OregonHolly

I have terrible pain when my food gets stuck. It's right in the upper center of my back around the bra band area and just above it too. It feels like a professional football player hurled a football right into my back. It burns and aches so bad and it's hard to even sit or stand. I've been banded 4 years and have lost 82 lbs. It helps to sit on the floor bent over forward until my forehead touches the floor. Then I lay on a heating pad. Some days I'm still tight, after all these years. Other days I'm not. I just live with it.

I've had a lap band for 4 years, and have lost 82 lbs. I still have port pain intermittently. When you get pretty lean (I'm size 8 now) your port is pretty obvious. I find it's easier to bump, etc (not as cushioned.) It's never been anything of any big consequence, just something I've learned to live with. When I'm constipated, it's especially bad.

I was banded Oct 9, 2007. It's been an interesting journey. I started off at 207 lbs; today I weigh 157. The lowest weight I achieved was 149 - pretty far from my goal of 125. Well, not THAT far, but you know what I mean. I'm only 5 feet tall. I had many fills and unfills, I got completely obstructed 3 times where I was refluxing so bad I was aspirating into my lungs every time I lay flat. An unfill is a BIG setback. In the past 3 years I have joined a gym, then quit, then rejoined, then quit. Next I'm doing the HGC diet for 3 weeks. Then it's back to the gym. I turned a bedroom into a nice exercise studio and I use it for awhile, then it becomes a junk room, then I clean it out and exercise again, then start hanging laundry on the treadmill again.... It's a process. But I never give up. So the band hasn't resulted in complete freedom, but it's kept me from packing the pounds back on at an alarming rate, it's generally good for weight maintenance. It took a year until I had a good fill, and even then - it wasn't just an ongoing sweet spot, it varied from day to day. If it's tight enough to really curb my appetite one day, then I'm obstructed shortly thereafter. There's a very small margin of safety for me. But the journey continues, and I'm not done yet!

Thank God, Valerie. I'm so glad, you gave me some hope. I was so discouraged. It's constantly raining and snowing here in Oregon and I've been stuck indoors (except for going to work of course) and I had thought that by Feb I'd be skiing down the powdered white Oregon mountain slopes -- not wilting indoors depressed. I'm SO glad for your update. I needed to hear it. Congratulations!

Hi gang - I haven't posted in forever. Me, one of the original "tenacious tens!" I haven't been very tenacious. I'm glad to see so many doing well, losing weight and staying positive! I personally am not doing well. I've had 4 fills and no restriction yet. I begged and argued and complained loud enough that finally the doc agreed to fill under flouro, which will happen Monday Feb 4th. Waiting months for the "tool" to start acting like a tool has been discouraging to say the least. Frankly it broke my heart and my spirit. I can't even hardly remember what it was like those first few postop days when a small amount of food was filling. If it weren't for the 5 scars, I'd never have known I had surgery at all. It's just back to yo-yo dieting for me. I hope and pray that Monday I'll finally find out what's going on, and maybe they will fill it up until it's restricted. If you go over to the "fills" folder, you'll see many, many people who are just like me. Many people go 7 months before they are restricted, needing up to 7 - 8 cc's to notice their "tool" working, and when your doc will only fill you at 0.5 cc per month, it takes a LONG time to get there. I wish I'd have known this before I had it done. I did a LOT of research, but I still only expected to wait a couple of months or so to notice the restruction that I paid dearly for out of my life savings. I had no idea how LONG the wait would really be. The whole time I'm wondering "What the heck? Is something wrong with my band? Maybe they poked a hole in the tubing during a blind-stick fill? What's wrong with me? Why can't I stick to my 'diet'?" It's been hell gang, a very unhappy experience so far. I hope to find the light at the end of the tunnel, and get to posting again with regularity. Oh, I'm down around 22 lbs or so, give and take a pound. I haven't lost anything since..... I'd say the end of November. Everybody else, you're doing great and I'm really happy for you - especially you with aggressive doctors who are generous with fills! To those of you who have just lost weight because you're tenacious - well, that's what we came together to be I guess. I need to kick myself in the rear end and remember......... I AM A TENACIOUS TEN. Not a failure. Tenacious means that I won't give in to despair and give up.

