cnr1983

I didn't feel 'normal' for a few weeks - don't let the small incisions fool you, it's still major surgery - as for the "I went back to work in 3 days!" testimonials...well, good for them but either they were pumped up on pain killers or they're just quite exceptional. I was moving around from day one but not without pain - I couldn't actually stand straight for the first week.

So far, I have used Biotin which has helped somewhat in high doses but not completely. I'd be happy to try anything else.

Hi all, I've been banded for just under 6 months - for the first 2 or 3 months or so, I still felt hungry but obviously I was eating less because I had restriction and that was fine. As of month 4-5, I've lost me appetite. I seem to feel full most of the time, or I'll have 2-3 bites of something and not want any more. I've lost a lot of weight particularly in the last month and although I don't feel sick/stressed or anything like that, I'm wondering if this is just a normal part of the process? (as in, maybe my stomach has shrunk from the reduced food intake and is now not asking for much?)

I was always larger than my best friend - not by much but that's the way it was. It didn't bother me, I never felt like I was competing against her. Sadly, she felt she was competing with me. Around the time I got banded, she was put on medication that prompted weight gain, so I was going down while she was going up. She told me I would die from the band. She printed out information off the internet (from questionable sources) outlining all the bad things that would happen. She went so far as to tell me to get it removed merely weeks after I got the surgery. I honestly thought my best friend would be there for me but she changed completely (or maybe she was always nasty deep down). I eventually told her to get lost and we haven't spoken since and that's fine with me. I'm not here to be anyone's 'fat' friend.

I can't tolerate bread in any form whatsoever so I just stay away from it - to be honest I think it's been a benefit to my weight loss. I can eat Cereal though. Oh - I should clarify. I probably could eat it but it would take me over 30 minutes to get through one slice...bread just doesn't mean that much to me :scared2:

I lost my best friend as a result of losing weight. She never asked me how I was feeling after getting banded, she just completed ignored it. About 5-6 days after surgery, she came over and I dropped something. I asked if she could please pick it up (it hurt to bend down at the time) and she said "No, do it yourself, you CHOSE to get surgery". Well, okay. Then when I started losing weight, she told me I was looking unhealthy. Well, okay. Then one day she told me I was going to die as a result of the 'damage' I had done to my body and she printed out a whole list of lap-band 'horror stories' for me to read. Wow, thanks. After 14 years of being best friends, I had to politely tell her to get lost.

I have to admit, I was somewhat disappointed with the band. What I didn't realise is that I would be one of the few people who vomits a lot - regardless of how well I chew, what I eat or how little I eat. It is what it is - I've been checked and there's nothing wrong with the band and there's nothing 'wrong' with me either, I just can't keep food down for about 1 month after a fill (it relaxes after that). Obviously, this means I get hungry a lot because I'm substituting my meals with liquids a lot of the time (rendering the band somewhat useless). I've lost weight, I can't argue with that, but it's been a painful and uncomfortable journey. There are times when I look at a plate of food and I just can't be bothered because I know what it will lead to. But, it's the risk I took. Needless to say, I wish my surgeon had been more thorough - I did my own research but I really thought it was best to hear it from him, rather than second hand information from questionable sourced off the internet. Unfortunately, he didn't quite do his job and left out a lot of information that may or may not have changed my mind. Either way, the moneys gone and the best I can do is make the best of it. I'm thinner now than I was at 14 years of age so I'm not complaining in that sense...I only wish it didn't have to be so complicated. Either way, Good luck to you - this tool does work for a lot of people but you have to keep on top of your fills; one fill is literally peanuts, you need more than that.

I always get this after a fill - it persists for a few weeks and then subsides. I've come to the conclusion that bringing up food is going to be a part of my banded life - there's nothing that can prevent it, no amount of chewing, no amount of time in between one bite to the next...my only option is to stick to liquids and that would make the band useless. My surgeon assured me my band was fine, there are no 'technical' issues, it's just the way I react. Oh well.

Let me put your fears at rest - the hair loss will stop, eventually. My doctor told me that when you have surgery, the body directs all it's resources to healing the affected area - hair gets neglected in this period because it's not vital. Did you notice that your hair shed a lot less after surgery? In the first two months, I hardly lost any hair at all, indicating that the hair wasn't going through its normal shedding cycle. So, what you may be losing now is hair that you should have lost before but it's all coming at once which can be pretty freaky. I used to get massive clumps of hair coming out in the shower - I got blood tests done and I wasn't deficient in anything - iron levels where better than average because I was eating more red meat than I ever had before.

