Okay, so I'm day 17 post banding. Had my first postop check this past Wednesday; told my surgeon I could drink anything I wanted, as much as I wanted, never felt like the liquids weren't going down; literally I could drink two cups of bouillon and follow it with a glass or juice or water, no problem. So he said since I had no restriction at all, he'd do a fill a bit earlier than his normal 4-6 weeks out. I got 2 cc in.

So I'm supposed to be on "mushies," right? Except I am was still feeling nothing. So tonight I had 1/3 cup chicken salad (store bought, that was a serving size) on a tortilla. I was careful to chew thoroughly, but ate it and didn't feel at all like I was uncomfortable (and with a tortilla??); then one of the things I've craved since I couldn't eat was kosher dill pickles (not pregnant, I just love 'em). So I had a jar of baby kosher dills, each one no bigger than your little finger, and most of them smaller than that. I ate six - SIX - with no problem, right after the chicken salad. Again, I chewed carefuly, but still!!

Is this normal? I'm not hungry at all (but then I didn't usually eat because I was hungry anyway), and I've been careful what I eat (the chicken salad was kind of a test, though calorie-wise it wasn't bad, and gave me a good amount of protein). I mean, I'm not chowing down on stuff I shouldn't, but is it normal to not feel ANYTHING after all that food??

(Okay, 1/3 cup chicken salad in a tortilla and some baby dills = "all that food"... YES it does!!)

Okay, I'm only saying this because I want you to succeed...just because you CAN eat something at this stage doesn't mean you SHOULD...Most of us have little or no restriction until we've had several fills. I felt virtually normal within a week after having surgery, had a fill at a month which provided a little restriction for 2-3 days, another fill at 2 months which provided a little restriction for about a week, and a third fill at 3 months which was 3 weeks ago and is still kicking my behind. You are 2 weeks post op (and lucky to have gotten a small fill already), be very careful stepping away from your current diet plan. Your body is healing and you don't really know what you can handle yet. Stick with what's approved and (particularly if you're not hungry) try not to be eating things you're not supposed too.... It's a wee bit early for you to be experimenting and trying to push the limits, get stuck sucks, hurts like hell, and being 2 weeks post op actually has the potential to do damage...

Be patient and give it some time. Good luck!

Oh I'm not really eating what I shouldn't. I doubt I'm getting 600-700 calories a day - I'm just not hungry. I saw someone say in a post that they were kind of relieved to have something "stick" a little, because then you know something is really going on... I guess I'm there. (Like when I FINALLY got pregnant, I couldn't wait for morning sickness and to barf the first time, because other than that, I didn't feel any different!)

The chicken salad was the only semi-no-no, and I did measure it out. I'm not taking in many calories, but I was so busy today I just didn't have time to eat. I was so careful this morning, made mincemeat (ha) out of chicken and was so careful chewing even then. It just doesn't seem to matter!

Oh well maybe it means I'll get another fill at my next visit too. I'm ready to get this show on the road!

Sounds kind of simple, but if you're not hungry; why are you eating? And it doesn't take any longer to make a Protein shake or grab a slimfast, than it does to make a chicken salad wrap....Don't get me wrong; I am the same way...Hunger never had anything to do with how much I ate. I just ate because I loved food...but I am 4 weeks post op and haven't allowed myself to binge like I used to. I paid for this surgery out of pocket and have no intention of failing...I have lost 40lbs so far and I attribute that to following the liquid diet that the doc put me on.

If you keep it up, you're going to be one of those posts that say, "I'm 2 months post op and have only lost 2 lbs....what am I doing wrong..." i know its hard, but if it were supposed to be easy, you wouldn't have gone through all of this trouble would you? you have to fight through the urge to eat; especially when you're not hungry...

good luck... :thumbup:

Why am I eating? Umm, because according to the diet plan given to me by my doctor last week, I'm supposed to eat three meals a day, I'm supposed to be eating 5-7 servings of protein a day in the form of meat, eggs, dairy. Slim-Fast has a lot of carbs and 10 gm of protein; I can't drink enough Slim-Fast in a day to get 60 gm of protein without getting a LOT of carbs in (the low-carb options aren't on the shelves here yet after the recall, apparently).

