September 2009 Band Date

[hmarko 0]

Hi Karebear 86 lbs is nothing to sneeze at! Great! Well my experience has left me more confused than ever cuz it was all so subtle! kinda freaky actually and I could have lived w/o the surgery if I could have been happy w/ the weightloss and not sure where she would have decided to keep me filled but probably less than where i was which to me meant i would probably regain everything over years and while I was a size 12 (was as low as a 10) - doctors wanted me to lose more weight due to other issues (fatty liver; etc).

I agree you are able to eat too much and boy has this been a learning experience. I learned that you can eat too much and still be tight - thats esophagal dilation. The food is filled in ur pouch above the band. But let me ask u this are you where you want to be weight wise? If so it is probably ok. The tightness people live with is very personal decision

Key note to take away is really pay attention to the heart burn and talk to your doctor about it (rather I should say acid reflux). My doc explained it beats up on the esophagus and makes it not work well.

Another thing I learned - after weight loss it is not so uncommon to have a hiatal hernia come back - telling signs are going from yellow zone to red. (again w/ a very strong team helping me and me going in every 6 weeks or so it was not so blatantly obvious nor obvious in films where it was black and white).

Slips - I fell off my horse and asked how do we know if it slipped - and usually there are big signs and something like constant throwing up or trauma would cause that. My fall was a fairly severe fall worse than any car accident and I considered myself lucky i didn't have anything seriously wrong - well needing surgery would qualify for seriously wrong if that is in fact what caused it. Do you throw up a lot? I think they described a subtle slip w/ me could have been from the horse fall or it could have been from nighttime reflux which would cause me to throw up. I had two periods where its been bad last year and just recently which resulted in the revision. My signs were that unfilled it looked normal on the film but filled it did not and it seemed like it would flop around when tightened; but in reality once they were in there they could see subtle slip (and i was unfilled going into the surgery completely).

I bought what looks like a great book called bandwagon written by someone who is a bandster ( a fiction writer).

For me even w/ all this medical support it often isn't so black and white. I had to really trust my surgeon and I don't know if i mentioned this but they did the new procedure on me as well Plication. Goodbye bandster hell and hunger even when unfilled - hope there aren't any long term negatives but w/ all of this i guess there are trade offs. I think it is so new not sure i would recommend it but my surgeons practice are all very experienced and in my situation it seemed to call for it (they are not doing that many of these or haven't yet i should say). Again trust here or foolish but I'll hope for the best. At some point I have to call on faith in things to work out for the best.

Hello everyone. I havent been on here probally for a year. I went to a weight lss class wth a friend and realized how much I miss the support.

I am down 86lbs since I started my weight loss journey. I havent loss anything in 4 months though. I have difficult doc that insists I do not need a fill. He insists none of his patients are higher then 5and a quater ccs.....I know he is looking out for me and I trust him I jst think tht he is to much on the side of cautiion. I think I eat to much at a sitting. I have always thought this since I had the band. For instance I can sit down and eat a new your strip steak and a small bake potatoe at a sitting and I think thts to much.. I would love your opionion on this. I have trouble eating chicken and pork roast and bread.... I have 5 ccs in my band Not sure how big my band is though.

How do u know a band slipped I was curious on that. Also I have had a pain under my port site off and on for a couple weeks. Opinions?>

Im so glad you are all doing well...

[incolorado 1]

I second that toast! I just figured out that I had an additional procedure done when they fixed the band - called a plication I am reading up on it in this site. They pleat the stomach.

That is really interesting, I read a little about the plication. Is your practice doing this with most lapbands now? I hope it does the trick for you!

[hmarko 0]

No I don't think they are doing it with most lap bands at all - it seems to be exception based right now but i'm guessing. I know that she personally had not done a lot at all (I can count on my hands basically and she does that many surgeries probably in 1-2 days). A little bit of blind faith here - and not how i operate but I do trust her (the decision to do the surgery was made jointly with a lot of input from me and her presenting the options and me deciding; but once the decision was made she worked out the details - she knew exactly what she wanted to do LOL I do trust her - she is one of the best in a big city full of top doctors.

