Humming Bird

This may post twice ..... didn't look like it worked the first time .... I had to come back and see if I drain the pineapple .......yes. I'm going to make some tonight. How long does it last in the refridg.?

Most of the time I eat Chili, soup, salad or cheese and reduced fat wheat thins. Sometimes a little liquid yogurt smoothie before the cheese/crackers.

It's better to rinse with baking soda Water after you throw up rather than brushing. This will help neutralize the acids, but you will still have at least a 20 min. acid attack on your teeth every time you throw up or have acid reflux even with the baking soda.

Night coughing and night reflux are sure signs of being too tight. It can do some pretty bad damage to your esophagus and to your teeth.

back when I was just starting we were chatting with a lapband doc in a thread "I don't understand". I saved one of the Dr.'s posts because I liked the basic explaination. Here is his post: All weight loss comes from calorie deficit (burning more calories than you consume). Burning more and consuming less is what causes weight loss. The band will not force you to burn calories. The band helps with the consuming less part. It helps with this in three major ways: 1. Reduced appetite - some surgeons argue that the band is an appetite reduction operation. It has been shown to reduce appetite hormones. Patients say they don't feel hungry - they don't feel like they are on a diet. The band reduces true physical hunger. Some of us struggle with emotional hunger, phantom hunger which is not cured by the band but reducing physical hunger is very helpful at combatting head hunger. Emotional hunger comes from deep rooted emotional pain causing negative emotion that is unfortunately temporarily cured by food. 2. Fullness on small portions - the amount of stomach above the band is small. You will feel full on a much smaller portion of food if the band is properly adjusted. The fullness feeling is not a "pat your lower belly" kind of fullness. Band fullness is a very high sensation - in the chest - the feeling that the last bite of food is somewhere near the base of the tongue and another crumb will not be physically allowed. 3. The impossible nature of overeating - let's say you feel full and not hungry but you decide that you will overeat anyway. A properly adjusted band simply will not allow this. A point will be reached where the system will reject anything more. The esophagus (swallowing tube) is a transport organ; not a storage organ. The esophagus has two buttons: down and up. It will try down first. If that doesn't work, it switches to up and you get to see the food again. We've been banding for eight years and we see three groups of patients in our practice: Group 1 - gold medal superstar patients who lose easily and steadily after band surgery and send us Christmas cards that will bring tears to your eyes. Group 2 - patients who acheive the same ultimate results as Group 1 but it takes longer with more office visits and more education and slower weight loss but we still get there. The race car crosses the finish line but it's on fire and badly damaged. Group 3 - patients that will be three years out from band surgery and only down 20 or 30 pounds. The three biggest reasons patients are in this group are: 1.) unsolved emotional eating 2.) zero calorie burning 3.) Quit, give up, stop coming to the practice for band adjustments, education, etc One of the best books I've seen on emotional eating is: "Shrink Yourself" by Dr. Gould. Many patients have told me this helps. The secret to curing emotional eating is to identify the root cause of this negative emotional pain and work through it. This is the most difficult aspect of successful weight loss.

Sorry to see you go, but I do understand. I have taken several breaks from the site myself.

I'm about 2 1/2 years post-op and still in love with my band. I lost 100 pounds in the first year and the rest came off a bit slower. I was lucky to get the proper restriction level early in the process. I've had a couple tiny fills during maintenance. I have put in very little effort. I still believe this is the easiest weightloss and maintenance of my life. I have been on almost every diet known in my life. None of them worked as well as this has. How does it work for me? I get satisfied on very small portions of food. It is basic calories in vs. calories used. I have not eaten a full plate of food in 2 1/2 years. I do not exercise but my general activity level has increased since I'm not hauling around 100+ extra pounds. I do not count calories, weigh/measure food, or track anything. I'm not telling anyone not to do these things, I just can not live my life obcessing over every calorie and gram. I do have a list of foods I can no longer tolerate, but I do not miss these foods like I thought I would. For the question ,"Is it the fact that you can't eat more without getting sick?" Yes. At first, until I learned, if I ate too much or ate a food I could no longer tolerate, I would throw up. I hate throwing up, so it didn't take me long to figure out my full signal and stop eating. When I get my full signal I do not take another bite even if it means throwing the last bite or 2 on my plate in the trash.

This is on the list of signs of being too tight. I hope your doc gets it figured out so you can get better sleep without all the reflux.

You need to have a Dentist look at your teeth.

I sometimes take a double dose of Jr. strength liquid ibuprophen. If I need something stronger I disolve aleeve in a shot of hot water (burns like hell on the way down).

I'm down a pound too! Even after the M&Ms at TOYS-R-US! Gotta love the band!

Several years ago I was denied because of my weight. I weighed 240 at the time (not my highest). I wonder if the same company would deny me now that I have a normal weight, but have lapband. It might be worth it for me to apply with them again.

I had coffee in the early morning. Late morning I had a small piece of pumpkin pie. At about 1pm I had a glass of white wine, then on a salad plate I had about a tablespoon or 2 of potatoes, 2 T. green beens with velveeta, a bit of yams and a bit of cranberry sauce. Then I went and stood in line at Toys-R-Us for 3 hours for the early black friday sale ..... drank a cup of coffee on the way .....ate a bag of M&Ms while in line (bad girl) ................drank a small ready made yogurt smoothie at 12:45am ......off to bed now

I'm glad you are unstuck. Maybe you can think of some creative liquids for Thanksgiving...... Pumpkin spice latte ? Pumpkin spice protein shake? Egg nog?

I had a hiatial hernia repair during the lapband surgery too. It is very common for obese people to have them.

I hope you are doing better this morning. If not, I agree with the folks that said you better see if you can get in with the doc. I just hope they didn't close down early for the holiday. I'm not sure if many E.R.s know what they are doing when it comes to the band. Are you taking other meds whole?

You may not be stuck anymore, just swollen. It feels different though. Does it feel like something is stuck? Like still slime and pain?

Oh gosh Cheri, I have never been stuck that long. All I can think of is papaya enzyme or pineapple juice. Remember ice cold helps any human tissue swelling go down. This is why they have athletes put ice on injuries. A slush helped me when I was swolen. (go slow)

Surgery is scary no matter what, but your chances of having a better life and living longer are better with the surgery. Many Many more people have died from obesity related conditions than from lapband surgery.

Oh geez .... sorry to hear this happened. I do hear pretty positive things about the sleeve. Keep us posted.

Great idea. I may try it some other time too. (not so sure about the small bowel tho...lol ...just giving you a hard time)

I guess do whatever you need to do to make the band journey work for you. For me, it really seems to be too much trouble to go to those lengths, but I did not have the same issues. I learned pretty quickly, with trial and error, to chew every bite and eat slower. If the timer helps you, go for it.

My avatar pic and my profile pic used to be different. Can we no longer do it that way?

This will be my 3rd Thanksgiving with the band. I plan out my day so I can have a little bit of each of the things I want. It may sound a bit crazy, but this plan includes pumpkin pie for breakfast ... lol, it's the only time it fits in. It worked out well the last 2 years, so my plan will stay about the same. I actually lost weight during Thanksgiving week the first 2, now I'll just maintain this year doing it the same way.

Water should always flow freely unless you have food in the pouch. It really sounds like you will need another fill or 2 but keep in mind to move ahead with solids very slowly now after your next fill. It sounds like it will get you to the point of having trouble if you don't chew things well.