katylady

I was banded almost three years ago and did great the two years, and was well on my way to losing the last 20 pounds I wanted to lose. I had a bad episode of something getting stuck one evening and afterwards began having problems with waking up and choking each night. Doc said the band was too tight and caused the choking. He removed all Fluid from the band and I had to go six weeks without a fill and immediately gained 15 lbs back. I went back and he refilled but only about half of what the original fill was, went back a second time due to still gaining and he gave me a tiny bit more. I finally got frustrated and went to another place for my fill, and at that time was told my stomach pouch has stretched and they took more of my fill OUT! Now I don't feel like I have any restriction at all, I can eat anything without difficulty and I'm gaining weight again!!!! This is so depressing. What do I do now to get the stomach pouch to shrink again, and get back on track with this thing? I can't even imagine going back to where I was before. Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, I could sure use some friendly advice and support.

Sorry I haven't responded with more info earlier, I was out of town. My doc and the clinic and went to are associated. The Doc did a barium swallow, gave me a slight fill and I still was able to overeat, went back, gave me another slight fill. Still able to overeat, so went to the clinic to see about another fill and see what they would say. They also took a barium swallow and at that point then did a still shot and actually pointed out my pouch on the screen and compared it to an earlier shot of my pouch. It was definitely stretched way beyond what it needs to be. I have found now that in order to see if I can get it to shrink again, I will need to go on a liquid diet. They told me five days, and I did, but it didn't make much difference, so now with vacation over, I will get back on the liquid diet and try to stay with it as long as I can to see if I can get back on track and if the pouch will really shrink. If not, what are the options? I don't know, will have to ask my Doc about it, but scared I will lose my band and don't want that. I just can't face being so overweight again!

Hello All, I haven't posted in a while and haven't really kept up with the thread because this past year has been a whirlwind of activity. Anyways, things have slowed down for me a bit and I thought I'd get back into this. I am definitely a slow loser. I was banded a year ago and my bmi was 36. Today it is 30 and I've lost 35 lbs and still have 36 more to go. At first I was really disappointed in my weight loss because it was so slow. I thought the problem was me. I started paying close attention to my weight loss and realized I have a weight loss pattern. I lose consistently between 2 - 2.5 lbs per month. It seems that I waiver for a two or three weeks with my weight fluctuating up and down one to two pounds, then after the third week, it stabilizes and those two or three pounds will suddenly go away and the scale will stay that way for another two to three weeks, then the cycle repeats itself. I think that's just the way my body sheds the weight and I'm happy with it. I look and feel so much better than I did this time last year, and the year just flew by, so I am more than happy knowing that at the rate I am losing it will take another year to reach goal. Anyways, I guess what I wanted to say was don't get discouraged. Pay attention to your weight loss and see if you recognize some sort of pattern. Once I realized what was going on, I felt a lot better about myself and knew I could do it. Good luck to you all.

What type of pain killers should someone with a band take? Is it ok to take regular aspirin or tylenol with the band? What do the doc's recommend for minor pain?

Thanks Denise822. I'm happy to say the scales went down another pound this morning! Yipeeeeee.... finally, finally, finally, I'm seeing decent progress. I think once you get good restriction and realize that you have to work WITH the band, everything gets easier. I thought I'd never be able to give up bread, but hey, if you can not physically eat the stuff, it's real easy to give it up. I tried a couple of times and all it did was come right back up. Giving up my daily diet drink was the most difficult. I still crave the carbonation, so I do allow myself a diet drink a couple of times a week, knowing that the next day I will have to drink plenty of Water to get rid of the one pound that automatically comes to me from drinking a soda. The best advice I can give to anyone is to not give up or get discouraged. It has taken me four months to get to the point where I'm beginning to see real progress. It just takes longer for some people than it does others. For me, I needed more fills and had to make a few adjustments to my diet. Good luck to everyone.

Hello all. I felt I needed to put another post in this thread. I was having the same doubts as all of you. I had my surgery in October and had lost very little weight and my scales just refused to move. I felt very little restriction and had three fills within a short period of time and was hesitant to go back so soon after having the last one, but then I thought about how much I paid for this surgery (I was self pay) and since my first year of fills was included with my price, I decided that I would take advantage of that and go as often as I felt I needed to get the restriction I required. Anyways, I went for a forth fill about a month ago, and felt immediate and good restriction for the first time. I have a 4 cc band and had to get 3.5 in the darned thing. Although I felt very tight and with the help of it was able to significantly reduce my intake of food, it still took a couple of weeks for the old metabolism to finally give up and kick in. I'm still not losing extremely fast, but now the scale is moving and I see a difference and am excited with my progress and the fact that it's finally working for me. One other BIG thing that helped... Water, water, water and limit myself to one or two diet drinks a week. I was not drinking enough water and I think that combined with not enough restriction is what was preventing me from losing. So, if it's not working for you. Try different things and look at what your doing and see if there's something you can do to help yourself along. Get another fill if you need it, if it is too much, you'll know and can have an un-fill. Stop the soft drinks, drink more water, make SURE you eat your Protein first, limit high calorie, easy to consume items like ice cream or milk shakes. And if you can eat bread... stop it! Just because you can eat it doesn't mean you should. Good luck to everyone. We've all invested a lot of effort and money into our surgeries and I love being able to share our experiences and learn from each other.

