TerryB

Yes, I had a bypass in 2001 and had a staple line disruption in 2003. I gained almost all my weight back and my insurance quit covering weight loss surgery between the time that I had the surgery and the staple line disrupted. So after trying to sue and everything else I decided to go to mexico and have the lapband. Dr. Ortiz is the only surgeon that I could find that had a lot of experience with this type of surgery. That was 8/2006 and I have had no problems until recently. I started having some problems about a month ago with the band getting tighter... I had been on one type of birth control which made my period lighter but I had to switch from it and had the first "real" period in a long time. It took me a couple of days to realize how tight I was, until then I ate too much and threw up too many times. This irritated my esphogus and swelled it until it was way too tight. I went back to Dr. Ortiz and they did a complete unfill and put me on liquids. There was no slip (thank God) but I was on liquids for two weeks. Once irritated I should have taken myself on liquids but I had gotten complacent with the lapband rules. Hope this info helps. I will be getting a fill in two weeks and I am happy about that. I need restriction, I like feeling full.

It really can change... During my period, I am soooo tight but otherwise I am fine. Also I find that if I am stressed out the band gets tighter.

I was banded in Tijuana, MX on August 10, 2006

Frankly... I am at goal but i also think I am going to lose another 10 or so lbs. I am 5'6" and 150 and fit in a size 8. I think another 10lbs would be a safety net in case I have some issue with the band and have to have an unfill. I am currently completely unfilled due to an esphogial irritation and I gained back 3lbs. My size 8's are tight and when I get my fill in two weeks I would like to lose an additional 10 just to be safe. I don't know about you but gaining is not a problem... losing is

I had the same issue and they unfilled mine last week. Have you gotten another fill yet.. is it OK?

I have had an really fill in my band for the last 7 months... I had gone to Dr Ortiz to get it done so I wanted to try and work it out. I have learned to live with it and after losing another 30lbs it is more manageable. Last night unfortunately I had some succotash right before going to sleep and paid the price. I threw up in my sleep, woke up to it! I have to be very aware of what I am eating and when. Also how much I chew or if the food will EVER break down. I am 2 lbs from goal and beginning to think I may actually need to get an unfill so that I will quit loosing 1-2 lbs a week.

Well, I started out at 259 size 20W and XXL/XXXL in most things and now I am 215 and size 18 (American Eagle) and they are loose now. I can wear a regular XL in most shirts. I am wearing a 14/16W at Ashley Stewart/Lane Bryant. I totally agree about being able to shop at regualar stores is wonderful but I don't really feel like I can buy anything yet due to still loosing so quickly. I am catching some things on clearance and that has been fun.

Well, I flew down to Dr Ortiz office Thursday to make sure that doc didn't do any damage during that fill in Sacramento. Dr Romero did the fill and when he pulled the saline out of the band there was less than 1cc!!! When that fill doc pulled he had 1.5cc and he said he put in another .5cc which would have put me at 2.0cc. God only knows what he did... yikes. But through flouro my port looks good and everything is fine with my band. My mind was put at ease and I feel better. So this fill ended up costing me about $700 dollars. I spoke to fillcentersusa and they are going to give me my next fill for free but this has been a nightmare. Anyway, I got what I will call my "real" 2nd Fill and it was 2.3cc and I feel great. I have restriction and will be moving ahead with my weight loss. Thanks for all you guys support

Went in for my second fill on Monday 11/6 in a fillcenter in Sacramento and the doc did not know what he was doing. I got very uncomfortable with him during the procedure since I had one done by Dr. Ortiz office on my first fill. There was no flouro but I thought if he had enough experience it would be OK. He put the needle in my stomach and did not hit the port and proceeded to poke me three times and dig around in my stomach until he found it.... yikes. He pulled out 1.5 and then supposedly injected an additional .5cc, then he just stopped. I told him I should sit up and drink some what to see if I felt any restriction, he wasn't sure about that, so I told him that I was sitting up with the syringe still in. I drank some water and let him know that I did not feel any restriction but he had already put all of the saline in and I did not want him digging around any more. While they were doing it the nurse said the "other lady" had done that also about drinking the water which meant to me that they had only done one other fill. Also while he was feeling around for the port he said "she needs to lose weight" and the nurse said "that's why she is here". They offered to do another fill for free if I did not feel any restriction but I left at that point. The people were nice but I did not feel as though they knew what they were doing.... :omg: So yesterday I booked a flight to Dr. Ortiz for a fill, I want to see if this guy did any damage during the digging part of the fill. And I still need a fill so that was my experience.... I will update after my fill by Dr. Ortiz office on 11/9.

