dandeegan

Thanks for the replies! I still ask though... Let's say I fast forward to a year from now. I'm eating dinner with my family and I get full. Will I feel full the same way I've always felt full, or is it "different" like it is now? Right now it's an artificial full, a "pressure". It's not a very satisfying feeling.

Hello all, I am trying to find out some definitive answers regarding pouch stretching. I can find answers to questions such as 'how hard is it to stretch the pouch', 'is it permanent when a pouch is stretched or can i shrink it back down', 'how do i know if my pouch is stretched' and so on, but the answers vary. I was banded a little over two years ago now and my weight loss stopped at roughly 60lbs. I haven't really lost any in a while and I actually gained some back after a bit after hitting the 70lb mark. 60lbs is a decent amount and I worked my butt off for it, but I am a pretty big guy and could stand to lose another 100 haha. Like many people on here I feel like I've lost touch with the band, or feel like it doesn't really work anymore and I often wonder if my pouch is stretched, or I have slippage or something. Hopefully it's just paranoia. When I try to read up on pouch stretching, some people/sites say that it happens if you overeat. Other sites say that you can't really stretch the pouch because it's in an inelastic part of the stomach that doesn't really stretch, and you'll vomit if you eat that much well before you can stretch the pouch. Some say once it's stretched your screwed. Others say that it shrinks back down. Well, which is it? I got my band at University of Pennsylvania that has a huge bariatric division with bigwig surgeons and zillions of dollars in resources. Even they say that it is extremely difficult to stretch the pouch. The bottom line of this post is that lately I've really been wanting to get back into lap-band culture (for lack of a better term). It pretty much feels like it's not even there anymore, and I'd really like to start using it again if I can. I'm trying to get affirmation that it's not too late, my pouch and band are ok and I can start over. Unfortunately, I am without health insurance and in a financial situation where I'd need to decide between making my car payment or going to UPenn for a checkup. I don't even want to know what an upper GI would cost out of pocket. I'd probably get evicted if I got one! So I hope to get some insight from you guys on this in the meantime

Corrigan your avatar makes me LOL

My last fill was sometime in April, 2010. Right before I lost my health insurance. I have food get stuck pretty often, actually. Sometimes it even leads to the ol' finger down the throat to make me heave it out.

This is indeed true. I wasn't looking for you guys to tell me if my band is stretched, I'm more or less looking to see if anyone knows what the real (or at least most commonly known) answer is in regards to stretching. Does it or does it not? Does it shrink back or doesn't it? Things like that. Thanks Dave, that information is great. I did see the 5 day test and am looking into doing it. Already have it printed out You lost 120lbs in less than a year? That's extraordinary.

Hello all, I was banded 9/15/09. To keep a potentially long post short and to the point - Things were great at first. I was motivated, losing weight, following protocol. I lost about 50 pounds or so in the first 4-5 months. Fast forward to now - Weight loss has completely stopped at roughly 65 pounds. I work out like a fiend, I'm active in martial arts, and my band is filled pretty much to it's max (at least it was). I feel like I can eat almost as much as before my surgery now. All day long I think about how I want to rip this thing out of me because it does nothing but make me feel weird on occasion, and once or twice a week I need to puke something up because it's stuck. I am worried to death that my pouch is all stretched out or something. Sometimes, I still get full quickly (especially when I follow the rule and do not drink while I eat). Other times, I can eat just as much as everyone else around me and I get concerned. All in all, any success I have now I feel like it should be credited towards my exercise, not the lap band. I lost my health insurance about a year ago and stopped going in for checkups. I simply can't afford to eat the cost of an upper GI. If I were still able to be full after a tiny portion of food I would roll with the lap band thing, feeling like I made the right decision getting it done. I suppose what I am concerned about is the fact that I feel like I can eat too much. Since I can't go get it checked on I came here for some words of wisdom and/or support. Does anyone else feel like something is wrong when they can eat too much, so long after their surgery with a supremely tight fill? Or, should i walk around feeling like my pouch is stretched?

