Jachut

given the smaller size of our cities downunder, the bandster community tends to not be as online as you see here, and Melbourne bandsters and such do meet. I've not been really involved in groups, but I have been to several big meet ups. There's loads of people around in Australia who have been banded well over 5 years, since they've been doing it here for longer than in the States. And the small snippet of people I've met in real life are not representative of bandsters in TOTAL anymore than the members of a forum such as this are. You hear of so so many problems here because people who HAVE problems are the ones most likely to log on asking for help. there's a gazillion bandsters on there that dont get involved in online communities. So you get a skewed picture here. What I have seen represented in real life is that the bandster who loses 100% of excess weight is not the norm, most improve their health (and looks) considerably but dont get all their weight off. However, every second person is not barfing up every meal, sitting up all night with reflux or having terrible complications. Most of the people in real life are just like me - had their bands in, lost weight, got on with life with the occasional stuck episode and that's it. Longer than 10 years, well, who knows? There's few stats anywhere on that and band design has improved enormously, i doubt there's many people around with non adjustable bands in! But yeah, you dont remove it. To do so usually results in significant weight regain. Once your body has been fat, it seems it is goign to fight to stay that way. Bands are essential for maintenance. Same as you dont reverse sleeves or GBP's. That said, there is every likelihood that your band will wear out or fail in some way - most likely the balloon. You've really got to be realistic about having to replace it at some point - my doc conservatively "guesses" 20 years, but is quite upfront about the fact that its probably the balloon part that will wear out. I guess you have to decide if that worries you. I mean I plan to live long enough thanks to my band and my healthy lifestyle that there's every likelihood that my knees or my hips will give out and I'm not removing those just to be on the safe side!

Personally, not being a night time eater, I'd have shaake for breakfast , a good lunch at about 400 calories, an afternoon snack and another shake and a big bowl of steamed vegies for dinner. I couldnt ever ever ever ever ever get through the day on 2 shakes. I tried it for a few days and ended up passing out. I dont think starving all day and eating a whole 800 calories at night time is in any way sane or sensible for weight loss and I'd be very surprised if that's really what the doctor intends. 800 calories for dinner is very ample, you could eat a moderate serve of almost anything and stay within that boundary. I'd definitely think about eating a bit of it during the day.

some people like to approach banded life with a set of rules and a ban on alcohol because of the empty calories often tops that list. But a band is a tool to help you manage a lifestyle change that will see you reach a normal weight. And within that, I personally believe, there is room to be a normal person once in a while. You've got to face facts - if you go out and have 3 or 4 drinks four times a week, that's going to affect or negate your weight loss. Alchohol IS empty calories and you cant down too many empty calories. However, going out for a drink once or twice a week if you stick to 2 or 3 drinks and dont do the usual burger/hotdog/kebab thing at 2 am need not really be ap problem for a young person who is otherwise active and healthy in their habits. Decide before you go how you're going to tackle it, some occasions are honesty not worth wasting the alcohol calories on - others, like dinner with the in-laws, you need all the help you can get! One thing that really struck me in my decision making though was the fear of having to change habits like this. I love my cup of coffee, packet of Cookies and a good book sit ins on the couch. It was my relaxation time. I really feared what life would be like without it. then it hit me like a bolt from the blue - IF I WANTED TO BE THIN, I COULDNT EAT LIKE THAT ANYMORE, EVER AGAIN, BAND OR NO BAND. It wasnt the band I was afraid of, it was changing the habit. D'oh! So obvious. But so true. Likewise with social drinking. The band doesnt make you stop that. But if you ever want to get thin and stay that way, something must change, no?

Yes, that's right, the band isnt meant to be removed - you dont take it out unless something is wrong. Its mainly silicone - which is inert in the body, and should last forever, and the metal bits are titanium.

Dont panic, its most likely your stomach is swollen, sore and irritated from the vomiting (even though nothing came up). Do liquids to mushies over a course of a few days, just worry about getting some nutrients in in whatever form they will go down - warm liquids to start with. If you're not feeling better within a few days, then perhaps you might require an unfill for a while to let things settle. Its not impossible for the band to slip from an episode of vomiting, but its not a given either, its not common and most often, the band, as long as it has healed into place for a reasonable period of time, will remain exactly as it supposed to. And also, slippage symptoms tend to be a lot worse than what you're describing. But do contact your surgeon if the irritation doesnt settle, as an unfill for a while will most likely help a lot.

