Beware of the UN-fill !!!

[maygoddess 53]

Just an update since my complete unfill on September 19th. It is almost a month and I am up by 22lbs! I am sooo freaking pissed off and depressed about it! Our bodies are not under normal caloric influences. Please do not reply with "well, you are eating too much"...well no...it is not normal to gain 3lbs overnight..or another 4lbs the next week..when I am in fact watching caloric intake carefully...started back at the gym..so if anything I should be at minimum maintaining my weight. This just does not make sense. Even at my fattest did ever gain 22lbs in a short month!! There has to be some starvation response our bodies are in while banded and restricted and then suddenly we are not and wham!! I am hoping at some point my body decides it is not in starvation mode any longer and is happy to maintain..just hoping that it's not 100lbs from now!! I have my next follow up with the bartriatric surgeon's nutrition nurse on the 30th. I don't know when they will decide to check my esophagus again and see if I am healed at all.

So to try and get some of this lost or at least help stop the gain, I started on Ideal Shape Meal Replacement shakes and bars for my Breakfast and occasionally a dinner since I work out late. Please don't talk about "slider foods"..this helps me control calories easily and works with my work and life schedule for now. The Ideal Shape has a hunger blocker in it that seems to work if you do in fact follow the directions and drink a full glass of Water after the shake or bar. I get stomach hunger after a few hours but not head 'hangry" hunger. The restriction of the band kept my appetite under control..that I miss alot!!

I had to break down and buy bigger sizes for some work clothes and casual..NOTHING in my closet fits. My old "fat jeans" no longer fit. 22lbs feels like 50 to me. I feel like a bus...I don't even remember what is what like to carry around 130 extra lbs...but 22 feels like a lot right now!!

I will post again when I see the nurse. See how this shake plan works too. I did over 60k steps while attending a conference the last trhee days and still managed to see the scale go up 3lbs..with very little food!! Frustrating!!

[maygoddess 53]

So I saw the bariatric nutritionist yesterday at Kaiser. This is just about 6 weeks after my complete unfill and I am now up 30lbs! most of that weight was gained in the first few weeks. It happened fast! I am so frustrated, drepressed, angry...I know it's my fault for not getting a follow up sooner..thinking everything I lived with was "normal". I stayed at my same weight for years. The band for me was not about losing the weight, but keeping it off long term and that is what it did.

So before I saw this nutritionist yesterday, I contacted Dr Kuri's office to see what his experience and opinion is about unfills and esophagus issues, etc. I talked to his patient coordinator who has been banded about as long as I have AND had dealt with an unfill herself at one point. She said Dr Kuri would recommend being unfilled for at least 3-4 months and then rechecking the esophagus. This means fighting to keep from gaining and trying to lose this weight the way we struggled to pre-band. She suggested weight watchers for the "accountability" aspect of weighing in weekly..uggh...been there, done that...never worked..thus why I have the band in the first place. It is completely frustrating to be told to "eat like a bandster", at Protein first, veggies, etc..blah blah when I was doing just that and working out and STILL gaining weight faster than I could blink!! At minimum I should have easily maintained my weight on what little I ate and burned off.

The Kaiser nutritionist was pretty much the same...gave me the pre-op and post op surgical diets to follow. All I could do was sigh with frustration. I KNOW all this but why am I still gaining?? I figured I would get the "you must be eating all the stuff you couldn't while banded like bread and other carbs"...uhh yeah...I actually craved salad once unfilled because I missed eating a nice salad without worrying about stuff getting stuck. If I was binging on bread and carbs, I would not be here in frustration wondering "why me?". I would take the blame on this and decide what my priorities are!! Uggh!

Anyway...the surgeon scheduled me for another upper GI in a few weeks. May be too soon to see any improvement in the esophagus but I guess will be almost 2 months since the unfill.

I was on vacation last week with no scale and off my shakes and low calorie plan..I just figured since eating low calorie and "bandster like" was not working, I would just eat , get my excercise from walking all over NYC and see what happens...another 6lbs up in a week..no surprise! But now that I am home, back to the gym and started a women's vitapak program from GNC with thermogenics, Vitamins, etc to see if that helps along with the low calories I was doing before and just pray I stop gaining and at least maintain. I soooo want my band filled again..I want the hunger control back now!!!!!

[Julie norton 2,850]

Banded living is so different. Not fair when removed or deflated. Sigh

[maygoddess 53]

My update! I had an Upper GI today at Kaiser and the bariatric surgeon emailed me with results within an hour of me leaving the office. He said "looks better" so then I ask "so what's the plan from here"? He said that it is better but my esophagus is still a little dilated, so he said give it one more month and from there he feels confident to do a fill to get me back on track without doing another UGI. When I saw the barium go right through and collect down in my lower stomach quickly compared to when they did it 7 weeks ago where even some jiggling and dancing around for 15 minutes kept the barium above the band. This almost 30lbs weight gain since my band was unfilled has been quite depressing. I had to go up a few sizes in clothes, sell my track day to my favorite track because I had no leathers to wear and just feel huge in general. I know others are struggling with more weight than that and my friends say "you look great" but I feel enormous and miss my entire wardrobe of clothes and jackets that didn't make me look frumpy! :-/

So we shall see what happens in a month. WOuld be nice to start getting some fill back. I know I wont be going back to where I was before..toooo tight. I learned my lesson to not put up with behaviors that are not "normal" and to get back to bandster portions again. I have been working hard to reduce portions, calories, working out etc. It is discouraging to STILL see the scale go up, but it seems to have slowed down. Hoping for at least a maintain for now if not tiny loss!

