mgmagnolia

Pendulum, It's hard to not eat around it. Unfortunately, the human mind is always working for ways around things. I had figured out how to cheat my band before I had the stitches out. It takes a long time to get a new mind set not to do it. There are days that I do still do it but fortunately, not every day. I think about how much I've been through, and how much work I've done to lose this much weight. All the mornings of getting up before work and hitting the gym. The financial, emotional and physical cost of it all and I try to remember what it was like getting the loan to do this. And I think about my dear friend Cathy. Cathy died of breast cancer. As I was working on lining up having the Lap Band done, she was losing her battle. She was part of how I got past the fear of failure. I saw her and heard her saying how she would give anything ANYTHING to be able to see her son graduate from high school and grow old with her husband. She would have given anything for a second chance at life and here I was sitting on one and afraid to try for it. She gave me the courage to move forward. I never take for granted this gift of a second life. I know from watching her lose that chance how precious it is and I try to live up to it for her sake is not my own. I hope that helps, Maggie

I've had my band for 2 years too but I'd never go that crazy and have it that tight! It can't be healthy and eventually it WILL catch up to them. Sounds like a vicious, contro freak cyle to me. None of us ever want to gain weight and none of us ever want to give up hope of being our dream weight. BUT the gains we've made health wise should be what matters, not if we ever make that magic number or not. They have gone to the extreme for sure.

Have you considered sitting your sister-in-law down just the two of you and telling her what is going on? Tell her that you didn't tell her because you sensitive to her feelings not because you didn't want her to know. That's important. It will be hard for her. Emotions are always connected with obesity. And she'll be threatened that you are going to be the one getting thinner and she is not. She needs to know that just because you are changing, you are still you and that you will not change how you feel about her. She might feel different towards you but as much as you want to keep her from getting hurt, you can't fix everything. Sometimes we all just have to work through things for ourselves. She will have to work through this too. I have worked in a public library for 17 years. My weight loss has been a public event whether I wanted it to or not, which I did not want. My weight loss has attracted a lot of attention. Every day I get asked about it or receive comments about it. Now that I'm getting close, people are asking me for a lot of detail about how I lost the weight, how the Lap Band works, etc. I answer them the best that I can but obviously I can't give the patrons all the information that they want. I'm happy to share it with them within reason, but it does get disruptive at the Circ Desk. I've had quite a few patrons ask if I am seriously ill thinking that is why I'm losing weight. One patron asked me if she should put me on her prayer list for church. One of the book clubs decided that I had cancer but I was doing better. I had one patron come in the front door, look at me and burst into very loud, hysterical crying shouting for the entire library to hear while I was waiting on another patron. I don't have a good answer for you. It's hard and I'm struggling with it myself. People mean well overall though. I've had some be threatened by it and say cutting or biting comments just because of that. You have to develop a thick skin but even then it's still hard.

One thing my nutritionist told me is that "You aren't going to do 100% all of the time." I fall off the wagon too, and sometimes for weeks at a time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's a good thing to do. It's not. I am never happy with myself when it happens. But sometimes life just does this to you. I'm always scared that I'll lose control and never get it back, but somehow, I always do. It's hard to stay on track when you are hungry. My nutritionist told me not to go over 800 calories a day. Maybe since you don't have good control without the fill, you should consider going up to 1200-1300 calories a day and try to keep tabs on it. You won't lose weight but you won't go overboard and binge eat for weeks this way either. It's a pain, I know. I hate keeping a food diary and keeping track of calories. And on the big day of Thanksgiving, I wouldn't try to do that at all. It's a rough patch and you will get through this!

