IdaM

I have been doing so well...and today...I ate dinner...and didn't measure my portions. Long story short...I overdid it and now...this sucks. I'm not throwing up...my stomach just hurts...and I can feel this sort of *glug-glug* sensation in my stomach. Actually...it just sort of feels like it's a burning sensation. I chewed three of those papaya enzymes...that was about 15 minutes ago. I have been so careful!! I could kick myself. The weird thing is...I can't even MAKE MYSELF throw up...I don't feel like it at all...but feel like if I did...it'd make this pressure ease up. I would love nothing more than to heave...but I'm not nauseous. Oh NO! Not even close... I just want go Ashley and Mary Kate...and I can't!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is there anyone else that just doesn't heave? Is THIS what getting stuck feels like?

Well...well...well. I read on the board about how papaya enzyme was great for digestion...and if Dr. Oz likes it...it must be good? Right? Well...if you take that stuff...you don't need to take much...and if your system is like mine...if you don't own a hat...you better buy one and hold on to it. Let's just say that it improves your regularity issues. (Wow) From the things I've read...papaya enzyme helps purge dead tissue and material naturally. You can buy that stuff for around $3 at the pharmacy or grocery store....and yes...it works. (Well enough that I had to come write something on the forum about it.) Ask your doctor....the tablets are sweet...chewable (they dissolve into almost nothing) and uh...yeah...they work. Has anyone else tried them?

Yep...I have the isopureplus ad...and there it is Domino's...apparently they're introducing their new Wisconsin 6 Cheese pizza. It's right between the other ads for bariatric doctors...1 800-GETTHIN.

Ohmigosh. I was banded on the 10th...that was a Monday. On Tuesday night...and Wednesday morning...I kept retching...dry heaving...it was AWFUL. I went into the surgeon and they removed the Fluid from my band that they had used when it was put in. When the PA put the needle in the port and pressed down...it felt like someone was sticking their finger down my throat. I was heaving like crazy. The Water went down afterwards...but it turns out that with all the swelling...I ended up dehydrated because the fluid wouldn't really go down that easily. Things were fine when the surgery happened...I was able to swallow...but it progressed to the point where it was a struggle to get the water down. Okay...once that fluid was removed...I really felt so much better. They admitted me to the hospital for 36 hours...and then pumped tons of fluid into me and monitored my urine output. I ended up with an upper GI...which turned out okay...thank GOODNESS. Anyway...my heart goes out to you. It was so frustrating. I felt exactly as you described. I thought I'd read it all...knew what to expect...the whole deal...but I s'pose we all end up with our own variation on the transition into banded life. I promise it gets better. As miserable as it might seem. My doctor also prescribed Phenergan for nausea....which I have a bottle here at home...just in case. Not once since he removed that little bit of fluid have I been sick like that. Good luck...and just remember...it WILL get easier/better.

I had my surgery 1/10/11...was re-admitted with severe dehyration on the 12th or 13th...and spent 36 hours getting fluids pumped into me. My periods have never been normal anyway...and I had just stopped a week before my surgery...ANYWAY...immediately after being discharged...I had what was arguably one of the craziest, heaviest periods of my life. I don't know if it was the fluids added with the weight loss. I've dropped 28 pounds...(although I can't seem to update my thingy today for some reason)... The period JUST stopped yesterday. I thought I was gonna have to get a medic...blood transfusion...a roll of Bounty and a crash helmet...somethin'! It was nuts. I feel your pain sister. I'm no "rocket surgeon" here...(yes I meant to type that) but you should let your bariatric and regular physician know...and in the meantime...keep drinking your water/Crystal Light and stay hydrated...and make sure your Vitamins have some Iron in them. Good luck and keep up the great work!!

Just curious if anyone has found themselves leaning towards meatless-eating after the band? I've been sitting here watching food Network...it's like watching people club seals or somethin'... BUT I LOVE MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHH! Sorry...tension-breaker...had to be done. But that's my question...has anyone give up meat entirely? Or is it just the pudding and Protein talking right now?

