dustout

My port is about a inch and a half below my right ribs and to the left of the lowest rib point about an inch. Feels almost as big around as a quarter and hard. As I lose weight it's getting easier and easier to feel it if I touch there, especially when laying down on my back. It doesn't bother me at all though.

I'm scheduled for a fill tomorrow. I always get nervous before a fill and question myself. That's probably a big part of why I've put it off this long. I know I need a fill, but I second guess myself, especially since my doctor's office is really stressful about fills and give me huge anxiety over it. I feel like I'm being interrogated when I go in. :crying:

How many pounds do you lose between each time you reach your sweet spot and then get another fill? I'm curious about the typical amount of weight you guys lose between going back for another fill. For me it seems to be around 20 pounds between my sweet spot (half cup food, not hungry between meals) and back to eating a cup of food and being hungry often and between meals. Do NOT vote on this if... you have not successfully reached your sweet spot ever.

Dr. Lana Nelson / Dr. Ronnie Keith's office number is 1-405-360-7100. Dr. Keith was my surgeon.

I'm stuck as well. I'm eating around a cup of food for ever meal and snacking in between and have been for a couple of months. I've been TRYING to lose weight eating this amount, but it's just not going to happen even though I'm exercising a lot. I'm scheduled for a fill in two days and I'm going back on a STRICT band diet. I've gotten really lazy on following it... In the beginning of being with the band I would 'cheat' a little, but more and more bad things have been sneaking in. Good luck to everyone else and I hope to get more involved on the forums again. They really help me to remember why I did all of this.

It's been about one year for us October 2007 bandsters! Post here and let us know how much weight you've lost, how many CC's you have in your band (including your band size), and if you've had any problems. Please also share any tips or ideas for sticking to your band diet, staying on track, or healthy Snacks, etc. I'll start: I've lost 88 pounds. I've been at a stand-still for a couple of months since I have been needing a fill but have been putting it off. I'm at 7.4CC in the 10CC AP Lapband and have a fill scheduled for 2 days from now. My biggest weaknesses are crunchy salty things (like chips), and icecream. Ever since the liquid diet, I can't get enough crunchy, salty stuff. I have to fight that, especially as I have little restriction now so I think about food a lot. Icecream is an evil since I live half a block from a Braum's and they have delicious icecream and I can eat a lot of it since the band doesn't restrict it much (still only eat about half of the amount of icecream compared to pre-band though) so I have to be careful with that as well. I really wish I didn't have to deal with a doctor to get a fill. I hate going in since the doctor that does the fills only gives you a fill if you're eating 1 cup or more. If you're still under a cup, you keep losing until you reach a cup, and this is a pain since not losing is why I need a fill to begin with. It's really frustrating. I lose 2 to 2.5 pounds per week when I'm at half a cup per meal and I don't get hungry between meals. When I'm eating 1 cup per meal I'm hungry all the time, snack a ton, and don't lose weight and have to exercise non-stop to not gain. Very frustrating... :tt2: I'm currently walking 30min 5 days a week, cardio elliptical or biking twice a week for a hour, and resistance training twice per week focusing on muscle growth (to help boost metabolism). I really should be losing with all this exercise so I reaaaally need a fill. I can't stand not losing weight. I'm under my one-year goal by twentyish pounds. =( So, please share your status with us including your current weight, fill, lapband size, and any problems or tips!