At the end of the day, no matter what sort of diet you follow, its the calories that matter. I never needed to go that low, so I didnt find it necessary to truly count, but I always eat with a mind on calories - for example, most low carb foods (part from vegies) are quite calorie dense - things like meat, cheese, dairy. So I tend to fill up more on carb foods like wholegrains - becuase the air and fibre in them means I eat way less calories overall. But there's no magic in that, whether you low carb it or not at the end of the day, its just calories.

Its so different here in Australia that I'd hesitate to give advice, because you guys get denied for all sorts of reasons that we dont face, for starters hardly anybody would do a bypass or switch here! It hasnt been done for years, lapband is the norm for anyone wanting weight loss surgery, so you wont find surgeons pushing you into other surgeries. And we dont have all the dicking around with insurance either. But I'd suggest being clear on the reasons why you want the band and firm about the fact that you understand the work that is involved with a restrictive weight loss surgery (band OR sleeve) - that you know that diet and exercise choices made by you are a big part of the success. Good luck!

I dont know that many bandsters personally in real life, I have a group of about 20 that I've met with on a few occasions, not for at least 2 years. But last time, there were four women in the group that had had bands done in the 90' and early '00's, so about five to seven years at that stage. My doctor is quite up front about the fact that the band probably WONT last forever. You can expect to have to replace it at some stage because it is an item in your body that can break - its designed to last forever but its highly likely that the balloon will wear out -another reason not to muck around overly with your fill or have your band too tight. I figure when mine goes, then I will look at the options available at the time. Personally, for me, I'd have another band as its worked so well for me. But who knows what'll be around?

Its quite obvious if you're looking for it, I do have a visible lump on my stomach. I wear a bikini nonetheless, it doesnt bother me and it doesnt REALLY stick out unless I stretch out - the small amounts of flubber left on my tummy disguise it. it doesnt show under any clothing at all.

Anything really. I can just about guarantee that when I sit and think "hmmm, what do I want for breakfast" my appetite will steer me to the easier food. It may not be ice cream but it might be yogurt, or a particular Cereal I find easier to eat and the thought of an egg on toast makes me think "nah, dont feel like that". I guarantee the egg on toast will sit with me longer, give me more energy and end up with me eating less overall during the day. But I want the slider food - the one that is easy to eat and doesnt take much concentration or effort. Its the biggest challenge of banding for me.

Well, its up to you. You dont sound OVERfilled, just like its a bit hard getting used to the new level of restriction. But restriction is personal and you dont have to have any more than you are comfortable with.

I dont have a night time hunger problem, and never was a night time eater BUT I do struggle for time to cook. I make a habit of cooking on the weekend and freezing, or getting things into the slow cooker during the day so that its ready and all I have to do is serve and eat (or heat, serve and eat). I do big batches of steamed vegies - enough for 2 or 3 days so I dont even have to bother preparing vegetables. I make and freeze mashed potato in batches too. It really does help if your dinner is ready to go when you walk in the door. Since we ALWAYS have meals in the freezer, we tend to eat very well as a family at night time.

At 5ft 10, with a BMI of 36 I was in a similar position. It worked really well for me, there's a lot of credible evidence around to say that if you're a lower BMI patient, chances are the band will work better for you than if you are heavier. In real terms this means you have more chance of losing 100% of your excess weight instead of the 50 to 70% statistic often quoted. I have turned into an exercise junkie - I'm sorry to say it but I think if you're going to lose ALL of your weight and keep it off, then you need to learn to love a daily dose of cardio at the very least. If not, you lose weight, sure but you probably wont lose it all. No, you cant feel the band. Not unless you eat too fast, too much or something that doesnt agree with you. That's the major downside of the band, food can get stuck and you'll need to bring it up again. Its not like vomiting, its quite different, it just comes up without nausea or stomach acid and is usually small in amount, but it is quite uncomfortable and you can salivate profusely before it occurs. Not somethign you want to do in public, so you do learn to eat very slowly and carefully. Bands require regular maintenence - you need fills on a regular basis and sometimes, it really doesnt do much for you until you've had several fills. I was lucky, I began losing weight right away. Weight loss tends to be fairly slow and steady with the band, rather than spectacularly fast, but that's good - it means you're losing fat, not muscle.

