Hi All- I've had my band for 18 months and yesterday had it completely drained. It was too tight and was starting to cause issues. Has anyone else had this happen and if so...were you as completely freaked out about weight gain as I am right now? I'm barely 24 hours in and I've checked my weight a dozen times and am counting every single calorie that I'm in-taking. They are going to start again with my fills on Dec 2nd and right now that seems scary far away

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!

Why drain it completely instead of just taking out a couple of ccs? You are back to the beginning I guess and I dont know how long it will take to get back some good restriction but this is going to be hard! Get off the scale and be nice to yourself...when your band is less than half filled (according to my doc) its like you just dont have a band there to help you!

keep busy! walking, movies, anything that takes your mind from it. just thinking about it makes it alot worse i think. if theres something that makes you forget it, keep doing that. good luck tho!

I just had mine completely unfilled yesterday and will not have a fill for about a month as well. My attitude at this point is to "pretend" that nothing has changed, continue to follow my new good habits, and to NOT think of it as a Holiday or I know I will gain weight! I have worked way too hard to mess it up and hope to prove to myself that I can do it without the fill.

That said... A little negativity (devil) creeps in once in awhile saying "Oh now you can eat those things you haven't been able to eat" or "One day cheating won't be so bad".

Want to help support each other to push those negative thoughts aside? Let me know.

You can do it!!!

Jenn

Yes, mine was unfilled for nine months while I had treatment for cancer. I pretended I was still banded and I kept running right through chemo, I managed not to gain weight. Its taken me five months to get restriction again, its been hard and frustrating, but it is possible not to pile,on weight.

I also don't understand why they would unfill it completely unless for surgery as in Jachut's case. I have heard lots of people say that it is hard to get the restriction right again after a complete unfill. It seems to do something to the band - a bit like when you blow up a balloon and then let it down and blow it up again.

I would be stocking the fridge with healthy Snacks e.g crudites or making big pots of veggie Soup. Stuff that you can fill up on that won't cause weight gain. And I would probably also take the opportunity to fill up on the healthy foods that can be hard to eat when you have decent restrction e.g fruit salad, salad sandwich, steak.

Good luck, hope it all goes well.

That's exactly what I did and its a big lesson about sliders! I ate tons more, but it was all that stuff - salad, fruit - that I couldnt eat with good restriction. For the first few months I actually lost weight.

Mine was drained for slippage reasons. I had surgery for a "fix" Oct. 14. I just now had a 3 1/2 c fill, yesterday. I did not have any restriction, like Jachut said. But, it was kind of nice to be able to eat, apples, salad etc, again for a short time. I do envy people who with their lapband can still eat salad and fresh fruit. My only fruit comes from what I put into the blender. Good luck with your unfill, just be careful what you put into your mouth! Karen

I've had my band empty as many months as I've had a fill.

You can have it empty and still lose weight. I think Jachut had it empty for quite sometime and went down 15lbs below her goal weight.

You can manage this. It seems devestating at the time (it did for me), but it's totally manageable.

Best of luck!

In my opinion this is where the good habits come in. The things we are told by our surgeons and RD's are not just for restriction, but also for proper weight loss and weight management.

Just keep that in mind. I have lost over 50 with no fills and really just by following their rules regarding proper diet and exercise. You can do it, and this honestly is a good way of testing yourself and your overall habits.

Man, if I can't eat fruit I don't ever want restriction! lol

Amen to that - if you rely totally on a tight band to keep you on the straight and narrow you are absolutely up a creek called merde, sans paddle if you ever have to unfill for any length of time! You really need to have learned what and how to eat if you're going to manage and you MUST keep up the exercise. I'm also very very grateful that my need to unfill came five years into my banded journey - I had not only learned new habits but my body was well and truly used to being thin - it appears to have a new "set point" if you like.

Thank you all for your advise! I'm a week out and I've actually lost a few pounds. I got pretty sick and that's why it had to be drained. We are going to start with fills again around Dec 2nd. I'm not too worried about it now. I've noticed that I def can not eat as much as before surgery. I'm still exercising and the only thing I ate remotely bad this week was Subway