hungry4help

thanks all... i'm still not 100% sure what caused my middle of the night sliming episode. but i am feeling better. since the weekend, i have noticed that i'm much tighter than i've been at any point since my last fill (about a month ago). the odd upshot here is that i'm eating much smaller portions which in turn forces me to be careful about what goes in my gob and what order i put them in! e.g., Protein first, carbs second, Water an hour or so later. since i'm not experiencing any reflux (a symptom of a band slip), i'm not too worried about the weekend episode. am just chalking it up to my band wanting to have a conversation with me.

i just didn't like the taste of unjury or the other bariatric Protein shakes. after a lot of taste testing, i found muscle milk to be both yummy and nutritious. chocolate is my favorite flavor and i usually blend two scoops with about 3/4 Water, 1/2 cup of ice and 1/2 of frozen strawberries or blueberries. that makes about a 8-10 oz frothy shake with 25g of protein. it's become my go to Breakfast if i'm short on time. it also makes for a great after workout shake.

for the past 7 months, i've considered myself lucky. i had one sliming episode right after surgery and then was feeling fine, dropping weight and feeling restricted. then this past weekend, something strange happened. i had a decent dinner -- a few ounces of swordfish, some whole wheat Pasta and string Beans -- at about 7:30p. the portions were a bit larger than normal, but nothing outrageous. i went to sleep around 12:30, still feeling a little full, but not exactly stuffed. then i woke up at 3:30 and felt a tightness in my chest; the kind of tightness that i recognize as my signal for feeling full. i got up, drank a sip of Water and within 10 minutes, i was having a bad sliming episode accompanied by some heaving. it continued off and on throughout the night until about 7:30 when i actually belched a bit and felt something pass. has anyone else ever had a similar experience and slimed so long after eating? have been wondering if this had anything to do with my band or if i just had some food poisoning.

NAME.........................surgery date.....todays date....Lbs lost 1. SpecialK .................3/17/08........9/7/08............53.9 lbs 2. scrappy_friend .........3/17/08........9/4/08............54.0 lbs 3. aJoneen.................. 3/04/08........9/4/08............31.0 lbs 4. WestCoastMom....... 3/27/08........9/4/08............60.0 lbs 5. julietj1970................ 3/03/08........9/4/08............40 lbs 6. SugarBean.............. 3/24/08........9/4/08............88 lbs (30 before surgery) 7. Tess415...................3/10/08........9/4/08............60 lbs (23 before surgery) 8. jegtlf.........................3/24/08........9/5/08............56lbs 9. emmersglue .............3/18/08........9/5/08............48lbs 10. lglenn3000.................3/17/08........9/5/08............28 lbs 11. Busy.........................3/17/08........9/6/08............41 lbs. 12. tp78..........................3/13/08........9/8/08............36 lbs. 13.potatie........................3/27/08........9/11/08...........56lbs 14. TKT2FLY.....................3/17/08........9/14/08...........63lbs 15. MSBoss08....................3/06/08........9/17/08..........64lbs 16. Hazel-Eyes...................3/14/08........9/17/08...........31 lbs 17. hungry4help..............3/3/08...........9/18/08........65lbs (10 before surgery)

nicely handled, juli. i haven't visited in awhile, but glad to be back with all you cool folks. have hit an annoying plateau this past month. have still been exercising regularly and keeping portions to a reasonable size, but i'm losing and gaining the same 3lbs. also, i've been having a strange reaction to comments re: my smaller size. a co-worker was trying to compliment me in the elevator today and i was like, "yeah, i've dropped a few." she kept pressing by saying the difference was noticeable. frankly i just wanted to get off a floor early to avoid her chatter. it's not like i didn't think people would notice, but i guess i just never really thought about what to say to people. eg, at a recent birthday party, several people i hadn't seen in a year mentioned that i looked "so much smaller." my lame-ass response: "yeah, well, we all have our ups and downs." guess i've got some soul searching to do, as well as learning how to take compliments gracefully. hope everyone is well. am so glad to see some movement on this thread.

