Dave_NW

Not sure if you got your answer yet, but getting stuck is when you swallow something, and it seems to get caught in the band. I've only been stuck a few times, and to me, it feels like a hard painful knot right above the base of my sternum. Hurts like crazy, and no amount of swallowing seems to help. Usually the food item passes through the band within a few minutes, with no further incident. But sometimes getting stuck can result in another event, known as "sliming." That's when the salivary glands go into overdrive trying to lubricate the esophagus to try and help pass the item. Your throat and mouth fill up with foamy, slimy mucous-like saliva. You spit it out, and more replaces it. When the food item finally passes through the band, all the other symtoms stop, and life gets back to normal very quickly. None of it is pleasant, and if you can avoid it, you'll want to do so. When it happens to you, you'll know it, and you won't want to do it again. Generally, if you eat slowly, take small bites, and chew thoroughly, you can avoid getting stuck. But for some, certain foods trigger a stuck episode. I'm learning that for me, it's broccoli. Cooked till it's mush or eaten raw, doesn't seem to matter. Those little green trees get stuck nearly every time I try them. Part of living with the band is learning what your body will tolerate, and what it won't. Dave

Well, yahoo! Feeling great for you right now! That's so good to hear. Keep up the great work! Dave

My surgeon's team says 1 to 2 pounds a week is where they expect and want bandsters to be. The rapid weight loss you experienced early on was mostly due to liquid diet and restricted calories. Now that you're getting back onto solid foods, it's normal for things to slow down. I totally understand how frustrating it can be after that initial rush of weight loss to have the scale seem like it's frozen. But when you think about it, 2 pounds a week is 104 pounds in a year, right? Keep up the great work. It sounds like you're right on track. Good luck! Dave

I appreciate you posting, but I think you may be misremembering how it went. I made ONE statement to the other guy in the room about being tired of all the sex talk, and everyone went off on me. I am not one to insult ANYONE, online or in person. It is absolutely not my style. If insults were being posted in the chat room, they were most definitely NOT posted by me. I don't DO that. After several minutes of the harrassment I received, I made one final post, which was, "Okay Ladies, you can have your fun." And I left the room. I have not been back since. If you truly remember something negative happening, it was after I left the room. Maybe it was the other guy. He was still there when I left. In my earlier post I was not accusing anyone of making it a porn site. I was referring to the explicit chat happening at that time, and how I felt it was inappropriate. True, I don't go into chat rooms as a rule, but I am certainly intelligent enough to have an idea how they work, or I wouldn't have gone in there. In that case, I did think I was making a private comment to the other guy. Sorry, obviously I was in error. I quickly figured that out when it was pointed out that my post had been seen by others. But I also didn't ask to be openly humiliated by everyone who felt it was acceptable to make fun of my error. I didn't post anything else, waiting for the assault to end. But when the hostility continued, without me saying ANYTHING more, I realized that was not the place I needed to be. So I left. It was made very clear to me that I was not welcome there. The greater point that it happened AT ALL points out the problem with unmoderated chat rooms. My bringing it up on this thread was in response to the OP saying she encountered similar treatment on another forum. Prior to this thread, I haven't brought this event up to anyone, and it happened last Fall. So obviously I wasn't that traumatized by what happened. I just happen to think it was uncalled for. Just as I think your several insults to me in your post here are uncalled for. Anyone reading what you've said here can easily see the open hostility in what you said about me. It pretty well supports my memories of what happened in the chat room that night. Thanks for helping me out. Dave

That makes sense. Once it's placed, the shape would be more circular. The one I saw was a "Please pass this around so everyone can check it out" sample they showed at a pre-op seminar I attended. They passed around both types, and that triangular shape of the band portion was the only real obvious difference between the two. I have no idea how old the samples were, or whether they were different than what is being used now. Dave