Initially they do that for me...which is pretty nice. They do seem to help that part of things. The other side of it is the "drano-effect" though. (Maybe I'm just 'full of it'. Ha!)

I don't know. I mean...if you need it...you need it. For anyone that's having issues with regularity (considering we eat almost nothing and in such small amounts that it alters that part of digestion. The papaya will definitely "straighten that out" safely.

I don't know a soul on this board. After all...I'm new here. Eleven days ago...I got banded. I put a couple of years into my decision...and even at the last moment...right before my doctor's office was seeking insurance approval...although I THOUGHT I knew what I was doing...I was still waffling on the procedure that I wanted him to perform. Banding or gastric sleeve? All of the super invasive stuff sounded so scary...but a little bit easier. With a deep breath and an emotional eenie meenie minie mo...the band it was! Why did I choose the band? There were a couple of reasons banding seemed so much better than the others. First of all...there was no re-routing of organs or crazy craziness. The band...is removable...fixable...long term if I want it to be...and it seemed to be the "civil" of all the procedures. So...she put the paperwork in...and within days I was approved based on a hard life of eating like there's no tomorrow to "drown my sorrows" and the high blood pressure and sleep apnea that had been the product of my lifelong romance with food. After I woke up from the procedure...the first thing that really hit me was..."Oh God...this thing ain't comin' out!" Yeah. Suddenly...I had this sort of rush of fear and self-loathing. That was the moment that every diet I have ever been on flashed before my eyes. Just recently the fad diet around our office has been the HCG Hormone thing. Whatever. A lot of people lost weight...but in the back of my mind...I kept thinking about the long term consequences of injecting hormones for weight loss. They had tried to get me to jump on the bandwagon...but I just kept getting the vision of me sprouting a third nipple or growing a tail or some other freakish genetic possibility...that it helped me remain strong enough to skip the hype and let them do their own thing. Sure enough...as with every office diet fad...wouldn't ya' know...they all lost weight?! Another lady in our office had joined the Jenny Craig thing around the same time...she dropped some weight and then it appeared to creep back slowly. This same group had gone on a all protein shake diet a couple of years ago. I did that. Yep. I was there. I lived on protein shakes and restricted food intake for 5 months. It was all hearts and stars...I dropped 30-40 pounds...and ended up in the hospital ER with dehyrdration and some sort of stomach bug. Why? Because I was so damn rundown and tired from the lack of anything other than that in my system...save for limited meat and veggies...that it kicked my butt. I started drinking orange juice...and it was over. Yep. I just couldn't bring myself to starve anymore. I was done with it. Tired. Disgusted. Scared. My blood pressure was STILL kind of high and my snoring was embarrassing. My weight crept back up and THEN some. Wow. My decision to get banded was so hard...mainly because I love food. There aren't that many things that have brought me as much pleasure as good food. It's just the truth. I knew that I needed some sort of control device. And there you have it. Just like everyone else that's had to go through the insurance approval process...my time was spent at seminars, doctor's appointments...yuck. What a drag. Seriously...I didn't even KNOW my health had become so lame until this process began. And we won't EVEN go into the pre IVC filter stress. OMG. So there I was...awake from surgery...they handed me a tiny cup of water and I drank every drop like a good girl...and within a couple of hours I was out of there. Broth, Jello, water....broth...water...jello. You know exactly what it's like. It wasn't as annoying until a couple of days later when I had to be admitted to the hospital for dehydration and a possible infection. Turned out after about 546 units of fluid...1435 needles stuck into me...etc etc...that there had just been too much fluid in my band when it was placed and after they'd removed some of that and made me suffer through what I like to think of as the most painful 36 hours of my hospitalized life...I threatened the male nurse who seemed to not care that my veins were so overworked from all the fluids that they were pushing, that the meds felt like battery acid in my veins...that he either got in touch with my doctor and got me the hell outta there...or I was gonna go total Commando status and leave on my own accord. I s'pose my actions were persuasive. My doctor discharged me within a couple of hours. That's been a little over a week ago. Since the banding...I've lost 20 pounds for a total of 24.8 pounds lost including a very brief pre-diet. So basically...today is the 21st...and my weight has dropped since January 5th. This has NOT been easy. It has NOT been a walk in the park. Yes...I have been hungry. Yes...it was pretty tough before they removed the extra fluid. Over the first couple of days I was only able to get in about 3-4 cups of fluid. And I am SOOOO missing food. Two nights ago...I drove to Wendy's...bought a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger...and took two bites...chewed like crazy...and then...spit it out. Of course. There's no place it can go without making me sick. OMG it was so...good...and greasy...and cheesy and bacony...and I had a brief moment of regret...that I spit out with that two bites of food. I know it's gross. But really...at this point...I don't care. The people at work have started to notice the weight coming off of me...and I love how they tell me about their diets. (Not really) I have been where they are and none of that stuff ever worked successfully for me. We have one lady that has dropped 60 pounds and looks fantastic. I think I hate her a little bit. (Not really...but in the realm of weight loss...she is like an arch nemesis for the time being. Damn her and her ability to keep eating normally.) I can tell you a dozen ways to drop weight. I can tell you what to eat...what not to eat...how to prepare the food...etc etc. It does NOT work for me for whatever reason. I have rinsed my ground beef after browning it since 1988. Mayo? Haven't touched it in forever. So...with all that said...if watching this and watching that had been right for me...it would've worked a long time ago. Am I justifying why I chose to remove steak from my life forever? Yes. Ha! I noticed that I sat in front of Food Network the other night...like agonizing over an old ex. There it was...looking all good...and there I was on my couch...wearing my pajamas...Durabond glue stuck on my incisions...my belly gnawing itself...a delicious bottle of...water...in my hand. It was like watching your ex-husband win the lottery. I went to bed feeling a bit defeated. My clothes still fit...they're looser now...and I wonder how I managed to shove so much butt into such a little bit of fabric...and after telling myself that if I just get to sleep...that tomorrow...when I wake up...there's another chance to wake up to a scale that reads a slightly smaller number than the day before. The weight loss so far has been all that's really kept me sane. And Ativan...but that's another story. : )

