So today I had an unfil of 1.5 ml because I am having plastic surgery on Thursday. I am now 164 lbs, down 120 lbs, in 13 months... which is only 14 lbs from my goal. After the unfil I said to my doc "I'll prob see u in a month or two to get tightened back up" his response was "If your maintaining I don't want you to get refilled. You've lost more than most people ever loose with the band and the rest should just be done with exercise" . This kind of frustrates me. I am so close to goal and am loosing at such a great pace with my band where is was. I just don't know what to think about this

Its really strange u should post this because i weigh 1 lbs less than u am having plastic surgery in 2 and half weeks and an unfill of 1 mls the monday before surgery. It was actually me that decided that i wouldnt have the 1 mls put back into the band unless i found it hard to keep maintaining. I think for longevity of the band and continued no complications to have a band that is slightly looser has to be a good thing not bad. My plastic surgeon and my band surgeon do not want me to lose any more weight as they think i could lose at least another 10lbs from skin removal so i am biding my time. Once i have this surgery i really dont want to lose more weight just what removal of the skin would be, so i shall bide my time on any refill, if i need one i will go slow again maybe a 0.25 or something but u will be quite a long time healing anyways and really the fill is the last thing u should worry about. I was thinking omg an unfill at first then what happened to shirley hit the forum then a few other posts of longer term banders and i just thought ok i want this band to last me as long as possible i will see if i can maintain with it a little loser to give it every chance of remaining in situ

good luck with the surgery and concentrate on healing for a while

Good luck to both of you! How awesome that you have come this far! You are an inspiration to all of the newbies like me

I think your Dr refusing to fill you back to the level you are at currently is crazy. To say the rest should be done with exercise doesn't make sense, you are probably exercising anyway. The point of the fill is to keep the hunger at bay. If your fill is at a level where you can eat a healthy ,varied diet then I don't see why there is a problem. If you are too tight and surviving on liquids then yes you shouldn't get filled to that point.

What a lot of people, Dr's included, seem to forget is that the less you weigh the less you need to eat. Having the band helps you to not get hungry on that reduced quantity of food. When you get unfilled from a level where you were comfortable the hunger soon returns and with it so do a lot of the "bad" habits. I cannot wait until my Dr's appointment on Friday when i hope that I will be getting refilled to close to the level I was at a couple of months ago when I had to have an unfill because I had a blockage. The time since then has been a nightmare, I am constantly hungry!