Timinator

Been heavy most of my life.  Always been pretty active but always carried a thick layer of flab along with me.   My wife works with several people who've had LapBand and asked me I'd like to talk with them which I did.   I started looking into it and found out that my insurance wasn't going to cover near as much as they have been starting in '09.  So, I went through all the paperwork and prior doctors care and the LB surgery was done on Dec. 21st 1998.   I never new that threre was no fluid in the band till I came back several weeks later for my first adjustment.   I had three fills over 5 months that made me eat slower and a little less but really didn't prevent me from eating any particular foods.   I'd heard that I shouldn't be able to eat bread and such but if I ate slowly I was able to get down just about everything.   I kept telling the doctor that I can eat too much and anything I want, but the fills for months were just a 1 cc which didn't do anything to curb the amount I could eat.   I finally went in again after about 3 months without a fill and had 1.5 cc put in, I'm at 6.5 now and hello dolly!  I was fine after the fill and for a few days could still eat small abouts of bread type things and most meats but MUCH LESS.  This is was what it was suppose to be like for the last 10 months but I never had enough in there.  Kind of pissed me off the doctor never put enough in.  Anyhow, about 5 days after that last fill I woke up and couldn't eat hardly anything, including protien drinks and had the whole massive slime build up and.... yes.   This happened for about 2 or 3 days and I didn't know what was going on.  I drank fluids and got through it and that's what actually led me to this site.  Honestly, I knew I needed to find out more information than I was getting from occational doctors office visits  and was hoping to find a forum for Lap Band patients.   After reading here for a day or two, I realized what was going on with my fill and eating, what had happened, and what to do about it.  I switched to clear fluids for a couple of days and thinner protien drinks and now again I can eat most things but just in nice small quantities.   Perfect.   Since the fill two weeks ago, I've lost about 10 lbs.  Which seems like a lot but not really when you factor in the several days of liquids.   That just takes off the weight no matter who you are!   So, up till now and the last fill I would say I would not have the Lap Band done again.  But, after finally getting enough fluid in the band, I get full fast and stay pretty full between meals and I can't eat all that much which is what I thought was suppose to happen 10 months ago after surgery.  I've only lost about 30 lbs in those 10 months, which really kind of pisses me off, but I'm sure the next ten months will be different.   BTW, I had never heard of the "sweet spot" before reading this forum.