"Nita

OK, well I had my first fill four weeks ago. (didn't post about it because, well, it was horrible and I didn't want to discuss it, LOL) It was done in the office. They had a really hard time finding my port (low profiles are harder to fill I am told) and it took 6 yes I said six sticks before they got it in the port. It isn't that they couldn't feel the port, it is right in the sturnum and easy to feel, they just couldn't get the center of it and with the low profiles, it has to be more center than the traditional port and they are smaller too. That was a horrible first fill experience. I am told that is a very rare unusual thing though so hopefully no one else goes through that on their first fill. Oh, add to that it was not numbed. I was sore and bruised for a few days. Well, for the first few days I felt a little more restricted but then it went away. While I was eating less than pre-band and maybe a little less than pre-fill, I was hungry all the time. I had a 1.5 fill the first time. (4cc band) I have fluxuated up and down with the same 4 pounds all month. I expected this as I have been told over and over that the band won't really start doing it's job until I am at the correct restriction. Let me add, when you are at this point...have band and a little restriction but feel hungry all the time....you may be prone to try stupid things. LOL I have found that even with just a little restriction. A flour tortilla somehow turns into a painful stabbing brick after it is swallowed!! LOL I also tried rice despite the many warnings I had read. Same thing...thought I would die. So I now know that soft tacos just aren't worth it and I really can't eat rice again. I had told myself I wouldn't even try the potential problem foods cause I could just live without them and no big deal. Why even risk it when there are plenty of other things to eat, LOL but....LOL..at this point I thought maybe I could get in one before I had restriction, nope...didn't work. well, I went yesterday for fill number two and it was the strangest thing. As he was adding the fill, I could feel it. It felt as if I was eating a huge meal in record time, LOL. For whatever reason, maybe the sweating, nausea and tears that accompanied the very painful first fill or maybe just because it wasn't enough saline, I didn't feel it tightening around my stomach before. Water passed fine but I definetly feel different now. I was on liquid yesterday and mushies today although I can only get down the very softest of mushies and a very small amount at that so keep your fingers crossed that this fill will be much closer to my sweet spot and I will start to see some progress.Should be on solid food tomorrow so I will have an even better idea of my restriction (making allowance for swelling of course)

Add me to the list...113 since my band. 175 from my highest weight. It can be done!!!!!

My surgeon likes to do at least six weeks on the pre-op diet. My consult was 4 weks before surgury so I had one last splurge of carbs, LOL ( I had a burger and fries) and then was on the glycemic index diet for the next four weeks....So I guess that really was officially my last burger and fries. (they don't work now with the band)

Just do your research. If there is a little voice saying this isn't for me, listen to it. Take some time, make sure you are making an informed choice based on knowledge not emotion or desperation. I have been very overweight most of my life. My highest weight (which I was at for many years) was somewhere around 315. I stopped weighing so I don't know if I went higher than that but probably did. I have done every diet, drink, pill, doctor, you name it. Some worked for a while some didn't. My biggest success....I lost 90 pounds on diet pills. ( of course it was from a doctor who made me sign a release against any lawsuits stating that I understood the meds I was taking may not be safe and may not be in recommended dose or combination and I couldn't sue if I became ill or died... hmmmmm dead-skinny...dead-skinny...no contest, LOL...I wanted skinny! the pills weren't even labeled so I have no idea what I took for a year...oh well) the point was I lost weight. Now that was a desicion made out of desperation ...wouldn't reccomend that. I did over the next few years start to gain it back which is the way it has always been for me. I gave a lot of thought to RNY but just had a nagging feeling it wasn't for me. When I started learning about the band and talked to my doctor, I had no doubts this was the right thing for me. I have the ability to lose weight. I have done it many times. My doctor found this very encouraging. He said, I am capable of loss, I know what to do and how to do it...The band will be my constant support and safety net so I won't regain it and slip back up to 315 before I know what happened. He considered me at a BMI of 42 to be a lower end BMI. He told me he would expect me to lose about 75 lbs. the first year and that he could see me reasonably maintaining about 150 or so, but not to expect to be super thin, I would not be 125 and if I was looking to be a super model after weighing over 300lbs of most of my life, it was not realistic. We agreed that my expectations where not unreasonable and here I am banded and very happy. Please do find out the good and the bad but keep in mind that nothing in this world is a one size fits all. Someone will have a tragic response to say... asprin but that doesn't mean everyone will. If this is something you fully understand and think is right, read the bad stories and try to find a lesson in them but don't let them scare you out of something that you really want.

