elcee

It seems strange to be having pain in the centre of your chest. Post op/gas related pain is usually in a shoulder or sometimes the stomach. I would be going back to the Dr and asking for some more tests. Are they sure this is band related pain? I certainly wouldn't mess around with pain in the centre of the chest. It may be that it is a side effect of the surgery. Could possibly be a clot that has travelled and lodged somewhere that it shouldn't have and if so this is an emergency. Most people that have problems with their bands have them at a later stage, problems at the time of surgery are rare. Often problems at this stage are caused by incorrect placement , an inexperienced surgeon or the band being prefilled. I would recheck that there is no fill in your band at this point and if there is make sure they take it out. Fill + postop swelling is too much for most people and causes lots of problems. I hope you get this sorted out soon. As to the negative stories about the band you will always hear them. Some are true, many are not. The same can be said for the bypass, the sleeve or whatever. There is no 1 size fits all WLS. You have to research and find out which is the most likely to suit you. One of the reasons the band "fails" is because people expect it to be a magic wand. They think that once it is in that is it, they will never have to diet again. Lots of these people think that they will be able to eat what they want, sit on their bums and that the weight will still fall off - THIS IS NOT TRUE. The band is a tool that will assist in your weight loss but it will not do it for you. You are still in charge of what you put in your mouth. I have had my band for almost 2 years and I couldn't be happier. It works the way that it was explained to me. That is that if I make good choices it will help me to eat less and feel full for longer which will mean I am able to lose weight more easily than preband. I have lost all my weight and now wear an Aus size 8 which I think is a US size 4. I am by no means perfect. Some days I make good choices, some days not so good choices. Some times food goes down fine other times it gets stuck . This doesn't happen as often any more as I am now far more experienced in operating my weight loss tool. I know what works and what doesn't. How anyone can complain about losing 50lb I don't know. As to the story about the grape I would take that with a big pinch of salt - if it is true then the person is stupid. They are not using the band the way it is supposed to be used and they are setting themselves up for possible problems in the future. If your Dr isn't helpful then you should change your Dr. The medical profession are notorious for being arrogant - we as patients are notorious for treating them like Gods and putting up with it.

Of course I remember you. You are from Sydney and you love mustard!

That's great - well done.

Yes I'm still here , just had a hectic couple of days. The procedure was on Tuesday 1.30.Warwick was pretty nervous but that was to be expected. The Dr that was going to be sitting with him and applying the drops during the procedure was great. He took lots of time to explain everything and let Warwick listen to his ipod whilst the procedure was being done. They did the prep at 1.30 and then we had to wait about 1hr15min for the next stage. They took him through and were finished just after 5pm. At that point Warwick was fine - much better than I expected. He started feeling sick etc in the car on the way home. Not surprising as it was rush hour and we live out in the country so to get home took ages. He went straight to bed with no food(he's 16 if he doesn't eat you know he can't be feeling good) and slept through till about 9am yesterday. He didn't need the sleeping tabs or the strong pain killer. I helped him with his first lot of drops yesterday and then had to go to work.We left him with a long list of instructions as to what to take when and kept phoning to check he was OK. The only problem he had was slight boredom as he is not allowed to play on his DS until the bandage contact lens comes out next week. Hubby and I then went straight from work to see Riverdance. The tickets were booked and paid for months ago before we knew he had to go for this "op". We weren't too worried as his 22 year old sister is living at home at the moment so he had someone with him after work. The show was excellent. We had centre, front row seats.The dancers legs are amazing - I swear they have knees that swing both ways! Hubby enjoyed it too even though when I told him I had booked tickets he looked at me rather strangely. (Apparently that was because he had forgotten what it was , we saw Lord of the Dance about 11 years ago). Off to see the specialist for a first checkup today, we are lucky as we have been told we can go to the local one not the one that did the procedure - so much less stress with travel and parking.Then we need to go again nextweek and if everything is good they will see him in 3 months at which point they should know what the results are. Warwick is up and seems fine - he has just gone to run himself a bath as he cn't shower in case he gets water in his eye. Thanks for all the good wishes.