At the risk of sounding whiny, frankly the

If you keep it up, you're going to be one of those posts that say, "I'm 2 months post op and have only lost 2 lbs....what am I doing wrong..."

comment is a huge - and incorrect - assumption on your part. I posted because I was trying to find out if 2 cc, two weeks post banding, this is what everyone feels, not to have people tell me I'm on the road to failure.

I was banded on feb 12th, I have 2cc ina 10 cc band and I rarely feel resrtiction of any kind. I find I am a bit tighter inteh morning so a shake works well for me. I can gulp water and do not need to cut my meat really tiny to still get it down in the afternoon or evening. So, I think your level of restriction or lack of it is normal.

I got freaked out yeasterday when I was eating a Greek yogurt though. Usually it is out of my lunch bag and not ice cold. Yesterday it ws right out of the fridge. I was eating slowlly to be sure to chew the blueberries but I got stuck on it, I could feel the slime, then it just went down. Kind of freaked me out, but was a weird reassurance that the band is indeed there.

I'm surprised that your doctor concluded that you "had no restriction" based on a liquid only diet. Your band is not *supposed* to restrict liquids. You should have been easily able to drink a lot of fluids.

And no-- you won't necessarily feel any restrictions after your first fill of 2ccs. Many peoploe require 3 or 4 fills before they get anything more than temporary restriction.

Don't worry-- it will happen!

And as far as people being concerned about what you're eating-- IMO you SHOULD be eating, whether or not you are hungry at this stage. You need calories to survive and heal. But you *did* say that you were on the mushy stage, and the pickles and wrap aren't mushies. I think people just get worried about each other!

I have my first fill coming up this week. A bit nervous!

Edited April 3, 201016 yr by jensmallwood
typo

To answer your question, I think its perfectly normal to not feel any restriction at this point (even w/the 2cc). My surgeon is a rare one that does not even include a mushy or pureed stage. I was on Clear Liquids for 4 days after surgery and then went straight to regular food.

All doctors are different of course and you should always try to follow your doctor's instructions first, yada yada, everyone will tell you that. Have I broken any of her rules ever? Yes, but very carefully. LOL

Anyway, back to your original question again... even being on regular food within 5 days of surgery, I did not have much restriction. And, my first fill of 3cc did not help me much. It will get a little better w/each fill, but for me (and a lot of others), it takes a few fills before you really feel like you have a band. My fourth fill (on Monday) took me to 6.5cc in a 10cc lapband and, for the first time, now I really feel like I have a band and I really do have to follow the rules all the time about small bites, chewing, stopping as soon as I start to feel a little full.

hi i had my surgery on the 27th nov 09 and have had 3 fills so far, at my first fill yes i could eat anything, my first fill was 5ml/cc. i didnt feel any restriction untill i had my second fill of 1ml/cc which i had to have .15ml taken back out because fluids didnt go down, i went away with a really good restriction, for all of 2 weeks and my portions sizes jumped back up again. i now have my 3 rd fill of 1ml/cc which i went away and was in band hell for 16 days and lost 11lbs and felt ill for it, i had to go back in to have .5ml taken back out again. i know people who have had 7 fills and still not got to their sweet spot everyone is very different honey, but one thing i will say is you deffinatley need to keep to the letter of your diet plan, getting slippage because you thought you would see how far you could push it is not nice, constant throwing up and burping and some have alot of pain with it, which deffinately means you got to go back for surgery to have that removed and replaced or a whole new one fitted. you may have money to burn but think of the impact on your body, im not having a go im just concerned that your mind is not in the same place as your band right now, and if you want to succseed you need to get your head out normal mode and safely into band mode hun. if your diet plan says mushy then do mushy, if your diet plan says salad do salad but dont try and jump the gun you will deeply regret it. these diet plans are their for a reason and if you dont adhere to it your pushing your stoma too far and you will pay for the i "i wonder" eat regularly should be every 4 to 6 hours to be right, and dr5ink plenty of fluids as well, dehydration is not fun i know i went there, but please do yourself a favour and listen to your dietition and the sheets you been given.