Whilst I said I probably wouldnt choose a band if I lived in America, there's some advanges. One thing to consider is that I find I do have to eat about 2000 calories a day to fuel my average daily activities and maintain my weight. I love to run, so I burn a lot of energy. I am thankful for my ability to manage my restriction to the level I require, because I know how poorly I feel when I dont eat enough and PARTICULARLY when I dont eat carbs like bread and Cereal. I really dont know how I'd go with something that was non adjustable - if a sleeve restricted me to half cup sizes etc, I think I'd need to eat 20 times a day. At least with a band you can alter how much you can handle at one time. Another thing I found today: Sleeve Gastrectomy Melbourne, Tube Gastrectomy Obesity Weight Loss Surgery Australia 40 to 60% of your excess weight in a year? Sounds about comparable to a band to me. And it also sounds as if its the same story as with a band - the more obese you are, the less likely you are to lose all your weight from it. So if you have to go back to have the malabsorptive process done to lose ALL your weight - are you happy to do that? Long term outcomes arent really known because the sleeve is relatively new. But we DO know you can live a long and healthy life with less of your stomach than you were born with, so I wouldnt consider the issue of losing half your stomach too much of a bother. Its more to do with how much of that weight will stay off, how much stretching really occurs (like the band and its complications, how much truth are the medical professionals really telling us about how sleeved stomachs dont stretch?) and what do you do if you regain and dont have anything left to work with? I'm glad its not me making the decision, sleeves werent an option at all 4 years ago, so I have a band. I really dont know which way I'd swing these days.

I was so worried about these same things. And you know, I believe once an emotional/over/compulsive eater, whatever applies, you always will be. The band doesnt make that go away. But obesity doesnt result from truly awful eating behaviour all the time, it results from slight imbalances in energy intake that go on for years at a time. And likewise, weight loss does not result from utterly perfect dieting behaviour for the rest of your life. It results from slightly changing that energy balance to the negative side and maintaining that for years. With a band you can do that. Will you eat poorly again in the future? Yes. But the band gives you an awfully big kick in the behind, a big shot of determination to make it work. It helps you get back on track when you fall off the wagon and most of all, your blow outs will be minor compared to what they are now. You may like to down a cheeseburger, fries and a large coke, but you simply wont be able to anymore. You will feel equally as guilty for having eaten a small fries! And if you can get the exercise going, which no surgery can EVER make you do, that you have to do yourself, that really really helps you to get good results. I'm the same person I was before banding in many ways, I tend to eat in the same situations, I have the same problem foods, etc. But the balance has changed enough to cause me to loose weight, I've gained confidence in my ability to manage my weight. Most of all, since I gave up dieting forever and allowed myself to eat what I want when I want it, confident that the band would keep me in control, my vicious cravings for certain food have pretty much gone away. Why eat an entire packet of Cookies when you know you can have one any old time you want anyway? And I discovered a real passion for running, and now a real love for being super fit that keeps me on the straight and narrow. So really, its just the end result of a thousand little steps. There's no transforming yourself into a perfect person, no need to.

I'm not being facaetious - I truly cannot understand how anyone could consider a fill in any way painful enough to require numbing beforehand. Its not even like an ordinary injection -which generally hurts a bit because they're pushing something thick like penicillin into your muscle tissue. With a fill, the Fluid goes into your port, so all you get is a tiny prick as the needle enters the skin. It doesnt hurt in the least. But - my port is very visible, completely straight and easily accessed. I dont know that I'd want to be poked at 100 times trying to get the needle in.

Lap bands *can* be complication free but I have to say if I lived in America and had to cope with your health system, I dont think its what I would choose. Because a band does need constant maintenance and a good relationship with your doctor - if you're flying in and out to see a doctor, paying $800 for a fill or whatever and thus having a big aggressive fill under fluoro to try to get to a sweet spot in one go, then I think its much more likely to be problematic from the start. Good fill procedure is a series of tiny fills to sneak up on restriction and that's only easy to do if you can drive a suburb or two to your doc every couple of weeks and pay nothing for it. But I wouldnt touch a malabsorptive procedure with a barge pole. The sleeve really is looking like a good option. I'd do some research on it. I think bands are great and when they work they work really well, but they dont suit everyone.

Yeah, I just had a glass of apple juice and it came back up. I really struggle with juice, which I dont drink regularly anyway, but I dont get why it wont go down when cold Water will. I also struggle a lot with yogurt, it takes me hours to eat a yogurt. And weird though it is, I too can eat any shaped Pasta but spaghetti! Also ice berg or cos lettuce is fine, but forget about those gourmet salad mixes. As for drinking with meals, well I found it made no difference to me for the longest time, it didnt stop me feeling full, it didnt make me able to eat more and I didnt have any trouble losing weight. But eventually, you get to a point of restriction where you CANT do it - apart from maybe a couple of tiny sips of wine or whatever. As for eating meat, I've had no trouble. I dont need to moisten my mouth to eat it but I dont cook it in ways that dry it out either.