Positive stories??? Well I love my band! I have lost 88 lbs in 11 months. I have gone from a BMI of 42 to 29. I have gone from a size 26W to a size 12-14 (regular). As for foods, You will find what yu can or can't eat is very individual but since you asked, here is what works/doesn't for me. I don't have trouble eating most healthy foods. I can eat chicken, steak, almost any meat. ( I can not eat sausage, hot dogs, or tough ribs or meat that is very tough--hard to chew) I can eat most all veggies. ( baked potatoes must be very soft not grainy or firm.) Cooked veggies go down better than raw for the most part. I can nibble a little bit of raw broccoli or carrot but I have to chew it so well and so tiny..cooked is just much easier. As far as other foods...I can't do rice. Some people suggest I try fried or spanish but I just haven't felt the need to try to eat it anyway. I chose to give that up. I cannot eat soft tortillas.Tried that twice...not good at all! French fries and tator-tots do not work at all. Also, I have tried Pasta once, it didn't work. I cannot eat soft bread or anything of that texture but I don't usually miss it at all. This is shocking coming from a self-admitted carb addict. I do still eat crackers now and then, chips ( as well as many other junk foods like cheetos, candy, Cookies, ice cream etc..) will go down fine although for common sense dieting sake, I try to avoid them. But, even when I give into tempation...I can now eat two cookies instead of an entire box. Basically, I have found that the foods I gave up weren't worth trading for my band. Before I was banded, I did some serious soul searching (it is sad to admit) as to whether I wanted to lose weight bad enough to give up foods I loved. Notice I said loved because I had a relationship with burgers and fries and french bread and pasta that I thought was just too dear to risk, LOL I had tried adkin's before and thought I would honestly die without those foods. Well, I am OK without them now. I can honestly say I hardly miss them at all. I have found to my suprise that Italian resteraunts offer other things besides fettucini or tortilini. Rosemary chicken with steamed veggies and roasted red pepper are actually what I crave now when I think of italian food. ( I know it is difficult to believe...I can go to Olive Garden and not shed a tear over the bread sticks..LOL) So yes, I would call mine a positive story. I wouldn't trade my band for all the french fries in the world ( even if they were magical non-fattening ones!) LOL

You should lose as long as you are working with your band as instructed but it will be slower. Here is a link to a great site that shows excersices and calories burned based on your current weight. You will see that someone who is 400 lbs. can burn a lot of calories just walking a block while someone who is carrying only 150 calories would have to walk miles to burn the same amount of calories. http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html That is one reason (along with adjusting metabolism) that weight loss slows as we lose more. We are taking off those extra "weights" that help burn more calories. PS, When I was banded, my BMI was 42, now it is 29. I am still losing at a BMI of 29, just not as easily as in the beginning.

There are some rules for band life that will find discussed on this site over and over. If you follow or nearly follow them you will do fine. (disclaimer...my opinions from my experience and research...not meant to insult anyone who is doing fine without observing these rules) I don't know of a single doctor who will argue the first one... once you are healed, the band is made to restrict solid food not liquids or soft highly processed food. So if you choose Soups, shakes, protien drinks, smoothies, mashed potatoes etc. for the majority of your meals, the band won't do as much for you. Even healthy liquids have a lot of calories that add up over the day and sneak right past that band. second...at each meal you should eat solid protien first then your high Fiber veggies and then if you aren't feeling satisfied yet have a few bites of starchier foods or sweets if you like. This means for most meals, no salad or Soup first, they go through your band much faster and easier than the meat so eat it first. The more solid the food, the more satisfied you will feel and the longer it takes to move out of your pouch so the longer you feel full. third....chew your food very very well and take small bite especially true since yu need to be eating solid protien which will be more difficult to eat than soft stuff but it is important to get as much solid food as possible. and fourth...(although there are probably others that could be mentioned) no liquids or drinking of and sort during or for at least 45 mins. (this time will vary from doctor to doctor..some say 30 min. some say one hour, I split the difference LOL). Drinking will do one of two things, it will depending on what you ate, either flush the food down much faster and cause you to be able to eat more than you should or it can cause the food to come back up not good. So really the work is in learning some new eating habits. I rarely feel hungry like I used to. I rarely have the desire to snack like I used to and I have found that eating in the car on the run doesn't work so that temptation was eliminated for me. I was a little worried about the work required also, but the band is a steady reminder like a little jiminy cricket telling you what to do, LOL. The one thing I am now struggling with is...excerscie! once you start getting closer to goal, it will become harder to lose..the whole burns less calories to walk across the room and such thing, so it becomes much more importanat to excersice. this for me has been the first real willpower thin. However this would be the case with any WLS. the lower the BMI, the slower the loss so you have to help it out by burning more calories. You will do fine! Best of luck,