Maybe they do it on revisions or evaluate whether they should do this -probably case by case. But as they learn more w/ their patients they may be doing it more (or less!). I think in my case it was warranted. I could not be without unfills (could gain 3 lbs a week w/ a loose band); i needed to be tight to lose; and now that i think on it should i be prone to these hiatal hernias or get thrown off my horse again (again we don't know if that was it and i don't anticipate ever having another bad fall like that); and need to live w/ my band loosened this could be the answer. I mean the good thing is my surgeon has been seeing a lot of me since i've been banded so has been close to the situation where she could have made a good judgement call.

[hmarko 0]

Karebear just saw you have trouble w/ chicken and bread and that makes me think maybe you are ok on your fill level and you are eating foods that may be easy to eat. Strip is high fat right? How about filet mignon? How about fish steaks salmon, any fish? Bread a lot of people differ - for me I'm too loose if i can eat bread if I can't i'm just right. You may be ok try some harder to eat foods - salads, dark meat chicken. If you tighten you will start going more to easier and easier foods (high calorie) if you end up too tight and fyi - i never really went past 5.9 cc's so don't focus on the number. everyone is different. Never actually had a baked potato while having the lap so can't compare on that one.

Hello everyone. I havent been on here probally for a year. I went to a weight lss class wth a friend and realized how much I miss the support.

I am down 86lbs since I started my weight loss journey. I havent loss anything in 4 months though. I have difficult doc that insists I do not need a fill. He insists none of his patients are higher then 5and a quater ccs.....I know he is looking out for me and I trust him I jst think tht he is to much on the side of cautiion. I think I eat to much at a sitting. I have always thought this since I had the band. For instance I can sit down and eat a new your strip steak and a small bake potatoe at a sitting and I think thts to much.. I would love your opionion on this. I have trouble eating chicken and pork roast and bread.... I have 5 ccs in my band Not sure how big my band is though.

How do u know a band slipped I was curious on that. Also I have had a pain under my port site off and on for a couple weeks. Opinions?>

Im so glad you are all doing well...

[incolorado 1]

No I don't think they are doing it with most lap bands at all - it seems to be exception based right now but i'm guessing. I know that she personally had not done a lot at all (I can count on my hands basically and she does that many surgeries probably in 1-2 days). A little bit of blind faith here - and not how i operate but I do trust her (the decision to do the surgery was made jointly with a lot of input from me and her presenting the options and me deciding; but once the decision was made she worked out the details - she knew exactly what she wanted to do LOL I do trust her - she is one of the best in a big city full of top doctors.

Maybe they do it on revisions or evaluate whether they should do this -probably case by case. But as they learn more w/ their patients they may be doing it more (or less!). I think in my case it was warranted. I could not be without unfills (could gain 3 lbs a week w/ a loose band); i needed to be tight to lose; and now that i think on it should i be prone to these hiatal hernias or get thrown off my horse again (again we don't know if that was it and i don't anticipate ever having another bad fall like that); and need to live w/ my band loosened this could be the answer. I mean the good thing is my surgeon has been seeing a lot of me since i've been banded so has been close to the situation where she could have made a good judgement call.

This sounds very promising! Your doc must be Dr. Ren? I have a few blogging friends who went to that practice. I look forward to hearing how you do with this new procedure!

I am just like you - the slightest bit loose and I will start to regain. For me it is all about the hunger. I need to have the band somewhat tight to keep the hunger at bay.

