JRFAN88

I had surgery 2 days ago. I thought I was tough but the pain on my left side is bad. Right after the surgery I was hurting. They gave me pain meds at the surgery center & I couldn't tell it did a thing. The pain medicine I have at home works much better but mainly because it knocks me out. The worst pain comes when I try to get up or sit back down. It feels like I am just going to rip something out. It's around the port area. I also had a hiatel hernia repaired while they were in there so I'm thinking maybe that could be contributing a little to the pain. I feel like a wimp after reading how well some people are doing. I had 2 kids with no epidurals & I didn't hurt near this much. I don't want to scare anybody off but it's also scary if your the one in pain & all your reading are the positive stories. I'm taking the gas-x strips cause I'm not sure if this pain is gas but just in case. My main reason for posting is because I want to know if anyone here knows if it is ok to use a heating pad or an ice pack on the port area. The area is swollen. Also I am following the advice I've read on here about walking. Every time I get up I walk from one end of my house to the other about a dozen times. Thanks in advance for your help.

I've really missed this thread too. I only get on here now when I get a notification that someone has posted something new. It is hard to believe this May will have been 3 years since I had my lapband. I'm only down maybe 25 pounds from when I had surgery. At my lowest I was down 55 or 60 pounds but I gained it back. I had a slip that fixed itself with an unfill. My story is a lot like tpagern's. Everytime I get a good fill & I'm losing weight, it gets to where I can't keep anything down & I have to get an unfill. Then I gain the weight back. I know this can't be good for my body to keep gaining & losing the same weight. What I just read about lo2us's allergy problems makes me wonder if that could be part of my problem too. It seems like the older I get that allergies are more of a problem for me. Thanks for posting! Maybe others will get on here & give us an update.

I'm kind of confused about why your doctor would have given you a fill in the first place when he said you had slipped. When my band slipped last summer, I was throwing everything up, I definitely didn't need a fill. They had to send me to the hospital to do a swallow test to verify the slip. Then after verifying there was a slipped band, they removed all my fluid. I quickly gained weight but my band went back into position on its on. There was nothing else required to fix it. It doesn't work on every slip, but mine was just a "minor" slip & removing the fluid was all it took. Just wondering if your doctor has tried that?

Gotta agree with the last poster in that I haven't liked Koli's attitude the last couple of weeks. I had really liked him up until then. So we voted to keep Darius. And on another note.... I'm so excited that the new Jillian show starts the week following Biggest Loser's finale! I hope it's good.

This week's show was one of the best this season, in my opinion. I agree with what other's have said about being glad that Sunshine's daddy went home. I was kind of sick of their relationship. Maybe with him gone, she will grow up a little. I also am glad that Michael & Darious made it to makeover week. I can't wait to see what they look like afterwards.

I really think somehow it had to be rigged for Melissa to come back. They wanted her back for the Drama effect. I watch the show for the weight loss, not the drama, so I was not happy about her coming back. Her facial expressions have almost been as bad as Tracy's. Almost as bad, but not quite as bad. And I wasn't sure what to think of the other drama this week with what's-her-name, where they say she had set up the weigh in before. I hadn't noticed any of that going on. I had really liked her, just thought she was more of a loner than some of the others. I think in these reality shows it pays to make friends.

Me too. I told my husband on the first night that I hoped he stayed long enough to make it to the makeover night cause he SURE needs it!

I think 4 cc from the beginning is definitely the difference. I had 2 cc & once the initial swelling went down after about 2 weeks out, I was starving. You may or may not neet a fill in 2.5 weeks. You may still be just right or you could even loosen up or tighten up somewhat by then. You'll just have to tell your doctor how you are feeling at that time. Good luck! It sounds like it is going great for you so far.

Lol..... But Jillian plays the bad guy role so well.... I love it... I would rather have her as my trainer. I love Bob too. Some people would work better under his style. I would need to have that fear that if I were underachieving that Jillian would go off on me too. I guess part of it is that I'm a "nice" girl, have always been and will probably always be. I am jealous of Jillian & ones like her that can go off on anybody. Lol...

