itschoice

I am having the same problem as you. I could not even get down my antibiotics mixed with Water. So yesterday I took a kids medicine dispenser and started taking 1 teaspoon of water mixed with apple juice every 15 minutes. From 4 pm to 1 am last night I got up and used the medicine dispenser. After the first hour I started doing 2 teaspoons full and by about 10 pm I was doing 3 teaspoons full. Sometime after 8 pm I did the water with apple juice and then switched to broth the next 15 minutes. It was a lot of work but it made all the difference. Today I still can not get down more than 4 teaspoons full at a time but it is so much better. My head does not hurt any more and it was enough Fluid that I am not dehydrated and I feel so much better. I hope you feel better and I did have the swelling problem before so my band had to be opened up. If it was a real bad problem you would know. It sounds like you are getting some down so I think you just need to make it less. Now I would check with my doctor and only use the information I give you as a suggestion. I say this because if I don't I know someone will jump on my case. Good luck and I hope you feel better soon. Let us know how it goes.

5-10 things you wished you had bought PreOp I made this list when I started my journey. There is way too much on it but maybe it will give you some ideas. If you buy half of what is on it you bought too much. I can't get the link to work but if you do a search for the tag or title you might be able to find it.

slim...Thank you so much and yes I laughed too. It reminds me why I had this done.

I don't think that this was an inappropriate post. I just don't think anyone has the answers you are looking for. I just got banded and like to lurk and dream here too. So I can't help you but I wish you well. And don't take the lack of response personal. Maybe in a few days you can bump this post back up and someone may give you feed back.

I have read here that some people chew papaya enzyme when they have something that will not go down. I have never tried it so I don't know and you might check with your doc to see if its okay to take one. Maybe someone here has more information about papaya enzyme and they can chime in.

...when you eat a GasX tablet and it satisfies your hunger. Just got my band rebuckled yesterday and am on clear liquids...

I have posted this a few times for others. This helped me a lot. Don't use the broth that comes in a can. It just did not satisfy me. If you are on Clear liquids or full liquids this helps. Make some chicken Soup and let some of the vegetables dissolve. Then strain it and sip on it. Be creative. I had my 17 year old son cut up some potatoes into very very small squares and boil it in chicken broth from a can until the potatoes get very soft some should melt. Again strain and sip. My husband and son boiled some flank steak they cut in small cubes. As soon as it came to a boil they changed the Water to get the brown foam that floats on top out (Rinse it to get it all out). Then add clean water, cilantro, green onion, onion, season (i.e. garlic power, Lawrys, salt) zucchini, carrots, celery, and peeled potato in this order. Boil for 2 to 4 hours and add water as needed. Once this is almost all cooked add cabbage and boil for another 1/2 hour or so. You want the cabbage to start to melt. Then add a bag of frozen corn. You want everything to boil until everything starts to melt. Use a mesh strainer to serve yourself and for the family have them add avocado and fresh lime juice to their bowl. If you plan on using it for you cream soups take your juice and veggies out before you add the corn because the corn does not blend well. At that point you can add a bit of smashed avocado to yours as well. If it gets too thick add some can broth to yours and enjoy. Oh, the broth will change the taste. The broth from this soup is the best!!!! It is much more filling than can broth. I was so satisfied that I felt like I was cheating. I would have 2 or 3 ounces every half hour or so. It would fill me up and I was satisfied. The canned broth on the other hand, I could only stomach so much of it because of the taste. Be creative. My husband also boiled some can broth with Pasta and potatoes. I drank the broth and it was great. My son and his friend eat the pasta, potatoes, and the broth and his friend said Campbells should be as good. Good luck and happy banding!!! It will get better.

banderoo....your back!!! I am sorry to hear it was so hard but am glad to hear you are still kicking. It will get better. I had a tough time of it too and I think there is a nerve in there that get irritated. I could feel it and it gave me shoulder pain. As the swelling went down it got better. My incisions did not really hurt. It was my insides. Like all my organs inside my body swelled and pushed on my ribs. I still feel my ribs hitting something when I bend down and I still have tenderness and swelling in areas that were not cut into. My apron that hangs in front of my left hip bone is tender and swollen. AND, I had my surgery on 1/15..., granted then had to go back in the next day and unbuckle my band. This surgery was a huge trauma to my body and yours. But you will get better. Even though when all is said and done I will have had surgery 3 times I still think it is worth it. Good luck and I hope that nothing is wrong with the placement of your band. Let us know what they say after your appointment tomorrow.