<p>Here are the names and surgery dates we have so far in our ever-growing TENaciousTENS group. If I missed a data point by your user name, then it's a name or date I couldn't find. Some names I assumed by your user name, so correct me if I got it wrong! Send me any corrections or updates and I'll correct it for the next;Roll Call. Yahoo's edit function sucks and made me re-do this about 5 times - also Twyla it wouldn't take the and sign in your screen name, it keeps making spaces where there should be no spaces, etc. For those of you with OCD, sorry the lines drift a little, hahaha. Oh well.... Here goes:</p> <p>User Name...................... Oct 07 Surgery Date ............Name</p> pvchickie.................. 2 ......................................Tara Big K........................ 2........................................? sbee........................ 2........................................? summer......................2........................................Summer Kim in SF................... 3.........................................Kim MandyW.................... 3.........................................Mandy rabid 24.................... 4.........................................Jodi Cheri42..................... 4.........................................Cheri want so bad................4........................................ ? Lafs ..........................4........................................? New L'D RN..................4........................................Twyla babs0101....................5........................................Barbara nume130.....................5........................................Cheryl mom2kiss....................5........................................Lisa Sierra1411...................8.......................................Sierra OregonHolly.................9........................................Holly brispenny31.................9 ........................................? sadie640.....................10.......................................Sadie Carrot06.....................10.......................................? LSzeliga......................11........................................? BluesByrd....................11.......................................Ray laurygregson................11.......................................Laury Karenr204....................12........................................Karen RondaBen....................15........................................Ben nicnaknut....................16.........................................Bonnie Bandwagon..................24.......................................? justwaitin2b.................29........................................Karen signgirl........................31....................................... Diane moving 4 word..............?......................................... Amy Big Fred.......................?......................................... Fred Bugalu.........................?........................................ ? marywalker20................?........................................ Mary goswicks.......................?......................................... Nettie <p><p><img src="http://www.LapBandTalk.com/images/smilies/whoo.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Whoo" smilieid="339" class="inlineimg" /><img src="http://www.LapBandTalk.com/images/smilies/clap2.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Clap2" smilieid="217" class="inlineimg" /><img src="http://www.LapBandTalk.com/images/smilies/kiss2.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Kiss2" smilieid="154" class="inlineimg" /></p></p>

We're official then! The TENaciousTENS! We will stick together and get this job done! Then we can Celebrate our new lives together! Here is my favorite quote from the yahoo lap band group: "Band surgery is the easy part. Now finish what you started so you can LIVE the rest of your life. Be brave and be patient. The surgery date is a turning point in you life. Don't turn back." Together, lets go forward! I'm happy to be a proud member of the TENaciousTENS!:clap2:

Guess what Valerie, I took your advice and called the surgeon's office and raised hell. I said "If I can't get another fill until after the holidays, I will gain back everything I've lost." So they scheduled me for Dec 20th! Yay, persistence pays off! So this will be my 3rd fill. Fingers are crossed for SOME restriction this time. Thanks for the encouragement and good advice!