[hmarko 0]

Yes Dr Ren. WIll definitely keep you guys posted. The one thing i know is that I am in good hands and they are a great team over there - so whatever I'm faced w/ they can address. Will be interesting to see how it goes. I'm hopeful - and i'm happy they found a problem to fix as well and she was happy about that too cuz on the xrays it wasn't exactly black and white; the clinical signs did support a hiatal hernia - i still can't figure out what is the diff b/t that and a slip have to ask on my follow up. she said there was a slip too 'it was subtle' and the films are 2 d. Just goes to show how impt that communication is w/ the dr. Pretty incredible really.

This sounds very promising! Your doc must be Dr. Ren? I have a few blogging friends who went to that practice. I look forward to hearing how you do with this new procedure!

I am just like you - the slightest bit loose and I will start to regain. For me it is all about the hunger. I need to have the band somewhat tight to keep the hunger at bay.

[karebear102 0]

Hi Karebear 86 lbs is nothing to sneeze at! Great! Well my experience has left me more confused than ever cuz it was all so subtle! kinda freaky actually and I could have lived w/o the surgery if I could have been happy w/ the weightloss and not sure where she would have decided to keep me filled but probably less than where i was which to me meant i would probably regain everything over years and while I was a size 12 (was as low as a 10) - doctors wanted me to lose more weight due to other issues (fatty liver; etc).

I agree you are able to eat too much and boy has this been a learning experience. I learned that you can eat too much and still be tight - thats esophagal dilation. The food is filled in ur pouch above the band. But let me ask u this are you where you want to be weight wise? If so it is probably ok. The tightness people live with is very personal decision

Key note to take away is really pay attention to the heart burn and talk to your doctor about it (rather I should say acid reflux). My doc explained it beats up on the esophagus and makes it not work well.

Another thing I learned - after weight loss it is not so uncommon to have a hiatal hernia come back - telling signs are going from yellow zone to red. (again w/ a very strong team helping me and me going in every 6 weeks or so it was not so blatantly obvious nor obvious in films where it was black and white).

Slips - I fell off my horse and asked how do we know if it slipped - and usually there are big signs and something like constant throwing up or trauma would cause that. My fall was a fairly severe fall worse than any car accident and I considered myself lucky i didn't have anything seriously wrong - well needing surgery would qualify for seriously wrong if that is in fact what caused it. Do you throw up a lot? I think they described a subtle slip w/ me could have been from the horse fall or it could have been from nighttime reflux which would cause me to throw up. I had two periods where its been bad last year and just recently which resulted in the revision. My signs were that unfilled it looked normal on the film but filled it did not and it seemed like it would flop around when tightened; but in reality once they were in there they could see subtle slip (and i was unfilled going into the surgery completely).

I bought what looks like a great book called bandwagon written by someone who is a bandster ( a fiction writer).

For me even w/ all this medical support it often isn't so black and white. I had to really trust my surgeon and I don't know if i mentioned this but they did the new procedure on me as well Plication. Goodbye bandster hell and hunger even when unfilled - hope there aren't any long term negatives but w/ all of this i guess there are trade offs. I think it is so new not sure i would recommend it but my surgeons practice are all very experienced and in my situation it seemed to call for it (they are not doing that many of these or haven't yet i should say). Again trust here or foolish but I'll hope for the best. At some point I have to call on faith in things to work out for the best.

[karebear102 0]

Hi thanks for the response.... No I am no where near my weight loss goal... I started at 301 I want to get to 180 at least I would like 165 but I have to be relastic.... I am hungry all the time seems like. I dont have any heartburn at all. The only time I get sick is when I eat chicken or anything that has a stringy texture after cooked. Like Beef pot roast or pork roast or anything along those lines. Yes your right that probally is high in fat...What kind of foods do u eat on a daily basis.... Ive wanted to ask someone that.....I will check out that book.... I know about the number thing,,,, I was concentrating on tht alot... I just dnt think tht my dr wants to take the chance of me being to tight.... I live 2and half hours from his office in Champaign IL. Maybe that has something to do wth it,,,,, I dont knw I jst wish he would take a chance. His nurse told me that he had one of his patients die because if the fact that she was to tight.... But Im not her and I feel I would live with the restrictions and the tightness to get to my goal if he would just give me the chance.... I like Dr Oliphant I know he is a great doctor he is head of the trama unit at the champaign Urbana hospital which is a stage one trauma unit that takes the worse of the worse cases..... But maybe I need to find a dctor that is willing to work wth me..... What do u think? Have u ever thought of changing doctors?

