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I'd love to do it but my nearest classes are 40km away (one of the downsides to living in a small country town).I've just started a Bollywood dancing class instead. Its great fun but also very fast and hysterically funny when you are as unco as I am!

Wish I could offer you some help but I know nothing about this. I hope you manage to sort this out and hopefully things are not as bad as they sound. All the best

My Dr told me that as the gas isn't in your stomach those kinds of preparations won't work. A good Dr should remove most of the gas before they stitch you up. The prescription pain meds that they give you will sort the gas pain out. I know some people swear they work so maybe there is a placebo effect! I didn't really have gas pains after surgery and the little bit of pain i did have was easily sorted out with the prescription meds.

Yep I would say that as much as you vow to never do it it will happen to you at some stage. For most people more than once. But as the others have said its nothing like vomiting. Vomiting hurts, you feel awful, it tastes gross etc etc. When you PB sometimes its easy, sometimes there is more effort but it is nothing like vomiting. No vile tasting bile. In fact the food tastes the same coming up as it did going down! When I was first told that I didn't believe it but its true.

Yep I saw this as well and was impressed. For once it was a positive report!

You already seem to know what you are doing wrong. I am concerned though that you have said that you have difficulty with solid foods. It sounds as though you are too tight.Slimfast, liquids, other sliders go down easily but do not satisfy you and if this is all you are able to eat you are not using the band properly. Go back to your Dr, get some fill taken out so that you can eat solid foods again.These should satisfy and fill you up for longer and you should start losing weight again. Just remember to follow the rest of the rules e.g no drinking with meals etc. This combined with giving up junk food and exercising should see you become successful. Good luck

Keeping my fingers crossed. They do say 3rd time lucky don't they.

Sorry you are feeling let down. However I am sure that the surgeon has your best interests at heart. Surgery is dangerous and the higher your BMI the more dangerous it is . A BMI of 68 is extremely high.Far better to lose the weight prior to surgery than to die from complications on the table. It is also normal in the US to have to undergo a 6 month supervised diet prior to undergoing surgery . This proves to the insurance company that you are serious and have tried your best and are not just looking for a quick fix. you are not the first person i have heard of that has to do a 4 week preop diet. The purpose of this part of the process is to help shrink the liver. When you are obese the liver is enlarged and fatty. If it is not reduced in size prior to surgery you run the risk of having to have open as opposed to laparoscopic surgery or of it getting damaged during surgery which is highly dangerous. If your Dr suggested a bypass you need to find out why do not just dismiss his suggestion out of hand.Yes there are some Dr's that push bypass because it is their preferred surgery but your Dr may feel that a band would not suit you. With weight loss surgery there is no one size fits all - different surgeries suit different people depending on their types of eating.Bands are generally recommended for people that eat large quantities but do not have as much of an issue with sweets. bypasses are recommended where it is felt that malabsorption is also required. There is another option - the sleeve.I have even heard of people having a bypass and a band combined. Price should not be your deciding factor when choosing a surgeon. I understand that it is important but it is more important to choose an experienced surgeon that has done lots of the procedure that you choose and that has a good track record. Their are countless horror stories of things going wrong when using a cheap or inexperienced surgeon. That is not to say that all surgeons offering cheap surgery are bad but you do need to be careful. This board is a great place for you to vent, get support and do research.Read some of the threads from people that had revisions from lapband to bypass to help you with your decision as well. Wishing you all the best.

You are too tight. You need some Fluid taken out so that you can eat solid foods as these are the ones that sustain you. They allow your band to work and should keep you not hungry(different to full) for a couple of hours. Being too tight means that you can only eat sliders or drink . These can of foods slide past the band easily, are often high calorie and do not sustain you so you quickly become hungry again. Having just a small amount of fluid out can make a huge difference and is not something to be scared off. Being too tight causes or contributes to may problems such as slips and erosion. Hope you sort this out soon and start losing again.

Its normal not to have any restriction at this stage. It commonally takes a number of fills to reach ideal restriction. In the meantime you can still be hungry which is why it is called bandsters hell! There are lots of threads on the topic - look some of them up and you will see what you are experiencing is perfectly normal. Don't stress if you eat slightly more than you should or even if you gain during this period. It is important though that you stop drinking with meals as if you continue to do that your band WON'T be able to work properly. As others have said it's a habit and they are hard to break but it can be done.The sooner you break it the better

Congratulations on your win. I am sure you are both excited and apprehensive. It will be weird going through the process in the spotlight but it will probably help keep you honest to. Good luck with the op and the the rest of the weight loss journey. When you need help lapbandtalk has heaps of info and a very good support network. All the best.

I eat these foods all the time and very rarely have they given me any trouble. With bread I stick to wholemeal types and I quite often toast it. I eat wraps fairly often. At dinner I will have a small serve of pasta/rice or potato with my meal.By including these foods I probably take in less fat and calories than someone who doesn't.Think about it - lets say you are eating something like curry - you will find it more satisfying and eat less of the high fat curry if you have a small spoon of rice with it.

