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All hail its power! Three months after having my band unfilled, this morning was the day! It could not get here fast enough. All my old behaviors around food were circling the wagon, just waiting for my willpower to break. Three months, while not long in the scheme of things, felt so very long for me. But what a reminder of how powerful the band is--three months without any restriction and my mindset was right back to that of a non-surgical weight loss patient: always thinking about food, counting hours between meals, ability to eat anything in any amount and trying desperately not too...and sometimes failing and feeling horrible at being so weak-willed. The radiologist told me before he filled me that there was no way I'd go back to my sweet spot---6 cc in a 10cc band--in one fill, as three months with an unfilled band means my stomach organ had a chance to relax and expand and I'd be too tight if he filled me back to my prior level. But when he got in there, and filled to 5 cc, I didn't have enough restriction when I drank the barium so he did top me up to 6 cc. This means that I didn't do too badly during my hiatus; had I eaten whatever I had wanted to eat, I surely would have stretched out my stomach to pre-band size. So hooray for the little self-restraint I did show! (I gained 5 pounds over the three months, but that easily could've been much, much more.) I cannot overempathize how WONDERFUL it feels to have restriction again. My appetite was instantly turned off! As I walked back home from the radiologist's office, all the gorgeous displays in the bakeries didn't call to me. (Unfilled, I had to avert my eyes...this stuff is so very triggering to me.) In a very perverse way, I have to say that this three-month period was a gift. It really drove home how powerful my band is. I will never be someone who will say "I did this all myself, with my good choices and discipline." Being unfilled turned me right back into a [failing] dieter. I am SO grateful that I made the decision to get a lapband, and not keep trying to find weight loss success on my own. It's crazy evident that making those good choices in foods/portions is only possible because the band turns way way down the part of my brain that drives me to eat compulsively. I truly am a different eater when banded, through the power of this little piece of plastic, So happy to be back in the game. It is so very freeing to go through the day without fighting my cravings. Sipping a coffee---very slowly and carefully, because I'm so tight that it backs up into my throat--and looking forward to the next drop in weight. Here we go!

The fact that the lymphs are high and not the neutrophils, usually means that it's not a bacterial infection. Lymphs tend to indicate viral, but that's just a generalization. The same thing with the C-Reactive Protein and the sed rate. Both of them mean that there is something inflammatory going on, but it's pretty minor, if you're only at the high end of normal. Many people who aren't sick are walking around with high C-reactive Proteins. The combination of results, I think, merits the trip to the hematologist. I still doubt that it will be anything at all, it all seems very non-specific. I hope you can schedule an appt. soon. I hate sitting around and waiting on these things. It just makes you crazy. Cindy

I would love to go vegetarian but am highly reactive to soy which is problematic to meeting Protein goals. Any suggestions from the vegans? Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

Since you haven't given any specifics regarding whether you are pre or post-op; what food stage you're in, what your eating habits are, and even if you're male or female, it's kind of hard to answer! Generally speaking, the body is constantly adjusting to it's environment and reevaluating what it needs to do biochemically to adapt. So if you're losing weight in "patches" (as most of us do), it's because your body is reacting to fewer calories, changing food amount/type intake, hormonal shifts, exercise (or lack of), etc. You are not a static human being that is identical all the time, so your body needs time to "catch up" to the current situation. By the time it does, you've moved on and are introducing whole new set of variables. As long as you stick to your plan (be it pre-op, post-op or whatever), consistency will get you to your goals. This journey is a marathon, not a sprint. Use this time to build up your new good habits, work through frustrations with a balanced approach and try not to be reactive to the scale. Better yet, measure your progress in other ways (fitness level, clothing fit, body measurements, stamina, quality of sleep or energy levels, etc.). The scale can be deceptive and demotivating at the best of times.

Low for you may be in the 90's and that is why you are having hypo symptoms. I have a nondiabetic daughter who experiences hypoglygemic symptoms when her bs is in a "normal" range. I would talk to your endocrinologist about your symptoms and what your bs levels are when they occur. Good Lucke!

