Awkward customer

Thank you for comments. So it sounds like I shouldn't be able to eat a whole pizza. I'll have to get on their case and get them to give me another fill. In the mean time, my high glycaemic index approach should bear some fruit. I will add some veg now you mentioned it! My consultant recommended Dolmio (tomato-based Pasta sauce) with chicken lumps (and not minced beef, which would be a slider). So I diced up a pound of chicken, cooked it in 10 calories of oil, added a pepper and then half a jar of low-fat pasta sauce, and cooked some wholewheat spaghetti - and it made a really great meal - filling for a long time, and low in Weightwatchers Points overall!

I have had 3 fills so far. I now have 10mls in a 14cc band, and I been told not have pizza again - that was one of the instructions of my new consultant, so I have cut out pizza. The previous consultant approved of anything non-runny. The new consultant has banned paella, banned fish in batter and Breakfast Cereal, all recommendations of the previous consultant. So now I am on a new diet, of fish, chicken, baked potato, new potato, omelettes, boiled eggs, bananas, wholewheat spaghetti and low-fat cereal bars. That is really all that is on the new list. I don't think I have very good restriction, as I had thought that with the band I would not be able to eat fish and chips, pizza and all the normal fastfood stuff, and yet I find that I could eat them in the same quantities as before. I was on the point of exploring legal options to sue the hospital for the money back, but they have given me a new consultant to see once a month, and she has recommended a completely different set of foods to before. I think the boiled egg for breakfast approach is worth other people exploring. There is considerable impatience on this board with people for whom the band seems not to be working - maybe no one wants to put off of what they are doing - but it is quite a conundrum why the band doesn't seem to work for some people. I told my previous consultant about this board and how there is a man here who had 19cc in 14cc band and no restriction, and had to be rebanded, after which it was a success - and her full reponse was "never read Internet forum on the LAP-BAND®" - as if this were an answer. I would recommend people struggling with the band to try boiled eggs and baked potatoes - they are solid foods and eggs are high in protein, so they might help the band work. The question I have, is whether a high glycaemic diet would have woked without banding. I suppose I'll never now. I also wonder if my band has been badly positioned, so that I ought to be rebanded? The hospital says no, but their interest is in doing the least they can get away with, and in any case find it easier to suggest that I must be doing something wrong. Anyhow, I am going to give this consultant's foodstuffs a go...

I have read this thread, and I understand why some people would think no one should say anything negative about gastric banding, to avoid upsetting people newly banded. But I really could not recommend someone to have a gastric band. I am three months out, and wondering why in a moment of weakness, I allowed my family to persuade me to waste money on a piece of plastic and a scar. I have 10cc in a 14ml band and no restriction, and starting to lose any belief that this is going to work for me at all. It is totally inadequate to say "why are people eating KFC and still moaning?" For one thing, there is no KFC or McDonald's in my town - and so that is not the problem. The more substantive point is that I thought I would not be able to eat much, at least in terms of solid foods, after being banded. If the advice people in this thread are giving people is "go on a diet" - er, yes, good idea - but I could have done that without wasting money on a a piece of plastic and a scar. I am wondering what the real percentages are of people for whom the gastric band really works. Even if the band starts working for me when I hit 11cc, I do not feel it would be anything other than fraudulent to recommend this process to anyone else.

After being 340 lbs for a while, now the scales are telling me I am done to 326-330. I think maybe fear of food getting stuck is making me avoid certain foods (eg my previous habit of buying a whole chicken and eating the whole lot in one sitting). But when I get on the scales, the reading varies a bit. I bought some new scales Weightwatchers brand, that go up to 400 lbs - so I am not too heavy for the scales. They are guaranteed for 10 years and have carpet feet (and anyway, on a flat kitchen floor, I weight the same on them). My problem is that there is such a range of results. And when I get on, it takes a while to find the right result. It goes, 330, 324, 328, 326, 329, 325, and then sticks on a result. Is it harder for bigger people to get an accurate reading? You have to stand more still than smaller people, don't you? I find it inconvenient that the scales indicate such a range.

