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Hi Gendy and welcome. I got my band in 2004 (10 years now) and had the exact same trouble like Stacielynntate. Horrific acid reflux, food stuck, vomiting all that went in and so on. My surgeon suggested the sleeve but I was only thinking about getting the band out. I had lost 100 pound in the first 5 years but gained back 30 to 40 pound over the last 5 years. So dieting is what I did for the last 5 years to keep is below 40 pounds but I am really ready now to get the sleeve and hope to have the same luck that it works for me without trouble, like acid reflux. Because that actually was my worst nightmare with the band. Not being able to sleep more than 30 minutes before all came up again. So yes I am hopeful and nervous at the same time. Where do you get the revision done?

I need some advice. I don't know if I'm imagining things or not. Sorry this is so long. I've been having a weird problem leading back some time. I just went to the doctor (my PCP) and had stellar reports. Part of the follow up was to schedule a colonoscopy. The doctors office did the referral call and within a few days I got a call telling me to expect a packet in the mail with the schedule and other information in it I would need. Well I got it yesterday and my colonoscopy is scheduled for 1/4/2013 - 8 FREAKIN' MONTHS OUT! I could see a month or two, maybe even 3 - but 8 MONTHS OUT? When I called THE gastroenterologist's office asking about it the woman in charge of scheduling hemmed and hawed and never gave me an answer as to why so long a wait. I directly asked her if ALL patients are asked to wait 8 months and she would NOT answer me. This is not the first referral I have had to wait and wait for either. I had kidney stones a few months back and my PCP recommend I go to a urologist to get to the bottom of this third stone attack. I waited and waited and a MONTH later the urologists office called and asked if I still wanted to see the doctor. I was told it would be a 1 to 2 month wait to get in. This seems a little absurd to me. Since the symptoms went away I just skipped it. A while back I had a bit of cancer removed from my chest skin, it was squamous cell carcinoma. I asked to see an oncologist as this is the cancer that killed my Dad (albeit lung cancer). The referred doctor NEVER called back. Is this just dumb luck? We are in NW Arkansas, believe it or not an area of the country that is prosperous and has remained pretty well off in the recent economic downturn and is literally PACKED full of medical professionals. Two fairly large hospitals are within 10 miles of my house and others just 20 or so miles. I mean, really, 8 months for a colonoscopy? Am I being "targeted"? I can't imagine why. I have great insurance and have always paid all my bills. It makes the 6 month wait some have had for the VSG like a walk in the park. This year I switched to a high deductible insurance with a medical savings plan. is that an issue? I DO have the money for the entire deductible all ready and we are already almost half way through our $4500 deductible.. My PCP DID have some legal problems with the largest medical group in the area, he ended up being sued and counter suing them and WON. Would they be low enough to put his patients at the BOTTOM of a "list" - or is it the TOP of a sh*t list? Who can help me figure this out? The PCP's office just sort of brushed me off. I wonder if the doctor actually knows this is going on. Short of setting up another appointment to speak to him what else can I do? Am I just impatient or do you all think something else is going on?

