Cocoabean

Having a slight unfill will not cause you to gain weight. Being overfilled can lead to all sorts of complications and can also lead to weight gain, because we tend to eat slider foods that are generally high in calories just to get something down. Having a looser band gives you many more food choices allowing you to eat a wider variety of foods. You REALLY need to go see your doctor. We all want to lose weight rapidly, but being overfilled is sure to backfire. If your body goes into starvation mode, your losses will slow down to nothing and you will lose muscle mass. I was overfilled once. Getting a very slight unfill was the best thing I ever did. I was able to go back a month later and get that amount plus a little put back in. It is not admitting defeat or giving up. Nor does it mean your weight-loss days are over. Best wishes.

As always, follow your surgeon's advice. My surgeon said no NSAIDs on a regular basis, but once in a while is OK for me. They are rough on the stomach. I also read on a bariatric surgeon's website that he doesn't have a problem with his band patients taking them as their stomachs haven't been cut the way bypass patients' stomachs have been. For what it's worth.

Hi Lesley Ann, Glad your surgery went well and you are doing fine!! May I ask, did you have a revision to bypass from a band? Or was this your first WLS procedure? Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a new healty you!

Hi Everyone! Bob in 4 weeks: Betsy: Continued prayers for you. Don't let yourself get lost during this rough time! Leigha: Yay on continuing to feel better! The new protein stuff is yummy. Had one for breakfast. Did vanilla with the orange energy-electrolyte mix. Very yummy and no aftertaste. Jens: Doing well this week. Still walking with the poochy, he is loving every minute of it. Looks like I am down a pound this week. Yay! Been a while since I have lost any weight. My doc called me in some blood sugar test strips. So I'll do some periodic fasting sugar checks. My last fasting sugar was slight elevated. Hoping the walking will bring that down. MIL should be released today. Hubby is heading to the hospital now. That is a good thing. I feel as though I am fighting off a cold. So I'll not be visiting her until I am over whatever it is.

Congratulations on the win! With the luck it took to win the surgery, how could you not be successful? :thumbup: I can understand the trepidation about being in the spotlight, but I guess it is your "payment" for the surgery. There is no free lunch, afterall. Come here for support, we'll be here for you!! I don't blame you a bit for postponing due to your trip. Maybe you can think of some sort of pat answer for when people approach you about the surgery. Like yes, I did win. I am doing very well, thank you. How are your kids? Anyone else have ideas? Divert their attention and move the conversation to other things as rapidly as possible! And here is my nosiness...are fills included in the win? :thumbup: Best wishes!

Leigha, so glad you are feeling better. I have been overfilled, too. I sooooo don't recommend it as a means of weight loss. Betsy, sending healing thoughts to your hubby. BT, glad your surgery went well! Now on to recovering and continuing to lose. Can't wait to read of your banded adventures and advice. My week is going OK. Boss is out of town for a meeting! Woohoo! My cubicle mate is in DC for the week, so I have the office to myself...oh yeah!!! 94 year-old MIL should be released from the hospital tomorrow. Amazing how quickly she bounced back from pneumonia. I've felt a little congested and slight sore throat today, so I didn't go to the hospital. Last thing I want to do is make anyone else sick or sicker :thumbup: Butters, the putz, and I have been walking. He's doing very well. We have another doggie lesson on Thursday. I am tossing around whether or not I need another fill. Hubby says no way. I dunno. So I'll continue to ponder. I got my new protein supplements today! I am going to use them for breakfast and change things up a bit. Maybe increasing my protein will help shake things up a bit (no protein shake pun intended). :thumbup:

Woohoo!!! You are on the losers' bench!!! :thumbup:

Oh I LOVE House! Have all episodes on my iPod Touch! Best wishes for tomorrow and a speedy recovery!!

Jen, YAY!! Way to go! Elfie, glad to see you back. Very glad to hear that the Patches helped! Woohoo! Here's hoping that as the band loosens up a bit around your stomach it will get better.

Will be thinking of you!!!!

Hi Juliansmom, I don't get chest pain often. Only when I get something stuck. I just look for a whisper of satiety.

Oh, forgot to add, Betsy, I checked by glucose this morning. It was 98, but the strips expired in 2008, so not sure how accurate it is!

Hi Everyone! Wow, what a day! Leigha, glad the unfill seems to have helped! BT...woohoo!!! Soon to be banded. That will no longer be your "Indian Name"! Betsy, great not scale victory! Jen, I ordered from a company called Isagenix. They have a full line of Meal Replacements and supplements. I tried their vanilla shake with a mix of orange either Protein or Vitamin mixed in. Can't quite remember exactly what my neighbor mixed up, but I ordered it :biggrin: It was tasty. I'll let you know when it comes in. I also ordered the chocolate shake, some bars, and some oatmeal-berry cakes. The vanilla and orange mix was very good. Like the old Orange Julius drink. My day was spent at the hospital. My 94 year old MIL was admitted through the ER with pneumonia. It's not ladylike to cough. Here's praying that she is OK. But, I didn't overeat. Yay for me. My poor poochie didn't get his walk today, and really let us know that when we got home this evening. I plan to take him tomorrow, even if I have to leave work early to do so. Poor little putzy boy! Have a great day tomorrow everyone!!!

Prolly best to let yourself heal before pushing the envelope!! :wink2: Perhaps we should start a countdown calendar to your first stuckage!

Infections are VERY dangerous! Please don't not go to the ER because it might hurt. The alternative is very frightening! At least call your surgeon's office and tell the on-call doctor what is going on and get some advice. This is not something to mess around with. Glad you are on Cipro, but if it is getting worse, CALL!

