Jachut

Lactulose!

I find the style of the bra makes a difference - I always choose a full coverage style - any sort of plunge or half cup and it looks like my boobs are puddles of Water. Cleavage is just not something I have or show anymore, my boobs aren't up to it. Being a C cup, they're easy to find and not make a feature of, and well, there's just some bras that don't suit me.

Surgeons are technicians first and foremost. I'd see a nutritionist if you require dietary advice. Even my colorectal surgeon doesn't give me real advice on how to manage after bowel surgery but has sent me onto a dietician.

I've never had much joy out of dietitians, I really think you have to work out what's best for you yourself, but a little advice doesn't hurt.

How fantastic to have a surgeon who knows not only what it really IS like to have a band but also the highs and lows of weight loss.

I tell you what, I wish I could give my colorectal surgeon a bowel resection, radiation, ileostomy and ileostomy reversal! Maybe he woulndt be so unsympathetic about what its like to live with crappy bowels after all of that!

Thats loose skin! Your skin gets stretched out when you get big, same as when women are pregnanyt and unfortunately it usually doest snap back completely. I was in despair at some stages, but found getting right down to a bmi of under 20 solved the worst of it, once you lose the fat under the skin it sometimes improves.

Well, transient heartburn once in a blue moon probably isn't much to worry about.

I'm having trouble with it at the moment, but I know I"m too tight and I know I have slight pouch dilation.

Ordinarily, I get a little heartburn when I get hungry. I no longer feel hunger pangs, I just get acidy.

It shouldn't be hanging around though, if you're needing medication every day you need to go and see your doc. It is a sign of over tightness and the acid does do damage so it needs to be addressed.

I havent gotten to the point of hating my band and wanting it out, but I've been on the same journey in the past year or so. I've had cancer, been treated band since I got "better" my life has been hell. I'm depressed, anxious, having panic attacks, have been through a hellish menopause, gone back to full time work in a very stressful job. I'm time poor and managing poorly. As a result, my eating has been simply awful. But you know the one thing that overlays all that and really pushes me into freak out territory is seeing my weight rise. It may be dysfunctional but managing my diet and exercise gives me a sense of control and makes all the rest seem not so bad. I don't succeed at it 100% of the time, probably only 50% at the moment, but I feel compelled to keep trying. The fact that my weight has stayed fairly steady is not a credit to my self control and discipline, its a freaking miracle is what it is, but it is the ONE thing I can control to some extent out of all the rest of it and I choose to hang onto that.

You would have to be superhuman for the stress and heartache not to show in the way you care for your body. Don't beat yourself up, you're only human. And try not to hate the band, do what you need to do for now and hopefully it will be there functional for you when you can have the leisure to establish a better relationship with it.

For sure, its just stupid busy around here at the moment - its mid year for school, reports due, and so many extra curricular things on that I haven't been walking in the door till 6, 6.30, three kids to feed, a run or gym to get done, more work at home, a cat that shits in the bath, two other cats and a dog to feed, the house is a mess, I've got a zillion medical appointments for everything from cancer follow up to pelvic floor physiotherapy - you get the picture. At times like this, home delivered food is a godsend. But its not a long term solution.

I get a strong localised pain right by my navel just before I'm about to pb. If I get it, the food's coming up, it never happens without that, but perhaps you are a bit stuck or take too big a bite and that's your symptom?

I've just started LitenEasy which is a home delivered 1200 calorie diet. I'm doing it not to lose weight but just to get back into some good habits. I've been skipping meals eating rubbish, you name it. I can easily eat my way through 1800 calories a day or so, and have been complaining that my band gives me no restriction. I need to eat a fair amount of wholegrain foods - breads and cereals - full of soluble fibre to manage my digestive system after bowel surgery and I have definitely not been doing that.

