7 Highly Effective Habits after WLS?

[starchile 0]

Greetings All!

I am new here and I've been lurking for a few days reading all of your wonderfully informative posts. I am seriously considering lap band surgery after finding out that I am diabetic...also, I'm morbidly obese (much hated term) at 5'10 and 340lbs and 40 yrs old.

I am VERY NERVOUS about the procedure so I've just been trying to learn everything I can and get as many experiences as possible before I make my final decision.

What scares me MOST, believe it or not, is all the stories about people vomiting!!! I have SERIOUS issues with vomiting--can't stand to see, hear or smell anything having to do with it, and I myself have not thrown up since I was 9 years old!!! lol.

Anyway, my question stems mostly (BUT NOT ONLY) from wanting to know how to AVOID puking (?).

So, for the people who have had pretty mellow experiences with the surgery and good, consistent weight loss, what did you do??? I mean I've read the "chew food well", "eat the prescribed diet" etc....but anything else???

Thanks in advance for your time!!

[simsbjcc 0]

I am 2 weeks post op.I have not thrown up once.I was afraid of that.The biggest thing is to watch your intke.Small bite is key also chewing throughly.With drinking sipping no gulping.Prepare

yourself before hand it helps.

[starchile 0]

Thanks for your response!! That's great that you haven't thrown up at all.

Have you lost weight??

[itsallaboutMEb 0]

I didn't throw up til about my third fill, you learn fast what you can eat. Rice Pasta bread type things and dry meat will always give me trouble but there are so many other things I can have that it doesn't bother me oh yeah and losing weight makes you forget about pasta when you start to see your pants fall down!

[chocolate_snaps 3]

I have not "thrown up" since I was eleven. PBing is another story. It is not throwing up, its like spitting out gross food.< /p>

[SpecialK 22]

Okay, this might fall into the "TMI" category but here goes.

Sliming - some of us describe having to spit out excess saliva because if we eat past our point of fullness, even our saliva has no room to go down and stay down when you swallow until your food begins passing from your upper stomach pouch to the rest of the stomach. This saliva like Fluid doesn't have a vile odor or anything in my experience.

2. PB'ing - is the bringing up of food bits or chunks when your body is telling you that you ate past your point of fullness. The pressure sensation of being that full will cause you to want to expel some of the food to relieve the pressure. If you are careful to watch for the point to stop eating, you can avoid this in my experience 90% of the time. The other 10% is my own fault, ate one more bite to finish something off, etc. When I have brought that food back up to spit it out, it has not been down into my stomach where the acidic process has started to break down the food. So when you bring something up, it again doesn't have some terrible vile smell. I am one of those people in the past that smelling someone else who got sick could get me gagging too. So smell is a major factor here.

Last, my worst experiences of either of the things above occurred when I thought that maybe taking some sips (tiny sips) of Water might help the food go down better when I felt overfull. That was just the opposite - made it far worse to put liquid into the mix. If I am feeling alot of pressure, I usually just try to stay pretty quiet and calm and tough it out for 15 minutes. What I mean to say is I tried jumping up and walking around once when I was overfull to see if that would help jiggle the food to make it go down and that didn't help.

[simsbjcc 0]

I have lost 17 pounds in 2 weeks

[simsbjcc 0]

really third fill before it comes back up.I thought it would be right from the start.It does make sense since the opening is larger.Did you lose weight more after the fills?

[Jachut 487]

I am like that about vomiting and still am. I really got to the state though where I was ready enough to do something about my weight to even face THAT.

The thing is, pbing is not like vomiting. Its nothing like it. There's no nausea, no temperatures and sickness accompanying it, it comes up more easily and is WAY less copious, theres no acid and terrible taste, it doesnt generally come out all your nose and leave you absolutely wrecked. Its nowhere near as bad.

[comtemplating 0]

I also have a huge aversion to puking. I have never puked since banded. I felt extremely naseaus for several days after surgery but luckily my dr. gave me pills for that- I had to choke them down (they actually dissolve under your tongue) but it made me naseaus to think of even taking them. Anyways- initially because you are on a restricted diet if you do vomit I would think it would not be because of your liquid/food intake (unless you don't follow you dr's orders) but rather after effects from the anesthesia and/or from the swelling. When you transition to solids and don't chew well, eat to fast, eat dry food, or push the limits then at that point I think you would attribute the vomiting to your food intake. I am on solids but have little restriction so I am just now starting to experience small episodes of getting stuck and trying to figure this all out- but haven't vomited and don't plan on it. Can it be avoided entirely? Maybe. I imagine there are some that have never vomited. If you follow you dr's orders I would think you would be less likely to vomit. But then again I wonder if some people's anatomy just might make them more prone to vomiting. My dr really stressed the importance of not vomiting out of fear of damaging the newly sewn in band to your stomach so it is an important consideration but if you consider the big picture and what your ultimate goal is- it might just be worth the risk of vomiting. I have lost 28 lbs in 2 months.

Edited June 27, 2009 by comtemplating

[simsbjcc 0]

so basically it is almost like having something stuck in your throat and hacking it up.

[silvers320 12]

I agree that the whole slime/pb thing is different the throwing up. And its going to happen at some point - its a fact of life, you are trying to change a lifetime of habits and there will come a day when the old habits will resurface - if only for a moment. And you will take too big of a bite, of not chew as well as you should or whatever. And it will be uncomfortable and gross but part of this is behavior modification. And the pb/slime is like the dog with the electric fence who trys to leave the yard.

On the other hand there are people on here here who it seems have accepted pb-ing as a daily life fact. I think that is wrong.

[starchile 0]

Wow! Thank you everyone for the great info.

What does "PB'ing" stand for??

Special K-- Don't worry about TMI with me! The more explicit the better...I want the REAL scoop! =) Thank you for taking the time.

=)

[Lana24 10]

Productive burp, meaning whenyou burp food may come up. I notice when I al really hungry I burp now, when I am over full I have painful burps that last about 10 minutes. It hurts a bit but is well worth the change!

[starchile 0]

Productive burp, meaning whenyou burp food may come up. I notice when I al really hungry I burp now, when I am over full I have painful burps that last about 10 minutes. It hurts a bit but is well worth the change!

Thanks Lana!! I see that you have lost almost 50lbs!! Congrats!

=)