TheGh0st

I'm only 2-1/2 years out but I haven't found one food that all bandsters have problems with. Most have severly cut back on the doughy breads either like me because it just doesn't taste as good when you have to chew it so much or because they actually have had problems with it feeling *stuck*. My own personal theory on why some people get stuck on one food but not another is that it really all boils down to how you chew but that opinion is only worth what you just paid for it. (Nothing) Foods I limit include: Bagels and other doughy breads like Deep Dish pizza Crusts Pinapple (Too fibrous for me, but I will still chew it up sometimes then discretely spit out the leftover fibers in my napkin) pastas & Rice - I still eat these just in MUCH smaller quantities. Gristley meats such as cheap fast food hamburgers. They taste pretty rank after a while when you are trying to chew them up well enough to swallow.

Showering was the worst for me as well. It just didn't feel right not having the binder garments on. Like everything was going to fall out or something. I found it was much easier if I wrapped my stomach in an ace bandage (correction my DH wrapped me up) before I showered then removed it only for the last couple minutes before getting out.

I have a 10cc band not a 4cc but thought I'd agree that you can have more than 4cc's in theory. I know I had 12.5cc's in my 10cc band with good restriction before I had an unfill for unrelated reasons.

Everyone's experience with the band is different but like Lisa I can eat everything you listed, including the bread and pizza. Mind you I have to chew it much MUCH more than I use to and I choose not to eat nearly as much bread as before because it fills me up too quickly but I can still eat it. On the pizza I now order thin crust and will often times eat only about half the crust and then just eat the toppings off the remainder of the pizza. Good Luck tomorrow and try to breathe.

I can't believe I stumbled on your thread. I'm in the Kansas City, KS area though I'm under 5 miles from the KCMO city market. My DH has been pushing me to sell my treadmill and I was going to try to put it up on Craigs List this week. It is an I-Fit Treadmill with a padded belt. I don't really want rid of it but DH doesn't think I use it enough and we are short on funds right now. It originally cost around $900. But I haven't had time to research what it is worth used. I can PM you with my phone number if you'd like me to tell you what I find out and if you'd like to come by and try it out. How old is your child? I have a 4 year old son and a full time job. I can definitely relate to your not wanting to move him from one daycare to another just to work out.

I'm not sure if I remember any "popping" so to speak but if I would stop for a couple days I could tell the scar tissue was starting to take hold then when I'd rub it again it I definitely noticed a reduction in the scar tissue. Now what 5 months out? The entire incision line is still discolored but my right side has no discernable scar tissue and my left side has only minimal scar tissue. I think the difference is due to my being right handed and massaging my right side more effectively as well as how I lay at night causing more stress on my left side.

Hey there, just popping in to check on the thread from KC. Once a Husker, always a Husker. As far as the Ticker goes. There is a thread somewhere with some advice on how to do it "right". (emphasis on the quotes) Personally, I've never got it to work either. What I finally resorted to was to create the ticker, then on the screen that shows the pic of it and all those odd HTML codes I just use my mouse to highlight the picture of the ticker. Right click and hit copy the picture (NOT the HTML) then right click and paste it to my signature line in LBT user control panel. One note though for some reason I have to position my mouse on the line above the picture then drag my mouse down to get it to highlight the ticker. It doesn't want to allow me to highlight it if I start with the mouse to the left of the ticker. Hope this helps.

I haven't had a Cancer scare yet but I have had other "scary" issues come up that I had to wait before knowing what was actually going on. My friends would tell me to try not to think or worry about it until I knew the facts but for me at least it sometimes seemed easier to try to think about and start planning for the worst case scenarios while it was still just a "possiblility" and not an actuality. Once something becomes definite and not just some hypothetical possibility it can be even more emotionally difficult for me to think clearly while trying to make important decisions. So yes, try to breathe, try not to stay awake each night worrying, and try to stay as calm as possible. But if it helps to put yourself into hopefully uneccessary pre-emptive action then by all means do it. I like the other posters suggestion of carrying around a notebook to write down any questions or thoughts you might have. Sometimes it is easier for me to put the idea to the back of my head if I know I've written it down somewhere and no longer have to focus on remembering it.

That is a very good reason to follow up on the doc you mentioned from South Africa. Have you had any luck with finding other bandsters that have used him? If you can't find any here maybe the S. African clinic might know if there is another similar online support forum that some of their patients like to use. Good luck on your journey whatever you decide.

I feel for you on the insurance front. I've been given the run around for nearly 3 months now with Humana on a torn rotator cuff problem. Now that they are finally taking me serious and wanting to have surgery and believe it or not my shoulder has actually stopped hurting. Go figure. Good luck with the tests. Keep everyone posted.

That didn't come out quite as clear as I intended some of the lines wrapped that shouldn't have. I tried cut/pasting screen images but LBT dumped them out on me.

First click on the calendar button in the at the very top of the lapband page above the page banner, where it says: k_podski, Welcome back to LapBandTalk.com!..........................Calendar Advanced Search Advertise Contact Once on the calendar page you will see the following bar just above the calendar: Public......................................................................................... Show TodayWeekly View **Add New Event** Click on "Add New Event" and choose what type of event it is (Single, Ranged or Reoccuring) Let me know if this works for you.

Congratulations Jena! I nearly went to Mexico myself. I know there are plenty of reputable surgeons there, I just couldn't get my family on board and also had trouble finding a local doc to agree to take me on for fills if I didn't use them.

Just wanted to drop a quick congrats. Hope you are feeling well after surgery.

