OnTheWay to Thin

I just had a port replacement, it is not bad at all, was in and out of the surgery center in about an hour, had it on Friday, went back to work on Monday. I was surprised at how easy it was. Like you they kept measuring my fluid, and it kept coming up short... so after over a month of measuring and refilling they decided to replace the port. No problems since.

In answer to your question, I was checked into the hospital about 8:45, surgery was at 9:30 at about 10:50 I woke up in the recovery room and by 11:15 I was drinking and walking around, I was home by 1:00. So in my case very very quick.

If you are down 43 lbs and had your surgery in august you are doing fantastic. Eating less is the goal, and you have to be doing that to have such good weight loss. Restriction is a funny thing and I believe it is different for different people. You must be getting close to the right spot, as long as you are losing 1-3 lbs a week you are doing well.

The good thing about the band is it is always there and you can always pull it back out, dust it off and use it again. Dont be down on yourself, you cant change the past, but you can control what you do from today onward. All of us with eating issues will fall of the wagon at times, obesity is a disease and requires constant vigilance. Welcome back to Band land and good luck with your journey to get started again.

Great Idea - my funniest one, my son is 27 and developmentally disabled.. he was helping my husband and I put a tarp on our camper for the winter yesterday. He looked down at me and said Mom you are definitely shrinking, and I don't mean you are too short, because you have always been short. Made me laugh. Went shopping this weekend needed some new clothes, braved black Friday, went to buy some new sweats in the womans section, even 1X's were too big, went to the misses section and tried an XL and it fit with plenty of room, not quite in the L yet but that felt good.

It seems each day I figure out something else that is a no go.. just this last week scrambled eggs joined the list... potatoes, heavy pasta, anything that is really cheesey, bread unless very well toasted and thin, things like pie crust, lettuce that is not shredded, tortillas are death on me, rice is iffy, sometimes it works, sometimes not, so I mostly avoid it. I too am tighter in the am, I tend to drink a protein shake on the way to work, takes 45 minutes to get it down, then around 10 I can eat a string cheese. By lunch I can eat 1/2 cup or so, dinner a bit more maybe 3/4 cup, my hardest time is after dinner that is when I want to snack and by then I seem loose enough to be able to eat this or that... so I have to watch that. If I overeat I pb like crazy so I have to watch that too and am learning each day when to stop and listen to my stomach.

I have been bouncing between 259 and 260 so I guess maybe I am down a few ounces, hard to tell as my scale does not do partial lbs.

My confession time LOL. I did pretty well, I did all the cooking and had people over, snacks were a veggie tray with ranch dip. I had 2 carrots and a small piece of cauliflower with dip. For dinner I had a bit of everything I wanted just not much of anything, i had about 2-3 oz of turkey, 2 tbs each of mashed potatoes, stuffing, greenbeans, a bit of gravy. I did have dessert, we had 3 pies in the house, but I had a small slice, less than 1" thick with ff whip cream and I did not eat the crust, crust does not seem to agree with my band, so all in all not bad. But time to jump seriously back on the band wagon.

as long as your incision looks good, there is no excessive redness or oozing, and the incision looks sealed you are probably good. If you have any of the above or the incison feels hot to the touch, or any other signs of infection, call your doctor right away.

I am 6 mos today, I am down a total of 48 lbs, so I guess that averages to about 8lbs a month. I have had a couple issues, when I first started getting fills they would be great for a week to 10 days and then I would lose whatever restriction I had. Took 2 mos to confirm a leak by filling, measuring, filing measuring that I had a leak and the port had to be replaced, that was done 10/30, after that I was too tight and had reflux and so on until we got the fill level correct again. Would I do it again, yes, is it hard work, absolutely! Does it work? If you work at it, it does. I feel like for the first time in my life I can be successful long term on my weight, but it is also likely to take me another 12+ mos to get to goal. I am continually learning about my band and what works and does not with it, and it seems to change at times. I.e I have just discovered like many others that I can no longer eat scrambled eggs, dont know why, but they get stuck every time. Other things I can't eat are heavy pasta, mashed potatoes, rice unless very saucy, bread unless well toasted and then just a bit. Hope this helps.

