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There are some people who can lose all or most of their weight with an empty band. I wouldn't worry too much about the fill level. You have to work with what works for YOU and not compare to others. I have only 1cc in my band and it's STILL sometimes too much. It's the ol' "your milage may vary" deal. Just enjoy restriction and TAKE CARE of that band. I also had a mildly dialated esophagus but didn't have to have all my fill taken out. I found that by eating small amounts, i mean really small, everything went back to normal. Enjoy!

If you have 4.5cc in your band, sounds like you probably have a 10cc band.. if so, it can take 7-8cc to get good restriction. Hang in there, 17lb loss is still a great achievement, you're not gaining! 17/4= roughly 5lb a month.. not bad at all.

So, after two years of not being able to see my doc (insurance nightmares!) I got in today, had an upper GI and got my band filled. I feel like I am starting this fresh and I am excited. It was horrible being in school, single parent and all the crap I went through 3 years ago and try to go 115 miles and get check ups, I just couldn't do it then and my state of mind was not one to be using my tool effective ( i feel terribly guilty for that!). Horrible timing in life. But, now I have my degree, a great new man in my life, my kids are older and I have a great job with insurance! Yeehaw! So, I am back! I am just glad I havent gained all my weight back- but I am no where near where I want to be. Thanks for listening, or, reading rather.

I was banded on 10/13/08 and waited 4 months til my first fill on 2/19/09. I lost 30 lbs but then gained 5 for a net loss of 25 lbs by the time of the first fill. I dropped that 5 lbs over the last 2 days. Just follow the rules and your doctor's advice. Everyone and every doc is different. This isn't a race. It's a lifestyle change. Good luck!

Well I have my psych eval on Thursday the 24th that the bariatric surgeon requires. Now my insurance company doesnt require this stuff..but I just was able to make an appt to get in to talk to my PCP about seeing if he would recommend the surgery as well. I also called my ob/gyn that diagnosis me with PCOS and Insulin resistance to write a letter also. So I'm covering all my basis before I send this in to the bariatric surgeon along with my packet they want me to fill out about my medical history etc to get a consult. I'm making sure there wont be any question of me getting this surgery. That way the insurance company has no problems seeing that I have issues and need this surgery. My PCP has seen me more times than I can count about having chronic bronchitis and just being sick all the time and my asthma getting worse. I am also quitting smoking...I'm down to 4 cigs a day. Mostly at work and on the drive home. Of course you realize with quitting smoking I'm gonna gain more weight...which will also help with the surgery not that I really need any with being over 250 now and only 5'5! So whatcha think..have I missed anything that might be required?? My insurance co and the surgeon dont require the 6 month weight loss program...just lots of diet history with the packet you send in. Is there anything else that I havent thought of yet? :rolleyes2:

Wow! I've taken more from your story than any other I've read...HOPE! I too have been thin and fat many times, most recently down 90# from where I am now 8 years ago and 60# 4 years ago and 40# just last year...and yes, I've been doing this yo-you and more for about 30 years, and was never a fat kid. I just barely made the minimum 35 BMI (READ if you need a laugh) and I'm at my heaviest now. Although it gets harder and harder to lose the weight the real thing I'm looking forward to is being able to KEEP it off and get my health back (I'm looking forward to those pics at my kids weddings someday too--my oldest-DD is 21)!! I sooo look forward to getting off this roller coaster and having food/dieting play a normal role in my life. I know not everyone gets this as they think 'You've lost it before, why can't you do that again instead of something as extreme as WLS?' Thank you for your post as it was very personal for me!

Rain, I don't understand why you should get a fill....... A person should lose up to 10lbs. a month for a healthy weight loss. I never got a fill myself and lost 109 lbs. in 8 months with no fill. If you are not needing restriction but of course not starving yourself in the process then I don't think a fill is necessary. Josephine

I understand a lack of motivation to exercise. Maybe swimming would be a good option for you since it's easier on the joints. Just make sure it's more like lap swimming and not leisure swimming. For resistance training, maybe get a set of resistance bands to start with and do them at home while watching your favorite show or something. I bet as you exercise more and lose more weight that it will get easier to do more activity.

