elcee

The 4ml bands may be trickier to get to the right amount but they can be hugely successful.I know a number of people that have them and are very successful.In fact I think Jachut has this size band. If you are able to work with your Dr then I am sure that you should be able to get to a point where you start finding success.

That's great news. Just be aware that it can go back up. I got taken off meds in March as it dropped so low I collapsed and ended up in emrgency.Last couple of months it has been creeping back up. Last Monday it hit 180/100 so I am now back on meds. The best thing to do is make sure you get it checked regularly.

To the Op. Looking at your ticker you are almost at goal which is great. Your goal appears to be a BMI of approx 28. That is still in the overweight range. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, so long as you are happy that is great. I am trying to help you understand the change in your parents attitude. As a teenager with a BMI of 28 you WERE overweight. They were concerned about you and rightly so as your weight did continue to increase. Now you have a BMI of 28 after having had one of 42 of course you look great. So it's all relative.(excuse the pun)!

Elcee, I think we actually do agree but it is probably in the way it comes across. You acknowledge that you are using your band the way it is intended.So yes you are doing the work but you are being aided and assisted by your band.So what you have is a successful team and we all know the importance of teamwork. The way some posts come across it is as if the band does nothing and that the people could have done just as well without which in most instances is untrue. It is a bit like making a dress(sorry its the only anaology that springs to mind at the moment). You could make the entire thing by hand or you could use a sewing machine. Either way you have still made the dress, you still deserve all the credit but having the sewing machine made the job a lot easier.

I get them quite often.My son laughs at me as they are such HUGE hiccups. Sometimes they can mean you are full or close to full but sometimes they are a signal to slow down, leave a bit of time between bites etc.

The thing that gets me is the number of posts that say that their band has done nothing they have done all the work. Yeah right. If that were true how come they weren't successful in losing and maintaining the weight loss preband. Yes the band is a tool that is useless if we don't work it correctly but it is a fabulous tool that makes the whole process so much easier.People should give credit where it is due and stop being so negative about the band.

And the band did nothing? It didn't help you to be satisfied on much smaller portions . It didn't help control the inbetween hunger. So why do so many of us bother getting the band if it does NOTHING! I appreciate that you are trying to encourage the OP which is great. But I hate it when people turn around and say that they did all the work - the band did nothing. If that is the case how come we weren't able to lose and maintain the loss preband? How did so many of us end up obese or worse? Yes the band is a tool but it is the tool that is helping me to win the battle.

The only problem I had was that it went down far too easily. It is definitely a slider food.

Mine sounds like water going down a drain. Generally it doesn't mean I am hungry. The funniest was last week when I had to go for fasting blood tests, it was so loud the phlebotomist could hear it!

I think you must be referring to the sleeve. It is the first part of the bypass op so could be referred to as a mini bypass but it is now used as a stand alone surgery. This procedure is available in Australia.

What is the mini lapband? I've never heard of it?

Just had a seriously weird moment whilst grocery shopping. Some guy looked at the stuff in my trolley and asked if I was feeling hungry. I said no I have a teenage son so he replied that he was wondering how I managed to stay so slim! Yes it may have been an NSV but it also felt a bit weird and creepy.

1.30am OMG! Wasn't it darker than normal. Or quieter - no birds singing etc? Are you jetlagged or something. I agree with Elfie - that is funny. Are you sure it's not the band's fault? Maybe you didn't eat enough so you woke up hungry - or it caused reflux or something! LOL. I thought once you had a band that it was responsible for every problem thereafter(or at least if you read some threads then you would think it is)! In my house I blame my husband for everything!

Restriction - sweet spot whatever you want to call it is not about seeing how much or how little you can eat before you feel full. To test to see how much you CAN eat would be dumb(your words). Ideally with a band you should be able to eat ANY food.Yes some foods are more difficult than others and some people find they cannot eat certain things but you cannot test restriction by whether or not you are able to eat something. I think a lot of people believe that they will hit a point where they have a lightbulb moment where they suddenly think wow this is it. In reality it is not like that at all. With a band being full is different. You should not be aiming for full you should be aiming for satisfied. If you can eat a small portion of the correct foods e.g protein/veg and maybe carb and feel satisfied and not get hungry again for 3 - 4 hours then YOU HAVE RESTRICTION. Most bandsters need to eat more than 3 times per day and that is fine so long as the snack is planned and healthy. If you are looking at restriction as only being able to eat a couple of bites of food , 3 times per day and not feel hungry in between then you will end up being too tight. When you are too tight you cannot eat properly so you resort to high cal slider fioods that do not fill you up and you PUT ON weight. It is also dangerous to be too tight as you can slip your band, get reflux etc. Hope this helps.

Elfie maybe it is the high protein diet? Maybe it doesn't suit you. Not everybody responds to every diet the same way.Are you doing low fat as well - if not maybe the calories are higher than you think - or maybe you are still eating too many carbs for a high protein diet. Don't know what else to suggest.

Relax - I am sure your band is fine. It probably means you need an adjustment. Not sure why you say you can't afford one. In Australia they are covered by Medicare and you only end up with an out of pocket fee of around $20.

Good luck If it was me I would get the band replaced, just because it slips once doesn't mean it will happen again. Or i would revise to a sleeve. I know that there is no way I could maintain without some kind of help. Why did you go for the upper GI if you had no symptoms? What made the Dr think that the band had slipped?

It's just another diet. You shouldn't need to do this.

You should still see your Dr at least once a year.

It sounds as though your band is working fine. Even when it feels like you are doing the work it is something that you probably wouldn't have been able to do preband.Having a band requires permanent diet and exercise changes - the band just helps you to stick to that because it helps to reduce your hunger. When you say you have no restriction what do you mean? If you eat the recommended amounts of proper food do you feel satisfied(not full) and are you able to go 3- 4 hours without feeling hungry?

The simple answer to this is YES. In Australia fluoroscope is almost never used except when there is a suspected problem. I have been banded since 2 June last year and have never had a fluoro. In all that time I have only had one small overfill. It should be pointed out though that Dr's here prefer to fill slowly they do not use the aggresive approach that a lot of Dr's in the US seem to prefer.

I can eat all those things just in small quantities.

It could be that you can't get or keep anything down. Sometimes it is a sudden loss of restriction. The ability to eat a lot more than previously. It all depends on how badly it has slipped.Sometimes it can be fixed by unfilling the band for a couple of weeks. Sometimes it is necessary to replace or reposition the band.

__________________ There seems to be a lot of pressure for people to resume sex before they are comfortable with it because of the poor partner, the above being just one example. If you are ready for sex 2 days after surgery great, if it takes you 2 months or longer that is also great. I believe that you should be making yourself a priority. Believe it or not no man ever died from a lack of sex and if he is "suffering" he can always go and visit Mrs Palmer and her 5 daughters. have sex when you feel ready - not when you feel obliged to because your poor partner is suffering!

How many long term sleevers are there out there? I think the answer is not many as sleeving is still a relatively new procedure.So I think if you asked the same question on the sleeve board you would have the same difficulties. Most of the sleevers seem happy but remember there are a relatively small number of them and NONE of them have been sleeved long term. I am not knoocking the sleeve surgery just pointing something out if you want to compare apples with apples. And there are people who have had a sleeve that have had complications. Plus there seem to be a fairly high number of them that have issues with reflux. Funny as reflux is often the reason people switch from the band to the sleeve. Hope you manage to work out which surgery will be best suited to your needs.