Banded and somehow confused

[Ginger_ 0]

I was banded in September 2007. I thought I understood how it all works, but I'm a bit confused now. I have had three fill, 8ccs in a 10cc MidBand. I don't think I am at a good restriction yet, because it feels like food slides down into my "lower" stomach. Occasionally I do get something stuck that ends in a PB, but rarely.

Confusion one: Food is supposed to stay in the upper pouch and slowly release down to the lower stomach. How should this feel? Do you feel the food resting up top?? Or do you feel it more like a regular swallow? I don't feel anything stay up top, and if it does, it's a PB for sure.

Confusion two: If food sits up top like it's supposed to, why the PB? Food fills the pouch, nothing is supposed to slide through quickly, so how exactly does a PB happen? I thought something is stuck, and the body needs to get rid of it. But how can something get stuck at the top of the pouch if you've got food below it?

Am I making any sense?

234/215/140

[Wheetsin 714]

Confusion one: food is supposed to stay in the upper pouch and slowly release down to the lower stomach. How should this feel? Do you feel the food resting up top?? Or do you feel it more like a regular swallow? I don't feel anything stay up top, and if it does, it's a PB for sure. I either feel nothing other than getting full very quickly, or I feel a bit of pressure. Not discomfort, but I can tell something is there. If I'm going to PB, it may start off like this feeling, but will get much, much worse whereas if it's just the food sitting there, it clears over time or sometimes suddenly (almost always with a hiccup, then a burp).

Confusion two: If food sits up top like it's supposed to, why the PB? Food fills the pouch, nothing is supposed to slide through quickly, so how exactly does a PB happen? I thought something is stuck, and the body needs to get rid of it. But how can something get stuck at the top of the pouch if you've got food below it? "Sticks" happen at the stoma, not at the top of the pouch. If you PB and notice it's whatever you swallowed last, that's because it never made its way through, not because *it* was what was stuck. Just because your first 3 bites made it through the stoma doesn't mean bite 4 will. Perhaps the earlier bites were chewed better, or the food happened through at an agreeable angle. or maybe it's just being fickle. Does that answer what you're asking?

[Ginger_ 0]

The bite that gets PB'd is always the last thing I ate or drank, so does that mean everything else is passing quickly through the stoma? It should be slowed down significantly by the band at the stoma. I should be "holding" my meal above the stoma.

Does this mean I need a small fill?

I really appreciate any help!

[Wheetsin 714]

The bite that gets PB'd is always the last thing I ate or drank, so does that mean everything else is passing quickly through the stoma? It should be slowed down significantly by the band at the stoma. I should be "holding" my meal above the stoma.

If you're PBing the very last thing you swallow, there's a good chance that you're eating or drinking one swallow too many. I don't have a "soft stop" (body's way of saying stop or else)and I had a really hard time with this in the beginning... actually for the first year or so.

Another highly likely scenario is that you've downed a bad bite early on, but are eating a little too quickly and don't feel it until your last bite. Especially if your last bite is your last because you start to feel uncomfortable, vs. it being your last because it's the last bite in your plate. Sometimes a bad swallow (for lack of a better phrase) can take a while to register. During the "learning phase" it's a good practice to wait a good 3 - 5 minutes between each and every bite, to see how your body reacts to the swallow outside of what you can tell immediately.

Let's say it takes 45 seconds for a bad bite to feel bad. You take a bit, immediately feel OK, take another bite, feel ok, take another bite... and then the bad feeling from bite 1 registers, and now you have 2+ bites sitting on top of it.

Another possibility that kind of builds on what I've mentioned above is that an earlier bite is stuck, but when you PB the item that was actually stuck passes through, and what was on top of it comes up. This happens to me a lot. I'll often PB just saliva, because the stick moves through. I assume it has something to do with the churning/pumping. Kind of like a stuck drain. The "stuck" usually moves down.

Does this mean I need a small fill?

The only time I would let frequency of PBs have anything to do with a fill is for UNFILL. I would never gauge whether I need a fill by, "Do I PB a lot?" PBs are gonna happen, but they shouldn't. Feelign the food move through/down is fairly normal. I can feel it, especially when the food is particularly hot or cold.