I had my second fill recently - having lost nothing since my band fitting on Feb 11. Am I right in saying that it takes days for the true extent of the restriction to become apparent? I had fluids for 2 days and then went on to real food, and yesterday I could eat almost anything. Today I feel a little different - because I ate a chicken leg and had a long stuck episode - this may indicate I am getting more restricted? Although if eat other things, I can still eat a lot. BAked potatoes are something I eat - and I still find I can have a couple at a sitting - potatoes are easier than chicken. I find I can't eat tuna at all - I can feel it just sitting there in my stomach and going nowhere. Is there anything someone could recommend to eat that would definitely indicate if I have restriction? For example: if I can eat 2 baked potatoes - does that mean I am still too loose at 10cm in a 14cc band? Or should I judge it by the chicken? Does food getting stuck indicate restriction, or are the two concepts totally separate? What about fish in breadcrumbs? If I can have two of those straight off, does that mean I am too loose? I had to explain it all to my Mum again today why I haven't lost anything, and why it might take a few more fills - but at 10mls already I am starting not to see the light in the tunnel.

Unfortunately, that is an accurate description of my situation too. I am not going to eat chicken again - it is getting stuck all the time. I am worried that there is not much room to fill the band further - I have 10mls in already and no restriction. I may just be the one person who this operation turns out to be no more than an expensive way of getting a nice bit of plastic inside me. I am still hoping though that the next fill will do it! Basically I want to be so restricted I can hardly eat - if only the doctor would listen to that!

5ml was put in during the operation. The first fill increased that to 8.25ml. The 2nd fill increased that to 10 or 10.25ml - I forget which.

Dear all, I was banded on February 11th and have had one fill, and currently have 8.5cc in a 14 cc band. I initially lost 7 lbs in my post-band diet, but have now put that back on and am the same weight as when I had the bandd done. It's become the dreaded subject - "how much have you lost after paying $9000?" - "er... nothing". Am I totally unusual in this? I heard that sometimes it takes a couple of fills to get where you need to be. When I had my first fill, I felt restriction that day - they forgot to tell me to follow a special diet after the fill for 2 days, and so when I tried to eat things that day, I found I could only manage a mouthful - and hoped that that was really going to be what it was going to be like from then on. But the next day, I was fine and back to normal. I can eat anything - anything at all - in large quantities. They told me not to count calories or WW points, but just concentrate on the texture of the food - as long as I was not having runny slider food, I should forget calories. This is not working well for me - I am going to rejoin WeightWatchers on Tuesday and start counting the points again - but then again, if I had known that it was a WW diet that I would be on, then I would not have paid the $9000. The nutritionist suggested as a snack something like cheese and crackers - as it is the right "texture" - well I can easily eat half a pound of cheese on crackers in one sitting - as a "snack". Last night -admittedly it was only the second fast food meal I have had since February 11th, I ordered Special Curry, a portion of chips (=french fries) and Special Fried Rice (Yangzhou Fried Rice) - and ate the lot straight off with no discomfort. I know people will tell me I should know not to eat half a pound of cheese on crackers as a snack - but the whole point for me is portion control and appetite control, and if it comes down to just willpower for me, then it is not worth a cent. Am I unusual, or do I just need another fill and then it will be all right? I see people on this site doing so well, and I would like to be like them!

Betsy, the WW meeting is near my house and takes place tomorrow, so that is why I am going there. But I will keep in mind that the wW diet could allow you to eat many slider foods - I will try to stick to the right stuff.