Its normal. I look on it as though the body needs to rebalance and catchup. 15 pounds in 6 days is a lot of weight to lose. For me if I lose more than about 10 or so pounds in a month I plateau. Say I lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks then I wont lose anything for 2 to 4 weeks. You will do fine. Give it a few days. And if you haven't had your surgery yet you may gain some weight back from the IV and swelling right after you surgery. Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

Thank you. Just waiting until 3/12 to get going again.

Sorry I did not respond sooner. Time Warner Cable had a 3 day outage and I could not get on the internet. As for the question about "How did I know I needed to be unbuckled?" I was sliming. About 3 hours after I was discharged I started sliming every half hour to 45 minutes. All the spit I had go down my throat got stuck and sat above the band until it was to much and started to block my lungs. All I had to do was open my mouth and burp and it would come right back up. It was the worse thing in the world. I sat up all night since I felt like I would drown if I lay down. If I took my pain meds they would come right back up. I agree with you. This surgery was very hard the first few days/week. I still have some swelling and where my port is it is still tender. I go to the chiropractor 3 times a week and yesterday was the first time that I was able to lay on my stomach and not feel like I was laying on a bowling ball. And, my surgery was on 1/15/09. I hope that by now you are feeling a bit better. Keep your eye on the goal and remember that this too shall pass.

Just wondering if you feel better. Let us know how you are.

Very well said. I wish I had had the money to do this sooner. Only I know how this (being over weight) has negatively impacted my life. AND, since I was not 100 pounds over weight for so long this was not an option for me until now. However, if I could have done this when I was 80 pounds over weight the last 3 years would have been so much better for me. By the way, you are my hero. I think we are both about the same hight and about the same starting weight. I think I weigh a bit more than you did when you started. If I do half as well as you I will be jumping for joy.

Yes keep a close eye on it. You do not want an infection. The first few days out are scary and tough. If you still do not feel right go to the doctor or ER. I had surgery a week that it was very cold and I sat up on the recliner the first night. I had the chills every so often that caused my teeth to chatter but I had other complications too. I swelled so much that they had to go back in the next day and unbuckle my band. It all made me wonder if I made the right choice. However, things got better and while I still need to go back and get my band buckled in March I still think I made the right choice. Hang in their and I hope you feel better. Let us know how it goes.

Wow you both sound like you are doing well. Remember its about 10 pounds a month and you are both at about that. So good job.

I have read here that some use 3 ounce Dixie cups and space their drinking or broth sipping to one 3 ounce every 15 to 30 minutes. This is what I did to slow down.

Don't use the broth that comes in a can. Make some chicken Soup and let some of the vegetables dissolve. Then strain it and sip on it. Be creative. I had my 17 year old son cut up some potatoes into very very small squares and boil it in chicken broth from a can until the potatoes get very soft some should melt. Again strain and sip. My husband and son boiled some flank steak they cut in small cubes. As soon as it came to a boil they changed the Water to get the brown foam that floats on top out (Rinse it to get it all out). Then add clean water, cilantro, green onion, onion, season (i.e. garlic power, Lawrys, salt) zucchini, carrots, celery, and peeled potato in this order. Boil for 2 to 4 hours and add water as needed. Once this is almost all cooked add cabbage and boil for another 1/2 hour or so. You want the cabbage to start to melt. Then add a bag of frozen corn. You want everything to boil until everything starts to melt. Use a mesh strainer to serve yourself and for the family have them add avocado and fresh lime juice to their bowl. If you plan on using it for you cream Soups take your juice and veggies out before you add the corn because the corn does not blend well. At that point you can add a bit of smashed avocado to yours as well. If it gets too thick add some can broth to yours and enjoy. Oh, the broth will change the taste. The broth from this soup is the best!!!! It is much more filling than can broth. I was so satisfied that I felt like I was cheating. I would have 2 or 3 ounces every half hour or so. It would fill me up and I was satisfied. The canned broth on the other hand, I could only stomach so much of it because of the taste. Be creative. My husband also boiled some can broth with Pasta and potatoes. I drank the broth and it was great. My son and his friend eat the pasta, potatoes, and the broth and his friend said Campbells should be as good. Good luck and happy banding!!! It will get better.

If you are self pay then it is elective surgery. AND, I believe that in the UK medicine is socialized. Consequently, the low BMI denial. She is denied because she does not meet some bureaucrats concept of medical necessity. And, just because one surgeon wont do it does not mean it is the wrong thing to do. I would hate to see her try and gain weight just to qualify as so many people have done. You can find posts right here on LBT that talk about people wanting to weigh with weights on their ankles or change in their pockets. There are also other posters here on LBT that have gone to Greece or Belgium or other places to get their band because different countries have different restrictions that are based on cost rather then necessity. Ultimately, I would recommend her staying closer to home but she should know that their is hope.