So I was cooking some pumpkin soup for my lunch for the next few days before preop diet starts on Sat. I cooked up all the pumpkin I had so it wouldn't have to be chucked out and the extra I thought I would freeze for after surgery when i move to the thicker soup stage. So I made it up in half cup batches and couldn't stop laughing at how little there was in the containers! But hey, I now have a few meals in the freezer :frown: No wonder we lose weight

i'd wait a week or two. personally, it has taken that long for me to feel a fill kick in. i've gone two weeks with barely any restriction and then on day 15, boom: i can barely eat 4-6oz of chicken. the band is indeed a strange mistress. fwiw, i've got a 14cc band too and now have 7ccs in. i was in a sweet spot at 6, but then it disappeared after about 6 weeks. i've got an appt for next week and am hoping for another .5 to 1cc. i've been losing and gaining the same 3lbs for nearly a month. grrr. good luck and check-in with your doctor soon. fyi: here's a really good thread on the 14cc band... http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f17/does-14cc-band-give-same-restriction-10cc-band-50248/

hi there. I have been researching lap band and am really thinking its the option for me but I dont know how to begin the process. So i'm turning to you, those who have already been there and over came whatever obsticles there were. my situation: im 34 262 lbs... bmi 48. i have degenerating health but not sure if its weight related as of yet. i just was determined temporary disables by my family doc so i can get state aid medical. Probably going with health partners when they offer me insurance co. Once i get on insurance what are the first step to going about lap band. do i consult a specalist first or do i need to talk to my family doc or the insurance company first? I need to know how to get the ball rolling. Also i have tried self diet and a couple others like LA weightloss, weight watcher, even a diet pill or two but dont remember what ones and have no documentation of the other ones. will that probably be a problem with getting approved? Any direction u can offer me would be greatly appreciated.

Good luck to you, Michelle! I'm going in tomorrow (Monday) too. I too gained a few pounds between making the decision and going on the pre-op diet. I think that is pretty standard, as most of us do the "goodbye to favourites" thing. I've been on a pre-op for 9 days and so far have lost 9lb! Whoohoo!

I know several people who had to have their meds adjusted after losing weight. But no personal experience... sorry!

You are right! Just do it, one day at a time. Measure, weight, whatever you need. Speak to your Surgeon, maybe you need a fill. But all in all, you HAVE lost weight. EVERYONE is different and they loose at different rates. The weather turned cold and I had put off my walks. Now my butt sags down to my knees. So what do I need to do, JUST DO IT. Today, maybe I will by legwarmers to keep my knees warm and I am going to go out! Thank you for KICKING MY BUTT TOO!!!!!

What should you do?....I think that some answers may just irritate the crap out of you, and my answer probably will....you know exactly what to do....and just like the Nike commercial...just do it. For some strange reason, people (lap banders included) think that this journey is EASY....it is not...it takes work. Do not give up and you should surround your self with positive people and situations...it sounds like you are in the "vortex of doom and despair"...know the feeling-been there, done that and got the t-shirt. You are worth the work that you need to embark on. This is a learning stage...you are still learning about how to live with the lap band and what actual hunger feels like. It took me 6 months to figure out that I didn't know how to recognize hunger. I am a little stuck on path. I want to be 100 pounds down by my banding anniversary, but I have been at this weight since Jan. 17th. But, I know what to do...and guess what?...I am not doing it. I am choosing to make poor decisions. But, I am not kicking myself to hard in the butt...we are not perfect and I will get back on track. Don't worry you will do fine.

My doc never set goals but the nutritionist (I had one compulsory visit) scoffed at me when I said at 5ft 10, I wanted to be 70kg. I pretty much told her to f..k off, yes, in those words! Rude biatch. She was really scornful and said I'd never do it. The averages lost with the lapband are due to a number of factors, nearly ALL of them within your personal control. Averages are a conglomerate of things, including people who are ill, people who are much older than you, people who dont exercise, people who got banded coz their neighbours knew a friend of a friend and it sounded like a good idea at the time, and people who are non compliant for a whole number of reasons, not to mention the growing number of people who appear to have complete idiots for doctors, who insist on doing insane things like trying to put 5mls in one single fills into a 10ml band to ah, reach good restriction quicker, and the have to unfill and start again whilst the patient recovers! You are in control of what you put in your mouth, how much you exercise and especially of how much you know about the band so that if your doctor is one of these ones that just jumped on the bandwagon so to speak and saw it as a good way to make a bit of money, YOU can tell HIM that huge fills are not a good idea or that you actually can have fills closer together than four years or whatever it is they're trying to pass off as knowledge and experience. You just have to empower yourself and then set yourself to the task. 100% of weight lost with a band is not unusual and its not a really big ask either, it just takes consistency and common sense.