Scott, I think there is one more very important factor you left out. % of time you follow the "Band Rules" ie. solid protien first, high Fiber veggies second, starch last if at all. along with no liquids at or after meals. In my opinion follwing these guidelines while eating each meal makes a huge difference in your success.

248 lbs. day of band, 11 months banded, 0-1% meals with drinks, 30-45 minutes per week excercise, 3 fills, no diet pills, white, 78 lbs. lost

That happens to me every month the wek before my period. I know that hormones change as you loose weight, so maybe it's all hormonal???? Also, if I have had too much caffeine for a few days in a row that will happen. Hope your feeling a little more perky (hehehe sorry...) real soon!

It could be thread from your internal stitches. Sometimes it doesn't disolve all the way. The thread my surgeon used was clear but when I had a lump removed from my breast a few years ago, they used Navy blue-ish thread and a few come to the surface and looked pretty weird.

Perfectly normal.You are in the healing phase and while I know it is easier said than done...LOL, you should just worry about healing and not weight loss right now. Once you are healed and on solid foods AND have your first fill, that's when things start working they should. Right now, you band is in place but not doing anything because it isn't filled yet. Any weight loss in the pre-fill stage is just a bonus. So be glad that when you get your fill and your band starts to work for you, you will already have a jump start!!!!

Choosing band or bypass is a big decision. I am glad you are taking the time to look at both options before you jump into one or the other. I personally do not think bypass is an evil horrible decision...LOL. I just found the band to be the better choice for me. I think for some people bypass is a legimate need. Here are some of the reasons I chose banding instead. I liked the fact that 1) far less surgical and post-surgical risks and the possible complications are not as serious or life threatening as with bypass. 2) no malabsorption componant which lead to many problems down the road..for instance if I were to ever develop a life threating illness such as cancer, survival rates are low for people with malabsorption problems. 3) the band can always be adjusted!!! If five or six years after I have lost my weight, I find A few creeping back on and they aren't going away, I can go in and get a fill and loses the weight, with bypass, you are on you own to lose the weight. There is no safety net if you will. As for non-compliance after the surgury, you can eat around either surgury. If you want to fail, you will. Those are my doctor's words. Basically, it is a little easier to cheat the band then the bypass but either way, they can both be cheated if that is the goal. Hopefully, anyone who is serious enough to have bariatric surgury is serious enough to be commited to losing weight and will try to eat around the surgury whichever choice they make. One last thing, as for statistics, take them with a grain of salt, the numbers range greatly depending on who is doing the study and what they want the numbers to say. I have seen as many studies stating that five years out the band people are doing better than bypass (as for mainting a lower % of excess weight) as I have seen studies stating bypass is better.

My husband (who is not banded or overweight) has trouble with gastritis and these are the kinda pains he gets. The first time he had a flair up, he was in so much pain through his back, shoulder and down his arm, we thought it was his heart. After a trip to the emergengency room, they thought it was his gallbladder (which evidentally has a similar radiating pain pattern) and admitted him and scheduled surgury for his gallbladder. Before the surgury (luckily) they did an endoscopy to check his stomach for ulcers and found he had corrosive gastritis. They said the lining to his stomach was corroded and pitted and this was causing the pain. He took a couple stomach meds and treated it as you would ulcers basically. It still occasionally flairs up if he is mistreating his stomach.

I am so happy for you. I can only imagine how wonderful that felt!!!!!! I dream of the day I read 199!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!!

