Acadia

It's completely normal. It can help to discuss it with a therapist who works with eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder. They can help you reconsider why you see yourself the way you do and the thoughts behind it.

Just had mine out last week. 20% of lap band patients need theirs out in the first 18 months. It's very common. 10% of people will continue to have pain the rest of their life. 90% will not have that type of pain. Around 10-20% will have diarrhea for many years following - most won't. There's a lot of information online about it.

Since you're so fresh from a fill go to liquids for a day then mushies. You're swollen right now and need to let your stomach calm down.

You are only a week out. Your stomach is NOT ready for the food you're feeding it. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Go watch a video showing the surgery, the band is sutured to your stomach right now, organs have been moved around, your digestive system hasn't even recovered from the surgery. Back up now before it's too late. Go back to liquids - Clear Liquids for a day. Then go to normal liquids for a week. SLOW DOWN. If you can't control yourself now you don't have much hope of controlling yourself later.

It's often from compensating how you move and hold yourself and from nerve regeneration. It goes away in time. Try to keep your core solid, stand up straight, sleep on your back (partially seated if necessary), and it will go away on its own.

Shelley - a 0x is a large but I giggled when I read that ; ) congratulations!

Generally food passes through the band between 1-3 minutes after eating it (unless you eat really fast). It's likely due to something else and not the bread - unless it was crusty and could have scraped up your pouch, which could cause irritation. It could also be caused from the weather (barometric changes), drinking cold fluid, coughing a lot, laughing a lot, moving funny, all sorts of things.

Jacqui is absolutely right. The human body simply isn't made to sustain itself on so few calories. It can survive for a while - while consuming muscle, thinning out bone (pulling calcium), and sure - burning fat, but muscle is so much more desirable when a body is starving. 1-2 cups of food (depending on the food) per meal is a reasonable meal. 1 cup of chili may be more than sufficient for a meal, but 3/4 c of vegetable Soup and 1.25 cups of salad may be more appropriate for another meal. If I only ate 1.5 cups of food a day ... well, I'd be skinny all right. And committed for therapy. If a 'healthy' person eats that little they're called anorexic. Even more so if they exercise regularly. Unless you're eating 1.5 cups of animal fat = 2,773 calories. 1.5 cups of vegetable oil = 2,890 calories. 1.5 cups of nuts = 1,422 calories. Then 1.5 cups of any other foods will fall well below 1,000 calories and 1,000 calories is the general set point for a moderately active person and putting the body into voluntary starvation.

You're welcome. Let's just say I'm rather intimate with the medical field. Most Doctors figure their patients don't need to know all the details - and many don't need to know if they'll take things too far, like trying to do their own fills with the wrong type of needle - but it sounds like you want to know the details so you can understand how they impact you not just that they impact you. I'm the same way. I want to know the why, inquisitive minds want to know! Glad I can help.

If you don't like 'milkshake' type protein drinks try IsoPure Zero Carb - it's like crystal light, pure crystal clear protein. Vitamin Shoppe online is a good place to order it by the case. Any Gold's Gym should have it in their cooler though so you can go buy some to try the flavors.

She's actually out of line and potentially going against hospital policy to go off on you like that. You really should consider filing a formal complaint about it. It's that kind of bullying that causes people to second guess themselves and make poor decisions.

Black is also for blueberries, bile, medications, give it a day. If you had internal bleeding you would have some fresh blood in your stool.

Take the capsule whole. I take a handful (literally more than 12 pills at a time at night - Vitamins and such) including four gel caps with powder and a large Omega 3 Fluid filled gel cap with no issues. Gel caps slide through the stoma with Water and dissolve within 15 minutes. I'm in my green zone and cannot eat things like bread or Pasta to give you an idea of my status. Try one, if that works try two, of that works try three. And try them with a swig of warm water (room temp) and if you feel stuck drink some hot tea to dissolve the cap immediately.

I was told 25 lbs was fine after a week and I was moving 50 lbs items by two weeks. It all depends how you heal.

That could also be your full sign. Mine is a hiccough (hiccup).

