Vikki

I am too experiencing gas pains and live on gax x chewables too. I actually stopped taking the gas x a couple of weeks ago because I felt it was making it worse. I actually feel better since stopping and have not had as much gas. Plus I was eating beans a lot to get protein but stopped that too. I know your frustration because after my last fill I have been dealing with a lot of issues too but have only dropped 12 pounds since Sept. There are those days were you just ask yourself WHY DID I DO THIS to myself but overall I am happy I can't binge eat anymore. That is how I gained my weight and now I don't want to do that because of the pain I experience. I would go to liquids for a couple of days really mild type like chix broth no dairy. See if that helps settle your stomach. I think that with myself my stomach is very sensative so after a fill it is hard to get anything down but if I let it heal and settle by just taking it easy and not forcing my stomach to digest for a couple of days I feel better and can gradually start on foods again. I try to drink hot tea a couple of times a day because that helps push the air bubbles out more. I am sorry your having frustration but we are all in this together and your not alone. We have to sometimes refect on why we got the band and I love my band but there are days when I wish I could just take it out for a week. But we can't so it is patients and detective work to figure out how to feel better. Keep you chin up my bandster buddie!!!!!!!!

I was banded in Mexico. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Dr. and he is GREAT!! He truely cares about his patients and is not in it JUST for the money. When I go to get my fill and I try to hand him money he tells me no. He wants to help people loose weight and be healthy and SOOOO different to the Dr.'s here in the US. My husband had knee surgery and maybe saw his DR. for 10 min after the surgery a year ago. Never calls to see how he is doing. Very sad how aragant the doctors are now and how they went into medical field with good intentions and now it is just money and we humans are just the money tree to them. I love my band and I love my Dr. who is a great surgeon!!!!!!

I love this thread because boy can I relate. I didn't have much air before my band but now it is either burps or farts all day long. My daughter doesn't even want to be next to me at night because I am just farting and farting. It has been quite painful too. So I started chewing gas x all day but honestly it seems to make it worse. So I stopped for a couple of weeks. It seems that after a couple of hours after I eat the air just gets pushed out and it is so embarrassing. I know that I do love to eat chili since I am so tight I am at the soup addiction stage and that will definitely give me gas. Do you guys have any suggestions on products that work to help the air go away? I am hating this air thing. I sit at my desk and try to be discrete but sometimes it slips and soooo embarrassing!!!! BY THE WAY WELCOME TO BAND WORLD to all you newbies!!!! You are in the honeymoon stage of excitement and it is really nice. You will hit many platues so just don't give up and I always tell people to journal your food intake it really helps change those bad habits that we all have that got us overweight in the first place. Thanks everyone for any advice.

YAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is so great!!! I am at my year anniversary too and the only time I get frustrated is after a bad PB but it is 99% of the time something my body doesn't need to have.........like fries or bread!!!!! Do I still love my band..........HELL YES it is the best thing I have ever done!!!!!!!!!!! Banded for life and down 3/4 of the weight to my goal. I can't wait to reach my goal!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD JOB TO ALL YOU BANDSTERS OUT THERE!!!!! WE CAN DO IT TOGETHER!!!!!!!!:whoo:

3 more days to my Anniversary. I can't believe it has already been a year. I am down two pants sizes and feeling good. I am going to get down the last 25 this year and then maintain a normal weight. My advice to you guys that are struggling is to keep a food journal and count calories. It really does help to figure out on paper how much your eating everyday. Your body gets used to it and will platue so you need to boost it up 200 calories for two weeks which seems weird but it will jump start your metabilism. That is what works for me. If you have a proper fill it will be a lot more difficult to over eat as it is more of a pain in the butt and not worth the hassle after awhile. Just don't give up and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you guys. It is going to be hard to get threw the day when food will be everywhere. Lots of walking this weekend to work off the extra calories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you still only go to Ortiz? I would really like to find a local that will help me with my fills. I hate having to spend 6hours of driving and crossing the border to get a 3 min unfil. Do you know of any socal locals that will cost around 100 to do an unfil for me? I am curious when you say you slipped was it from PB'ing a lot? How did you know it slipped? What did it do when it slipped? How did Ortiz fix it? Thanks and I know I am struggling right now. I don't want it to slip. I am just reaching my year anniversary on Nov 24th.