@freetobeallofme, I would love to stay in touch of your progress with your revision to RnY. I don't know why I'm so nervous now. Maybe, the closer I get to the 9/19 revision date then the more I find more frighten possible complications that goes hand to hand with the gastric bypass. My gerd is mild, per my latest upper GI. The pantoprazole 40 mg is suppressing my acid reflux for now. I'm still experiencing some mucus buildup in my throat and lump like feeling if I eat more than 4 oz of food or eating too fast. 4oz seems to be my sweet spot for comfort level and no gerd like symptoms. I use to be under the believe if I reach the 24 bmi; then my gerd goes away. However, I see some fit people posted on YouTube or othe wls boards still experiencing gerd. I have to lose 25 more pounds to be at a 24 bmi. I'm blame myself for worrying about possible side effects of the gastric bypass. The dumping and reactive hypoglycemia. I worry too much about things that have not happened yet. Up until June of this year, my gerd was not as pronounced. Not until an asthma/allergy attack put my acid reflux to being extremely bad while taking omeprazole. My doctor switched me pantoprazole and that medicine has controlled the daily acid reflux for now. On top of all of this, I will be making a major relocation to Europe, moving to the county Netherlands. So I'm worrying about would the Dutch doctors know how to handle my new medical case if I should still proceed with the bypass. My aunt had a revision from VSG to gastric bypass last year. She has no problems. She's happy. My aunt is super positive and do not let life worry her. I not at that level yet. I still have time to decide if I need to continue with the revision. I pray that I have a sense of peace about this decision. Thank you all for sharing your experiences with me and offering your kindness.

When I ran out of diets to try! I had been thru the gambit of diets (insert what ever name you like) twice and I was to the point that with extreme effort I could only lose 15 lbs. It used to be I would only gain back to my starting weight but the last few go rounds it gain back to start and pack on more. After being on Jenny Craig all of last year and losing only 14lbs I gave up. I could not afford to keep spending my money on failed diets. So I decided to just not worry about my weight anymore. Well, that lasted about 3 months and I could not stand it anymore and reseached wls. I was to the point that I did not want to participate in anything cuz I was so tired all the time. I have Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, hypo thyroid, and high blood pressure. It was time. Started out thinking lapband and then found out about all the problems and switched to sleeve. Hoping to surgery in 6 weeks. Good luck!

Hi there! I had planned on having sleeve and was switched to bypass after learning that the sleeve could make my reflux worse. I am so happy I had bypass. All of my co-morbitiies are gone now. I am off medications with the exception of hypo thyroid replacement. I feel fantastic! It is hard work and a new way of life. I think both surgeries require a lot of lifestyle change. The most important thing you can do for yourself is feel very comfortable before you go in. You must have a positive attitude in WLS or you will struggle to make the necessary changes. Good luck on your upcoming surgery!

I agree with the suggestion about seeing a nutritionist. Perhaps the calories you're taking in aren't quite the right kind for you. I do notice that for me, the scale moves lower if I eat more...but only if it's good calories (Proteins with a very few whole wheat carbs). Keep track of your foods religiously for a couple weeks before you see the nutritionist so s/he can pinpoint where things could change. I love the app Lose It, but others prefer My Fitness Pal. Good luck!! you'll get there!! ETA: PS I am hypo too and so far my meds haven't changed since having the lap band. Are you taking them in the morning on an empty stomach (no meals for 30min to an hr)? For the first year of taking Levothyroxine, I didn't know that you had to do that. I take it right when I wake up before my shower and morning routine.

I had gastric bypass surgery around 6 years ago and I am very pleased with the results. It is sort of like the gold standard for bariatric surgery. They have most of the bugs worked out. Mini-gastric bypass is somewhat new so I can not really assess it. In general, many people try various kinds of diets prior to eventually getting gastric bypass surgery. Most of the time these are referred to as yo-yo diets. Because the individuals will lose some weight but then over time give up the diet and then gain the weight back and then some. So it is like a yo-yo. In your case it went to the extreme and you slid into anorexia. So the only advise here is that the psychological treatment component is very important for you for the surgery to work. (the package with the 12 phycologist sessions). Also if things go south sometimes after surgery then reactivate the physiological component. The three most important elements after gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily protein, fluid and vitamin requirements. Food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight.

Reactivated my fb please add me kristy Kirby Paquette

Thanks ladies, I didn't touch my band at all while I was pregnant it stayed the same since I didn't have any problems during pregnancy. However I recently moved to Oklahoma from California I will be going out to Cali in November so maybe I can schedule a visit w/ my LB dr and talk about it that will be my one year mark with nursing so maybe I can get a fill then. I've been getting impatient and hate seeing my old self creep back. My baby only nurses and is eating some solids now but would it be a bad idea to do the two day liquid two day soft food thing to "reactivate" the band? And does anyone know if that works?

My thyroid blanked out on me while I was pregnant and we didn't catch it until 2 years later. I remember the end of the day feeling bone-crushingly tired. My levels have been played with and my old doctor (insert bad words here) would never listen to me. My new doctor is the best, she is young and willing to listen and help me however she can. She got my levels up to high end of normal, and she told me that she really wants me to pursue lap band because it will be hard for me to loose it on my own. She whipped up my referral right quick as soon as I said I think that's the way I should go. So far no one has said anything to me about my hypo being a problem as far as WLS is concerned. The main concern is scar tissue from 2 c-sections and a gallbladder removal and the fact that my BMI is so high that any surgery is a risk.