I thought the Allergan band IS the Lap Band. Am I missing something? Dave

That's an interesting idea. I've seen both bands during pre-op seminars, and it seems the main difference is the Allergan band has a number of "pockets" that make up the band, so maybe seven or so segments? It makes up a roughly circular shape. The Realize band has fewer "pockets" and makes more of a triangular shape. I asked my surgeon which he uses, and he said they stopped using the Realize band because it had too many problems. He said they only use the Allergan band these days. He wasn't specific about what kind of problems. (My surgeon was Dr. Ross McMahon, head of the Bariatric Surgery Center at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.) Dave

Jack, the more I read of you, the more I'm convinced we're twins separated at birth. This is amazing to read about somone else who felt/feels as I did/do. Cool! Dave

Oh. Right! I keep forgetting... Dave

My band surgery included repairing a hiatal hernia and a ventral hernia. They did them all at the same time. (I asked them to, since I figured as long as they were under the hood, they may as well do a full tune up. My insurance paid for it all.) Other than me ending up with more incision sites than those who only get banded, everything was the same. Most bandsters end up with five or six incision sites. I have thirteen. Eek! The endoscopy will be a non-event for you. They'll anesthetise you, and you'll take a nice nap. While you're out, they run a camera down your throat to check your lower esophagus for the hernia. They'll find one or not, assess how best to repair it, then remove the camera, and wake you up. The most you may feel afterwards is a minor sore throat. In my case, I didn't feel a thing, and within a half hour I was good to go. Dave

Those are good questions that deserve a good answer: My pre-band eating was that I never felt "full." I'd abused my system by chronic dieting for so many years, I never knew what "full" was like. I could eat as much and as often as I wanted, and only after I'd eaten way too much, and my stomach was bloated and I was miserable, did I decide I felt "full." There was no off-switch to my appetite, and no matter how much I'd just eaten, within a few hours I'd be at it again. Since being banded, if I eat in a hurry, or don't stop to assess what my body is telling me, I can still eat way more than I should. Last night was a time when I expected to eat too much, because I was so hungry. But because I was eating slowly, after a few bites I felt like I'd had enough and I didn't need to eat more. In my pre-banding days I'd have been so afraid of being hungry again soon after completing the meal, I'd have continued until I was stuffed. So this sensation is pretty new, and it's not a bad feeling at all. I'm learning how to eat right, after many years of eating wrong. Yes, the band is making me feel satiated with less food. If I eat according to the bandster protocol, I can go three or four hours between meals with no hunger, no cravings, and no desire to graze or cheat. I do try to eat about every four hours or so, to keep the satisfied feeling going, and so my blood sugar doesn't crash. I don't feel deprived, nor do I feel like I have to overeat in case I don't get the chance to eat a big meal soon enough later on. I'm losing my longtime fear of being hungry and unable to satisfy my appetite. That's new for me, and I feel the band is responsible. I don't feel that I'm feeling this way because I've put so much into the band and I'm just now listening to my body. My body is sending me very new signals, and they're very different than ever before. This is all new since banding, and it's very real. It's also a comforting feeling, since my greatest fear pre-banding was of being hungry, and having no way to satisfy my hunger. I love that the ball and chain shackeling me to the refrigerator or fast food drive thru are slipping further and further into the past. For me, banding was truly life-changing, and it's not just in my head. As I've said before, my biggest regret of getting banded was that I didn't do it years ago. Dave

Jack, you're absolutely right. What I meant was that I felt I no longer wanted to eat. I'm still learning a new vocabulary, so to me "full" is the same thing as "no longer hungry." In my pre-band life, if I'd stopped eating after so few bites, my stomach would still have been rumbling, and I'd have felt myself to be still quite hungry. Yeah, I'm liking the band. It's a challenge, but it's a good fight, I think. Dave

