onikenbai

I spent 5 months in that zone, or sort of in that zone because they can't quite figure out what's wrong with me. Five months of constant throwing up and extreme nausea on the first bite does royally suck. Toughing it out does not pay off in the end. Now they've taken out 0.5cc and I have zero restriction at all. Although in my case, they don't think I was overfilled, they think something else may be behind my problems.

I'm a little concerned about my band having slipped. I've been complaining to my doctor for FIVE MONTHS now that I've been throwing up a lot, and now it's to the point where I dread eating because there's about an 80% chance that I'm going to throw up. Doesn't matter what, when or how slowly I eat, it's still no good, and it's getting worse. Plus my stomach hurts most of the time. I'm not stuck because I'm not feeling that stuck pain feeling... just ill.

Yes, also excess mucus that is generated with a cold can have an effect. You will likely be able to eat less when you have a cold.

I have a red dot port and I've had no problems with it. I've had 10-15 fills and it's never really bothered me. My doctor does my fills standing up because gravity does her art and makes the port easy to find.

I have passed the signpost of frustrated, turned the corner of miffed and have officially moved into the neighbourhood of royally ticked. It's more than 7 months now and I haven't lost one freakin' pound, other than during my pre-op diet. I've been through umpteen fills and unfills to the point where I don't even know what's in my band anymore, and I feel like complete and total crap. Something is. not. right. I have been throwing up multiple times a day for five months now, and my clinic doesn't seem to care. I've been asking them to please check my band placement or something because my stomach hurts, even when I haven't been puking. Yeah, I realise constant puking is going to make your stomach hurt a bit, but it's not that 'I've been heaving' gnawing feeling, it's more of a 'wow, something inside is really tugging and it is right unpleasant' feeling. Doesn't matter if I've eaten or not. They've come to the conclusion that my band is not too tight, and I agree. I can down a 700ml bottle of water in under 10 minutes, so that's an indication that things are going through just fine. Eating though, is a completely different matter. It seems the better quality food I eat, the worse it gets. The irony... I'm not getting stuck because I've been stuck and I know well what it feels like, and I'm definitely not eating too fast. I can even manage to keep the food down for as long as 90 minutes after I eat sometimes, but I get queasier and queasier the longer it sits and it invariably has to come up. Chicken, fish and all other meats have a 100% chance of coming up, soup about a 50% chance, and anything else that is remotely solid is completely a crap shoot. It's not like I'm trying to force down a steak for god's sake... all I want is a strawberry! At this point I'd even love to go back to my special "allergic to the protein shakes" pre-op diet, but I can't keep enough of those foods down. You'd think with the way things are going I'd be losing weight like crazy, but no. At least I'm not gaining any; if there's an upside, that would be it. I could deal if I felt I had the support of the clinic, but they seem to be willfully blind. I keep asking for help, but they keep saying that they only do tests if it appears there's a problem. Helloooo! Puking every day for months?!? Problem! Sharp pain in the stomach? Problem! Unable to keep even soup down on most days? Problem! Do I have to drop dead in their office for them to be convinced something isn't working right? Yeah, I'll admit that right now my food choices aren't very good. I'd love to be eating lean chicken and cooked veg, but they won't stay down. What am I stuck with? Pudding, carbs that melt in your mouth and the never ending supply of crystal light. Don't forget the frozen yogurt... lots of that happening. Protein shakes? Still allergic to them. The clinic is now telling me to drink the shakes despite the fact I'm allergic to them. They seem ok with the idea of me writhing on the floor in pain because I can't digest the protein shakes, as long as they can prove they offered me sound medical advice on how to make the band work. Too bad Canada works on the lump sum system because at this point I would love to take my business elsewhere, but I can't. :smile2: I'm quickly coming to a point where I just don't care anymore. I'm broken and I was delusional to think I could be fixed.

I've had some rather nasty allergic reactions to bandage adhesives used in surgery. Not for my lap band, because they were forewarned, but I once woke up from surgery basically screaming for them to get it off me. They pulled off the bandage and my skin had gone bright red and swelled up by at least a half inch. It was nuts. The only thing they could do for me was to treat with cortisone cream and antihistamines. Ask your doctor if either of these might do it for you. Neosporin doesn't do anything for the itching, I know well. You can also try the foot powder or even corn starch as they will both absorb moisture, although be careful not to get them in your incisions as I'd imagine it would not do them any good. And yes, the heat is probably making it worse. I have big chunks of my body covered in red bumps the whole summer from reacting to my own sweat. Scratching only makes it worse so fight the temptation. One summer they actually had to put both my arms in casts so that I wouldn't scratch all my skin off in my sleep.

Sounds like they may have over filled you and now you are stuck in the vicious cycle of puking causes swelling causes puking. Fills can take a week to really kick in and that may be why you were ok for a while. Back to the doctor you go. If you are feeling incredibly crappy in the meantime, you may want to swing by your nearest hospital and get yourself plugged in for some fluids to tie you over.

Actually, it's extremely rude to comment about somebody's weight loss or gain completely out of the blue. It's likely been noticed but nobody's said anything. Can you imagine telling somebody they've lost weight and receiving a reply of "yeah, chemo will do that to you..."? Awkward.

Soy shots not possible... I'm allergic to soy. I've tried the non-dairy, non-gluten, soy-free supplements and I still can't take them. I have gone through a lot of cash figuring out that I cannot tolerate much. Avocados seem to be ok-ish so maybe I'll try more of them. Can't think of much less appetizing than avocado in liquid form though. There are only so many things you can do with an avocado!