For the people who have hypo what were your numbers before meds if you don't mind. Just want to know where I fall. I'm like right I'm te edge but since there is such a huge "normal" range I'm curious. I hope this all make me feel better bc right now I feel like crap. Taking my first rx sleep pill even though I've had insomnia all my life. Taking my first thyroid med tomorrow and I got an X-ray of my back and might have to start pain injections. It's nice to start gettin answers about my health and start doing something about it

I'm just one person, but I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (hypo) and I had lapband done in Feb 2011. I had a personal trainer I worked out with for 6 months and worked out at Lifetime Fitness with him twice, sometimes three times a week, and worked out at home also. I bought a Polar to monitor my progress. I started jogging along with my walking regimen. lost 30 lbs--that's it. No more. Not one ounce, not one gram. It is September of 2012 now, and I'm still sitting at 30 pounds down. I went through intense feelings of guilt, disappointment, every negative you can think of, that was me. It still is to some degree. I am now coming out of my funk, well over a year later, and realizing that I have to live my life anyway, that I might just be fat the rest of my life; but I don't have to be out of breath all the time, and I don't have to be tired all the time, so the working out has started up again. Just be prepared, and be informed. Good luck.

I have a 8 year old stepdaughter that lives with us half the time. She is 4'7" and weighs 113lbs. (Hubby and I have only been married a year so I'm still adjusting to my new role.) I've expressed a huge concern about her weight at such a young age. We've discussed it with her mother but she feels like we are making a mountain out of a mole hill. (We don't discuss it with the daughter, just me, hubby, and her mom.) I wonder if I am not overly sensitive and reactive to it because of the way I grew up being fat. I want so badly to "fix" this in my stepdaughter so she won't have to deal with all of the cruelness that comes with being overweight. I've always sworn that I would NEVER let my kids get too big. Do you think I worry about it more than I should? In a way I feel like a hypocrite because I am trying to help control her portion sizes and food choices and exercise and then I look at myself. I didn't do a very good job of those things pre-band. The last thing I want to do is make her self-conscious about her weight and expose her to eating disorders and low self-esteem. But how do you get it under control with a delicate touch?

Ok so just here to rant about doctors and how ridiculous it is to have to wait so long to see them...It's taken me 7 weeks to just make an appointment with them and now...I don't see them for another 2 full months. Just to see an endocrinologist! My thyroid is out of whack(but is in the normal range, still too high) and I'm not going to lose a single pound for another 2 months...it's already been 6 months since I've seen the scale move... I give up. I'm adjusting my own meds. I know that's dangerous but if there were to be an increase in my meds a doc would do it by 25 mcg and that's all I'm adding. Seriously I'm not losing, my hair is brittle and falling out, my mood swings are bad, sleeping 12 hours and still exhausted, I hate being HYPO!!!! (My regular physcian is a physcian's assistant and quote "Doesn't know what other kind of medicine there is or what kind of dose to do"...the guy hadn't heard of "PCOS" before either...I hate doctors as well...

I haven't had any flare ups with the PKD, so I haven't had to take steroids. I've been pretty lucky so far, but as I age, things can change. It's a weird disease; no cure, but many people don't even know they have it and end up dying from something else. Even still, the last CT scan showed that my kidneys are enlarged with all the cysts, but there isn't really anything to do, unless the labs start to show impairment of function or they see protein in my urine. For now, it's just a bit of flank pain.....which comes and goes. I just have to be careful and clear all prescription drugs through my nephrologist. I take Meloxicam for joint pain, which he says is a huge no no. I'll have to figure that one out. Though I don't take it every day, it's been a wonder drug for me; the difference between painful/miserable walks, to being able to walk my dog for close to an hour without wanting to lay down in the middle of the street and cry. I've never heard of the IF diet, but I just looked it up online. It's very interesting. My husband stopped eating dinner a couple of months ago, and dropped a good amount of weight. He wasn't following that plan, but just decided to stop eating at around 4pm. It's worked well for him. I do have thyroid issues and have been taking meds for many years. I'm hypo-thyroid and have Hashimotos disease. My numbers are good on the dose of Synthroid I'm on, so I've got that part covered. I'm going to work with the nutritionist at my surgeon's office. I love her and she can help me get on an eating plan that works at this stage. This might be TMI, but I had a total hysterectomy a year before my band surgery, and it's 5 times harder to lose the same pound than it was before menopause and losing my ovaries. I remember "older" people always telling me to lose the weight while I'm young; it's much harder when you're older. I was young and cocky and didn't believe them. HA! And here I am.......struggling along Thanks for your input, FluffyChix - I appreciate it When did you have your surgery? I see you live in Texas. I'm in California, and we've been talking about possibly relocating to someplace around Austin (Hill Country), when we retire in a couple of years.