I've had 2 fills now and no restriction going on yet. The first fill the doc couldn't draw any Fluid back but said "I'm in!" and now I wonder........ The 2nd fill a new nurse practitioner did it and she worked VERY hard at it, making me lie flat and then lifting my head up to tighten my stomach muscles, which lifts the port. She poked for a bit with no success, and withdrew the needle and took a breather. Then she went to the opposite side of the exam table and looked at me and said "how are you doing?" and I said "GO for it!" This time she had success, and pulled out 2 cc. Then she put those 2 back in and added .7 to it. It's the APS band so I think it holds 10. She asked it I wanted Lidocaine because on the first fill I did have it, but she said it makes it harder to find the port, because it makes a lump under the skin. So this time I said "OK no Lidocaine, just do it" and guess what? No big deal at all, no difference noted between Lidocaine and NO Lidocaine. I'll never use it again. But now I have to wait until January for another fill, and I'm having a hard time being patient. I know this is all typical Bandster Hell stuff, but it feels like this was a bad joke and I threw $16,000 out the window and it's flying in the wind for all the people to pick up. I work at "dieting" since that's the only thing I can do right now while waiting. I want to join Weight Watchers, but haven't. I do all the other "rules." My weight is just stable, not losing unless I return to all liquids, which I attempt over and over. I'm reading a self-help book, and it says that many people are ambivalent about change - that it's intimidating because it's a journey into the unknown, so the committment to change is often wavering. The author says "people don't need to be 100% committed to change....... you only need to be at least 51% committed, because that will keep your momentum going forward." So I think of that quote a lot. When faced with a food challenge I say "Can I put something towards that 51% today?" and it helps me, because I can usually say "yes, I can do that today, at least for this meal." Maybe when I get some restriction finally, I'll be able to raise that percentage. But for now, it's only willpower and dieting pushing me on. We all know, all too well, how long that lasts. But I can go one more percent. That seems like a speedbump to climb - not a mountain. There is a lot of mind power needed when you have a lap band. I knew going in, that there would be, but I had no idea just how much would be required. Would I do it again? I don't know yet. Right now I don't see the point. Maybe that point lies somewhere in 2008 for me.

I posted this already on the thread "when is your first fill?" but I think this thread would have been more appropriate - for those who HAVE been filled. So here is cut/paste of what I wrote: I have just returned home after my first fill. The doc told me that all bands are "primed" with 3-4 cc of saline during surgery, and I checked Allergan's instruction manual (for surgeons, available online) and indeed these are the instructions that Allergan gives. Priming the tubing replaces all the "dead space" with Fluid. That amount shouldn't provide restriction. So today he put 1 cc in my band, no flouro - 1 poke but with a little searching. I don't notice any restriction. He said to call next week and we'll schedule another fill if I don't notice restriction. He doesn't wait a month between fills (he said "that just wastes time.") I'm all for that. I notice lots of people say they got 4cc or 3 cc or whatever, on the first fill. It makes you wonder - since bands are filled during surgery with 3 cc, if those docs are doing fills by adding an additional 4 cc,s or they add 1 cc to make a total of 4 cc.

I have just returned home after my first fill. The doc told me that all bands are "primed" with 3-4 cc of saline during surgery, and I checked Allergan's instruction manual (for surgeons, available online) and indeed these are the instructions that Allergan gives. Priming the tubing replaces all the "dead space" with Fluid. That amount shouldn't provide restriction. So today he put 1 cc in my band, no flouro - 1 poke but with a little searching. I don't notice any restriction. He said to call next week and we'll schedule another fill if I don't notice restriction. He doesn't wait a month between fills (he said "that just wastes time.") I'm all for that. I notice lots of people say they got 4cc or 3 cc or whatever, on the first fill. It makes you wonder - since bands are filled during surgery with 3 cc, if those docs are doing fills by adding an additional 4 cc,s or they add 1 cc to make a total of 4 cc.

I just returned home after my first fill. My doc put in 1cc which I questioned. He said it takes 3-4 cc's of saline to "prime the band" (fill the dead space with fluid) at the time of surgery. So he added 1 more cc. He said to call him next week if I don't notice any restriction and he'd schedule me for another fill.