Your band won't work if you cheat it - liquids and soft foods will generally slide down and it's up to you to control that aspect. I know someone who forces himself to vomit, this relaxes his band and lets anything pass through in big quantities - not a great idea. Otherwise, it's a great tool. For the most part, it helps with hunger, keeps you full and keeps your portions relatively small. There are some things you may have to do without - for me it's bread and to be honest, I'm quite thankful since bread was a 'problem' food for me. One of the things that freaked me out at the beginning was not losing 'enough' weight - being accustomed to crash diets, I was used to losing a lot of weight fast (then piling it back on again). It's different now, weight loss is slow but seemingly permanent. Your concerns are completely normal - I've been there. Diets failed for me so I thought - what if this fails too. At the end of the day, it's a pretty expensive and uncomfortable failure. But it hasn't failed.

Same thing happened to me - I couldn't really tell see the difference in the mirror but I looked at a before photo and wow, my face looked so bloated compared to now. I've also lost my second chin which is a bonus - there's really no need for two I think weight loss can change a person a bit like plastic surgery can - even my face looks different. As a result of not having so much facial padding, my eyes and mouth look bigger lol

I haven't found a sweet spot yet either and I've had about 3 fills and 2 unfills so far. For me, it's a case of either a) not being able to eat at all and :rolleyes2: being able to eat too freely. There doesn't seem to be an in between. My problem is that I can't really eat during the day - breakfast is very difficult and I simply don't have the time to spend 60 minutes trying to eat, so I substitute with a shake. Same thing with lunchtimes - I only have a 30 minute break and can't seem to get anything down in that time frame. Yet, when it comes to the evening, I can eat pretty much anything and given that I spent the day with little food, I'm generally starving. *sigh* I'm hoping it'll get better

I gave up about 48 hours before surgery. My surgeon was 'ok' with it because I was otherwise very healthy but still, not the smartest thing to do. The surgery went fine nonetheless. And I'm now a non smoker (well, sort of - I'm on patches and have been for 3 weeks). Giving up food and cigarettes...*sigh* lol

Getting a bypass was never an option for me - a band is as far as I would go. I don't like the idea of something being irreversible and nonadjustable. I also like the fact that I'm still responsible for my weight. The band helps a lot but it doesn't do all the work for me, not by far. That said, I would never bad-mouth bypass just because I personally chose not to get it. Everyone's different, everyone has their own reasons for choosing one over the other. I came across an anti-lapband site that was being run by a bypass clinic - very one-sided and a lot of the information was simply false of misconstrued. If you trust your product, you don't need to insult your competitor - your product should speak for itself. I now weigh what I weighed when I was 14 years old - the band is speaking for itself.

First of all - it's hard to keep the band a secret, especially if you eat out with friends/family etc. They will notice that she's eating tiny amounts, taking a really long time to finish off a relatively small portion of food and so forth. I've adopted a 'honesty is best' policy and yes, some people have judged me but others have been more than supportive. I lost a good friend in the process but in all honesty, she's was obviously not that great of a friend to begin with. Chewing your food 30 times and eating super slowly is harder to get used to than it sounds - my partner actually reminds me to slow down every time we eat together - that helps because often, you go into automatic mode and you eat at the pace you've been used to. I've found that to be very helpful. My partner is thin and I don't expect him to eat like me but he no longer brings junk food into the house. If he feels like eating cakes or whatever, he does it while he's at work. Although I never asked him to do that, it does help - it's a case of out of sight, out of mind. I was surprised at how happy he's been to basically eat what I eat (just more of it) so that means we don't have to cook separate meals.

You probably won't notice any hair-loss until the 3rd or 4th month after banding. I'm experiencing it now (3rd month) and it's not that bad but still, it isn't pleasant to see. I really don't think it's caused by a lack of Protein (not in my case anyway). I'm eating more red meat and fish now than I ever have. I think it could be the anesthesia or the body putting most of its energy into healing. It could also simply just be the stress.

The band does relax over the time - the band itself is not 100% impermeable and will lose a bit of fluid throughout the months. This may give the impression that it has stretched but it's not the case.