Sorry, I've never had to "make myself throw up" either. I wouldnt know how to do it, lol. If I'm sick enough to vomit, I panic, I cry about it and behave like a complete baby, but eventually I vomit. If I'm not that sick it doesnt happen. And I would always do everything I possibly could to avoid it. I dont know why I'm so afraid of it. Its never as bad when it happens as I think its going to be. But it hasnt happened to me with a band. My digestive tract is one way too RM.

Sorry, but no. I too would love to always feel like I did for that eight or so weeks post surgery - never ever hungry, not even vaguely interested. But that went away and has never come back. I get normal hungry now, meaning, if I havent eaten for a few hours, especially if I've burned a lot of energy (like been for a run) then I get hungry. So ah, I eat something! That's what you need to learn - how to get hungry appropriately and respond appropriately. Killing your hunger forever, well, I dont really get the point in that. So really, I'm kidding when I say I'd want to be like that forever. There's a lot of pleasure to be had from food and eating and the whole social thing around it, and I dont get what's wrong with that, we just have to learn how to manage it! If you were seriously never interested in food, how would you like to have to force somethign down your throat at least 3 times a day for the rest of your life? If I have to eat, I want to enjoy it. So to me, a sweet spot is a level where the amount you can eat is enough to nourish you but little enough to cause weight loss and you're not constantly bothered by hunger, you basically make it from meal to meal or meal to snack to meal without food consuming every waking moment. But never hungry? No.

DH discovered this about two years ago. Here in Australia, our sun is VERY strong and skin cancer is our biggest national health concern. Most Australians will have experience of some kind of cancerous skin changes within their lifetime. So we slip slop slap (shirt, sunscreen, hat) and avoid the sun at all costs, unless like me you're simply too vain to resist in the summer time. DH being of English heritage with the peaches and cream complexion to match, lol, avoids sun like the plague. He also works in an office from about 7.30 am to 6.30 pm every day and doesnt pursue that many active outdoor pursuits except when he's on holidays. When he does venture out, its 30+ all over. Whereas I would only apply the 30+ if I were going to be out all day, like at the beach. He developed a Vitamin D deficiency purely from lack of exposure to the sunlight. He got outside, its just he was covered head to foot in sunblock and clothing. He went on a short course of supplements - during which time his mood picked up noticeably - he had been suffering from mild anxiety and depression and all the non specific yet very real back pain he'd been having disappeared. Since then he does make sure to get 10 or 15 minutes outside at lunchtime and more on the weekend WITHOUT sunblock and he's never had a problem again.

Yeah, but that's the benefit of teeny tiny pictures, lol! I dont "need" surgery. I also dont look quite as great as that photo would indicate. I'm a bit flabby, and I still have cellulite on the backs of my thighs. I do look like a 41 year old woman who's had a couple of babies. But I'm certainly not complaining, my skin issues are very minor and I try not to let them get to me. The only thing I would consider is if I ever manage to have a spare 10 grand, I will get my boobs done, they're poor sad empty sacks.

I have this problem too. I now see a basically slim person, although its taken 18 months at goal to see it and its taken over 3 years to forget the fat me. However, I have just as many dissatisfactions with my figure as I did before. My boobs sag, my stomach doesnt look like a 20 year old's, and the sad fact is, I will NEVER have anything other than a saggy old backside. I could not BE fitter or in better shape than I am and I still dont look how I expected to in my imagination. But overall, I do have a fairly healthy self image, so it really doesnt bother me alot, certainly not enough to start slicing and dicing myself in the Quest to empty my wallet and tighten up bits of me. But I dont know how to not be on a diet!! Its been the hardest thing of all. I havent been able to ditch the quest of always wanting to lose a few pounds. I dont know how to just be the weight I am and stop this from being one of my main goals in life. I cant really accept that I'm fine as I am because then what am I going to focus on?

I doubt it will affect the band, its the hiatus hernias that cause problems. I have something similar, I have small hernias at each end of my ceasar scar - I had NO idea I had them till I lost weight, now it almost looks like I have testicles, lol. I was really alarmed one day when I pushed one and it squelched. So lovely to know your bowel is showing!

It totally depends. Sometimes you can eat a bite of something and think "ooh, that doesnt feel right" and up comes that bite after maybe a little sliming. I woudlnt want to continue eating, that's generally the end of a meal for me, but I'd eat normally next time I ate. Others however, its only happened to me twice now, but they can involve several hours of time and seven or eight vomiting episodes - a few weeks back by the end of it, I definitely had bile and stomach acid coming into it, it was vomiting and it hurt and was awful. I went on liquids for over 24 hours after that one- I had a fill three days before my period, lol, talk about TIGHT. I could eat and drink but not the way I'd eaten and drunk before the fill, as I found out.