Army's girl

I was banded on 11/2011, currently have 5.5cc in my band & have had restriction the last 4-5 months. I've lost 55lbs & really happy about that. However, I have really bad reflux & can't lay down flat. Should I take some fluid out or should I be worried that it slipped????

I've heard drinking causes the LAPBAND to erode does anyone know if this is true or just a myth? If its true, where can I find factual information about this? I tend to sometimes choke in the middle of the night if I lay flat & in the morning sometimes I wake up with a liquid that comes up & it has a bad after taste. Anyone else have any of these issues? If so, what do I do to remedy any or all of them.

I don't tell people because I don't fee like dewing with the judgements or comments that comes with it specially because my BMI was low (38). There's a mentality that people that have weightless surgery are cheaters and take the easy way out. If only they knew how hard it really is but since there's so much ignorance I prefer to leave the educating to others. I guess it really depends on the person asking and the person telling. I don't have much tolerance or patience for stupidity and knowing my temper and character it's just better I keep my business to myself lol. There's nothing wrong with WLS and I'm definitely not ashamed of it it's just best for me to keep my journey amongst my closest more trustworthy friends and family members. Whatever you chose to do, tell or not tell, is your provacative, there's no right or wrong answer just YOUR answer!! I've your life the best way you see fit.

EVERYONE is entitled to feel however they feel about themselves & they can chose to describe themselves as cows weighing 199 standing 5'4!!! I mean geez who the heck is anyone to tell other people how to feel or how much they should or shouldn't weight or when they should or shouldn't get the band or ANY other typpe of surgery??!! I'm 5'3 and my weight was 180 when I decided to regain control of my health, my body & my life!!! Now I'm weighing 157 & I still have 35lbs to go to get to my goal weight. Do I care that someone bigger is mad because I CHOSE to not let myself get outta control b4 doing something about it? NOPE cuz no one here pays my bills or has top live inside MY body but me. So to all those low BMI people that got banded, doodles to you all!! I commend you for getting a jump start! If ur "friends" act distant & isoated, blow it off or away lol.... Do you!!

Unfortunately the reason surgeons here in the USA don't want to touch patients banded in Mexico is because off the liability. Once they take you as a patient & do a "simple fill" not knowing how the original surgeon implanted the band, if it's sewed in or not, where the catheter is placed or port is facing, he is responsible for ANY damage done to your entire band therefore liable for the costs to replace it. No primary physician unless a bariatric one is really willing to do fills or touch the band. I figured some people needed to know this before continuing acting so Darmstadt astonished & surprised lol.

Erosion & band slippage DO NOT occur or have anything to do with fills. Just thought I'd correct this in case someone else read this & believed it.

Lynnette, If you are a medical professional like myself, you can do your own fills but the preferred method is having another medical professional do it for you. Theres no reason for al the slander you are getting from everyone & actually I find it extremely immature. We are all adults on this site & if we don't agree with what you are doing then no one needs to reply, I mean really people???!!! After all you are going to do what you want to do anyway. Having said that, please please please make sure you re-sterilize that needle each & every time you use it. You can boil the needle for a good 5 mins then let it air dry on a clean surface(wiped with alcohol is good NO BLEACH). I wish you didn't have to do this & I wish you the best. Understand if you don't use sterile technique you can get your port infected which can run up your tubing & eventually get to your band itself so please proceed with extreme caution. I know people who got banded in Mexico & what they have had to do is basically lie telling the new doctor that the one who originally did it is no longer doing it or is not available for your schedule. I'm not condoning lieing or stealing or self-medicating but I do understand its going to happen. Good luck!!

I'm glad your feeling better. I have noticed I burp & pass gas alot, which I never did before the band. It's extremely hard to eat unless I eat veeerrryy allow but that's the bands job so I'm dealing with it. Let's hope I lose weight now.

I'm excited & just signed up!!

Oops sorry my reply above is for coco bean NOT Joel :0

Oops sorry my reply above is for coco bean NOT Joel :0

@ joel, Thanks for clarifying this but your still losing a significant amount of weight. I did p90x last night for 40mins & thought my hard work would b reflected on the scale this's morning but it wasn't, the scale didn't move!! Lol @b-52 Lol well I've lost 1 pOund since 11/10/2011. It's ok though, just like our inspirational buddy above said we need to focus on eating right, getting enough exercise & being happy. Eventually the scale will move in the right direction.