Hi everyone, sorry I've been "missing in action" for a couple of weeks now. I haven't even been keeping up on posts and the Roll Call. This is a really tough time, that pre-fill time when you're banded and you can't even tell anything was done. Right after surgery it was great, but once the swelling went down, then....... it feels like nothing has even changed. I was really motivated to get this band, and really worked up about it, and doing okay for a week.... but now it's settled into a kind of depression. A "let down". I guess it's bandster hell. I'm discouraged, don't feel like exercising, etc. I think I need my support group's encouragement. My first fill is Nov 19, and I don't expect that fill do offer much restriction. Sorry for the negativity. Please send hugs and encouragment. I need it!

That's a good idea, I'm gonna go look at the Oct 06 tickers. I love to look at the before/after pics too! Even though this stage is a bit tedious to endure, I'm still glad I didn't have a bypass. Bobble head Star Jones - that cracked me up!

Ben, you're so lucky!! Your doc must have put a little fill in your band during surgery or something, because you have some unexplained restriction. I'm green with envy! After I work out, I can't get enough Water. I'm guzzling it without nausea, pain or any feeling that it fills me up. By the way ...... I'm realizing how the pieces all fall into place when you start "working the rules"......... working up a good sweat during a workout really makes you thristy and crave that 64 oz of water - what a concept! Before I worked out regularly I just couldn't figure out how everyone managed to drink that much water. Now after I finish a workout I drink about 32 oz just in the next hour alone.

Hi again everyone. Carrot, I am so glad you're doing well. Frankly you're doing better than most of us! Now you're the leader, so keep letting us know what's working for you, so we can try to follow in your footsteps! That being said, here is my caveat: We've all done the mental gymnastics in the past to lose weight, and it works for as long as we can sustain it. Even with the "tool" in place, we still have to do some mental gymnastics to lose weight by keeping the committment to a lifestyle change. Unfortunately while we're in the "tool ain't workin' yet" stage, it's quite a challenge to pull this off, because with no restriction it's just 100% mental gymnastics. By that I don't really mean it's "all" mental - what I mean is that we have to encourage ourselves, push ourselves, and psych ourselves up to do the exercise, push away from the table, follow the rules, and so on. It feels like the pre-band diet days. If I could have pulled myself up by my bootstraps and just "turned the corner" away from a lifetime of bad food habits and emotional eating...... I'd have saved the $18,000 I cash-paid for my band and done it. But I need the restriction and satiety the band will provide. It's just not doing it's job yet. The work is still on me. And I'm not that good at it - never was. I think BluesByrd advised up wisely in another thread: calm down, don't freak out, and be patient. We all felt pretty good about things immediately post-surgery when we had no appetite. It was awesome! Thank goodness for postoperative swelling! It was like the honeymoon phase. I think we got our appetite wet for the "new life" and now that the swelling is down, we're back to the "old life" temporarily and it sucks, is frustrating, and discouraging. But I feel confident that it's all a temporary slump. If I ever get great restriction, yet find myself making every excuse not to follow bandster rules...... then I'll get out the foam bat and beat myself up. Until then....... I will keep plugging along. I try to exercise most days. I eat right on some days, not all days , but I keep trying over and over to get back on track. It feels like dieting right now, but the light at the end of the tunnel is that good restriction will bring back the feelings I had in the glorius postop honeymoon phase. I'm counting on that happening. It's why I spent $18,000 on that little inflatable silicone band, instead of going on a European vacation for a month. It better work, because I need it. I'm not a good enough mental gymnast to make it to the finals without it!

