Jean McMillan

It's a long story, but the short version is that I learned that I have a congenital condition of the esophagus called achalasia that my band was aggravating. In achalasia, the esophagus can't move food down into the stomach and the tissues at the juncture of the esophagus and stomach are thickened, causing a stricture. Left untreated, eventually the esophagus doesn't work at all and the patient can't eat at all. I'll be having some tests to evaluate how severe my achalasia is and hopefully get the stricture dilated (via upper endoscopy) enough that I can go ahead and do a sleeve revision later this year. I hate, hate, hate losing my band, but I'm trying to make the best of the circumstances. I don't want everybody freaking out that the same thing might happen to them. Esophageal problems were listed as a possible complication of band surgery when I signed the release for my surgery in 2007, but my surgeon insists that my band did not cause the achalasia. My brother also has esophageal problems so it seems to run in our family.

To clarify: No, the band doesn't stretch, but as you lose weight, the fat surrounding your internal organs, including your stomach, shrinks, so the band feels looser, as if it had stretched, and you need more fill. But usually as you get more fills, it takes smaller and smaller fills (not bigger ones) to "fine tune" the fit of your band. My fill history went something like this: +1 cc, +1 cc, + .5 cc, + .3 cc, + .2 cc, + .15 cc.

You can also order by clicking on one of my Bandwagon ads here on LBT. The 2 books are Bandwagon (which I call the giant encyclopedia of adjustable gastric band advice) and Bandwagon Cookery (a cookbook - recipes w/ nutritional data, and a lot of info about meal planning & preparation to suit bandsters' needs).

Your story just goes to show that patients need to be their own advocates regarding medical info and care. When I was in the hospital a few weeks ago, waiting to be taken to surgery prep, I started feeling dizzy and sick and called a nurse to ask her to check my blood sugar (since I'd been on a clear liquid diet the day before and had nothing to eat or drink since midnight). The nurse who answered said, "Your blood sugar? Are you diabetic?" Well, yes, isn't it in my patient file? Isn't that kind of important for y'all to know?! I've never heard of someone's surgery getting moved up because of a diabetes diagnosis. Not impossible, but unless you have uncontrolled diabetes with serious complications like neuropathy, vision loss, kidney failure, etc., I don't think anyone's gonna get excited about it. Which is kind of sad when you think about it, but diabetes is getting to be such an epidemic in the US, it seems to be losing its power to frighten people.

I could write a book in response to your post. Wait a minute, I did write a book! But to give you a few quick answers... The best foods to eat: solid food. Liquids, soft foods, and "sliders" (like thin crackers, chips, etc.) give virtually no satiety, plus they can be very high in calories, fat, and sodium. The best protein: SOLID Protein cooked with a moist method (easier to eat without problems). The best veggies to eat that won't get stuck: impossible to list, because it varies so drastically depending on your restriction and on how you prepare them. According to Allergan, common problem foods include very fibrous veggies (like asparagus, celery, cabbage, corn, popcorn) and fruits (avoid citrus membranes, fruit skins & peels). I think there's a list of them on lapband.com. The best exercise: anything you enjoy and will do on a consistent basis. hair loss is unpredictable. I've always had thin hair but didn't lose any and actually it seems thicker and healthier than ever before (better nutrition and Water intake. Hair loss can be related to anesthesia and to inadequate protein intake.

You might want to post this in the Maryland forum: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/forum/1119-maryland/

Kinda makes you wonder if that last fill even made it into your port. Or if the needle hit your tubing and you've got a leak now. My fills have almost always made a difference by the time 2 weeks has gone past. If it were me, I'd call your surgeon and ask to have the fluid level in your band checked (they stick the needle in as if doing a fill, but withdraw the fluid and measure it).

Those a great strategies. I do something similar. I like Protein bars - they're like "legal" candy bars to me - so I don't keep them in the kitchen. To eat one, I have to walk all the way through the house, through a bedroom and a bathroom, to the storage room. By the time I get to the storage room, I've either forgotten what I made the trip for, or I've had enough time to consider whether I really need to eat that protein bar!

I plan a week's dinner menus in advance so I know what to buy at the supermarket and so I don't have to throw together a meal at the last minute. It's nearly impossible for me to make good food choices when I'm starving or rushed.

OK, watch your inbox!

Yumcious?! I love that word!

Some of the recipes are from Bandwagon Cookery. I just edited my original post to add the page numbers in the cookbook, and next time I do a post like this I will use as many recipes from the book as I can.

Being able to eat a wide variety of foods I like is one of the reasons I chose the band, though I'll admit that my tolerance of particular foods has varied over time, and food tolerance requires consistent use of good band eating skills. It also depends on cooking methods (moist is best).

Ah, another dog lover and rescuer! My husband and I run an informal animal shelter. People drop off unwanted kittens and puppies out here in the country all the time, so we have a steady supply of mutts. And I publish a free weekly e-newsletter about our critters (dogs & cats), Dog Days, if you're interested.

