1c food 3x a day, I'm confused???

[Laura_MD 5]

I must not be restricted enough because I can still eat 2 cups or more per meal. I do notice that I feel "fuller" if I eat my Protein first. I have been having great difficulty with pork and hamburger. I have been eating quite a bit of tuna fish lately. I have also been stuck about 3 times a week and find that I have been eating sweets again because there is no cause for concern over being stuck and I can eat more of them as well. I have had one fill (2 cc) in a 10 cc band. I am due to go back to the doc in about 10 days. At the last visit we decided not to fill again because I was getting stuck so often. I am starting to worry about pouch stretching. Since 1/25/08 I have lost 30 pounds. So, something must be working. At least I know that I am not able to gorge myself as I have in the past. Even without the sweets, I seem to be able to eat quite a bit. Hm........... Karen

Karen, you have to be really careful about slipping back into old habits with the sweets and chips, etc. They do go down easily, but then they always have, haven't they? The band is just a tool that controls the quantity, you still have to control the quality of the food that you put in your body. You can completely circumvent the band if you are not careful. I could take a candy bar and cut it into three pieces and make that my three meals, but it wouldn't do much for my health or my weight loss. You are right that the band helps keep you from going too crazy when you do have those weak moments or have head hunger, but please do not convince yourself that you should eat those foods because they will go down easier. That, my friend, is a very dangerous path.

Instead, try some salmon or other soft fish, the tuna is good if it is in Water (not oil), or crab meat, snow crab is my favorite! Experiment with foods to see what works for you now even if you didn't like it before. I cannot explain why, but there are at least a dozen foods that I have NEVER liked in my life, despite several attempts, that I truly enjoy now. I guess that eating smaller portions and eating slower has made me appreciate the flavor of foods more and my taste buds have changed. I heard this story over and over again in group too, so I am not the only one.

As for the food, getting "stuck", if it is truly stuck you should consider a slight unfill. but consider this first, it is something that I wrote about my experiences with what I initially thought was "stuck" food. I have actually only had it happen 2 times in the 18 months that I have had the band and it was the same food two days in a row. Needless to say, I don't eat conch anymore, regardless of how it is cooked!

Shoulder Pain/Food Stuck

I can't tell what is causing your pain but I can tell you that I experienced the same thing from time to time and I can tell you what has caused mine and what has helped in the past. For me, it was either something got stuck (I took a pill that was too large, or ate sushi rice, or the doughy part of bread), or it was just that I really needed to burp, usually the latter.

You see, I have made the discovery that for me, there are very few foods that actually get stuck or that I cannot eat. The problem usually occurs when I let myself get too hungry and my stomach gets filled with a lot of air. Then, when I eat, as the food tries to pass through the band the air is being displaced by the food, but it has nowhere to go because the food is blocking its escape at the band site. This is much like the air bubbles you get when you try to sink an empty glass or bottle into Water. Until that bubble breaks and the air escapes, the water (or food in this case) cannot get in. When this happens, the pressure builds up in your esophagus and presses on your diaphragm and causes the pain in the shoulder. This will sometimes happen, even with my Protein shakes, so it is not that my food pieces are too large or the wrong consistency, it is just the mechanics of the band and our stomachs.

My solution has usually been to ask my husband to burp me. Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy, but I know now why babies cry if you don't burp them properly, it hurts! Sometimes I can make myself burp if it is not too bad, but I have never been very good at that, so I usually ask for his discreet help. I doesn't usually take too much, just a few well placed pats on the back and it dislodges the food or pops the air pocket and I burp like a sailor and go on eating as before.

I hope this helps you some, but do follow up with your doctor if it continues. I have read many stories of people waiting it out and making the problem much worse than it needed to be. And if you have a true blockage (say from a pill or something) that is nothing to mess around with.

[Laura_MD 5]

Here are some useful tips for those who just had the surgery and those of you being banded soon. They are just some observations, tips, and tricks that worked for me, and may or may not work for you. Take what you can use and leave the rest. <o:p></o:p>

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• Before the surgery<o:p></o:p>
  

There are a couple of things you should prepare for after the surgery, and some things you may want to have on hand just in case (in addition to what the doctors have told you, Vitamins, Calcium, etc). Even if you never need them, better to have and not need than need and not have! They are the following:<o:p></o:p>

<!--[if !supportLists]-->¨ <!--[endif]-->A stool softener; the pain meds coupled with dehydration because you may be sick from the pain meds or the anesthesia afterward, can make it difficult to have a bowel movement. The last thing you want to do is strain your muscles when you have stitches and are trying to heal. <o:p></o:p>

<!--[if !supportLists]-->¨ <!--[endif]-->Panty liners; for the women especially (I can't speak for the men) getting up from the chair or bed immediately after surgery to go to the bathroom can be slow and difficult. That stress can cause you to have some incontinence because you can't really hold your stomach muscles tight enough to control your bladder well, because it HURTS! So….having some of those little helpers can save a lot of laundry (especially if you have a long trip to the bathroom or stairs to climb).<o:p></o:p>

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• Upset stomach <o:p></o:p>
  

Make some hot tea and put ginger slices in it (either the sliced from a jar, but not pickled, or the crystallized pieces, even fresh will work). Leave the ginger in while your tea steeps and remove it just before you drink the tea. Ginger is a natural and potent cure for stomach problems (much better than ANY of the meds docs have given me over the years with my migraines!). It usually works really fast as well. Visit http://www.gingerpeople.com to get some ginger chews (savory little candies that work miracles) or you can buy them locally using the “Find a Store Near You” tool on this site.<o:p></o:p>

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• Pain in your chest, and probably your back and shoulder (if it is not there yet it probably will be), <o:p></o:p>
  

That is most likely from the gas left in you stomach from the surgery. They pump your stomach full of gas to distend it so they can get to what they want and not damage anything else (it's part of the laparoscopic technique). The trouble is they can't get all of it back out, you have to expel it. The gas rises in the body so it goes to the highest part of your body (your chest if you lay on your back, your hip if you lay on your side, your head if you sit upright for a long time without moving around). Two things you can do to help with that and neither is easy right now.<o:p></o:p>

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<!--[if !supportLists]-->¨ <!--[endif]-->Move! Walk around as much as you can, I know it is difficult but once you start passing the gas, it will get much easier because that gas is also pushing against your incisions.<o:p></o:p>

<!--[if !supportLists]-->¨ <!--[endif]-->Lying on my stomach REALLY helped me expel the gas! It was hard to get there but it felt so good once I did. It didn't smell so good because I started farting like a sailor. I sounded like a slow leak in the Goodyear blimp, but boy did it feel good! Get some help getting turned over but if you can do it, I really recommend it. (I checked with the docs right after my surgery about doing that and they said it would not hurt anything.)<o:p></o:p>

<!--[if !supportLists]-->¨ <!--[endif]-->Nullo works very well to eliminate the smell: www.nullo.com <o:p></o:p>

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• Sleeping/Resting<o:p></o:p>
  

One more suggestion is to get one of those body pillows (the big long ones). That really helped me for a couple of weeks until all the soreness was gone and I got used to feeling the port inside. I can't sleep on my back, only my side, or better yet, my stomach. So I would lay on my side wrap my body around the pillow to support my stomach and that way it wasn't pulling on my incisions and cushioned the "landing" so to speak.<o:p></o:p>

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Authored By: Laura Mitchell<o:p></o:p>

Printable version attached.

Surgery Tips & Tricks.pdf