Hi allamess - I LOVE LOVE LOVE your username, that's awesome, I know how you feel! Well frankly it sounds like you're feeling bewildered and perhaps disappointed right now. You're not alone. Don't panic! You have a new band that isn't performing the way it was designed to........ because it's not supposed to keep you full at this stage. There's no Fluid in it to provide the restriction you need to have control and feel full. As others have wisely said, eating Protein helps some. Maybe helps a lot, or maybe just a little. You may not lose much weight right now...... if you don't you are not alone. Right now you're still healing from surgery, feeling sore, and of course you're hungry. When your blood sugar falls, you're really miserable. I'd say right now, the best thing to do is to watch and keep a record of your blood sugars (from your glucose meter) very closely. Try to avoid simple carbs, like you've always done. Diabetics are used to that. It's the same now. Keep up the protein. Keep your doctor posted on your progress. And be patient. The best thing for you now is to heal safely (diabetics heal slower as you know ) and to keep your blood sugar under control. Don't starve yourself! When your band finally gets "filled" the pieces of this puzzle will all fall into place. The portion control will come in time. THEN you will lose weight. Until then, HEAL, manage your diabetes as best as you can, and try hard to be patient. (I know it's hard, I'm struggling too.) Keep us posted on your journey!

Hi Valerie, and everyone. Nicnaknut (Bonnie) is doing fine. She had some post-op health issues that she didn't want to bring to the board, but she's doing better. I've been struggling due to the fact that I'm comparing my progress to others, and feeling like something is "wrong" with my band. Then I found out that some doctors put a little saline in the band at surgery so those people start out the gate with some restriction, while others of us don't have that advantage. Also some people have more visceral fat around the fundus (top) of their stomach so the band just sits more snug than it does for others. I had to stop comparing myself to others who seems to be doing better in terms of appetite and weight loss. Comparing myself to others was just discouraging me. I mean I "knew better" than to compare myself to others, it's a no-brainer, but I was doing it anyway. I think we're all feeling really anxious and hopeful at this stage. We've ALL invested so much emotionally and financially and all taken a health risk to make this happen. We want assurance that this "tool" will work okay and not all of us are finding the "tool" to be helpful at all yet. Some ARE though, and I'm so happy for those people! Some people really do already feel some restriction and they have to chew chew chew and eat slowly, ...... while others of us could wolf down a huge 12 inch submarine sandwich without blinking an eye. I would be in the latter category. If your band is acting "worthless" right now (like mine) and you're relying on willpower to keep yourself in check..... then I think patience is in order, and that's it really. That's my situation - I have to be patient. Right now I feel like I threw $18,000 cash down the drain and I'm a weak hopeless pig who will never be healthy and fit. But that's just my mean old "baggage" brain speaking to me. I know it's not the truth, and in a month or two I will be singing a new tune! I told myself in the beginning of this journey "Buckle up girlfriend, 'cuz you're in for a RIDE!" and boy was I right. This is one crazy experience! If your band is performing like the "tool" it was designed to already (meaning before your first fill) then count yourself really really lucky. And if your band is performing like mine - like a new tire without any air in it yet, then well........ expect a bumpy road for awhile and buckle up! The best is still yet to come.

I have lots of lame excuses not to exercise : I'm tired after work, I do Bible study in the morning so can't exercise before work; I need to eat lunch on my lunch hour; my joints ache so it's too painful, I hate to sweat and can't do another shower because I have to do laundry and there is only so much hot water to go around.... blah blah blah. All excuses. I've whipped myself into shape "emotionally" and started exercising despite the excuses. The pain is better already, and voila - the laundry got done anyway. If you hate to exercise, just do it anyway - we all do things we "hate" on a routine basis (like pay bills, pick up dog poop, etc.) and so this "hated activity" of exercise truthfully isn't going to kill us. There's also a bigger payoff than you get from other hated activities (like picking up dog poop, LOL!)

My "self pay" plan included 16 weeks at a local gym. After surgery we were advised to only do some cardio: treadmill, eliptical, etc. At 6-weeks postop I have an appt with the personal trainer to get me set up on weight machines.

OMG don't kill me everyone. I haven't updated the list in SO long. More than half the people on it don't post anymore, and there are a ton of new people! Maybe I'll try to do some this weekend. Sorry everyone for dropping the ball but it got so overwhelming :-(

Yup, I can't stand to go to bed hungry either. Try half a cup of cottage cheese and a melatonin. That's why I do. Not as good as Captain Crunch though I agree! Farewell oh my Captain!