I Gotta A Question For You!

[glowormvl 4]

i got my third fill on tuesday. the rest of tues and all of weds i ate like mashed potatoes gravy, ice cream, protien shakes. they all went down fine. so thursday i tried to eat chicken. it got stuck and came back up. then friday i tried to eat chicken again. no luck. then friday night i tried meatloaf with lotsa ketchup no luck. so yesterday i tried some Pasta. no luck so basically i have been eatin Soup, oatmeal and potatoes and gravy. i am wondering if i am a tad to tight or if i just cant eat those things and i am in my green zone. Well if i cant eat meat how will i get in my protien also if i cant eat meat how am i gonna be able to stick to low carb diet with fruit added. I dont know what to do. should i go in for slight unfill? Am i in my green zone? please help.

[B-52 7,113]

As I type this response, I am sitting here and I am STUCK. (I'm using my I-pad)

Have been banded a year, have not had a fill since last May.

Yet, here I am. It can happen to anyone.

What happened is this.....getting ready to watch football. My son bought some Buffalo Wings. I had 1 1/2, that's all it took. I,m staying calm and hoping it will pass. I'm not sliming but do have hiccups.

Asking myself why did this happen......I think I ate the first one way too fast, the way I used to before being banded.

I always have problems with anything I eat f I don't eat correctly. Need to very slow and small. Need to break the old eating like a pig habits.

Example....I had a few shrimp the other day.shrimp gives me BIG problems, but I love shrimp!

Imagine a normal size shrimp. Now imagine taking 4 small bites and chewing just to eat one shrimp! I even put the 1/2 eaten shrimp down and came back to it later.

NOW THAT'S SLOW EATING!

After typing this, the small stuck episode is gone. I am going to finish those wings, but more carefully and slower.

[Holly Dolly 575]

When I get stuck, it is always because I have taken too big of a bite and two or 3 bites in a row. I think what has happened to me before is that when you get something stuck the stomach can get a little swollen around the band and give you a problem for a couple of days. Thank goodness it hasn't happened for a while now.

Were you eating chicken breast? Thighs seem to be a little bit easier for me unless I cut deli thin like slices across the chicken breast. I cut pork, chicken breast and tri tip really thin and I never have a problem that way.

[kittyforet 50]

It happens to me too. After getting stuck, try to stick to liquids the rest of the day and possibly the next to help the swelling go down. I am ok with chicken breast, ONLY IF I cut it into teeny tiny bites....think pea-sized bites.

I get stuck if I eat too fast or my bites are too big or if I don't wait at least 30 seconds between bites.

If you can't eat solid foods, go to yogurt, Protein drinks, etc. to help get your Protein. If you can't keep liquids down, you're too tight. If you can keep the liquids down, it's possible you are in the green zone but need to change the amount or speed of your eating. Try to slow down and eat tiny bites and see if the food stays down.

When I've gotten stuck on meatballs it was because I ate too many big bites too fast. If you're using regular-sized utensils, don't think you have to fill up the entire surface with food....I play a game when I have to use those instead of toddler spoons/forks...I try to see how little I can get on the spoon/fork at one time.

Take time to savor each bite (hard to do when I am used to shoveling my food! ) It takes practice!

good luck!

[elcee 3,343]

All the foods that you got stuck on are foods that give a number of people trouble.

chicken can be very dry and hard to eat. Meatloaf also has quite a difficult , grainy texture. Pasta can cause problems because it can swell.

As the others have said you need to pay very careful attention to how you are eating. Small bites, chewed well and enough time between bites to ensure the last bite is "sitting ok".Personally I can't do pea sized bites - they are too small and slip past without me being able to chew them properly. I need something a bit bigger that I can get my teeth into and chew.

What you do need to remember is that after each fill you need to relearn how to eat.

Give it some time to see if the fill settles before deciding that you are too tight.

[glowormvl 4]

I have some pork i need to bake up. so i think i am gonna try it, but tiny tiny bites. So i need to wait between bites for the first bite to go through the band? Is that correct? So if that is the case. why is it that we can only eat 1/2 cup of food at a time if we are waiting for each bite to go down before having the next bite. doesnt that mean that the pouch is emptied. i am not argueing i am just a little confused about that. I have no problems eating small portions in fact since surgery my portion sizes have been cut drastically. I eat only about a cup of food at a time. I stop eating because i am not hungry anymore but i am also not full. well full like i used to be pre band. also i dont really get hungry. because of my work i have to eat when i take my breaks so i ussually end up eating about a half a protien bar on my 2 small breaks then a small bit of food on my lunch break. If i dont eat even when i am not hungry i get hungry right after my break and i start shaking and get low blood sugar. i am not diabetic or anything. so I just got my fill and have not figured out what works best for at work.

[glowormvl 4]

ok so far i am able to keep the pork down. it is very juicy. I am taking tiny bites chewing well and then chewing some more then waiting before the next bite. I am also eating butternut squash everything is going down fine and i dont even need gravy. I am burping alot tho. thanks for the advicce. I guess i do need to just slow down and chew tiny bites. Thanks guys

[Cocoabean 430]

White meat chicken is a no-go for me. Period, don't even try it. Pasta is hit or miss.

Bites of meat need to be cut to pieces about the size of a pencil eraser, and then chewed well. It is not the same to chew a bigger bite well. I don't understand the mechanism of the band, but I do know if I eat too quickly, or eat try to eat too big of a portion, it doesn't go well. And it isn't pretty.

As Elcee said, after each fill there is a learning curve. After I have a stuck episode I take it very easy for a couple of days, then go back to solids slowly.

[YngGram 73]

I can eat all of these things. But following a fill, my doc says liquids for two days , one of mushie and then real food. He says that the fill can cause swelling at the band as well and throat issues if you do the swallow test with the white Fluid. You may be swollen and you need to give it a chance to go down before trying something solid again.