How long is your flight? I had a 24 hour journey on 3 planes in Dec.I didn't take any food with me. I was considering asking for a special soft diet but in the end didn't. I just ate the normal food that they serve and had no problems. Most of it is fairly soft anyway. It may not be gourmetor low fat but it was fine.

I also think that it could be from a lack of some over vitammin or mineral. When the focus is on eating so much protein a lot of other equally important foods are often missed. A variety of different coloured vegies and/or fruits should also be included in a healthy diet.

Best thing to do is call your Dr and get it checked out.It may be a pulled muscle or it could be something to do with your port. You have only recently had the surgery so you need to be very careful what exercise you do at this stage. Things like walking are fine but strenuous stomach exercises could cause problems with the port. It is usually recommended that you allow a certain time after surgery to allow everything to heal before doing this kind of exercise.

Yep this is perfectly normal. Dr gets me to lie down and when she is ready to inject I have to do a small crunch. Just raising head and shoulders - its not that hard and I don't have to hold it for long. She always gets the port first time.

Sometimes you can just make it come back up. Some people recommend guzzling a fizzy drink really quickly but if you do this you need to make sure you are near a toilet as apparently it comes back up really fast. If I am really stuck and the object isn't moving i find sticking a toothbrush down my throat helps. I know this all sounds gross but its really not that bad. Nothing like vomiting but until you have experienced it for yourself it is difficult to understand.

I thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of what you ate on an average day prebanding to what you eat on an average day now that you are banded. Here is mine. Pre Banding Before Breakfast 1 cup of tea and 2 - 3 biscuits(cookies) Breakfast Large bowl of Cereal e.g Sultana Bran 1 - 2 slices wholemeal toast with low fat spread and vegemite. Mid Morning Cake or chocolate bar or packet of crisps lunch Sandwich with 2 or 3 slices wholemeal bread, ham, cheese etc Afternoon More biscuits dinner Meat/Chicken or fish Pasta/Rice or potatoes Veg Couple of glasses of wine Sometimes Dessert Evening A couple of squares of chocolate. I also used to be back and fore to the fridge snacking on things such as ham,pickled onions etc. Strangely I was convinced that I didn't eat that much. Now post band. before breakfast 1 cup of tea Breakfast 1 poached or dry fried(whole)egg on 1 slice wholemeal toast with low fat spread and vegemite. Sometimes I add a slice of ham or smoked salmon to this. If I am in a hurry I will have an Up and Go or muesli and greek yogurt instead. Mid morning Usually nothing. If I am hungry a couple of crackers or a 100 cal muesli bar. Lunch Small tin of tuna with a couple of crackers or 1 wrap with ham & salad or 1 toasted sandwich Mid Afternoon Greek yogurt with cinnamon & sweetner or nestle Diet mousse or slice of ham or cheese with a couple of crackers or a very small portion of nuts/seeds Dinner Same as before but much smaller quantities Wine at weekends only Evening Sometimes I will eat yogurt if I didn't eat it earlier in the day. Occaisonally I will eat things like chocolate but certainly not on a daily basis. If I have cake it is a taste rather than a large piece and I have given up my biscuit (cookie) habit. I know that a lot of you are going to look at this and be shocked. Yes I still eat carbs but here in Australia that is what our surgeons encourage us to do - we do not have the same focus on Protein that there is in the US. looking forward to seeing other peoples comparisons.:w00t:

If you are concerned the best thing to do is call or see your Dr. Probably the discomfort is related to being ill and your oesophagus is probably swollen. The best thing to relieve anything that is swollen is rest and ice(if its external then compression and elevation as well but your throat is internal)! Don't try eating/drinking at the moment, rather suck on icechips. They are cool and soothing and they seem to work wonders with a sore inflamed throat. Hope you feel better soon.

I'd say you are not quite stuck as a stuck episode normally lasts a lot longer than 30 secs. I would take this as a warning that you are probably taking bites that are too big/not chewing well enough and that potentially you could have a real stuck episode soon. Reassess what and how you are eating so that hopefully you don't get stuck as take it from me being stuck is really unpleasant.

Oh of course! Us successful bandsters let strange men play with our boobs all the time. Didn't you know that was part of the process! LOL. Only joking

Its not the Dr Huacuz bit that I have a problem with!

Glad you're OK Laura. This whole situation sounds incredibly strange and somewhat unbelievable to me.

Thanks Mimi

I am about 2lb away from the original goal that I set myself. My surgeon didn't really give me a goal - they seem to regard you as successful once you have a BMI within the normal range so they have been satisfied with my loss for months. If I stay at this weight I will be happy but wouldn't mind if I lost a bit more. I feel so much better than I did when I started this process. I can fit into normal clothes and look OK. I no longer hide behind the camera. I love my band.