Humming Bird

Will they give you a fill at all? Many bandsters do get up to 7cc just to find their green zone. I don't see how they can come up with a one size fits all number where it would cause reflux. With me, I would be closed off at 7cc, but I have heard of many others that require more. (I am at 5.7cc right now) You may consider going to someone else for a fill or two before you go through surgery to have it removed. If you don't have proper restriction the band does not work properly.

If you use insurance they call the shots. You have to do a long list of things and every ins. seems to differ. If you have ins., it is worth jumping through all the hoops. You could also find a new PCP if need be. In my case, I have no insurance. I went straight to the lapband surgeon and was banded 3 weeks later.

ok.................:lurk5:

you are going on my ignore list.

For me it has changed over time. Food just doesn't sound as good as it used to. I think it is a combination of things. I can only eat a tiny bit at a time, so it seems like such a bother to cook big fantastic meals. There are quite a few things my stomach can no longer tolerate, so they don't even sound good now. I used to be the queen of fast food and fried food. I can no longer tolerate those things. They just make me feel sick when I've tried to eat them after being banded, so now I don't even crave or miss them.

Woodland Park, Colorado

:ciappa: :wink3:

in the box that comes up for you to type a post there are emoticons to the right. Just click on "show all" below the smiley faces :wink3:

I drink coffee daily in the mornings. :coffee: About 3-4 times a week I drink a double tall skinny latte from starbucks. 90 cal., 9g protein :tea:

Ditto to what Jaqui said. I'ts a shame that NUT told you the band doesn't work. I can tell you it does work. You already have the band, so try to make it work before you give up on it. Proper restriction has been the key to success for me. Go back to your lapband doc and get a fill or 2. Stick around this forum and read as much as you can to see how other bandsters do it.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to offend. What bothers me is that you said , "NEWS FLASH....!!!!! It doesn't work that way... you have to still watch EVERY THING you eat (even more now), you still have to get up off your rear end and exercise..... LB surgery is not a SURE THING.... You have to work at it, and it takes time." and..........um, yes it does work that way for some of us! I DO NOT watch everything I eat. Surgery was a sure thing for me. I do not exercise. I do not "work at it". So, the "news flash people!" thing is sort of offending in general. I don't think 100 pounds in one year is slow.

I love your pics. You're very pretty. Yes ...... the weightloss makes me look older. It sucks, but not as much as being at my highest weight sucked, so I'll take it. ps, I'm 46 (soon to be 47) and some days feel like I look much older, but I feel so much better!

Wow, it's a true shame he didn't give you a fill. Getting to my green zone is the thing that kept me on track. Of course my diet and portions were not proper before my band was properly adjusted. That's how and why I was morbidly obese! Being in the green zone is how I dropped 100 pounds in a year. I didn't have to do all that old fashoned dieting stuff that got me were I was like a big yo-yo.

I guess it's all in how you look at it. In my case I think it is the easy way (I must be one of those morons...lol). It's the easiest 100+ pounds I've ever taken off. It's the easiest weightloss plan/diet I have ever been on (I've done them all). It's the easiest weightloss I've ever maintained for any length of time. I have not worked hard at this weightloss since the day I was banded. I don't lie about how I dropped over 100 pounds. I don't tell people I go to the gym or workout or watch what I eat because I don't do those things and those things only work long-term for 5% of people. I am thrilled it has been so easy. Why would I want to do it the hard way? I think the hardest part of my journey was the hit to my bank account as I was self-pay, but I have it all paid off now and feel it was money well spent and worth every dollar.

It really bothers me when people are so high and mighty that they post "news flash" and think they know it all. I could post the same thing with the way the band has worked for me, but it wouldn't make me more right than you are. The band works different for everyone. In my case, my post would be : "News Flash! The band works like magic if you have proper restriction! Quit whining people! It isn't hard work at all! You are only making it harder than it has to be! See what I mean .........

I agree with Peach ...... it just doesn't sound right. If the opening were the size of a pencil, you could not eat hamburgers and fries. You would not be able to drink with meals. You have never had restriction and, from my experience, this is why you have not reached goal.

I agree with what Jacqui said. They should have told you about the foods that may give you trouble, but we are all so different. You won't know the things that give you trouble (if any) until you are banded. Even after you are banded things may change a bit over time. In my case there are foods that I'm sure I will never be able to eat again and some that I had trouble with the first year, but eat now.

I'm not so sure the best way to discourage minors reading this type of stuff is to put SEX in the topic line.....lol

If its like a ball of foamy spit it's "slime". It's not indigestion or bacterial. It's simply mechanical and how the body works. It was explained to me (I think here at LBT by a doc) that the esophagus works like a switch. If there is food in the esophagus, it will first try the down swich ...... if there is no room in the pouch, it will try the up swich ....... The body's normal digestion process starts with saliva production. This production is increased greatly when there is food too high up in the pipes or when it feels something stuck in the pipeline. As we produce more saliva we swallow more air with it in the process. It makes the event worse, and then the nausea sets in. It is something most bandsters experience. It is part of the learning process of figuring out how to work this crude tool called the lapband. I got so grossed out by this process that I learned fast how to avoid the situation again. I make sure I chew every bite well. I don't chew the food to a liquid state or so much I get grossed out, I just make sure everything is well chewed. I listen to my full signal and stop even if there is only one or 2 bites left on my plate. When I get that full signal, those last 2 bites go in the trash. I also learned very quickly there are some foods I may never be able to eat again and I don't miss them. I'll give you 2 examples: I will never eat eggs again ........ I tried them 3 different times in the first 18 months. The first time was in the mushy stage when they say eggs are ok .... NOT! a couple bites and I was in so much pain I thought I was going to die. The second time I had been on solid food for months. I slowly ate a hard boiled egg ....... threw it up shortly after I ate it. The 3rd time I tried some scrambled eggs at 18 months post-op....... The result was a ball of egg yolk colored slime!!! ewww!!! I no longer crave eggs. I have had a very hard time with dense meats since day one. I was trying every type of protein I could think of. .........the results of one of these tests was a ball of spam colored foam floating in the toilet after I had to throw it up ..................ewww! Don't even ask why I tried spam.....

As for the original post ....... I think I agree with whoever said it has improved my situation ......... no anatomy details from me My port is centered about 1 1/2 " below my sternum and has not been in a bad spot for anything including sex.

Now that made me smile ....... I had a friend that used to talk like that and it always made my day! "I won't be able to stand myself...." love it

The foam is what we bandsters call "slime". It happens when you get food stuck in the stoma or when you have eaten too much. Your body produces extra saliva in an attempt to move the food along in the digestive system. Make sure you chew every bite well and stop eating when you feel your soft sign/full signal. This can have a delayed reaction....like when you are in class or in the car on the way home from eating out.

Pain would not have been a problem for me at that point, but the fatigue would have made me back out of the bridal shower at the last minute. A simple shower was kicking my ass at that stage.

I agree with you. The Drs. I have talked to and the info that can be found online state the capacity of the pouch is about 1/2 cup. From my own experience, 2cups of food at a meal would mean I have no restriction and the food is going right through the stoma and to the lower part of my stomach. I would not have had the success (100 lbs in 1 year) if I had kept my band that loose.

I don't know enough about the woman or the surgeon to comment on her death. It is a shame, but at this point it could have been some other medical condition that caused her death. I find it interesting they commented about the weight that was listed on her driver's license. Of course we all keep our exact true weight updated with the DMV! NOT! Geez ........ my license says I weigh 180. It said that when I weighed 264 and it still says it now when I stay below 160.