I got banded on Aug 10 and my first fill on Sept 18. 1.8 in a 4cc band. I have great restriction. I cannot hardly eat in the morning at all and am able to eat about 4 ozs at night. I am not hungry at all... ever which is even weirder.

The dress is gorgeous and you will be gorgeous in it... don't worry, June is a long time away. I have to take this just for today. Part of looking good is feeling good about yourself and I think by then you will be very confident in yourself and can pull this off even if you are not the smallest size in the world.

I live in Memphis and was banded by Dr. Ortiz in Mexico on August 10. I went back to Mexico for my fill and have not required any follow-up other than that. I had a revision from a failed gastric bypass (staple line disruption) and am very happy with my band. My first fill was on the 18th of September and I have really good restriction.

I had my first fill on September 18th and I can barely get 4 oz of food down at one time. I feel full all the time and I am not hungry. I have had quite a bit of emotional stress in my life over the past week due to some self-created drama and I have not wanted to eat. This is very unusual for me, normally I would be grasping for the brownies. The only down side of this is that I am distracted from making sure that I am getting the right combination of foods... protein, veggies... so on. I am not eating bad but I will order a salad and I am pretty sure that I do not get enough protein on most days.

Don't know if anyone else is experiencing this but I got my fill on Monday (1.8 in a 4cc band), now it is Friday and I am not hungry at all. I had three days of liquids (wasn't hungry then) and now that I can eat I feel sort of nauseated. It is not that I can't eat, I had some oatmeal and a Go Lean protein bar yesterday but I had to force myself to eat. I did start my period (shouldn't have started for another week) yesterday so that may be why it feels this way. I don't think I am overfilled but I feel like I am full all the time. Anyone else feeling like this?

Had my first fill yesterday at Dr. Ortiz office. It was no problem at all, I was in and out within 10 minutes. I am on three days of liquids, which does not seem to be a problem because I am not hungry at all right now. But here is the funny part: I travel a lot for work and stay in hotels, usually the same one each week for about a year. After my fill, I left San Diego and flew to Sacramento to work (I am from Memphis). When I got to the hotel I was really tired from having the fill in the morning then working that afternoon after flying. So I was thinking "I will just go and lay down so I can rest a while". I get to my room and I have been voted "Guest of the Week" by the hotel staff. Which meant there was this huge basket of food and drinks in my room with a lovely letter. So I am sitting there looking at all this food that I cannot eat and only two of the drinks I can have.... I just started laughing. Then I had to go thank them all for the food I cannot eat..... Well, life is a strange thing sometimes.

Dr Ortiz gave me a card that states the 9.75cm band holds 4 cc's

Thanks everyone for being so kind, I have done well yesterday and today. I completely agree about the band not having restriction yetbut I really don't want to get back in the "eating for comfort" mindset. I may be emotionally uncomfortable sometimes but eating does not solve the issue. After my "failure" with RNY due to a disrupted staple line I feel doomed to failure sometimes. The band will work for me and I am ready to start my journey with it. This is very different from my Open RNY... I couldn't eat anything after surgery for about 6 weeks but this is much healthier for me. I am grateful that Dr. Ortiz was able to help me move toward my goal of being as healthy as I can be.

