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Congratulations, wonderful news!! You will run the spectrum of emotions now that you have a date, just go with it and know it's completely normal! Hoping the pre op time goes fast for you!!

So I have a friend who has RNY in 2009. She started off at 410 pounds and at surgery day she was 398 pounds. 6 months later she was 185 pounds. She was telling me all about how she felt and how everything worked for her. She felt she was losing too fast and was scared and nervous. She also wasn't use to being able to feel her bones or other people feeling them either. She was losing more down to 174 lbs and felt she was losing too much, so she asked her doctor about gaining back up to 185 lbs. She has stayed within 10 lbs of this weight for the last 4 years, she has recently gone back down to 175 lbs after she had a tummy tuck. She hasn't had any complications besides 1 stuck moment because she ate taco salad too soon, she said she was 8 weeks out at that time. I'm so lucky to have someone who has already done this and been successful to be around to help. So with her story I'm even more encouraged and happy to move on with this journey.

Oh man. So sorry. Don't be shy about using your pain meds. Hope you get feeling better fast.

I too was banded in 2003 and was going through the same bouts of abdominal pain periodically, about once a month or so. Seemed to be right around my belly button, I thought maybe scar tissue from my port had blocked my intestines or something, I also thought of the pancreatitis route, trying to look something up on the internet to match my symptoms. It got much worse when I started taking Adderall for my ADHD...which is a stimulant and also very dehydrating. I finally figured out that I was chronically constipated (although I COULD still go #2), and because the port area was "slightly" pushing on my intestines- which is normal-, any time the stool was very hard and dry inside it made my life MISERABLE. I could only lay on my right side, fetal....and when I stood up straight it was excruciating. So, in desperation, I took to drinking at least 2 liters of Evian every day (can't drink any other bottled water) and also making 4-5 prunes, a box of raisins, or at least one apple part of my daily eating. Usually I just eat the prunes cuz they are fast and I can get it over with- and they work REALLY well. |. Knock on wood, since I have been on this water/prune routine it hasn't happened. That is the ONLY thing that has worked for me. Not saying you shouldn't go to the doctor, but maybe try this first and see if it helps relieve things. If it is anything like what I had, it is MISERABLE, so I feel your pain. Hope this helps!

It sounds like you are eating too fast and/or taking too big of bites and/or not chewing well enough. Take bites the size of a pencil eraser. Chew until liquid in your mouth. Put your fork/spoon down between bites and wait a bit to see how its going down and how you feel before taking the next bite. Take at least a half hour to eat your 4-6 oz meal. Hope that helps. You should probably call your surgeon and nutritionist. What is happening with you can cause some pretty serious band complications.

I am three months post op and am just getting over a stomach bug with vomiting and diarrhea. It seems I can barely eat anything now, I fill up super fast and stay full for a really long time to the point that I am eating half of what I used to. Has anyone else had this for a few days afterwards? Is it normal? Is it almost like a pouch reset because I couldn't eat for a day and a half? (I am pushing fluids, just curious about food). Update - had my 3 mo post op appt and I am doing fine. I was told it can take a few extra days to get back to normal eating compared to before I had gastric bypass.

i did great yesterday. I even went with my mom to the education store for probably 2 hours walking around. I forgot my water bottle and i need to make that a habit to bring it everywhere with me. i wasn't hungry while gone, but was thirsty. I did great all night, didn't take meds at all, slept good, was able to turn over with no pain. THEN...this morning, i sneezed! OMG, it felt like knives in my side. only at my port site. now, it is more sore than yesterday. my period decided to come too, it's been here since Thursday i think. i guess it's making up for lost time because i think it's been since January that it had made a visit! i wish it would go away SOON and without leaving with a headache on the way out! i'm really tired today...time change....long day yesterday (mom and andy were here, late to bed the night before and last night) period...?? i don't know. I guess it's good that we have someone coming to help with the kiddos this evening since hubby has to work 4-12 this evening. it seems i've lost 12 pounds so far. i know that's a good number, some say they even gain at this time, but boy do i like stepping on that scale seeing the numbers drop! I still seem swollen, wonder if it's because i'm not going to the bathroom too easy. still some gas in there from surgery? i kinda notice my face, hands and feet don't look so swollen, but my belly, YUCK! it looks big and swollen, bruised and gross! i wish i could fast forward a month! i can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

Anne you can do this! I too have let myself get too hungry and the second I realize that I am eating too fast, I stop, put my food down and I don't pick it back up until I have some mental control over myself. I have even stopped and went for a quick walk until I could get a handle on myself. Once I have calmed down, I sit back down and proceed to eat very small slow bites. I keep a baby spoon up here at work to eat with. Everybody thinks I am weird, but I don't care this is for me. I am always here if you need to chat. We are all in this together on this individual journey of ours. :-) huggs. k

I personally thought it still had that nasty protien shake after taste, I can't stand it Ughhh I Just make sure to eat my protien not drink it. Slim fast powder is good though I can handle that

I attended the seminar a week ago and they said someone would be calling to set up an appointment with the surgeon in about two weeks. Guess what?! They called me today & my first appointment is next week! Whoo boo! I sure hope everything goes this fast.

