I think after every fill I am expanding my pouch. I don't have much restriction and I blame myself for making wrong decisions. Does anyone know what I can do to shrink my pouch? I currently have 11cc in a 10cc Realize band.

Surgical Weight Loss 5 Day Pouch Test :thumbup:

Stretching your pouch is myth. I thought I stretched mine out and I didn't. Now that I have true restriction I can only eat less than a cup of food at any one sitting. Don't worry about it...Best wishes...

I think after every fill I am expanding my pouch. I don't have much restriction and I blame myself for making wrong decisions. Does anyone know what I can do to shrink my pouch? I currently have 11cc in a 10cc Realize band.

You have 11cc's in a 10 cc band? That right there would stop me in my tracks. IMHO it is irresponsible of the doctor to overfill and possibly could be dangerous.

It also ISN'T a myth, YOU CAN stretch your pouch and that can cause lap band failure... it's called slippage and your stomach can go either way up the band or down and it can also go up through the stoma (opening). In all the research I've done over the past year I have only ever heard of the solution to be revision surgery to realign the band.

Best of luck to you.

Heather

IMHO it is irresponsible of the doctor to overfill and possibly could be dangerous.

Bariatric surgeons have resources--from band manufacturers--that we do not. These resources indicate, to them, the upper limits of fills for each band.

These limits are well ABOVE the labeled amount for each band. I don't know what the limits are, but I do know that an 11 cc band, for example, can safely hold significantly more than 11 cc.

It is rarely necessary to fill more---but it sometimes is, and in and of itself is NOT cause to question the doctor.

While it is not a myth that pouches can stretch, it does not happen nearly as often as we are led to believe on sites like this. The stomach is a VERY elastic organ. It rebounds when stretched. (It snaps right back into place.)

A pouch can be dilated by routinely stretching it well beyond its capacity---but I don't know anyone for whom that has occurred. More common is slippage, but the OP did not describe symptoms that even begin to approximate those experienced during slippage.

I think we like to attribute problems to things like stretched pouches when, in fact, it's our MINDS that have "stretched." We become accustomed to eating more--and want to eat more--and it's difficult to eat less.

That doesn't mean that anything anatomical is actually going on, though.

It may well mean that we've let bad habits get a grip again.

Unless you've been told by your doctor that your pouch is stretched, I'd dispense with the notion and just get back to basics, in terms of eating. (You don't have to go as spartan as a 5-day pouch test; just start following the rules you've been given.) Don't borrow trouble when there is none to be had.

What are you eating on a day to day basis? Can you post a typical day or two?

Have you thought about getting a complete UNfill, then a few weeks after go for a fill again... I was told by my surgeon that it is sort of like a restart of sorts...