When I would try to determine if I needed a fill, I would look at these things:

Is it taking more food that it used to for me to be satisfied?

Am I eating more frequently than I used to?

Can I easily eat foods that normally are more of a challenge?

Do I feel restriction when I eat?

Can I drink more than a tiny sip during/immediately after a meal?

Sometimes you will hear ppl say that if you aren't losing 2 - 3 lbs/week, you need a fill. I'd kill myself if I followed that little rule. On a normal day, I can barely get down soymilk in the morning, but by evening can have a small meal. I've hit a phase of maintenance. I have more weight to lose, I just need to get off my ass and make it happen. Am I losing 2 lbs a week? Nope! Do I need a fill? Nope! :eek:

[coolcrystal 1]

I don't know if this will help or not, but my doc said "seven bites is the magic number". He said if you stick with 7 bites, and chew well, nothing will ever come up. It might be different with everybody though.

[blahblahblah 4]

I don't understand....seven bites is magic?? seven bites of food equals your meal??? or seven bites meaning chew seven times...

Seven bites of food doesn't seem like very much.

Would you please explain?? Thanks!

Rain

[Wheetsin 714]

Unfortunately (I wish more doctors understood this) there are no real rules with the band, there are only guidelines. My experience will be totalyl different from yours, and yours from hers, and hers from his, etc.

Tonight I slimed over some thick Soup. So there goes the 7 bites idea. :eek: One bite can easily do me in, if it's at the wrong time of month. Etc.

[Ginger_ 0]

I guess I need to really pay more attention. Thought I was, but maybe everything is as it should be. The fill nurse told me she can feel her meals sit above the band, but I don't feel that. But as you say, everyone is different. I think I will go a couple more weeks before I decide if I want a tiny top-up.

How do I tell if my food sits up top or slides through?

I really appreciate the thoughts, especially from Wheetsin - you took a lot of time to help me.

Wow Jack - "entire magnitudes of gustatorial satisfaction" - love it!! lol

[Wheetsin 714]

Ginger, I don't know when you were banded, but it took me -- I'm going to guess 12 - 14 months to really "learn" the band. I thought I knew what I was doing, I was even giving others advice, but I will still having problems more frequently than I wanted to. Not PBing too often, but lots of discomfort. Lots more trouble eating than I should have had to worry about. So I did this "back to basics" kind of thing. I allowed only small bites, and made myself wait 5 mins between each bite. And if I felt the slightest pressure, no more eating until it had passed completely. This was key, I think. I would get a slight pressure, and think - I just need to burp, or I would confuse it for the same (harmless) sensation of just feeling food in the pouch. Then I started to get this realization that (this will sound corny) I wasn't really listening to what my body was saying. I was assuming I knew what things meant, when I think I had been way off base. Life has gotten much easier since I've really started "listening." :smile:

How do I tell if my food sits up top or slides through?

For me, if there's food in my pouch, I can feel it. It's just a little pressure. Tiny. Like if you fill your hand with Water, the Water puts pressure on your skin. If my food is passing through, I don't feel anything. Everyr are now and then I really can't tell, and have to work to monitor it since I have no soft stop. If that's the case, I will take a very small sip of very cold water and wait and see what it does. If it's just sitting there, I won't feel the cold rush down into my stomach. If it goes through, I will feel the wave of cold.

[Ginger_ 0]

Cold Water - what a great idea, I'm going to fiddle with that. Thanks again!

BTW I was banded in September/07.

[coolcrystal 1]

He meant seven bites of food is your meal; and this was in regards to losing weight. He was saying if you stick to 7 bites per meal then you will lose weight and feel full and not have as big of a chance of pb'ing. But he also stated that it's different for everybody.. but, my doctor does not give aggressive fills. He starts off slow. Some people can have 15 bites and some might only be able to do 2 bites if they are tight.. everybody's banding experience I'm sure is different.

I don't understand....seven bites is magic?? seven bites of food equals your meal??? or seven bites meaning chew seven times...

Seven bites of food doesn't seem like very much.

Would you please explain?? Thanks!

Rain