Wow! Can't believe you are going back to work so fast!!! My doctor wants me to take 3 weeks off (& I'm hoping he'll extend it to 4, haha!) I was sleeved 1/26 and really can't imagine going back to work so soon. I'm still exhausted and need naps through out the day, but am not on pain meds anymore. Glad you are doing so great!!

I chewed Tums like candy before I was banded. I had random (didn't matter if I was sleeping, standing, eating, hungry, etc) burning in my throat, but never felt anything "come up" into my throat. After banding, the reflux completely went away...bada bing...gone! Fast forward...I just had my 4th fill with .5 cc in a 10 cc band. I now have a total of 5.5 cc's. The fill was on Tuesday. Restriction feels fine, not too much. I don't have any trouble with liquids or mushies, and the stuff I struggled with before (namely meats), I still struggle with. I just notice I have to be even more careful with bite sizes, etc...the usually bandster stuff. BUT....I started having reflux yesterday. Nothing coming up into my throat or mouth, just the random burning in my throat. Tums takes care of it. But, why in the world do I have reflux NOW???? What in the world happened? Someone, please help! thanks a bunch! :thumbup:

Hey guys. I am about 7 weeks post-OP and everything had been going very well until Thursday evening. I choose to wait an extra month before getting my first fill because I was going out if state for a reunion. I ate something that disagreed with me. I didn't eat too much or too fast, I think it was just some bad fruit or something. Anyway, that evening I got sick (of course was too far away from nausea meds) and vomited from below the band and ejected everything. Since then I've been scaling back to liquids but my stomach where I presume the band is, feels sore after eating and I feel a bit more gurgle and gassy with some nausea related to that. I have my first fill apt on the 30th but I'm wondering if I should go in earlier. I know a one-vomit occasion doesn't usually cause slippage but because my surgery was so recent and it was a full vomit if there might be a risk...

Hi Angie, Good question. I was really tight for a long time and ended up causing me problems with my band. I ended up with bad nite coughs and reflux. My doctor removed some fluid twice. Now too much has been removed and we are working on finding a happy medium. I might mention though how very important eating fruits, veggies and whole grains are. They are just as important to maintaining a healthy digestive system as is protein is for creating the building blocks of our cells. If you are so tight you cannot eat these nutritious foods, then I would think about having some fluid removed. You can still lose weight by being and eating as healthy as you possibly can. The band was not designed to put us on an all liquid all protein diet. That isn’t really the most healthy way of anything really. Besides our bodies only process no more than 25g of protein per serving. The rest just turns into fat. Our bodies need more than just protein to survive. Best of wishes to you! PS, I drink my water fast too. It’s the only way to get my minimum in between meals. J

Drinking water – big ol’ drinks! Questions… Okay so I had something unexpected happen this morning. I took a big-o-drink of water. More like three consecutive drinks. Swallow, swallow, swallow….you get what I am saying. I actually felt the water being held up. Like not super drastic, but I felt it in my stoma and throat. I felt a mild alert over the situation. Um, never had that happen before! Wow! Until this happened this morning I have been able to chug-a-lug my water at a good rate, any time of day. I know, some don’t understand why people like me drink so fast, but we are all different. I am a fish! Ha! Just kidding but I have a habit of drinking a couple of swallows each drink. Not all the time now as I am working on slowing down….but I am a drinker. I have been reading on this board for a while now, so there have been many subjects covered. Which I love, by the way, because it feels good to have working knowledge of the band, even if it is not my own working knowledge. : ) So, thank you all for sharing your band experiences! You are appreciated! That being said, I’ve thought it is strange when people talk about having a hard time getting there liquids in. Sipping through out the day….sucking on ice cubes, ect. I’ve read many posts about not being able to tolerate food in the mornings. Even some posts about not being able to eat anything solid until evening. That being said, I know our bands are fickle. Each person can have there band affected differently. Some talk about weather, flying, stress, their monthly visitor, a bad PB episode, drinking cold liquids, and much more, and how it can affect the bands tightness. What I would really like to know is how tight you prefer to keep your bands’? Do you keep your band snug enough to feel water back up if you drink a big ol’ drink? Are you a sipper? Can you eat in the mornings, or afternoons? Do you have to wait on your band to loosen up before a meal? Can you put into words what band restriction means to you? I am curious on what the “norm” is and if is varies a great deal from person to person. I am working on getting to my sweet spot or being in the green zone. For me, I can enjoy breakfast everyday. Depending on the food, I can eat a cup to ¾ cup of food at a meal. I focus mainly on protein and often feel like I leave out veggies and fruits almost completely. I seem to have better success when I eat steamed veggies vs. fresh veggies using broccoli and carrots as a good example of this. My band tolerates muffins and cake well, wish came as a surprise to me. We had treats at work and I tried these yummies and had no issues. I have no idea if I can eat bread, because I have cut it completely out of my diet. I no longer eat a sandwich or anything like that. I stick to the guts, the insides of a sandwich. Protein, protein, protein… I am planning on posting this in the forum as well as a blog entry. Please reply and share how you like your band, and what works best for you. Last monthish there were some great posts about a few gals feeling there bands were too tight. I know from your posts that being to tight does not equal weight loss or a safe way to keep your band. So all experience is valuable! I am scheduled for an up coming fill in December and I have been on and off the fence about it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and if you don’t feel comfortable posting, please PM me. You guys are the best!