I too am feeling my fill might be too tight. I am having a lot of pain right now and can hardly get anything down. I tried to have hot and sour soup last night and after three bites I was in pain for 30 min. I am just scared right now since the holiday season is here to get my fill removed and pack on the typical 15 holiday pounds. I thought at first it was from a bad PB that I was sore and hurting and then felt better but am now feeling like I am hurting again. I am having heart burn feeling also which is very odd. I gurgle when drinking anything. It is just a pain to go all the way down to Mexico to get an unfill. I think I am going to have to go to the store that has powdered nutrients for me to get what I need every day. I can't live off of soup every day. Too much salt and not enough vitamins or protein.

Congrats you guys to newly banded. I will be celebrating my 1 year anniversary on Nov 24th!!! I am 30 pounds away from my goal and love the band. It is a life changing experience and it has been a very positive year. I have good days and bad days. I have a very tight fill right now and that is when you will truely feel the difference of your band. You think you can eat something fine until you start feeling a tight feeling in your chest and it hurts like heck.......you either wait it out with bulging eyes or go throw it up. It isn't technically like when you used to throw up it is a slimmy type of plug that is sitting on top of your band and not going down. The reason it is slimmy is because your fluids are trying to break it down but it doesn't always happen and to get it out you feel much better. This is what is called a PB progressive Burp.....sometimes you just burp it up sometimes you help it come up. I tried to eat fries yesterday and BAD IDEA!!! I had to come back to work and my co workers do not know I have the band and tried to just walk around and sip hot tea. It was a bad day but my own fault. The best thing about this band is before I ate a super size fry no problem then beat myself up inside that I should not have done that. Yesterday tried to do my old habit of having a bad day so eat comfert food............band made it so after three fries I had to stop and ended up throwing the fries in the trash...........Thank you band!!!!!!!!! Good luck to you guys and keep on the support pages because they are so much help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow Tom you are so lucky to have lost all of the weight before your year mark. That is the great thing about our band is that maintaining is at our control of getting the fill if we are letting the evil get back into our eating habits to stop it in its tracks. Before all we had to rely on was will power and if we had that mastered we wouldn't have needed to band. Now we have to tool to help cut out the over eating that wants to control us at times. I didn't realize I was such an emotional eater until I couldn't get the food down and had to face my demons. A lot of times you go from one demon to another like boose or cig's but I have been trying to work threw my bad choices to be healthy not unhealthy. I am very proud of all of you with such great results. I am still working on the last 30 pounds but feel I look good compared to my size a year ago. It is hard to get the weight off and maintain but very much well worth the fight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Anniversary to all of you!!!!!!!:whoo:

That is great. It is a journey that will be a big life change. I am almost at a year anniversary and down almost 50 pounds. It has been a life changing experience and it can be frustrating at times but this support site really helps you not feel alone with all the struggles of loosing weight and having the band. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for the compliment. I feel good too. Being off of carbs I think is the biggest thing that has helped me shrink. It took awhile to not crave them anymore. I do crave chips and that is my reward when I am doing so good to have some chips. Now that I have a tight fill it is hard to eat too many so I just eat some and then that is good enough. Before I would down the whole bag no problem. It is too hard to over eat anymore so now I am finally coming to my at peace place of letting the band be the great tool that it is. Eat what your body needs not what you crave. Which was usually a double cheeseburger for me. I have to be very careful what I try to eat so I check all the labels now to make sure it has some health value to it. I am in Orange County and the airports are not closed so you should be fine. It smells like smoke outside and it has a weird tan haze outside. Good luck with your fill. It makes a big difference with cheating and eating too much. This tool is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I just want to go up to everyone I know that has eating problems and weight struggles and share my story. I don't but wish I could. You have to be careful because they could actually take it the wrong way. I have kept mine a secret to my circle of friends but want to come out of the closet soon.