I'm sitting here with my 'vomit/slime' bowl. I had two bites of something and even though I chewed each bite 20-30 times it still got stuck. I had the same food 2 days ago without any trouble. I don't actually feel 'restriction' in the way it was explained to me prior to surgery, I can either eat or not eat at all. It seems to be one or the other.

I had my surgery recently (October) and was never even told about the SIL option - quite disappointing as there's no doubt I would have chosen that over the big fat cut I have now :/

Actually I'm experiencing a similar thing - got a fill 2 weeks ago and everything was fine - in fact, I thought it wasn't filled enough. As of 2 days ago, nothing is going down and the evenings are a particular problem. I've gone back to liquids (since even mush doesn't go down too well) and will wait until I see the doctor next. It's odd, almost like the band has tightened itself.

I told my best friend (actually, ex best friend) and she told her boyfriend - both told me what a "deadly" mistake I had made and so forth and spent hours coming up with all the negative's they could. That was not what someone 5 days post op wants to hear. Not that I took them seriously - they're both grossly over-weight (a lot bigger than I ever was) and they don't want to do anything about it. That's fine - but for me, it wasn't an option. I wanted (needed) to change. Funnily enough, I've found my thin friends being very supportive and happy for me - funnily enough. Anyway, it's definitely made me more mindful of who I tell because a lot of people seem to need to put their opinion across, no matter how ill-educated that opinion is.

I doubt you've done any damage, especially if you're feeling okay. My surgeon said that the liquid stage was predominantly for healing, but it's not a matter of life and death. If you slip up, just pick yourself up again. But, remember - you can cheat on the band, even when it's been tightened. The question is - do you really want to? It's a physical device and while it helps, it doesn't magically make you not hungry. You still have to adopt some of the same principles you did prior to the band - including the dreaded self control :w00t: Don't panic, though - I cheated while on the liquid stage with the tiniest amount of vegetable puree and as luck would have it, it got stuck for hours (what followed wasn't pretty) but I'm fine and it's a lesson learned. food is so not worth that sort of pain :wink2:

Hi everyone, My name is Cristina, I'm 25 and I got banded on the October the 5th. The first 4 days were awful for me, my band was too tight and liquids were getting stuck (causing the usual pain, discomfort and constant 'gurgling'). I got some Fluid taken out yesterday and it's made a huge difference. To be honest I was regretting the surgery at first but I think that's normal - it comes as a bit of a shock to the system and I don't think anyone is 100% prepared for what's to come. I'm supposed to go on 'mushies' next week but I'm scared so think I might stick to liquids for a bit longer - I don't think my stomach is ready just yet. I've shed 5 kilos in 5 days (due to the band being too tight) so I'm anticipating that to slow down, which if fine - health comes first. The post-surgery numbness (mainly below my port scar) freaks me out of a bit but hopefully some sensation will return at some point. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting some of you - I don't know anyone else whose been banded in real life so it gets a bit lonely :thumbup:

I cheated (with two tea-spoons of eggplant relish) and regretted it greatly - it got stuck for hours on end and the discomfort and pain was close to unbearable. I don't actually regret it, though - it taught me a lesson. No food is worth feeling that horrible and I haven't cheated since.

I wasn't a massive over-eater prior to surgery, but I was eating too much for my body type - when you have tendencies towards obesity, you have to eat less and move more than 'normal' people. After lap-band, I don't actually feel hungry like I used to - it's more 'mouth' hungry but I deal with that easily - I have a tea or a drink and I feel full again. I no longer think about food like I used to and when I do, I think about the healthiest thing I can eat, rather than the tastiest (and fattiest). Some people have different experiences and it's important to note that everyone is different - some have bigger appetites, others have addiction to food which the lap-band can't help with because it's a physical device, it won't address emotional issues. I am also aware of the foreign item in my body and that alone keeps me away from bad food choices - getting a band is a huge step and knowledge of that keeps me in check - I didn't go through all this just to revert back to old habits - I went through a fair amount of pain and like all surgery, it comes with risks - I won't let myself fail because getting surgery is different to buying a few diet shakes - you invest more and you expect more from yourself. The band helps a lot - but it's not a miracle but from where I'm standing - feeling ravenously hungry is a thing of the past.