KateP

1. Are you satisfied with your lap band? Are you happy you chose the band over vsg? 100% satisfied, but vsg was not an option in 2006 so it wasn't a choice as such. 2. I'm afraid of the unkown. Do you feel normal...like just living and being your normal self and don't know it's there? Totally normal. Don't know it's there. 3. Do you get used to eating little portions? Do you feel deprived? Yes. No. 4. I work on a team, and we eat lunch together and chat daily at work. I don't want to tell anyone at work. I'm afraid I won't be able to do this without them and or me having eating issues in front of them? Do you think I will be able to? What are your experiences? I told very few. But you have to find a reason for being on liquids for the post-op stages. I said it as a medically supervised diet. True! 5. I've heard many people say "oh, the band is only 25% of the help...It's really me." I'm hoping the band is A LOT of help, not a magic wand, a GREAT help...more than 25% else wise, what's the point! What is your opinion/experience? How much help is the band for you? ALL the band does is dim hunger. You can always eat round it by eating soft foods or by grazing. 6. I need appetite suppression... Does the band actually do that? What exactly does the band do you for you? n How would you describe it? As we eat, the narrowing caused by the band makes the oesophageal walls move more - this tells the brain we have eaten maybe three times as much as we have. Our brain thinks we are full. If I am busy, it doesn't occur to me to eat, if I am bored, it does. I haven't felt stomach rumbling hunger for nine years. 7. Looking back, do you think you could have lost your weight without the band? Possibly, but not as much and never have kept it off, 8. I hear a lot about eating slow and small bites...I am very afraid of this! I don't want to be a spectacle in front of others or feel weirded out and miserable having to eat with baby spoons and pea size bites. I want to eat normal. How is this for you? You will learn. No-one I eat with would guess I am banded 9. Any personal testimonies, advice or warnings? There is quite a high complication rate further down the line. Studies vary and figures cover a wide range. But some studies show re-operation rates (slips, leaks, removals) as high as 30% or more. Some doctors no longer implant bands because of this. I am not in the US but am told that the Mayo Clinic is a major centre and no longer does bands. Please share and

Hard, isn't it!! One thing to perhaps ask your doctor. I didn't like Protein shakes, nothing violent, just not things I liked. And baby food is ridiculously bland. In the early stages, the key thing is the consistency of the food. So, with my own doctor's blessing, I never had shakes. Right from about three days post-op, I made my own savoury version, adjusted to be the correct consistency. Getting thicker as I advanced my diet. Basically, I made (but you could buy) a Soup (any flavour). I added a can of chick peas for protein and then blended until totally smooth. Lots of fiavour, my own choice of taste.

As the others say. Phone your doctor. But it may well be just low calorie intake, after-effect of the operation itself.

@@Aurelia yes, I am afraid it is beyond doubt now that the number of serious complications with the band is far higher than people ever imagined even five years ago. A lot of doctors no longer implant them. But mine is still fine after 9 years! I just am no longer confident it will be for life. I do everything I can to minimise risk - that's all any of us can do.

@@Aurelia interesting. Sorry this has happened to you but glad there is no erosion. Should make healing much quicker. Why did he decide to remove the whole band and not just the port? Let us know how you get on, best wishes for a speedy recovery, do you plan to revise to another surgery type?

At a non-medically qualified guess, probably indigestion. But even if you are no longer getting it, tell your doctor when you see him . If it gets worse, tell him sooner!

No but infection, swelling, tenderness around the port can be the only symptoms of band erosion. The infection set up as the band erodes into stomach tissue can be asymptomatic for a time but infection can be generated near the band and can travel along the tubing to the port. If your doctor wants to remove the band and not just the port, this may be what he suspects. Removing the band allows the stomach to heal and the infection to be controlled, But I am not a doctor! It may just be an infected port area!

Quite unusual not to have dissolving stitches but it can't do any harm having them in a bit longer.

@@nessieann60 It is my choice always to have my band loose enough to eat all foods, although some require care.

We need to be honest with ourselves. If "normal" means being in control of our food intake - we simply aren't normal. We have different issues and different eating styles but we all, each and every one of us, for whatever reason, over-eat. If you have a weak leg,you wear a leg brace; if your heart fails, you have a pacemaker. We don't feel embarrassed because if this; we may wish it wasn't necessary, but we accept it. But that's easier - it is so clearly not "our fault". To a slim person, our obesity is "our fault". But everyone in here knows it is not that simple. It IS our doing but it is beyond our control. Otherwise we wouldn't consider surgery.