So I've had a really bad cold for the past week, so I haven't been to the gym and I've also been really hungry lately. I don't have much restriction so I've been eating pretty badly. I haven't gained any weight, but I haven't lost any either and I have yet to see 269 on the scale. I have another doctor appointment on Tuesday and I'm going to ask him if it's possible that I have a leak. I just don't get how I could barely eat any food at all three weeks ago and now I can eat anything (almost). It's also going to be one of the slower months for weight loss. I'm going to try and step it up this last week, but going from eating nothing to eating alot and not working out has not resulted in a large weight loss for the month. I'll be lucky to have lost 10 pounds, and I say lucky because it may be less. I'm going to count my blessings though and get back on it this week. I also am going to try for more restriction at the next appointment. The guy I've been dating for the past month may know all my secrets including all the gory details of my lapband. My hard drive crashed and he helped me out by putting in the new one, but a few days later he "mentioned" that he was able to save my old hard drive--onto his computer!!! He said he didn't look through it, but I don't know that i believe him. It had before and after pictures, the letter I wrote to the insurance company to get the surgery, and a Video blog I took before I started this whole thing. It's not that I don't plan on telling him eventually if this works out, it's just that my computer had really personal stuff on it and I'm embarrassed by the fact that he may know it all now. But hindsight is 20/20 and I can't do anything about it now, so I'm going to try and not stress over it. If he did read it all, he's still talking to me but wow, I look really bad in some of those "before" pictures. I also would like to explain it in my own time rather than have someone reading through my personal journals, that are more personal than this journal by far! I'm trying not to stress over this! I'm hoping he didn't read through my hard drive! I'm going out of town this weekend for my cousin's shower, so I'll be unable to go to the gym at my parent's house and of course they love to push food at me, but I'm determined to lose some more weight before the appointment on Tuesday. I'll keep updates on how it goes.

Hang in there... It gets much much better. What will happen is one day you'll wake up and the psin will just be gone. I noticed when my tummy was wrapped tight it relieved sins of the pain. I used a panty girdle that went up right below my breast and it didn't push on the areas my staples were in. Having my stomach bonded helped tremendously during my walks.. I was actually super fast power walking at the end of week 2 and jogging be week 5.. (i was released before my 6 weeks) ~Leticia **HW: 259**PreOp: 216**SURG: 3/21/13 **Discharged @: 221** 4.5 mons post op. CW: 160.0 lbs. --- Only 10 lbs to my goal ---

I had a bmi of 39, I went back in 2 weeks and had a bmi of 40. I have no medical problems. The day they submitted my paper work I weighed 240 and the dr said I needed to lose 75 pounds and I was thinking I needed to lose 95, lol. My insurance approved in 9 days. UHC I am very happy to have lost 75 pounds and I am currently in size 12. I only want to lose a few more so i can get in 10's.

I was banded on Thursday, 10/11; Friday and Saturday were miserable-nauseous and sore and didn't want to think about food. Today I finally feel good (except for the soreness at the incisions) and I am starving! Full blown, stomach grumbling hungry. broth, popsicles, and Jello are not cutting it. My doc says I can go on full liquids tomorrow and can''t wait for an Atkins shake. Tried ice chips for some crunch, but ...nothing. Hope I can hold out! Sue:hungry:

losing, you ARE the woman!!!!!! What a great motivator you would be, like a life coach, to someone in person who wants to go exercise but doesn't feel like they can do it!!!!! I was 305.5 two weeks before pre op. I didn't do a dang thing for exercise until an hour or two after surgery, when I started to walk the halls. When I got home, I walked around the back yard. Then I walked a block or two then more and more. Each time going farther until I hit two miles. I walked and walked every day, sometimes two times a day. I just couldn't stop. Now I am riding a bike. When I first started that I thought I might die of sore butt muscles and tiredness. But you get used to having the oxygen pumping through your body and then your body craves it!!! It really does. I don't know how or why, but it does. I feel so bad when I don't exercise, physically. Then when I do it again, I feel soooooo great!!!! My one knee had me in bouts of pain whenever I tried to do something also. It would take weeks to get over the pain and then it never really would go away. That went away immediately after surgery, but I think it was the 10 pounds pre op that did it. I havent had a problem one since. I wish you luck on your band journey and exercise really, REALLY needs to become part of your daily things you do. It really does, even though most people want to NOT do it, it needs to be done.

I've always LOVED to cook and cater. Still do. I'm 10 days post op, have to be on liquids till 2/21. Then puréed foods. Can't stop watching the food network, already cooked huge dinners for husband and kids, then kick myself for smelling, seeing, WANTING a taste. Am I insane?!? What the hell? I think I must've been dropped on my head during the surgery. Just venting...

