2muchfun

I've had 8 adjustments(fill/unfill) and my doc has never anesthetized my skin. If they push hard on the port it could have just bruised the skin?

Partially right. The consistent pressure against the vagus nerve and the stomach moving the food through the stoma gives the signal you're satisfied. I rarely ever feel full. I just feel like I don't want to eat anymore.

In a properly adjusted band, food should stick around for about one minute before it passes the stoma. Your pouch can only hold about 2 ozs of anything so you can't get much in there.

Great story! Takes balls to do what you did at your age. My hats off to ya!

Doctor's office is right. Fills can cause some additional irritation to the stomach lining causing some swelling for a few days causing you to be tight. Let it go for a few days and then check back.

No preop diet for me. My BMI was only 36 so maybe my liver was thin enough? It's a judgment call by your doc.

For many of us it's having too much food in our pouch due to eating too fast and not chewing adequately. The food consistency makes it difficult to pass through the stoma into the lower stomach. This can cause food to back up into your esophagus to the point that you begin to slime* and maybe even PB*. *Slime-When your body secretes a lot of mucus/saliva in your esophagus to aid food to pass through. We call it sliming when we regurgitate some of this up and spit it out. *PB-Productive burp is when we can mildly regurgitate the food stuck in our esophagus or pouch and spit it out. Great relief bonus.

Are you truly hungry or is it head hunger/cravings? It can take months or years to be able to discern the difference for most of us? Carolina Girl has had her lapband/plication for over a year and still no fill. It does happen.

I was on soft foods by then so I ate tomato soup, refried beans, oatmeal, mashed spuds, well steamed veggies, most soups, I was never relegated to 2 oz portions? I was told 4-8 ozs.

Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I would make a vow to not cheat the rest of this week and start each day with the same vow. Before being banded I started each day with a new diet and told myself I wouldn't cheat and then I'd cheat. Breaking vows can become too easy so don't go too hard on yourself, once your band is adjusted, you'll not even think about cheating most days. Don't even get me around jalapeno Cheetos. I'm gone

We all cheat at some time. Just start a new day with a new goal.

Here's a test to see if you're too tight? Can you eat vegetable Soup without getting stuck? Or, freshly made, slippery and gooey mac and cheese? The theory is, if you are eating like a good Bandster, you're chewing your food into the same consistency as veggie soup? So, if soup passes OK, but reg food doesn't, maybe you are not chewing enough? I thought after 6 fills I was in the green zone but also was a little too tight? I got an unfill. I should have stayed the course and taken smaller bites and chewed more. tmf

Like the others have said, when on a diet I always felt deprived and fought the hunger pains. With a properly adjusted band, I never feel deprived and can lead a normal life.

I never felt anything immediately after a fill. No nausea, no pain, just a little more restriction.

Another way is to add your name, or a specific name or phrase to the search bar and make sure it's set up to search forums. I just did it and found my first ever post. I also looked at some of my earliest posts. Boy, was I a dummy or what?

I get stuck like that several times a week. I doubt you've hurt anything but go back to fluids and Soups for 24 hours would be my advice. Also, call your doctor for a professional opinion.

Keep posting. I'm following your pouch test journey.

Losing weight with or without the band is and will never be a linear line that declines every day or week. Weight lost the first 4 weeks is mostly excess fluids retained by fat cells. During this phase if you can manage to burn 500 calories/day more than you consume you will lose 1 lb of fat each week. This does not mean the scale will go down 1 lb. You may retain fluids from too much sodium, TOM, stress and many other reasons but, your clothes will start to fit looser and you'll find you're more limber and active. Once you start exercising enough to build muscle the weight loss may stall for weeks or even months depending on the type of exercise you choose. Watch this video and it's self explanatory: Muscle vs fat:

Productive burp. It's when you're able to regurgitate food that is stuck in your pouch or esophagus without the nasty convulsions you usually see with a full blown vomit/hurl episode. We try to avoid PBs but they're much gentler on our band than a hurling episode.

What are you eating to cause the vomiting? And is it vomit or PBs?

:wub: I love it when the girls talk dirty!

Hard to advise since no one knows what you've done so far to not lose? I'm about 25 lbs away from my goal weight and it's hard, and it's been the same for one year. I know for me, I'll have to hit it hard for 4 months with many/mostly extreme low calorie days and 5-6 days a week of hard biking and/or other exercising(hours and hours). I know I can do it, I'm just finding it difficult to make the commitment? Seems like every other week it's a party here, a birthday there, relatives in town for a week and they eat like pigs. So many distractions, it's very difficult. So, if you can clear your calendar, commit to maybe 1000 cal/day and work out an average of 6-10 hours a week, you should be able to do it? imo tmf

Agree with Jenna. chicken can and is usually the most difficult of all foods for bandsters to consume without problems. It's all in the preparation, consistency and if you use some kind of sauce to help it slide down? But, like Jenna said, it's unusual for any doctor to allow newly banded patients to eat such a solid so soon? Better check that post-op dietary guide again? tmf

FYI- at the very most, you can lose about .25-.5 lbs of "FAT" a day if you consume 1000/cal and work out very hard for one hour. Good you learned quickly and 13 lbs is very good.

Definitely questions only your bariatric surgeon can answer. Most docs do not want you taking ibuprofen or any Nsaid products. Tylenol seems to be acceptable to most docs. Nsaids(aspirin, advil, aleve, ibuprofen) can cause stomach ulcers and most docs would prefer you stay away from them. But, you should always, always check with your own doctor regarding meds. tmf