stinaNYC

I know what you mean, Rainer...it took me a long time to get it through my thick skull that the days of sausage and eggs with toast and home fries were gone, gone, gone.

I think we all sorta want to retain some sort of eating ritual or "memento" from our pre-band days as a way to make the switch to this new life easier. The simple fact is that, if you have really good restriction, chances are you won't be able to have Breakfast anymore...at least not in the way you remember it.

Personally, I can't eat or drink ANYTHING until around 11:30 AM...breakfast is just GONE for me. It used to be my faveorite meal of the day. That realization made me so sad, but then I stopped and asked myself "Why is the *act* of eating Breakfast so important to me?" When I realized I had no real answer for that above and beyond "Because it's what I've always done!", it was easier to stop trying to force the issue...because "what I've always done" is what made me all big and fat in the first place!

So, all this to say...PUT DOWN THE BANANA!!!! :eek:

One of the staff at my doc's office offered this bit of information about morning tightness:

Trying to eat breakfast can be troublesome. Early to mid morning the Lap-Band feels much tighter. This may be due to circadian rhythm and cortisone secretions, so skip breakfast. If you are able to tolerate a Protein shake to get your day going, by all means, please do. It might be helpful to thin out the Protein Shake by adding Water or skim milk to it.

Thanks so much...I feel much better now! I was really worried...and grossed out, to say the least! :eek:

Oh my goodness....so glad to hear you are clear of "the gum incident". Hey stinaNYC....what kind of yoga do you practice? I LOVE yoga....used to be a pretty advanced student until I had back surgery....Just curious how it has worked for you being banded. And CONGRATS on being so close to your goal!!

Hey, bigmarathoner...I take whatever the gym offers up. It's sort of a combo of sun salutations and free-standing poses...nothing too cerebral, but I do take two different classes- one emphasizes stretching and the other is more strengthening. I actually started taking yoga as a way to get myself back into exercising after I got the band (which, like, took about A YEAR...i know...so lazy!).

I had absolutely NO idea at the time what wonders yoga does for your ass! Seriously...I love my ass so much now. And just yesterday I did the Crane pose (i think that was it)...the one where you sorta balance your knees on your hands and triceps. Dang, that was hard, but then I realized "Hey! I have triceps?!?"

I wonder if anyone else has had the same experience as me. I have very good restriction right now, and had a skinny latte from Starbucks about 4 hours ago. Just now, I had some Water and it felt like there was something else rolling around in my pouch. I gently brought up some of whatever it was...lo and behold...

...this is where it gets gross...

...little pebble-type things came up! They weren't hard...they were mushy and sorta looked like brown pop-rocks (the latte had mocha syrup). After...yeah, I did this...smushing it between my fingers, I concluded that they were from the milk of the latte that just got stuck or something. There had to be about a tablespoon of them in my pouch.

I've also had this happen once or twice before with Protein Drinks. Has this happened to anyone else? Should I be concerned?

I brought the issue of caloric intake up with my doctor and explained to him that I was concerned that I was plateauing for so long (like 8 months) with the substantial restriction I had (I was at 2.0 in a 4.0 cc band, which is a lot for me). I told him I thought that maybe I needed to eat more so that my body would get out of starvation mode.

His answer suprised me completely. Those studies and guidelines on the Basal Metabolic Rate really don't apply to people like us...the extremely overweight and morbidly obese. Our bodies' physiology when it comes to fuel consumption, storage and usage are different than those of "normal" people...the ones on whom these studies are conducted.

He put it bluntly...the obese use fuel differently, and all those guidelines are bunk for us. Occasionally bumping up caloric intake a little bit may help, but at the end of the day, if you're gaining weight, you need more restriction to eat fewer calories.

Which actually makes sense, if you think about it. Haven't we all heard how much easier it is to lose weight quickly when we're larger/heavier...how the last 20-30 lbs are always the toughest? That's because our bodies simply don't need all the calories we put into them...that's why we're fat! When we restrict calories as larger people, it's forced to use the stored fuel as energy, making us weigh less.

If our bodies, which don't need that much fuel, are stalling out on weight loss, it's probably because we've reached some sort of equilibrium bewteen the calories we put in and the stored fuel remaining in our bodies. Bumping up the calories over the long haul will make us store that excess again. Restricting calories will set us on that downward path we want...just as it did in the beginning of our band journey.

And if you think about some more...that sorta makes us more efficient "machines", right? We're like a car that burns less fuel to run!

Sorry for the rant. This stuff just facinates me.

(BTW, I agreed to more restriction after an 8 month stall and subsequent 10 lbs gain. .8 ccs and one week later, I'm down 11 lbs. Guess my doc was right!)

