lauragshsu

Just out of curiousity, how much are you filled six months out?

Well, luckily I was just overfilled. The band was still in place and working well. They took out almost a whole CC, so I'm at 2.25cc. However, the pushed so hard on my port site, it caused me to bleed through my (still not closed) incision.

Sometimes I know it's my fault. But most of the time, I might take one or two bites and it comes back up. It's not even regurgitating (where it comes back up without any "help" from me). My Dr said if I'm vomiting (where I have to physically force the food back up) and I'm not pregnant (nope!) and not sick (nope!) there's probably something wrong. Hoping the band hasn't slipped.

lost 85 since 3/15 surgery, but having issues. I went in on 9/10 to have afill because I was hungry a lot between meals . The Dr said she actually thought I was overfilled because I was vomiting once or twice a week. She told me if I vomited any more (she slightly unfilled me) that I should get a fluoroscope. I vomited three times in a week, so I scheduled the fluoro. I have it Wednesday to see if I'm (still) overfilled, or if the band has slipped.

I was doing yard work five days post op if that helps any :thumbup:

I'm so close (15.2lbs, which equals out to a little more than a pound a week). Unfortunately, I'm having band issues and go in for a fluro on Wednesday. I had an appt on the 10 (I was hungrier and though I needed a fill). I actually came away with having some Fluid taken out. The physicians assitant thought I was overfilled because I would vomit maybe once a week. Well, a week later I'm still vomiting and she scheduled the flouro to see if everything is ok.

I tried the Protein shot (got the fruit punch variety at Walmart). They tasted like bitter cough Syrup and I was gagging.

In ten weeks, we've lost over 500lbs. Five HUNDRED pounds.

I'm battling weight loss right now. I have been good with the little amount in my band (only 2.5CC so far after a slight unfill in June). Suddenly, though, I have been starving and could eat a house! I don't have a fill scheduled until next Friday (They hold weird hours and had to ask "special permission" for me to come in at 5pm since I work during their normal hours). Accodring to the scale I have gained a pound and a half. I trying to get rid of it and keep it off until next week. This sucks.

How is everyone doing? 17 weeks left!

I got a fill at the first of May and had to have a slight unfill 6 weeks later because it suddenly got way too tight. They only took out .3cc, but it made a huge difference. I was actually having sharp stabbing pains anytime I ate or drank anything. The Dr said he's seen people who haven't had a fill in over a year suddenly get too tight.

My diet was 2 weeks of Protein Shakes and Clear Liquids only (no yogurt, pudding, etc). I laughed when I started having pink diarrhea because of all the crystal lite I was drinking.

I had my pcp appointment (to get my referral) November 25, had approval Feb 26, surgery March 15. I probably could have had surgery sooner, but I had problems finding a psychiatrist for my psych eval that would take my insurance (I have tricare), and that took six weeks.

My preop diet was Clear Liquids only (basically chicken broth), plus 3-5 Protein Shakes a day. I didn't lose any either, and I was on it for two weeks! Don't worry so much. How long have you been on the preop diet? How often are you weighing yourself?

Is it the crust that you have to avoid eating or the whole pizza? What if I eat the pizza but avoid the crust, will that help?

That's the thing- you won't know until you get into it. Some people can eat all of the pizza (toppings, dough and crust) with no problems. Other people, such as myself, can only eat the toppings.

I haven't had many surprises, just two.

I wish I had known that your band can become way too tight, even months after a fill, and you could require and emergency unfill.

I wish I had known my incision could pop back open (I only have a single incision), and that it would take for-friggin-ever to close back up again (still slightly open almost 5 months post op).

I had my first referral appt with my PCP on Nov 25 and had surgery March 15. It probably would have been sooner than that, but my insurance kept referring me to psychiatrists that didn't take my insurance, didn't work with adults, didn't do psych evals or were dead. That in itself took six weeks, so I probably could have been banded the first week of February.

