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I had my surgery May 5 also and my first fill last Wednesday. I lost 20 lbs per his scale, which I thought was good. His fill was only .5cc--that is all he will put in at a time. I might go in for another one in a week or so because I do feel it in the morning but not in the evening. The fill did hurt though--one of my co workers who has a lap band suggested that I ask the dr if he could use a smaller needle. Has anyone had to do that?? He had a hard time getting the saline into the port too, so he had to press down hard while it was filling, which was not comfortable. The dr did say that this is not unusual with first fills and that subsequent ones should be easier. I hope so. Anyway, I still am glad that I did this and look forward to the becoming the "new me"! :sad_smile:

Has anybody else had any issues with their port getting disturbed when you bend over? I am only 2 weeks post op, so this might be a recovery issue. I have a heck of a time when I need to bend down to pick up my toddler or something off the floor. My port is in my upper abdomen. It is at just the right position that it get pushed up by my jean's waistband when I bend. Ouch! It hurts. The pain is less than it was a few days ago. Also, I am learning new ways to bend off to the left so I don't disturb my port on the right. I wonder if this "port catch" pain will go away as I heal? As my stomach gets flat? Ever?

I just got back from the doctors office. I got another .2cc in my band. I hope this works. I really want to be able to get that magical 1/2 cup that I see everyone talking about. I still have been able to eat 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups and I really want to lose weight. I'm going to Florida in January and I hope to be down another 10 lbs. I will have to work really hard to get there with the holidays just around the corner. I'm not real upset that I had gain 1lb this past six weeks. I knew that I'm not anywhere near perfect. I really don't make good decisions when it come to food. I know I'm a emotional eater and that I will have more to over come than a lot of people. Well my challenge is to lose 10 lbs by January 15. Let's see if I can do it.

I just got back from the doctors office. I got another .2cc in my band. I hope this works. I really want to be able to get that magical 1/2 cup that I see everyone talking about. I still have been able to eat 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups and I really want to lose weight. I'm going to Florida in January and I hope to be down another 10 lbs. I will have to work really hard to get there with the holidays just around the corner. I'm not real upset that I had gain 1lb this past six weeks. I knew that I'm not anywhere near perfect. I really don't make good decisions when it come to food. I know I'm a emotional eater and that I will have more to over come than a lot of people. Well my challenge is to lose 10 lbs by January 15. Let's see if I can do it.

My opinion is that you placed your body into "starvation" mode. Try uping your calories to 1200 and see what happens. I have been staying between 1100 to 1400 and I have lost 12.5 since the day before surgery. I am excercising now and I am 2.5 weeks post op. Good luck!

After the first 6 months there really wasn't anything I couldn't tolerate. Rice was probably the last hold out. but I'm fine with it now. After the first couple of months I ate bread in small quantities, Pasta, desert, whatever I wanted really, just only a little bit. I do tend to stick to the separate food and liquid rules. I'm just more comfortable when I do. For me hunger returned at about 5 months, but the pull was not the same. Many mistake acid for hunger early on. I took 40mg of omeprazole 2x day from the beginning and never had that problem. I still like (and eat) everything I liked before. I just can't binge anymore. Today, my lifestyle is different, but maintenance is very doable. I start my day with a 45 minute bike ride, some strength training and Protein latte. The rest of the day I eat what I like in small quantities, typically protein first. I have a drink with my friends a couple times per week. I record weight weekly and if my weight creeps up I log food and give up most treats\alcohol until it comes back down. I live withing the same 5 pound zone most of the time. This feels very "normal" now. I don't know anything about sleeve inversion. Did fine with my standard sleeve with hernia repair. It'll be 2 years in October. Feeling great!