The first 80 pounds came off like a breeze compared to pre-band diets.... (I was lucky with that! I know!) But then all the sudden I can barely lose at all. I'm currently losing less than 1 pound per week now (some weeks a lot less) and I've ramped up exercising a whole lot in the past month and a half... My current exercise is: 1-2 hours of continuous tennis with my roommate every 2 days at night Full-body exerciser thing in the living room for about 15 minutes on the non-tennis days (you push with your legs and pull with your arms... sort of rowing maybe?) Most non-tennis days I do about 35 reps of 8lb weights in various positions and directions to help maintain muscle tone in my arms Nightly squats while brushing teeth (hillarious if you think about it), about 40 right now nightly I get hungry about every 3-4 hours. My calorie intake hovers around 800, ranging from 700-1000. I try to throw Fiber filled alternatives to things where I can and I add benefiber to things occasionally. I take a Multivitamin daily, and an extra multivitamin every other day (Centrum chewables), Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and B12 sublingual. I TRY to get Calcium... I hate all the sources of it though so this has been really really hard for me. I eat the calcium chews sometimes but they have like 30 cals each so it's hard to make myself do that. I have calcium powder I add to Protein drinks, and some nasty nasty chewable crunchy eggshell things that are high in calcium. I know I'm not getting as much calcium as I should though. Protein is low though; I know, although not sure how much. I ate lots and lots of Protein shakes and meat for a while and got really tired of it. I've been slowly integrating more carbs into my meals... not intentionally but they have been sneaking in. Although I've kept calories in check during this sneak-in, weight loss has stopped. I'm getting around 50g protein. Muscle mass seems to be holding- although perhaps not increasing much?, and I don't notice any hair loss. I used to get a ton more protein. My doctor's nutritionist said 120g protein which seems super high... but maybe that's best? I don't know how I could get THAT much though... I don't think I've seen anyone on here say that much was recommended to them. I'm 5'10" and male. With this diet, and calorie intake, would low protein cause such a halting of weight loss? Is it possible that my exercise routines are gaining me muscle that makes my weight loss slow down? I've been through the nutrition briefings, read the forum, and even took a college level nutrition class, and this stuff is all so confusing. So many variables. It's always calories in vs calories out but I know that basal metabolism can plummet if things aren't in proper order. I know I need to increase protein either way, but it would be great to know if this is what is causing my the hell of stunned weight loss. It's been so frustrating to eat small but proper portion sizes, and exercise a ton, and see no movement. I really could drop all the exercising and eat more and not gain so it's becoming REALLY hard to stick with this, although I'm determined to budge the scale! I could go in a for a little fill to get me back down to eating half a cup (I'm around 3/4th cup right now) but that feels like a bandaid solution to a bigger problem at this point. Before I went in for fills before I really felt like I was eating TOO MUCH, TOO OFTEN.... right now it's just not that extreme. I want to get to losing how I SHOULD be at my current intake before jumping back on a higher restriction. More fill right now also might cause less loss due to increase restriction of whatever I'm lacking, if I am. Sorry for such a long post. Even posting this I'm thinking it's probably the protein, I just would love some more input and advice. It's good to hear it from others as well. Next time I go to the store I need to stick to meat and veggies else I be tempted by the carb demons!

I think my problem right now is my metabolism has crashed. I'm eating the lower amount a bandster should eat and pretty healthy food choices, and exercising, but the loss is just crawling the past couple of months. I'm trying to up my Protein intake. I think since my protein intake was so low it encouraged my metabolism to get super lazy. Hopefully this will help. I'm going to burn out exercising if it keeps not doing anything more than sitting around lol... I know that's a bad way to look at it, but it's hard to not be lazy when it doesn't seem to make much of a difference (although I do feel better when I do it! I got pretty spoiled early on... The first 80 calories basically came off with almost no effort. I followed the diet and the pounds just jumped off of me. If I exercised, they jumped off even faster! I guess those days are gone.

Congratulations!!! I finally hit 198 the other day. I'm 24 now and the last time I was under 200 was like 11 years old so I'm super excited lol.

I discovered an evil delicious food: Cajun Sesame Sticks. Oh. My. God. I call them Cajun Crack because I swear they put illegal drugs in them, they are so good. Granted, not all that healthy. I thought I would just eat a few ever so often for a few sticks of crunch. Sadly I ate a lot of them and they caused 'burns' in my mouth with tiny bumps on my tounge and made the corner of my mouth raw and it ended up splitting. It was awful! That was about a week ago, and my mouth is pretty much healed. A couple days after eating that though, eating has started being a big uncomfortable. A bit of pain, but very slight. I'd describe it like feeling like I have the hugest burp ever, but burping doesn't help. Also swallowing Water seems to be slowed down- I used to be able to gulp just fine. I can eat fine but things feel like they are going down slowly. I also seem to be able to feel things going down more than normal. I think the cajun sesame sticks of crackdom irritated not only my mouth, but also my esophagus. I'm probably going to go liquids for the next couple of days and see if there's any improvement. I've had ZERO band complications except sliming once for a few minutes when I was stupid and swallowed some tough meat instead of spitting it out. My biggest band problem is my roommate eating lots of icecream products (he is skinny) and he always keeps it around so it tempts me sometimes. But other than that, things have been great. I hope the spicy stuff just irritated things...

You NEED Protein. You are recovering from SURGERY! Get some healthy protein shakes and sip on those all day. You need nutrients and protein to heal. Living on broth, Jello, and Water is a recipe for poor healing, feeling like crap, and harming yourself. That's just not healthy at all. Water down the Protein Drink if you need to, but get those nutrients in! Diarrhea will also dehydrate you and throw your electrolytes off like crazy! Post-op is not the time to lose weight, it is the time to heal. Coming out of surgery healthily is the important thing. There is plenty of time for losing weight after you have healed. Good luck to your journey and take care of yourself! Be careful with your doctor's suggestions. His diet seems extremely unhealthy. Broth, jello, and water do not have the nutrients you need under normal circumstances, let alone recovering from having holes poked in you! Keep us updated! I hope you get better!