You guys keep talking about your port and sharp pain. I had this for at least 6 mths and it was very annoying but it does go away. You have to remember that it is a foriegn object in your body and it also has a couple of stiches holding it in place. I don't know when I did it but I ripped mine because it moves around now which feels really weird but my Dr. said nothing to worry about. As long as your insecion does not ooz and the pain does not get unbearable you will notice be less and less as time goes on. I know a friend I have made that is local threw this site had to have her port replaced because it was oozing and would not heal. He had to remove it and let it heal then replace it. She is on her third fill now and is feeling fine. PS. I am the red head!! Red Heads Rock!!!! Thanks for the compliment. I just know how it is in the beginning of the adventure to where I am now..........It has been a crazy roller coaster but I swear it has all been worth it!!! Good luck you guys!!!!! I make a habit of getting on this site and reading at least a couple times a week to get great support for my mind and soul!!!!!!!!

I have had three fills now and this one at 4.5 has been really weird for me. Some days I feel I am getting too much in and other days I can hardly get a protein shake down. It has a mind of its own but my Dr. put in .5cc of the gel this time which is suppose to make it last longer. Your stomach adapts to the restriction after awhile that is why they can take out the same amount they put in but you don't feel it is there anymore. Everyone's stomach is different. I can't amagine having anything tighter right now when others have 7cc and still don't feel much restriction. If you use the floro you can see the powder liquid you drink go down and if it stays in your pouch and then slowly trickles down then you have the restriction your wanting. If you gulp at that point you will learn from the pain that it is now time to sip. It is all trial and error but it is all worth it. I was reading on another thread about not having any hunger. I feel tight restriction but I definitely still get hungry. Though now that I am almost at my year anniversary I have learned that hunger is not just your stomach but also you head and old habits.

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You look wonderful!!! Your chin and face are so much different!!!! YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everyone needs to send your pre surgery and current pictures. It is so cool looking at them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have under my message box two boxes to select. Post Quick reply.....or go advanced. Do you have those two?

[ATTACH][/ATTACH]I love reading the threads for new bandsters because it is so inspirational!!! I am almost at my year anniversary and have not lost as much as I wanted when I started but I am down two pants sizes and a lot more inches than weight. I try to not be obsessed with my scale as I get on it every day when I wake up but it has been a really slow process to get it off. I didn't really feel true restriction until my third fill and really feel it now as it has been hard to get much of anything down. I am trying to slowly eat my homeade chili for lunch right now at work. I have to eat it very slow to make sure I don't start feeling tightness and then know STOP. It really does take a few fills to really get that restriction that you guys are wanting. I am really reaching the peace with in myself stage. What I mean by that is I was so unhappy with myself and obsessed on food all day long then if I didn't eat good/Low calorie I would beat myself up the next day in my head and was so sad. Now that I cannot get the food in it is like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I truely feel so at peace with in myself.............and proud of myself which I have not felt in a very long time. This year has been not just a change of the outside but just with in myself to be a happier person and be proud for the accomplishments that I have made. Eating good/Exercise/Sacrifice!!!! I am almost to the 50 pounds lost mark and soooooo CLOSE to be back into wonderland. I still have 25 pounds to go to reach my goal and get to the weight that I want to maintain for the long haul. That is the blessing with this tool. It is not like the Atkins diet..........which we have all tried...............loose it then once you start eating like you used to pack it right back on and more. This tool is for us to get it off and KEEP IT OFF!!!! I just love my band and want to share with everyone that is struggling with eating problems or weight problems. It is not easy by any means but it is a great uplifting experience that is to make you stronger and healthier!!! I wanted to share with you guys my before 9/29/06 and recent picture 10/07. You can just see the way I looked so blowted and felt blowted when I was eating way too much carbs everyday. Now I am off of carbs but the occasional chips I have lost a lot of that and it feels great. You guys have to just keep moving forward and forget what has happened in the past. It will come off....slowly is better as your skin will have time to catch up and not sag as much. It will happen and this support site has really helped out a lot!!!!!! Anyone can send me a message if you have any questions. If any of you are Southern California locals I have a support group that I have put together and we are going to meet up for our third meeting in Nov. If you are interested in joining send me a message at vikki4mymail@yahoo.com

