Jim1967

I have broken a couple. I started buying some of the extra stoppers and nailed them on. I also started buying seats with metal hinges instead of the plastic junk. I also broke a chair at my mother in laws house. I also brought a wrench to work early one morning to remove the arm rails on my chair when no one was around.

When you say "fix it again" I hope you mean full band, tube and port replacement. If I were you I would settle for nothing less than that. Brand new everything right down the final stitch.

I would be pressing for discounted services as well...

I agree with what all the above has stated but one thing is for sure at this point if you're sticking with the band I would demand a full replacement or nothing. All those surgeries along with all the testing did nothing but waste your time and provide heart ache. You have to do what is best for you but one thing for sure the band did work for you before. So getting yourself a band that is not defective would have you on the road to success. If I were in your shoes I would be thinking of other options over the band as well . It's really a tough call. I wish you much success with whatever option you choose.

How long ago was surgery?

Mine are almost completely faded at 9 month out....

I can usually go 5 hour without being hungry. A lot of times I will skip lunch when I am in the Office because 1. I am just busy and 2. I am not hungry and "forget" to eat.

I was told the same thing by my Nutritionist. Eat when your hungry...

I can relate. My Mom told her Sister and My Father's sister and they in turn told everyone else in our extended family. So all my cousins, aunts and uncles know.

What I find funny is a few individuals around me talking about how they want to do it because I have been successful so far. They have absolutely no clue just how hard this is and how much work it is. You really need to be educated to do what we are all doing.

Congratulations on your surgery date by the way. I am 9 months post op and I would do this again in a heartbeat..

I did come clean and I wish I hadn't at times. I am constantly getting asked how I am doing and how much I have lost. I was once asked and I quote "What are you going to do about all the loose skin once you lose all the weight?" I also hadn't seen a co-worker who was off for a month and he came in jokingly saying "What you haven't lost all the weight yet?" None of it really bothers me but I wish I was a little less forth coming with the information. Most people have been very supportive and I have not heard any real negative comments.

I have been through exactly what you described and agree completely with Missy. Definitely sounds like you ate fast. When I eat fast and forget to chew my food very fine I will get hiccups and if I eat one more bite I usually end up with a stuck episode and I get the chest pain you describe.

Congrats!! I hope to be there soon. :-)

I do not feel the band at all. Some complain their port area aches but I haven't had that problem. Only way I can tell the band is in there is by how little I eat and if I eat too fast I end up throwing up. Eating slow and chewing and chewing and more chewing is the name of the game. I am 9 months out now and my incisions have almost completely faded.

Seriously, Kristy 170lbs is far from failure and anyone to say so must be on crack. Where your health and well being is concerned screw what they think anyway. You need to get some answers. In my opinion (and you know what they say about opinions) there two kinds of band failures. 1. Band failed as in defective or the body rejected it 2. Person with the band never worked with it properly either because they didn't want to put the work into it or they were not educated by their Surgical team to use it properly. You are no failure by any means. Please get checked out and put your mind at ease.

Good luck to all of you!!

Kristy, Sorry you are going through this however if your band is completely empty then you should really contact your doctor right away. This may not even be band related. A wide open band and not able to drink a smoothie is very concerning. I can bet the next several posts after mine are going to be folks telling you to call your Doctor asap.

hiccups is one of my soft stop signals when eating and if I ignore it I wind up having a stuck episode.

Congratulations!!

Congratulations to all the new bandsters. As for lurking...why lurk? Say hello and participate. Matters not whether you are pre or post op or even just starting to research.

I would love to have the insight as to what is going through these peoples minds. I often wonder if they are afraid to call the doctor thinking he/she will say "OK, come in we're taking your band out".

I wear a cpap nightly and my wife is very happy about it. I used to stop breathing in the middle of the night and it would scare the hell out of her and she would wake me up. Some nights I would suddenly stop snoring and she had to check to make sure my chest was going up and down. Just remember the cpap is for sleeping, not relations although I did ask my wife once if she wanted to have a 'go round with the elephant man'...probably a little TMI there...LOL sleep apnea can kill you and it is no joke. Look on the bright side...you are married. Think how much it would suck if you were single.

I have had more stuck episodes then I wish to admit. Some of us learn the hard way. Hopefully, I didn't stretch my pouch. My last episode I ate when I was driving to work. I was paying attention to everything except how I was eating. Needless to say I ended up on the side of the highway....not fun.

Yup looks like it was a year ago if you look at the profile and last status update shows Jan 31st looking forward to a fill in February. Oh well my bad for not looking at the profile..