[hmarko 0]

Hi Karebear:

No I have worked well w/ my doctor so never thought about leaving and they are really one of the tops in their fields and yes you can die from too tight or get slips. What happens when you get too tight is you eat around it and maybe you are doing that to some degree already? Do you go thru your diet w/ him - he may be seeing that and assuming your on the tighter side because of it too. I am not the best example to ask about meal choices but when I was properly adjusted I would eat some fish and usually have no room for more. Or salads. I've been messed up for the last year and my eating habits have slipped. My pouch got dilated so I actually was able to have two slices of pizza and be overtight at the same time (mind you I did that 3 times in one month not daily) but this is what happens when you start running tight. My slip/hernia either happened due to being way too tight and thinking i can deal w/ it or a fall from my horse a few months after we will never know. Well I learned to not go there again the hard way - i couldn't take 3 bites w/o feeling the pressure way too tight. After that i ran into problems and it hasn't been the same. I NEVER PB'ed or slimed after this and this should have been a sign to me that something was wrong - the tight would show up in night reflux (I guess all that is a sign of pouch dilation). Live and learn - Revisions are no fun. So be careful.

Can you try and eat some salmon w/ salad or veggies and see how you feel - those would move thru the band slower than what you described which might almost be a slider food? is 4-6 oz keeping u full for 4 hours? Or dark meat chicken? I was always ok w/ chicken breast lived on it a lot. One of my favorite things (in fact the takeout place is across the street and I can smell it i am STARVING as I am on full liquids after surgery!).

I kinda learned my lesson on too tight so in a way I'm glad we did the plication and my doc knows that I ran too tight as well so she put in a control against that - that will teach me. Because I'm about 31 BMI or whatever my ticker says I am; it was not black and white to do surgery they don't like to do revisions. BUT at the same time I was still having fatty liver; and elevation of liver enzymes and a few dr's told me to lose more weight so that drove this decision a lot. Plus due to the complication i would not have been ever to have my band tight again so these things all happen from too tight.. Try and work w/ it some more there is no magic here it is work for us.

You do need to be comfortable w/ you dr. Do they have a nutritionist in office or does anyone closer to you have that available?

Hi thanks for the response.... No I am no where near my weight loss goal... I started at 301 I want to get to 180 at least I would like 165 but I have to be relastic.... I am hungry all the time seems like. I dont have any heartburn at all. The only time I get sick is when I eat chicken or anything that has a stringy texture after cooked. Like Beef pot roast or pork roast or anything along those lines. Yes your right that probally is high in fat...What kind of foods do u eat on a daily basis.... Ive wanted to ask someone that.....I will check out that book.... I know about the number thing,,,, I was concentrating on tht alot... I just dnt think tht my dr wants to take the chance of me being to tight.... I live 2and half hours from his office in Champaign IL. Maybe that has something to do wth it,,,,, I dont knw I jst wish he would take a chance. His nurse told me that he had one of his patients die because if the fact that she was to tight.... But Im not her and I feel I would live with the restrictions and the tightness to get to my goal if he would just give me the chance.... I like Dr Oliphant I know he is a great doctor he is head of the trama unit at the champaign Urbana hospital which is a stage one trauma unit that takes the worse of the worse cases..... But maybe I need to find a dctor that is willing to work wth me..... What do u think? Have u ever thought of changing doctors?

[hmarko 0]

Should add i have been messed up due to hiatal hernia/pouch dilation/slight slip this past year so we had to do complete unfills for 3 weeks and start over after the 2nd time around we decided there is a problem. Its a different feeling than the band working the right way - you never get stuck; but you get bad reflux. The tighter the worse the reflux but meanwhile i can still eat a ton (like the pizza for example) very bizarre; or chinese food noodles etc.

