donali

When your pouch is full, and the food you ate is going through slower than the food you are eating, there is no place else for it to go but to back up into your throat. The band is WAAAAAAY stronger than the push down motion of your esophagus, so in the battle between the band and the throat, the throat loses. Hence the feeling of a lump, or in severe cases, the feeling that an elephant is sitting on your chest. If the existing food in the pouch does not go through fast enough to relieve that feeling, the body starts producing huge amounts of saliva to help slick things through, which makes it worse, 'cause there's no place for the saliva to go if you swallow it. So if you start "sliming", spit the slime out, don't swallow. If the feeling doesn't go away in a timely fashion, you will usually end up throwing up what's in your pouch. Throwing up is to be avoided as much as humanly possible, as throwing up is directly related to increased slippage rates. Almost everyone throws up occasionally (less than once a month), but any more than that and you should really make an effort to be more careful. People who are throwing up everyday, or even multiple times a day, are on a collision course with slippage. If you are throwing up that much, YOU ARE TOO TIGHT. And you MUST get at least a small unfill, and probably a total unfill to let everything settle down and heal.

Maybe your throat implant is eroding.... lol Sweetheart!!!!!!!!!!!!! What you are experiencing is RESTRICTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what banded people search for! But see, this is what happens when you get restriction too quickly - your mind isn't ready for it. This is how small your pouch is - a bite or two of chicken. Chew chew chew chew, eat slowly slowly slowy. Practice that, and eventually you will probably be able to eat a little more than two bites without feeling the lump. I personally think "two bites and I'm done" is too tight, but you're going to have to learn to work it since you have no options for a slight unfill, Miss Portless. You got a good fill. YOU ARE A FULL FLEDGED BANDSTER!!!!!!! :banana :banana :banana

You guys are going to so laugh, but guess what? I'm having feelings of "last supper syndrome" before LOSING my band!!!! OMG!!! WTF?!?!?! :D Check out how this is "working" in my wee little brain. I find myself thinking, "I should eat some of that NOW, while my band can stop me before I go overboard, 'cause I'm afraid LATER I won't be able to stop at a reasonable amount." My tummy's feeling tender (I'm sure psychosomatic - or just psycho!), so I haven't been eating hardly anything since Saturday. But last night Mom had ordered pizza, and my sis had made caramel popcorn with peanuts. So I'm thinking I don't really need the caramel popcorn, and pizza is one of my trigger foods (pre-band), so I was just going to have one piece of pizza. But I decided to at least taste the caramel popcorn (which was REALLY good!), and decided while I was having a small portion that I would just go ahead and eat as much as I wanted of both, as I only have a few days left that I can eat as much as I WANT. AH HA!! See, just writing this out for you guys I actually wrote one of the keys to my eating problem - "Eating as much as I WANT." That's what I'm going to miss the most about the band - eating as much as I want, and having it still be the "right" amount for weightloss. Before being banded, I was afraid I would not be able to EAT AS MUCH AS I WANTED, so I was bingeing. OMG. I think this may be the biggest key to my particular eating disorder. It is really really really important to me to EAT AS MUCH AS I WANT. The amount of food that actually turns out to be is immaterial. Without the band, how do I get to EAT AS MUCH AS I WANT without eating more calories than my body needs??????????? Since I doubt I will be able to solve that dilemma, the next obvious solution would be to find a way to let go of WANTING to eat as much as I want. Stay tuned for more scintillating trivia... lol

More pictures! More pictures! (hic)

Fill the glass with chicken first....

I certainly hope so - that's what I'M counting on! Whooo hooo! Congrats!

Kenneth - This is everything I know about erosion: http://lapbandtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2250 http://lapbandtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2256 http://lapbandtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2274