WW is a great program. I'd not hesitate to do it if you think it would help you succeed. I am sad they have this attitude towards WLS. There is room in the weight loss market for everyone. What I would do is attend the meetings for support and ask that you not be part of the celebrations portion of the meeting. Or attend the meetings for support, but not weigh in. I believe they require only a monthly weigh-in to maintain membership. You could probably even bring in a note from your doctor that you will be weighing in at his office and not at WW. WW will make an issue if you are consistently losing over 2 lbs per week. You'd still pay the weekly fee, but you'd get the support without a showdown at the scale. During the celebrations portion of the meeting, if you have lost 5 or 10 lbs total, you'll be asked how you did it. Might not want to go into "I have a band!" Best wishes!

Adagray, great job stepping it up! Woohoo!!!!! I just ordered a new Protein supplement. shakes and bars. My last bloodwork also showed I was Vit D deficient and slightly anemic. I blame my surgeon who said I can't drink my milk any more :wink2: (not myself for failing to take my Vitamins like a good girlie!). I still have some milk daily, but not the same amounts I used to. Anyway, this stuff has great vitimin and mineral content, comes from organic sources, yada yada. My health nut neighbor told me about it. We'll see how it goes. I am hoping that upping my protein levels and getting better vitamins and minerals will help me with more energy. I'll keep you posted!!

Why am I having visions of you on Wednesday slamming down a whole loaf of bread just to experience a stuck episode?? :wink2: We'll all be here on the bench waiting for you!!

Hi Robin, My doctor would do it. We have spoken about it. I have gone on two cruises since banding. The band is afterall, adjustable. It is part of the name. :wink2: I decided against unfilling for many of the reasons mentioned here. Not getting back to my same restricition and risking my good habits being huge reasons. Also, the get an unfill for this and this and this...nah. I wonder if insurance would cover all that, too? At my current restriction level (which I was at the last time I cruised last April--I think) I can eat just about any food I choose. I enjoyed all the foods on the cruise, but I did not have to stuff myself stupid to do so. A bite or two of each flavor was enough. To be honest, to me the food on cruises is not all it is cracked up to be. It is good, yes, but not better than what is found on land, and not worth gaining a few pounds. I did postpone my first fill for a cruise because I did not want to find myself in the middle of the Panama Canal having problems. So, I might consider an unfill if I were going somewhere that medical help would be questionable and my restriction level were on the snug side. I have been too tight, and would not want to risk trying to get an unfill from a tribal doctor in the back country somewhere!!

Hey Betsy! Wow, what a difference! You look great! Way to go. He ran an A1C last time and it was good--just below the non-diabetic cutoff. He didn't run one this time, not sure why. The highest my fasting sugar has been is either 111 or 115, my memory sucks these days. So never quite went to diabetes. I don't check it at home. I do have a meter, so perhaps I'll pop by the pharmacy and pick up some strips. Or will check with the nurse at work and see if she can check it a few times. Not sure if she has a meter. I work at an air traffic control facility, we have a medical office that does airmens' medical exams. They do a urine dip test, but I am not sure if she has a meter in the office. I'll have to check. Humming Bird: doing the overweight happy dance for you!!! woohoo!!!! illuminationlady--the scale went down in chucks for me. Just a few here and there, not a steady loss rate for sure. Maybe you'll be the same. It sill came off though! Liz, way to go with the non-scale goals. I love those. They make measuring success much easier in my opinion! Elfie: Here's hoping those pain Patches work for you. I hope the pain lessens as the weight comes off. Leigha, when I was too tight, I gave it two weeks. Then I gave up and had half of what I had put in taken out. A month later I was able to have that put back in and then some. Strange how that works! Will find some pics of the putz labrador to post. It is pouring snakes a lizards here today, so no walkie for him...that's my story and I am sticking to it! :wink2: And now, off to fold the load of laundry that is honking at me!

You should not be gulping your liquids. You should be sipping. Are you chewing thoroughly? How big are the bites you are taking? They should not be bigger than a pencil eraser. You should be eating slowly. Take a bite, chew it fully, swallow it. Wait a bit, then take the next bite. Put the fork down between bites. If you eat too fast or take too big a bite, it will not go down well. There is no "right restriction" for a fill. Each person has a different level of fill that they prefer. It comes down to what you are comfortable with. You say you were eating small portions before the last fill. Can you define that? What is small to you? How many calories are you eating per day? Are you eating between meals? You might want to keep a food journal to exactly what you are eating. Maybe even work with a nutritionist. Are you exercising? Are you creating a deficit of calories each day? I agree with ElfiePoo, find a doctor here locally who can help you. I have heard that there are some here in San Diego who have practices in Mexico and San Diego. Call around and see if any will treat you here, so you don't have to cross the border. Best wishes!

The recliner is a GREAT idea. I got stuck in my bed the first night. After the pain meds wore off, I woke up and was stuck. If not for the DH, I don't know what I would have done. He got me some pain killer and helped me to sit up. Also, heating pad. A must have. I stocked up on post-op foods. But don't over-do it. I discovered too late that my surgeon doesn't want me consuming liquid calories as part of my normal diet. I had read of so many who use Protein shakes, I assumed I needed boodles of the stuff. So, there it sat in my cupboard.

I felt so bad, it was a very serious trial (not that every trial isn't serious to those involved). This was double murder. The prosecutor was going for the death penalty. The gallery was always full with reporters and interested parties. There I was with a wad of paper towels trying to be so casual while wiping away the goo. I was waiting for the judge to stop the proceedings to ask if I was OK. After that episode, I did not take my Vitamins at lunch any more, and was careful to eat foods that I knew would go down well. Add to that, during closing arguments I accidentally threw my coffee cup at the defense attorney...yeah, it was quite the three month adventure!

Hey Betsy, when you gonna post a new pic???? Can't wait to see the changes!

Really? Drat, I missed it. I hate it when life intrudes on my forum time! :wink2: