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Hello all, I am new to this site and it looks like a great place to get some feed back on my issue. I have been banded over 4 years and am at goal weight. Have been at the same weight about 2 years. I am thinking that my band has slipped. I have all of the symptoms pretty much. I couldnt get an appt any sooner than next week so Ill have to wait to know for sure. My question is for anyone who has gone through slippage or knows about it: What happens if its a really bad slip and they have to remove the band? Are they going to re-band me if I am at goal weight? I am about 140 and 5''8 so my husband thinks I should leave it out if I need surgery. But I am worried about maintaining. The whole point of the band is to CURE obesity. And if there is no band in there I could go back to 250 in a no time Im sure. Anyway, I know this is long. Just looking for some insight. Thanks so much!

Yes, I had my cycle right before surgery, then 2 weeks after surgery again, and ever since, it has not been right. My last cycle lasted about 10 days, ugh... Hopefully it goes back to normal? But I ,too have read this can happen after surgery.

Hi, I'm 2 weeks post-op and have been having heart burn at night. Has anyone else experience this? I've heard that some of the symptoms of night heart burn could mean a slip?? Thank you for any advice.

I put off getting my first fill for a long time because I was doing well and didn't think I needed it. Well I finally broke down and got it. In the 2.5 weeks it took me to get in after I made the appt I fell off the wagon and gained a few pounds. I finally got it last Thursday, and I already know one will not be enough. How long do you guys wait bewteen fills??

According to myfitnesspal, I only average between 300-400 calories per day. I am stuck and haven't lost any weight for a week. Granted, it's only been 3 weeks since my surgery, but I didn't think I'd stall quite yet LOL I am wondering if I should up my calories a bit. See if that would jumpstart the loss once more. I don't know. I am pretty confused right now. I'm not really hungry until late at night (like now). I am sure I could have a stick of string cheese and be fine, but I don't want to eat more than I need to eat. I'll be heading to bed in a few minutes, so why bother eating? KWIM Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

I got my period about 10 days early and about a day after getting out of the hospital. It ticked me off too, because I had intentionally planned my surgery date at the middle of my cycle so I would not have to "deal" with recovery and that time. Ugh. But I must say I am not on any type of hormone, pill, patch, etc. and my periods are completely 100% normal since being sleeved. Except for getting cheated on that extra week back in Oct. I think it is more common for them to be out of whack, so I don't know exactly what I'm doing but they were normal before and after the sleeve, so maybe I'm just lucky?

My period came like a week early the day AFTER surgery (not cool) and the next period was about 10 days EARLY! . . . So more frequent. Hopefully they go back to normal soon.

Thanks! I am so excited!! Getting a little nervous though. I also hope I have a speedy recovery, I don't have much down time. I am hoping Monday I can get around pretty good. I have had 4 C-sections, so I think I know what the pain will be like, sitting up, laying down and so forth. I have to drink magnesium citrate today and thats it, nothing else except clear, sugarfree liquids. Hope I make through the day. The hardest thing for me so far is not being able to drink diet coke!! It's been over a week!! Getting a little grabby My new life with be way better then the Diet Coke!

yup, 5 weeks post-op here and still swollen around the port area....

It's tough to get enough calories in when we aren't hungry. Most patients experience the "evil 3 week stall" so you aren't in the minority here. I had a goal of 4 meals a day consisting of at least 15-20 grams of Protein per meal. I didn't really snack, just focused on meals, and getting my protein in. But, if you stay too low on calories, your body can hang onto the weight out of pure survival. If you're working out, or walking a lot, your body needs calories to burn the fat.

I was sleeved a week before you and I had a 3 lb weight gain at about 5 weeks post op. At first I kind of freaked out but I relalized that I really hadn't done anything wrong and that my body is just going through major changes. I have kind of come to the conclusion that as long as I am eating right and getting excercise this body will loose how it wants too. If you haven't started taking measurements I recommened doing so it is an easy way to see the physical changes that are taking place on your body even when the scale isn't moving.

dont worry you will be fine im on week 3 and i starting eating thing like applesauce after a week and now i sometimes eat a couple chips and i feel fine, dont worry you wont die

I'm really kind of bummed lately. I've been doing quite well with my foods and exercise. I'm going to be 9 weeks out tomorrow. I started training for the Long Beach Half Marathon. I don't know what I've done, but the knee I had surgery on 19 months ago is worse than ever. I'm going to give it a few days rest before calling my orthopedic surgeon. I just hope this doesn't cause me any problems with my weight loss!