30 is obese. 35 is severely obese and 40+ is morbidly obese. you can use a chart or roughly: 702*(weight in pounds)/(height in inches squared) so 279 for 5 foot 10 is (702*279)/4900 = 40 the 702 is there because BMI originally in metric units and the 702 used when doing lbs and inches instead.

Yes! I had that happen and posted about it too. I'm two months out. And the first week I lost about 9 or 10, then went to about a half lb a day, then nothing for 12days! In fact I would go up a lb or 2, then down, but couldn't loose anything for 12 days!!!!!! I was so frustrated. How is that even possible? So I increased my Protein intake. The isopure flavored bottled drinks are helpful for me. I mix it with half Water and half a bottle and lots of ice. They're 40 grams of protein a bottle. So, I'm finding if I get in 80+grams of protein! it helps. Once that stopped, I'm still going slow. I've lost 9 lbs in a month. I don't why it's going so slow, I'm exercising and doing everything right, but I've just resigned to the fact that maybe it'll take me longer... It's.a journey, focus on doing what you're supposed to do and it will work. Be patient. There's no getting around the frustration though. It's why I've always failed too because I would say "what's the point?" And dig into the Cookies. Now we can't do that, so we have no choice but to hang in there and consider it a journey. Also, I find that with the protein, if I can get milk in, I loose better too. That's always been the case for me though and it seems to be the case now too. Hang in there and trust the process. Thanks Iynetta! It is super frustrating. I started walking at the gym over the weekend so hopefully that will jumpstart my weightloss again. I also started to track my calories because I want to be accounted for what I am eating and be truthful with myself! Getting in the water and protein is pretty hard for me and I have to say, I have not back down from my love of coffee and wine....and so the journey goes on. I had a lapband done in 2007, removed it Nov 2013 and last month had my bypass. I feel like I have been down this road already (and have) so for me to not lose weight rapidly makes me wonder why I went through the surgeries altogether. Keep up the good work Iynetta!

You really need to ask your doctor about this. I was told to absolutely not lift anything over 10 lbs for at least 2 weeks, or until I get the ok from my doc. Best of luck!

Wow...what a past few days. I ended up in the ER Sunday night because I had a Gall bladder attack starting at 6am. Pain, nausea, dry heaving, sweats...I had it all. I finally called my surgeon's office that night and they suggested I go to the ER and surgery to take out my gall bladder would be on Monday instead of 10/9. I was worried about this because I wanted to get my lap band removed at the same time so I could avoid an additional surgery just to take it out. So I wa all set for surgery and talked to my surgeon and said he may or may not be able to take the band out because I had not yet been approved for the removal and revision to sleeve and it would also depend on how much inflammation there was from the gall bladder. So after waiting until about 4 pm on Monday I was in pre-op and about to go in for surgery and the dictir's saw something on my EKG he didn't like. So they had to bring in a cardiologist and do an echocardiogram to make sure all was ok. In the meantime because it was so late in the day and the OR was packed I lost my spot for surgery. I was sent home that night and I have been rescheduled for this Friday. It was a bummer but I'm glad my Dr was being cautious. Better safe than sorry. I have a husband and a 2 year old to go home to. On the bright side I have lost 9 lbs in 4 days from not being able to eat and being on liquids until today! And I also got the call from my surgeon'a office yesterday that I've been approved for both the band removal and sleeve! I am ecstatic! Hopefully all goes well with surgery Friday and my band can be removed so I can begin to heal and look forward to my sleeve being done on 12/10!

I was normal size when I married an overweight man. But to be fair I was an obese child and in the 8th grade I started to loose weight by a lot of dieting and exercise. His mother was an amazing fattening food cook. I never knew food could taste this good. I also tried very hard by cooking all this fattening food my new husband liked. I got pregnant 3 months in and I gained 60 lbs. never to see under 200 again. I weighed on average 250 lbs for the next 40 years. When I was put on insulin I gained another 25. 10 weeks ago I had sleeve surgery and so far have lost 49 lbs. My dear husband still has not slowed down on eating even though he is 100 lb overweight. My surgeon said a lot of spouses start losing when they see their partner start to slim down. His response when I was scheduling this surgery was well what about my food, what about me.