Well, thanks for the support, Ladies. I do appreciate hearing it wasn't just me. The attitude and pack animal behavior of the people in that room that day still gives me the creeps. I'm a road-weary 57 year old, I have seven grandchildren, and I spent 20 years in the Navy, so there is very little I haven't heard. I've also been an IT professional since the early 70's, and I've been in and around online communities since the 80's. What threw me about the chat room experience here wasn't so much the frank sexual nature of the chat, it was the idea that it was completely outside the realm of what the chat room was supposed to be for. There was no warning about it being an "anything goes" situation, and there could have been underage people in the room - nobody would have known until they got in there. I'm not a prude or anything, but it struck me as being just plain wrong. (Then again, the comments someone made in another thread here the other day about a 70 pound 12 year old boy masquerading and posting as an obese adult woman comes to mind. I can see him getting his jollies by hanging out in the chat room, pretending to be a sexually frustrated woman, and enticing other [real] women to help solve "her" sexual problems, or give her tips on how to have a better sex life. It gets to be kind of sick when you think about it. And if that 12 year old boy was really a 40 year old man, it gets even sicker.) I don't need or want the chat room in my life, so it's not a big deal. The bullying and rude behavior of these presumed fellow weight loss patients left a very sour taste in my mouth, and makes me wonder what the site Moderator is here for. I wonder if the chat room is under any sort of jurisdiction and monitoring. It sure wasn't that night. I'll stay out here in public where things are much more civil. Even if the band IS just a tool... Dave

Ask for a to-go box when your meal is delivered. Put everything you expect to NOT eat in the box, and set it aside. Leave your meal portion on the plate. Eat it at your own pace while socializing with your dinner companions. When the plate is clean, you're done eating, just like everyone else at the table. No more "I'm not very hungry" embarrassing questions, or making your companions feel weird while you sit with a mostly uneaten meal watching as they eat. Dave

As mentioned above, the band is a MECHANICAL helper. (If that makes it a tool, then so be it. ) I have tons of willpower. I can diet with the best of them, and lose like crazy. But as soon as something in my life changes, and I'm unable to continue that process, the weight comes flooding back. It's happened to me lots of times. I got tired of the roller coaster, and decided I needed some assistance. I'm not planning to ever go back to the way it was before. Now that I'm banded, things are different. I am not able to "forget" about what I'm eating. Willpower has little to do with it. I make the conscious choice of what I'm eating, and as long as I pay attention, the band limits the general amount of whatever that meal is. Real world experience: Last night I was starving after a hectic day where I was unable to eat on schedule. I'd gone about nine hours since a modest lunch, and I was ravenous. I was out of town with a friend, and we dropped into a Thai restaurant recommended by another friend. The food smelled awesome. I ordered a chicken and vegetable dish, and waited like an impatient kid till my meal arrived. It looked amazing. The presentation was perfect, it smelled amazing, portion was enormous, and I couldn't wait to wolf it down. I deliberately took my time, because I wanted it to last. I even used chopsticks, to slow down my eating. The first bite was wonderful. I savored the taste as I chewed the chicken to the right consistency. Each bite was better than the one before. I was so hungry, it was a fantastic meal. After several bites of chicken and several more of vegetables and a bite or two of brown rice, my ravenous appetite just clicked off. I was suddenly and completely full, and satisfied with what I'd eaten. I couldn't believe it. I was mentally prepared to eat the whole plate, but my band said, "Um, nope. We're done here." When I looked over at the dish I was serving myself from, it had about 90% of the meal left on it. I asked to have it boxed up, and now I have a ton of leftovers. It was one of the first times I've eaten Asian food and not been hungry a short time later. The lesson I learned is that it's not always about the hunger. It's about the process. My band helps keep me on track, even when I want to do something else. I like having that sort of helper. Dave

That's amazing, but more typical than it might seem. A lot of forums are like that. They have their core of frequent posters, and anyone who goes against the grain, or who doesn't sit quietly in a corner until learning the perfect way to post a question is given nothing but hell. A number of car enthusiast forums I read are like that. Heaven help you if you should ask a quesiton that someone posted previously, or if you have a misunderstanding about the finer points of owning a certain kind of car. The "regulars" will eat you alive. But you know what? The same exact thing happened to me, right here on this forum, in the chat room. Several months ago I dropped into the chat room to see what it was about, hoping to learn more about what it meant to be banded. There were about a dozen women there, and only one other guy. The chat was extremely graphic sexual talk among the women, who were discussing very frankly about their sexual activities, which personal sexual devices they preferred, and graphically describing how they performed sexually for their husbands and boyfriends. It was pretty shocking and completely unexpected. After several minutes of this kind of thing, I tried to send a private comment to the other guy in the room. All I said to him was "I'm getting tired of reading all this sex talk." Well, due to my inexperience, the comment wasn't private. It was posted in the main chat room. The women went CRAZY. It was a feeding frenzy of open, hostile harrassment. They all went way over the top, and completely humiliated me in front of everyone else. They openly laughed and ridiculed me to the point that I left the room and haven't been back since. It was completely uncalled for, and showed a complete disregard for the point of the chat room, which I (mistakenly) believed was to discuss weight loss surgery. Silly me! The larger lesson is that it showed me there are a lot of aggressive, angry, low-life people in that chat room who are no better than the common bullies I went to school with. They should be ashamed of themselves. Dave

