NYdad

coming up on my 1 year anniversary. pleased to say I feel this has been a success overall. i started this at 306 pounds and currently weigh 224. I am off my blood pressure meds and dont use that horrible sleep apnea machine anymore. I feel great! I am so thankful for this band but like anything sometimes we fight. I have had minor bumps and had to be unfilled due to being too tight. I am 1 fill away from being where I believe i need to be. I can shop in stores now and actually find clothes that fit. Oh strange thing I have noticed. I still see my self as being obese. Does that ever stop? I hope everyone has the success they are looking for but remember to be patient and follow the rules. It does and will work.

I understand your feelings. my doc does 1cc at a fill. I have a 14cc band and it took forever for it to get to restriction. I made it to restriction but went to far and had 1/2 taken out due to problems. Take your time and pay attention to the small changes you will notice once you get close. Dont over do it by getting it too tight. I was so mad when he took my Fluid out. I can tell you this. even though my fills were small I still lost weight. follow the rules and it will come off. focus on what you can control and eventually the band will be tight enough. According to my doc, he says that smaller fills give you a better chance for success and reduces the chances of a slip. he could be blowing smoke but hey what else can ya do. I called around looking for a new doc and it wasnt much different. Good luck. banded Sept 28 2010 starting weight 306 current weight 224

you need to be patient. it took 6 months of tweaking to get my band right. I felt the same way as you early on. stick with it and make all you adjustments. you will get there.

hey brother, I was banded sept 28 2010. I started at 306, currently 225. I also have a 14cc band. I have had as much as 11 cc in my band. I had issues of it being too tight at 11 cc so I had to have it emptied and start over.(early stages of a prolapse). I am currently at 8.5 cc and I feel very little restriction. when you get to a good point make sure you stop with the fills. I didnt and it was a huge setback. I think your at a good pace. take your time. I was in such a hurry and it cost me time and progress. good luck...oh and by the way, you will know when you have restriction. Good restriction is very obvious.If you are wondering.....you dont have it... I figure you may not feel much until you get to 9-10 cc. everybody is different so you never know.

11 months out. I started 306 pounds currently 224 pounds. I just ran over a mile on the treadmill yesterday!

thanks everyone. I managed to bump the speed up today. I actually found it more comfortable to run a mph faster....weird. I am doing a mile non stop, walking a half mile then running the last 1/2 mile. cant wait till I can run the entire 2 miles. If you would have told me a year ago I'd be able to do this I would have laughed in your face.... I feel amazing!

I had my band unfilled. I am in the process of having fills again. does anybody have a doctor that will just fill it? I know I get restriction at 9.5-10cc. My office only gives .5cc-1cc at a time. Its expensive and time consuming. Just curious to know if anyone gets 3-4 cc fills at once. I live near buffalo NY and can travel to get it done if its a reasonable distance from me. Thanks

remember, seems like alot more people come here with complaints and worries then the do when they are having success. I love my band. started 306 currently 224 pounds. Its works as long as you work with it.

Ok, I am 11 months out. I feel great, I have had a few bumps in the road. last month I over filled and had to have the fluid removed and start over. I guess the good thing that came out of that was it kicked me into high gear on the exercise. I amazed myself yesterday and ran over a mile on the treadmill without stopping, that was huge for me. a year ago I could hardly walk a brisk mile. This has been an interesting year, it was pretty tough actually. I feel great and I am very proud of what I have accomplished but it wasn't a freebie. The band and I are getting reacquainted, I am at 8.5cc and this time around I know not to expect as much out of it. It works great but now that I over tightened it, I know what its limitations are. I wish I could have figured that out sooner. Hows everyone else doing? How long have you had it? Any long time bandsters out their that give me a report? starting weight 306 current weight 224 14cc band with 8.5 cc in it.

wow, getting a bit heated, I've been banded for almost a year now. I have lost 75 pounds and I am close to my goal weight. I have personally had ups and downs with the band. This place is a great place to get answers from people who have done it. Nayttap, when i was reading your comment I too was thinking your comment was a bit out of line. Support one another, not hurt. now to give my opinion on the Protein first: I have a 14cc band, I have followed most of the doctors demands but like everyone I have strayed now and then. It took me 6 months to get to restriction and before that It made absolutely no difference if I ate protein, fruits, vegetables or anything else first. I had zero restriction. I understand the question completely. Once I began to feel genuine restriction I found eating protein first did help me eat less and control hunger between meals. As far as Breakfast goes, I eat yogurt and I thicken it up with granola. my lunch and dinners are very similar. One more bit of advise, weigh your food, you should be eating 10-14ounces. I didnt weigh my food and everytime I went to the office I told them I was eating too much(so i thought) and I wanted a fill, well I got over filled. I went from a good spot to a very bad spot with just .5cc more in my band. I had to be emptied and start over. that sucked. good luck and keep it positive! Starting weight 306 current weight 224

well I went back today, they did the xray scope and found everything is good. thank god! The doc brought me up to 8.5 cc in my 14cc band. I was at 11 cc when I had a problem. she said 8.5 is good this fill and next month-if needed, she will add 1.5-2.0cc.

well went back today, xray shows all is good. returning to normal fills. doc said 2cc is most he will do at once.