How are you doing three months post surgery? I really need someone to talk with me about the experience. I have lots of fear. Jeannie

Does your insurance require you to lose weight? Mine just required that I have a physician/dietician supervised diet. I did lose weight for the first 5 months and then stalled. I gained some weight back in the 3 months between the end of the diet and when the paperwork was submitted to insurance. It was submitted on Tues and approval on that Friday. So it did not seem to effect my approval but each insurance company has different requirements.

I'm so excited, I got my surgery date today and we finalized all the details of the surgery!!! I'll be doing the duodenal switch with a longer common channel since I have a history of vitamin D deficiency and anemia. The surgeon talked to my GI specialist and they signed off of on it so everyone is on board thankfully. We picked December 13th, since I'll be in New Zealand for most of November. He said 2 weeks is standard for their liver reduction diet but if I added in a gradual 3rd week it would probably help as a bonus week. Their liver reduction diet is 2 shakes, 2 snacks and a lean, green dinner until one week before surgery, when it switches to all fluids. So basically I'll be starting the diet as soon as we get back from traveling... I already have 7 flavors of premier protein shakes in my closet. LOL (They require the shakes be either those or the bariatric advantage powder as per some study they are following). I'm really happy to be at this stage of everything, I know the 2 months will fly by fast!

well today makes it one week down for the 6 month diet....Been off sodas for 1 week, oh man and the cravings, but i never gave in.....I'd enjoy the occational glass of hot chocolate which helped my throat while i was sick, and the occational glass of fresh juiced juice, but no sodas, and no carbonated waters, my mother in law found this flavored water thats not carbonated fruit 2 O and its pretty good, we'll have to get some for our house.....My husband doesn't like the no sodas part....but i really want him to try to loose some weight too, we both really need to, he hates water though, he's been trading his high calorie sodas with high calorie non carbonated sodas....so still sodas, but he didn't think they counted cause they weren't carbonated, he didn't even go for the diet ones......like its not hard for me, man i love my soda, but it never really made me feel good, I'd get stomach aches from drinking it, but yet i still drank it....I'm proud of myself for not cheating and drinking soda this week, yay to me I'm slightly confused with my blue cross blue shield of texas....we were under the assumption that I needed five years of weight history, and a 6 month diet, along with the nutrionist, and psychologist, but the criteria they gave me at the seminar didn't mention the five year weight history and the 6 month diet said 3 monthes, and then i got really confused when i went in for my consult and the surgeon and dietician were saying 6 month diet and then the nurse came in saying 3 month diet, i really wish i had asked, but it didn't really occur to me till i got home and read over the paper work again....well my second appointment is in a couple weeks i'm sure i can ask about it...although even if it is now only 3 monthes, i'd still have to wait the 6 or at least 4-5 to be able to save up the $4200 we need to cover the surgeons fees.

You need to go back to your doctor and have them look into what the problem might be. I am guessing there is a medical reason why it's not working...but the band is a TOOL and you need to work it like a tool. I hate to say it and be preachy, but don't eat the bread, Pasta and junky foods. Stick to the 1/2 cup portion size even if you CAN eat more. Or go back on liquids for two weeks to shrink the pouch. Don't drink and eat at the same time. You can't just go back to old habits and make the band work. The band won't work alone. You MUST follow the diet and exercise plan. I found that when I strayed I lost a lot less.. When I was back on track, I've done great. I was eating potato chips and pasta for awhile and went on what I called a plateau, but really I wasn't losing b/c I was eating JUNK!! also, if you haven't GAINED, consider that a success. I know I was continually gaining before surgery, so if you've managed to keep off that weight you are doing great and the band is doing something for you!

