happy2lose

I would give it a couple weeks and see how you feel. With good restriction you should be able to eat much less, somewhere around the 1/4 cup serving and feel satisfied for 3-4 hours and begin losing 1-2 pounds per week steadily. If this happens, you are at your sweet spot. Donna

Yes, I will send you a private message to discuss this.

Are you eating solid foods yet or are you still on the post-op diet?

Any drug store or Walmart carry papaya enzymes. Have a great night!

It's my understanding that with GB your stomach size is greatly reduced to the size of the tip of a thumb. I really don't think GB patients get as much enjoyment from food as you are assuming. You made a great choice for your health. Give it some time and I believe you will come to realize this.

I sincerely hope everything works out well for you with your insurance coverage. Insurance requirements can be overwhelming. Donna

I'm glad your fill went well. Just think, your already further along then you realized as far as getting to good restriction. Best wishes, Donna

I'm not interest in berating you or your surgeon or anybody else for that matter. Perhaps you should re-read my previous post. My insurance carrier will not cover lapband surgery anymore because of the high failure rate. For this reason and this reason alone, I had to self-pay for lapband surgery. I am extremely careful not to do anything through my own negligence to damage my band. Therefore, I do follow the manufacturer's guidelines to the letter. If Allergen says not to consume carbonated beverages then I will not consume them. I do follow my surgeon's recommendations so long as they coincide with Allergen's guidelines. I feel extremely thankful to my husband for supporting my decision to go outside of network for a procedure my insurance would not cover. It was a financial hardship for me and my husband to pay out of pocket for my surgery during this poor economic time and even more of a hardship to have to pay for revision surgery especially if its for something I could have prevented. Remember, if even a fraction of banded people don't follow the band rules and increase the failure rate, it affects everybody down the line who has the hope of getting a lapband in the future. Perhaps now you will all understand where I am coming from. I really don't care a rat's ass if you disagree with me or not. Perhaps all of you need to calm down and practice a little more understanding of other's views on things because afterall, this entire thread would have been concluded if a select few of you didn't keep stirring the pot. As far as I'm concerned you can all keep this going or you can let it rest, but I'm done! Goodnight!

I really don't know how much the band itself costs but I'm sure it isn't $7,000. I went to Mexico for my surgery and the total cost for it installed was $7,000.

That's awful! Perhaps you are too tight. Being too tight is miserable and no way to live. I sincerely hope you get this straightened out soon. Donna

I just really can't understand the logic some of you use to convince yourself that its okay to break the rules. The Allergen and Realize band manufactures all warn about the consumption of CARBONATED beverages by band implant patients. This to me overrides any surgeon's opinion of the consumption of carbonated beverages by lapband recipients. There are many threads on this website in regards to carbonated beverages and the band and I highly recommend that those of you still consuming carbonated beverages seek out and read these threads. It's really no skin off my back if you do damage to your bands people. Sorry if I just care too much about all of you messing up your bands and having to have revision surgery needlessly. It's your band to screw up! Take care!

You look great and are truly an inspiration to those of us still trying to get to where you are. I do my best everyday to try to pay it forward. Thanks for sharing your wonderful success story with all of us. Donna

I bought a scale at walmart for under $30 that works fine. It is consistently 4 pounds off though.

I think you should sit down with your surgeon and ask him/her these questions. Not that I don't want to help you but it seems strange to me that in 2 years you haven't made any progress with your band and nobody involved in your care or surgery has offered any answers, advice or opinions that are helpful to you. If your surgeon is unable to help you perhaps you should consider finding a new doctor who will properly advise you as to what you should be doing or what you are doing wrong. Good luck to you, Donna

You may want to re-post this in pre-op section. I'll bet you will receive many responses there.

Forgot to mention that before you have really good restriction you really have to rely on will power not to eat too much. I used to eat about a cup to a cup and a half of food before having enough restriction to be satisfied with 1/4 cup. So don't be too hard on yourself.

My surgeon instructed me to always chew my food to the consistency of paste. If you cannot go 3-4 hours between meals without getting hungry then you most likely need a fill. You do need to listen to your body because it will signal you when it is time to stop eating. The signals are sometimes easy to miss. You may just sigh or start burping or hiccuping. These are all signs of being full when you are banded. Sometimes when I get really hungry I have a tendency to eat too fast and always end up stuck. This is called 1st bite syndrome. This is a good time to pop a couple papaya enzymes and wait it out to see if the food goes down. If you end up PBing you should return to a liquid diet for the remainder of that day. Do not resume eating solid food immediately because your stomach will swell up around the band and it will be difficult to eat anything at this point. If you push it you run the risk of slipping your band. There is a fine line between being too tightly filled and behavioral problems. What I mean is that most of the time when I get stuck it is because I a)ate too fast, b)didn't chew enough, c)took too large of bite, d)ate too much. You will need to discover what you are doing wrong and correct it. Hope this helps you, Donna

Tracy, I was an exercise hater. Hence my weight getting to 330 pounds. I realized that if I didn't make exercise part of my daily life I would always be fat. So, right out of surgery I decided to move every chance I had. I was up and walking around the exterior of the hospital within an hour of coming out of recovery and kept walking until I was given the go ahead by my surgeon for full exercise. I joined a gym (Curves) the day I turned 4 weeks post-op and I faithfully go every day. I have made so many new friends and have found so much support through the owners, employees and members that I actually look forward to going. I also ride my bicycle with my husband as often as daylight permits. My grown kids actually have started to join us and it has become a family outing every weekend and it is so much fun. My husband has always told me to push past the exhaustion of exercise and when I feel like I can't breath anymore to focus on slowing down my breathing and the feeling will pass. I would stop and plop on the sofa at the point where breathing got hard and give up. I've discovered that he was right. It does get easier when you push past that point and concentrate on your breathing. I love riding my bicycle and feel so alive like I can ride forever. I'm telling you all this to try and motivate you to find some form of exercise that you enjoy and will make part of your everyday life. I want you to succeed and become healthier, lose the weight and become happier, more confident and help others in their weight loss journey. Exercise is a necessary part of life. Best of luck to you and feel free to message me if you have any questions. P.S. Sassy is a good thing! Donna

I also drink 1 cup of coffee each morning and I find it suppresses my appetite for a couple of hours. My doc said no carbonation ever again so I have no intention of ever having soda again or my favorite Mikes hard lemonade. Don't really miss either of them to tell the truth. I enjoy the weight loss much more than anything I could ever eat or drink.

Totally normal!

Yes, everyone is different but in the beginning I was losing very rapidly. It's slowed down to about 1-2 pounds per week if I'm lucky.

Did you just recently start to exercise? I ask this because I find on the mornings I go to the gym before work I am sooooo sassy. I think it because I have more energy. Donna

In the beginning I only ate my 3 meals each day. Recently I've become addicted to popcorn and eat it as an evening snack. My weight loss has slowed down since starting popcorn so I'm gonna have to give it up soon. There are varying opinions on this subject. I think you should try to go without your Snacks if you can. If you find you can't, you may have to add them back in. I find I'm usually fine for about 3-4 hours between meals so no real need to snack on my part. I know I haven't been much help here. Donna

Dana, My surgeon is 3 hours away and the total trip takes around 10 hours because I cross over the border into Mexico. My last fill left me way too tight. I waited 2 weeks to see if it would loosen but it didn't so I had to drive back to Mexico for an unfill. I was so miserable for that 2 week period. My advice to you is, don't worry about getting a fill if your hunger is tolerable and you are still losing weight. I would postpone the fill for now. Donna