I have the same problem. Good thing she lives 3hrs away. The good thing is, whenever I gain really fast, I can take off fast.

Whatever I want but I've changed my eating habits so it's mostly healthy foods. No fast food and very little of anything that begins as white. Small portions of flour products, much smaller dairy and no sugar. But that's all by choice. I can eat whatever I want as long as I'm mindful of how big my bites will be. tmf

i actually didnt have the usual gallstone issue.. my gallbladder just wasn't working.. it wasnt releasing the bile like it should.. this would cause pain afer i ate. like 30-45min after eating .. i didnt have the typical syptoms at first but then all the sudden i got bad and fast within 5days i was in the hospital having emergency surgery because i couldn't keep fluids down. (not band related!!) So trust me you would know if you had a problem...

Judy thats awesome!!! I am so proud of you and hubby.. I'm down 25 lbs since march.. Just recieved my 2nd fill 6-19..(now 2cc in 4cc band) ..p.bed 2ce.. 1) pill was too big, 2)drank too fast..ugh!!!

I too lost well on Atkins, and promptly regained it when I tried eating "normally" again. I do try to avoid overdoing the carbs, as well as the sugars. But I do not eliminate anything from my diet. Although the fried chicken that caused my PB is not something I care for again! My weight is coming off, it is not dropping off as fast as some others, but I feel good about it. I am looking at this as my new way of life. I eat whatever I want to eat, I just do it in a more sensible way than I have ever been able to do before. I use a salad plate now when I eat a meal, I fill it with some of whatever we are having for dinner, for instance last night we had pork tenderloin, scalloped potatoes, and green beans. I put some of each on my plate, but had far more green beans and pork than potatoes, and I concentrated on eating them first. I chew until I am no longer aware of what it started out to be, when I eat meat like that! But if I told myself I couldn't have the potatoes, I would have wanted them even more!! I want to be able to eat a piece of cake at my grandkids birthdays, is what I always said, I no longer feel a need to eat the huge corner piece with all the frosting, but am happy knowing I will have a small peice. I guess I have always been this way, anytime someone told me I couldn't do something, I would move heaven and earth to do just that!! So dieting, and being "unable" to eat certain items, made me crazy wanting them! Eating smaller amounts of whatever I want is wonderful for me! I hope you find the working plan for you, whether it be Atkins, or whatever. I do know when I plateau I plan on using an Atkins approach to jump start it again. Good Luck to you!!! Kat

It's not the insurance company, it's your doctor. They want the procedure to be safer by shrinking your liver. My doctor told me the same thing. I knew i would be put on a two week liquid diet before surgery so i started on my own. I drank slim fast twice a day and something light for dinner. I lost 5 pounds the first week. But my doctor had me drink 5 shakes a day, and sugar free jello. I was told to lose 20 pounds within the two weeks but only lost 13. They just want to see your that trying. I had surgery last Tuesday December 3

I think I have been eating too fast and need to concentrate more on eating slower and the size of the bites I am taking. Thanks for the reply I guess I just needed someone else to tell me what I knew I was doing wrong.

I felt scared too; surgery has risks. Fortunately having the band and getting it laparoscopically is so low-risk compared to other surgeries. And the best part is that by walking through your fear today and not backing away, you'll be moving towards better health. By being brave today and working with this band as a tool, you'll lower your risk of premature death due to morbid obesity. Sounds like a good bargain to me :-) But enough logic...blah...blah...blah... What I really want to do is give you a hug and say that I'm praying for your surgeon's hands to be guided and for you to have a fast and easy recovery. More gentle hugs :-) Let us know how you're doing when you can.

I did the same thing, up until my preop diet. Not sure what your BMI is, but I would suggest taking this last week to try your hand at low carb. You might even want to low carb slim fast for 2 meals a day and a lean/green for the 3rd. The preop diet is intended to shrink your liver. Your liver is very slippery and the more overweight you are, the larger your liver. They have to lift it up and out of their way and if you diet for a week, it'll help shrink it up and make for a safer surgery for you. I've even heard of people waking up from surgery to learn that they didn't get their band becaue thier liver was in the way. I thought I'd never be able to live without pizza. It used to be a Friday night staple and I looked forward to it all week. Surprisingly, I rarely even think about it now. Best of luck to you and congratulations on the big changes coming in your life.

Fast approvals!!!!!