Restlessmonkey, plastic surgeons often do not follow the FDA guidelines. Breast implants are regularly if not most of the time filled with more cc's than the FDA has approved them for. If you were to get a 275 - 300cc breast implant it would most likely be filled to 315, 320, or 325. The FDA is conservative in its estimations. However, the doctors know that to get the desired fullness and to minimize the sloshing noises they need to over fill the implants. AND, this is a practice that has been done for decades. Also, I have a question for you. Was your band sutured to your stomach? Most bands are AND it is one of the contraindications. It states, "WARNING: The band should not be sutured to the stomach. Suturing the band directly to the stomach may result in erosion." (http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/pdf/P000008b.pdf) What the FDA says are guidelines. They are not always hard fast rules. It is up to middlegirl and her doctor to judge what is right for her.

Lap Band Laparoscopic | Gastric Bypass | Weight Loss and Obesity Surgery go to this web site. They say they can help you if you have a BMI of 27 or greater. It says it on the right hand side of the page. Insurance is requiring the higher BMI but self pay is a different story. It use to be that you needed a BMI of 40 or greater but they are seeing the benefits of lower BMI. I would not normally advertise for the doctor but keep looking around where you live. See if you have been rejected because of insurance. Good luck.

I have had 3 c-sections and found getting banded to be worse than I expected. Not as bad as the c-sections and all three were different. I was still very sore a week later but it does get better. I was able to go back to work 6 days post-op but it was hard. I did not start feeling better for about 2 weeks. Like you said just take it one day at a time. It will get better.

I don't think I am scared of the bigger band and I look at the band as being a tool to loose weight. However, I just think that you may get to your goal faster and can maintain the weight easier with a tighter/smaller band. If that is what your anatomy needs. Only the doctor knows what you look like inside when he/she opens you up. My doctor has been banding people for about 8 years and he says he uses the smaller one with most people, men and women. He also says that he has only had this swelling issue with one other patient. I tend to trust his opinion that based on my anatomy the smaller one is better but if my body swells then I will have the same problem again. Therefore, when he opens me up again he is going to see how much room I have and may change it out for a bigger band. I am between 5' 2" and 5' 3" feet tall and weigh 211.6 as of today. I was 230'ish pre op and was about 222 the day of surgery. I am not big boned, nor am I small boned. My doctor says he reserves the larger band for larger people and was very surprised at my amount of swelling. In fact I still feel swollen. I would love to see the stats on maintenance based on band size. That would probably give a more accurate perspective. Also, the reason for attempting to keep this band in me is that my doctor feels that I will have better results over the long run with this size band. Your doctor is the one with the experience and if one size versus another is not right for you he/she will tell you. That is one of the things you are paying him/her for. I am hoping to keep the smaller band because it is the one he though was best for me when he opened me up. However, I am aware that he may change it for the bigger one if the swelling has not gone down. Ultimately I will not know until I wake up after the revision. You need to talk to your doctor and be willing to work with him/her as to what is right for you. Your doctor has the experience and the stats both personal and from the manufacturer. If you do not have faith in your doctors judgment you should find another doctor. I am not a doctor and am just sharing my opinions and experiences with those who are interested. I wish everyone well in this journey and I hope us all great success.

Thanks for the info bamagal. I had swelling and got the small band but they had to unbuckle it because of the swelling. It is sitting in me not doing anything. I go back on 3/12 to have it buckled again. They also said they may switch it out if it is too tight but your info makes me want to keep this one. I have been trying to loose and keep off some weight so it has more room because I think I will have more weight loss with the small AP band. But then I worry about other possible problems like I am going to Alaska in the summer and wonder if I will swell during the flight. My hands have swollen during flights and my rings get tight. But this is my body reacting to things. Not everyone is the same. I know that when I lose some weight it will get looser. So a bigger band will not be as effective.

I am an 8th grade teacher and was banded on Thursday, 1/15/09. I thought that was a good date since that weekend would be a 3 day weekend. I was to return on Tuesday the following week. However, I had swelling and they had to re-operate on me on 1/16 to open the band. I ended up taking Wednesday off and returned to work on Thursday. The next week was hard and I think that if I had more time off I would have felt better faster. But everyone is different. I have had 3 c-sections and thought this should be no big deal. If I had to do it over again...I probably would have still done it in January since waiting until spring break or summer seemed a long way away. Since we are closer to spring break I would wait until then.

I got banded here and they say you qualify with a BMI of 27 or greater. They are located in California, USA. I hope that helps. A number of years ago my BMI was much lower than it is now so I know how you feel. Good luck. If you want my name or have any other questions PM me. Lap Band Laparoscopic | Gastric Bypass | Weight Loss and Obesity Surgery Their phone number is 1(800) GET-SLIM