I have a very high pain tolerance due to nerve damage from an accident when younger and my surgery was out patient. I was around a 4 of dull ache after I woke up. They gave me one dose of pain meds and since opiates do nothing for me I didn't get pain medication for recovery. I took acetaminophen with caffiene and codeine for two days after just to dull the dull pain. The gas pain was dull and never ending, lasted four weeks, walking and a moist hot pack helps that (read my gallbladder post for more info on why and what you can ask your surgeon to do to limit gas pain). Nausea was bad, they gave me a patch before surgery that was good for 48 hours. By day four I was almost normal. Now, after gallbladder surgery - and gallbladder attack pain was a 10 for me and had me at the ER - the pain was around a 7-9 due to nerve damage and gas pain. Hydrocodone made me tired did nothing for pain. Breathing was hard. Back pain, shoulder, lower abdomen, upper abdomen (and it was done via lap like lap band), and now at day five I'm having nerve regeneration pains that feel like a white hit poker stabbing me around two inches from my main navel incision. Pain goes from 0-10 in a split second. So it differs depending on the pain type. The best thing you can do for your body is to sleep the first 48 hours and let your body heal. There's a reason they use coma for healing. Your body doesn't heal well when you're awake and using it.

Removing fill can help you lose weight. You can eat healthy foods. Being too tight will cause weight gain because you resort to sliders and on the odd day you can eat you over eat. The band isn't about restriction. It's about making it so you eat until satiated (not full) and that you don't eat again until hungry. If you're eating more than 1-2 cups per meal ask yourself why. Are you doing it because you can or because you're actually hungry. If you're doing it because you can then no surgery will help you. Write down everything you eat, everything you feel before you eat, how long it takes you to eat a meal (30 mins minimum), did you eat more because it tasted good? Are you eating white carbs? Sugars? Drinking fruit juice? How active are you really? Get a FitBit $99 to see how much you really move. Take a photo of every meal before you start and when done. Remind yourself about what you're doing. We often overestimate our calorie burn and underestimate our intake. It sounds more like it's you that is not working -- not the band. It's doing its job sitting there. You have to make the conscious decision to stop eating when you are no longer hungry, to slow down, to drink 8 oz of Water 15 before a meal to help fill you up and hydrate you, to make the right food choices, and to use your band as it is intended -- to make you mindful of hunger.

Often times surgeons will do what's called a passive fill. Bands come empty and in a vacuum (it's unsanitary to send them filled and did you know your dr can fill with air instead of saline?). A passive fill is when the band is in place and the surgeon simply inserts a needle into the port but does not plunge Fluid. They let the band take in what it needs to equalize. Like a fridge if you open it quickly after just closing it. Usually 0.5-2.5 cc is pulled in during this (depending on how tight the band is once installed) and a passive fill rarely causes problems, it actually helps the band settle more easily around the stomach. In your case it seems the surgeon did an active fill and actually intentionally plunged fluid in, likely more than 2.5 cc. Probably around 3.5-4 cc. Active fills do cause more pressure and more swelling on already tender tissue. You may also be very prone to swelling. Drink warm fluids to keep the band loose and don't move ahead with your phases at all. If anything, pull back and double them up (2 weeks liquids, 2 weeks mushies) to ensure your band and stomach can heal nicely together.

Sounds like gallbladder to me too, not band. Ask for an ultrasound for your gallbladder to see if you have stones.

What does the chest pain feel like and when does it happen?

A barium swallow under fluoroscopy will tell more than most other tests. Ask for that. It will show the band's position, your stomach's position, how fluid moves through, if it's getting caught on something, and more.

You could have food caught. Stick to warm liquids for 24 hours to soften things up. If you're still tight and can't consume mushies in 48 hours get a slight unfill.

The first 4-6 weeks are for healing you should not be trying to lose during that time. If you don't understand how much healing you need go watch a video of the surgery. After healing, around four weeks in you'll notice changes in how things fit, assuming you're losing around 2 lbs/week. Around three months post op you'll see your face changing. Around 4-5 months others will start to notice. This assumes you have over 125 lbs to lose and lose between 1-2 lbs per week. Which is ideal. More than that and you risk gallbladder issues, loose skin, and more.

Generally very fast within seconds. PBing is a productive burp. Like vomiting in slow motion.