WELL!! Being fed a balanced diet makes me realise I have PLENTY of restriction. I cant finish 1200 calories worth of bread, Protein, fruits and vegetables. Breakfast is usually Cereal, fruit and toast/spread. I have to break it up, eat some at home and ahve the toast at work. Morning tea is fruit. lunch is something hot or a sandwich or salad, and dinner is protein/veg/carb. I feel like I am eating all day.

I still get the munchies for something sweet and carby in the afternoon, hungry or not. THat's OK, I'm maintaining, I can have a bikkie with my cuppa if I want to. But I need to limit it, once I start on those foods, its hard to stop.

Just goes to show how easy it is to fall into the slider food habit - not necessarily UNhealthy sliders, but too much yogurt, Soup, etc. The foods I choose were making a difference each day in the realm of 500 calories! For me, that's been the difference between maintaining or gaining impercetibly - every couple of months a kilogram appears outta nowhere.

lesson learned!

I'm a few weeks after an unfill now - and I am better, but not completely. I'm stil l requiring Zantac most days, usually towards the evening. I know an unfill is on the cards, there's no use putting it off. I just have to wait till I can get in/have time to go! I've taken so much time off work this year for other health reasons that I have no sick leave left.

There's nothign necessarily wrong abuot a visible port. They are a fairly large unit, well the old style ones anyway, and I had a BMI of under 20, there is no way you WONT see a port on a body that low in fat. Many many people have visible ports and there is nothing wrong with them.

It may not ever become visible if you're more apple shaped and carry more weight round your middle.

I've jsut gone on lite n easy, because I feel like rubbish, I have to see a dietician in a few weeks to try to get my bowels in order and I want to be able to say hand on heart that I have been eating well - I am now totally laxative dependent because the pouch the colorectal surgeon created for me when I lost my rectum will not empty - a combination of physical size/position, pelvic floor dysfunction and poor stool formation. The lapband has definitely made me lazy - cant be bothered eating the foods I know I need - the whoelgrain breads, cereals anything like that that's full of soluble fibre to give bulk to what comes out.

Everyone in my family has freaked - I dont need to lose weight, i have an eating disorder, what am I doing this for?They dont get it. Its three healthy meals a day, full of the foods I need, it will get me eating regularly, particularly lunch, and with a skinny latte and maybe a bikkie or two or a yogurtthrown in for good measure, it'll be 1400 calories or so a day - MAINTENANCE, not weight loss! I wont lose weight on this and am not intending to. Yet to "normal" people, its diet rations, to me it looks like a banquet! I have o split the meals - just had my muesli and fruit and will have the toast when I get to work! That's how much less we eat than normal people.I can remember doing this pre banding and had eaten all the food in three days, lol.

It seems there is a real problem after a certain point where the restriction wears off but further fills then cause reflux. It would be good if someone could come up with the answer as to why.

I have only had 1 episode of reflux since my partial unfill months ago but I swear at the time I was not tight and would actually have liked more restriction. Now I am just desperate for any restriction. I want my band to work the way it did initially , without me thinking about it. Now I have to struggle not to spend the day snacking and am constantly pondering what diet I should start to get rid of the 3kg I have gained.

The scary thing is that it seems that some of the previous veteran bandsters encountered the same problem and ended up having revisions. At the time when it was happening and I was new I didn't want to believe what they were saying and was hopeful that it was just a fluke, yet more and more people seem to be encountering the same thing.

The problem with revising to a sleeve though is that i believe the long term success is still not known. How many people have had a sleeve for 3 years or more and what is their success rate?

The sooner they invent that wand the better.

haha, yes! A magic wand is just what I need. I too never listened to the naysayers who warned the honeymoon would end. And to be totally honest, a lot of it is ME. The band is there, it does give restriction but my behaviours have overridden it a lot of the time. Unfilling really derailed me, and although my band has never been the same, neither have I. And I truly believe that the treatment and resulting menopause has played havoc with my metabolism, those sugar cravings came outta nowhere, and were SO strong. I lived on nothing but coffee and biscuits for the last part of 2011, until I went onto HRT and testosterone. That's when I regained all the lost "sick weight". Since then, I have struggled.