I don't know...I keep reading the stuff about willpower...and I feel like you need even MORE willpower with the band. Granted I'm only a couple of weeks in...but it has its' "sucky" moments. The gnawing belly hunger feeling is overwhelming sometimes. I "cheated" with mashed potatoes. It's was only a half cup...and I could barely eat the whole freakin' thing...but that's what I had and it felt like I'd choked down an entire Thanksgiving dinner. Haven't had a fill yet...rather my doctor had left a little too much of the Fluid in initially when it was placed and I ended up retching like crazy and dehydrated on the third day of the band. They took a bit out and popped me into the hospital for 36 hours. Nice. But...each person is different. For the original poster...think of it this way...there's a 4 ounce stomach there replacing that 32-64 ounce stomach that you had before...you didn't go through all the stress and planning that you had to do...for it to NOT work. You have been through so much. Don't "test" it...just treat it like you have to make this work. Think of it as a brand new baby stomach with a clean slate...and you have to take care of it like that. The Protein really helps, too. I'm not really a sweets person...so sometimes it's annoying to consume the Protein drinks or mixed with pudding or whatever...but I do it. Also...water Water water. They tell you that when you do any diet...but with this one...it seems to actually "fill the gap"...at least for a little while. I wish you the best of luck and hope all is well with your band. Hopefully...things are okay. No one is perfect and every single one of us in this shape because we love food...so don't beat yourself up...just take care of yourself. You can do this!!

OMG...yeah...the "gurgle"...I get that...and the mini-burp. It's not quite a full on burp...but yes. I am just a couple of weeks out...and I still get that.

