jalomum

Hello ElfiePoo I have read many of your posts in the last couple of years. You have always taken great pains to support, reassure and encourage bandees at whatever stage they were at in their journey, through all their doubts, trials and tribulations. At times you made me feel quite ashamed of myself for my callous, un-caring and hard-assed comments as I got more exasperated by the lack of commitment to the process and lack of understanding of the mechanics of it that a lot of these folks displayed. I haven't on here for about 3 months and now, having returned, the first familiar poster I came across was you and you too seem to be getting a little jaded with the attitude of those who do not want to use the tool they have but seem to protest it should be automatic and they should triumph by default. Welcome to the club ElfiePoo

You can get fruit and nuts and veggies past your band if you don't have it too tight. The band reduces hunger and allows you to control what you eat but if you try to lose the weight too fast and have it that tight that you can't eat anything healthy then you are setting yourself up for disaster. Most folks want to feel full and can't work out that the band is all about not feeling empty rather than feeling full. I have been banded for 16 months, lost 48kgs and 4 months ago had all the Fluid out. I have since put on 5 kgs (almost straight away and nothing since) I am working out how to eat right without using my tool before I have it removed. I have the option to have it refilled in one large hit if I decide I can't go it alone. If your band is too tight then you learn nothing, you will probably get complications and if you have to have it removed you will probably regain all the lost weight because you don't take the time to learn while you lose. These things I knew before I was banded through reading everthing I was given and researching as much as possible. Those of you saying it is a scam; can you honestly say you were given no information and you had no opportunity to research for yourself or were you given the info that told you how it works and then expected it to work differently because that is what you wanted to believe? Were you really told that you would always feel full, you'd never think about food, the weight would drop off without any work from you and there was no possibility of any complications? or is that just what you wanted to believe? Slow down, take responsibility. The worst thing is an over filled band, fill it slowly and feel the difference, have it topped up as you lose weight because it gets looser. Learn as you go and don't blame the band if you don't give up ice cream/fizzy pop/alcohol/chocolate/lattes or whatever else you claim to be addicted to. What would you think of someone who bought a vacuum cleaner and then said it didn't work and that vacuum cleaners were scams just because they couldn't be bothered to take it out of the box, plug it in and push it around. If you used your vacuum cleaner right and had lovely clean carpets you would be unable to takeseriously those saying that vacuums didn't work at all. There are folks that the band fails but there are way more that fail their bands through lack of input. You hear about the band, you want the band, you dream about the band, it is the answer to all your problems then when you wake up with the band you don't like the reality because you prefered the dream and then instead of working to make the dream happen, you just move onto another dream, bypass or whatever. Let's face it, if you have half your stomach cut off then it has to be easy, right? I wish you all luck with your weight loss journeys but I think many of you need to start being pro-active and think about how to use this tool you have. And by the way, imho, once you have healed post surgery, you should eat good food slowly untll you are no longer hungry but never until you are full. Learn the difference between 'not hungry' and 'full' and if you are hungry an hour later then have a little more. Learn the difference between good foods and bad foods, good liquids and bad liquids and make the changes. Most of you will find it is up to you and if you do it right, it will work.

3 weeks good and 1 bad, sounds like it is tightening with your menstrual cycle. Mine does this also. Check the dates. Good luck

Nope, but you can't tell that to the fans of diet drinks, chewing gum etc. I think they have ostrich syndrome. One think on my list of things to do is be around to see the legal wrangles when people start to sue the large drinks corporates to get compo for their cancers that result from our little sugar free friend :-) Should be a hell of a bun fight, kind of like the one going on with the tobacco companies (tobacco used to be recommended by doctors as a good way to reduce stress and prevent stomach ulcers - totally safe of course...apparently.,...NOT) The aspartame one will be done by the young adults who were given it as kids by their parents. Low fat, diet stuff sucks. They take out the fat and replace it with sugar or they take out the sugar and replace it with chemicals that are suspected of being carcinogenic...it's ok to get dead so long as you don't get fat!! What a message!! Eating good quality un-refined carbohydrates, good lean Protein and drinking Water would solve most peoples problems but we want to eat rubbish and then when we get fat we eat more rubbish to try and fix it. Just my humble opinion of course. I don't let my kids (13 & 14) eat or drink anything with aspartame in it. This way I hope I will never have to lie and say 'I wasn't warned' or 'no one told me' or 'I had no idea' because I do. I won't leave my kids to deal with the health damage that I believe will result from ingesting large quantities of drinks and other foods containing aspartame, long term. I look forward to the day when either I get to say 'I told you so' or my children get to say 'mum was right'. In case you can't tell it makes me really mad!! but it is good to know I am not the only one with serious concerns about it all :-) good on ya Soulcsista01 and good luck with your journey and you may have guessed that I don't eat diet/low fat/processed and would only do so to save my life. Ooohhhh!! why did you have to go and start me off :-)

I think if I were trying to match the feelings I had in the last few days before I had my band; then I would liken them to going for an interview for my dream job - nervous, apprehensive, feeling unprepared like I'd missed something vital that I needed to know, scared of failure etc, worried I wouldn't be able to do the job if I got it. I dont' think excited came into it. Having my band fitted was getting the opportuninty to suceed not a garantee of success by its self. The same way that going for an interview does not guarantee you get the job. Your feelings are fine, you are approaching it with caution and supressing your expectations because you don't want to fail at it and then deal with disappointment. You'll be fine, use the tool. Good luck.

It would also depend on how much restriction you have. My band is now empty and strangely enough I had steak for lunch and pizza for dinner. Not my normal intake I hasten to add but 2 social events in one day :-) I would say the use of the word 'never' by your doc is a bit of over kill. Good luck.

You can come clean mine if that will help??

Check out the FAQ in the Basics for Lap Band Beginners on the home page. Loads of info about this and other stuff. Good luck with your learning curve....steady as you go.

It is always good to get that sort of pain checked out so yes if it were me then I would be contacting my general doctor.

and talk to your doc...make sure he listens to what you are telling him.

It goes along with the underactive thyroid thing. Sea salt is better than ordinary salt because of the minerals it contains. Get your levels checked when you next get a chance. I hope you work it out.

when you spit it back up, it causes swelling. once you have had this you need to not try to eat solids again for a couple of days, stick to liquids to allow the swelling to do down. After a couple of days you should notice an improvement if it is due to swelling. If there is no improvement then you may need a teeny weeny un-fill. The difference for me between being able to eat and struggling like hell was 0.25ml so your 0.5 would have made a difference. If you have been bringing stuff back for 2 weeks then you are going to be swollen. Good luck with it. It is a real big learning curve but this site is a very good resource.