elcee

I agree. Fills are a non issue.

Don't give up on chicken - I can eat it most of the time. It needs to be moist,leg meat is better than breast and preferably in sauce of some kind. Eat really small bits and chew well before you swallow. If you do this you will probably find it is fine. Also what food works one day often won't the next as the band can be fickle! So don't give up on foods just try them again later.

PS. The ad's that they showed are not shown on TV here at all so how that was supposed to be relevant I have no idea.

I agree. It was very one sided and unbalanced. The guy that had a bad experience it had nothing to do with the band, it sounded like surgical error and that can happen with any surgery e.g tonsillectomies, vasectomies etc but you don't see them trying to scare people off those. You would have thought that Allergan were funding all the surgery and that Prof O Brien was the only surgeon doing the surgery the way Munro went on. Lapband is not the only band used but no mention was made of the other ones. All drug companies market their products heavily to the main users (Drs) that is normal. Why should that be an issue with the band when presumably its not an issue for a certain type of pacemaker or heart valve or whatever. Yes there can be negatives but these were not correctly shown. It would have been better to interview a person with GORD rather than someone who had a surgical error. I personally know people that were filmed at band camp giving positive stories about their banding experience and none of these interviews were used. But its typical. A sensationalist report with no depth.

Yes in Australia we do not teach the Heimlich as it causes too many problems. You can damage the liver,kidneys, spleen etc but the most likely scenario is that you do it incorrectly and put pressure on the stomach therefore forcing the stomach contents up which when you have a blockage in your oesophagus is obviously not a good idea! The first aid here is:- Get the person to relax, breath and cough. If this does not bring it up move on to upto 5 back blows.These should be done with the person leaning forward(seated is easiest) and are done in an upwards movement between the shoulder blades. If these don't work you then do 5 chest thrusts. Hand on front in CPR position - hand on back in equivalent position. Bring hands in together at same time. Obviously if you haven't removed the object you need to call 911/000/112 or whatever. Repeat back blows , then chest thrusts etc. If person loses consciousness/stops breathing commence CPR. HTH.

Hi Benjamin. There are a lot of previous threads that discuss this issue. Do a search and you will find them. It's quite a contentious issue as you will see from a recent thread!LOL

I gurgle all the time. I haven't spoken to my dr about it as to me its a non-issue. It doesn't hurt, isn't uncomfortable and is not causing me any problems.I'm sure it's just a normal part of the digestive process.

Well normally the closer you are to goal the harder it is to lose. Haven't you every noticed that the lbs come off far quicker at the start of a diet than towards the end. People who have lots of weight normally lose much quicker initially. It also depends on what you are eating before you start dieting. Someone that eats 4000 cal a day prior to banding and then reduces that to 1200 is going to lose a lot quicker than someone eating 2000 cal prior to banding.

Well I've lost weight previously. The last time I was successful was with the help of Reductil approx 5 years ago. Unfortunately once I stopped taking them the weight started to creep back up. Since then I have made many attempts to diet. I found them very hard to stick to as I WAS ALWAYS HUNGRY.Even when I was trying my best the weight did not seem to be shifting and I would give up.I have tried reductil since then and it did absolutely nothing for me , Xenical the same. I think as you get older it also gets harder and harder to shift the weight. I'm not menopausal yet but being in your 40s weight is a lot harder to shift than in your teens and twenties.As women I think our hormones are against us. With the band i have been able to cut the amount of food I eat without always feeling hungry. For me this is what has made the big difference.

I think we all wish we could have lost the weight on our own. But for most of us we couldn't or we could lose it and not keep it off. I certainly don't regret getting banded and wish I had it done years ago.

Glad to hear you are feeling better. I also had to have .25ml taken out a couple of weeks ago and it has made a huge difference.

You were quoting rules, I quoted the rule book that I was given by my surgeon. I am not trying to convince you that you should be drinking soda I am just trying to let the OP and anyone else that reads this thread know that they should be following the rules of their surgeon in regards to soda and anything else. I also stand by mine. Not sure why you want us to go looking for our feet - I know where mine are. LOL. Now can we just live and let live, following the rules of our own Dr? Congrats on your success so far - you have done really well. Have a great day or night or whatever it is in your part of the world.

I agree with you. It doesn't make sense. I just had to comment re the flip flops as I was so surprised that you were allowed to wear them in a workplace.

No I'm not looking for an argument. I wasn't the one that made the comment I find this very insulting. And this insinuates that someone that has an occasional soda is not committed and is just looking for excuses to eat anything. Again insulting. There are lots of different rules out there. Just because some Dr's have different opinions to yours does not make them any less valid. I think the most important thing is to always follow the rules that your Dr prescribes. He/she is the person that you trusted with your surgery so you should also be able to trust them with your aftercare.