I'm 10 days out and still having shoulder pains, too. I'm down a total of 24.8 lbs since the pre-diet 1/5 and my surgery 1/10. Sometimes it's worse than others...as weird as it might seem...a lot of times...(not every time, though) when the pain comes...if I get up and start walking it will ease up. I try to keep my shoulders back and straight...for some reason that seems to take the pressure off of the nerve or whatever is giving me problems. Keep up the good work. I'm right there with ya'. : )

There's a 50 percent success rate. I've been scared to death that I would mess up...and even though I'm on the mushy stuff...I still worry about getting stuck. Where I work...they bring in restaurant food every week...and there's always food around the building. I'm so pathetic...I went in today just to SMELL the stuff. I'm only 10 days in (banded on 1/10/11)...and my post op weight loss is at 18 pounds (24.2 including the pre-diet I started 1/5). Last night I caved a little bit and chewed two bites of a bacon cheeseburger...and spit it out. I felt so weak and depressed because the truth is...I love food...I just wanted the taste...the mouthfeel. I was worried the whole time that I'd swallow some of it. It was gross...I know...but it's the truth. The decision to be banded came after two years of frustration...high blood pressure...and later asthma and sleep apnea. I was walking around worried that I was going to keel over...and because I'm an emotional eater...I'd do what? Eat. Of course. Truth is...I've lost 30-40 pounds so many times...and gained it right back...that the band seemed like the perfect way to regain control of things. And as much as I like losing the weight...it's still sinking in that this is something I'll have to live with forever. I thought I was prepared for that...and now I'm discovering that I wasn't. I went in to my doctor's office this week and while waiting in the lobby...there were three women in there talking about how much weight they had and hadn't lost...and it was really a downer. And then it occured to me...that I've been following everything to the letter...I'm still on mushy foods...but every day that sucks...I'm waking up to smaller number on my scale...thank GOD. Otherwise...I'd be miserable. So with all that said...I just wanted to say that I understand the frustration...at least I think I do a little bit. Going through all of this and NOT dropping weight...would be awful. My heart goes out to you and I hope you find a workable solution. The malabsorptive procedures all seem pretty intense...and I've known several people that have had those and were totally happy...and some that had them and gained their weight back and then some. Finding what works for you is not the easiest thing to do sometimes...but I wish you the best of luck. If I could give you a hug...I totally would.

Nan! If you're looking for a doctor...try Dr. Coirin in Modesto. You're moving about 15 minutes away from the town. No...it's not San Diego...but...you're only an hour from BART (the rail system that goes throughout the Bay Area) and if you wanted to drive to San Francisco...it's an hour and a half with traffic. Dr. Coirin did my surgery 1/10/11 and he was great. His office is just down Spanos behind Memorial Hospital off of McHenry Ave in Modesto. Welcome to the Valley! You'll be here just in time for summer!! Ida

I had my band placed on January 10, 2011. They also had to repair my hiatal hernia. For years I have had pain in the left hand side of my stomach...never paid attention to it, although it was sort of a sharp pain. I figured it was just gas or something I'd eaten that was irritating my stomach. Just like everyone else that I've noticed posting here...I've had bad gas issues in my shoulders and chest. I was also having retching issues. I still can't lay down flat and not get nauseous. It was so bad that my doctor admitted me into the hospital...where I was kept for 24 plus hours and treated for severe dehydration. I'm learning now that if I drink something warm (caffeine free tea...or even room temperature water) fifteen minutes prior to trying to consume anything...it makes things go down much easier. The PA at my doctors office tried removing some of the remnant Fluid in the band, via the port (two days after the surgery and the pressure made me retch like crazy. The use the fluid to place the device during the surgery...and the doctor releases most of it during the placement procedure. According the PA...my stomach had swollen...and in connection with the trace amount of fluid inside me...was keeping anything from going down. (I dropped 9 pounds in two days.) Once the fluid was removed...I was able to drink a tiny cup of Water...and for the first time since surgery...I felt the liquid go all the way down. It was such a relief. I read on here where someone was saying that icy cold beverages were the best for them...they have the opposite effect on me.