I think different forums are run by surgeons/companies that promote certain kinds of surgeries. The primary posters on such forums are going to be advocates of that type of surgery. It's only natural they'd bash anything or anyone who disagrees with their particular type of surgery. When I started my journey I was going to have the sleeve surgery. I found a forum for that, and I spent a lot of time there. I read lots of posts bashing banding, and bragging up how the sleeve was the only way to go "because banding doesn't work." Oh. Okay. So when my insurance gave me the bad news that they don't pay for sleeve surgery at anywhere other than a military hospital, I was left with banding and bypass as my choices. I selected banding because I felt it was a better fit for me. So far, I've been right. I've not been back to that other forums since finding this one But even here I find some posts that bash banding. Just because one person has a problem, whether it be a faulty band, their inept surgeon, or the person themselves being unwilling to work within the guidelines, it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with banding. So I thnk you need to read between the lines. For all the posts here, negative or otherwise, there are thousands of bandsters out there who aren't posting at all. What is their experience with it? If it was failing, they'd be posting somewhere, asking for help. So I have to presume silence equals success. And if those silent bandsters who aren't having trouble are out there living life to the fullest, it makes a kind of positive post by them not posting at all. The reason I think some people post negative things is often to either try and gain support for their feelings, or to cause a ruckus among the readers. It's easy to say something negative. And we all know misery loves company. Dave

Sliming is an unpleasant side effect of getting stuck, where your salivary glands produce massive amounts of saliva, trying to lubricate your esophagus so you can fully swallow whatever it is that is stuck. The increasing amount of saliva builds up, till you cough and spit it out. It's nasty. After you manage to pass through your band whatever is stuck, the salivating stops, and things get back to normal. But the entire experience is unpleasant, since it's easy to panic when something gets stuck. Eating smaller bites, and chewing thoroughly will decrease the chance for that happening. I've only had one sliming incident, but it was enough to get my attention. I don't want to do that again. Eating till you get full may not happen the way you think it will. The band may offer a degree of restriction, but it won't prevent you from eating. food only stays in the pouch for a few minutes, if that, and then it passes through to your lower stomach. If you want to feel what being stuck is like, eat huge bites, swallow without thoroughly chewing well, and eat very quickly. If you have enough in your band, you WILL get stuck. And it's a painful, unpleasant thing to do. I don't recommend it. My weight loss to this point is hovering right around sixty pounds. I'm having a bit of a plateau at the moment, so am evaluating how and what I'm eating, how much I'm exercising, and how much sleep I'm getting. That's part of having a band - the "rules" change as you go along, and what worked for awhile needs to be adjusted to keep things working. I'm fascinated by how much I'm learning about how my system works. Dave

Nelly, if you have just 5cc's in your band, and if your band happens to be a 14cc capacity, it's unlikely you will feel restriction. And it's also unlikely you'd get stuck with that little in the band. I'm at 7.2cc's in a 14cc band after two fills, and I didn't experience being stuck or sliming till after my second fill. I don't get stuck often, but if I eat too fast or take too large a bite, I can just about cause it to happen. You need to understand that banding is a process. It's not instantaneous, nor is it exact. What one person feels is generally not the same thing another will feel. You need to learn how you and your band work together, and adjust what you're doing to suit your particular situation. It'll come with time. Hang in there, work the plan, and be aware of what you're doing to/for yourself. The rest is just details. Good luck! Dave