Wow...how awful that must have been for you! I hate it when things just linger above the band. Feels so frikkin weird!

If an old LAP band vet may offer some advice...if you ever have anything that's *that* stuck again, there's a way to "PB" without actually burping or retching and stressing the band. It's a nifty trick I learned by accident in Yoga class. Staying a few minutes in the "downward facing dog" or "down dog" position lets gravity do its job on whatever is stuck in there...I call it the "tip me over and pour me out" method. You're literally in a position where your esophagus is inverted, and the food has no where else to go but in...and then out...of your mouth.

But I'm glad you've got it fixed now!

I make a slow-cooker eggplant parmasian and the eggplant just melts in your mouth. bread the eggplant, add sauce and cheese like you would for a normal parmesean receipe, and cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Count me in as another Indian/Pakastani food lover. I find that since I was banded (I'm 20 months out) I cannot tolerate vindaloo, but I can do with any spicyness up to about a level 6. Anything higher irritates my pouch and makes my opening swell up to the point where food can't pass.

On the Water issue...I don't sip Water to make the spicyness go away, BUT I always try to have sliced cucumbers around (which really help to cool off the mouth). Or, I will chew a mouthfull of Naan just to soak up the spices/oils and then spit it out into a napkin (gross, right!).

I'm going to be the person that everyone throws heavy objects at...I didn't exercise for the first year after I was banded and still lost 90 lbs. All my weight loss came from food modification.

It was only after I reached one year that I started to workout...ironically, I haven't lost much weight since then! I know it's because I'm gaining muscle (I weight train 3 days a week, do yoga twice a week and pilates once a week), so I'm not trying to tell you not to exercise because the scale won't move downwards.

My doctor was very up-front with me before I had the surgery...he told me that exercise is very good for you, but it's not the deciding factor in one's weight loss. It helps minimally, but ultimately it's about calorie intake.

My advice? If you want to be active, you don't have to knock yourself out...at least not every day and not at first. Walk, do yard work, maybe even dance in your living room like a maniac when no one is home to watch! But you don't have to be Tami Lee Webb (of Buns of Steel fame) in order to lose the weight.

I use and love Cinch powders...they aren't as high in Proteins as the others mentioned, but they also aren't as chalky tasting. Plus, the have Leucine in them...it's an amino acid that bonds to lean muscle and aids in retaining muscle mass while losing weight.

From my experience, it really depends on what kind of rice you eat. The white rice they serve with Chinese food is impossible for me to eat, even if I have sauce. WHole grain and wild rice? Totally fine.

I don't know for certain, but I think it just has to do with the way it is cooked. I think steamed or microwave rice might be more difficult that baked or slow-cooked rice...the method of cooking I think changes the consistency of the grain, making it more difficult for us with bands.

Okay...here I go with my first attempt at posting pics!

The first was taken for my package to be considered for the band. It was taken in late November 2005- 3 months before surgery. I was about 280. I would gain about 15 lbs before I went on the liquid diet.

The second was taken tonight...20 months and 90 lbs after surgery. Please pardon my icky hair...I'm getting ready to go to bed!

3 months before surgery:

20 months after:

Hi Joyce...wow, what an amazing daughter you have to have the strength and fortitude to want to make this kind of a change in her life at this young an age! Good for her, and good on you for being so supportive!

If I may offer a suggestion...my surgeon, Dr. George Fielding at NYU Medical center, is *amazing* at explaining the benefits of the band to parents for their children. He's performed band placements for teens many times before, both here in the US and abroad, and I really feel like he'd be a fantastic person to speak to your husband about the pros and cons of being banded this early in life. He's very blunt and straight-forward...he doesn't beat around the bush.

WHatever happens, I hope your daughter lives a wonderful and happy and healthy life!

Yeah, I admit it...I'm a huge sweets junkie. Fortunately, I really only have one sweet I desperately enjoy- ICE CREAM!!!

I've tried not to indulge, but when you live a hopskipjump away from the World's Bestest Creamery EVAH, it's nearly impossible.

So after angsting about it, I came to this conclusion/rationalization: Life with the band has required so many food sacrifices already (lobster, shrimp, chicken breasts, cake, apples, raw carrots, etc, etc, yadda yadda...) that I've decided I'm NOT going to sacrifice ice cream. I just won't. I love it to much, and it makes me happy. If it means I have to do extra yoga or treadmilling to compensate, fine. Bring it on, and hold the sprinkles!

Whoever mentioned donuts...wow. Do I miss those like whoa.

Laura: Did your doctor say what kind of a leak it was? Is there a hole, or a kink in the tubing? I ask because I was also losing volume and restriction in my band for about 4-5 months. I was calling Mexico to price a port replacement to fix it when out of nowhere, the leak fixed itself.