I vote for the port also. Mine is in the sternum area but I could easily feel it if I dug a little after about a week and now (since most of my weight is below my waist and my upper stomach and sternum aren't too heavy) I can easy feel it if I rub it, (don't need to dig around for it anymore) And mine is a low profile.

Bypass is not the answer either. The dumping syndrome (which happen to most but not all) levels out and goes away after about a year or two. So if someone was determined to eat something eventually they could. Then any loss would be regained. As I am sure you have heard over and over by now...the band is just a tool. If won't stop the junk food and candy or ice cream and chips etc. You have to change your food choices on your own. If you eat your solid protien first, then veggies then other food there should be much less room if you want to finish your meal with a small bite or two of chocolate. Your meal should not last for more than 20 minutes. If at all possible you should not eat between meals. No liquid of any kind with or for at least 45 minutes after a meal (this washes the food through your pouch too quickly and leaves you hungry again) I would have to agree with the earlier post though...If you really cannot control yourself with chocolate (or any othher food for that matter) you need to just give it up. Think of it like an alcoholic who can't just take a social drink but instead drinks a whole bottle or a smoker who can not just smoke one cigarette a day but needs a pack or two. You just have to make yourself quit and avoid it all together.

Everyone heals at a different pace. I was so disapointed in myself because I expected to be up and about and feeling great by day three. Well, I wasnt!!! I felt like I had been run over by a really, really, really big truck for about a week. I took pain meds for the whole first week. And didn't really feel good for about another week after that. I felt like a big baby after reading stories of people who were up and at work and feeling great the next day or something. Well, now I have hears several other, what's wrong with me? Why am I still hurting? Why don't I feel back to normal yet? stories from other people who healed a little slower, so I wasn't alone. I would say, don't be hard on yourself. Listen to your body and let it set it's own pace for recovery.

I was told not to swallow any pills much larger than a birth control pill. When available to take liquid if not, cut or crush all meds that can be crushed into small pieces. Always check with your pharmacist if you aren't sure. Anything that is time released cannot be cut or crushed.

Hi, nice to know there are several of us close together. Maybe we can form our own little support group:guess I won't drive to park plaza for dr. spivak's, LOL I have had two fills. My first one at five weeks and my second at nine weeks (yesterday actually) I lost really well in the beginning but haven't done anything in the past month. Hopefully this second fill will get things moving again.

My first fill was 1.5 (not much less than yours) My dr. was glad to see all 1.5 was still there four weeks later and he added another .5 at that fill so 9 weeks out, I am at 2 ccs.

Hi, I'm in Friendswood, so not far from where you asked about. I used Dr. Spivak in Houston.

Don't let my post scare you even more. From everything I have read and heard, that is not the norm. Most fills go without a hitch. And my second one was simple. First poke. Felt like having blood drawn. (just in reverse and in my upper abdoman. LOL) Now, he did say he wanted to do them at the surgury center from now on so he can do them under flouroscope. They don't have flouro in the office. Sounds good to me. He said that he would guess I had some adhesions (which are now going away) that made it harder for him and the nurse to get the needle in the port. ??? Congratulations on doing so great with your weight loss!!!!! But don't be afraid to get filled. That will make it even easier for you to keep up the good work!!!!

Another thing that helps clear up UTIs quicker is taking (along with real cranberry juice, not sweetened or cocktail or mixed, etc..the real stuff) is to take chewable vitamin C tablets. Take as much as is allowed (it will say on the bottle). They like the cranberry will help lower your urine's PH which will help clear up the infection sooner. I am sure a couple chewable vitamin C's won't interfere with the liquid diet.

I had a surgury a couple of years ago and that anasthesiologist wanted to tube me awake also. First let me say it wasn't bad at all and I ama big wimp!!! LOL What he did was give me the meds to relax me and he held his hand firmly on the front of my throat. He explained he would be doing this of course or I would have thought he was about to strangle me, LOL. I could still breath, he was just applying very firm pressure. This was to get me used to the pressure I would feel as the tube went in. Well, as I was about to go go into a twilight sort of sleep, he added the rest of the put yuo under meds but before i went under he put the tube in and took his hand off. I only vaguely remember anything after his hand on my throat. I never fought the tube or even really noticed it. Hopefully if your guy is as good and uses some similar techniche so you don't fight against the tube, it will be super simple and you won't even remember it!!! best of luck