Glad to hear that you are doing well. Sorry that your first band wasn't a success. Have they used the same type of band this time or switched? All the best.

I eat with friends that don't know about my band and they have never noticed or commented on what or how much I eat. I am careful though to try and choose things that I know won't get stuck.

Spartan I am sure you are not really evil. We all have good and bad sides. Somedays we will say something that everyone likes and other days we will p@@s everyone off. I just want to know who you were in your previous life but I'm sure you are not going to share. You should back out of the window very carefully because presumably these days your butt wouldn't cushion your fall! Nice to see other faces here, it is not an exclusive, members only thread.

My sons eye op/procedure is on Tuesday. Trying not to get too stressed out about it. He seems to be quite calm at the moment which is good. Had an interesting week. My boss wanted me to work on Wed at a school which is way over the other side of the city. I told him I didn't think I would be able to get there in time (there are some areas of major gridlock around Melbourne) so he suggested I stay in his city apartment the night before. I did and my husband came along too. It was a 19th floor apartment overlooking Docklands which is a new/trendy/waterside area of Melbourne. The views were stunning.Water, expensive boats, Bolte bridge ........... It was also nice because hubby and I were able to walk to dinner with a huge choice of restaurants and then walk back again! Can't do that where I live. On the downside it was noisy so I slept with the windows shut which then meant it was pretty hot . Staying in the city is nice for the occasional "treat" but nothing beats the peace and quiet of living in the country. Yesterday I went to a crazy patchwork class. i think the crazy referrred to the patchwork and not the people but you never know! Today I am off to meet a friend that I haven't seen since Jan, for coffee and then I have to do the really exciting task of grocery shopping! That always seems to take forever. Walking around the shop, making a choice from too many overpriced items, putting it in the trolley, taking it out of the trolley, putting it back in when it never seems to fit, lugging the bags into the car, then out of the car then unpacking when you get home. What a schlep! Maybe its time we swapped food for a daily nutrition pill. Think of all the time and money we could save - not to mention all the weight we could lose! Working tomorrow. Sunday I shall probably go to the local annual quilt show to get some inspiration.

Melody glad that the surgery went well and that they have solved the problem and that the pain has gone. Sorry that the solution though did involve losing your band. Was the scar tissue caused by the band? Did this happen because it was positioned incorrectly originally? Please stick around, I love reading your posts. As to Vicodin I have no idea what it is , if they use it here and if they do what name it goes by . I just hate surgery because I always get nauseous afterwards.

My geography is not very good either but been as we have to fly from here over Western Australia I would assume that it is west!