To this day, I don't know what happened...my doc thinks I had a kink in the tubing that worked itself out. But he kept encouraging me to wait it out a while because he'd seen this problem before, and in some cases the leak fixed itself.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Terry...LOL! As I was reading your post, I was thinking about my own Mexican "adventure" just two weeks ago. There I was, recovering from a flu and STARVING because I hadn't eaten very much during my illness. We go to a Mexican joint and I'm all ready to dive into a Chile Relleno platter (stuffed with 3 cheeses and chicken), rice and beans...the whole works!

What I ended up with was a strawberry margarita, a cup of black bean Soup and some guacamole! So much for my Big Mexican Gorgefest! LOL!

I do have to admit...as much as I love my new body and my healthier take on food...part of me misses the days of the 3-item Mexican platter, followed by the fried ice cream. Then I look at my toes (my TOES!) and I let the thought go...

Congrats on your experience!

Sorry, God isn't going to help you on this one. This one is up to you. It depends on if you chew well and do things as you are supposed to. This one is allllll you.

Well, to be fair, it's not always "up to you". There are lots of factors that play into a PB, only *one* of which is chewing your food well. A year and a half out and I can still PB on Soup if I've eaten very salty things and have gained Water weight, or if I'm nearering my period, even Water won't go down. SOmetimes, nature just doesn't cooperate with you.

On the public PBing...I cannot count how many times I've done that! Like you, kity, I lived in NYC during the first year of my band. Thank GOD NYC is so big and there are so many places to bring up and spit out food with little worry of being noticed. I've spit into garbage cans, off subway platforms, into gutters and alleys, etc. Plus, with all the people who have alcohol and drug dependancies in the city, puking in public isn't so uncommon (unfortunately)...if anyone looks at me funny, I just mutter "morning sickness, sorry..." and go on my merry way!

I just read your post, and as someone who had--HAD---a leak in their port area my advice to you is: WAIT IT OUT. I was experiencing the same kind of volume loss as you were...was going in once every 2-3 weeks to get refilled (my doctor felt so bad about the leak, he let me come in for free for those fills). I kept asking about getting it fixed...since my insurance wouldn't pay for it, I was concerned about price. My doctor was a sweetheart...he said he'd waive his surgery fee for me, but the hospital still wanted $8,000 for the operating room fees!

His advice was to wait it out...I was still losing, albeit slowly, and I could keep coming in every 2 weeks to get "topped off". I was losing about 1cc every 2 weeks...a pain in the patookus, but still better than shelling out $8K.

Then, something miraculous happened. I went in for a fill, and when they checked to see how much was in my band...I hadn't lost ANYTHING! It was all there from the last time! This mystfied me...how could that be possible?

We still never figured it out, but my doc suspects that instead of a leak in my band or port, I actually may have had a kink in the tube going from the port to the band. This may have created a situation where saline was being pushed out back through the port area. Something must have happened to "un-kink" the tube, and VOILA...I was fine!

This had actually happened to about 2 or 3 of us in his office...we all miraculously "self-fixed" the leak and didn't have to pay to correct it. I would suggest talking to your doctor about this possibility and to think about waiting a while before making any appointments for more surgery. I can think of better ways to spend a few grand, can't you?

I actually went by what I know (from previous dieting) was my cut-off weight before I started looking too gaunt. I could probably get away with getting down to 180 before I got that weird sunken look in my face, but I'll wait until I get to 190 before I make any decisions to lose more.

Plus, I have about 150 lbs of lean body mass...190 would keep me at a healthy body fat %.

I personally think that all of those body fat % scales are wrong. I have one, too, and it's always suspiciously high. I go and have a caliper test done by the fitness trainer at my gym once every couple of months, and to the *percentage point*, my scale is ALWAYS off by 10%. When I first got the band, the scale told me I was 54% body fat, but the trainer told me I was 44%. Now, the trainer tells me I am 27% body fat, but the scale is telling me I'm 37%!

I say...take what the scale says with a HUGE graint of salt.

I started out at 5'8", 291 lbs and a size 24W in bottoms, size 22/24W in tops. Now, I'm at 200 lbs and can fit into a misses size 14 comfortably! I have 10 lbs to go until my goal...if I can get into 12's, I'd be thrilled, but if not, no biggie.

Hey everyone! Just saw this thread and thought I'd give an update! My 1 yr anniversary was on Feb 11...

• Weight loss so far :85 lbs
  
• Inches lost so far : about 35
  
• Are you at goal? How much further? I have 15 lbs to goal. After that, we;ll see...maybe I'll try for 10 lbs more.
  
