elcee

Is the pain low or high. It could be a grumbling appendix, kidneys, gallbladder, ovaries..........the list goes on. We tend to think that after we get a band every twinge is related to that but often it is something else altogether. Speak to a different Dr (not bariatric) and see what he/she says.

Well done, doesn't it feel great?

What was quite interesting was that about a year ago I contacted Allergan with this exact query. I asked how long it took for the food to pass through and why if it was passing through so quickly one could not drink soon after eating. They actually phoned me which I was quite shocked about as they are in the USA and I am in Aus. They could not give me an answer to the question. They did not seem to believe that the food passed through quickly and said that it took a while but could not put a time to that. Quite strange when the manufacturer does not know how it's product works. Yes Helen is a highly regarded dietician and works with one of our most highly regarded bariatric surgeons. However for me the info still does not give all the answers. Cocoa I imagine that with the test they only watched a few bites and presumably because it was test conditions you were not eating the way you would do normally. Even if unintentionally you were probably more aware of how you were chewing. I think that to come up with a definitive answer they would need to test a large number of people and watch as they ate an entire meal. The difficulty would be to get people to relax and eat the way that they normally do when at home.

No I know what a Frittata is. Yes it is full of Protein but also incredibly easy to eat and pretty high cal the same as a quiche would be except it doesn't have the pastry. My point is I don't see why that should be good and a nice healthy homemade veggie soup bad. If anything the soup is probably lower cal and can be just as filling if made to the right type of consistency. BTW I'm also from Melbourne.

This whole question of how the band works and how long it takes for the food to pass through is still very confusing and I do not believe that it has yet been fully answered. It does make more sense that the food passes through quickly as when you eat a bite and it gets stuck you feel it instantly. However if the food is passing through that quickly what causes the pain and discomfort if you have eaten too much? And also how is it possible to PB sometimes for hours afterwards totally undigested food that is not mixed with stomach acid if the food has already passed into your stomach?

This doesn't make sense. You say that you shouldn't eat soups as they are liquid and pass through easily but then go on to say frittata is fine. In many instances the soup is more nutritious than the frittata , it depends what type of soup it is. Also if it is homemade and thick then it is not going to pass through any differently to the food that has been chewed to mush. Frittata can be a slider as it is easy to eat, may be fairly high in calories and gives little satisfaction.

At the moment it is Stevia but it is relatively new and in a few years they will probably tell us that it is not good, that it is actually bad for us etc. That is what happens with most things! The best thing to try to do is to try and cut down as much as possible or even cut out sweet things if you can. When you have things that are artificially sweetened your body does not have the correct insulin response and they do not help us to lose weight. There is a proper scientific explanation but not being a scientist I can't remember what it is. They have found that artificially sweetened foods and drinks seem to have made us fatter.

16/20 However I would like to say that I think this is a badly written test with many of the questions/answers only being partially correct and many of them irrelevant for bandsters. If you have chosen a band then you probably do not want or need to know a lot of the things that it asked about the other types of WLS. If I wanted to devise a test I am sure I could come up with one that had far more relevant questions.

I have flown a number of times and never had an issue. I n fact I am about to go on a trip this morning from Melbourne upto the Sunshine coast for the weekend. I think it is 2.5hrs each way. I am not anticipating any problems and I am not doing any special prep or taking any food with me.

Congratulations, she is gorgeous.

That is the reason that you are required to do the preop diet. It helps to shrink the liver and makes it less fragile and easier to move out of the way.

You are not failing. The surgery will not have made a major impact on your hunger at this point. The surgery is just the first part of a process. The easiest way to stick to the diet at this point is to remember what you just went through and why and also remember that it is not like previous diets, it has an end. You won't be on liquids for ever. At this stage sticking to the type of foods you have been told to eat is more important than focussing on losing weight. So if you are hungry feel free to eat/drink more of the foods that are allowed as per your Dr but do not be tempted to eat foods that you should not be eating for a couple of weeks. You need to let the band heal into place properly and eating ahead of your diet can affect that.

Try having a warm drink before you eat. Don't let yourself get so hungry that you don't eat that first bite slowly enough. Pay extra attention to how you eat it and then wait a couple of minutes before the next bite. Hopefully some of this might help.

Eating is fine so long as you are aware of what and how you are eating and you follow the rules. Full is nothing like full without a band. It is not felt in your stomach, you do not feel like you might explode. Instead it is felt in the chest. There is a very fine line between having eaten enough and eaten too much. Too much hurts like hell and can cause you discomfort for hours afterwards. You have to learn to recognise your bodies subtle signals that you have had enough.

Don't know what the outcome of this was. http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/jun/09/family-seeks-answers-after-womans-lap-band-death/?page=2#article

There was 1 of the Docs that had a lot of bad reports. I am not sure if it was Dr Kuri but the name does seem to ring a bell. You could try searching this site to see if anything comes up but I think a lot of the older stuff was lost during 1 of the upgrades.

I completely agree.

Testing your band is not a good idea. As to eating crap and expecting your band to stop you well it just isn't going to happen. If you want to test if you have any restriction try eating a balanced meal of some meat or chicken and some vegetables. The aim when you are testing is not to see how much you can stuff in , the aim is to see if you can eat the recommended amount and not be hungry for 3 - 4 hours afterwards. When we talk about hunger we mean real hunger not the type that comes from boredom, or stress or just craving something because it looks or tastes good.

Yes it is to do with reflux. You need to give the food sufficient time to go down as if you don't then reflux is a risk. Try not to eat so late in future! You can try going to bed and see what happens , maybe try sleeping with the head of your bed raised.

It sounds as though you may be a little too tight. Reflux is a sign of the band being overfilled.

Try living close to Ballarat, you'll soon put a jumper on!

Ask your Dr. You don't want to mess up and then find he has to do open surgery instead of laprascopic. Also if you can't stick to what you should be doing now then how will you cope after the surgery when it is even more important?

True. Sounds like you might be a natural born worrier so the less you have to worry about the better. There are other things that you don't need that could be taken out too as something might go wrong with them......... tonsills, adenoids, appendix, ovaries..............! (Joking)

Difficult to say as everyone is different. It might work better in some kind of sauce. You will just have to experiment and see what works best for you.

Your current BMI is at almost 32 which is still in the obese range. Would you really be happy if you stopped at that? We are all different but I know I wouldn't be happy, in fact that was where my BMI was when I started! I got the band so that I could lose ALL my excess weight. I wanted to be well and truly within the normal range and would prefer to be at the lowest point if I could make it. Unfortunately the weight loss slows down. To get to where I would like to be I would have to cut my calories to a level that i would not be comfortable sustaining.