Still here - just lurking. Once you are at goal there isn't really a lot to report band wise. I did "come out" to a bunch of friends the other day and they were quite surprised about my band. The other people they know that have one have not been hugely successful. From what they were saying though it sounds to me as though these people are relying entirely on their too tight bands and not pulling their "weight" in the battle. I bravely showed them some before pics and they were amazed - there is one in particular where my hair is fairly short and I look huge. How is it that when you are fat you know that you are fat but you don't seem to realise to what extent. I look at those pics and think hell how did I ever manage to let myself get to that point! I have eaten far too much cake/dessert in the last couple of weeks. First it was hubby's Birthday, then my daughters and then a friends 50th. What can I say - cake goes down far too easily. Melody I hope you get better before the op. I have had a sore throat/cough/cold for almost 2 weeks now and can't seem to shake it, it's really annoying. It almost seems like fate is against you - that it doesn't want you to get your band out. I am hoping that they open you up, find the tubing is rubbing on something and that they can shorten, reposition it and leave it in so that your band works and your pain is gone. Fingers crossed. Denise I am so jealous of your cruise. The pics look amazing. As to the hubby I think they just get grumpy old man syndrome, they seem to revel in their grumpiness. Mine is only 43 and has had it for years although he vehemently denies it. I never realised Hanalei was a real place! Hummingbird - congrats on the new job. How did you manage that? What are you going to be doing? Bobbie I distinctly remember saing something about destroying those horrible ciggies! So now you are not just struggling with the weight you have another horrible habit to kick too! Bad girl! LOL. As cute as you are noone looks cute with a fag hanging out of the side of their mouth and the smell is pretty bad too. I have to ask how do you manage to afford to smoke if you can't afford your meds? Smoking is one hell of an expensive habit and surely your meds and your health are far more important. Is there some kind of volunteer work that you could do? It might not bring in an income but it could do wonders to boost your self esteem. Plus if your hands are busy you won't have time to smoke. I have some exciting news. My sister turns 40 at the beginning of July and she is buying tickets for me and my 2 "kids" to fly back to South Africa and spend a week with her and her family at an exclusive game lodge. I will then get to see my parents for a week or 2 before coming home. It will only be a shortish trip this time as the school holidays are only 2 weeks. I will probably let my son miss a week of school but I can't really let him miss more than that. My daughter has started working with her Dad. The job is pretty boring and not really what she has trained for but at least it brings in some money and it gives her some experience while she looks for something else. Nothing else to report - might go and play in my sewing room. Keep up the good work everyone.

I have also had a great experience with the band but I am not quite 2 years out so I feel as though I'm not allowed to say so. That maybe if I am too positive or enthusiastic then there may be something bad up ahead waiting for me. I have lost all my excess weight. I feel great , look far better than i have for years and for me it has been realtively easy. Yes I have had stuck episodes and times when i feel miserable because something that should have gone down didn't but these are just minor. I would do it all again tomorrow in a heartbeat. My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner - I wasted far too much of my life being fat and miserable.

I don't normally drink protein shakes but bought some yesterday to use as a quick "healthy" snack . Big mistake. I had the loudest, smelliest gas afterwards.

Take the ciggies and tear them into a million little pieces NOW. It doesn't matter how bad your nerves are smoking is not going to solve it. If you really need to put something in your mouth try sugar free gum. If you don't know what to do with your hands find a craft.You know how bad smoking is for your health. There is no point in losing weight to resolve health issues and then continuing to smoke. You need to take stock and get back on track. Somethings are beyond your control - the job, others aren't.Take control of the things that you can - weight and smoking as it will put you in a better frame of mind and enable you to cope better with the other issues. I know this sounds like tough love but that's what it is. The job market is awful at the moment. I feel for all of you that have lost or may be about to lose jobs. I work casually and have a lot less work than I did previously.My daughter finished uni in Dec and has been unable to find anything so far. It's impossible to even get an interview. We're not even supposed to be in a recession anymre - Australia supposedly skipped it. Personally I don't believe them, I think that is just an excuse for them to keep increasing interest rates and put up petrol prices. As to whether or not you should have done GB it's a bit late now. Unless you have lots of money for a revision you need to work with the chice you made.It's always easy to say I should have done ...........but the reality is you will never know. You can do this. Melody - feeling for you at the moment. I am hoping the surgeon will find a simple solution. If not then i think a revision of some kind is in order but seeing the psych to decide what is a good idea. A sleeve may not be the solution. A GB may work better but I know you won't consider that. Hope everything turns out well.