1) I see a lot of people talk about not having an appetite for foods they previously enjoyed or not being able to swallow certain foods. Why is this? My naive thought process is that your stomach had a procedure but your taste buds didn't and why would something that happened to the stomach impact your ability to swallow certain foods? I don't think anyone really knows why our tastes change. My best guess would be it has to do with elimination of a source of hunger hormone, plus gut bacteria get re-set through surgery. It is real though! As for swallowing, I actually haven't heard about people not being able to swallow something. If the taste or texture feels off, many people will choose not to swallow food after surgery. If it isn't soft enough, well-chewed, etc., it may come right back up after you swallow it. That's about all I know that would shed any light on that. 2) I see people talk about not losing much weight or immediately having hunger again. Why is this? Is there a percentage of people that a smaller stomach doesn't work for? How can you not lose weight with a significantly smaller stomach {aside from poor food or liquid choices}. I know we all have different metabolism and our bodies process foods differently - I don't necessarily believe in the whole "calories in, calories out" thing but ... seriously, how can your body not lose if your stomach is like 80% smaller and you follow the food/liquid rules? There are different phenomena that are possible here, and I am not sure which you are talking about. Some people experience stalls in weight loss, even early on (the three week stall for example), even though they are doing everything right. I'm not sure anyone knows for sure why that stall or any other stall happens -- glycogen depletion and replacement, hormonal changes, lots of things could be at work. Then there are people who lose a lot of weight and then either stop losing, or start re-gaining. Typically that's because of poor food choices: grazing all day, eating high-calorie, low-density slider foods, refusing to weigh/measure their portions and track calories and Protein, things like that. What is the percentage of people this just doesn't work for? Depends on your definition of "work for," as well as on your own surgeon. You would want to discuss rates of maintained excess weight loss for your specific surgeon with him or her. That whole "inverted gastric sleeve" sounds like a fancy name for over-sewing the staple line, which I think a lot of surgeons do.

Yesterday I joined six other ladies on my journey to a new life, and I must say I am both happy and scared about the choice to have surgery. I worry that because I am not jumping up and down, feeling like I have won the lottery is a really bad way to start. Am I afraid? I have failed so many times before, will I fail again? When I had a heart attack last May I woke up with a clear goal - loose the weight and live to see my daughter grow up. I jumped right on the bandwagon and started Simply for Life the day I was released. Three months and 30 lbs. later I fell off the diet and never tried again. Where is that go getter, I can do it attitude? Is it hidden amongst all the past failures at weight loss? Is it fear of disappointing everyone? How do I kick it? Well, I took step number one, I gave up diet pop yesterday. I have gone two full days without a drink of it, and thats the first time in 12 years (during my pregnancy). Please God, give me the will to face myself. Give me the strength to try and succeed.

Yesterday I joined six other ladies on my journey to a new life, and I must say I am both happy and scared about the choice to have surgery. I worry that because I am not jumping up and down, feeling like I have won the lottery is a really bad way to start. Am I afraid? I have failed so many times before, will I fail again? When I had a heart attack last May I woke up with a clear goal - loose the weight and live to see my daughter grow up. I jumped right on the bandwagon and started Simply for Life the day I was released. Three months and 30 lbs. later I fell off the diet and never tried again. Where is that go getter, I can do it attitude? Is it hidden amongst all the past failures at weight loss? Is it fear of disappointing everyone? How do I kick it? Well, I took step number one, I gave up diet pop yesterday. I have gone two full days without a drink of it, and thats the first time in 12 years (during my pregnancy). Please God, give me the will to face myself. Give me the strength to try and succeed.

I feel your pain. The agony of the unknown is horrible. Almost worse than the reality. I have been a big time Diet Coke junkie (and I mean junkie) for a long time maybe 20 years! Yikes that makes me so old. I loved it! Probably some what like an alcoholic. Well I drank it like normall right up unil 48 hours before surgery. I suffered for at least a week with horrible headaches ( I think it was caffeine) but I don't really know. Could have been stress, no nicotine too. I am pretty proud of myself. However I have had some pretty bad moments. Where I just want to eat, drink coke and smoke and I feel crazy. I feel as if I have taken it one day and some times one hour at a time. I feel as if I am living on air. And since I quit smoking and had surgery I have had this horrible cough. I don't know if it is chest cold or all the toxins from the nicotine coming out. Well any how I would wean my self off of the pepsi now and deal with the headaches now if you can. But I doubt I could have until they said you have surgery you can never have it agian. That is probably the only reason I gave it up. But I am feeling better about it all. So far I have stayed away from people eating, drinking coke or smoking. I don't think I am quite ready to deal with it in my face. I am in hiding. Good Luck!

Eli28, I'm exactly 5 weeks post-op today and I had my first fill today. I was fortunate and have not been hungry until a couple of days ago, but I have respect for my band and try to treat my new friend very well. I don't want to do anything to cause my body to reject it, over fill it, or stretch it. So, I try to use these reasons to help me make better food choices. I try to listen to my band and tummy and know when to stop. I'm not perfect and everyone is different, but instead of grabbing chips or bad food choices, I will either eat a piece of sugar free candy or a sugar free popcicle and don't forget your Water. Good Luck

