Humming Bird

:clap: Now you need to get yourself a 100 lb. REWARD ! What will it be?

It doesn't sound like you are too tight at all to me. The point is so you can't eat much. Drink protein shakes and stick with high protein foods to get it in. I still drink a protein shake now and then. Toss some yogurt, ice, strawberries, high protein powder and ice in the blender ..... yum Have some chili with cheese on it.....yum

So, why then do we have different sized hearts? Kidneys? livers? Of course our stomachs are different.

I am so happy for you! Thanks for sharing. You have done so well. :clap: Keep up the good work and enjoy life!

I LOVE this thread! Thanks for starting it. We need the positive inspiration sometimes. I've been banded for over 2 years and maintaining for a long time, but will give the list that comes to mind with things I love about being at a normal BMI. - I no longer have to accept the fact that I will just have to live with being a "big gal" or "the fat chick" - I can get up in my husband's 4x4 truck without all the extra effort and the feeling like my big ol boobs are hitting my chin or cutting off my airway. - I can wear my beautiful wedding rings and could fit in my wedding dress. (I want to be buried in my wedding dress when I die) - I can cross my legs with ease and comfort. - I can walk up stairs or a hill without feeling like I'm going to have a heart attack. - I can wear cute clothes. - No more shopping in the fat old lady section/store. - People treat me better (sad, but true) - I can fit in the seats at the movies and even have extra room on each side. - I feel better when having sex. - I fit so much better behind the wheel when driving. - I have tons of space between me and the table when sitting in a booth. - No more snoring when I sleep. - I can get in a comfy position better to sleep. - I no longer avoid social situations. Oh my gosh! I could go on forever! I love my band!

My noises have gotten much better with time. The first 18 months were pretty bad, but now things are quiet most of the time.

On a normal day I eat more than 3 times a day. It's normal for me to eat 4-6 times. In my mind, none of them are "meals". The word "meal" drives me crazy. I have not had a meal in over 2 years! I can only eat such a small amount at a time I can not wrap my mind around the word "meal". If I only ate 3 times a day I would get under the weight I want to be. I already have so much loose skin I think I would just look older if I dropped too much more weight. It's a personal choice for me. I have never counted calories since the band was placed.

Of course talk to your docs about this. I am not a Dr., but can give you my 2 cents worth. I have fibro and CFS and have had great success with the band. I do not take any Rx meds. The one problem I see is that NSAIDS help the fibro when it flares up and they say to stay away from NSAIDS with the band. The reason for this is that they can cause ulcers if they sit in the pouch. I don't take them often, but when I need to, I take a double dose of Jr. strength liquid ibuprophen. When things get really bad and I need something stronger I disolve Aleve in a bit of Water and take that. (it burns all the way down, but kicks the pain without sitting in the pouch) Over the past few years I came to the conclusion that lowering the stress in my life makes the fibro symptoms much better. Sometimes it is not easy to do, but I try to live by it.

Did they remove all the Fluid at your last fill to measure the total amount ? I have heard a few people over the last couple years say the port was missed so the fluid never went in. 12cc? Do you have realize or another brand? As far as I know, lap-band only makes 10cc & 14cc bands. I reached my sweet spot/green zone with my 2nd fill. They had put some in at surgery and then 2 fills. I was VERY tight at 5.3cc , in a 10cc band for a year. After that only very tiny fills are required about every 10-12 months with me.

It sure does not sound very normal to me. I have never even had a tiny purple spot after a fill, and I bruise easy.

I have been banded over 2 years now. The first year I lost 100 pounds! I did this with zero calorie counting, zero tracking of anything, and zero exercise. I love my band and I love how easy the pounds fell off. I don't "diet". I would get banded again in a heartbeat. I have not had any major complications, and if I ever do, I would beg to have another band if it came to that. I have been on just about every diet known to man and this is what has worked for me. I continue to maintain a normal BMI with the band. This is the first time I have dropped a large amount of weight and kept it off. I think the band is magic! I honestly can not relate to people who say you have to work hard with the band.

Hot liquids is the wrong thing to use for swelling.

In general I keep my restriction level pretty tight. Fills can cause some swelling and if I eat solid food right after a fill it can make the situation worse causing me to stay away from real food even longer. The key for me to be able to eat sooner after a fill is to eat/drink ice cold things right after the fill. I'm talking slush or milkshake type things. I then take it easy the rest of that day with liquid or semi-mushie stuff.

I don't drink while I eat, ever. I'm with honk on this one with the drinking up until I take my first bite of food. I'm also the same as MollyRN and the others with not being able to drink during or after a meal. If it's a rule or not doesn't really matter, I just have to do things the way it works for me. I do like my band restriction fairly tight to keep my weight in check. It really isn't a hardship after being banded for over 2 yrs., it's just a way of life. I have plenty of time to drink between meals.