Something even more expensive: A tank of GAS for it? Actually, I've wanted a two-seater convertible sports car for years. I just used this as a convenent excuse. Well, that and the fact that I fit in one now. LOL! Dave

I'm nowhere near my goal, but well on my way. About a month ago I bought myself a Porsche convertible. Seriously. I never thought about buying a Louis Vuitton bag. Would it have been very much cheaper? LOL! Dave

Bandsters who have had their band longer than me will probably have a different opinion, but in my case: I currently have 7.2cc in a 14cc band. I feel some restriction some of the time, but I'm not cinched up tight like some folks report. I don't have any foods I can't eat, and I can certainly eat around the band, if I want to. If I eat fast, or take too large a bite, I get stuck for a few minutes, till the food passes through the band. If I take smaller bites, chew more thoroughly, and don't rush things, I can eat till the plate is empty. That may or may not be a lot of food. Even on those occasions where I stop eating because I feel I'm full, if the plate stays in front of me and I pick at it, I can eat everything on it. Nothing prevents me from eating all I want, if I want it bad enough. But what IS different is the sensation of being hungry, and of being full. For me, if I'm feeling hungry when I sit down, and if I eat as a bandster is supposed to (small bites, chew throughly, and take your time), after a normal band-sized portion (a cup or so of food), the hunger is gone. If I stop and assess what my body and band are telling me at that point, I have no hunger, and I can stop eating. If I DON'T stop and think about it, I can keep going. So in my opinion, the band doesn't prevent me from eating. My own awareness is what makes the difference. The trick for me is to remember that I'm banded, and eating is different for me now. This is especially true when going out with friends. Even if I order a small meal, I need to manage things, or I can easily eat more than I should. If I stop eating when I think I should, I'm good for several hours. The rest is only eating healthy, avoiding sweets, trigger foods, or empty calories. Dave

You might also consider going to Mexico for your surgery. You can have it done there for a fraction of the price of a US procedure. Lots of LBT readers were self-pay and banded in Mexico. Ask for recommendations. I just did a bit of creative web surfing on the Regence website for Idaho, and it sure sounds to me like they do, in fact, pay for lap band surgery. I don't know your stats, but if your BMI is at least 40 and you have any comorbidities, you should check a little closer. It may be a question of terminology, or the inexperience of the person you spoke with. I'd dig a bit deeper before giving up. Maybe ask your doctor's insurance coordinator to help you. I think the insurance code is 43775 - ask Regence specifically about that code, and see if they give you a different answer. The website www.obeseinfo.com says this: Regence Blue Shield: Per Policy Bulletin 58 insurance requires 6 month diet, psych and documentation of willingness to comply. Sleeve and StomaphyX are investigational and not covered. Secondly, a lot of people have appealed a turndown, and gotten surgery approval. Have you even asked for an approval for surgery? Good luck! Dave

Melody, I totally see your point, and wish you only the very best going forward. It must have been a real struggle to deal with ongoing pain from the band. I have no pain at all, so immediately wonder if it's possible your band may be slightly (or greatly) misplaced? Can a band be repositioned for a better fit? If you're experiencing nerve pain, can it be reversed? As to the underreported problems, or "I wish I had known" things, I don't have anything that leaps out at me. (But I admit I've had a pretty easy time wth this whole thing. All in all, it's been pretty smooth for me.) But I have a couple of "druthers" things: I do wish I had a nutritionist who was also a banding patient. My NUT is as kind a person as you'll ever meet, and she is as well-meaning as they come. But she is also a vegan skinny-mini person who eats like a bird, has probably never eaten a bad thing in her life, and I think she is patently clueless about how it is to BE obese, and what an obese person FEELS about eating. Her dietary recommendations are nutritionally sound, but I think the "one size fits all" eating recommendations are unrealistic. I had to feel my way along, adjusting what I was doing/eatig/experiencing, to find the methods that work best for me. She wasn't a lot of help in that regard. I also wish things hadn't been so sugar-coated by everyone along the way. The seminars I attended pre-surgery at three different weight loss organizations ALL made it sound like banding was a perfect answer. The "I have a band, and look at how well I've done" people who spoke at these seminars made it sound like life after banding was a walk in the park. Nobody discussed how much planning, effort, consistency, details, and out-and-out WORK it is to live with a band, and keep the band working properly. For all the reasons you've all posted, the rose-colored "take a nap and wake up slimmer" schmoozing of real life with a band was a disservice to people investigating whether it is right to get banded. I know their purpose was to sell the band to potential customers, but it seems a bit misleading. All in all, I have no regrets, because I'm working it out to my best result, but I wish it had been presented differently. Dave

I'd never be one to try and talk someone into having surgery. But I'd also never try to talk someone out of it, if it was something they felt would help them. Sometimes people just need to come to terms with their own reality. To the OP, all I can suggest is you take a step back and look at your life up to this point. How long have you been overweight? Are you morbidly obese? Do you have any comorbidities? Is your weight affecting your quality of life? Do you want it to be different? What exactly are you doing to change that? Every person on these forums has been down the "I promise I'll do better" road a thousand times. We're experts at fooling ourselves into thinking "This time it'll be different!" But it never is. We diet and diet and diet till we can recite the popular-diet-dujour litany verbatim, yet when the fuss is over, we're still standing there fat as ever (or MORE fat than ever) with nothing to show for the effort but less money in our pockets, lower self esteem, and another diet failure to feel badly about. When will you have had enough of that kind of failure to finally make a REAL difference in your life? As to your fears, face them: A sleep apnea test is nothing more than sleeping in a hospital bed while wearing a series of wires that monitor how good or bad your sleep is. It's painless. And it could save your life. Being "cut into, as in the operation" is almost a non-event. Most lap band surgeries leave five or six small puncture-type scars, and one about two inches long. There are even lap band procedures that go in through a single incision near the belly button, for those who don't want multiple incision sites. The days of wide-open zipper-scar surgeries are long gone. Things are done laparascopically now. You're "having a hard time writing down" what you eat. A food journal is easy to maintain, unless you're embarrassed to have a written record of your food intake. Using a phone app is fine, but there are limits, as you've seen. Websites like caloriecounter.com or livestrong.com can help you find the caloric amounts in restaurant foods, and even let you calculate your own recipes, so you can get a pretty good idea of what you're eating. If the "surgery only cuts down on food intake" and you can do that yourself, why haven't you? If dieting that results in long-term weight loss is SO easy, why isn't everyone skinny? Simple: Because as soon as the diet is over, or the person goes off that diet, the weight comes flooding right back. As for a "new technology that makes lap band obsolete," what's stopping you? Lap band surgery is removable and reversible. If something new and better comes along, you can have the band removed. But chances are you'll be pleased enough with it that you wouldn't want to, even if something else came along. And BTW, diet and exercise ARE the technologies that will make a lap band obsolete. If you get off your couch and exercise, then eat properly, you'll lose weight. But you haven't done that very well so far, or you wouldn't be here. Not judging, just saying. If you don't want anything inside you, all I can tell you is the band doesn't have a pulse, it doesn't weigh anything, and only rarely do I feel it. If anything, I feel the port, which is where they add or remove saline to adjust the band. But the band being there isn't being felt. I don't know your gender, but if you happen to be female, and if you have menstrual cycles and use tampons or birth control devices, I'd wager you've had something a lot more troublesome inside you. The band is a non-issue. My bottom line: After decades of fooling myself into thinking "This time it'll be different," I finally stood up to myself and made the decision to have surgery. I'm losing an easy average of about ten pounds a month so far. And I feel awesome. I look and feel years younger, I have tons of energy, I sleep better, I'm better at my job, and I'm delighted to feel this way after all these years. My only regret is that I wasted all those years lying to myself. I wish I had done this years ago. So those are my comments. I don't mean any of them to sound mean, only to give you some food for thought. Keep reading, keep researching whether banding is the right answer for you, and I sincerely hope you come to the decision that's right for you. There are other weight loss options, all of which require cutting and removing body parts. Banding is by far the least invasive. Wishing you the best of luck with your decision. Dave