Well, I now have a fill booked for Friday 16th. They told me on the phone that with a 14cc band I won't feel restriction until 10 or 11 cc are in there! And I have 8.25cc in there now, and each fill will only put 1cc or 1.5cc in -so I could get restriction this Friday or if not, definitely the next time... It's a real rollercoaster ride emotionally. I suppose those of you who had it paid on their insurance have a gentler rollercoaster ride - me, I'm thinking all the time about the money I paid!

I am trying to make this work. Today I had a snack of crackers and half-fat cheese - I know some people would say I shouldn't have this, but my nutritionist recommended this as an appropriate snack. It is solid and likely to fill the pouch, and not a slider. I had one cracker and a bit of cheese, and immediately felt full. What should I do? a) keep everything out on the table, thinking, "I'll wait 10 minutes and then I might be able to manage some more"? or :thumbup: put it all away. My resolution is: as soon as I get a "full" a signal, PUT EVERYTHING AWAY. Once you are full, your snack or meal is OVER. I reckon I could still put on weight with the band if I refused to acknowledge full signals...

After my first fill, I had an appointment with my dietician. Her advice was never to count calories again. The band should work just by eating the right stuff to feel full. Her recommendation is to focus on the texture of food and not the calories in it - ie, eat bulky or crunchy food, don't eat slider foods, no smoothies or milkshakes, yoghurts only if "bulked up" with fruit, no runny ready meals, preferably everything bulked up, eg with potatoes and veg, so that the band will feel full. On this theory, the band should work without counting calories. And yet people here are still counting calories? Do people in this forum agree with the advice to forget calories?

I think people around the world will be interested to see what happens - I am in England, so Obamacare does not affect me. Keep us posted - will there be a sudden change as insurance becomes easier to get despite pre-existing conditions? Will insurance become more expensive as a result? And who will pay the extra? Your company? Your government? You? I'll be interested to know. We have a national health service, where healthcare is "free at the point of use" and paid for by taxation - this is not an insurance based system - and there is some "rationing" going on in the system - eg in my area you can't have a band for free until you have a BMI of over 50. So it is not perfect, and you cannot choose to change insurer or upgrade your insurance, because it is a "one-size-fits-all" government service -a nd the only alternative is to go private and pay the full whack, despite the fact that you are already paying for healthcare in your taxes.

Well I had my post-op X-ray today and my first fill. I went to the hospital full of regrets that I had had the band done, and by the time I came out and spotted much greater restriction, I realised that this could actually work and became much more positive! My 14cc band had 5cc put in during the operation, but I found I could eat ANYTHING at all just the same as before. This time, they added 3.25cc to make 8.25cc in total. I tried to eat a 6.5 ounce cold snack of Pasta and chicken (just 310 calories in the pot), and found I could only manage two tablespoonfuls of it, and had to throw the rest away. Now I could have eaten unlimited quantities of it before the band fill. As I went to the hospital by train, on the way back I had to change trains and stopped to have that pasta snack - after just 2 spoons of it I felt so full, I took nearly an hour for it to go down fully. I decided never to eat in public or before using public transport again - what if I had to be sick on the train in front of all the passengers? I worried incessantly about the band before the X-ray, imagining that every twinge meant it wasn't healing properly - and I am relieved to know all is healing just normally! May I thank people here who have posted encouraging messages for me!

Gosh, there are so many ways to increase it! I don't cook properly so I couldn't offer a recipe, but I snack on a pound of wafer thin turkey through the day = 400 calories. That would give you something low fat to snack on the whole day.

New Woman, that doctor was just rude. If I were you I would try to see someone else next time. How dare he say "all I can smell is smoke on you"? I would be tempted to be harsher in my replies to such a person: "I have stated I don't smoke, and I expect you to believe me. Don't raise the subject again, and try to be more professional in your dealings with patients, thank you!" Your choice of lunch is not terrible. 3 chicken fingers and mashed potatoes? Well the potatoes are filling, and as long as you are keeping to a calorie total per day, chicken fingers and mashed potatoes are quite adequate. Having a band does not mean that you have to have vegetables only every day for the rest of your life. He is just being unreasonable. Really, he is talking to you like a child. If you are happy with your weight loss, and it is working for you, even if slightly more slowly than the doctor expected, you haven't got a problem. Just get rid of the doctor.

