if only

Eileen,

So sorry to hear that you have been having difficulty with fills as well. Hope that your appointment on Monday goes much easier for you. I know that it is an awful feeling to have them digging around for the port. Haven't gotten any response on this thread, but did a bit of research myself about massage and scar tissue.

Yes, you can break up scar tissue through massage. I have been working on my port area any chance i think of it. (translation = alot of the time I read to massage the area to the point between discomfort and unbearable pain. not too much, not too little. i have found that this massage does make me tender in the port area, but not too bad and it has been getting easier. i use back and forth (cross hatch) technique with both my fingers and sometimes my knuckles. my hope is to absorb some of this scar tissue so that my port will be accessible. i'll find out in three weeks if it has been effective. i'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

my doc also told me that my port moved around alot. don't know about you but i was thinking that perhaps my port is moving due to the intense amount of pressure exerted on it while he's looking for a fill. (geez!) when he opened me up to look at my port, he said everything looked great except for the scar tissue. perhaps that would be alot more reassuring if the band was working properly! as it stands, scar tissue is enough of an issue for me...

hope any of this info helped. please keep me informed with how things go for you. even though we are across a vast ocean, perhaps we can be of some comfort to eachother by learning about and sharing our experiences.

on a side note, my grandfather was born in ireland and we still have family there. i've always wanted to visit your beautiful country and hope to make it there soon!

warmest regards,

Allie

hi Allie

lovely to hear from you.

I have good news! I went to the Belfast clinic on Monday and I am sure someone must have been praying for me....the specialist nurse tried 4 times to access my port and wasn't able to, so she said that 'the professor' happened to be in the clinic for a consultation with another patient. he got into my port first time and gave me another 2 mls in my 14 ml band! there was no mention this time about scar tissue or moving port! I think that I may have been dealt with by inexperienced/incapable fill nurses.

he has recorded on my records exactly where my port is and tells me I should have no more problems, the relief as i'm sure you will appreciate, is enormous.

I now have good restriction and I am starting to think that things are going to get better for me from now on.

have you had your next fill appointment yet? I hope your surgeon is able to get into your port so that things can get moving for you too. I know how despairing this whole thing can get, we put so much hope into this operation and any setbacks are just terrible to deal with. I know my problems with my band were starting to take over my mind completely, I hope and pray that your scar tissue does not come back and your massages work. please let me know how you are getting on.

which part of Ireland did your grandfather come from? I live in Co tyrone which is in Northern Ireland. I have never been to America, like you, I hope to go someday, perhaps when I win the lottery!

Hi

I was banded on 25 Aug and I had a rocky start after I had my first fill, I was given 6 mls in a 14 ml band, it was too tight and I was referred for an unfill .

the unfill was unsuccessful and very painful and I was told my port had moved and I would probably need more surgery. I then lost restiction completely and was sure I had a leak I was very upset and thought I had made a terrible expensive mistake.

HOWEVER, 2 days ago, my provider arranged for a Professor of medicine (no less !) to examine me, he was able to manipulate my port and gave me another fill of 2mls, I now have 8mls in a 14 ml band.

I am now on track again and feel that I have a good restiction, I am looking forward to loosing weight again (I put on 3-4 lbs when I was in the depths of despair!)

I wish I had perservered with the too tight fill at the start, I now know it would have eased off and I could have saved myself and my family loads of worry.

I am now feeling really positive and I KNOW that this will work for me, I have not started any exercise yet (I know, shame on me!) but I am now ready to get my a** in gear and put in a better effort:thumbup:

thanks for your good wishes.

I rang the hospital today and they have arranged a barirum(sp?) x ray for me tomorrow, it's possible I may a flipped port and a leak somewhere from all the proding at my attempted unfill earlier in the week. the hospital says that if this is the case I will have to go for more surgery.

I was very down and upset about this when I heard but now i have decided that all this is a blip along the way and I have to get on with it!

my daughter (who is a hairdresser) has just 'done' my hair and I have decided to tidy myself up, put on some make-up and some happy music and not let things get to me anymore. what is to be, is to be and there is very little I can do to change things.I am gonna put a happy smile on my face and cheer up, i'm fed up being miserable!

:thumbdown:

oh Allie! I thought that I was the only one this has happened to!

I had my first fill last SAturday and the nurse had an awful bother getting into my port, it was extremely painful but she did give me a fill. unfortunately, I have been overfilled and I had to schedule an emergency unfill yesterday in Dublin, not my usual clinic. the nurse tried for an hour and a half to try to find my port, she said my port had moved to the side and that it was moving everytime she tried to access it. I had such a terrible experience and came back home again without the unfill. she said I had a lot of scar tissue and that the port was very deep (I assume she meant that it was buried in a lot of fat!)

she has referred me back to my usual clinic again next Monday and she is going to arrange for another more experienced nurse to deal with me. I honestly don't think I can go through the experience again. no one mentioned about re-siting my port and having another operation, that must have been dreadful for you.

