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How old are you? Are you close to menopausal age? Periods often get longer and heavier as we get older due to changing hormones and it probably has nothing to do with the surgery. I had a hysterectomy earlier this year as my periods were also getting out of control. In the months leading up to surgery I had mine for approx 61 out of 78 days. Plus it was heavy as well.

There are also not very many long term studies of the success of the sleeve. It has not been widely used as a stand alone procedure prior to the past couple of years. Most people who have the sleeve have probably not been sleeved for more than 2 - 3 years. Once the long term results are in it will be easier to make a judgement.

That's great to know.Always useful to know where to find an expert.

You have been through so much and your strength and focus has understandably been on your children. You have now realised that to be the best you can be for your family you need to look after yourself too - something that a lot of parents forget. Good luck in achieving your weight loss goals and healthier self and all the best wishes for your son.

Donna, it is really easy at the beginning of your journey when you are excited and highly motivated to swear that you will never let junk food pass your lips again. It is not quite so easy 2 or 3 or more years out. The problem with food is it is all around us, temptations are everywhere. It is not like illicit drugs that you can avoid completely - you have to face it everyday. In reality there is no such thing as "junk food". All food has some benefit. If you were faced with the choice of starving or eating a pie, or a piece of cake or some icecream I think the choice would be not to starve. For me and I am sure for many others the point of getting the band was to be able to have a healthy relationship with food and to eat like a normal skinny person does. I want to be able to eat without obsessing over every mouthful. I don't want to be on a "diet" for the rest of my life.That includes eating "junk" food occasionally.

We know what your question was but it is a very strange question. Patients don't usually need to know where to get the needles as the Dr or other trained professional doing the fills has all their own equipment. I can't imagine that they would ever ask you to supply your own.

Junk food is always going to be easier to eat than healthy food - that is a huge part of the problem. Ice cream and candy dissolve and turn to liquid before they get to the band. Cookies do the same - this is why they are called slider foods. Also lots of junk food is reconstituted and high in fat which also helps it to slide right past the band. the thing is though that they won't keep you from being hungry. The band controls hunger when you eat good quality healthy food especially meats, chicken fish etc. If you can't eat these you are too tight and should get some fluid removed.

Cheryl I understand your frustration with the band if it is not helping because of your style of eating but if it is not actually causing problems why have it taken out? I wouldn't put my body through surgery unless I had to. You could just have all the Fluid taken out of your band and leave it in. That way if in the future you decide it might help you then you could get it refilled again. If it starts causing problems have it taken out. But really if it isn't why go through anaesthesia and everything unless?

Why do you need to get your own needles? I hope you are not thinking of doing your own fills.

You are supposed to chew them. Some people swear by them. I have tried them numerous times and they haven't made one bit of difference for me.

Being banded hasn't been work for me either, I have lost my weight easily. i am now 2.5 years out though and I do notice a difference. I can eat lots of things that I couldn't eat initially and they go down far easier. I also don't think it controls the hunger as much but a lot of it is head hunger. I have slipped back into a couple of bad habits lately. I will eat a biscuit(cookie) with my cup of tea in the morning when I get up before Breakfast etc. But I think the difference is I am more aware of my limits. I still weigh myself daily and so long as I am under 51kg I am happy - if it goes over that I know I need to tighten up and be more careful. I still eat way less than anyone else at mealtimes and I have to eat slowly which is how i know my band is still working. I also don't think i need another fill as I don't think it would make a difference - a lot of my non hungry eating is because I want to and I can. When that starts becoming a problem then I will have to get back on track. But I think that really the band is now working for me the way I always hoped it would. it is allowing me to eat like a skinny person. That is I eat what i want , when i want , without having to think too much about it. The daily weigh in keeps me on the straight and narrow. If i see that i am gaining I can cut back . I think this could be how it should work when you get to maintenance though - because if I carried on eating the way i did when I was first banded I would have probably carried on losing and got to a point where i was underweight. Hopefully that makes sense.