Hydrate to the safe max...lots of loose change in your pockets, etc. 10#'s ...no problem

Hi, I was banded 10/18/05 and did very well following the lab-band diet until the day after Halloween. I started eating one reese and then another, they were bite size so at the time i felt it wasn't so bad, then i ate a bite size snickers, and another - i also ate a bite size twix. I felt so full when I was done that I thought I was going to pop. I went to bed and when I woke up this morning I feel sore on the left side. Tomorrow is my first followup visit after the surgery. I hope I didn't do any damage. The good thing is that when I was banded I was at 240 and today I'm at 224.5. I'm a little worried about being sore though. Did anyone else experience soreness after cheating:( ?

My A1C was almost 10 prior to surgery and I was on 2 medications. After surgery, I was off of them for 2 weeks, but then has to take Metformin due to high morning and bedtime sugar levels. I have since lost 60 pounds, at almost 6 months out, and my A1C was 5.1. I am off all meds and go back for a check up in 6 months. I took myself off the meds once I noticed my numbers we're mostly normal. That was about 2 months after surgery. The diabetes doctor just needed to confirm it for me.

I agree that you need to slow down a little. I was the same way wanting to do everything, but you must remember honey, YOU HAD MAJOR SURGERY!! My case manager put it to me this way!! "The surgery that you just had is comparable to open heart surgery!!!!" You may feel fine, but really you are not! You need to take time and be kind to yourself. REST AND RELAX!! Your body will thank you for it! As far as those BA vitamins!! BLAH!! I didn't mind them so much before surgery, but afterwards, they made me feel awful 10 seconds after I took them and then for about 15 minutes. I never vomited, but man they were bad!! I went to Target and found some gummy vitamins that have minerals in them. Should be about the same thing. My nut said as long as they have vit/minerals they should be fine! They do not make me feel sick, so I will be using them from now on! Don't be too hard on yourself about getting those drinks down. Everyday will get better about drinking! It is hard at first to consume large quantities of liquid, but it WILL get better! Take care of yourself and REST! You have the rest of your life to exercise and work on getting thin! Right now you need to heal or you will not be doing yourself any favors!! Kelly

Well I am still breathing. and sounding like a black bear saluting the morning sun with my burps that go from a low grumble to a cresendo of a growl... guess it is better than the other end. Had to do std paper work today and was out almost 10 hrs, boy am I beat!!! now I feel like a flatten snake in an ant trail..... all be it a gassy one,

If you dont mind... What insurance do you have? What issues did you have that made it medically nessisary? I am sure there are many of us who just deal with the issues that come with being obese, but if we knew that they could possibly be considered pre reqs for surgery, we would go to the dr about them. HW 385 SW 359 CW 335 (50lbs down!) Sleeved 10/5/16 I have highmark blue cross blue shield. Honestly I didn't have a ton of issues. Just a little chafing, etc when I ran. My PCP did a really good job of advocating for me in my visits.

correct me if I am wrong but I thought Stage 1 day 1&2 Stage 2 day 3-7 Stage 3 8-18 Want to make me a scrambled egg or even tuna.....mmmmm . Help! Please

My surgery was February 10, so I'm not quite 6 weeks post, and I've lost 19 pounds. I was freaked out - I thought I'd lose 35 or 30 or some huge number like everyone else does! I haven't. No changing it. I just keep doing the right thing, and I know the weight will come off!

B52 is so accurate about the exercising and weight. I too was one of those people whos weight was too much to carry around, walk, exercise, really moving around all together was a struggle. I started little by little moving, I got out my old edge gazelle and was only able to do 10 minutes, and believe me this is not a hard machine to do. The more weight I lost the more I was able to increase my activity. Today, I am at 45 minutes (non-stop) on my gazelle and 10 more extra minutes focusing on my upper body by stretching with an elastic stretch band, and lifting 2 lb weights. Its still work in progress, but beleive me its a whole lot better than where I came from.... Nice post B52!