I just can't stop PBing. Almost every day, sometimes 6 or 7 times a day, for four months. For me, eating is a complete crapshoot. Sometimes I can eat something like 2 cups of a beef stew, but more often I take one bit of something and then hurl it up sometime between 30 and 90 minutes later. It seems the better quality food I try to eat, the more likely I am to lose it. It's been decided that my band isn't too tight by people far more educated than myself in these matters. It does seem awfully strange that I suddenly decide to hurl 90 minutes after I eat... you would think that's an unreasonably delayed reaction. Maybe my stomach can't decide? Recently I've started to get actual pain in my stomach. It feels like a tugging, and if my cat accidently steps on my stomach :smile2:! It's just below the rib cage, slightly to the right side of the sternum. I would normally think that it's because my tummy is irritated from the constant puking, but if I manage to last a few days at at time of not PBing, the pain doesn't subside. Anybody else ever have this?

You should be fine but I'd postpone your first fill until after you get back.

That's the thing... I've been to my doctor twice now, the nurse three or four times, and the patient co-ordinator three or four times. All are perfectly aware of this pain and the puking, and all seem unconcerned. I'm feeling just a little bit... what's the word for it?... neglected maybe?

Cut down on your salt intake. If you've been drinking broth it's LOADED with soduium.

I've always had tooth sensitivity problems but yes, they have become worse since the surgery. Avoid doing major dental work in the three months after your surgery though, as the blood thinners they gave you at the time of surgery have a long residence time and will make you bleed like crazy. I had bleeding problems just from brushing my teeth for a good while after surgery. It would not surprise me at all if the blood thinners are the cause of the increased sensitivity because my problems subsided a bit after 3 months. Talk to your dentist about it.

I put back my pills no problem, but mine are all at night. I know I would have serious problems getting pills down in the morning, especially six. You may have to work something out long-term for the morning pills. The crushed pills in applesauce does work fairly well but with six different pills, it's likely going to taste wretched! I am surprised that pills+soda didn't make you puke right there and then.

Slime also occurrs when you have something slightly stuck in your band and your body is trying to lubricate it enough so that it goes through. If something went down at an awkward angle, slime can help align it properly and it will pass. Pain with slime usually means you are stuck to some degree. It doesn't always lead to PB incidents, but you get enough slime build up, it becomes its own PB incident because your pouch is full. Very often I don't bring up any food at all; food stays down and slime only comes up. There's also a nerve at the top of the stomach that tells you you're full. If that nerve gets irritated by a piece of food or something, slime can happen. The band itself can also annoy this nerve so sometimes you can get slime incidents without having eaten anything.

It's because of the stress of surgery on your body. I had the same problem and I've never really had much skin trouble ever. I found there was no quick fix and that the more you tried to fix it, the worse it got. You just have to ride it out.

Hmmm... forever on Protein shakes as a way of life isn't too healthy, and, trust me, the liquid only diet does grow old. I was filled too tight for three weeks so that I could only drink, and sometimes not even do that, and it was the most miserable three weeks ever. If you can tough it out on shakes only, hats off to you. Part of my problem is that I am allergic to the shakes. I went for three weeks on tea and crystal light. The kicker is that I didn't lose an ounce.

I've been throwing up for months now, sometimes up to 5 or 6 times a day, and my surgeon seems unconcerned. I'm in the same boat of wondering if something is not right. I have no reflux though, in my case I have either zero restriction and I can eat pretty much anything or one bite makes me hurl, depending on the day. Every suggestion I've made of looking into the problem has been shot down.

The pre-op diet is not healthy to stay on for extended periods of time. Once all the energy in your liver is used up (the whole point of the pre-op diet), your muscles start to break down and it can severely weaken your heart, and even possibly cause a heart attack.

I've always been well above the normal range of weight for a child, as was my brother, and my mother compensated for that by severely restricting the food both my brother and I ate as children. I have memories of telling my mother I was hungry as a child and being given a glass of Water to make it go away. We once had a competition to see how long we could go without eating: I won for holding out for 3 weeks. Turns out my mother hid food in places like closets and secretly snacked. I sort of managed to get over the weird childhood food issues, but then I got sick. Fibromyalgia really takes it out of you with the constant pain and fatigue, plus the drugs I need to keep my body running are famous for inducing carb cravings. Genetics + illness = nothing good

Put your thumbs together on your skin over the red area and pull them apart slightly (Pull along your incision lengthwise so that you don't pull your incision apart!) If the skin under goes white or at least lighter, you're good to go. If it stays bright red, you may have an infection, but not definitely. Your skin is likely just reacting to being cut open and you are likely fine. Hot, red and swollen are all common in perfectly fine incisions and itching may be next!

I've had both. If you eat something that is too big and it gets stuck right away, you start to slime right away. If I eat something that absorbs water and expands in the stomach, sometimes it hits me ten minutes to a half hour later once the food puffs and goes critical. I've never gone beyond a half hour. Usually if I'm going to slime, it happens either immediately or within 10 minutes.

You probably got blood thinners when you were banded. Thinners have a long residence time in the body, and you can expect things like extra bruising and bleeding gums when you brush your teeth for a couple of months after surgery. I was told to avoid the dentist for three months unless you absolutely had to go because of the lingering effects of the thinners.

I have fibro and have had it since I was 11... so 24 years now. Third day of the pre-op diet my fibro went nuts! For a good three weeks after being banded I was all over the place with my symptoms: insomnia, fatigue, dizziness, pain (no surprise there), numbness. Good chance that your fibro will come out to play too. I got my band six months ago and I'm back to my normal state. I do seem to be having a tougher go than others getting proper restriction (but I don't know if it's fibro related), and of course getting the needed exercise is very hard when you're in so much pain that you just want to sit and cry some days, so I'm finding my weight loss is very slow. But it's getting there. Expect fibro problems. Any surgery will make your fibro flare.