Just be happy. As long as you lose it and don't put it back on, and don't yoyo, most of the stuff about not losing it too fast can be put to one side.

Btrieger, you said your op was going to be March 2nd. Are you two weeks into your journey of a lifetime? How is it going?

Hi, I lost a few pounds while I was on a liquid diet, but now I am on real food I find I can eat absolutely anything. I have tried - just once, just to see - to eat fish and chips (a great British favourite) - and yes I can eat a whole portion of fish and chips no problem. I can eat cheese, chicken, anything - the only things I haven't tried are bread and rice. In fact, I can eat as much as I did before I was banded. The only problem is if I don't chew well, then the food may get stuck. I only had one real stuck episode - but then I started chewing better. So eating fish and chips, I just made sure to chew it well - but I was able to eat it all, and at a normal speed too. Does this mean I need a fill? Should the band give restriction over and beyond trying not to eat too quickly and having the food get stuck? Or does "restriction" mean "not being able to eat too fast as the food may get stuck"? If the band just means I have to chew my food more thoroughly, but I can still eat just as much, then it will not help me much. I am relying on willpower now, not very successfully. I have a large 14cc band - and the doctor put 5cc in during the operation - but I have heard it is hard to get restriction in the large bands, and I don't know if I should be experiencing a greater effect with 5cc in a 14cc band? Family members are phoning every day and asking me how much I weigh - and the way I feel I am on the verge of breaking off relations with them for good over it - as I am sick of all the constant discussion of weight. Of course, it would be a shame to lose all contact with my family over this - but I have for a while now no longer felt the same relationship with my family since they kept going on about obesity - even if the band works in the end, I might end up with no family as a result. So while they are excited about the band and phoning every day, as if a thrilling experience has happened to me, I am left wondering whether this, my last "throw of the dice" to try to avoid my fate of growing old as an obese person, is going to work or not. It is hard for me to keep so positive about it. I have booked an appointment on March 20 to have an X ray on my band and a fill if the doctor recommends it...

Thank you all of your for your replies and encouragement. Can I ask - is feeling full the same as feeling stuck? Or is there a slight difference?

after two weeks on liquids, I made my first attempt at food today. It was meant to be soft food, but I bought some smoked mackerel and tried to eat that. After only one ounce, I suddenly felt that I coul eat no more, and could be sick. It came as a shock - I felt so ill, actually I felt like I could hardly breathe. After 10 minutes it went away, but it came as a wake up call after 2 weeks on liquids. I had to put the rest of the mackerel in the fridge and tackle it in the afternoon instead! I haven't actually been sick yet but I came close to it today! It surprised me just how suddenly the feeling came upon me that I could not eat one bit more. Normally, on a non-banded stomach, you get full more gradually and can normally finish up your plate, however full you are. But this time it happened all of a sudden - I was suddenly over-full and could not have had one gram more at that point!

Thank you all. I won't buy mackerel for a while! It was tastier though than anything I've eaten for weeks!!

Yes cuts normally heal OK, but I think clexane, in order to prevent DVTs, is an anticoagulant. I think this may mean my scabs heal more slowly.

It is 12 days since my band was fitted. The doctor prescribed 28 days of Clexane injections to prevent a DVT (as I had a DVT in my leg once). I am wondering whether Clexane prevents the wounds from healing quickly? My 2 inch wound is not weeping or anything like that, but the scab is still there, and has not given way to normal skin yet. I thought these wounds were meant to be healed in 2 weeks?

Can I clarify for any Americans reading the article that a stone is 14 lbs? So the girl at 3 stone 9 lbs is 51lbs - looking at the picture she is the perfect weight for her height and not actually overweight at all.