I take daily meds and Vitamins and although I am fairly tight, I am still able to swallow them, but I have to put one pill in my mouth, take a drink of Water and then swallow, wait a few seconds to make sure it goes down, then do the next one. I tried the applesauce trick and let me tell you, it was so gross I almost threw up. If I have a large pill, I cut it into quarters and take it.

I feel your pain! I was banded on Oct 18th and have had four fills already because I didn't get any restriction at all with my previous fills. The last fill was last week and I finally have restriction which controls my portions to about a cup at each meal. I went for almost 6 weeks without losing any weight. The weight is not coming off very fast although I've totally changed my eating habits, and it's been very frustrating to know I've paid 15 grand and worry that it's not going to work, however I tell myself that on a positive note, I am NOT gaining weight any longer and that's a big deal for me. I'm giving this fill another couple of weeks and if I don't lose any more weight with it, I'll go in and see the doc and see if he can figure out what I'm doing wrong, other than not exercising every day. I'd say, demand another fill and if you have to go to another doc to do it, I would.

For some people it takes a while to get any restriction. I had my surgery in October and had to get four fills before I got good restriction. It was very discouraging to hear everyone else talk about how much weight they lost, and my scales weren't moving! I lost weight the first two weeks after surgery and then it came to a screeching halt. My first fill was mostly absorbed by the band, each fill afterwards I didn't feel any restriction. The last put me at 3.5 in a 4.0 band and FINALLY I feel restricted enough to reduce the amount of food I can eat. It's ony been a week since my last fill, so if this fill maintains me, I'll be a happy camper, finally. So, dont' get discouraged.

Hello all, I too, am a slow loser and really disappointed with my weight loss so far. I was banded on Oct 18th and have lost only 15 pounds. I haven't lost any weight in the last month, but I didn't gain any either. I've been in for three fills already because I wasn't feeling any restriction at all. The last fill was a few weeks ago and I finally feel some restriction but not as much as I think I should because I can still eat more than I should. I'm making much better food choices, and I eat about half of what I used to eat, but no weight loss in the last 4 - 6 weeks. What the heck is going on here? I'm not exercising as much as I should, but I am very active and usually get in some treadmill time at least 2 - three times a week. I just made another appointment for a 4th fill and will see my doctor at this appointment and talk with him, maybe he can give me some insight as to why I'm not feeling more restriction and why I'm not losing weight. I am a self pay, so what's really bugging me it that I paid all that money and have not lost much weight, plus I really want to lose more before May because my son it getting married and mom wants to look good for the wedding pics! What to do when you get discouraged?

Thanks Big Girl Banded! I have FINALLY begun to feel a little restriction over the past few days and experiencing more fullness than before, which happily, is helping curb the appetite. Tomorrow I go for another fill and I'm feeling more positive that this will be the one that does it.

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one having this problem. I go for my third fill this week. The first two fills did nothing for me. The first fill was 1.7 cc's and when I went back a week later the band had absorbed 1 cc so I was down to .7. I got another fill for 1.3 cc's which put me at two cc's and still not much restriction at all, although now I can definitely feel it if I try to swallow something without chewing it well enough, but I can still eat anything without problem. I'm hoping Wedsneday will be the magic fill for me. I haven't lost anything in the last month and was beginning to get worried until I read this.

Hello Everyone, I'll join up with this thread. I'm glad someone thought to start it. I was beginning to think I was the only one that wasn't doing an awesome job losing weight. I was banded on 10/18/06 and lost 14 pounds the first month, since then I have been fighting to stay at my current weight. I keep gaining and losing the same two pounds over and over. I have a small band and my first fill was at 5 weeks post op and it didn't give me any restriction at all. I waited a week and called to make another appointment for a second fill. The first fill they gave me 1.7 cc's, when I went back for the second one, the band had absorbed 1 cc, so they put in another 1.3 cc's for a total of 2 cc's. That didn't help either, it's still a struggle and I'm not losing anything. I've made another appointment for my third fill next week. This is the third one in less than a month, and will see if they will give me enough to at least feel restricted. I can eat anything, and could easily overeat without difficulty. I'm beginning to worry that I won't lose any more weight and I hope I didn't waste my money on this. I'm self pay so that would really hurt, but I've heard that it sometimes takes several months to find your sweet spot on the fills. What I worry about is that since I've got a small band, what happens if they max me out on the fills and it doesn't give me the restiction I need? I also worry that maybe my band has a leak, but I guess I'll find out when they check to see how many cc's it still has in it next week. Anyways, thanks for starting this thread. I'll be checking back in to see how everyone is doing and to update on my progress. I want to get this weight off before the summer. My oldest son is getting married in May and I want to look good for the wedding. :grouphug:

Our boss told our HR lady not to hire any more fat admins! How's that for discrimination!