One month ago I was in the hospital for band removal. I'm one of the lucky/unlucky ones that's still restricted. I had a terrible hiatal hernia that hurt like a muthah prior to banding. It was apparently corrected with the band and stopped hurting. Now I feel that pinching/ouch often that scares me to overeat. But fright doesn't always hold me back, because I've had a couple bad binges that kept me awake all night in pain. I now have Barrets Esophagits, which means potentially cancerous stomach cells somehow eroded my esophagus (something like that) making it hard to swallow. A few nights ago I ate Cookies and peanuts right before bed and had a very frightening night of not being able to breath; choking, wondering if I'dl ive. Bad habits don't fade easily. In my condition, I simply can't eat before bed or I won't sleep. Two of my incisions hurt like I've been beaten up (port & small one between & below boobs.) Dr. Billy didn't need the small one, but he cut out the bad scar (kiliod) for me in hopes of a flat scar. I can't wear bras because they rub that scar, which is probably why the 1st one turned to a kiloid. I've managed to lose a few pounds since band removal, which is a miracle considering I gained 10 pounds towards the end of my banded life. I try to stay at 1200 calories, but I go over every night with large portions. Staying away from night eating might kill me one day. It's what I do. Last night I drank a Diet Coke to keep from eating, but then I need a Xanax to sleep. I just felt the need to journal all this.

Hi DeLarla, My band was placed on 10-30-03 by Dr. Lopez . No he did not remove my band a Dr. Tersigini in Cos Bay Oregon removed my band. He said that it was the worse he had ever seen. I asked him if he could tell why of coasre we both know that there is no cut and dry answer why byt he said that there a stitch in a funny place under the band that he did not know why it was there??? I lost about a 100lbs I really had no problems until last April 05 I had a baby via c-section and that is when it all started my port site filled with fluid I went to my primary Dr. she cit it open drained it sent it off to lab for culture no ifection was dedected but it would not heal back and forth to the Dr. back to lab for more test no infection finally I went to see a Dr. Neal in Olympia Washington what a mistake that was, he was nice Dr. but the office was a big mess my insurance had agreed to pay for partial cover of the surgery I guess I got ahead of my self at the time Dr. Neal looked at my wound under floro and said that my port was flipped and it needed to be moved and then the sight would heal that was in the first par tof Aug. Well I waited and waited to here back from them 2 weeks 3 weeks finally I called to see what my part would be all I got was a run around it was hard to figure out on and on finally after messing around with them for 4 and half months I called Dr. Tersigini office and I seen him in Dec. right agter christmas the first opening for endo was Monday Jan. 22nd so that is were it all came about. I ahd seen Dr. Tersigini for a fill about 18 months ago and I really did not care for his bed side manner but at this point I felt like he was the only one to help me. I really did not think I had eroded or maybe I did not want to think that I had he did the endo first thing Monday and said it has to come out first thing Tuesday that I could not wait another day it was so bad. I wish for my health I would have just seen him in Aug. He was very nice I would recomend him to anyone to see. I really wish I had know of him before I went to MX. I found out about him about 2 months later. His outpaitent cost for band placing is 13,000 not all that much more than what I paid in MX. including air fair and all. Oh well nothing I can do about it now. De Larla how many days did it hurt to swallow after your surgery? I feel like I have a golf ball in my throat they all the tubes in until Weds. afternoon because really wanted time for the hole to heal. Pretty scarey. Thank you, tracey

Ok so I'm supposed to be on a 10 day liquid diet..... I have eaten small things each day. Although not a whole meal and I've been taking my shakes. My surgery is this Wednesday. Hopefully the bowel prep on Monday will clear it all. I feel like such a failure.