For those interested in learning more about why low carb works, you might check out "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes. Basically, he makes a case that many obese people have a metabolic disorder that doesn't allow them to process carbs correctly. As a result, we gain weight, suffer from hypo/hyperglycemia, become insulin resistant, etc. I do more than just low carb (defined as less than 60gm of carbs per day). I also avoid grains, fruits, dairy and starchy vegetables as they have a very dramatic and immediate impact on my blood sugar. I do not have an allergy or sensitivity to wheat, but it certainly has made a difference. Not only am I now losing about 2 lb per week instead of the 'barely' 1 lb, but all of the things attributed to chronic fatigue (which I think is just a diagnosis given when they've ruled everything else out) are completely gone. Even my arthritis has lessened in intensity. .

late dumping syndrome is reactive hypoglycemia (also known as postprandial hypoglycemia). It's not that uncommon in RNY patients - I don't know about sleeve patients. It seems to start when you're a couple years out.

I didn't think sleeve patients got it either, but who knows. Maybe some do but it's just not that common? Or it may not even have anything to do with your sleeve - I think even non-WLS people can get reactive hypoglycemia.

Food and liquid timing, pyloric sphincter function, and how it pertains to VSG function and GERD: The pyloric sphincter (PS) is located at the bottom of your stomach/sleeve, and connects the sleeve and duodenum. When open, this valve is roughly the diameter of a dime. When closed, it’s roughly the diameter of the tip of a ballpoint pen. In terms of VSG function, dense proteins and foods that take longer to digest (i.e. fibrous foods) cause the PS to close and hold food in the stomach for pre-digestion, allowing acids begin to break down these foods. This is why we’re instructed to eat protein first: to close the PS so that food stays in the sleeve longer, providing a sense of satiety. It takes ca. 30-60 minutes for food to clear the PS. This is also why we’re instructed not to drink liquids for 30-60 minutes after eating. Incidentally, "slider" foods do not close the PS: instead, these foods "slide" directly through the open PS into the duodenum. In terms of GERD, after you consume a protein-dense meal, the PS closes, holding the contents of the meal in the sleeve for pre-digestion. If you drink liquids within 30-60 minutes after a meal, the liquid has nowhere to go but up, where it hits the lower esophageal sphincter (LES), and above that, a flapper valve. The function of both of these valves is to prevent food, bile, and acids in the stomach from backing up into the esophagus. This is an exceptionally high pressure system, and is the reason why it hurts when you eat to much or too fast, or drink too soon, after eating when the PS is still closed. Vomiting and/or foamies is the only available pressure release. Even in a full-size stomach, the addition of liquids to food speeds gastric emptying by roughly 15%-20%, and some studies indicate that the transit time is anywhere between 25%-35% after VSG. *It’s also interesting to note that after VSG, simple carbs passing through the PS are less liquified due to fewer digestive enzymes being available than with a complete stomach, which is also what causes dumping and reactive hypoglycemia. These unhealthy simple sugars pass directly through the pylorus, causing pancreatic enzymes to flood the bowels in order to be able to digest them. The pancreas then reacts by “dumping” large amounts of insulin into the common bile duct, causing a massive reduction in sugar absorption and feelings of weakness and other diabetic symptoms. It’s very similar to dumping syndrome in RNY patients.

What is the difference between hypo and hyper glycemic and diabetes? I should probably just search the net... ?

I am also hypo and I haven't had a problem at all since banding, EXCEPT when I had an issue a couple of weeks ago with my band being too tight. I couldn't keep anything down, so I was constantly lightheaded, passed out twice. Once I had a small unfill, presto, no more problems. So the Protein definitely helps. leenerbups - I have actually passed out at work - how embarresing is that! They called an ambulance and made me go to the hospital - no fun at all.

I'm on day 3 of the pre-op diet and I just had a hypo ????. I'm using less insulin as directed, but obviously it is still too much. The only thing I had to hand was a nut/muesli bar. I had to eat it to stop myself passing out, but it feels like I cheated ????. What is worse though is that I am at work, an hour from home, and I am supposed to leave in an hour so I am there when my kids get home from school. But I'm not sure I will be able to drive by then ????. Tried ringing my husband, but his team went to a restaurant for lunch and he won't answer his phone. Feeling guilty I ate when I wasn't supposed to, and I don't know how to get home ????