Melody as all the others have said you KNOW this is not weight - it has to be fluid retention. You cannot gain 7lb of fat in one day. This is one of the reasons that most Dr's recommend a weekly rather than a daily weigh in. It is normal for fluid etc to vary from day to day so a weekly weigh in gives a truer result. Of course for most of lapbanders that doesn't work as we tend to be obsessed with the scale. I would suggest that you keep eating the way that you have been but relax a little. Weigh weekly, don't log every calorie and enjoy life. Do not base how you are feeling on a number on a scale. Think of all the NSVs instead. How much better you are feeling, how much your health has improved etc.If you do this for a couple of weeks and your weight stays stable or drops that is great. It may be hard but sometimes we hit plateaus and they can go on for far longer than they should. The main thing is that you are not gaining and you stick to doing all the things that you know you should be doing. If your weight starts going up week on week then I would go back to the Dr and scream for help.There has to be some reason. You probably are perimenopausal even if you don't realise it and female hormones are a curse - the guys don't realise how good they have got it. Chin up it will get better. Glad that your son is OK - I was concerned that the problem was more serious. I am still stressing about mine and will be until after 29th March which is when he has the procedure. Our weekend away was great but not long enough. The only problem I have with going to that area is I always want to buy a holiday house there. Just a little one - happy for it to be old so I can do it up but the sad news is I haven't won the lottery yet. I suppose it is good to dream though isn't it? Denise sorry to hear about all the dramas. You have done your best and if the others want to do things differently you can't force them. I think you should relax and enjoy your cruise. Can't believe that after 3 years your hubby would make a comment like that about eating so slowly. Men are a bit dim sometimes aren't they? Bob if you are reading this my apologies. We are missing you - you need to come back to add some balance. Don't know if the rest of you have seen it but his new profile pic on FB looks Fab.

I've given up on LBT except for this thread and I'm not even doing a great job of keeping up with that lately.Reading everything yes but actually posting................. I am happy to say that so far I have survived the horrible summer that Australia has had so far.Yes our garden has been flooded at least 4 times and all my plants and trees are dying off at a rapid rate but in comparison to the fires, cyclones and floods that have been happening in other parts of the country we are lucky. Have had quite a tough week. My 16 year old son was diagnosed with an eye condition called Kerataconus in Dec. On Wed we went to see the specialist.He has been scheduled to have a procedure called corneal collagen crosslinking on his worst eye at the end of March. Apparently this does not fix things and won't improve his vision but it should stabilise his eye and hopefully will mean that he won't need a corneal implant in the future. It is a relatively new procedure and supposedly pretty safe but of course nothing is risk free. I think he is quietly terrified although he is doing a good job of keeping it all together at the moment. Just the thought of them doing anything to an eye gives me(and I think a lot of people) the creeps. Rather give me an op where i am knocked out and don't know what they are doing. He might be 16 and far taller than me but he is still my baby and always will be. The other downside is that the procedure is not covered by Medicare or private Health. You wonder sometimes why you bother paying for insurance. It is our wedding anniversary on Sat so hubby and I made a last minute decision to get away for the weekend. We are going to a place called Warrnambool which is on the Great Ocean Road. Leaving my son home with his almost 22 year old sister who is recently finished uni and is looking for a job. Job hunting is really tough and demoralising. There is no human contact like there was in my day, everything seems to be done on the net. It is up to you to look for job ads, apply and hope that someone will decide they like your app! With thousands of job seekers out there and no recruitment agent working to place you it is not easy. She did have an interview on Monday and we are keeping our fingers crossed. It was a phone interview as the position is on an island on the Great Barrier Reef. As to my weight it still seems to be pretty stable. Like Denise and a few others have said I also eat far more than most bandsters eat or claim to eat. I am also not very good at sticking with the 3 meals a day - I need a snack in the afternoon. I think my biggest weapon in this battle other than the band is weighing myself daily. It helps keep me honest and I know that if my weight is up I need to eat a bit better before it gets out of hand. You too often read about bandsters who have regained all or almost all of their weight - I am not going to be like that. I know that i have to do my part, that the band is not a magic wand. I am always going to want to eat chocolate and my band is not going to stop me , I need to make the conscious decision not to put it in my mouth (or at least not every day). The other thing I did this week was go to a Zumba class. For all you newbies that don't know me I hate exercise and I don't do it routinely. I have done Bollywood and bellydancing in the past but have been a bit slack lately. The Zumba was great fun but more proof that i am totally unco. I struggle enough to get my feet doing the right thing never mind hands as well. 2 skills that I do not have that I would have loved are the ability to dance and to be able to sing! One thing I know I will never be doing is competing on Dancing with the Stars. I would be the first voted out! Hope everyone there is well and that you haven't frozen solid yet. Hopefully it warms up soon and you have a good summer this year - something we missed out on.