I am so inpired by your guys weight loss!!!!! I am creaping slowly back into onederland and can't wait to get there. I didn't hit the really restricted until my third fill and keep getting PB episodes so feel even tighter from my pouch area being irritated. It is hard to get even water or liquids in right now as it hurts as soon as it hits my pouch. I am trying to let it heal by having mainly liquids right now. I swear the band has a mind of its own as one day you can have something just fine if you are good and eat it very slow. The next day it won't go down and you have to throw it out. It is a gamble but a learning process every day. Good luck to you guys that have lost 3/4 to almost all of your weight!!!!!!!!

Thank you L8BloomR I wasn't looking for compliments but they are always appriciated. I didn't really notice that much of a difference either until I came across this picture and put the recent one up next to it! Since a lot of people don't know that I have the band haven't really said much but you look like you have lost some weight. I think besides my butt being a lot smaller now from the weight loss and my jogging my face has really gotten thinner and I feel that it is from the carbs that I do not eat anymore. I didn't just feel super chunky at 250 but felt blowted all the time. You can really see it too. I feel so much better I don't know mean the outside appearence. I am feeling a peace with in myself to not be so consumed by eating all day. I just take in so little now and I am starting to feel at peace with it. Like a load has been lifted off my shoulders. I obsessed every day like beating myself up inside of what I should have not eaten and did. Now I just try to get in what my body needs to be healthy not what I am craving or emotionally want to fill myself up with like fries and a cheeseburger. Is anyone else reaching this point? Don't get me wrong I am still having frustrating days like yesterday I tried to eat some chili for dinner my husband so nicely cooked and it was not going down so I tried to make a protein shake and that would not go down. I just was hungry and wanted to fill up that hunger...........but I am not starving to death in any means so times like that I just have to sip my water and move on to something else besides eating so I did laundry and started to clean the house.

To post a picture you go under advanced and it has a paperclip which will bring you to your browse to select out of my pictures on your hard drive. You need to change the size of the picture to small format by going into the picture and under edit it should give you selection to change size because I tried to post regular size yesterday and had to delete it because it was huge. You select the picture and click add and download. You can then click on paper clip again and it will be listed to click on it and it will say attach and when you post your message it should be on the message. Try it out to see if that works. Everyones computer is different but it takes some playing around with. I would love to see your guys before and after since we are all around our one year anniversary. I can't believe it!!!!

[ATTACH][/ATTACH] Here are before and after pictures of my 50 pounds lost. I am sooooooooooooooo Close to ONDERLAND I can taste it. I am trying so hard to really get down to my goal but feel myself shrinking more every month. It is a great feeling to actually fit in the regular size cloths when I go try on cloths now. I love my band and it is the tool that will keep me at a normal weight forever!!!! Lord help me with the holidays but I am determined to keep being a big LOOSER!!!!!!!!! Hope everyone else is having a good experience with their band. Some days are good and some not so good but it is for the long run. Keep up the good work everyone!!!!!

I get the gurgling also. I just got my third fill at 4.5d in my 10cc band. I feel I have a very sensative stomach and esphogus. Every time I have gotten a fill I feel super tight the next couple of days and it is even hard to get liquids down. I feel it stop and slowly go down. It is the weirdest feeling. I can't even eat soft foods until noon as the coffee barely goes down. But I have lost 3 pounds in 5 days so it is working. Your sweet spot is when you can only intake a couple of bites at a time and you start feeling the tightness in your chest saying to stop and put down the fork. It takes a long time to get threw a meal that you usually just eat small portions.

