (we measure it) and they come in and it feels tighter, we find they have 6 cc in the band. Where did the ½ cc come from? That is from the extra water the body is carrying. Since the balloon on the band is semi-permeable it will retain more water also. This is the same reason that most people find the Lap-band to be tighter in the morning. In the evening you may notice you have some swelling of your ankles – by gravity your body water has gone down to the legs. In the morning that swelling is gone, and the water has gone back to the central compartment of the body where the band is. If we measure the band in the morning it can have 0.25 to 0.5 cc more in it (which can make a difference). This is also why we don’t like bands being too tight. People need room for stress – of all kinds. Leaving room in the band to allow for this, means that patients will have fewer difficulties. Upon further web searching, I see that there are several scientific studies that have been performed that have verified this claim, such as this one here. This knowledge makes me realize two things: (1) When your band is too tight or too loose, don’t go running to your doctor to get it fixed right away. Give it a little time to see if the saline levels balance themselves back out. Also, (2) If you experience a “looser” band, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your band is leaking or is broken. First try increasing your fluid consumption and see if that fixes the problem. If there is a noticeable decrease in “restrictive feeling,” then go see your doctor.

I don't think that the band has any correlation to hemmeroids or kidney pain (I know that I haven't experienced that), but that's definitely a question for your doctor! Get that checked out! And as for tightness in the morning...yes! That's a common thing. The reason is because gastric band is a semi-permeable membrane that actually can absorb fluids in the body! There's an interesting article about it here: http://drsimpson.net/fills/Lap-band-surgery-support-science/notes-from-Dr-Terry-Simpson/Lap-band-Stress/Lap-band-Stress.html

For me...soup of all kinds! (Except soup with Pasta in it.) Tomato soup especially! Beans of all kinds has been invaluable. Baked beans, bean soup, bean dip, hummus, etc. cheese has been a great help. So has almonds! (Portion control is key with both foods though.) And yogurt!

That's a GREAT question, May! How do social outings affect me? I've got to say, I find it really challenging, especially because I'm in marketing so my job involves taking people out to lunch all the time. Yikes! I've had numerous embarressing situations where I've been talking to clients over a nice lunch and have to interrupt them to run to the bathroom to barf. Oy! For me, the biggest thing I have to watch is my alcohol consumption. It's very easy to continue to socialize and feel a part of the party by participating in alcohol, especially when you can't participate in sharing an order of chicken wings or nachos. So it's easy (for me) to turn to alcohol to kind of fuel that "I want to fit in with the group" need. If that sounds like you, then my advise is: (1) Sip your alcohol slowly; (2) drink Water in between your alcohol to slow you down; (3) choose lower-calorie beverages, such as choose vodka ("clear" alcohol") & juice over Baileys/Kaluha ("dark" alcohols). But in general, when it comes to socializing with the gastric band, some ideas are: * Socialize in non-eating situations, if possible. Go for a walk, a bike ride, canoeing, horseback riding, etc. You can get exercise, enjoy your social gathering, and not feel the pressure with food. To effectively do this, *YOU* should make the recommendation for the gathering first, rather than rely on other people to choose your activity. * Talk a lot. When you're talking, you're not eating. * Invite people over to your house. That way you control the food being served, you keep costs low (eating out to dinner is expensive!) and you can keep busy playing hostess, which means you're not spending so much time eating. * Choose restaurants with good Soup. Soup is my best friend! * Share dishes with your close friends/boyfriend/husband. That way you don't waste * Check out any local tapas bars. Small portion sizes! * Don't forget to chug a large glass of water before you eat. This will help slow you down, make you feel full, and prevent you from overindulging. * There can be a distinct juxtaposition as to when your body says you are done eating versus when your brain thinks you are done eating. When you body is done, immediately throw your (paper) napkin on your plate, turn your fork & knife over, push your plate physically away from you. This will help you brain understand that meal time is OVER. * When you're socializing with people that don't know that you've had weight loss surgery, prevent an embarressing situation by announcing before your meal that you may have to get up from the table. I might say, "Just so you know, I kind of have a medical issue where food gets stuck in my throat. So if I have to excuse myself from the table, please don't think I'm being rude!" It honestly does help make those abrupt departures a little less quirky. I hope a few of those tips help! Feel free to share your own tips, too!!

If you are in the capital district (Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga) area, then start by attending an introductory seminar that the Ellis Bariatric Center puts on. It gives and overview of the surgery, the pros and cons of it, etc. It will be a good place to get started. http://www.ellismedicine.org/Specialties/WeightLoss.aspx

Lizzy: Yes my insurance paid for the surgery. Yes they paid for it because the port was faulty. Would I replace the port if it hadn't come unstuck? I suppose that comes down to personal preference. I wouldn't personally. However, if your port was REALLY visible--like, it was eroding through your skin, etc., then you may want to.

Sure thing Peach. I have a lot of information about the gastric banding surgery itself on my blog too, if you're looking for more information and resources. www.phoenixrevolution.net (see link at the top of the page)