AlienBandit

How I react in a stuck situation depends on where I am. Since my band is a secret if I am out with friends I must do a less obvious thing to help with the situation. If I don't want to bring the food back up I try a couple of things. If I am out in public I pretend I need to cough/clear my throat, and hit my chest a little near my collar bone area. Or I move my left shoulder around ( try to not so obviously do the chicken dance) If that doesn't work i sip hot tea If I can't take it anymore, I excuse myself to the bathroom and jump around. The chicken dance really works well too. If it is hopeless after that I just give in and bring the food back up. If I am at home I usually do the chicken arm flapping. If that doesn't work I jump around. If that doesn't work I sip hot tea, if that doesn't work I raise my arms above my head. If all else fails it must come up. I dont have papaya enzymes pills here. What are they used for other then by bandsters? I can have family send some to me but need an excuse to why I want them.

If it is only 5 hours maybe you can hold off eating on the plane? I would maybe try to focus on more liquids like Water then eating. If you do think you will be hungry maybe bring some powdered Soup and just ask for hot water. Or you can buy yogurt while inside the terminal of the airport before you leave. However at 6 weeks you should be able to eat normal foods. Nuts are not that bad. Just chew chew chew a lot to make sure they are all ground up. Depending on your restriction at that time you might not be able to eat at all. I flew last year 10cc in my 11cc band and could eat during my flight but come the next morning I was a little sore ( felt like i did a major ab workout) and stuck to liquids and easier to consume foods for a day just to be safe. Lastly those scans are to only see whats outside your body I believe right? Since your port in inside of you I don't think they will see if. Even if they do if you have a medical card from surgery you can show them that or explain the situation. We don't have those machines here so I am not 100% informed on them though Safe travels

I was overfilled for 3 weeks once so I feel your pain. It came suddenly weeks and weeks after my fill. Try to stick to hot liquids. I found I could sometimes take in yogurt and ice cream so I tried to put some Protein powder it in so I wouldn't completely starve. The acid reflux was killing me. I have to take 16 tums a day and live off of mostly dairy if I could. Hopefully you can get to your doc soon. That is probably not good for your band.

My doc doesnt not require a pre-op diet but sometimes he will tell the patient they should reduce certain foods etc if he sees that their liver is fattier then normal. I had a low bmi and my liver wasnt that bad so it was no worry for me.

The band is a tool and not a magic wand. Sometimes docs dont give fills if they think the patient is good on their own. That can be a good thing a fill too soon can hurt your stomach and can cause erosion etc. If you can do well without a fill that is great. The first couple of months are supposed to be a healing period. Losing weight at first is just a bonus. I know it can be frustrating but this is a good time to get used to having the band and getting ready for a fill. You can do this!

You are at your sweet spot if you can go 3-4 hours between meals. Here are a few questions. Are you pbing at all during the day? Are you living off mostly liquids and mushies? Does food get stuck often? Are you fatigued? Do you have acid reflux during the night? If you answered no to these then that sounds like a good spot your in Are you able to stay hydrated? Are you able to eat solids? If you answered yes to those two questions then it sounds like you have a good fill. I think you should still eat a little during the day so your not starving your self. That can make you make bad food choices when you are hungry. Focus of high Protein during those meals then. However be careful, if this fill is causing you to pb often you could be over filled and you could stretch your pouch and would need a complete unfill

I'm glad I never watched a surgery online before my surgery. That freaks me right out even watching them now. I have seen some of my docs videos and I really can't stand to watch it. Don't worry though the surgery is really worth it. Just try not to watch anymore videos. Also it is not as painful as it looks.

I usually have a very busy schedule and don't have many options of different times to eat. If I am not hungry when it is my eating time then I just eat my protein minimum to make sure I don't starve and eat badly later. Usually I have 3 meals a day but breaky is always the one meal I sometimes skip ( as I am sometimes too tight to eat anything in the am)

I stayed over night. My doc requires all patients to stay at least 1 night. After that night my doc asked me to stay another night because I had too much gas in my lungs and he thought they would collapse but I had to go home and go back to work. I'm glad I stayed overnight as I live alone so it would have been a challenge since I never told anyone about my surgery.

You can ask your doctor to move your port if you comfortable with them. My port stuck out so I asked for it to be moved. It is now under my muscles and only my doc can find it. I thought I could but I poke around and cant feel it.

Right now I have 5cc in my band and am a bit over filled. I did have 6cc and was fine at that much but suddanly more than 3 weeks after the fill it was too much so I had some removed. I had 4cc placed in my band during surgery and could eat a whole horse I thought my band was empty. Sometimes our stomachs cant even make up their own minds

I know its hard to be without your fill but this is a great opportunity to relearn healthy eating again with solid food ( since you have had a hard time eating solids for 2 years. The band is a tool not a magic wand right? This is an example to show someone that we need to work to lose weight not sit and wait for it to fall off. I hope things go well for you. Stay strong and positive

Everyone is different. i am a big baby when it comes to pain so I thought I'd die going back to work but I had my surgery on a Saturday and went back to work on the Monday. Almost all of my surgeries ( except my tummy tuck) I went back to work right away without any problems. Even with my band taken out, lipo etc. Though I did take time off work for my tuck ( mini) I could have gone back to work right away. Strange how I can hyperventilate and lose it at the sight of a needle because I hate pain yet can just back to work so quickly. It is partially my sanity level I guess because I go nuts just resting. I am a very active person so sitting and resting drives me nuts. I guess I should be glad I can bounce back so quickly.