I don't have an answer to your query but I hope someone else comes along with some good news for you, I will be watching your replies with keen interest.

hang in there!

I went to my neice's wedding Jan 09 and felt awful, the outfit I wore made me look twice as fat as I was and I felt I looked 20 years older than I was, I sat in the corner like an old woman and was too ashamed even to go to the ladies.

my brother in law is having a 40th birhday party in Nov this year and even though I will still be far from my goal weight, I want to get a new outfit and get up and dance , have fun and feel better about myself.

I usually go abroad each year with a few of my slim girlfriends, my next holiday is going to be so different! I am going to go for long walks and not get exhausted, I am going to wear nice clothes for dinner each evening.

my long term goal is to have my daughters proud to say...there's my mum. I know my girls love me to bits and always tell me so, but I would love to have them be proud of me:thumbup:

Eileen, I'm so sorry about your experience!! I had a great experience. They sprayed a numbing solution on my skin so I didn't feel the needle go in, and they did it in front of the xray so they could see liquid going through the band. I have 6cc's in and I have never had any trouble with it at all. Hopefully you will get a better nurse this time!!

thanks Sarah

I had to go to Dublin this morning for my aspiration (unfill) I had a different nurse, she was lovely too but unfortunately after one and a half hours of trying, she couldn't get into my port! I had another really traumatic experience and I am in tears as I write this. apparently my port has turned on it's side and everytime the nurse thought she had located the centre of the port ,it moved. she also said that my port is very deep, I suppose she really means it's buried beneath a lot of fat, the majority of my fat is on my stomach.

she rang through to the main hospital in Birmingham GB for advice and they were considering flying a nurse over here to Ireland to have another go, I honestly don't think I can face it! the pain during the whole procedure was horrendous! I have had 4 children without anesthetic (sp?) and I did not until now consider myself to have a low pain threshold. I now feel an absolute failure and I knew if there would be any complications , I would be the one to have them.

the nurse told me that she has done many LAP-BAND® fills down through the years and she has had only 2 other patients where she could not reach the port, trust me to one of the few difficult ones!

sorry to be such a misery guts today, I probably shouldn't be writing this in case it scares other people off having their first fills, but I feel I need to talk to someone, hopefully someone else understands what this feels like.

:bored:

just an update, I have been in a lot of pain this past 2 days and I rang my provider today to ask for advice, the consultant nurse I spoke to tells me that I am probably overfilled and I would need an aspiration (sp?) this is the same as an unfill . unfortunately, they couldn't take me at my usual clinic in Belfast (which is an hours drive away) until next Monday, I am in too much pain to wait that long, so they say they will take me tomorrow in their Dublin Clinic which is 2 1/2 hours away, thankfully my brother has offered to take me to Dublin in the morning, I can't wait!

I live in a rural part of Ireland (it's gorgeous ) and I am not used to driving through cities so I really appreciate the fact that my brother is doing this for me. it is great to have family support at times like these.

I have currently 6 cc's in a 14cc band, so it will be interesting to see how much they take out. at this stage, I would dearly love to pull the b****y band outta my body right now!:biggrin:

Holy Moly, Eileen. I would definitely ask for someone different next time and I would consider looking around for a different place to get fills!

I had to pay for my WLS myself, and the first 4 fills are included in the package, so I can't really go anywhere else for my fills. the nurse was really nice and I wouldn't want to get her into trouble, I just hope that a different nurse is on the next time I go.

I am feeling very 'out of sorts' since my fill, is it just me being a bad sufferer, or is this normal?

I am feeling very full and uncomfortable although I am managing to drink a Protein drink and some Water. should I persevere and hope this feeling goes away or should I arrange an unfill?

Eileen

I went and got my first fill today!

I'm jealous that some of you guys get a fill with an x-ray and barium swallow. But, my doctor does so many of these, that his nurse must do 10-20 fills/day, so I must say, she knows what she's doing!

I got a numbing shot (which, IMO, wasn't necessary... my threshold for pain is very high, and I've given myself a million shots in the abdomen when I was taking fertility meds!) and then she put 4cc's in band. I was STUNNED. I totally felt the band squeeze up on my stomach to the point of discomfort! I told her so when it happened, and she backed out 2cc's, and then slowly put in 1.5cc, and then I felt that choking feeling again.... so I ended up only getting 3cc's.

I do have an appointment in 2 weeks for another fill, this time, it will be 2cc's. The doctor said I could come back in yet another 2 week's time, and get another 1-2 cc's if I wanted to.