So, how did the seminar go? Did they ask you many questions? I think it would be really hard to speak about some things because the band is so different with each of us.

I was very sensitive and had to progress very slow. I am still very sensitive to many types of foods and have to do things very slow after a fill. Another thought is that you may have had a fill during surgery. Have you been back to see the surgeon? This would be one of those things you should really talk with him/her about. I would think you should be able to eat at least some mushy stuff at this point.

One of the big misconceptions I'v seen quite a bit is the belief that only Gastric bypass patients have hairloss. A good example of this is when I went with a friend to a support group meeting as part of her pre-op research. There were about 7-8 of us that had already been banded and quite a few people who were researching pre-op. One of the pre-op people asked about hairloss. The director who was running the group, and should know all the details about the band, said, "that only happens to by-pass people, not banded people." One by one, all of us who had already been banded said, "I had hairloss." Many of us had tried everything to prevent it and it still happened.

Over time some of the fluid does go away, through an osmosis type thing. I had 5.3cc in my band, then I went in almost a year later for a fill and he could only get out 4.6cc. I asked if he thought I had a leak. He said "no, it's been a year. I got a fill that brought me back up to 5.2cc. I went back in a few months later (last week). I had this nagging fear that I did have a leak. He removed the fluid and I still had exactly 5.2cc. No Leak. I got a small fill and am now at 5.7cc. I figure that will last me about a year and I would bet in that amount of time some of the fluid will be gone again through osmosis, not a leak.

If I'm going to a nice place I order a glass of wine. I make sure I drink the entire glass of wine before the first bite of any type of food.:martini_shaken::biggrin3: If they have some type of thin soup (like tomato) I get that and then can manage to eat a few scallops or crab. :lunch: If the soup is very chunky I can only eat the soup. Sometimes salad is a good choice for me too.

Your stomach tissue will swell inside the stoma (the opening where food passes through) just from the trauma of surgery. The swelling goes down and you find yourself eating pretty normal. Then you get a fill or 2 or 3 and hope you reach a level of restriction where you are satisfied on very small amounts. There will come a time when you get stuck along the way. The band is very crude and reminds you with pain if you don'ty chew well or eat something you can no longer tolerate. In that sense, it's a "learning tool."

I had 2.7cc at surgery in a 10cc band. All went well and it only took me 2 fills to reach my sweet spot. Congrats on being banded!

Ice reduces swelling in any human tissue. That is why they say put a bag of frozen peas on a black eye to reduce swelling. After surgery That is why they have you put an ice bag on the area. For my first week post-op I was told to only drink ice cold liquids to help the swelling go down faster. I have found that after a fill it helps me to have zero "fill swelling" if I drink something ice cold shortly after a fill (like a slush). It has worked well for me the last few fills. I just had a fill tues. and had zero swelling. I'm pretty tight, so if there were swelling I'd know. Potato chips would not be a good choice, but that goes without saying. Bottom line ..... cold reduces swelling, not heat.

Like I posted above, restriction and green zone/ sweet spot have been the #1 thing that has helped me. When I say basic guidelines I mean VERY basic, like chewing every bite well. I don't chew things to a liquid state or so much I get grossed out, just well chewed. I pick fat free and sugar free when I can. I do not try to eat things that give me trouble. That way I avoid that pain or stuck or slime feeling. I know my full signal and stop eating even if there is only one bite left on my plate. That last bite gets thrown away. I don't count calories and have not since day one. When I have proper restriction, it is pointless because there is just no way I can eat as many calories as I did when I was morbidly obese. I accept the fact that when I am at my sweet spot there are some foods I just can not eat. I'm ok with that. I try to stay active and don't lay around watching TV. Even if it is just cleaning house, it's better than lounging around.

I thought I would really miss some foods more than I do. I was a fast food junkie. I was a junk food junkie. I was a fried food junkie. I can fry anything and make it taste great! After being banded I did miss things like pizza, but I didn't miss them for long. Now the foods I used to "love" don't even sound good. I don't even crave them. Maybe you can relate ......... When my son was a little kid we went on a picnic and a long drive in the mountains. We had potatoe salad and coleslaw. He got car sick and ended up throwing up the potatoe salad and coleslaw. To this day (over 20 yrs later) he will not eat either. They don't even sound good to him. For me, the band works the same way. Not that I have thrown up a lot (a few times over 2 yrs.), but some foods just don't sit well so they no longer even sound good. Bread and fried foods just feel very heavy and yucky when in my pouch, so I don't even crave them.

I think many of us have a time like this and it is upsetting. Keep your head in the game. Sometimes we just need to evaluate ..... Am I slipping into eating high cal stuff? Do I need a little fill? Sometimes it just takes a little mixing it up to make the weight start dropping again. Drink an extra protein shake for 3 days. Drink more water. Change what you are eating if you eat the same thing every day.