Debra, I LOVE your idea. It sure beats my original thought of paying someone to stand over me with a sledge hammer and give me a whack everytime I ate too fast or too much, or whenever I looked at a 15 foot sub and thought, "Hmmmm.... THAT looks good...." lol Birdee - Thanks! It's one of those back and forth kind of things - I inspire you, you inspire me, repeat ad nauseum. Sue, Sue, Sue. I'm so sorry I keep forgetting it's all about you. I haven't created a SUE post in a long time, and I have no excuses... The bad news is, now that I've created so many posts about ME, I see how addicting it is. lol Actually, this could work in your favor, this addiction. How could I leave the board and miss someone saying something nice about me?!?!?! I have a feeling you guys will keep me tuning in for a very, very long time... I did confess to Alexandra that as time went on, my ability to give advice on band-specific issues would most likely become less and less valid. I imagine eventually I will start to forget what this wonderful 17 months felt like in terms of the odd ache and pain. And I wouldn't be able to "witness" about my 6 successful years with the band, like Jessie Ahroni. But maybe my input could still be valuable in the emotional eating arena. And fingers crossed, maybe I could witness to others that even if the worse happens, all that was lost might not necessarily have to be regained. OH! Good! I have yet another reason to find a way to maintain my loss!!! YOU GUYS!!! Alexandra, I think there's something wrong with your post... There seems to be a lot of little words at the top - waaaaay too tiny to read. We'll have to get Alex to look into this problem. Weird computer glitches... Rebecca, thanks for your support. I have the feeling that eating like a bandster is one of the very least important reasons as to why I continue to hang out here. Don't tell anyone, but I'm kind of attached to you guys.

I love these!!! Literary Insults A graceful taunt is worth a thousand insults." - Louis Nizer "I feel so miserable without you, it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill "A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston Churchill "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway) "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner) "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas "His ears made him look like a taxicab with both doors open." - Howard Hughes (about Clark Gable) "He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr "There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." - Jack E. Leonard "He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - Abraham Lincoln "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx "He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." Robert Redford "They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed "He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears, but by diligent hard work, he overcame them." - James Reston (about Richard Nixon) "In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain "A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity." - Mark Twain "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West "She is a peacock in everything but beauty." - Oscar Wilde "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde "He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Birdee - There is no true "book" to go by - we all have to find how to use the band to help us where we need it. We are all bandworthy - we all deserve to have a tool help us to become healthier people. I have heard that some bandsters acquire a lactose intolerance after being banded, when they had no problems before, so perhaps that's where your gas is coming from? Again, if you really are concerned (and I do believe in gut intuition) there is no harm in getting tested out.

I've thought about springing for it too, and I probably use fitday even less than you do! For $20, I figured even if I never used it, it wasn't going to break the bank. I'm interested in seeing how you like it. I'm still toying with the idea of getting it myself. Thanks for being my guinea pig!!

Sultana, you are not a freak!!! There are many people who need fills greater than 3.0. I am filled to 2.6, and can eat reduced amounts of anything. I can eat a whole yoghurt slowly.

Kennth - I haven't heard that specifically before, but based on this information, I suppose it would be possible under certain circumstances. Where did you hear of a case of the band causing gangrene? http://www.ehendrick.org/healthy/000561.htm

Newlapper - Are you eating a lot because you're still physically hungry? I always let my band stop me, instead of me stopping me. I didn't make it stop me HARD, with pain, but I definitely made it stop me with thoughts that not one more bite would go down. I definitely wasn't too tight. But where I'm going with this is, now that I'm losing my band, I wish I had practiced stopping on my own a little more, because now I won't have my band to MAKE me stop. If you are unable to stop eating because you are still hungry, and you are eating solid, good quality foods with no problems in at least a healthy amount, then I suggest a fill would be a good option. If you are eating more than you would like just because the band hasn't stopped you, you could for fun see if you can train yourself to stop on your own. I think it's easier to let the band stop me. But... I wish now I had learned to stop on my own. Not sure if any of that was "advice", but those are my thoughts at the moment!

Hi Birdee - I sent you an email. As far as losing restriction during that TOM, I think most people gain restriction. Is this the first time you've lost restriction at this TOM? I know everyone is skittish since my erosion, but if you are having unusual pains and are concerned I think a trip to your doc is in order for your peace of mind. The good news is that the odds are it is nothing... But best to know for sure. ***hugs***

Instead of your eyes being liquid pools... lol

Your such a deep river, you run when your skin has been compromised...

HEY... The purple bra is OURS here at lapbandtalk. Don't be taking it to the other boards!!!!!!!!!!1

BABS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :banana :banana :banana :Bunny :Bunny I think yours is one of my favorite one year updates EVER!! And it's not because you mentioned my name... I am so very proud of you! And I know how good you feel. WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ***hugs*** ***roses*** I heart Babs

Ain't that the truth?!?! I was talking about all the support I was getting to my sister, and without thinking I said, "MY board..." lol

That's why I always had dogs.... lol

Does hung chow taste better than mustache leftovers? ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm with Alexandra... LOL!!! This is our new inside joke...

DeLarla - What's up with all the leaking, babe? After your last experience I'm afraid to tell you it's nothing. I think it's time to go back to the vet.... ***hugs***

Good news, Francesca!! Congratulations.