The trouble is, people think after eight years banded and five years at a BMI below 21 that you're 'cured'. All of my specialists (not my lapband doc) have expressed the belief that I shoudlnt need it anymore. So have my family and friends. What they dont get is that my body has lived on 1500 calories or less a day for the last seven years. I cannot EVER eat what I shoudl be able to eat. With the help of the band, i have starved my body into a depressed metabolic state - that is what we are all doing and why weight loss is rarely permanent without weight loss surgery. It is insane that I can weigh 145lb by eating so little and exercising so much, i should be emaciated and skeletal. I eat way less than everyone I know. Life has to be a diet for EVER more to keep this weight away.

I would not hesitate, not even for a second, to have a new band or revise to a different surgery - although my clinic does bands and bands only. That does not mean I could not go somewhere else, it would just cost me a lot as I am entitled to revision surgery with no out of pocket cost where I am. I dont regret the band for a second either. Afterall, hard as the last year or two have been, I'm still only 65kg. I have not regained weight and am close to the bottom of my healthy weight range. It just used to be so easy. But it would be way harder without my (not so well functioning) band. So I guess we struggle on and accept we were put on this earth with bodies that want to be cuddly and it is just our lot to work hard to be the way we want. I dont really know many people that can absolutely eat what they want and not exercise and stay thin into middle and old age.

The ones I actually envy are my myriad of friends who are fat and happy, live the way they want, dont beat themselves up over their weight, see it as normal. yes, they are prone to certain health problems, but I have seriously created a mental monster for myself over this. I cant tolerate a 2lb weight gain without feeling disgusting,fat, disappointed in myself. I restrict my eating every single day, i exercise like a fiend, its a pretty hard job. In a lot of ways I wish I just didnt care. But I would even choose to live with heartburn than be fat again. Sad but true.

Its not a huge op, ou will recover vry fast. Iwas independnt within a day or two br lifting. I had mine on a Friday and my hubby bever missed a day of work. I had little kids too bu i was truly no big deal.

That last bit of weight is really hard to lose, it really does require counting lories or putting ypurself on a plan, and getting an hour of cardio per day

I set my goal for low in my healthy weight range. Realistically at five foot ten id been 170 to 180 for years and knew that was still chunky although healthy enough. I wanted fadhionably thin, I did not ave WLS to get less than spectacular results. Somewhere betwee 135 and 145 is right for me, although the lower end of that is hard to maontain. Im at 145 right now and very aware that Im heavy at the moment.

Yes, Im a perfectionist. Makes life hard sometimes.

None. I'm shocking. I hate taking pills. I know I need to. There's no adult chewables on the market here, so I've been meaning to order bariatric ones on line for absolutely ages and I just don't get around to it.

Nonsense. Its merely coincidence. A proportion of people banded ARE going to develop cancer, I probably HAD cancer when I was banded. I was diagnosed five years after banding with rectal cancer. Its a slow growing cancer and it was very advanced in me. In hindsight I'd had symptoms since very soon after my banding.

My mind did wander onto the topic of whether or not the band was a causative factor. But like I said, I probably already had it. However, the reduced food intake, slower intestinal transit, lower fibre diet and lower intake of fruit and veg and nutrients in general could definitely play a part. My diet is not adequate and I know it. I don't and can't get the two fruit, five veg, 30 grams of fibre in a day that I need. I don't eat a lot of whole grains (a known cancer preventative) because I don't really eat bread or cereals in any quantity. I struggle constantly with anaemia. So yes, my diet could predispose me to cancer.

But in reality, what was most likely responsible was the years of poor diet and obesity that came before that. My diet no longer contains the large quantities of saturated fat and sugar. I don't eat known carcinogenic foods like salami, ham and processed turkey and chicken. I'm fit and active and not overweight.

And knowing what I know of my family history now, it was always likely for me, band or no.

Ditto, I really only ever drink wine - usually white. I like red but it turns my teeth a very fetching shade of grey, so I rarely drink it in public.