I just got the GoWearFit this week which is supposed to be about the same thing as the BodyBugg. I do sleep with mine on because one of my reasons for getting it was to see how much sleep I'm getting. I'm supposed to be sleeping with a CPap machine for sleep apnea. I'm wondering if mine is overestimating my calories burned & my steps taken. This is my 3rd day with it. I have done no "exercise" yet just my daily job & home. I do take a lot of steps at work but it's been showing that I've taken nearly 5000 a day, hard to believe. I keep track of my calories with an app on my Droid phone. Then at night I just put my daily calories into the Activity Manager on the website.

My doctors advise that once you throw up to go on liquids for 24 hours. My problem that I was talking about was once I get tight, I can't keep anything down, even liquids. If you can get liquids to stay down I would definitely just try that before getting fluid removed. Mine has always been so bad that it requires an unfill. It doesn't get better on its on, only worse.

Welcome to my world... Lol... That has happened to me over the course of my LAP-BAND®. Everytime that I think I've finally arrived at the sweet spot & start finally losing weight, I get so tight that not even Water will go down & stay. I get dehydrated & have to go for an unfill. Then I'm right back where I was, not having enough restriction, gain back some weight & start the process over. It usually happens right at 6 weeks out for me. Sometimes I think it's my time of month that tightens me up, sometimes I think it's stress, & sometimes I just don't know. Once when it tightened up I was having night-time reflux & coughing my band slipped slightly. They removed all the Fluid that time & I put back on a lot of weight until I reached the sweet spot again. (My band went back into place on its on simply by removing the fluid). 6 weeks later I was in the ER getting fluid removed. Now I'm gaining weight again. My docs only fill every 6 weeks so I go too long without the help of my band. I said all that to say, yes, it can tighten up 2 months after a fill. You need to call or go see your doctor to see if a slight unfill will help. Keep us posted. I wish somebody could tell me how to stop it from happening.

I have always done my regular workout on fill days, including weights. My trainer, however, wouldn't allow any crunches. Not that I thought it would bother me. She was just afraid to mess anything up.

I'm one of the very slow losers you are referring to. At my 1 year bandiversary I had lost probably 40 pounds. 10 of that was on the pre-diet & 10 in the week following surgery. So leaving only about 20 over the course of the next year. I have yo-yo dieted since I was about 14. I've always been able to lose the first 20 very quickly. But then when I fall off the wagon I can gain 20 back in a week. My problems have not been because I haven't seen my doctor. I have went every 6 to 7 weeks as they have recommended since I was banded. I've never missed. I have only missed 1 monthly support group meeting since a couple of months before I was banded. I have also followed "the rules" of the LAP-BAND®. My problem has not been that I haven't exercised. I walked almost daily the first 6 months or so. Then I hired a personal trainer & worked out 4 days a week with her along with my walking for the past 10 months. My doctors are conservative with fills. They believe filling you too much at a time can cause spasms. So it took several months to get to my sweet spot. Everytime I have got to that spot & I think, oh, this is the way it's meant to be.... then WHAM I all of a sudden I tighten up. Not just so much that I can't eat solids but also that I can't keep any liquids down. Dehydration is a bitch! I've tried to tough it out but after a few days your whole body hurts, you are very grumpy, you can't function, you feel like you're going to die. This is the point that I have to go get some unfilled. Then I immediately feel alive again. I can eat & drink. But then I have no restriction. Back to square one. Gain weight back. Gradually start getting fills again. Last summer I got my usual tightness moment. This time it was manageable but it was accompanied by a night-time cough & reflux. Then it got to where I was throwing everything up & found out my band had slipped. Luckily it went back into place on its own after removing all Fluid. Then I had to start the slow process of replacing the fluid. My last fill was perfect. Things were great. Until 6 weeks after the fill. WHAM! I couldn't eat anything starting Christmas Eve that didn't come back up. Ended up in the ER about 4 days later getting 1 cc removed. I immediately was better but here I am wanting to eat everything in sight. I wish I could be stronger when I don't have restiction but if I had that kind of willpower I don't think I would have felt the need for the band in the first place. I'm trying to get some help for these times when I don't have that needed restriction. I have one of the BodyBugg like things ordered along with a new pair of workout shoes. Hoping that helps. It has been very discouraging. I'm still glad I had the LAP-BAND®. It's great when it's working for me.