Grace Utah.. You have lost 108 lbs. since July? Unbelievable! Way to go! What do you contribute to your success?? I've had 12 fills in 11 months, lost 42 lbs. with 15 or so more to go...much slower weight loss than most, but I'm not working out either...

I met with my Dr. at the VA Hospital yesterday and received the good news that Lap Band Surgery will become available at this facility in April or May. I will be given an opportunity to be a candidate for the procedure if I meet certain criteria, the first of which is to lose 5% of my current weight which is 333 lbs during the next 6 months. I know I can do this, I have in the past. There are other criteria that are probably not unlike what most of you have been through, i.e. meetings with shrinks, dieticians and physical therapy. While I am excited about the prospect of LBS I just wonder what I am going to do with my love affair with food, the buying, cooking, inviting folks over and the over indulging? I just hope and pray that I can learn to be happy with a few bites of this and that and not feel the need to over indulge. Talk to me if you have had similar concerns about leaving your past relationship with food. Thanks, art, a friend of Jesus.

I am not a good example, as my body responds to trauma by retaining Water. My doc told me most people lose 10-15 pounds because they can't eat much - I was in hospital for 10 days and actually gained 30 pounds (all water retention in my legs). I didn't even start on any solid foods until day 9 in hospital. Today is exactly 7 weeks since surgery and I am still up about 3 pounds from surgery. My appetite was pretty non existent for about 2 weeks, then I had a few troubles with a fickle band, but I would say I have been back to normal appetite for about 2 weeks. If they are doing it as an open surgery, it is a big deal as they are cutting through muscle. The lap band surgery is nothing in comparison. The most important things are to follow your dr's instructions, control your pain and not doing anything abdominal for at least 6 weeks (i.e no vaccuming, don't lift more than 10 pounds). I think I did really well (except for the water retention) because I was very fit before I went into surgery. It is really important to be physically strong before the surgery, so you want to make sure you eat really well for as long as possible before surgery (you do not want to be nutritionally deprived in any way). If you are having trouble eating a nutritious diet (including fruits, vegetables and carbs), I would consider an unfill before surgery.

My mom doesn't even have the band and she lost 40 lbs after they did resectioning. Now she is considering the band lol She got a jump start on weight loss.

Did you have a large weight loss after the resection? What should I expect as far as recovery? Thanks.

Hi all, happy Friday!! I have an odd thing happening when I swallow, I'm wondering if it happends to any of you and what your Dr's say about it, mine is of no help. I had surgery in February, all of my anatomy pre-surgery tests came back perfect, surgery went perfectly, nothing was out of the ordinary. 5-6 weeks after surgery I went in for my first follow up appt and (hopefully) a fill... my Dr does fills using an x-ray, I stand in front of it, my band shows up, I swallow the barium Fluid and we watch it go down, pool up a little and then slowly flow through my band. It's pretty cool! Except here's the odd thing that happends - when I swallow, it doens't ALL go through the band, it will pool up, sit there for a few seconds, and then here and there the fluid will start to drain through the band. After watching for a few minutes it still doesn't ALL drain through, there is still a bit left handing out above the band, eventually it does all go through. So the first time we saw this (6 weeks post op) my Dr said he never saw it before and I must have some food stuck in there, or I must be too tight, he gave me a total unfill (I had fluid in there coming out of surgery, although he doesn't know how much, maybe 6cc's he said - but I TOTALLY don't believe him that I had 6cc's, I would put money on that, he made that number up, yes, my Dr lies to me and I can prove it). He said come back in a week. After a week, the same exact thing happend (remember I now have NO fill AND that day from first thing in the morning until my appt I didn't eat a thing, only drank) so this confirms that it isn't because of a stuck peice of food and it isn't because I'm too tight. He gave me a 2.5cc fill that day, told me to come back in a month. Went back Wednesday of this week, SAME THING happends still. He did not want to give me a fill, but he also isn't doing anything else to figure it all out and he's just wasting my time (SO many issues with my Dr). I told him that I can't keep waiting for this to change on it's own, it hasn't changed in the month and a week that we've been watching it, if we're not going to do some tests or something different then I want to ignore it for now and move on with my weight loss, please give me a fill and get me back to some restriction - PLEASE! So he did, I'm at good restriction now and hopefully will see some weight loss results. Anyone have anything similar happening? Dr is now calling it a "spasm" that happends in my throat when I swallow. Some facts that might be helpful to know: 1. I've never been stuck 2. I've never felt discomfort from it, never have felt like I was choking or couldn't get food down 3. Remember that it isn't because I was over full, because it happends when I have NO fill Thanks for your 2 cents!! Melissa

LWB, I like the new avatar. Sounds like you and your band are doing well, congratulations on the weight loss.