Hi All Back from a weeks holiday in Echuca. Had a great time relaxing with friends, swimming and soaking up the sun.The only downside was the mozzies - unfortunately they love me and I react to the bites. I look like I hvae smallpox! On the good side I have probably gained a pound at the most so that should come back off fairly quickly. Enjoying reading all this stuff about dentists. I hate them with a passion and only go when i have to. I would rather have another caesar than get my teeth cleaned. I find the cleaning more painful than fillings. I have been known to have to have gas and valium to get my teeth cleaned in the past. I think my hatred of dentists started with a bad experience with a school dentist and it has got worse ever since.Personally I think dentists do their best to find holes in your teeth and if they can't find one they dig one with that horrible pick thing they have. It's also amazing how they never do the job properley the first time.When I have to have a filling it is always in a tooth that has been previously filled and I have one crown that has been done twice - at great cost and it is probably still not fitted as well as it should be. It would be nice to be a shark , imagine just getting a new tooth when you need one. Here in Australia people seem to have really bad teeth. I think it is because dentistry is so expensive and even if you have private health cover you get next to nothing back. It is time they made dentistry cheap and painfree, especially now that dental disease has been linked to heart disease.

You are supposed to go back and see your Dr at least twice a year for life, even when you think you have ideal restriction. Over time a small amount of fluid will be lost from the band which will make it looser. You need a small fill to top up.

In answer to the question about my BP. It has been high for years, dropped dramatically early last year and has since gone back up. Dr is running tests to try and find out why. I got into trouble when I went to get the monitors taken off. It had a really hard piece of rubber on the end of the sleeve that was gouging my arm so I put a tissue underneath it to try and make it bearable. The technician told me I shouldn't have done that as it means it won't have worked properley. I find that hard to believe and really hink they should be designed better so as not to cause discomfort. If it didn't work right I will tell the Dr I will do the thing manaually for 12 hrs or however long I am awake. I have a monitor at home with a memory and I am sure it wouldn't make that much differnce. The sleeping ones are not sleeping ones anyway because as soon as the machine starts it bleeps and wakes you up which I am convinced makes your BP rise anyway. Elfie thanks for the snorkel offer. I am hoping that I won't need it but if anyone has a spare submarine I am sure that could come in useful for someone. Hummingbird sorry to hear about the breakin. There are horrible people out there. Apparently there has been looting going on in the flooded areas of Qld. Some people are just oxygen thieves , they really shouldn't be here. Elfie glad the gluten free thing is helping. It is quite scary to think that something so simple may help ease your symptoms. I still think eating is too hard and it shouldn't be. Its something we all need to do to survive we should just be able to do it without needing a degree to work out what is OK and what isn't. Eating foods as close as possible to their natural state helps a lot but it still doesn't solve everything. What went wrong that we have so many problems - I'm sure animals don't have these issues! Counsellor I believe lots of people have issues with fluctuating tightness.Mine seems to do it sometimes but I haven't noticed a pattern as to when /why. I can't link it to my hormones as I have no idea what they are doing these days. I'm either peri or menopausal so can't say oh its that TOM that must be the issue. Other things that can affect it are stress, hydration etc so make sure that you are properley hydrated. I have no idea of how many calories, fat grams, carbs or anything else that I eat. I do not want to have to count them. I know a lot of people swear by tracking but it is not for me,to do that is too hard and reminds me too much of all my dieting days and I got the band to stop dieting and eat like a "normal" person.On the whole that is what I do although I have been eating a little too much of what I fancy lately. Going fo an adjustment on Friday. Still waiting for Bob to post some post surgery pics. Haven't seen any yet not even on FB. I'm just hoping they won't be of him in his budgie smugglers although I think there is a good chance they will be!