I asked how much fit in the band, and the nurse said 14cc's, but that about 4 of their patients actually have 16cc's in the band. I cannot fathom having 16cc's when I felt that 4cc's closed my stomach completely!

They gave me one of those little chubby bottles of Water (perhaps 8-10 oz) and asked me to drink at least 1/2. If I didn't throw it up, I would be fine with the 3cc's. I drank 3/4 of the bottle, and felt totally FULL. I was just amazed!

Although I haven't been put on any type of food restriction, I've decided to put myself back on liquids for 2 days, and then mushies for 2-3 more before going back to regular foods.

Doctor says I'm exactly 40 pounds down from when I first met him in June. He told me to say goodbye to them, because I'll never see those 40 pounds again :blushing: I did tell him that I gained back 5 pounds from my low of 305 (the day I started eating regular food) and he said it was completely normal, and that some people gain a lot more than that.

I'm just thrilled again....... I hope the 3cc's gives me good restriction until my next fill on October 2nd. The doctor said that the 4cc's might not give me good restriction yet.... but then again, I couldn't handle the 4cc's either!

I'm still amazed at all of this, and feel blessed that I was able to have this surgery!

Karen

hi Karen

I too have a 14cc band and had my first fill today, I had a really surreal experience!

the clinic I go to was REALLY busy and the staff were running all over the place, seemingly confused and under pressure. one lady in the waiting room with me told me that the staff had flights booked for 1.00pm and were running late, my appointment was at 12.15 and this was now 12.30! there were several other ladies in front of me and I started to get worried. I was eventually seen at 1.00pm ( they must have missed their plane or else someone was winding me up!)

so by then , I was rightly stressed!

the nurse called me in and she was really nice but didn't know much about me or details of my band, but I thought..... ach she is very busy.

she asked me what my band size was and I explained that this was my first fill, as she was lying me down on the table, she said she didn't think I needed a band, I looked well and didn't seem too overweight, I looked at her in horror, i'm 5' 5'' and 229 lbs! was she an imposter? was she really a nurse? was she wise at all? of course i'm fat! I would not have gone through all of this if I hadn't been fat!

anyway.....she lay me down and told me she really enjoyed giving injections and asked did I enjoy getting them? again, what was I dealing with???

I am very nervous about needles and asked if she was going to numb the area, nope! she had me raise my feet up and started feeling for my port...couldn't find it and asked ME to tell her where it was!! well by this stage, I wasn't full of confidence. she hoked and poked about and finally found the port, OMG did it hurt! she injected the saline and I asked her how much she was putting in, about 3cc or so she said and then promptly removed the needle and stuck a plaster on. OK she said, have a drink of Water so that you can feel the restriction, I drank a glass of water and felt nothing! I asked her what was I supposed to feel and she said I should have felt the band tightening, nope! she then asked if I wanted to try for more, I reluctantly said yes and we went through the whole palava again. OMG I thought, what am I doing to myself? I didn't think that this was going to be like this.

anyway, I now have 6, yes! 6 cc's in and although I can drink water easliy enough, I feel as if there is a vice around my stomach! i'm dreading this blooming band tightening even more and I am not looking forward to eating food. the clinic advises fluids for 3 days and mushies for 3 days.

what does everyone else think about my first fill experience? I wonder was it really the cleaner in disguise LOL:eek:

I was banded on aug25 and I am still off work, I went to see my own GP and he insists that I stay off for another 4 weeks, he says I need to stay to prepare myself and body for my new life changes. personally I feel OK to go back to work and feel quite guilty for not going back, however, I have to travel a good distance to get to my job and my job is very stressfull. I am rarely off sick and my employer (government job) will pay me for up to 6 months full pay, so I suppose I should take advantage of my doctors advice, I do think he is being over cautious though:unsure:

Seriously that's what the nurse told me! She said the doctor stands between your legs to do the surgery!

omg your too funny!!! I just don't want to trade in my soldier boy!!! I want to keep him, and be around for many years to aggrevate him.. hehe.. hence the surgery!:smile2:

I need a younger man too but i'm afraid my 'ole boy' is gonna have to do! I wouldn't know what to do with a younger man now !:thumbup:

Hi there

I am a 53 year old female with two teenagers and a husband. I am a teacher and have been in the same school district for 24 years. I love my job and feel so fortunate to have a career that I actually enjoy every single day. I have had a wonderful life so far with the exception of my weight which of course leads to poor health, which then leads to negative thoughts and feelings.

My weight is my center. If I have control of what I eat for one whole day, my persona changes drastically.