I think most of us have had issues with our band. I'm almost 5 months post op and have had a slew. Ihad my first fill 4 weeks post op. Three days later, I had to have a complete unfill because I couldn't swallow my saliva. 4 weeks after that, I was refilled with a bit less saline (2.8 instead of the initial 3.5). Life was great, except my incision (I had a single incision through my belly button) popped back open and I had a lot of body Fluid leakage. It's still open because it's taking it's ever-loving time closing again. On father's day, I was taken to the ER with severe abdominal pain. Turns out the bronchitis I had had the previous two weeks had been so bad that the coughing popped an interior stitch out. Two weeks after that, I had to have another slight unfill because my band had suddenly become too tight and I was having stabbing chest pains whenever I ate or drank (I'm currently at 2.5 cc). I PB/slime sometimes almost daily, but at least 5 times a week.

I swear it feels like a war going on inside my body. However, this is a fight I want to win. This is a fight for my life.

Welcome to all our new people!

6 weeks in and we've lost 329lbs! Way to go, everyone!

I'm having a rough period, but it's different from yours. Most days I feel like I can eat anything, want to snack a lot, etc. When I eat, though, I eat so little because I'm having issues with things coming back up. Sometimes I can eat for several days without a problem. Then BAM, I'm PBing at almost every meal. I'm starting a new job teaching 5th grade soon. I haven't worked since my band (I actually lost my job 4 days before getting my surgery date, back in February!), and haven't had to worry about eating lunch in a short amount of time without PBing. I'm nervous, especially considering the kids eat in class with the teacher. Eeek!

Wow, that was fast. How long were you in surgery for?

I've got 29.2 lbs left of my original 40lb goal- that averages out to 1.5lbs a week needed to make goal. I'm hoping I didn't make my goal too ambitious.

Bumping spreadsheet:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApBMiLjvkwExdEh3eXQwZ2JOemthWHRhaWRZMldpR2c&hl=en&authkey=CIbr1NIE#gid=0

It's after lunch, so everybody is full. Then, in comes a luscious chocolate confection. The sight, the smell—even the sound of the word "cake!"—stimulate the reward-and-pleasure circuits of the brain, activating memory centers and salivary glands as well.

Melinda Beck asks the age-old question: Do you eat to live, or live to eat? Scientists, it turns out, have learned much more about how appetite works in the brain - and the findings have major consequences.

Those reactions quickly drown out the subtle signals from the stomach that are saying, in effect, "Still digesting down here. Don't send more!" Social cues add pressure and permission to indulge. Soon, everybody is having a slice—or two.

Scholars have understood the different motives for eating as far back as Socrates, who counseled, "Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat." But nowadays, scientists are using sophisticated brain-imaging technology to understand how the lure of delicious food can overwhelm the body's built-in mechanism to regulate hunger and fullness, what's called "hedonic" versus "homeostatic" eating.

One thing is clear: Obese people react much more hedonistically to sweet, fat-laden food in the pleasure and reward circuits of the brain than healthy-weight people do. Simply seeing pictures of tempting food can light up the pleasure-seeking areas of obese peoples' brains.

Two Reactions to Cake

Two conferences this week on obesity are each examining aspects of how appetite works in the brain and why some people ignore their built-in fullness signals. Scientists hope that breakthroughs will lead to ways to retrain people's thinking about food or weight-loss drugs that can target certain brain areas.

In a study presented this week at the International Conference on Obesity in Stockholm, researchers from Columbia University in New York showed pictures of cake, pies, french fries and other high-calorie foods to 10 obese women and 10 non-obese women and monitored their brain reactions on fMRI scans. In the obese women, the images triggered a strong response in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a tiny spot in the midbrain where dopamine, the "desire chemical," is released. The images also activated the ventral pallidum, a part of the brain involved in planning to do something rewarding.