I've been reading a lot of posts on band erosion, but was wondering if anyone knows what causes the erosion to take place?

It's your body and your decision, no one else's. I talked with my DH about the surgery for a while, told him I was researching it and started telling him everything I could find out about it. He wasn't keen on the idea at first, gave me the same reasons yours did. Naturally, I didn't listen to him, Instead, I forged ahead and researched the doctors, the cost, the procedure and the insurance. Since our insurance doesn't cover bariatric surgery, I decided to self pay because I didn't want to hassle with the insurance company and I'm financially able to handle it myself. Once I had everything in place, I made an appointment with the doc and went home and told the hubby that I WAS doing this, and he could either support me or not. He knows how hard headed I can be once I make up my mind, and lucky for him, decided he'd come out ahead if he supported me. Now he is seeing results and is happy I did it.

I LOVE that idea about giving a gift certificate for someone to do something for ME! I'm going to borrow your idea.

We usually spend around $2,000 on Christmas each year, but that includes sponsoring a child for Christmas, and buying Christmas for a nephew who's father is disabled and who's mom works very hard but can not afford gifts. Exchanging gifts with our extended families has been stopped in favor of doing different variations of a white elephant gift exchange. Everyone loves them. Each person buys one gift costing no more than $35, wraps it and puts it under the tree at the annual family gathering. We all draw numbers to see who goes 1st, 2nd, and so on. The first person has to choose a gift and open it, then the next person can either choose from the pile of gifts or steal a gift that has already been opened. When your gift is stolen, you can steal from someone else or pick from the pile. It's a real hoot. Last year we did a variation. Everyone was to bring either a regular gift, or something that no one would possibly want, it could be used, new, handmade, whatever. We lowered the gift cost to $25 and had everyone put $10 in a pot. The person with the worst gift at the end of the game won the pot. It was hilarious because if someone stole the gift you really wanted, then you could try to steal a crappy gift from someone in an attempt to win the pot. I am proud to say that my gift was voted as the absolute worst gift, it was a Colon Cleansing Kit. Some of the other funny ones were an 8 place service of paper plate, cups and napkins, a used toilet brush, a beautiful gift bag, which contained a card which said the gift bag WAS the gift. There were plenty of nice gift too. We had such a great time laughing and trying win crappy gifts.

Well, I tried a diet Pepsi last night and was able to drink it without difficultly, and boy did it taste good after a month and a half of no soft drinks, but... when I woke up this morning I was bloated and had gained a pound overnight!!! No more soft drinks for me!

Why not invite your daughter to view this website? She may benefit from talking to others that have been in her shoes, and could find a great support group made up of a lot of caring people. Perhaps you could talk with her and let her know how much her happiness means to you. If therapy, dieticians, WW and other programs do not help her, let her know there are alternatives, but she will need to wait until she is old enough to be approved for surgery. In the meantime, it's possible that she could be inspired to improve on her own if she's got a good enough support system and has others to talk to about what she is going through and how she feels about the different diets and programs that she's tried. She can also get a lot of good info about nutrition and exercise right here. It's just a thought. I wish the best for both of you.

Hi all, I'm due for my first fill on Nov. 19th and was wondering if you can tell me what to expect. What did you feel like immediately afterwards. How do they determine how much of a fill to give you. Do you feel immediate restriction and will it help you get that wonderful feeling of fullness you first feel when you get the band? I started out doing great but haven't lost any weight this past week. I haven't gained any weight either, but was disappointed in not losing more than the 13 pounds I've lost since being banded on Oct. 18th. Am I expecting too much too soon, or can I look forward to getting back on the weight loss track with the fill? Thanks for answering my questions.

Whlarimer, My doc is Dr. Spivak. Can't wait until my first fill. I'm having a difficult time with the mushie stage of the diet and find myself sometimes eating things I know I shouldn't! I'm doing better this week because I've gone back lo eating soups again, but the temptation for solid foods is difficult to get past. Thank goodness I only have another week to go! Let me know if we get a Katy group formed. I would be interested in attending. I can't think of a meeting place offhand, but maybe to begin with we could meet at Starbucks or take turns hosting at our homes.

Thanks so much for the information and encouragement. This site has been SO helpful to me. I don't know what I would have done without being able to get in here and see everyone's progress and hear all the positive input and attitudes. It's reassuring to know that I'm on track.

Jahair, I agree with you 100%. By the way, I use Dr. Spivak too.

BigGirlBanded, thank goodness I didn't have that problem with Celexa! It has been a miracle drug for me. I work a very high stress job and stayed depressed and stressed. Celexa worked wonders and I just do not stress out about things any longer and can look at things much more objectively, which had a tremendous effect on the depression. It's hard to describe, the best way I can put it is that I feel "balanced" for the first time in a long, long time. I actually feel like a normal person again. DH laughed the first time we went someplace after I started taking it. We were driving on a two lane highway and he passed someone while another car was heading towards us. After he passed the other car, he started laughing at me and told me never to go off the Celexa because that was one of the only times I've ever ridden with him that I didn't throw on the imaginary brakes and fuss at the way he was driving.