i'd wait a week or two. personally, it has taken that long for me to feel a fill kick in. i've gone two weeks with barely any restriction and then on day 15, boom: i can barely eat 4-6oz of chicken. the band is indeed a strange mistress. fwiw, i've got a 14cc band too and now have 7ccs in. i was in a sweet spot at 6, but then it disappeared after about 6 weeks. i've got an appt for next week and am hoping for another .5 to 1cc. i've been losing and gaining the same 3lbs for nearly a month. grrr. good luck and check-in with your doctor soon. fyi: here's a really good thread on the 14cc band... http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/does-14cc-band-give-same-restriction-10cc-band-50248/

until recently, my fills have always been problematic due to a tilted port. to clear, it's not flipped, just tilted downward. since the first few fill experiences were so bad, my surgeon finally did the 3rd one under flouro. that confirmed that the port was not flipped, but it didn't really help my doc stick the needle in. in fact, i was in the xray room for nearly an hour with 2 radiologists and my surgeons who all attempted to fill me! here's the strange thing. after several attempts and finally shutting down the x-ray machine, my doc gave it one last try. he pressed deep into my side, had me roll over slightly, raise my left arm (my port's on my left side) and he slipped the needle right into my port's sweet spot. since then, i've had two fills and he's hit my port on his first try each time. i'm not a dr., but i don't think it's necessary for everyone with a tilted port to have revision surgery. fwiw, my advice: try flouro first so that your surgeon can "see" your port. if s/he can get a feel for where it is and record a sense of the degree to which it's tilted, fills might get easier. best of luck.

ouch. sorry you're having trouble with your last fill. sounds like you definitely do need a slight unfill. you shouldn't be vomitting on purees. make sure to stay hydrated and keep your Protein levels up. best of luck.

it's been a struggle to find a palatable Protein shake. so many of them taste like, well, crap. after trying unjury and several brands sold at whole foods, i finally found one i like: muscle milk. i down a glass right after working out. be sure to get the light version (much less sugar). my fave is chocolate (195 cals, 24g of protein, 11g of carbs, 6g fat). i blender it with frozen strawberries and/or blueberries. it's pretty tasty and doesn't have that grittiness of other protein shakes. you can find it online or at GNC. good luck

congrats on having surgery and getting to your first fill. i doubt it will be a painful experience. as you've no doubt read, most fills are pretty uneventful. the doc uses his fingers to feel for your port location and then inserts a needle in the approximate location. it might take a little poking to find your port "sweetspot". it can be a little uncomfortable and if you're at all squeamish or nervous about the pain, you might ask your doc to inject the area with a little lidocaine. it helped me during my first few fills. good luck and don't worry!

hi dr. schulman... i know that insurance companies rarely cover plastic surgeries. but which, if any, have a better history of paying for panniculectomies? also, besides recording instances of rashes, etc., is there anything i can do now to help my case more compelling to an insurance company? thanks in advance for your help.

nicely said, ready. nicely said.

i live on new york city's upper west side, about a block away from h&h bagels -- arguably the best shop in the u.s.! damn, they're good. unfortunately, they're bagels are also huge. up until my last fill (3 months ago), i'd have half a bagel from time to time. was able to eat them without a prob, but i'd be full for for a long, long time. the sensation kinda took the pleasure out of having one. as a former brunch junkie, possibly being relegated to eating lox and cream cheese without a bagel isn't a tasty idea.

thanks juli and az! hope y'all are having a good weekend.

you prolly already know this, but everyone responds differently to fills even if they have the exact same size band filled with the exact same ccs. it's a weird question of anatomy. i've got a 14 and my band was "primed" with 2ccs at surgery. stayed that way until my first fill. 3 or 4 fills later i'm up to 6ccs and feeling restricted. i eat 3 smallish size meals a day and a snack or two. am rarely hungry in between meals and dropping 1-2 pounds a week. is that a sweet spot? feels like it to me! again, everyone is different. if your doc is willing and able, you might want to get your next fill under fluoroscopy. it can help the both of you see exactly how much anatomical restriction you're actually at. i had it done and it really helped me visualize what was going on inside me. there was something about seeing the barium fill up my pouch and trickle thru that made clear to me that most of the hunger i was feeling was prolly in my head and not actually my body saying, "feed me!" good luck. you'll get there.