Thanks SO much Joel, odors & all who gave such great advice. It is definitely hard & I'm definitely committed I just can't do such a stricken diet like you Joel lol. I don't have the will power or right job that allows me to drink water all day & actually eat meals lol. I work in surgery taking care of others, go figure. I will try to increase my calories & see. Oh as for the protein shake, I don't have one every day & when I do it's only about 4 ounces. Did I mention I'm hypoglycemic? Lol Joel, since I only go to the gym or exercise 2-3 times per week, what is a routine I a can do that will burn a lot of these calories & boost weight loss???

Thank you all very much. It's just interesting to me t How some people can lose so much weight so fast but me, nooooo I'm stuck on chubster! Lo don't get me wrong I'm very proud & happy for all of you that have lost so much, but I'm a tad jealous. Sorry. How exactly are you guys losing a pound a day???? Please just give me a typical day or two of your food & exercise routine....

Lol I agree we need a utube demo of your chicken dance with the ugs lmao! But seriously thanks for allt the great advice. Yeah from the sounds of it I had a major stuck episode & did the whoever slime thing lol. Now I know what to do cuz what I ended up doing at the time was having one of my nurse coworkers do a temporary unfill of 2cc then once it passed put the 2cc back in. Yes I know that was crazy but I was at work in some major discomfort & pain. I told my hubby that I no longer have to worry because I have this great support system of friends here that can help me with ANYTHING band related & faster than my surgeon too. Lol thanks again

So once you do get that dreaded stuck feeling where you struggle to swallow, feel everything come up & down in your esophagus & even sometimes feel chest pain, what do you do to get rid of that feeling?? Please give complete details of how you got unstuck and/or how you overcame that awful feeling.....

Thanks for the great info it does make sense. I have a 10cc band & have 5.75cc in it give or take a little. I just don't understand why I'm hitting a plateau so soon after surgery.

thanks for the responses.

well then I'm definitely NOT in the green zone, which sucks!! I think I may have a leak because I'm burpy, have good restriction & can feel my liquids going down right after a fill but by the following day I'm able to eat things I couldn't swallow the day before. Or is this normal??

Okay I work with Surgeons that do lapbands, realize band, plications, sleeves & bypass all day long & I asked them this very same question. The answer they gave me was rather simple & made alot of sense. Think of weightloss surgery as a hammer. The size of the hammer depends on how big the job is so if you only need to lose less than 100 pounds & can for the most part have some control & will power than the lapband (small hammer) is a great choice. If you are not a very disciplined type of person, lack will power & patience & need to lose more than 80-100 pounds then the sleeve (bigger hammer) or bypass (biggest hammer) is the procedure for you. Recovery time for lapband (depending on type of job you have) 4 -5 days you are back to work, sleeve (5-6 days), bypass (4 weeks). This is if you have an office job where you can sit or stand & take frequent breaks. As with any surgery, there can be complications but those are the risks we take when having ANY type of surgery. Thats why its crucial to research the surgeon you chose. I hope this was helpful. I'm a bandster &

TO: Playboreject & Joel I am jealous but in a good way lol, Im inspired now but I gotta ask you please be more detailed and tell me EXACTLY what your doing & eating and how often. I work in surgery on my feet ALL day (8-10 hours) so by the time Im off work I'm so exhausted the last thing I wanna do is be off my feet again. I do go to the gym on the weekends & sometimes I do P90x at home or a 30 minute workout on comcast. As far as eating, I eat about 600-800 calories a day, cant do liquids & Water during the day because I'm scrubbed in surgery & have no access plus I can't get people to come relieve me to pee every hour or so. I lost 10 pounds the first 7 days after surgery but thats it, I haven't lost any more weight despite I have almost 6cc's in my 10cc band. Please help give me some direction because I'm so blah & frustrated not seeing ANY results.

How do you know if your band or any part of the tube is infected?? What are the signs and symptoms? Anyone that has had to have their band replaced can you please share your story with me, Thank you

B-52 I have gotten stuck a couple of times & it sucks, its painful & causes anxiety for me. Once after a fill I was so hungry I tried to eat like a crocket ( which is small & not hard) but it wouldn't go down after the 2nd bite i could feel it not be able to pass & then it was an uo & down feeling in my esophogus. It was trippy & lasted for about 15 mins. My problem is that I do get hungry & the Protein shakes don't satisfy me at all!! I take2 scoops of the Synergistic Protein Complex High 5 which has 26g each scoop, 1g sugar, 1g carbs& only 118 calories. I've definitely platued but honestly I don't got to the gym every other day as I would like because I work in surgery long hours & I do so much physical activity that by the time im done at work I'm too rexhausted!! How can I control my hunger better?? I don't want to be so tight that I cant eat anything but liquids but at the same time I need to jump start my weightloss again. Also how do you get your ticker to change the weight & keep updated?