Its early, so far they took all the Fluid out and i have to go back on thurs day for a scope. I new something was wrong because I was throwing up all the time. Even liquids made me sick. Since having all the fluid taken out I feel fine and can drink normally again. I am on a soft food diet for now and have not been sick at all. I'm not sure how this will all turn out.

I bought a digital scale that weighs in ounces. 10-14 ounces of food is more than you think. I was surprised to find how big 7 ounces of steak is. Think of this... if you go to applebees and order their steak from the 2 for $20 deal. the steak they give you is 7 ounces. Its large enough for me. an average size chicken breast is about 10 ounces. I cant stress enough to eat your protein first. then eat your side. I bought the biggest loser scale for $18 and it has multiple options. you can weigh your plate-zero it out then reweigh the plate of food and it gives you the weight of food minus the plate. The band is not perfect, I had it too tight and had to start all over. unfortunatly for me I didnt know how restriction was good for me until it was too tight. I was banded sept 2010. I have lost 80 pounds. I'd say my key is sticking to my doctor appointments and staying with the diet plan as best I could. For the last year i have gone to regular appointments every 6 weeks. I have fallen off the diet wagon many times over this last year. The appointments help reignite my discipline. Hope this helps....

be careful. My band slipped from throwing up. I didnt throw up all the time either. I had a few vomiting sessions and next thing I know I was throwing up liquids. It didnt take alot for me to slip...

hey listen, I had a "stuck" issue and it caused a slip in the band. be careful. You dont ever want to vomit if you can help it. for me stuck is a pain in the chest rib cage area. PB is one thing but a violent upward thrust from your stomach-(vomiting) is very very bad. It didnt take much for this band to slip.

How much are you eating? You should only eat 10-14 ounces per meal. If you can eat alot more than this it may be fill related. it took me for ever to find my proper fill. just dont overfill it - i did that too so they emptied it and I'm starting the fill process over.

thanks for the answers, We will see what his thoughts are on thursday.

I recently had an unfill. I understand how you feel. My doc wont add more than 1cc at a time. Its very frustrating. I am at 5cc and have a 14cc band. I need to be around 11cc. at his rate It will be 4 months before I even feel some restriction again. I am thinking about changing doctors but I dont know if there is anyone around me and if so are they willing to give me a proper fill? I hope you could update your status because i'm very curious to how your new doc responds to your request. I'm very frustrated at this point... thanks

I had a slip, I wasnt able to keep fluid or solid down. I would suggest staying on liquids until you see your doctor. If you throw up water thats a sure sign you slipped. good luck

Ok as I stated in my other topic I had a prolapse. they unfilled me and now I have zero restriction. My question is does any body's doctors office give you a large fill at once? My office will only give me 1cc at most at a time. This is frustrating and expensive. I pay my insurance copay each time and its an all day affair. I spend most of the day dealing with the office visit and I have to miss work. i currently have 5.5 cc in my band. at the time of the problem I had 11 cc. Are there any doctors that will give you a 3-4cc fill at once? Its going to take me 6 months to get back to restriction. I am just wondering if its my office that is so slow at giving fills and I cant help but wonder if they may be doing it for extra insurance payments. I just hate all the needle sticks and the chance of messing up the port area with unneeded fills if its not necessary. thanks for any input.

Ok, so I am 10 months out. I have lost 80 pounds and now I have the beginning of what looks to be a prolapse. I went to the office last week and thought i needed a little more fluid added because I was hungry often. the nurse really couldnt understand how i could be having hunger issues with 11 cc in my 14cc band. she sent me for a swallow test right away.well the xrays showed i was in the early stages of a prolapse. i had all but 5cc taken out of my band so things could settle. Ok heres my advise.... If you are having any issues such as PB or mild vomiting you need too say something. I ignored it. I also ignored the heart burn. Now I am dealing with an unfill and possibly worse. If this dosent settle I have to have the band removed. NOW, for questions I have.... Has this happen to any one reading this and if so what was your outcome. How did the doctors office handle your situation? How long did it take to get your fills back to restriction? Thanks. I have had this for 11 months and it has worked wonderful for me. I just wish I would have realized I was abusing it.... If you are reading this PLEASE be aware a prolapse can happen with minimal vomiting or PB's.

I didnt have issues with vomiting until I moved from 10cc to 11cc. I should have realized it was too tight but instead I thought I wasnt chewing well enough and eating too fast. I went about 4 weeks after that fill with out vomiting so I thought it was ok. a few weeks before my regular dr appt I had a vomiting session. I got something stuck pretty bad. it finally came up and I thought everything was ok but for the next few weeks I kept having mild PB-(vomiting). I knew I had an appt coming up so I dealt with it.(mistake). well I'm sure the damage happen when I vomited pretty hard the first time. It was worse than any other stuck episode. long story short 2 weeks.

I have a 14cc band and i currently have 10.5 cc in it. sometimes I feel good restriction and sometimes I don't. I'm not sure why. for me personally 7.2 cc was like I didnt have a band. I could eat as much and as fast as I wanted. now I have to eat slow and much much smaller portions. I'd say you need a fill.