Newbie

[bab72410 0]

Hi all, I am new to this forum. I am newly banded as of 9/30/03. I have to say that my first 1 1/2 to 2 weeks I wasnt sure I did a good thing. I was miserable. Nausea, severe gas pains, and man was I STARVING! But now 4 weeks out I have to say it is great. When people told me at 1 week out that I would feel that way in 4wks, I thought they were full of crap. I thought I would never feel good again, physically and mentally. But, I do feel great now. I am down from234.5 start weight to 212 at 4 weeks. Cant beat that any where. At 5'2 that makes a huge difference in how I feel. Now the next journey is THE FILL. It does scare me to think about. I was a bit traumatized by the Physically starving thing the first 2 wks. Now that I can eat, in moderation, I dont want to risk not being able to with a fill. I know thats a pretty dumb way of thinking. I know that proper fills are part of this thing, and I will when the time comes, have a fill, but I'm still a little scared. I look forward to hearing from others whom are newly banded.

Beth/michigan

[donali 57]

Hi Beth!

So glad you're feeling better.

It is VERY important that you are emotionally ready for a fill. It is an emotional adjustment to consciously choose to eat less. The reality is, in the past, eating less = hunger, misery and self-deprivation. While fills do restrict the amount, the hunger, misery and self-deprivation should not be a part of your new journey.

You can take this as slow as you need to - there is no reason to rush into your fills. Some people ignore how important the EMOTIONAL adjustment is, and then suddenly they are frustrated that they cannot eat. Tapering off your amounts slowly is a very healthy and comforting way to travel. Remember, for most of us, food is our drug of choice! Weaning ourselves off of quantity is much more gentle than going cold turkey. This is not a race!

I was banded 1/23/03, and had my first fill mid-March. I had my fourth fill the first Saturday in October. If I feel panicky about dropping my intake, even though I am not losing, I wait to get a fill until it feels emotionally comfortable. I'm not speedy, but I'm steady - and happy! Whoo hoo!

Best of luck on your journey.

[IAMOMX6 0]

Donali,

That's very wise advice, and I didn't realize how close it was hitting home until I read your words. I also felt very hungry the first couple of weeks and fustrated. But I knew I had to break the cycles that had started me on this path to begin with. Emotionally I think I'm ready to move on to the next step, a fill, but I'm going to wait until my body tells me it's ready for one.

Beth, we had our surgeries on the same day. I didn't have many of the problems that you had, but I know about the starving feeling. I was very disappointed when I woke up so hungry and thirsty. I thought the band was going to make those hungry feelings go away. What a shock! I am doing a lot better mentally now that I am on solids, but yeah, the first two weeks were a ride!

[amberose 0]

Welcome to our lapband community Beth :cool: I totally know what you mean about being a little put out by the thought of getting a fill and feeling a little scared about risking going back to the starvation mode you were in the first two weeks after surgery. And that's not dumb at all to feel that way. Donali is right, this is a huge emotional adjustment, and it takes time for our emotions to adjust to our actions - it's completely human.

I had the band put in about three months ago, and I also had a bit of a traumatizing experience with the whole starvation thing. I got banded in Mexico (and I currently live in North Dakota, not at all close to Mexico!), and the day I was supposed to fly back home, I got this undescribably horrific pain in my stomach, so my doctor checked it out by giving me a barium swallow. He said that he saw the barrium go down, and he didn't know what the problem was...he thought I was just drinking liquids too fast or somthing. So I flew back home and continued to have the probelm. Every time I drank even a swallow of Water, I was in intense pain. I didn't know what was going on, and it's not like there was a doctor within even a 500 mile radius that was familiar with this band procedure. So I continued to drink just a sip of Water or juice once every hour or so, and I would eventaully throw that back up anyways (I couldn't even swallow my own saliva at this point. And I actually thought that this was normal, I didn't know what else to think, becasue after all, my doctor had checked me out before I left Mexico, and he thought that the pain I was experiencing was normal. So anyways, this went on for about five days, and I ended up in the hospital for three nights, hooked up to IV fluids becasue I had become dehydrated. I ended up having to fly all the way back to Mexico and have the band removed and a new one put in, because it turned out that the band had slipped, and when I had taken the barrium swallow from the previos time I was there, the barrium couldn't get washed through, so it turned into cement in my stomach and obstructed everything. So after my second surgery. it took a lot longer for my body to bounce back, and I was on Clear Liquids for another two weeks (that makes three whole weeks of nothing but clear liquids! yuk!) But after I got to feeling better, oh boy did my stomach swelling go down and my appetite returned to it's full force! Now I'm like...."give me a fill, a really really big one, I want it to be really tight!" I did get my first fill here about four weeks ago, and I am more restricted than I was, but NOTHING like it was right after surgery. This is a comfortable fill, maybe even too comfortable...I'm ready for another one already! I can pretty much guarantee you that the extreme tightness you felt after surgery will probably never be repeated again, unless you get a really big fill, but most doctors like to take it slow with the fills, and that's really the best way to go, so we can accomodate our emotional adjusting into it too!

Well, I wish you luck and hope to here from you again soon

~Amber~