Glad you are OK. I have been told that guzzling coke works but I have never tried it. It supposedly works better on things that are in bits rather than one big bit. e.g it would work better on rice or minced meat than on a chunk of carrot. I always suck on crushed ice when I have a problem. Sometimes it takes a while but it does eventually seem to clear it. papaya enzymes have never helped me one little bit. I think when this happens it is a case of trial and error to find out what will work for you and it also depends on what is causing the blockage.

Generally if your Dr has told you only liquids that is what he/she means. A banana is not a liquid and it is also high in carbs. If you are looking for ways to not follow the diet you have been given now preop how are you going to cope post op? Yes it is hard, we know that, we have all been there too but it is part of the process. Your Dr gives you instructions for a reason. If you think you can't stick to what you have been told phone your Dr and ask if it is OK.

Never heard of PEDMAS, over here our kids get taught BODMAS.

Your starting BMI is very similar to what mine was. I have lost all my excess weight with the band and am really happy. Although if I had to have a sleeve now it probably wouldn't worry me when I was at the investigation stage I would have considered it too permanent and too drastic.Having so much of your stomach cut away sounds really scary.

So far i am liking the new look. It is much brighter and cleaner.

Sorry to hear that it has not worked for you. I am surprised that your Dr banded you as all the info lists autoimmune diseases as a contra-indication to being banded. makes senses reall, if your body works in a way that it attacks itself then it is not going to like something foreign. Have you been advised that the symptoms will resolve after removal or is it a case of now that you have them you are stuck with them?

Money is not everything. You have to weigh up the pros and cons of each.What are your future goals? How important is job satisfaction. Would you be able to cope with the extra hours? Do you need the money? How much extra would you spend on meals out etc because you are too tired to cook. Will the extra hours cause stress and subsequent medical bills. I would draw up a long list and weigh each thing up very carefully. I would love to have more money and all the things it can buy but I wouldn't go back to full time employment for anything. I love living a more relaxed lifestyle.

I can eat 1 or 2 thin slices so long as I take it slowly. But the longer you are banded the easier it becomes. initially I would have really struggled with it.

When I got it done the only person that knew was my husband. A couple of months later i had to come clean to my kids( my daughter started thinking I was bulimic). The further out I am the more people i have told. There are still some friends that don't know but they are the ones that look down on WLS so I can't be bothered getting into an argument.

Welcome to band world. Where things go creak and squeak and bump in the night ( and the rest of the day too). It is usually at it's loudest when you are in a room with other people and there is a lull in the conversation!

Oma you do have some strange misconceptions about the band. I for one do not have any food restrictions to speak of(unless you include tough, dry meat). I can eat anything. I would never go to a restaurant and order a kids meal as the choices are awful. I go and order what I want, sometimes just a starter, sometimes a full main and I eat as much of it as I want and I can assure you that is a lot more than 2 bites. I also believe that you are slightly misinformed about the sleeve. Yes it is true there is less aftercare but there are people that do have issues. I believe it is possible to have foods that are difficult to tolerate and if you read all the threads on the sleeve board you will discover that there are people with hunger issues. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the sleeve or your choice just that it may not be quite as perfect as you currently seem to believe.

I hadn't realised that eggs were a liquid! They can be a really hard food to eat even when you are not too tight. You may be too tight but it could just be that you are pushing the limits and not doing what you were told to do. Go back to the liquids and then take the next stage slowly. After a fill you have to get used to it and how to eat again. You may be eating faster than you think etc.

The reason you have heard more stories about the band is that it has been around a lot longer and a lot more people have it. It is simply a numbers thing. There is quite a high surgical risk with having the sleeve which there isn't with the band and also a high risk of developing a life threatening leak for a period afterwards. If you follow the rules, treat your band with care and don't have it too tight the risk of anything going wrong is actually very low. If something does go wrong such as a slip it is an easy fix. I am happy with my band and don't know if I would have been game to have a sleeve as my first WLS. To me it sounded too drastic.

I had a low BMI and my Dr still made me do it.