I am just so happy to keep my band for now. It did what it was supposed to do and had been doing for years..keep my weight off. I want that back!!

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

@@maygoddess hang in there! You've gone through a lot and you're doing great. I hope the next month flies by for you.

[Ashley Marshall 0]

Just an update since my complete unfill on September 19th. It is almost a month and I am up by 22lbs! I am sooo freaking pissed off and depressed about it! Our bodies are not under normal caloric influences. Please do not reply with "well, you are eating too much"...well no...it is not normal to gain 3lbs overnight..or another 4lbs the next week..when I am in fact watching caloric intake carefully...started back at the gym..so if anything I should be at minimum maintaining my weight. This just does not make sense. Even at my fattest did ever gain 22lbs in a short month!! There has to be some starvation response our bodies are in while banded and restricted and then suddenly we are not and wham!! I am hoping at some point my body decides it is not in starvation mode any longer and is happy to maintain..just hoping that it's not 100lbs from now!! I have my next follow up with the bartriatric surgeon's nutrition nurse on the 30th. I don't know when they will decide to check my esophagus again and see if I am healed at all.

So to try and get some of this lost or at least help stop the gain, I started on Ideal Shape Meal Replacement shakes and bars for my Breakfast and occasionally a dinner since I work out late. Please don't talk about "slider foods"..this helps me control calories easily and works with my work and life schedule for now. The Ideal Shape has a hunger blocker in it that seems to work if you do in fact follow the directions and drink a full glass of Water after the shake or bar. I get stomach hunger after a few hours but not head 'hangry" hunger. The restriction of the band kept my appetite under control..that I miss alot!!

I had to break down and buy bigger sizes for some work clothes and casual..NOTHING in my closet fits. My old "fat jeans" no longer fit. 22lbs feels like 50 to me. I feel like a bus...I don't even remember what is what like to carry around 130 extra lbs...but 22 feels like a lot right now!!

I will post again when I see the nurse. See how this shake plan works too. I did over 60k steps while attending a conference the last trhee days and still managed to see the scale go up 3lbs..with very little food!! Frustrating!!

I just wanted you to know that I am in the exact same place as you are -- and I wish it was because I was eating cupcakes and watching Daytime TV! So know that there are those of us who had to get an unfill (esophegal dilation and mobility for me), were very sucessful with their band, and rapidly gained weight while doing two-a-day workouts and eating approprately. Thankfully I have a great NP and NUT who both BELIEVE me, and are working with me. I had an appointment this week and finally ONLY gained a pound -- it was so exciting to not see the scale bound up and up. So know your body will finally realize its not starving, and will level out (hopefully in time for your fill). Sadly for me a revision seems to be in my plan due to the severity of my esophegous issues. Good luck!

[oui1213 29]

I experienced same kind of thing. But had vomiting every time i ate. Intestinal cramps etc.... My dr did the weirdest thing he gave me .2 cc fill and it all went away. I know its opposite of what u would think. But thank God i feel soo much better

[Robyn Penkala 0]

Hi, my name is Robyn and I am dealing with a potientialy slipped band after 10 yrs of placement and 150 lbs kept off. I have have night vomiting and gastric reflux. Yesterday at dr office they took 2.0cc of lfuid out of band. Now I have no fill. Today I ate lightly, just a small protient shake and some tuna on 4 crackers for lunch. The mid afternoon gas pain was so intense it made me sweat and have tears. What is happening???

Ok, we've all been there...You go and get a fill and they give you all of these specific instructions on what to eat and what not to eat. They make you drink Water before you leave to make sure you're not completely shut off, etc etc.. But what about if you get it loosened? They don't tell you what THAT'S gonna be like!! So here's a list of the potential side effects for having an UN-fill (I wish I would've known before I had my band loosened):

- Gas
- Bloating, Water retention
- Diarrhea or constipation.. or diarrhea followed by Constipation followed by diarrhea
- More gas and bloating
- Hunger
- RAPID WEIGHT GAIN!!!!! And I mean RAPID, even if you're watching what u eat!!!

So what do we Banders do?? We go back and get a fill, right???? And another fill, and another fill.. But guess what!! THERE'S NO GOING BACK!! It's that "green-zone" everyone talks about. If u get to your green-zone, then don't mess with it!!

Unfortunately, I did mess w it. And after 3 more fills in my 10 yr old band, I'm up 65 pounds in about 6 months. So I gave up.. had my band removed last month and in 3 weeks I'm getting the Sleeve.

Anyone else have this happen???

[Long2BFree 12]

I got completely unfilled 1 1/2 weeks ago and have experienced the extreme gas but none of the other symptoms. Thankfully I haven't gained since I have been eating everything I couldn't eat with my band when it was too tight. I'm looking forward to Wednesday when I can get it a fill because I'm very scared I could quickly put the weight back on. How does one know if their esophagus is dilated?

[jnewbie 3]

You have to have an x ray to check if your esophagus is dilated or not.

I had a complete unfill 3 months ago (4mls taken out). But one month ago 2mls was added

Stayed the same weight