I am surprised that you were ever allowed to wear flip flops to work. It would not be allowed here in Australia as it would be considered to be an OH & S (occupational health and safety ) issue.

This is a very blinkered view. Are you suggesting that your Dr's rules are correct and any Dr's rules that are different are incorrect. A lot of the so called rules that a lot of bandsters follow are rules that seem to have no scientific basis. There are rules which seem to be rules in certain countries which are not rules in others. I have just rechecked my "RULE" book. It was written by Prof. Chris O' Brien who was one of the original forerunners of the Lapband Surgery. There is no mention in it of no carbonation. Are you saying that he is incompetent and that anyone who follows his advice is a dummy...................? I hope not!

They have to work on averages. To be considered a success you need to lose between 50% - 66% of your EXCESS weight and I think that is over a period of 2 years. Everyone is different.Some people follow the rules , exercise lots and lose in excess of 100% of their excess weight. Others forget that the band is only a tool, expect it to work like a magic wand, don't stick to the rules and don't lose anywhere near as much weight. So how much you lose is really upto you.

The worry is that the carbonation may stretch the pouch.My Dr has told me that I can drink it so long as it doesn't cause me any problems.It is something that I have very rarely but so far it has not hurt or been uncomfortable. If you are concerned give your Dr a call and see what there opinion on it is.

Call your surgeon. Bright red blood would probably indictate that you have damaged the oesophagus or stomach lining. You may have eaten something that has got stuck and scratched or cut you. Dark blood that looks like coffee grounds is partially digested blood coming from the stomach somewhere. Or there could be some other explanation. Whatever the cause it is something you need to speak to your surgeon about as a matter of urgency. Hope all is OK.

When you eat foods that need to be chewed your stomach churns to digest them. This churning of the stomach can cause the band to slip. A period of time is required for the band to settle into place, stitches to heal etc which is why the Dr's prescribe liquid and mushy diets post op. So there you have it - in a nutshell - no lectures!

Well as yogurt is dairy it contains lactose which of course is a type of sugar. But it is the added sugars you need to look out for. There are plenty of yogurts available that are artificially sweetened. Be careful with Greek yogurt. It tastes divine, is unsweetened but it is also very high in fat. I am sure it is Ok in small quantities but you don't want to eat too much of it.

I know how everyone feels. At this stage I seem to be fighting to lose every kilo. The first 2 months went really well, the next 3 months I averaged 1.9kg a month and the last 3 weeks I have battled to lose 0.6! (NB I am working on a month being 4 weeks as its easier to weigh on the same day weekly and then I don't have some long and some short months. I have lost a total of 18.3kg(40.25lb) since my heighest preop weight earlier this year. I have approx 3.2kg(7lb) to go to goal. I look so much better, I feel great and i keep discovering clothes in my wardrobe that fit that I had forgotten about.Which makes me laugh as I just read something about decluttering in a magazine and it says if you haven't worn something for 2 years you are unlikely to wear it. that is SO not true! I don't have Thanksgiving to worry about but i am going on holiday for 6 weeks in Dec/Jan. Back to South Africa to see my mum and my sister. Trying not to gain weight then is going to be REALLY hard.

Sorry to hear that the band doesn't seem to be working for you. Are you following the rules? Not drinking with meals or for an hour afterwards. Eating proper nutritious food at meal times. Not drinking your calories. Not snacking or picking on food constantly throughout the day. Not eating high cal slider foods because maybe you are too tight and they are the only thing that you can get down Exercising etc. You have to be honest with yourself. If you can honestly say that you are following all the rules then you may be in the small percentage of people for whom the band for some reason does not work. Maybe banding was the wrong surgery for you and maybe you need to consider revising to something that has malabsorption as well. But you also have to remember that the band is only a tool and we have to learn to operate it correctly. If you are expecting "restriction" to stop you from making bad food choices it won't. The band does not do all the work. A lot of the restriction still has to come from your head and your choices. So you need to look at what you are doing and be totally honest with yourself. Is the band not working for you or are you not working the band? Maybe you need to think about seeing a psych that specalises in eating issues. I am not saying that this is your problem but it may be. I hope that you manage to work out what the problem is and that you start having success.

Count yourself lucky that chips hurt. For me they are a slider and I can eat stacks with no problem.I think I would much rather not be able to eat them at all.

Your schedule seems fairly normal. Whether or not you experience "bandster hell" is a very individual thing. 4 weeks of liquids is quite a long time and you could easily start feeeling very hungry.