Your stomach grumbling does not mean that you are hungry. Mine makes noises all the time, often so loud that other people can hear it. I am not sure why but it is not because of hunger.

I was also thinking these would be incredibly high in sugar. Not something that would help you to lose weight.

It's amazing how much there is to catch up on when you haven't visited this thread for a while. I promise I have been reading everything even though I haven't commented. Elfie - sorry to hear about your friend, that is awful. If you ever find out what the cause was please let us know. I am not back at work yet. One of the downsides to being casual is that work can be pretty scarce - of course the upside to that is you get plenty of leisure time. I tend to train a lot of teachers and do courses at local community houses and as none of those go back until Feb that means things are extra quiet. I do have a lady coming to my house on Sat for a CPR update - not normal to do it that way but my boss asked if I could accomodate her. Am currently wearing a 24hr BP and Holter monitor. My BP started doing weird things again a couple of months back so my gynae postponed my planned hysterectomy and sent me off to a cardiologist. He is running checks to make sure everything is OK. Of course the wait to see each specialist and then to book each test can take weeks/months. Apparently it is not normal to have both monitors on at the same time. I even got called brave for doing it this way at the consultants which is ridiculous. I figure if I have to be uncomfortable I may as well be doubly uncomfortable for 24 hrs rather than have to do it for 48.It's actually not that bad(seems to have improved since I last had it done about 4 years ago) but it could be interesting trying to sleep and trying to get changed. I did manage to figure out how to get my jeans down to go to the loo which was a feat in itself......... Miserable weather here today, wet and rainy. Driving into town earlier I had a hairy moment when a truck went past me at top speed splashing up so much Water I couldn't see to drive straight. We went and bought a heap of new plants yesterday to replace the ones which died as they were so waterlogged - hopefully the new ones don't suffer the same fate.However I am going to try not to complain - i could be living in Queensland and have my house inundated with dirty smally water(and snakes). One of the rivers up there is now predicted to peak at 14metres plus. That is scary. Stepped on the scales today and they said 52kg. NOT HAPPY. I think it may have been what I drank on Saturday rather than what I ate. Someone had to finish the opened bottles of champagne and wine that have been sitting in the fridge.I did phone this morning to make an appointment for a fill on Friday, something I have been putting off. I keep telling myself I just need better control but at the moment I can eat almost anything, fairly quickly and in much bigger quantities. I am also getting hungry way too quickly. I had lunch and was hungry again an hour later. I go away for a week on 24th which was part of the reason i was putting it off but hopefully I should be OK by then. My hubby has now decided he needs to lose some weight as well. He is not hugely overweight, probably needs to lose about 5 - 10kg. But it is all round his stomach - I suppose it's a classic beer belly but in photo's he looks pregnant! It will be good for him to be cutting back for a change.

It sounds as though the foods you are choosing are not dense enough to be digested slowly and give you saiety. Instead of a lean cuisine which generally has very little of anything in it why not have some chicken and salad or tuna and salad etc. At dinner have some meat(chicken, fish etc) vegies and a small portion of carbs.Again that should keep you full for longer. If you still find you are hungry a couple of hours later why not have something healthy like fruit + yogurt or a piece of cheese ......... What you eat makes a huge difference.

The other possibility is something such as oesophagal dysmotility. Sometimes the band contributes to this sometimes it can just happen. I am not sure what the solution is but it is something to ask your Dr about. And as Cleo's Mum said - I would be looking at changing my Dr - there do seem to be a lot out there that have no idea about bands other than how to make a quick buck from them.