Hi, I can identify with your problem because I am in the same situation only it has been nearly three years for me now. I don't know what caused me to just give up exactly but it would seem that I have. At first it was the nurse at the hospital where I went for my fills, etc. (she was so rude and always coming at me with a negative attitude) and I should have just reported her and gone onto another nurse. Perhaps I was really looking for an excuse to stop anyway. I was still losing weight, even though it was only 3 or 4 lbs a month sometimes but I wasn't gaining...I am not young, I am in my 60's and losing is not so easy any longer. Sometimes just to exercise is really an effort, heck just to get out of bed is an effort...lol! After I quit going for weigh ins and fills, I continued to lose and exercise for a while and then began to slack off little by little...you get the scenerio...then the weight began to start coming back on. I now am almost to the weight I was at the time of my surgery and I had lost almost 40lbs before I had my surgery. I am afraid of going to the mark where I can't get back down again. I have acid reflux at times and know I need to have this fill removed. I noticed you remarked about the shape of your stomach area changing...mine has too. I just thought it was weird but I have never been shaped like this and attributed it to my aging. I know the answer is to return to the clinic but hate to go back to that nurse or the other one for that matter. Neither of them are too forgiving (that isn't really the word I am looking for but cannot think of what word I need here). They just don't seem to have my interest at heart just like they are there for making money and that is it. I have never seen the doctor after the surgery...just two nurses who don't really know all that. One had the surgery before and does know more than the other one. As for emotions...I eat all the time. I am always hungry as it seems. I use food to console me all the time, especially potato chips...seems that I only want junk food. I haven't been able to eat meat since I began this ordeal and that is something she kept getting on me for. Of course I was not eating junk food back then but she told me I had a mental problem with food and that was why I couldn't eat meat. I could eat it if I blended it but otherwise it got stuck; only fish or some chicken was what I could eat and she thought I was a mental case. That was the day I quit going to them, I told my husband what she said and he hit the ceiling and I guess that sealed the deal for me...he never liked me going there anyway. Jodi

OK, you two. I am going to be 60 this year and was banded on Dec 31st which makes me a newbee compared to you two. Now that you have fallen down, pick yourselves back up and get you fill and heck with those nurses. You each are a bigger person than either of them. Hold your head high and get back to letting your band help you loose weight. As far as the acid reflux, I have found the tighter my band gets the less acid refux I get. Matter of fact, I am off my nexium now. I am with you both. I would eat when I was depressed, happy, nervous, etc but yes, I have only had my band for just a short time but it is a life change so get back on track and watch your weight come off again and shoot for that goal. I am writing this to be your friend and open your eyes. Like some skinny people say that getting the band is the easy way out and those people are fools. This has been the hardest thing I have ever done but I refuse to give up even though it has only been a short time. Remember all what you went thru to get banded and keep reminding yourself of that.

OK, that was my lecture for the day and I hope it helped a little bit. Don't give up, your health is very important and if it makes you feel better, tell those nurses what is on your mine and do some complaining to them on how they treat you.

Judy