I have the exact same situation. Lost 27lbs at pre op diet and only 32 in total. I'm trying to tell myself that is 32 lbs I probably would not have lost. I also sprained my ankle so I have not been exercising for 6 weeks. It is still better than the gaining 10 lbs I've been doing every year. Think of it that way

UPDATE....saw the doc today..she said she has no idea why i have stomach pain when I eat and drink..she wants to take a look but...she said she is goung to stretch my pouch when she does wich will make me lose weight slower!!! I've only lost 22lbs in six weeks. I scheduled the procedure for 2 months from now see how things go. Meanwhile I will deal with the pain and continue swimming and walking. Thank you for all the support Sent from my VS986 using BariatricPal mobile app

It should happen gradually, Emma. My first fill, I was STARVING -- like, hungrier than I was before the fill. The second was better, as was the third, and I just had my fourth last week. With each fill, it gets a bit better until they find your sweet spot.

I am on a weight watchers high..ya know that euphoric feeling that comes over you when you are still in your first few weeks of ww? I joined last week so that I can at least loose a little bit of weight while I wile away my days waiting for my insurance company to take their thumbs outta their asses and approve me. Anyhow of course I lsot my obligatory 4.5 pounds in my first week, and of course it wasn't even hard...not at all as a matter of fact. There were actually a couple of days that I couldn't even eat the last couple of points. Why is this??? Why can I do so well on ww for the first 4 or 6 weeks, then I just peeter out. Maybe, no probably because I loose those first 20 lbs so easily, then it gets harder. I know your only supposed to set small goals, but I can't fool myself completely, that 140 pounds over all that I have to loose to get to my goal is a HUGE, Ginormous, Gargantuan Monstrous number and it scares the shit outta me. I loose 5 pounds and I think ok, only 135 to go....you're 5/140ths there girlfriend....go, go, go, you CAN DO THIS. Then I start the mental figuring...this is what I always, always, always do when I start a new weight loss effort...I'll be walking on the track, or on the elliptical or on my way home from ww or anywhere and I start doing the calculations in my head..."ok I am 280 now...If I keep loosing at this rate I will be 260 in 4 weeks, then I'll be 240 in 8 weeks, then 220 in 12 weeks, then 200 in 16 weeks, then 180 in 20 weeks, then 160 in 24 weeks, then 140 in 28 weeks, then I shoould make my goal of 137 in 28 and a half weeks...whooo hooooo!! Then reality sets in and I go, Ok theres no way in hell that I will keep up a 5 pound per week weight loss....Ok lets figure it this way. I am sooo fat that I can probably keep up the 5 pound per week loss for like 8 weeks...that'll bring me to 240, then I can probably looses 3 lbs per week til I get to 200...umm lets see, that'll be like 13 weeks, so in 21 weeks I can be at 200. Ok then I'll probably slow to about 2.5 pounds per week til I hit 175, so lets see...that'll be like 10 more weeks so in 31 weeks I can be 175, so then it'll probly slow down to 2 pounds per week till I hit 150, so that outta take another 12 weeks so in 43 weeks I will be 150. So It'll probly slow down to 1.5 lbs per week til I hit 137 so in a total of 51 weeks I will be at goal!!! So I can comfortably say that in 1 year I will be at my goal weight!" This talk has taken up hours and hours of my thought processes over the past 20 years...I can't even estimate how muc time I have wasted on these pathetic calculations...over and over again like an obsession I do this. I should have lost 700,000 pounds by now if all of these strategizing sessions produced the desired results. I estimate that I have given ww somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200.00 over the years...now thats nothing compared to some women friends I have. Some of them just keep paying and paying and paying for years even when they don't go or follow the plan for months and months at a time. I bet I know women who have spent 5000.00 at weight watchers, just for attending not for products and they all loose some weight and put it back plus a few then loose some more...blah blah blah. I do know this. Weight Watchers is the BEST, Healthiest, most effective eating plan known to womankind. I say this as a dietician and as a woman who looses lots of weight on the flex or point plan AS LONG AS I DO IT! AND AS LONG AS I JOURNALIZE. You loose the battle when you stop writing I do know this. Anyhow, my current dilemma is that i wonder what I will do when I loose 35 pounds, I worry that if I loose more that I will not be eligible for the surgery even if med mutual ever coughs up the cash. So I ask myself....what will I do then? Should I loose as much as I am allowed and then try to maintain at 245? I keep thinking in my head about statistics...the statistic that only 7% of women who loose a significant amount of weight kepp it off for more than 2 years. I then wonder what percentage of ww women have lost 140 pounds. Then I try to apply that 7% number to the number of ww women and I come out to like 2....No just joking...I really don't know what the actual statistic is for ww over time. I drive myself crazy with thse number things. I can use numebrs to justify anything and I do it all the time. My quest for weight loss started this craziness and it has never stopped, not since after the birth of my daughter when I had gained 20 lbs...from 131 to 151 after birth when she was about 3 months old and I hit my first plateau...at 151....God what a gift and I thought it was such a curse! I remember my frustration at not being able to get that weight off...If I had a crystal ball then I would have only needed one bullet. Anyway, I was proud of my 4.4 lb weight loss at my weekly ww meeting yesterday, but I was even more proud of the man who was sitting behind me. He probably weighs about 350 or 375 and is about 5'10" and I would guess he's about 35 years old. He's a black man and I can tell he is a successful classy business man...he doesn't have spinners on the wheels of his late model beige colored Chrysler 300 nor does it have curb finders or any of the other paraphanelia that many black guys feel that they need to show how proud they are of their blackness. These men always come off as so pathetic to me...aspiring to be a pimp...anyway, this man is comfortable with his success and does not feel the need to prove any thing to any one. He is real. I know it sounds like I am attracted to him but I am not. I am proud of him because last week ( he joined the same day I did) he was talking about how he was looking into weight loss surgery and that he heard about someones great success at ww and he thought he should give it one last ditch effort. He came in yesterday and beat my 4.4 pound loss into the dirt with his 9.6 pound loss in one week. He was so happy and amazed that I was happy with him and for him. It was as though he got a new lease on HOPE. That's when I realized it...I had lost all HOPE of ever loosing this weight and this lapband procedure has given it back to me. I know that I will not be 280 pounds a year from now. I know that I will have lost a great majority, if not all of this burden of carrying around a whole extra person. This gives me such happiness, it's like a drug...a really good drug. I am not touting wls to this black man in my ww class. I am a dietician, I am supposed to believe that if you eat right and eat less nd move more you will loose weight. I will continue to g to ww even after I have had the surgery, and I will try to keep tabs on this man and I will tell him someday if he is struggling about this wls. But not yet. He might be one of the ones who makes it on his own...I wish I was because I feel like somewhat of a fraud doing this, but I don't care enough to continue to live fat. Well that's enough of that! Love, Me:kiss2:

So I'm back from my first fill. Oh what an experince. It took them five tries and three syringes to finally hit the port. It seems that my port seems to have moved a bit. so i'm at 3.5 cc.

Hello friends! I have missed talking to you all! Well you all know that I put myself on a pre-surgery all liquid diet 2 weeks prior to surgery. Well I am on the third week of solely liquids and I have lost a total of 24lbs! I have lost 8 pounds since surgery 8 days ago. They had to repair a hiatal hernia when they put in the band. I am doing SUPER. I cannot believe that I have already began part of my work out routine (brisk walking and 10 mins on the elliptical (without the use of my arms)). I have a ton of energy, awesome attitude and the gas pains FINALLY subsided by day 5. I do not return to work until September 21. I plan to treat myself to a new hair style, a sexy office outfit and some bad stilletos! Also, I WILL post new full body pics right before I return to work. I plan to be 40 pounds down by then. I should be able to tell a big diff with my clothes. How am I losing the weight so fast? i do this by dedication, being loyal to my diet and PRAYER! I told God the other night, "Because I am obedient to YOU, I expect to be fabulous because I am your creation, made in your image and I don't expect to be anything less!" It's important to remind God of our expectations :confused:

2 days clear liquid, 2 weeks full liquid, 1 week blenderized and pureed, 10 days graduating from blenderized, ground meats, finely cut, apple sauce, crackers, hard breads, well cooked veggies. then maintenance.