Well I was afraid this would happen...I was banded about 9 months ago by Dr. Ortiz in TJ. I had a very easy time and have been thrilled up until now. I had 65 pounds to lose when I had the surgery, and I have lost 32 (almost exactly half of my goal). I had my first fill way back in May and it was 2.5 cc's. I had Dr. Martinez do my fill under fluoro and it worked great. It did take about a month to kick in, but when it did I had great restriction and lost about 20 pounds. The process has been slow, but I expected that since I was a lower BMI patient. I went for my second fill on 1/7 because I noticed I can eat quite a bit more and that I'm feeling hungry. I have also stopped losing for the past 2 months or so (okay I know it was the holidays!!!!). Anyway, he drew out exactly what he had put in last time and tried to put in more, but there was no room!! When he added as little as .3 cc's more I was blocked and the barium wasn't moving through. So, I left there with exactly what I came with....... He said everything looked good with the band, but my stomach pouch did seem a bit bigger, therefore allowing more intake. I am bummed that I will have to rely on willpower for the remaining 30 pounds, which will be hard because the last ones are always the slowest.

I was wondering if anyone else is in this position and can give me any encouragement. I was thinking maybe when I lose some more weight my stomach will shrink and allow more room for fill?????

Thanks for any help

Monica:think

Monica, typical band stats say that most of us will lose 1/2 of the weight we needed to lose with the band, then the rest of it is all us, baby. Before losing my band, I was typical and lost 1/2 of my excess weight. Now I'm counting calories, which seems unfair after going through all the pain and money of weight loss surgery. But willpower is the key. You've come this far, fight it. If I can do it, anyone can. Log into fitday.com and enter your daily intake. You'll be surprised how fast calories add up.

This is exaclty where I sit now. I've lost half of my excess weight with the band. Now it's up to me to get the rest off. But a little excercise and diet adjustment and I'm back on the weightloss wagon.

The best news is- odds are pretty good that you will NEVER gain back the lost weight. How many people who diet and diet and diet can say that.

Megan

That's good advice. There is always going to be a fair bit of "you" and not the band doing the work. Like most people who have a weight problem, you probably have lost weight before only to gain it back. This time you can be relatively sure you wont regain.

And I dont see why it's not possible that you may indeed be able to be filled a bit more when you've lost a bit more weight. That's afterall partly why we need a schedule of fills and not just one at the start!

Wow Megan, thanks for that tidbit of encouragement that we'll never gain the weight back that we lost. I'm pretending I have a band and would rather be 6 feet under than 100 pounds overweight again.