"When obese people see high-calorie foods, a widespread network of brain areas involved in reward, attention, emotion, memory and motor planning is activated, and all the areas talk to each other, making it hard for them to resist," says Susan Carnell, a research psychologist at the New York Obesity Research Center at Saint-Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University and one of the investigators.

Similar brain reactions occurred in the obese subjects even when researchers merely said the words "chocolate brownie"—but not when they saw or heard about lower calorie foods such as cabbage and zucchini. Reactions were far less pronounced in the non-obese subjects.

More such studies are being presented in Pittsburgh this week at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. In one, neuroscientists from Yale University's John B. Pierce Laboratory had 13 overweight and 13 normal-weight subjects smell and taste chocolate or strawberry milkshakes and observed their brains with fMRI scans.

The overweight subjects had strong reactions to the food in the amygdala—the emotional center of the brain—whether they were hungry or not. The healthy-weight subjects showed an amygdala response only when they were hungry.

"If you are of normal weight, your homeostatic mechanisms are functioning and controlling this region of the brain," says lead investigator Dana Small. "But in the overweight group, there is some sort of dysfunction in the homeostatic signal so that even though they weren't hungry, they were vulnerable to these external eating cues."

Studies have found that a diet of sweet, high-fat foods can indeed blunt the body's built-in fullness signals. Most of them emanate from the digestive tract, which releases chemical messengers including cholecystokinin, glucagon-like peptide and peptide YY when the stomach and intestines are full. Those signals travel up to the brain stem and then the hypothalamus, telling the body to stop eating.

Obesity also throws off the action of leptin, a hormone secreted by fat tissue that tells the hypothalamus how much energy the body has stored. Leptin should act as a brake against overeating, and it does in normal-weight people. But most obese people have an overabundance of leptin, and somehow their brains are ignoring the signal.

All these findings beg the question, which came first? Does obesity disrupt the action of leptin, or does a malfunction in leptin signaling make people obese?

Similarly, are some people obese because their brains overreact to tempting food, or do their brains react that way because something else is driving them to overeat? Researchers at Yale and elsewhere are turning to such questions next. "It's possible that these changes reflect how the brain has adapted to eating patterns in obese people, and that could create a vicious circle, putting them at risk for even more disordered eating," says Dr. Small.

There are plenty of other metabolic mysteries, too: Why are some "foodies" who get intense pleasure from eating able to stop when they're full and others aren't? Is the tendency to eat way past fullness genetic or learned behavior, and how much can it be changed?

The answers are still elusive, but neuroscientists and behavioral experts are finding some tantalizing clues.

Some fMRI studies have found that while tempting food stimulates the release of dopamine in obese people, they actually have fewer dopamine receptors than normal weight subjects do, so they may derive less pleasure from actually eating, setting up a craving for more.

Curiously, several studies have shown that some forms of gastric bypass surgery can actually create changes in the brains of formerly obese people —and not just because their stomachs are smaller and fill up more quickly. Levels of leptin and glucose tend to drop in bypass patients, ending diabetes for many of them. PET scans also show that bypass patients have more dopamine circulating in their brains, which may help control appetite as well.

Bypass surgery seems to make food less tempting, too. In a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last month, Swiss researchers had 123 severely obese, 110 non-obese and 136 bypass patients take a test that measures vulnerability to hedonistic eating, known as the "Power of Food scale." The bypass patients and the non-obese had scores far lower than those who were currently obese. (Exactly why is still unclear, but some experts think it could relate to "dumping syndrome," in which high fat and sweet food creates nausea and dizziness in bypass patients. They may have learned to associate such foods with discomfort rather than pleasure.)

Some of the most intriguing imaging studies have peered into the brains of people who have lost significant weight and kept it off through diet and exercise alone—although researchers say they're hard to find.

Good luck today Spoiltmom! Let us know how it went.

The Dr might have taken so much out because you were in danger of becoming dehydrated if you couldn't even keep Water down. After my first fill (3.5CC), I had to have a complete unfill a few days later because I couldn't even keep my saliva down.