Success after Lap Band Removal?

[RavenClaw779 2]

I'm scheduled for band removal at 7:30am today - hence, I'll not sleep this night.

I won't bore anyone with the whole story(it's on my blog). Let's just say it's been a long year of problems. When I started having problems, I used that as an excuse to indulge in "sliders", which resulted in me beating myself up as I packed on the pounds. Yes, my unfilled, extremely restrictive band has helped, but I started - for lack of a better word - "parenting" myself. Combining WW, with mindful eating and shutting down the "I'm stressed - let's eat chips!" response, I'm back to the weight I'd reached when I started having problems - 65 pounds less than my highest weight. I've not been able to get any more off - my WLS says it's because I'm not able to eat enough. Well, when you get blocked on two cherry tomatoes, you might have a point!

Will I succeed? Good question. The band has definitely taught me Portion Control and created some real food adversions due to the time spent bent over the toilet. Dealing with my weight has also opened my eyes to how many people fight this battle and how it literally eats away at your life - thinking about being fat, what not to eat, watching others eat whatever they want while you look at a brownie and gain five pounds!

Yesterday I went to a charity fundraiser - an auction with a chicken BBQ. Obviously, I'm on 'Clear liquids only' but the hubs(Mr. I Can Eat Whatever & Never Gain) needed to be fed, so as I stood there waiting for him to pick up his meal I did some people watching. I'd guess that 85% of the people there were at a minimum of severely overweight. Let face it - food is so much of the American lifestyle it's almost impossible to engage in any activity without there being food involved.

Later I stopped by my sister-in-law's. Along with me, three of her friends are also WLS patients; one gastric by-pass, two lap-bands. All of us are still plus-size, granted, much smaller than we were, but we've all endure problems that have really compromised quality of life. Maybe the best that any of us can do is to attempt to eat right 80% of the time, limit the couch-surfing and try not to beat ourselves up because we're not as thin as we'd like to be. No matter what the fashion industry tells us, most of the real world does not look like a tooth-pick wearing a dress!

[Vblount 0]

I have had nothing but trouble and the throwing up and pain at port site. Ready to get removed! I do not think its normal for the port to be this huge knot under my skin. With pain all the time??

[TeresaMuJo 0]

I had my band put on in 2005 and had problems from the beginning. I told the surgeon I had extreme hunger and my port area was very painful. He assured me as I had more fill the hunger would subside, but it didn't, my stomach growled like crazy, it was embarrassing and my port area hurt so bad nothing could touch it. As I started to eat more normal food choices I found the healthy foods were off limits as they caused me to choke, foods like chicken breast, lettuce, fish, brown rice. I choked so bad once I pulled muscles all over my body, including in my armpits and broke blood vessels in my eyes and the food was blocking my airway and I almost passed out at the toilet. I should have had the band removed then, but I kept it in for 8 more years and eventually I had 6 of those years with no fill, however I still would have a problem eating. I told the surgeon I would sometimes take just a couple bites of food and the stoma of the band would block and I would get chest pain and not be able to swallow Water and a thick mucus would come up. I was hospitalized a couple times when I went to the hospital with chest pains but my heart was fine. My primary care doctor finally sent me to an gastrointestinal doctor that did some test and found my body had been trying to push the band off of my stomach by giving me esophageal spasms my body had rejected the lapband and developed a motility problem which means the muscles in my esophagus have weakened over the years of fighting to push the band off. It happens to people, but not as young as I am. I started in a long distance walking group 18 weeks ago, we started out walking 2 miles on our long day and 1 mile 3 days during the week. About a six weeks into the program I had my lap band removed. Yesterday I walked 8 miles and over 4 bridges and have lost 30 lbs. You can make it if you want to. Good luck!!!

[elcee 3,343]

Sounds awful , glad that you are now feeling better.

However I do not see how the band had anything to do with food blocking your airway. If food blocks your airway it is known as choking and it can happen to anyone.