GuyMontag

I went a year without soda and then started drinking it again. Once I did I immediately gained some weight back. I try to stick to diet if I drink it now but I don't have any problems with carbonated drinks and I'm over 4 years post op. However, while some docs say fine and some docs say no, the makers of the lapband actually say no. If you drink carbonated drinks you do so at your own risk. In other words, do as I say, not as I do! Lol.

Protein is essential after WLS. Make sure you are getting the amount you need daily. To calculate what your daily intake should be take your BMI and multiply it by .36. So if your BMI is 34 multiply that by .36 to see that your daily intake should be around 83 grams of protein a day.

The recliner was the way to go for me. If I wouldn't have had it then I would go with bed our couch with lots of pillows to prop up.

I was dying on my pre-op diet so I called my doc and asked if I could eat something like olives or almonds and he was like, sure, knock yourself out...just make sure you are still losing weight.

I eat a lot of eggs.

Absolutely. The more fluid you have in your band the greater the restriction. When I'm really tight I can only eat dense foods like meats, cheeses, eggs, and nuts.

NSAID's are fine as long as they are liquid.

That's actually very common. I think they fix hiatal hernias in something like over 75% of the cases.

Be careful because you are much more likely to stretch your pouch by drinking and eating than by eating too much.

I got a fill a week for the first 8 weeks. I'd recommend frequent fills with less fluid over large fills infrequently. Smaller fills let your body adapt better and gives you a chance to get used to the new levels of restriction.

That all sounds pretty standard. For the port pain try to avoid any heavy lifting. Also, put your hand on the spot and apply a little pressure any time you sit down or cough. The port attaches to your abdominal muscles so anything you do that uses that muscle group can make it sore. That should go away by the second week. As for burping, that will probably become your new best friend. Burping tells you that food has passed through your band and some air is escaping up your esophagus. Taking deep breaths is good for your lungs and I would recommend doing it every so often. Many times the gas pain shows itself as a referred pain in your left shoulder. You may still be experiencing pain from the surgery itself and this too should fade with time. Any time you have questions or are scared you feel free to call your doc's office as because that's what they get paid for! Good luck!

I had heartburn every day so I just take one prilosec to combat it. When I'm too tight I get acid reflux at night. To me there's a big difference between heartburn and reflux. I've been banded over 4 years and the daily prilosec has worked great.

It's called referred pain. Your body just defaults a lot of times to making the back of your shoulder hurt instead of giving you pain in your body. You can google referred pain for more info.

I've read that a single glass of wine nightly can be greatly beneficial. Anything more than that, while enjoyable at the time, makes me super tight and miserable for the next few days. Whenever I drink quite a bit I make sure to liberally take liquid ibuprofen the next day to help with the tightness that comes from the dehydrating effect that alcohol has on my body.

Whenever I would get stuck I would immediately go on a liquid diet for a few days to let my stomach heal. Start out with some protein shakes, then mushies, then slowly introduce solid foods again. Once you've got it irritated and swollen it's just going to continue to hurt. If you're doing liquids for a few days and its hurts or you can't get them down you're probably going to need some fluid out. If you can't swallow your own spit then you need to call the doc ASAP.

The key I've found to constipation problems is to always drink lots of fluids. Whenever I try to use fiber, laxatives, etc. I just throw my body out of whack in the other direction that I started. Fluids are the best long term fix that I have found.

I am new to cooking fish myself but I've found that searching on recipe sites helps a lot. Here are some recipes I like: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/heavenly-halibut/detail.aspx http://allrecipes.com/recipe/crispy-fish-fillets/detail.aspx http://allrecipes.com/recipe/broiled-tilapia-parmesan/detail.aspx http://allrecipes.com/recipe/beer-batter-fish-made-great/detail.aspx http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-dijon-salmon/detail.aspx

I agree Carolinagirl. Drinking nonstop all day helps with my hunger immensely and greatly increases the amount of time I can go between meals. If I don't drink something I get hungry in an hour or so but if I drink something, especially warm like decaf coffee or tea then I can easily go the four hours I'm supposed to.

Bananas give me grief. It really depends on the day and time of day. Here's what I have trouble with on a 'tight' day: Anything bread based like sandwiches, pizza, pancakes are a no go. Lots of fruit gives me trouble and doesn't go down very quickly. I can do some pastas but lasagna is never a good option. I can almost always eat meats, cheeses, eggs, potatoes, and most veggies. Nuts are great as well. Mainly things that are densely packed are good to me. Anything that can collect in my stoma and ball up like dough causes me pain. Rice and beans are also easy for me. Those are just some things off the top of my head.

Preop sucked. I only had to do two weeks. Some lucky folks don't have one at all. It was pure torture!

I cheated but still lost 10lbs. I think if you're still losing weight quickly you'll be fine but I am not your surgeon!

That's too bad. Glad you are okay though. Good luck whatever your future holds.

You'll be hungry until you start getting good restriction from fills. My advice is to not starve yourself. If you're hungry then eat. Just watch what you eat and start your diet slowly. It'll get easier the more restriction you get.

My doc used to say he sees better food tolerance with the 14cc bands. This might make sense as the bands keep going up from their original starting point of around 4cc.

Uh...the band wasn't even available in the US in 93...was it anywhere in the world? Troll much?