This sounds interesting and I would like to know what others think. For me it makes sense. I have been fighting a cold for some time and even went for a 1cc unfill ( yes a whole cc not .1cc). I was fine for 2 days after that but now I almost feel as much restriction before the unfill and I am still fighting the cold I had at the time of the unfill. Will have to let you know my personal experience once I kick this cold. This situation had never happened to me any other time because I have only had one cold since being banded over a year ago.

I chew gum (like right now). I will have to ask my doc how he feels about this. However I don't think he would object considering once I was in his office and he had offered me gum one time lol

I find if I have only a liquid for breaky and a liquid or mushy for lunch then I am super tight at dinner. If I have something more substantial during the day then I can almost eat a horse for dinner. If I know I am going out for dinner I force myself to consume something more then a liquid or mush during the day. I dont know why I am that way but thats how my band wants to work. I have also found that eating ice cream before a meal somehow makes it easier for me to eat something. Once I went out for dinner ( unplanned) and couldnt eat so I said I was sick so my friend got me ice cream. I ate a little and suddenly was starving and proceded to eat my dinner I couldn't eat a few minutes before :S

I use small forks, and spoons at home. When I go out most restaurants only have spoons and chopsticks but I rarely use my spoon. Eating with chopsticks def makes me eat slower. Sometimes the staff will bring me a fork so I must explain that I am a slow eater. Chopsticks make pulling off eating normal easier. Yes you can take bigger bites of stuff with chopsticks but you can also use chopsticks to take smaller bites if you want.

I think it is better to tell them right away. I met a guy a few weeks before my rebanding and put off dates till after I was eating solid foods again. Our first date was a disaster because he went on about how fat people are lazy and plastics and weight loss surgery are for lazy people. I didn't want to tell him right away but after that topic came up I just lost it. He didnt understand why I cared so much because " I was so thin" he said and then I told him all about my surgeries. Needless to say I never saw him again. He actually said he didnt care much about it but with his bad view of "fat:" people I obviously wasnt interested in seeing him anymore.

I got a fill and then nearly 5 weeks later had to go for an unfill because I got too tight all of a suddan. It is weird but happens sometimes. It can be because of stress etc.

I actually got a fill I believe 3 weeks before my mini tummy tuck. Things went well after my tuck until post op 3 weeks. Things got tight for some reason and I suffered for 3 more weeks when I finally got an unfill. I think if your not quite at your sweet spot don't get an unfill (if your doctor leaves it up to you). If your at your sweet spot I would maybe go for an unfill. I was basically at my sweet spot maybe a little overfilled but could live with it. I wish I didn't get my fill right before surgery because I then had it removed after my tuck. However everyone is different and so are docs. If it is easy for you to get an unfill then maybe don't worry about it as long as your doc says you can get one after surgery. If you live hours away from your doc, cant get an appointment easily etc then maybe get an unfill. My doc is usually easy to get to but literally the day after my surgery there became some problems hence the 3 weeks overfill hell.

I don't have a problem really eating sweets here but as soon as I eat candy or most other things from Canada/US I get indigestion. Though this can be disappointing it is a good way to motivate me to not want to eat things like sweets.

Your stomach is still healing from surgery. You don't want to get fills too fast or too big because it can cause problems and hurt your stomach. Most people don't feel restriction until after a few fills. Before you get to that restriction really shows you that the band is a tool and not a magic wand. You must work with it and help it with your weight loss. Try to keep up your Protein and lower your carbs etc. Don't get frustrated if your not losing a lot of weight. A lot of doctors say that if you lose weight the first few months it is a bonus because that is really a time for healing.

Thats great you are able to recover so fast. I went back to work day 2 post op my surgery and though it was a little tough it wasn't that bad. I am a teacher so walking and standing for a while helped me recover quicker I think. It is possible to go back to work right after surgery if you feel up to it. I found it helped the recovery because I wasn't lying down in bed all the time

I found out I had PCOS nearly 10 years ago when I was a teen. Diets would work but I could never keep the weight off. Usually when I lose weight my stomach is the last to go. Even when I was 20 pounds from goal my stomach looked terrible still. After lots of gyming and some lipo it looks better. There are photos of my blog. Good luck on your journey and know your not alone!

I'm 25 and banded. My highest weight was 220 when banded I was 210 I'm not 149 and I was to be 135-40. I did have a lot of excess skin but with lots of exercise and some lipo my body has changed a lot. It has been some time since my lipo and my body is still changing. I find the gym helps a lot. There are photos on my blog if you want to see someone of similar weight.