Hi All on day 2 of the New Year. Today I had a bad experience that caused me to PB. I had to take 4 capsules for my detox program. I usually open the capsules and pour it into something to eat. I thought taking them would cause no problem. I had trouble after swallowing pill 3 and 4. Tried to eat a ceral bar and had trouble with that too. Then I had trouble drinking the last two sips of my tea. About 20 min later up came the tea. That's when I should of stopped. Tried to eat my Soup for lunch and that was when my problem began. Up came the soup, slime the Cereal bar and a papaya pills I thought would help calm my stomach. It was horrible for 30 min. Gagging, spitting, upchucking, oh it was bad. But, I felt better when it was all over. So, no more taking any pills I think might give me trouble. As for fixing my fish, try marinating your fish in an oil-vinegar dressing. I like the italian robusto... Then make up your own seasoning pretty much the same as you would your meats. I tried using recipes, but came up better making my own, using can gravy, cream soup, even tomato soup. Honey-mustard, etc. Also, I like stuffed flounder/filets with what ever is available. I mostly use salmon steak, swai, talipia, you'll have to try many to find which you like best. So, give it a whirl and good luck. Let me know what you come up with. Good Luck with using sparkpeople again. I too am going to start with stage 1 and work my way to stage 4. That should bring me to my goal weight by June of 150lbs also.

My first fill was yesterday afternoon. I was excited and nervous and came here to read on what to expect. Well, I arrived and chit-chatted with the PA for a few minutes and then proceded to lay down so he could find the port. He numbed the area and all was good. After a few minutes I was asking did you find the port entry? he said no. Several minutes passed and I am trying to keep my cool and not gross out or get worried. He said he was having difficulty. Then responded to me that he needed to get a new syringe because he had extracted blood into the syringe. GROSS! I am still trying to keep it together. He told me to relax and sit upward, push my stomach out, suck my stomach in, pretend to do a sit up etc. He called for reinformcement and went to the "go to" guy. Which was another PA who had me do the same thing but wanted a new syringe. So this is syringe #3. By this time I was freaking out and I would say it has been half an hour. I asked if this was going to happen every time and he assured me, No that once I lose weight the port would be more prominent. The 2nd PA suggested that I might even have to have another procedure to replace the port. What the...? They saw my fear and went to get Dr. Le Port (Fountain Valley Regional Hospital). Well, they left me alone!! I sat up and noticed the syringe still stuck in my abdomen. The horror! it isn't even Halloween yet. I am trying so hard to keep the tears back and just keep taking breaths and my stomach is falling in sync with my breaths and I can feel the syringe moving. So, the Dr. storms in and gently takes hold of the syringe the PA's are talking at the same time and the Dr. says that he has seen this occur before. That because the Realize band is Low pro and low pressure that it is diffiult to extract saline. What the...? again. So, the first PA had injected some saline when he attempted and the 2nd PA injected some saline into the port when he attempted and the Dr. had injected saline when he attempted and no-one was able to tell me how many cc's I had in my 9cc band. ARGHH!!! I drank 4 gulps of Water and on the 3rd I felt the bubble, the heartburn feeling and I was happy that I did have some restriction. So, the Dr. thinks I might have a kink. I proceded to have X-rays and the Byreum (sp?) drink and sure enough it showed restriction. I hand delivered the x-rays back to the surgeon, ate 5 Wheat Thins sips of water and all is fine. But now I am still scared thinking that in 6 weeks I have to go through this ordeal all over again. (This whole ordeal lasted 3 hours). They said that as I lose weight the port will be more prominent but come on give me a break how much can I lose in 6 weeks? 5-10 pounds. Is that really going to make a difference? What are the chances that I have to get a new port? Anybody else have difficulty the first time and now its easy breezy? :smile: