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As much as I love my band, I have to say that it's a fickle mistress. It can take several fills to achieve optimal restriction, and then as you lose weight and the fat surrounding your inner organs (including your stomach) shrinks, your band will feel looser so you'll need more fill. Also, restriction can be affected by the time of day, the climate, medications, allergies, hormones, and the position of Mars in the sky. You'll feel more restriction when you're making healthy food choices of SOLID foods, less restriction when you're choosing to eat soft and slider foods (some of which are healthy, like yogurt, but a lot of them are high-calorie and nutrient-poor, like ice cream and potato chips). We're all sick of dieting by the time we have WLS, but in a sense success with the band does involve dieting. Your band can't make good food choices for you, it can't make you exercise, it can't make you say no to trigger foods. That's all up to you. I'm over 4 years post op, 2 lbs. below my goal weight, with excellent restriction, and I still have to work on all of that in order to maintain my weight loss. It's a lifetime project. Finally I have to say: just because you can eat anything or overeat doesn't mean you should. Overeating can indeed stretch your pouch and/or esophagus and it can indeed cause your band to slip. Nowadays self-control seems to be a no-no word, but portion control is up to you, at least until you learn your soft stops. Your band won't ring a bell or flash some lights when it's time for you to stop eating. You have to eat slowly and pay close attention to how you feel as you eat. Soft stops are usually subtle - a hiccup, a sneeze, a sigh, a burp, an urge to clear your throat. If you eat through that kind of signal, looking for your pre-op sense of satiety (what I call "Thanksgiving dinner Full"), you'll go on struggling indefinitely. Success with the band is a lot of work. Although it's possible that you've stretched your pouch, only an upper GI study can prove that. If you go on overeating, it'll just make the situation worse. So I suggest that you make yourself do the evil D word (diet) for a week, pay very close attention to your satiety signals, keep a food log including the times of your meals or Snacks so you can get a handle on how long your satiety lasts, and only then go back to your bariatric surgeon to discuss another fill. Jean

The band is outside of the stomach, so it is impossible for anything that goes in your mouth to "stick" to the band. You may be able to eat peanut butter at some point in your journey. The web site for one manufacturer lists any nut butters as "sticky", (duh!), and therefore could be a problem food.

I 100% can relate. I literally minutes ago told my husband my emotions are everywhere. I'm on day 3 and have a headache and slight nausea the whole time. I cant believe food had that big of hold on me...now its just pissed and doing what it can to make me shove food in. We can do this!!! We have to push through it, we are in it till the end. Good luck!

I cannot tolerate bread at all but I did try Orowheat whole wheat sandwich thins the other day and was able to eat it without getting stuck. They have 100 cal, and 5g protien. I toast them so now I eat a sandwich for lunch from time to time. Great too if you ever miss the occasional hamburger. I also like to put a hamburger or sandwich meat inside a lettuce leaf in place of the bread. I like the greek yogurt because it has more protien and less sugar than regular yogurt. I eat the flavored kinds like honey, blueberry and clementine flavors.

I know! Depression really plays a huge part of your overall health and I think if I could just get out of this rut I could lose again. At least you are going to the gym. I might get another fill this next week and see if it helps. Thanks for responding. I don't want to be a Debbir downer but I don't know anyone who has had the band done so it help to talk.

My surgery was on Tuesday. I was supposed to be first of the day, but got pushed back since I was relatively healthy compared to the other cases. So I didn't get out of recovery and into my room until 6pm that night. I had alot of pain that first night, mostly from the gas that they pumped in. But I asked my nurse to help me get up... I think I only walked about 10feet but it really helped loosen everything up and I felt better afterwards. I had my leak test first thing Wednesday morning... I'm convinced that was the WORST part of the whole thing. I still don't know how I managed to NOT vomit! But, it was good news because there were no leaks. When I got back to my room, I have never been so excited to see chicken broth in my whole life! I walked a mile that day (in small increments) and did my one-oz-per-hour. I stayed Wednesday night because I still had drainage from my JP. On Thursday morning the fellow came by and told me I could go home that evening. I told him I didn't care whether I went home or not as long as they took that stupid drain out! I was hard to do anything with that attached! I walked another mile that day and worked my way up to about 4-oz-per-hour. Last night I slept in my own bed, albeit propped up quite a bit. So, my goal for this weekend is to work my way into sleeping flat! I'm still trying to increase my liquid intake, thats been hardest, but I'm "sip, sip, sipping" just like every one says to. I'm glad I took two weeks off work because I definitely could not face going back on Monday!

2.5 years out and you can hardly see my scars except the port one, most of them are concealed under my boobs! Even the port one is just a thin white line. There are not too many people who get to look at my stomach so it's really not an issue.

Well, it's been a while, but with all of your suggestions and encouragement, I've finally begun to loose as you can see from my ticker. In December 2011 I finally talked my bariatric surgeon to give me another x-ray to see if my band had slipped. It had not. The nurse practioner would not give me any more fillings. She said that I was at 7 cc and I could have no more even though I had a large band. She said that I wasn't doing my part. I just felt that there was more to the story. The band should be helping me, but I could not even tell I had a band. After getting nowhere with my bariatric center, I went back to my primary care physician and asked for a consultation/second opinion from another bariatric surgeon. My appointment was January 5th. The difference in their attitude was huge. They drew out my filling and found that I actually only had 6 cc, so they gave me another one. The difference was amazing! I could feel the band. Wow! I didn't know that's how it would feel. I had lost my 1st 8 pounds from the Friday before Christmas until I went to the new doctor's office, and that was a huge struggle. Since that day, I've lost 4 more pounds and it is so much easier. Granted I am taking the antidepressent, but I can tell the band is working now. When I eat meat 1st, I can't eat very much. I've been off of sweets since then, and it has been easy because I'm not hungry all the time. I have had no problem saying "No" to sweets - even donuts!! What a relief, not to be craving sweets all the time. The new doctor said that I still have some wiggle room with my band. I'm so glad he took me as his patient. Thank you all for your help.

Carol, you have to take this into your own hands. If you really want to lose the weight then you have to do your part. Most all of us here love food and love to eat all the things that caused us to be the size we have become. We all have to make the choice each day. It is a conscious choice every time you choose to eat whatever and do not use the tool you have been blessed with. We each have to decide what is more important, using the band or satisfying that thing in our head that says "Eat the pizza, the whopper, the huge slice of cake and bowl of ice cream." In just the month and few days that I have not had any of those things and have started eating more healthy and in proper portions I can honestly say that my desire for the other things seems to have dissappated to almost nothing. I bought my grandson who is spending the night some chocolate cupcakes and could care less that they are over on the table. I love this feeling. Perhaps you need to go see you doctor and talk to them about this possibly getting some fill to help you curb your appetite. And are you suffering possibly from chronic depression? I really think you need to see your doctor. This is not always an easy journey but one that is worth every stuggle to see it through.

Hang tough. This is where you get to show the commitment that you promised yourself. It will be worth it in the end.