• Would you do it again? ABSOUTELY!!!
  
• High point / low point : Low point was discovering I had a port leak. High point (aside from losing 85 lbs!!!) was discovering that my port leak mysteriously fixed itself! I got restriction back AND I didn't have to pay for more surgery!!!
  
• Before & after pics ..I'll come back with those. I don't have a good pic of me yet after 1 year.

Hi...I am having the same exact problem. I have a slow leak in my port/tubing and am losing about 1 cc a week. I am also self pay, so I feel your pain on the cost issue.

Unfortunately, without any proof of what caused the leak, it's hard to point a finger at someone and say "It's your fault!". The danger with self pay is that we have very little back up when something goes wrong.

However, what my surgeon's office is going to do is talk to my health insurance company to see if they will cover at least part of the hospital's fees. I don't know what carrier you have, but Health Net (mine) doesn't usually require pre-certification and approval for outpatient proceedures, which is what the port replacement would be (unlike the first surgery, which was inpatient).

If you have insurance, see if your doc's billing coordinator can act on your behalf with the insurance company. You may have to push the surgery date back, but it'll be worth it to save a few thousand bucks.

If that doesn't work, there is always the option of going overseas or to Mexico, or to another hospital in the US that isn't as expensive. I think my hospital is probably one of the most expensive (they want $8K for a 20 min proceedure!), so if nothing can be arranged with my insurance, I'll be looking into those options.

Good luck, and I'm sorry you're going through this. It's really frustrating that practically brand new bands are falling apart like this. Personally, I think there's a design flaw, and if that can ever be prooved, I think there are enough people out there experiencing the same problem to file a class action law suit and get Inamed to pay for part or all of the cost of replacement. But that's part wishful thinking, part waaaaay down the road.

This attitude is absolutely mind-boggling to me. :faint: It's a band you have for life. Yes, it's adjustable but you're not even halfway to your goal mark. I mean, if we get our band loosened for every month - because we want to "enjoy ourselves" then we might never get the results we aspire to have!

I'll ignore the judgemental tone for now and address your concern. I was going to be travelling a lot the month of July, and the previous two months I had been having problems with PBing. Since I was travelling far away, I didn't want to have to deal with any problems that would make my trips unenjoyable. One of the legs of my trip involved hiking in the desert, and I didn't want to chance being both dehydrated and without enough calories to finish the hikes. That's why I asked to have a slight unfill. I didn't get unfilled completely...I can only go up to 2.5 cc before restriction is too tight, and he took me down to 2. No problem with that at all.

I have heard of band patients postponing a fill until after they return from a short vacation but getting unfilled to 'enjoy yourself' for a full month?

If you can't live and enjoy life with this band, why have it at all? The band isn't meant to be some sort of surgical punishment for our gluttony. It's a tool, and sometimes that tool makes life difficult when you really don't want it to...like on vacation.

I really think this is one of the things that made early band study results look not as good.Just because we can adjust our bands - shouldn't mean we should randomly.

ANd now here is where I get pissed off. First off? I don't live to make Lap Band studies look good. I live for myself and my family, and this notion that I should be chastized for effing up the data on Lap Bands is absurd.

Second of all? Up until this post, you didn't know anything about why I had a slight unfill, so how do you know that I had a slight unfill "randomly"

I don't mean to sound harsh, but if a month on vacation translates into a month of not eating in a "band-friendly" way, I just wonder if that's counter-productive.

Well, if you didn't mean to sound harsh, I suggest you practice your "soft voice" a bit more, because really? I'm --->this close<--- to telling you where you can stick your tone right now. And for the record? I lost 4 poundsthat month.

Also? My *surgeon* is the one who did the unfill for my vacation...he did it *happily* and then proceeded to give me a page full of restaurant suggestions in Las Vegas. My surgeon? George Fielding...perhaps you've heard of him? He's one of the top 5 Lap Band surgeons in the world.

Anyway...

DrewsLou: Yea, there's definitely a leak...they think maybe my tubing got twisted and a hole occured or something. My doc won't charge me a dime for replacement...it's the hospital that's the problem. They want $8K for the surgery! He's negotiating with them to see if they'd go down to $2-3K (I mean, it's a 20 min surgery! $8K?!?!). If they won't come down, we've discussed my going to Mexico to have it done by someone in Dr. Ortiz's practice. They are close colleagues...Dr. FIelding and Dr. Ren take overseas patients for follow ups and fills.

I told him to keep trying, but that if nothing could get resolved by New Years, that I'd want to do the Mexico option. In the meantime, I go in every two weeks and get topped off at 2.5. Thanks for asking, and I'm glad your's got fixed!!