My surgery was long enough ago the prices wouldn't mean much now. But one word of "wisdom?" I have absolutely nothing wrong with going abroad for surgery there is no reason why doctors outside the US should be considered sub-standard. However, you do need to make sure before you chose a doctor outside of where you live (even within the US) that you can find a doctor closer to home to provide the necessary follow up care you will need with fills and so on. Many band docs unfortunately will not fill anyone that they did not personally band.

Some docs use the omnipaque fluid you are refering to but I believe the majority do use saline. Still, personally I would never do a self fill unless I was a well trained nurse with prior experience accessing ports and preferrably experienced in giving fills to other patients. Even then I think I'd be reluctant unless perhaps I had access to a flouroscope that I could use on myself while doing my own fill.

Hi there Andi, Welcome aboard! I didn't find this board until months after I was banded. It's been a lifesaver for me as well. And shame on you for mentioning the Milky Way. :thumbup: At least you didn't say anything about a Snickers Icecream Bar.

What kind of problems are you having swallowing?

I haven't had this happen but I know that my doc says he doesn't trust the barium swallow to show there are no problems. He will use it but with symptoms you are describing I'm fairly confident that if the barium swallow didn't show anything he would have suggested moving to more definitive tests to make sure. Maybe my bumping this thread will help you get a response from someone else that might know better.

Sorry, I can't give you any good advice but I wanted you to know I will be keeping you in my thoughts. Please keep us updated and thankyou for sharing such a personal issue with us.

Try not to panic. Unfortunately this is completely NORMAL! It is what some refer to as "bandster hell". During the surgery they are only placing the band and port, they do not fill it. So after the initial swelling from surgery goes down most of us feel practicall if not totally no restriction. Depending on the size of your band and the amount of fat pad around the stomach it can take several fills before you start to feel good restriction. Until then all you can do is try your best to rely on that good ole' will-power demon we have all been able to battle for short periods of time in the past. But you really do need to try hard right now as even though the swelling is going down and you are getting more hungry, you are still healig and you don't want the stomach doing any more work than necessary while your body adjusts to the band. Good Luck and welcome to the banded side of life!

Congratulations!!! and welcome to Lapbandtalk

Kingfish - Thankyou so much for your post. Not many people with complications take the time to update boards like these on how they are doing. I know it would be painful for me to return to these boards if I were to lose my band. But I feel it is just as importantant if not even MORE important for us to be informed of possible complications and its aftermath. Thank you again. And please keep us updated on what happens with your claim for a new surgery. I wish you nothing but the best wether it is a new band, a different surgery or none.

I admire the initiative you are taking to understand what your gf is going through. Not many men, even husbands take such an active role. As far as shortgal's response I agree completely. It doesn't really sound like she needs a fill from what you are saying but we are not medical staff. Another tool I've seen bandsters use to help their doctors better decide if they are ready for a fill is to take quick photos of their meals with their cell phone. It's faster than logging and gives the doc a visual image that is sometimes easier to understand. On your second point about whether she is losing weight due to the band or from diet and exercise she could be doing without the band. That is a bit harder to answer. Again I don't know your girlfriend to know what her starting weight or BMI were or what co-morbidities she may have had due to the excess weight to even begin to address the idea that she "didn't need surgery". What I can say is that the band is strictly a TOOL not a solution or easy fix. It helps both control the individual portions we can eat in any one sitting and when properly adjusted will help us not feel the terrible hunger pains between meals. These two benifits of the band have been shown to help bandster not regain the weight as so many of us had afer previous successfull diet & exercise regimes. My last paragraph brings up two additional questions you might have. One - What is a proper fill and why can't/didn't she get it on the first fill? The answer to that would be that the band is not placed strictly around the stomach muscle but also has varying amounts of fatty tissue inside it depending on the patient. Therefore as your GF loses weight that tissue inside the band will shrink and cause the band to feel looser and need to be tightened some more. Also, especially at the beginning the doctors are purposely cautious with their fills. Some patients need to be tightened slowly so they can have time to adjust to new eating habits (especially the chewing) and some patients stomachs are more sensitive to being squeezed by the band and can swell for a couple days after the band is adjusted. The docs don't want to risk filling someone too agressively and having the stomach actually close off so that even Water won't go through. Second question I would have if I were you is back to why can't she just lose the weight with a similar diet/excersize program and learn to keep it off without the band? There have been a couple of studies that have found that over 90% of people who have gotten over a certain BMI threshold (I think it is 40 but can't remember) then lost most of their excess weight through diet and exercise alone regained all (and usually more) of their wieght back within 3 years. At least one of these studies included strictly patients that were closely monitored and guided by doctors and fitness trainers and yet the long term failure rate was still OVER 90%. But with the Lapband they have found nearly the opposite to be true where the vast majority are able to keep the weight off over the long term. Finally, this is not a gastric bypass surgery. She will not and should not be losing the weight quickly. Most doctors won't even give someone a fill if they are losing over 3 pounds per week on a consistent basis. Again Kudos to you for taking the time to look for answers to your questions. I wish the two of you all the best.

Whether it was by will-power or band-power it sounds like you did pretty good over all. Keep up the good work. As far as the restriction goes, you need to give it some time and most likely some more fills before you really start to feel restricted. Each person is different ofcourse. There are those rare few that hit a "sweet-spot" after just one or two fills and then there are those rare people like myself that had 14 fills my first year. I spent nearly the entire year convinced the band wasn't working for me despite losing over 70% of my excess weight in that same time.