You guys are doing great!!!!! I always like to go into the new bandster threads and read them because your enthusiasm is always insirational. I am almost at a year now and just got my third fill of 4.5cc. It has made a huge difference in my eating habits. Right after you heal from the surgery you start feeling like your eating normal size again and it can get discouraging. You don't truely feel the restriction the band can give you until you get your fill. Boy does it make a difference. I had hit a platua and was stuck at the same weight for about 5 weeks so now that I have gotten my fill I have lost 3 pounds in 5 days. I think now I am down calories it jump started my metabalism and it is finally working again. Don't get discouraged if your not loosing as quick as expected. I myself have to remember that I got the band for life and getting to the goal is what I am working for but staying at my goal weight is what I want for the long haul. Patients is one thing I always have to work on. Even being patient to eat slow I am still working on. I can't believe how fast I used to eat. Now I watch my husband and think ....did I eat that fast? If any of you are from Orange County CA I have a support group that I started with locals. If you would like to join just send me an email and I can add you to my distribution list. We just get together and share stories and tips. Vikki4mymail@yahoo.com Good luck everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow you sound like where I was a little over a year ago. My husband did not like the idea. I could not get it approved here in the US because they said I wasn't heavy enough for insurance approval so I found a great Dr. in Mexico for half the price here. My girlfriend was his patient coordinator and she helped get it all set up for me and it took me a long time to get my husband to be okay with my decision. I look a lot less than I weight because I am tall and big boned so people don't realize how heavy I am. I also have a huge appitite that controled me every day!! The overeating and the guilt that went along with it was making completely mad at myself and I had a war going on in my head of dissapointment that no one knew about. I knew that getting the band would help me loose the weight and help me get control of myself pysically and emotionally. I must tell you that I am almost at my year anniversary and I am still so proud that I did it. I just had my third fill last Sat. and I am pretty tight. Haven't been able to eat much at all but that is exactly why I got it. You only need a very small amount to live on and we live in a society that gives us four times the amount of servings that we really need. I am down 46 pounds and have lost a lot more inches than weight looks wise. I am still going towards my goal and can't tell you how happy I am with my band. It was so easy to get and so easy to recover from. I was back to work three days after my surgery. Only a handful of people know about my band because it is none of their business. If any of you read this and would like to chat just sent me a message and I am happy to discuss my experience. My husband is happy that I am happier with myself and that I have been so good about exercise and just eating the right things. You can only eat very small amounts with the right fills so you have to make good choices to what you put in your body. No more big mac for lunch and no more garlic bread with dinner. The band has changed my life and I recommend it to anyone that is struggling with loosing weight because of no portion control. You can eat and eat with out the band then kick yourself all the way home. But with the band you can try to eat and eat and end up in the bathroom throwing it up or in a lot of pain. You change your mind real quick after that happens a couple times and your brain adapts to read you body of when to stop and put your fork down. Good luck to you guys and I know the frustrated place you are at!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just found out that Ali / Mahamad Ali's daughter who wrote the book fighting weight is going to speak at the Hyatt in LA next month. It is a free siminar and should be really good for us bandsters or if you want to bring someone who is thinking of getting the band. She started at 325 and is now 150 and has had the band for a few years. She is a spokes person for the band now and fighting obesity. Here is the site if you are interested in going. LAP-BAND®: Moment of Truth

Hey you Orange County Bandsters. There is going to be a seminar with Ali which wrote a book Fighting Wieght. I don't know if you guys have read it but she started at 325 and is now 150. She got the band a few years ago and it is a great book. She is speaking at Hyatt in LA next month. Here is the information if you want to go. It is free and should be really informational for us bandsters or if you want to bring someone thinking about getting the band. LAP-BAND®: Moment of Truth