Frustrated and Confused March Bandster in Need of Some Support and Feedback Please

[Miki 0]

OK - sorry if this is long -

I am just so confused and unhappy right now because I feel like I don't know how this whole thing is supposed to work...

I had my first fill yesterday - just had liquids all day yesterday and ate just yogurt today - went down fine - had a work dinner tonight and it was at a banquet hall - didn't choose the food - you were served it - was hungry and wanted to "test" out some foods a little - even though I wasn't sure I should -

so - I ate a few really mushy croutons that had soaked in the Salad Dressing, a few pieces of lettuce (small) - had the serving of mashed potatoes that came with the dinner and tried half a string bean. By this point, I had a really tight pain all the way up in my chest but I kept eating through it because I didn't feel full. I never felt full, but stopped eating soon after. The tightness/pain was pretty bad, so I wasn't sure if that meant that something was stuck and I needed to try and throw it up. I couldn't really leave the table though. So - I waited until I got home to try and throw up - mind you - now it's 1.5 hours since I last ate but still have this tightness/pain. I tried to make myself throw up, but nothing came up - only very foamy saliva. I tried for about 5 minutes, but that's all that kept coming up. I feel like something is stuck high in the back of my throat - but it won't come out.

I spoke to a girl who I met in the support group and first she said the tightness/pain was definitely the sign that something got stuck but since I couldn't get it out - that it just has to go down by itself. Now - this is where I am all confused - she told me that when I felt the tightness while I was eating - that it meant I was full and I should stop. She told me that since I didn't stop - that's when it turned into pain. Now, my stomach was still hungry which is why I kept eating. She told me she no longer feels hunger or fullness in her stomach - but will feel the tightness when she is full so she knows to stop. This is just so confusing to me - is this true? So you stop when you feel a tightness? That means you've had enough? Even if your stomach is still hungry? And if this is true, how do you know that the tightness means that you are done eating, and not that something is stuck?

I am so sorry that I'm rambling, but I am so confused and feeling like I don't know how this works. It is now 3.5 hours since I last ate, the tightness is still in my chest, but my stomach is grumbling. Does anyone have any advice or answers or how this "works?"

Thank you thank you thank you

[michelle88 0]

Miki-

I just had a dr. appt on Wednesday and asked my dr. a similar question..he said--the fullness feeling is going to be different for everyone.. he said some people sneeze, hiccups, pain in shoulder, pain high in chest..he said it is nothing like the feelings we use to get...grabbing your stomach saying"boy I ate too much" . For me ..I think I just start to get a heavy feeling in my chest..I am still trying to figure this out!! :wub: It's nice to know were not the only ones confused by our band!

I wish I could tell you what to do about your tightness..nothing here sorry.

[Arley 0]

I know the feeling that you are talking about. I sometimes get it when I am eating something too fast. For me, it doesn't mean that I am too full, it just means that I need to wait for the food to go down and then I can continue eating. It can happen after just a couple of bites, so you know that you are not too full. The food is just stuck a bit. I have learned to stop at that point and wait. If you continue to eat it will just get more and more painful. Just remember to eat slowly and chew well.

I have found that the texture of the food makes a difference for me. I don't eat salad at the beginning of a meal. For me it just doesn't work well. I need to put a denser, Protein food in first and then towards the end of my meal I can add the veggies. That might just be me, but actually that is how the Lapband makers want us to eat....protein first, veggies, etc. last.

[wishin4 0]

Miki,

I am sorry you had so much pain. I agree with michelle88 and Arley that everyone experiences fullness differently. I too notice if I take too big a bite (usually when I am not paying attention) and don't chew it enough, and then take another bite I am in big trouble. I instantly get pain in my shoulder and a tightness in my chest. I just have to wait for it to either go down or come back up. And it usually comes back up without my doing much. It just kind of slides up my throat and then I feel much better. It's all a learning process for us and each of us has to find how our band reacts. I hope you are feeling better now. I know when I get that feeling I get a whole new respect for the band and take much smaller bites and slow down. I used to be the first one done eating and it takes a great deal of effort to slow myself down. Sometimes my DH will say "slow down" if he notices I am eating too fast.....Kathy

[slimmy120 2]

I have like bad indigestion paid means, need to stop and then reasess means normally eating to fast and if keep going blahh out it will come, but when i am full have like a lump feeling in my throat, or having feeling oh no no more food if it is my mind telling me,and would really have to force myself to eat more.