Hi everyone, My name's Dan. I'm 33 years old from NJ. I've always been a bigger guy but was always athletic and in decent shape. After college though, I blew up like someone had a bike pump attached to me. I went from 265 to 390 in about 12 years. As my title states, I was banded on 9/15. My first fill is on Monday Oct. 19th and I can't wait for it! I'm looking forward to fully healing and being able to work out again, with a restricted band and a regular diet. I'm assuming that's when the weight loss will really kick in. I'm also looking forward to taking my shirt off at the beach again without comparing the size of my boobs to all the ladies around me! I was banded at the hospital of UPENN in Philadelphia. They crank out lap bands like crazy. At my info session there must have been about 50 people in the room. 50 large, large people. I felt right at home lol. Anyway, my weight at surgery was 390lbs. For whatever reason, they did not make me go on any kind of pre-surgery diet. Unfortunately, I took advantage of this and ate everything in sight up until the night before surgery. I kind of went on a tour of all the foods I loved but would no longer be able to gorge myself into oblivion on. I'm almost 5 weeks out now (getting my first fill in 5 weeks instead of six. If they think it's ok then I suppose it is. They've yet to steer me wrong), and I'm down to 364lbs as of last Sunday. I only weigh myself once a week now. At first it was multiple times a day and it only frustrated me. I know it's not healthy or the right way to do it, but I feel like I want to see a 10lb weight loss every time I step on the scale. When I don't see that, I feel like I'm doing something wrong. You know how it goes! Hopefully tomorrow I'll see another pound or two gone. I suppose right now I'm in what seems to be called "bandster hell". I have an empty band and my stomach is no longer swollen, so I'm able to eat alot more than I was a couple of weeks ago. It's frustrating and a little scary. Luckily, I have no real cravings for anything that bad anymore. I used to live off of cheesesteaks, fast food and pizza. Now when I want to eat I really don't feel like heading to McDonalds or anything of the sort. There seems to be a mental and emotional change following this. Now I look at calories on the package. Now I drink juice or Water and don't think "I wish this was soda". Whenever I eat something that's not healthy, I get a little nervous and feel guilty about it. Despite this hell period, the empty band and healed stomach, I still can't eat as much as before. They told me I'd have almost no restriction during this time. Not true. I couldn't even fathom eating as much I could pre-op right now. Maybe half of it. I can't wait to see what it's like to have a restricted band! A couple of times I ate too much and felt uncomfortably full. When that happens I worry that I'm stretching out my pouch. I chalk that up to paranoia, because getting full like that a few times isn't going to cause that. Speaking of paranoia, don't get me started on the blood clot paranoia! For the first 3 weeks or so, any ache or pain I got convinced me I had a blood clot and was going to die. Am I alone in that? Sorry for the long intro, but this is the first time I've had a chance to really talk about what's going on. I don't have anyone that knows what this is like :thumbdown: Looking forward to getting healthy with you all! PS - how does one change the coloring of the letters in their little ticker thing? Mine are white and I can barely read them! I saw no options to do it in the ticker editor thing.

Add me please! Sept 15th

You'll be fine. All that will change once you get fills. I haven't had my first fill yet either and I'm experiencing similar things. Granted, like I said in my intro post I can't eat as much as I did, but as time goes on I can eat more and more. Bandster hell as the cliché goes. Think of it this way - if you feel like you've had nothing done consider it a blessing right now. I'm five weeks out, have big itchy scars, feel a weird bulgy thing where my band is, and have all kinds of weird aches and pains all over the place most of the time. It's not as bad for me as I'm making it sound. My point is I DEFINITELY feel like I've had something done lol.

If your doctor wants you to get the surgery and is willing to work with you, make sure he accentuates any "co-morbidities" you may have like back pain, high blood pressure, diabetes (or risk of getting it), high cholesterol, family history of cholesterol or heart problems, sleep apnea... you get the idea. The key is to submit any health issue you have that could be attributed to obesity. Insurance companies love seeing that there's alot of other issues that can be cured by approving you... it's less money they'll have to spend on you long-term. If you have 6 months of weight management and don't lose a pound, it will only help in getting you covered. My doctor listed every conversation that we had about my weight (in which he told me to work out and eat right), and it counted as far as Aetna was concerned. It should count for you too! The good news is this can be back-dated. You don't need to start the 6 months now (well, in my case it worked out this way). If you have been talking to your doctor about your weight and getting suggestions from him/her, they should be able to use it. The general rule is if you have a BMI of over 40, you do not need co-morbidities to be a candidate. Your weight alone is a health risk. If it's 30-39.999, you need to tack on some side orders of diabetes, hypertension and all the aforementioned things to be a candidate. Of course all this depends on what kind of insurance you have. I have Aetna HMO and I had absolutely 0 issues getting approved.

I did not have to do this. I have Aetna HMO, and other than the tests I had to get done (sleep study, pulmonary function, stress test, upper GI, and so on) the only thing that was required was paperwork from my primary care doctor. He had to submit my "weight loss management history" IE documentation of how he's worked with me on weight loss for 6 months. He also had to write that necessity letter. Once all that got submitted I was approved in a week. This was with a 50 BMI, sleep apnea and high blood pressure though.