And when I want to keep the calories down, its half white wine, half soda Water. One or two drinks, sipped slowly.

I reckon by and large, its better to just give up mixed drinks and cocktails altogether. Vodka's OK but in general, they're just horrific calories and sugar. And of course you have the carbonation problem.

Mine looked truly freaky, and at a BMI of 20, I dint have to lay down, it stuck out when I was standing up too. It looked like a walnut under my skin.

I had a Tummy Tuck and ventral/inguinal hernia repair ten weeks ago during which my PS moved my port to right by my navel and took the back off it to reduce the profile (there's no low profile port for my 7 year old 4cc band). Its now virtually invisible, even at my low weight. Its very flat, but he also put it right by my navel where you have a natural fat pad, not up and to the side in that hollow we all have outside of our rectus muscles.

I was lucky to have this without getting a new scar (well, I got a tummy tuck scar, but you know what I mean). But I would say a scar is well worth the better look of no lumpy port.

Mine has never been the same since a complete unfill. I never got the same restriction but now I have slight pouch dilation and constant heartburn.

I'm 5ft 10 and 140lb and I feel fat most days. That's because I was 130lb when I was sick and I beat myself up for regaining that weight. I mean, I had cancer, looked like a skeleton and have returned to a healthy weight and I beat myself up for it? Sheesh.

I see fat thighs and a fat bum when I look in the mirror, and they ARE flabby. A Tummy Tuck hasnt improved my self esteem one iota - I didnt have a bad stomach in the first place and had the tuck to fix a ventral hernia, but I am STILL dissatisfied. I cant fit into my really skinny clothes.

I have seen a psychologist for this problem for a while, but truthfully, I dont really think psychology is all that useful a tool for some people. I got nothing out of it. It doesnt help me to "talk" about it and have it gently suggested that my thinking is faulty. I already know that. I really just accept that I will never be happy with myself and I will always have that inner voice suggesting I could do better, be better etc. My best bet is to try to ignore it as much as possible and recognise when it is getting out of control. The truth is, when my eating and exercise behaviour is faultless, I can accept my imperfections. When I know that I'm not doing the most I coudl for myself, then they magnify. So the solution is simple. Eat right, and exercise and know that I've done all I can to be the best I can be, and live with whatever that is.

You have your reasons i know but thats a very processed diet, and you cant "offset" the salt intke with Water.

I'm there, I just havent admitted it to myself fully. My problems began after an unfill for surgery. It was never the same, although trouble free, I just had little restriction. Finally my doctor gave me a big fill (which worked) and sent me off for a barium swallow. This showed a slight dilation of the pouch but he wasnt concerned because I was symptom free. Well within weeks the heartburn started. I had a small unfill two weeks ago, but it hasnt helped, I need more out. I just want to lose some weigh first! I havent gained serious weight but I'm at the top of my wriggle room and I just dont want to unfill without the scope to bounce around a little. I know this is faulty thinking, but I'm giving myself four weeks - i have to go and see a dietician then anyway about my bowel issues, so its kind of a cut off in my head. Symptoms are merely heartburn - no reflux, no night coughing, no vomiting, so I can afford to wait and just take a Zantac most days.

I am also really pulling myself up by the bootstraps foodwise. Eating 1200 a day in three sensible meals and a snack. And I feel loads better for it. I really had allowed the whole chemotherapy, menopause, depression thing to take hold and I was eating junk and loads of it - slider stuff, but junk nonetheless - and it has been playing havoc with both my stomach and my bowels. Just three days already has me feeling loads better.

I will feel confident to unfill completely as I've done it before and not gained - but I just want to lose 10lb. I think its safe enough to wait a few weeks in my case. I would not be in the least surprised to find that that last big fill gave the final push to a small slip. And its been so long since my band truly "worked" that I would almost welcome revision surgery just to have that effortless, hungerless sensible eating going on again. The last eighteen months has been a huge struggle, I'm amazed I have not gained weight.