My fill is scheduled for September 18th in TJ with Dr. Ortiz. I have not lost a pound in about 2 weeks and I seem to be able to eat anything that I want. I dont' feel full. I got depressed about not losing anything. I had a bad day yesterday and kept eating... I even had a piece of pound cake at Starbucks.... WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!! I thought I would feel full but i didn't until I had obviously overeaten. Even though it was less that I would normally eat it was not due to really being hungry, just not full. Today I am back tracking what I eat on Weight Watchers Online and that helps me to SEE what I am eating. Thank you for all being there, it makes it easier if I am not alone in this.

Sounds like everyone is doing great... for the end-of-monthers, hold on it will happen soon. I had trouble wearing jeans or any pants that were rough on my stomach. I can now wear anything now and I am 2 weeks out. I do prefer my low-rise jeans but the others work too. And it seems that my scars are going away. One of the things I am doing is rearranging some of my relationships so that instead of "going out to eat", we can meet for coffee and talk or going to a movie. Eating is very social for me. This doesn't mean I will never go out to eat but that is not what I want my friendships based on.

One of my life savers when I had my gastric bypass (sld) and now after being banded is cottage cheese. Right now, I get the whipped kind which is similar in consistancy to yogurt but has 10-16G of portein per 1/2 cup. I would much rather get my protein from real foods if possible. I enjoy miso soup(blended) and my local chinese restaurant has a bean curd with vegetable soup (blended) it is wonderful. But just to let you know anything on the third day in a row for me is hard to take. I did have some thai coconut soup a couple of days ago and it was heavenly (ordered it mild). It is not creamy and probably did not have much nutritional value but I was happy. The yogurt I am having now is satifying much more than the soup, just the thickness on my tougue feels good. Also I got black bean soup and blended it this week and it was wonderful. One thing I also do is track what I eat on Weight Watchers online, for me I can convince myself I am not eating what I think I am and it adds up. I have found for me that this makes me accountable and I have to look at the nutritional value of the foods I am eating. For instance I was going to buy soup and thought the Tomato and Basil Bisque would be great but then I looked at the fat content and it had 11G per servings, 1 protein, 1G Fiber and 820 sodium. I am not even close to my points quotient for the days (before and after surgery) but I know that I don't what to eat anything that does not give me anything my body needs.

My port site (and below it) did not become sore until about 6 days out. It is not really sore anymore (day 12 now), I can feel it under the skin which feels really weird. Sometimes I feel like I have a stitch in two of my incisions when I twist a certain way but that is just healing I guess. Is anyone using mederma or any other scar minimizer? I don't know why I bother, I had an Open RNY but I am starting to feel like Edward Scissorhands.

Hi all, Just wanted to update, I am 11 days out and feeling really good. I have some port pain but it is just "uncomfortable" I haven't even felt a need for tylenol. Still on liquids, I am starting to feel hungry. I have been eating soup, water, yogurt and protein drinks. According to the the doc it will be another week before I can go to solid foods. I am feeling ready but I understand the implications if I don't adhere to the instructions. My clothes are getting big and friends are starting to notice that I have lost some weight. When I think about losing the 20+ lbs that I have already lost, I see 2 10lb bags of potatoes and realize that is a lot of mass to lose.... very cool.

That's a great story! It was really funny. I don't belong at "normal" gyms and have never felt comfortable there. I go to Curves and it is great. I even asked one of my friends that is a PT what he thought of the workout and he agreed it was good for someone who wants to get into shape. Exercise should be fun...

Thanks so much and I will certainly take you up on this in a few months. Currently I am traveling to Northern CA for work every other week so it is not a big deal to go to San Diego. But my contract will end by the end of the year so I will talk to Dr. Houston at that time. I had thought abouth that prior to the surgery. Terry B

I am 4 days out, Dr Ortiz was wonderful and I am healing well. I am on clear liquids and am still losing weight. The only problem I am having is sleeping... I am not used to sleeping on my back. Once I get to sleep I am OK but getting to sleep has been hard. I have walked my butt off and I have not had much pain. I am only using liquid tylenol and I feel fine. I am sorry it took me so long to post, I am glad to join the banded. Good luck to all who are also on this journey.