Jen, actually in the "banding bible" they gave me, it said something like sip on liquids, you should try to get down 8 oz every hour or so... and I commented to the doctor that I could easily drink 8 oz in five minutes and then another 8 oz, water, Crystal Light, whatever. Obviously he expected me to have something going on rather than to be able to drink continuously with no feeling whatsoever. "Restriction" might have been too strongly worded.

You're right, the wrap and pickles weren't "mushy" but I am careful that what I eat is giving me the most protein for the number of calories, and if I were counting calories per se, it would still be too low. I guess I expected to get stuck or something on my first "real" food in almost three weeks. In retrospect, I think I just chewed really well; I posted separately this morning that I had the same thing for lunch and didn't get stuck, exactly, but had a little heaving episode and lost a bit of food - because a dog I'm fostering was trying to get out of the fence, I swallowed quickly to call her back, and had an 'episode.' About 30 mins later I finished the wrap without any problem, just chewed it much better.

Thanks for the positive input... I've struggled all along with getting enough protein and calories, and it's harder now for some reason, so I probably have pushed too hard to get to a regular diet.

What I was trying to say is that if you keep eating stuff you're not supposed to be eating, such as pickles and wraps after only 2 weeks, you're going to have some problems...

I wasn't trying to be mean, I just prefer to speak plainly...I feel that many of us on this site, including myself, have had too many people "enabling" us over the years by saying its okay, when its not. I prefer to be blunt so there is no misunderstandings...that was all I was attempting to communicate with you, is that if you keep eating the stuff you're not supposed to, you are not going to be successful. If the doc says to be on mushies then you need to stick it out and stay on mushies. If your having a hard time getting your Protein in you can go to walmart and get their whey protein mix and it has 52gm of protein in an 8oz serving if you mix it with 1% milk... that's what I do. I get a majority of my protein in for Breakfast with a shake and then survive on Soups throughout the day. This gives me a sense of actually eating food and i am getting somewhere between 75-85gm of protein a day on average with very little effort thanks to those shakes.

Why am I eating? Umm, because according to the diet plan given to me by my doctor last week, I'm supposed to eat three meals a day, I'm supposed to be eating 5-7 servings of protein a day in the form of meat, eggs, dairy. Slim-Fast has a lot of carbs and 10 gm of protein; I can't drink enough Slim-Fast in a day to get 60 gm of protein without getting a LOT of carbs in (the low-carb options aren't on the shelves here yet after the recall, apparently).

At the risk of sounding whiny, frankly the

If you keep it up, you're going to be one of those posts that say, "I'm 2 months post op and have only lost 2 lbs....what am I doing wrong..."

comment is a huge - and incorrect - assumption on your part. I posted because I was trying to find out if 2 cc, two weeks post banding, this is what everyone feels, not to have people tell me I'm on the road to failure.

I think your doctor has given you a really skewed sense of what to expect. (This is not particularly uncommon, since most surgeons have not been banded, and many really do not pay a great deal of attention to their patients' aftercare, and therefore don't have a realistic view themselves.)

Restriction is likely quite a way down the road for you.

I have 7.3 ccs in my 11 cc band and can still freely drink fluids. Other people get restriction sooner, but I have only, with my most recent fill, experienced difficulties with any foods at all---and they've been very few and very minor. Still, in this working-toward-ideal-restriction phase, I've been consistently practicing the things I need to do---taking very small bites, chewing well, etc. (You sound like you're doing this, too.)

Do try to make use of this time to build other good habits with your band (like choosing the right foods in the right amounts). I know you've only described a couple of incidents, but it does sound like you've got a tiny bit of push-the-envelope-itis going on. You say that you "don't feel anything," and describe behavior in response that seems to almost challenge your band to see what you can get away with.

This is not a good idea so early on. Stick with okayed foods in the amounts recommended.

If you ever do run into difficulties getting enough Protein, I think the Inspire protein powders from Bariatric Eating are really, really good.