The liquid diet is no fun, but thank goodness it's temporary. Generally speaking, Protein shakes keep you going longer than other liquids (because of the protein), so you're less likely to feel light headed, but will probably still have to deal with hunger. I missed chewing so I ate a lot of SF popsicles. Other liquids you could try: bean or other veggy Soup pureed and thinned with enough broth to make it able to pass through a straw (even though you shouldn't use a straw) (add some FF dried milk to increase the protein content) reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup (or other "cream" of soups), made with FF milk, pureed

I know what you mean. When you're just starting out, you're dealing with an overwhelming amount of new information and new experiences. It's hard to keep it all straight at first.

Is that Buster in your avatar? A boxer? I love smushed-face dogs. I had a Buster boy who was a French bulldog, and we now have another Frenchie, a pug, and 8 mutts.

I did measure everything during my weight loss phase. In maintenance mode, I'm less strict about it, but I strongly recommend it because I'm terrible at "eyeballing" a portion. For example, I cut a piece of chicken that I think is 2 ounces, but when I weight it, it's 4 ounces, therefore twice the calories. How much you should eat per sitting depends on your surgeon's guidelines. Some surgeons say eat no more than 1/2 cup, others say 1 cup per meal. How much I can eat of a given food depends on its texture. So I could eat 1-1/2 cups of yogurt, but only 1/2 cup of chicken. Here's an example of portion sizes from the weight loss food plan my dietitian gave me way back when. Breakfast: 1 slice whole grain toast, 1 egg scrambled Snack: 1/2 cup fruit Lunch: 1/4 cup veg, 1/4 cup starch, 1/4 cup protein Snack: 1/2 cup fruit Dinner: same portions as lunch Snack: 1 cup protein shake or 1/2 cup SF pudding

A new member asked for ideas for daily menus, and that reminded me that I used to post a week's worth of dinner menus once a week on another online forum. I'm going to start doing the same thing here (though I can't promise it'll be every single week, due to my work schedule), and I invite everyone else to post their menus on the thread. I eat the same things for Breakfast most days, and lunch is almost always leftovers from the previous day's dinner. Occasionally I have to work nights, so I don't cook dinner on those days (it's "every man for himself" then). Here's a week's worth of dinner menus from my vast archives (saved because I'm writing a cookbook called Menus Made Easy). Some of these are from recipes in my cookbook, Bandwagon Cookery. I noted the page # beside those dishes. SUNDAY Roast chicken w/ lemon & rosemary Baked onions & cranberries p.136 Cooked greens (spinach, kale, turnip) MONDAY Crab cakes w/ lemon sour cream sauce on the side (light sour cream, grated lemon rind, onion powder) p. 278 & p.145 Green Beans - roasted - p.314 Mashed sweet potato TUESDAY Tex-Mex chicken casserole (using leftover roast chicken) Grapefruit & avocado salad w/ cilantro p.188 WEDNESDAY Baked cod w/ a "crust" of crushed pretzels (with more of the lemon sour cream sauce on the side) Asparagus Brown rice THURSDAY Steak - herb marinated - p.259 Grilled potato wedges, summer squash & zucchini (basted with Italian salad dressing) Tomato salad w/ reduced-fat feta cheese - with lemon salad dressing on p.184 FRIDAY Baked tofu w/ spicy peanut sauce p.293 Korean-style cooked spinach p. 313 Barley cooked w/ chicken broth SATURDAY Parmesan polenta topped with spaghetti sauce (with cooked ground turkey or beef in it) Green salad with lots of veggies - with roasted red pepper salad dressing p.187

One other thought - have you asked your surgeon or anyone on his/her staff for a written food plan? Doesn't hurt to ask, you know!

There's a thread pinned to the top of this forum entitled, Share Ideas, What Did You Eat Today? You can get some daily menu ideas from the posts on that thread. I'll start a separate thread here on the Food & Nutrition forum entitled, A Week's Worth of Dinner Menus, and will try to post a new thread with new menus once a week. For general purposes, my typical daily menu is: B: Click vanilla latte protein shake S: skinny latte S: protein bar, or Greek yogurt w/ fruit L: leftovers from the previous night's dinner S: trail mix D: a protein, a non-starchy veg, and a starch S: fruit, or SF pudding

Weekly menus for what? Breakfast, lunch & dinner? Or just dinner? Or what? Does your surgeon or dietitian give you any nutritional guidelines to follow? For example, low carb, no carb, 3 meals a day, with or without snacks, etc. etc. I've got hundreds of menus, but need to narrow down the scope of this or else you'll suffocate under the mountain of info I give you!

Welcome, and congrats on being banded!

Cyndy, it never hurts to put yourself through a band refresher course!

I'm so glad my book and posts have been helpful to you. Writing and publishing all that is part of what keeps ME on the Bandwagon!