I'm very surprised that you had this surgery without hearing of this initial problem. This very thing is discussed over and over on all boards. It is very common to come out of surgery not having restriction. This first 6 weeks is meant for healing ONLY. Many of us lost before surgery and regained once we began introducing calorie dense foods. This is very common. Did you research before you had surgery? Did your doctor educate you at all about what to expect and what to eat afterwards? Did he explain that you must allow the stomach to heal in place so that scar tissue will anchor the band in before you begin eating solids? I'm concerned that you seem so surprised and upset by this. Were you required to have a psychological consultation before your surgery also? I promise you, if you do your research. Learn EVERYTHING you can from everyone and everyplace you can and you do what you are told, ie, exercise, drink your Water, focus on Protein, no high calorie drinks, no Pasta, no bread, no rice, no potatoes you cannot help BUT to lose. Please do not give in so easily. This is a great tool that you have been given, but it does require that you meet it halfway. This includes learning all you can about what to expect and how to work with it. Please find the introduction section of this site and tell us more about who you are and how you came to get the lapband so that we may better help to support you. Keep posting! You're gonna be fine!!

Post your progress pics and share with everyone how well you have been doing!

Sounds like my problem when it first started acting up. My mistake was in not going on liquids after every throw-up. I'm not sure about this but I think that I was causing the irratation by continuing to try to eat solids and throwing up daily. Maybe try going on liquids for a week and see if it straightens itself out. Wayne

To me, the only "easy" part of this is that there is no "way out" of eating less. How many times have we (me) started a diet and then a week or two, maybe even a month, later... we go back to our normal way of eating. After the surgery, it is physically impossible to eat as much as you used to. And that's a good thing.

I was holding off grocery shopping for my post-op diet until I saw my NUT...I am planning on doing that shopping this weekend...it's about time, since my surgery is Monday I have been taking notes from the message boards for several weeks now, and I am merging those notes with the packet my NUT gave me Wednesday...I could use a little advice and guidance please My post-op prescribed program is Clear liquids for the first two days...that includes a clear Liquid Protein drink--60 to 70 grams of protein each day...the brand my NUT recommended is New whey liquid...they come in 3.8 oz liquid vials, and each vial contains 42g protein...that means I would drink (sip) 1.5 to 2 vials each of the two days...she is advising I just sip about a third of each vial in a "sitting," which means it would take six sittings throughout the day to get it all in...plus of course the rest of my fluids...I am tempted just to buy the 4 vials of what she recommended--it's only 4 two days post-op, and I think I could drink them very cold and tolerate them for just 2 days...any feedback on this? I am more concerned about shopping for the next 10 to 12 days when I will be on a "full liquid" diet...the NUT says that the New Whey Liquid used during the first two days aren't sufficient nutritionally for this full liquid phase...she gave me a list of suggested brands with her personal recommendations highlighted...here are the highlighted options (in this phase I need 70-75g protein daily): --EAS Myoplex Original ready to drink; 17oz has 42g protein --Oh Yeah! Nutritional shake from GNC in powder or ready to drink; 32g protein in 14 oz drink --Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein from GNC in homemade vanilla ice cream flavor; 23g protein/scoop of powder --Pure Protein Shake from Walmart or GNC; comes in chocolate and vanilla with 35g protein in 11 oz drink --Unjury Whey Protein Powder (comes unflavored; also in a chicken Soup flavor) each scoop has 20g of protein From my notes from the message boards, I have these recommendations: --Syntrax nectar shakes --Matrix (mint cookie flavor) --Premier Protein (choc and vanilla) ready to drink has 30g protein per bottle --Isopure fruit flavored (orange, grape) --EAS dark chocolate with PB powder My NUT says during the full liquid phase, I can mix the protein powder with low-fat milk products if I desire; also I can have cream Soups (like cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, cream of celery) and I can add unflavored protein powder to the soups my other two options on full liquid are low-fat cottage cheese (which I don't like now) and light yogurt (not sure what "light" means here) I must complete my shopping on Sunday--any advice, feedback, guidance from those who have "been there" will be appreciated...at this time I am not even planning for the soft food stage, since I won't be there until after my follow-up NUT visit two-weeks post-op

A hint, canned broth is so bad it's not really worth it yuck! If you can make a simple broth with chicken before, it would be so much better. I boiled a chicken in Water with just salt pepper and garlic, then took the chicken out shredded it and used for my family's dinner for the week, And then you skim a bit of the fat off the top when it cools and there you go a good flavorful broth.. Some people go to a local restaurant and by a brothy type soup to go and ask for mostly broth then strain it, that's good too

I know some people get tired of the topic of stalls but this is a support group, right? So here I am obsessing about this second stall I'm in, and people don't give me negative responses because if u do , I will gladly ignore u. So the past two days I've been eating 800 calories and today I'm going to eat less to shock my body, would love any insight on how you changed things up during a stall u had. Thanks to those listening