We all do in the beginning and once you start eating food and mushies you may actually gain, but dont worry about it. Just continue to follow your doctors instructions and make good food choices, this is a long term life style change not a miracle cure. It takes lots of ups and downs to get to sweet spot and eventually to goal. Hang in there you are doing great.

I have had both tighteness at that TOM and when I am congested, (I have allergies) so if I notice myself sliming or choking a lot I take some allergy pills and it helps a LOT. But, if you cant keep liquids down you are TOO tight, and that is not helpful to you. Please be careful, we all want so badly to lose weight, but we cant let that desire overrule common sense and our overall health. The way to win this game is slow and steady...

Congrats on your decision, it is a hard one and we each have to really consider our lifestyle before making our decision. I had my surgery in late may and have just hit 50 lbs lost, my gf had gastric bypass in August and has lost 70lbs, so she has gone way past me very quickly. Each procedure has its advantages and disadvantages so only you and your doctor can decide which is right for you. Good luck.

Yes the same happened to me, they said that when they withdrew the fluid to measure before the fill that things can shift a bit, especially early on, so that even though I had more fluid I had less restriction. This got better with more fluid in my band, so give it time, if you still feel this way in 2 weeks call for another fill. My doctor will do them every 2 weeks until you get to the right spot on fills.

I have done the up and down a bit due to a leaky port, I had my port replaced and when that was done on 10/30 I was at 268.5, last week I was at 263 and today I was at 260. So I feel like maybe I have the right spot now. Right after the port replacement I was TOO Tight and could not swallow my own spit, they removed it and made me wait a week for swelling to go down, then they overfilled me and I had terrible reflux for 5days, we took out 3/10 cc and no more reflux and I seem to have a good balance between restriction and being able to eat. I sure hope it sticks for a while.

you gave me a really good laugh, thank you!

I can do steak and seafood just fine, key is not too dry, small bites and chew chew chew. I don't do well with bread of anykind unless toasted, tortillas, heavy doughy italian pasta, mashed potatoes. It is different for everyone but hopefully this helps.

Dont beat yourself up, if we all had an easy time keeping our weight down we would not have had surgery. The cool thing about the band is it is always there and you can dust it off and put it back into service at any time. Take a good look at what you are eating, journal for a few days, measure and see if the quantities are up there, you may just need a small adjustment to get things going again. Hang in there.

I just had a leak repaired, the only way to tell for sure if you have a leak, is to draw all the fluid out, measure exactly how much they put in, then go back in a week and draw it out and see how much is there, we did this 3 times to verify I had a leak that was not showing under fluro. Sure enough each time I would be filled to 5.75 cc and when I went back I was hovering around 4cc. At 4 I have no restriction, at 5.75 I am perfect. Mine was a faulty port, when they took it out and put fluid through it under pressure it had a bit of a sprinkler effect at the plastic piece to the side of the port that the tubing attaches to. So before you give up on your band, have that checked. It may well be that you have been fighting this leak all along. I was so frustrated with all the starts and stops so I know what you are going through. Hang in there.

Dont beat yourself up, this is one of the risks of this procedure. Mine was my port and it seems there were quite a few banded from May through July with port problems, so it might be a manufactures defect. My leak was the piece of plastic that comes out of the port that the tubing attaches too. Good luck.

Not to everyone, but as you close in on the sweet spot it does happen. I have it happen most often in the week or so after a fill cause each time I have to learn all over what works and does not.

I carry an empty cup in my car, it is a bright yellow and that is the only thing it is used for...

I had that problem too, everytime I thought, ahh here we go, the restriction would go away.. I did have a leaky port, had it replaced last week. Hope yours is just needing a top off but if not the replacement was pretty easy.

You can also go online to any of the food journals and check differerent foods for their protine amounts. This really helped me... there are lots of them out there.