Always phone your doctor if you are worried. And with tightness in the chest, checking is sensible as not everything which happens to us is band-related! But this is probably just the after effect of the op. There will still be swelling everywhere which had been affected by the procedure.

Vanessa, until there is enough saline in your band for it to dramatically slow the passage of food, there is nothing to dim hunger. We are all different on how much saline this takes. At the moment you are on a good old-fashioned pre-surgery diet! It's up to you if you can eat the limited amount needed to lose weight Be patient. It may need several fills before the band helps you.

Well I hope you will be ok too. Of course you might not be! Did your doctor tell you to eat solid food (and very low nutritional value and high fat food at that) a week post-op? Mine told me, as the majority of doctors tell patients that eating solids too soon risked damaging internal sutures before they were fully healed. This can be a major factor on problems further down the line. A major study by Stroh and Manger found the incidence of slips a few years down the line was often related to eating solid food too soon,

My view, once you are past the initial post-op phase, eat whatever way suits you. There is no right or wrong way. Personally, I have always had snacks if I wanted them. Many people always have five or even six small meals a day.

I agree with the PP. the most likely scenario is irritated tissue. Stick to liquids or soft foods for 24 hours and if there is still an issue then, phone your doctor.

@@B-52 usual slip symptoms are a tightening of the band which can happen quite quickly (unlike the tightening caused by a build up of scar tissue which tends to be gradual). It can either be over a few weeks or dramatically quickly. Tightness can vary from increased reflux through to literally being unable to swallow even one's own saliva. It is almost always accompanied by pain, ranging from discomfort to awful!

Minor slips can be rectified by a total removal of saline which allows the stomach to return to the pre-slip position. Saline can then gradually be replaced. This isn't always possible and it can be necessary to surgically reposition the band or replace it. Good luck! If it can be rectified, don't leave it again before going back to the doctor for fills! The band needs that after-care.

I only ever had two criteria for getting a fills and I only got a fill if both were met. 1. I found it easy to eat too much and too fast. 2. I felt hungry too soon for comfort and self-control. Weight loss is not a criterion for me because we can have perfect restriction and not lose weight if we eat the wrong foods and, conversely, we can lose weight without restriction if we don't eat the wrong foods!

Get busy, anything which takes my mind off food. But if that doesn't work, I have an extra small meal. Not a snack, something solid which will make me feel full. Depending on where I am. It would usually be at home or else I would be busy anyway - so I might do myself something like 3 fish fingers (think you call them sticks). I think the concept of real as opposed to head hunger is meaningless. If I feel hungry, I can't stop thinking of food. Grazing is a danger. But an extra small meal is not going to blow my daily allowance and takes away the hunger.

It's not something I ever actually did myself but my post-op diet was all about consistency of the food not what it actually was. So peanut butter if blended or puréed into whatever was the correct consistency for that particular stage would have been absolutely fine,

Please follow Bandista's link. It is the best explanation I know and I often quote it myself!

@@B-52 not the odd one out! Lots of us no longer have guilt.

Some people have no problems,name can't swallow even tiny pills. Because it can cause irritation if pills designed to dissolve in the acidity of the stomach dissolve in the oesophagus, you need to take care, in addition, if you bring them back, you may not get the correct dose. A friend of mine ended up in ER because of a stuck tablet. Slow release tabs are a problem but many banded people choose not to risk getting stuck, I either get meds in liquid form, cut tabs, crush them, disssolve them,

Not saying it hasn't moved - they shouldn't but sometimes they do. But another possibility is (daft though this sounds) that what you thought was the port wasn't. it is quite common to have a seroma build up after the op - a build up of bodily Fluid generated during the op which becomes rock hard, I had one the size of an egg. Over a few weeks, this is reabsorbed into the body and disappears. I have read of several people thinking it was the port and being worried when it vanished!

Once again - I typed a long reply and it vanished with a message saying the site had had to close! Is it just me? It only happens on this site! Following is in notes with typos! Can't face doing properly!!!! Pre-op. food central. Every day, every holiday, every meeting - what will I eat when! Now, love food, small quantity, high quality. But if miss a meal, no big deal. Where to eat comes way down planning list. But beware, food demons still lurk. Sharing feelings wth large group long term wls friends (all major types wis), every one of us agreed demons still there. At six years out I genuinely believed I had conquered them. At 9 years out, I know they are still there.