Hi Karebear:

No I have worked well w/ my doctor so never thought about leaving and they are really one of the tops in their fields and yes you can die from too tight or get slips. What happens when you get too tight is you eat around it and maybe you are doing that to some degree already? Do you go thru your diet w/ him - he may be seeing that and assuming your on the tighter side because of it too. I am not the best example to ask about meal choices but when I was properly adjusted I would eat some fish and usually have no room for more. Or salads. I've been messed up for the last year and my eating habits have slipped. My pouch got dilated so I actually was able to have two slices of pizza and be overtight at the same time (mind you I did that 3 times in one month not daily) but this is what happens when you start running tight. My slip/hernia either happened due to being way too tight and thinking i can deal w/ it or a fall from my horse a few months after we will never know. Well I learned to not go there again the hard way - i couldn't take 3 bites w/o feeling the pressure way too tight. After that i ran into problems and it hasn't been the same. I NEVER PB'ed or slimed after this and this should have been a sign to me that something was wrong - the tight would show up in night reflux (I guess all that is a sign of pouch dilation). Live and learn - Revisions are no fun. So be careful.

Can you try and eat some salmon w/ salad or veggies and see how you feel - those would move thru the band slower than what you described which might almost be a slider food? is 4-6 oz keeping u full for 4 hours? Or dark meat chicken? I was always ok w/ chicken breast lived on it a lot. One of my favorite things (in fact the takeout place is across the street and I can smell it i am STARVING as I am on full liquids after surgery!).

I kinda learned my lesson on too tight so in a way I'm glad we did the plication and my doc knows that I ran too tight as well so she put in a control against that - that will teach me. Because I'm about 31 BMI or whatever my ticker says I am; it was not black and white to do surgery they don't like to do revisions. BUT at the same time I was still having fatty liver; and elevation of liver enzymes and a few dr's told me to lose more weight so that drove this decision a lot. Plus due to the complication i would not have been ever to have my band tight again so these things all happen from too tight.. Try and work w/ it some more there is no magic here it is work for us.

You do need to be comfortable w/ you dr. Do they have a nutritionist in office or does anyone closer to you have that available?

[karebear102 0]

Sorry it took me so long to get back on here.. So what is I NEVER PB'ed or slimed wht dies tht mean? Ive dont think Ive heard of that before. Im sorry that u are still on liquids that is the hardest part...... Just think of the weight u are losing though ... I dont like salmon or any kind of fish unless it is fried BAD i knw and now Im sick of that because of Lent..... I dont know that I have ever really eaten 4 to 6 oz of food.... Ive nver actually measured it I guess,,, Boy I feel like Ive been doing this lap band thing wrg .... I knw I eat to much and sometimes I feel like if I wat anymore Im going to puke and I do quit but Im still hungry.. I dont understand how the stomach knws that is all ur suppose to eat... Do u understand what Im saying.... I feel like Im back at the learning stage again How Ive lost 86 pounds I dont know..... How do I knw if Im eating around the band?

How did u knw u had a fatty liver or your enzymes were still high??? Do u know I havent had any kinds of tests since Ive had the lap band Am I suppose to> I dont even see my lapband doctor unless I think I need a fill I never talk to him or anything.... Havent seen or talked to him in 6 months since my last fill... Is tht normal?

Are u always Cold? I am freezing all the time... I had my reg doc do blood tests for cold intolrence and he didnt tell me anything was abnormal. I sit in my work I do credt card protection in a call center and I have glves on and a cover and a sweater on at all times...

How are u feeling? Do u feel differrnt ? So u have horses huh... Thats nice How many kids do u have? Can we exchange email addresses? I understand if u dont want to ..... my email is shellemployee2000@yahoo.com