On August 6, 2008, I had lap band surgery here in New Jersey. It wasn't easy for me as I have never had surgery before. I was most concerned that I would not "wake up". Well obviously, I did and here I am 9 months later with a weight loss of 84 pounds. It's quite an accomplishment. I love the number, but more important, I love the control.

Please feel free to contact me anytime; I would love to share thoughts and feelings about my new lap band life.

I look forward to hearing from you lauslin

hi my name is Eileen and I live in N Ireland, I would really apprciate a mentor to help me on my journey. about me, I am 51 years old and I was married 30 years yesterday to my DH yea! a hard slog, but we made it!

we have 4 wonderful daughters aged 26,24,21 & 17 and our wee grandson Odhran (it;s an Irish name pronouced Oran ,h15e is 4 years old and the light of our eyes!

I had my band on August 25 09 and I am still at the mushies stage, I am due to have my first fill on Saturday, i'm both dreading it and looking forward to it.

I have so far lost 22lbs and I am delighted, I do have a long way to go, I would like to get dwn to 151

any help or support from you would really be appreciated

I know a lot about fertility due to my goal to have a child. I am single... 45... have done a lot of research on what happens when in a cycle.

I have always had clockwork periods, my worst problem is finding a man!! I like to say I am sperm deficient! I would rather use donor sperm with an origin rather than having my child's story read "I walked into a bar one night... ".. :sad:

At 42 I did IUI's, and one IVF using my own eggs and donor sperm. However now at 45 (46 when I do it) I am going to look toward donor egg due to my age and donor sperm. The statistics for success are FAR greater. Several of my friends have done the alternative route (whether it be adoption, single parent by choice) and are all very happy. Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands! I am so lucky there are options! If I find a man later... that will be great! But no longer will I be looking for a baby-daddy at the get-go!

Anyway.. that is one of my reasons for losing weight, to have a good pregnancy!

I really hope all your efforts to lose weight pays off and you acheive your dream of a baby! you have one of the best reasons on this site for undergoing WLS and I pray everything will work out for you. I have 4 daughters and a gorgeous wee Grandson who is 4 years old and when life gets tough, I look around and say 'at least I got something right!' my girls are a great comfort to me and they keep me young.

Eileen

thanks for replying.

if you still have good restriction when you are due to have you first fill and you are still losing weight, are going to go ahead with the fill anyway?

Eileen

I'm exhausted. How can anyone have enough energy to exercise when they're only getting 600-800 calories/day? I am getting plenty of Protein. I can get through the day as far as my work and my household go, but if I didn't HAVE to do those things and I had some extra time, I'd be napping, not exercising.

hi Sally,

it's terrible for me to say this...but I am glad to hear this, I am the same! I thought I was just a lazy sod! I have been reading here on this site about all the great folk who have been going to the gym, walking miles etc and I was feeling so envious. I borrowed my brothers snazzy top of the range excercise bike last week with the intention of exercising 30 minutes every night, guess how much I did? 2 mins 30 secs!

I was with my own doctor (we say GP over here) and he does not want me to go to the gym yet, he advises that I take walks at my own pace and not to overdo it yet, I am still off work and my GP insists that I not go back to work for another 4 weeks! he says my body is going through metabolic changes and he doesn't want me to go back until then. I am very lucky, I am still on full pay whilst I am off 'sick' so I suppose I should take advantage of his advice, again, I feel like a lazy sod

hi

I had my band inserted on 25 Aug 09 and I am due to have my first fill next Saturday, the strange thing is...I am not the slightist bit hungry today! I am still in the mushy food stage and when I woke up today, I did not feel like eating, so not like me!

after about 6 hours, I decided I had better eat something and I forced myself to eat some scrambled egg but was very full when eating it. about 5 hours later, I had some of a weightwatchers fish pie. I am stuffed all day!

I have lost about 21 pounds since my first consultation and I am very happy about it

I am wondering if I should have my first fill next week or should I wait? I am self pay and my package includes 4 fills, I don't want to use up my quota of fills unnecessarily, can some please give me some advice? :wink:

Thank you for replying so quickly! Are you making your own Protein smoothies/shakes or are you buying them?

i'm afraid I am being very lazy and buying them, they are made by slim fast and are relatively inexpensive

I am so glad that ppl are replying to this post. I am also happy to see that we all have experienced some of the same symptoms with the shortness of breath and chest pain. Like I said before, it all goes away once you get rid of the gas....lol:smile: Hopefully others will take the time to reply as well. Lets continue to keep in touch throughout our progress.

hi, I was banded on 25 Aug too, I am still quite sore and I could sleep all day, very little exhausts me but that could be my age, I am 51, I discussed my surgery with my own doctor and he won't allow me to go back to work for at least 4 weeks. my surgeon has told me to stay on liquids for 2 weeks so I have been taking slimfast shakes and smoothies which are ok so far