About 6 weeks ago I had 11cc in my 14 cc band and I could barely eat. I had 1 cc removed and over the last 4 weeks at .5 cc each, I had two fills and I'm back to 11cc and I have no restriction. I don't understand. What happened?

The band is a fickel thing. My story is I had .2 put in- and couldn't keep down protien shakes. The doc. took out .9 because he said there was swelling. He warned me that I would be hungry. However, I have been in a great place. Hunger under control and everything going down just fine. I can't explain it, but I'll take it.

No restriction? As in zero? Or less than when you were unfilled?

If zero, that could be a sign of erosion and you should see your surgeon to rule that out.

If less than when you are unfilled, that is not uncommon. It happened to me after an unfill. I had 0.5 removed and a month later I went in and had 1.0 put back.

I have some restriction but I don't understand how I was at 11cc and could barely eat and had an unfill and I am back to 11cc and don't feel the same restriction.

I've had this before and what usually was the case is that I was swollen from either eating solids too soon after the fill or was irritated when I got the fill and it just made it worse. After I got the unfill, the swelling would go down and then when I went to get it filled again I wouldn't have the same restriction I had the first time because I wasn't swollen. I take forever for swelling to go down and I don't listen to myself and continue to try to eat when I'm swollen. Now I stick to soft foods for a few days before my fills so I can better judge how I'm really feeling.

Glad I'm not the only one confused. Had surgery on 3/9 and 3 fills to 5.5cc in an 11cc band. I can eat anything and am usually hungry an hour or so after eating. Push past on willpower when I can, but the growling(loud) stomach in meetings is embarassing. Get stuck or uncomfortable on a random basis i.e., one day fish is okay, the next I'm PBing.

Only down 14 pounds since surgery. Next fill is 7/30 - guess I'm gone to have to accept that I just maybe a "failure" or will only have limited success with this tool - but I'm so tired of 20+ year of dwelling on my weight that I can't let myself get too down.

Blaze - Don't know if I have an answer for you, but my sister went in a few months back for a checkup and the doc took out her Fluid and put the exact amount right back in and she had amazing restriction. Her doc at the time said the outside of her stomach is sort of like corduroy and the innertube on the inside of the band will reform about the stomach when some fluid is taken out and put back in.

Of course he might have been feeding her a line of sh*t too, but for whatever the reason, after he did that she had great restriction again.

Some people are very sensitive to fills and swell easily. And some (like me) don't feel restriction until 3-4 weeks after a fill. So I'm not sure what to tell you.

One sign of not feeling much restriction is a pouch dilitation, but I don't want to alarm you - that it probably NOT the reason. You might have to chalk this one up to the fickleness of the band.

It might just be my diet because I mostly eat a soft diet which doesn't fill me up but I don't eat to get full. I eat until I'm no longer hungry. The only time I really eat solid food is during dinner when I have my grilled chicken ceasar salad. I will try to eat more solid food and see what happens.