Glad I found this new thread. I can't wait to watch tonight. I love this show!

I so agree with what everyone has said about Rebecca's hair. I'm thinking does she not have a friend or hairdresser to tell her how much better she looked with her other color? Danny looked great! In his interview on Jay afterwards someone mentioned him looking a little like Mel Gibson & then I could really tell it too.

I was just sick that they didn't vote Tracy off. After all that stuff Liz said & then she gets the chance to get rid of her & tell her why but she didn't take it. I don't want to hear them bitch about Tracy one more time. They can take what they get from her now & enjoy it! It did seemed very much like pro-wrestling last night - very staged. I also thought the Liz & Danny thing was a little strange. I wouldn't like it if a woman was that dependent on my husband after a few weeks together.

What did you find out? I wanted to let you know that I started having bad reflux then a month or so later found out that my band had slipped. I wasn't sure if the reflux caused the band to slip or if my band had already slipped & that was causing my reflux. But I am sure that the 2 were related. They unfilled my band completely for 5 weeks. Then they did another swallow test on me & it showed my band was right where it ought to be. So then they have started to gradually fill me back up. My doctors are very conservative on fills so it'll probably sometime next spring before I have decent restriction again. Good luck to you with whatever you found out.

Thank y'all for letting me in on the love crush might be Dan. I was thinking that they were all married but I was forgetting about Dan.

Has anyone caught the commercials for the new season starting on Sep 15th? I saw the first one last night. It shows Dan from last season saying he still had a ways to go & another girl that I didn't know saying they were getting a 2nd chance. I thought that was pretty cool because I liked Dan. Does the girl that knows Dan from the gym she works out at have any inside news on this? I am ready for the new season!

I thought my doctors are conservative but yours are really conservative. I have a 10 cc band. It started out with 2 cc from surgery. The 2nd fill was another 2 cc. I still had no restriction with that 4 cc. The 3rd fill was another cc bringing me to 5. I could finally feel some restriction at 5 but 6.5 to 7 was just right for me personally. My band slipped & they unfilled me completely. The band went back into place so they've started my fills again. She started with 3 cc which is the most she'll give at one time. I can't tell any difference with 3 cc than I did with a completely empty band. Anyway, I said all that to say... Give it time. You will get there. I wouldn't worry that the fill isn't in there, just that it's not enough yet. Good luck!

I just found out about 3 weeks ago that mine has slipped. Yes, it was sutured to my stomach but now it's about half-way unstitched so not completely slipped. They removed all Fluid & I go back in a few weeks to see if it may have went back in place. I'll probably have to have surgery again. The doctor didn't give me a reason as to the slip. I was a very good patient. Stuck to my after surgery diet almost to a tee. Never even had a sip of coke. I think my band had got a little tight & I had a bad month of reflux & night-time coughing. I think that did it for me. My advice would be to not live with a tight band. I'd rather lose slowly slowly than to have a slip. I am so hungry now. I have gained at least 15 pounds since they took the fluid out.

Go for a slight unfill, please. I too had the same symtoms. I had a slight unfill but still had some symtoms of the reflux & coughing. My appetite was just right so I didn't won't to have anymore removed. I just found out 2 weeks ago that my band has slipped & I completely blame it on the reflux & coughing. I'm completely unfilled right now & gaining weight everyday. If the band doesn't go back in place on its own I will have surgery to fix it. I would rather have my band a little loose than not have it at all.

The doctors didn't tell me why they thought it slipped but I also feel mine was from night-time reflux & a lot of night-time coughing. If anyone takes any advice from me it would be not to put up with reflux & that coughing. It should not be a normal part of banded life.

Betty Lue, when you say the doctor saved your band... Do you mean you had to have surgery or what? I just found out last week that band has slipped. The doctor unfilled me and immediately recommended surgery. He said it wouldn't be quite as much to it as the first time as they only would have to restitch not place the band. I asked him if there was a chance of the band going back into place on its own after the unfill & he said maybe but didn't sound very optimistic about it. I'm still trying to get information from others who have experienced a slip. Like several of you I think my slip was caused by night-time coughing & reflux. My fill was perfect during the day, only at night was when I had trouble. I wished I would have got a slight unfill before it was too late.