Don't know where I am at??

[TeganRheana 1]

Recently my mum has had her band removed via emergency surgery as she was filled up too much, constant vomiting, her band/stomach got infected etc....

Apart from the usual worries about the band slipping or getting filled too much, I'm now worried about this happening to me.

The last time I was at my docs, he put in a whopping 1.5mls (when my previous amount was just .3ml), I couldn't swallow Water so I turned around and walked back in told him to take some out which he did reluctantly (and told me I wouldn't lose weight) which brought me to the even 5ml that I am currently at.

In my heart I feel as though I may be at my sweet spot already. I cannot eat more than 1 cup of food at any given time. I have trouble eating salad, bread and meats. One bite of any of these has me leaning over a toilet bowl.

That being said....I can eat upto a cup of minced meat, vegetables, cruskits (crackers) w/ Tomato, cheese, tuna, fish and sometimes chicken...pretty much anything other than the 3 foods mentioned above. I also start hiccuping and burping which I think is also my full signal even if I still feel "hungry" (I think im starting to realise this may be the head hunger talking) so I'm getting the hang of it now and stopping when it starts...

So basically I can handle the eating, I am happy with what I can eat, what I can't eat (generally although I do miss my salads and steak) but the weight isn't "falling" off like I always assumed it would once your at your sweet spot. It is still a struggle to lose even .5kg a week.

Basically I want to know how others decided that they didn't need any more fill in. How much could you eat? What foods couldn't you eat? Did you just say to your doctor that you didn't think you needed any more, or did they decide for you? Do you think I could already be at my sweet spot?

The last thing I want is for this band to have to be taken out...I still feel as though I am losing something and as long as I am losing even an inch every 2 months, that's still better than nothing.

Anyone???

[Jachut 487]

You sound filled just right to maybe a little bit too tight - not being able to eat salad, meat OR bread must be a little frustrating.

Unfortunately the band simply does not work quite so logically and nicely that ALL foods are restricted equally. We cant have cruskits in the house, lol. Last week we bought some after ages and I age six, yes six in the space of five minutes, slathered with butter (in fact rice cakes also, both those and cruskits are simply a convenient delivery system for butter to me!). I only stopped because they were all gone. Sooooo easy to eat. There will always be foods like that, going tighter and tighter in the hopes that you band will eventually take the willpower out of it for you and stop you eating chocolate is simply guaranteed to fail - you will always find yourself unable to eat anything healthy first and start resorting to these foods to stay alive.

I would even say that perhaps you could get a little bit removed. But from here on it, its down to 2 things - good choices and exercise. Fills from now are top ups, not quests for tighter restriction. And if you push it, you've seen what can happen, not something you want.

It seems once you push your body past a certain point with the band, to the point where you have unpleasant side effects, that its not uncommon for there to be no going back. Its not always as simply as removing fill, as you can set of a cycle of intolerance to fills that you cant recover from.

so take it easy and dont let anyone talk you into fills you dont need. When I was still on a schedule where I saw my doc every six weeks, I told him when I didnt think I needed a fill, and I'd maybe only lost 3kg in that space of time. After the first 9 months or so, then I just didnt go back until I needed a fill and now its simply once a year for a review.

By the way, I was no star loser either. It was most often half a kilo a week for me too - not even that, it'd be nothing for a couple of weeks then a kilo and a half overnight kind of thing. I still lost 45kg or so and got way down to a low BMI and now I couldnt care LESS how fast or slow I lost it. Its gone for good either way.

Edited October 13, 2009 by Jachut