I am 2 years out from surgery and I have always had the tightness in the morning that you are describing. It's because of acid reflux. Most band patients have problems with acid reflux after surgery even if they never did before. The band restricts the acid from going down into the stomach like it normally would. Lying down means that the acid just kind of sits there. Being up and walking around it's not as tight because gravity takes care of it. I take one Prilosec before bed and that helps some. In the mornings I only do liquids. Sometimes I'll make coffee and put a scoop of chocolate Protein powder in it to make a mocha coffee (not as good as the real thing but it's okay). If I'm really struggling though, coffee will come back up. I'll either drink a little bit of a store bought Protein shake or try a little hot tea first (no protein in it just tea). I'll sometimes make a protein shake with fat free milk and Protein Powder. You have to experiment. The band turns you into a bit of a mad scientist in the kitchen

I'm 2 years out. I can't feel the band at all though I know when it stops me from eating too much. I can feel the port. It's a hard little disk smack dab in the center of my belly. Sometimes if I bend over the wrong way, I can feel it try to flip. It doesn't hurt. If I wear pants that are too tight, there is a perfect red circle where it is because the skin can't sink in from the pressure the pants rubbed it raw LOL. It's a very minor thing and you really don't notice it at all.

My surgeon had me on the Medi-Fast diet, which is expensive and not very tasty and really not filling at all! But it worked and I guess it was a way that they could control what I ate.

I've had my band for 2 years. All of the questions suggested to you are excellent. I have one more to add: "If I have a problem with my band can you see me right away?" I've had very little problems with mine, but it has closed up completely twice. Once it happened because I had a nasty stomach virus and all the inflammation caused it. I had to go and have some of the fill removed. The second time was my fault completely. When you have a fill, you are given a protocol to follow as far how to eat for the next 4 days following it. I decided that being a year or so out, I knew what to do and guess what...I messed up!! I had to go back and have some of the fill removed then too. If your band closes up completely, you are very sick and can't even drink water. Nothing will go through it. If you need to be seen right away then you need to know that you can do that. I'm thankful that my surgeon's office saw me right away both times. I didn't think about that before I had the surgery. I hope that helps.

I'm the same as SageTracey. My fills are less than a minute also and my port is a little difficult to hit. My port is not sitting flat anymore but tilted downward a bit, but still accessible. My bariatric surgeon has a floroscope machine (fancy x-ray) and they looked at my port on it to check its position and the band's position as well. The port shows up on it. I can tell where the center of it is though I had a little trouble seeing that it was tilted the way it is until the dr. showed me.

Hopefully what happened is that your doctor and your doctor's staff were supportive of you and sat down and worked with you to find out why you didn't get there. Did you keep a food diary? If not, keep one for a few weeks and then see your doctor's nutritionist to make sure you are eating correctly. Write down on it when and if you exercise, what you do and for how long. It's a pain to do but your doctor can't help you unless he or she knows what you are doing. Patterns will show up by keeping a diary or journal and they will be able to pinpoint it. Your bariatric surgeon and support staff are there to help you. They work for YOU. Losing weight is hard work even with the band. You have to use every tool available to you. They should be able to get you back on track if you're not happy with where you are weight wise. Maggie

I had my band in 2008 also. You are definitely overfilled. They should have done your first fill by floriscope (an x-ray) and also checked to make sure your band is in the correct position. Also, they cannot give you blanket statements that your band should have "X" amount in it. Everyone's "sweet spot" is different. It is important to know what size band that you have. Mine is the large size. It holds 14 cc's. It currently has 7 cc's in it. It sounds to me like your care is absolutely wrong. Get yourself to the most experienced bariatric surgeon you can afford. Do not go back to these people!!! The band works and works well when done properly. I would venture to guess with that type of slipshod care that your band is most likely not in the correct position to begin with. Good luck.

Rejoyce, Preop jitters are definitely normal! For me the pre-surgery diet and the waiting and not knowing was worse than the surgery and the weeks after that. I hope it is the worst part of it for you too :-) Maggie

Thank you so much! It's been the hardest thing I've ever done and by now I thought I'd be at my goal weight of 150 lbs. But I'm much healthier than before so I'll take it! Good luck and I hope everything works out for you! Maggie