Hi Sweet Susie, I tried all kinds of method, i went back to liquid diet for 3 days, just on Protein shake.. then the scaled moved, but it went back up, and even higher prior to the liquid diet by a couple of pounds, then i started excercising like mad for more than a month.. didnt move.. nope.. I control my intake at 800 cal MAX, and that is if im on a good day, the rest of the time, im usually at 600cal... Recently, due to the rain here, i stopped excercising, try to eat more, and my scale moved.. i stop obsessing with the pounds i lost, so i havent stepped on the scale for about 2 weeks now, but i did notice my tummy is shrinking.. its flatter now.. Sorry, my story doesn't seem to be telling you anything, just thoguht i'll share with you.. but that said, i think everyone is different, you just got to try different methods, give it time, and you';ll eventually find what your body wants.. And i really think eating less than 800 cal is not going to help. perhaps you should up you intake to 1000... see how it works out for you? Good Luck!

Hi everyone, I was banded in February 2011. I was down 175 lbs the first year and a half, I was completely motivated and working my butt off to get where I wanted to be. I was at my sweet spot, completely satisfied and happy with my progress. About a year ago, I started getting sick every time I would eat anything. I called the doctor, he took some Fluid out, and I was okay again. 5 months ago the same thing started happening again, only now in the middle of the night I would wake up choking, and throwing up black liquids. Honestly, the first time this happened, I had a small brownie that afternoon so didn't think to much about it. Only, over the next few months this would happen 3-4 nights per week (and I can guarantee I have not touched another brownie since that day). About 3 weeks ago I finally broke down and called the doctor because it was not getting any better. He brought me right in, completely emptied my band and sent me over for more testing (barium swallow). I found out that day I had a slip. He says its very possible all of the throwing up was the cause, and he told me we would see what happened over the next 3 weeks and see if the problem fixed itself. So, I went back for another barium swallow, and apparently it didn't change, I've still been throwing up, so he wants to remove the band, and put another one in at the same time if he can. Now I'm scared, I don't know what I should do, and I know it's quite obvious that I need something, and I was very happy with my band. From the time 3 weeks ago that he emptied my band until I went back, I had gained 10 lbs, so I can't wait to much longer to make up my mind. My surgery is scheduled for next week. Advice?

Has anyone ever used or heard of omnifast? I have to be on 4 weeks of liquid meals (3 a day) prior to surgery and that is the name of the supplement I have to purchase from the bariatric clinic. I was wondering about cost and taste/flavors. Also, I have a flex health spending account through my employer that I think will pay for the omnifast as it is required for surgery, although I suspect it will require a medical necessity letter from my dr.

I have had 3 fills since being banded 5/23/07; my last one was 8 weeks ago and brought me up to about 2.7 in a 4 cc band. I have been losing an average of 2 lbs a week. I say average because it fluctuates. I work out a lot and very hard so I know if I weren’t doing that I wouldn’t be losing anything at all. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> The last two weeks I have been so hungry and its not just head hunger. I can eat a lot more food, and have to if I want to feel full. I am eating healthy proteins most of the time and that does not seem to make a difference, within 30 minutes I am starving. I have let this go on like this for a few weeks because I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a bump in the road that would correct itself. I can eat breads of any kind with no problems which before would have been a huge problem. <o:p></o:p> I go to a fill clinic that has a Fill Nazi, just generally bad bedside manners and is very rigid. Do you think the fact that I have been losing weight will make them not want to give me a fill at all? <o:p></o:p> I think I will wear heavy shoes, clothes, and load the pockets up with weight! J No really I know I need a small fill but am worried they wont want me to have one unless I am not losing.

I am three months out and hair is falling out like crazy! Scares me, but I do have think hair to start. Any idea when it stops?

I just started using frutis fall fight shampoo and conditioner. So far less strands in my comb. I sure hope this works. It has biotin in it and the bariatric vitamins have 150 per cent of biotin everyday. The vitamins were not working but this shampoo seems to be. Will let everyone know after a few weeks.

Thanks for the replys! Garrett... hopefully she will be in a good mood and the machine will be fixed. Maybe I will call next week before I go to find out if it is working yet. I have never had a fill without the flouro. Good luck getting re-filled. Its such a process to get to a good point only to have to start back over again. I cant imagine! You just never know what kind of mood she will be in when you go. I will state my case exactly as it is and if she wont give me a small fill I will have to look for other options. I cant take the torture of being so hungry all the time.