hey all... hope everyone had a good 4th. i had a blast playing at a lgbt tennis tournament here in nyc. made it to the women's finals and mixed dubs quarters. how butch is that?! sadly, i can barely lift my right arm now. whatev... that's what ibuprofen is for. oops, we're not supposed to do ibu anymore, right? tylenol sux. anyway... post breakup heart is still a little heavy. what can i say, i miss my ex and all that we had. (cue the violins.) still, slowly but surely, i'm getting through it. hope all is well with everyone else. ps, i broke the -50 mark. yipee!

juli... has anyone called you out for being overly gay?! silly straight people! hope everyone is doing well these days. post breakup life is getting better day by day. am looking forward to a great summer. funny how i can endure the heat better now that i'm a little thinner!

great to see everyone doing so well! i'm down nearly 50 since mid february. here's to hoping i'm in onderland by the end of the year.

hi az... why is it that time moves so much more slowly when one is sad?! stupid time. decided to skip out on nyc's coming pride weekend. instead, i'm off to tennis camp in amherst. am hoping my renewed sportiness will get me thru this emotional ruff patch. (sorry to sound so melodramatic. i guess the anonymity of this board is somehow giving me license to be a bit sappy!) anyways, that restricted feeling has dissipated. one day it was there. next day, it just wasn't. wtf? am skedded for another fill on wednesday and may go for a top-up that'll bring me up to 6ccs. am eating more than the one cuppa of food people seem to manage when they're in their sweet spot. since i'm working out, i haven't been too worried about it, but the loss is slowing down and in addition to getting smarter about nutrition, i could really use an assist from my band. hope all is well with you and everyone else here.

hi cosmo... have you seen the wii fit thread in the exercise and fitness folder? if not, there are lots of user reviews there. i tried it out, but decided not to buy it. seemed fun, but was worried the novelty would wear off. but that's just me, it may be the perfect thing for you. annie... re: not telling anyone... i decided not to tell many people; just my ex-gf, my sister and her wife. my reasoning: i didn't want to deal with explaining myself or my decision. and i didn't want to answer questions from friends and family like, how much have you lost? it may just be a rationale, but i wanted to do this for me. now it's simple to make a statement like that, but embedded in it is a whole of psychological drama and turmoil re: "fitting in", being normal looking, why can't i just exercise "self-control?" answering those questions for me is enough work, especially since my responses vary from day-to-day. answering such queries from others could, in reality, amount to a full-time job. there may come a time when i decide to "come out" about my banded status, but that time is not now. good luck with your process.

if you ever do make it to nyc, the moonlight rides are the first friday of the month. folks meet in columbus circle at 10pm and ride around the park's loop (no cars!) at a leisurely pace. total mileage, a very manageable 10 miles. and if you can bike down from ossining or take metronorth (our commuter rail). just go to their website and download a bike permit. (conductors will fine you if you don't have one.)

aww shucks, juli. despite what you may have heard, nyc is a great place to bike. we've got monthly midnight rides around central park to routes up and down the hudson. fi you ever make it out this way, definitely bring your bike!

hi az... thanks for asking and i'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond. i've been away/off line in the past few weeks. post-breakup, i've kept busy with work, tennis and riding my bike. so far so good, but not quite myself yet. sigh. the good news is that i do feel restriction. i'm not quite at my sweet spot, but i have been getting "fuller" faster and am sated for longer. oddly, i didn't really feel the last fill kick-in for nearly two weeks. i do have another fill skedded for next week. if i keep the appt, i'll prolly ask for something like .2 to .5. ah, the mysteries of the band. welcome to all the new people! if anyone's in the nyc area, feel free to drop me a pm. would be nice to meet up with some locals.

hey all... i'm looking for some new pals to ride with in new york. anyone game for central park evening rides or weekend excursions over the gw bridge and into new jersey? if so, please speak up. fyi, i'm no speed demon, but i'm a pretty strong biker. haven't really done more than 30ish mile rides this season. still, i think i'm strong enough to hang off your back wheel from at 15ish mph.

thanks, julie and az... have been visiting this site often in the last few days and it's helped a lot. hope you all are having a good start to the summer.