I'm 6 months out and still burping. It probably depends on your fill level, your own stomach, how well you chew, what you eat, etc... I think the stoma helps trap air when you eat and it builds up until it unleashes a massive burp of air.

That's great news! I'm so glad things are going better for you so you can enjoy the band and food better again.

no problem :ohmy:

So you've gotten to your sweet spot (oops typo in the poll question! swet spot, lol), but you've lost weight and alas, you've lost it! You finally decide it's time for a fill. How long after a meal before you get hungry again? As in, how long do you stay satisfied for when you need a fill but havent gotten one yet? If you haven't reached your sweet spot at least once, don't answer this. :purplebananna: I'm curious how long people stay satisfied when it's time for a fill.

Anthem covers Lapband. Check this link for all the details to see if you qualify under their terms. Note that your employer may have opted to EXCLUDE this, but it is there by default. Check with Anthem on your exact policy to verify. You can quite this policy and make sure you dont have an exlusion. SURG.00024 Surgery for Clinically Severe Obesity They covered me 100%. I was 41 BMI, no co-morbidities. There is another thread I started on Anthem here: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f8/approved-anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-42639/

Anthem BC/BS covered my surgery 100%. They have TOLD me that fills ARE covered also on two occassions. They gave me this reference number: 0207589397001. I will be using this code with my doctor to file for my fill in two days. I will let you know how it goes.

I would say get a slight unfill if it doesnt get better soon. Once unfilled a tiny bit, you will be able to eat more solid food so you wont get so hungry by dinner. Being overfilled causes you to eat softer foods which partially defeats the band's method of action. Also try a snack between lunch and dinner. Unless you have optimum restriction, you may get too hungry between those meals and that causes your brain to tell you to eat more. My doctor said this too. Better to eat a healthy, high protein snack than to starve so much that you eat the equivalent extra of several snacks at dinner. :regular_smile: Keep us updated and good luck!

trapped inside, The most I've had with the band was about 5 hours. But for the most time I'm usually around 4. Right now I'm only about 2 hours of satisfaction. I need a fill horribly band but my doctor is booked up for TWO more weeks. It's awful. So hungry right now. I've always gotten in the moment I needed a fill, but not this time. I guess everyone is needing fills lately... Its been too long between fills and too much weight lost. I can't believe I just said too much weight lost! haha! I'd say that I _LOVE_ the band, but hate got to the doctor for getting fills... but I need them. I've also heard that as you lose more weight you start needing fills less and less since there's only so much fat around the upper stomach, so maybe things will get better for you there too. Do you have the A.P. (advanced performance) lapband? That's what I have...

It sounds like you are just getting to the edge of the restriction. I have had to get a fill about every 20 pounds I lose, but im getting a lot more fill each time... maybe your doctor could give you a more vigorous fill. Does your doctor use flouro or do they just go off of what you tell them? My doctor goes off how much I say I eat and how long it takes me to get hungry again after eating.

alamess you probably need more fill. My doctor gave me a ton more than .5 per fill... I would have gone insane... I bet you will like it more once you have restriction

That's sounding about like me... I'm starting to eat about 1 cup of food each meal (was .5 cup for a while after last fill), but it only keeps me satisfied for about 2 hours now... fill scheduled for 2 weeks from now.

Same here.... I called to schedule a fill and they cant get me in until the 15th... Always before they got me in the next day! Aahhhh two weeks! I am going to have to take up mountain climbing or something to combat all the food I'm eating! Okay, it's a ton less food than pre-banding, but it's still no fun to slow down on the loss journey.. plus I dont like getting hungry so often. It was so nice to be happy with a few meals and a Protein drink. :crying: They said to try calling back to check for cancellations so I might do that... Woot! A cancellation! I'm getting on the 8th. Thanks goodness.

Correct! Sorry about it being kind of unclear... it's kind of a hard question to figure out how to ask.... If you've reached your sweet spot at least once, then lost restriction from losing weight and and got more fill to fix that lessening restriction, then you're perfect to vote.. :crying: Basically I want to omit people that are new to the band and are trying to trying to get that first sweet spot. A lot of them can eat like they dont have a band yet...

This poll is for those that have already reached their sweet spot ONCE. I am curious is how much people eat right before their fills once they've gotten to their sweet-spot once. Do you eat just a little more than half a cup before you go in for a fill? 3/4? 1? Two cups? Somewhere in between? I made it multiple choice since it may vary widely, I dont know. If you choose more than one answer, please post so in your reply. Thanks! I think this will be interesting. AGAIN, If you have NEVER reached your sweet spot yet (ie first fills after surgery) please do NOT vote! Before you get to your first sweet spot, most everyone eats a lot. Thanks!