[Miki 0]

Thank you so much for your replies! It definitely helps to know I'm not going through this alone! Woke up still feeling pretty tight and not great in the chest. I called the nurse practitioner at the dr's office to ask about it. feeling full, etc - she said that I have to get used to my "new stomach" being "between my boobs" - her words - lol - because that's where the pain was going to be...I still can't tell if I was full or something stuck, she said it was something I would learn in time.

It's weird though - lunch today - went back to mushies after last night - ate about 4 small spoonfuls of refried Beans and that was it - got the feeling - so I stopped eating, but my stomach was still hungry and growling...oy!

Guess it's baby steps and I have to ignore the hunger - but I thought the point was we wouldn't be hungry anymore...

You all definitely made me feel better though - thanks!!!!!

[SpecialK 22]

Miki - based on the small amount you say you are eating before hitting fullness/restriction, keep an eye on your Protein grams and supplement with a Protein Shake to keep up your nutrition and do the Multi-Vitamin thing too.

[Fenton 3]

If the pain was bad, it was about something getting stuck, not about being full. It sounds like you stretched the pouch a bit, and the gullet was trying to pump past the blockage to get food down through the belt and into the stomach. From what you're describing, there were probably two factors - many bandsters have trouble with lettuce, which is kind of stiff and not very squeezable, so is more likely to get stuck, and the other is that you might have been eating a little fast, causing stretching of the pouch.

Don't worry - you're not going to have to eat until you've got chest pain to feel full! Try to slow down, choose your food carefully, chew your food thoroughly. And that sequence is important: Protein first, then vegetables, then any starches.

Chew each bite at least 20 times. After you've put the food in your mouth, put the fork or spoon down while you chew. After you swallow, wait 30 seconds or so before picking up the fork or spoon again. Before you continue to eat, always ask yourself if you're hungry - you may not need to eat any more. And, finally, try not to drink for at least 20 minutes after eating (some MDs say as much as 2 hours, but that's just crazy talk!)

(All this stuff is from the Golden Rules from the place where I got my band, plus the conventional wisdom of this group.)

I think we all face a period of acclimatization before we get the hang of this process!

[Miki 0]

Fenton - if I streched my pouch:ohmy: does that mean it can't go back now? or the fill I just had won't be as successful? What exactly are the ramifications of that?

TIA!

[Fenton 3]

No, wait, I'm just guessing! I think that for every time food gets stuck and the gullet gets blocked (what usually results is bringing up a chunk of food and frothy slime, referred to round these here parts as a "productive belch", or PB), the pouch gets stretched a little - that's why it hurts! But your stomach is elastic, as you know from past experiences of really overeating - the thing is made to stretch to accommodate food.

Now, obviously, with the surgery, that's one of the things they try to fight against; they try to rein in the stomach so that we feel full with less food. The way the band is stitched to the stomach "traps" the stomach a bit, makes it harder to stretch.

Brief episodes like the ones we had will stretch the stomach for a little while, but eventually it'll shrink back to where it was. However, if you keep on stretching the pouch, if you keep on eating too much food too quickly, you run the risk of stretching the pouch severely, which can make it harder to feel full on a tiny amount of food, even with the band being full.

For this reason, after you have a PB - or an episode like you had - it's a good idea to go back to liquids for a day or two to let the stomach contract again.

Harleygirl posted somewhere in the Master Thread some dietary guidlines for concentrating on helping your pouch shrink back down again, but they're pretty obvious: you want to put a smaller volume of food through, and you don't want that food accumulating in the pouch and stretching it, so you go back to fluids for a few days (which slip out of the pouch quickly, so don't stretch it) then to mushies, then back to soft food, etc.

I think the important thing is that when the thing starts hurting you, it's telling you you've overstuffed it, and that it's time to stop eating for a while - and even get rid of it if the pain continues. But you'll learn to recognize the signals your stomach is giving you about how full it is.

Just LISTEN to them!

Edited May 3, 2008 by Fenton

[Miki 0]

Thanks for all your help and information!

[hopeinapril 1]

I appreciate all the information on this thread as well. I have had a tough few days and felt like I had no restriction. Now, I know that if I eat the Protein first, I seem to have restriction.

[picturemethin 0]

Its nice to hear I am not the only one. I had struggled with over eating from the 3rd week out of surgery. I had my first fill last week, and can feel very little restriction but can definitely feel pain if I don't chew well. I have a 10 CC band and 4 cc fill. Luckily haven't had a PB episode yet, but I know I've come real close.

Banded March 18, 2008.