and how long have you been banded. Just curious.

I am at 1.65, and have been banded 8 weeks.

Lisa the other thing I'd be concerned about is the fact that many times, the band will tighten up a week to 10 days after a fill. This was my experience with my last fill in particular.

But if all is well, then there is nothing to worry about.

Is your doctor's office close to where you live?

Keep us updated.

Paula

I am currently at 3.5cc in my 4cc band and still not at my sweet spot. I am losing weight slowly. Going for another fill today and hopefully this will do the trick!

Good luck everyone!

Kim

Banded 1/26/07

Dr Spivak

236/198/165

1st Fill 3/1 - 1.5cc

2nd Fill 3/22 - .5cc - total of 2cc

3rd Fill 4/12 - 1cc - total of 3cc

4th Fill 5/1 - .5cc - total of 3.5cc

I am currently at 1.1 ccs in my 4 cc band. I was banded 12/06/06. Don't think I could tolerate anymore. Have good restriction.

Update: Had my 5th fill today and now at 4.2cc in my 4cc band! So far, so good! I think this one might have done it!!!! I hope my last 32 Lbs goes quick! I was down to 197 when I was weighed, thought I was 198 nice suprise! I asked if I could have more fills since I am at 4.2cc in a 4cc band and they said yes that I could go to 5cc or a little more! Good to know.

Kim

Banded 1/26/07

Dr Spivak

236/197/165

I have 6.1cc in my 4cc band. I was very concerned with that fill amount at first but my doctor says amounts are really individualized per our anatomy. I have was banded on 10/31 and have only had 2 fills total. I am PBing probably 2-3 times/week, but not chewing well enough or slowly enough. I get in this cycle where I get really hungry and eat too fast. I need to try smaller more frequent meals. I am pretty happy with my restrictions. I have lost 47 pounds without really trying or exercising (although I have good intentions!).

Sooooooooooo discouraged especially afer reading everyones success(but happy for all of you). Had surgery 7/17/06 and have only lost about 30 lbs including presurgery liquid diet. Ok, i know most of the problem is my fault and i still eat candy and cookies. But in all truth,even knowing the truth, i was hoping it would do some of the work for me. Sounds like some of us have that gift but i surly don't. My other issue is that i've had fills and unfills. I recently had a unfill becaus I could bearly eat at 3.4 and now at 3.3 i can eat tooooo much. My doc says he can't really fill in between those amounts. So discouraged. I should just accept my life time of obesity and be done with it. Ok, feeling sorry for myself and rambling, thanks for listening.

You are banded and you should let this tool work for you. If you went on a high protein diet, you would get rid of the cravings for sweets and start to lose again. Don't let this surgery go to waste! Take advantage of it.

You are banded and you should let this tool work for you. If you went on a high Protein diet, you would get rid of the cravings for sweets and start to lose again. Don't let this surgery go to waste! Take advantage of it.

Good advice Denise, I agree, don't give up yet my dear. There are stories of people on here whose weight loss kicked in after the first 6 months. I'll try to think of who it was.......I don't consider myself a screaming success either. I read of people on this board who lost 100 pounds in the first year. I am no where near that success.

I hear you about the sugar addiction and yes, you can suck back a lot of calories on candy and junk that goes down all too easily. You really need to eat healthful foods. I need to remind myself of this every day when the cashews are too easy to grab and the ice cream goes down too well.

Love yourself enough to make a concerted effort to get exercise and eat healthful food. Proteins first, few veggies and bit of fruit. I also will have an Atkin's shake or similar for Breakfast or lunch and small meal in the evening.

hugs, let us know how you are doing

The other thing I have read about that I find interesting is the Omnipaque. Some band patients have that put in their band instead of the saline and it is a thicker substance that provides more friction for the food to pass, so therefore a fill of 1.0 saline is not as restrictive as 1.0 of Omnipaque....

Anyone here have Omnipaque in their band?

Sooooooooooo discouraged especially afer reading everyones success(but happy for all of you). Had surgery 7/17/06 and have only lost about 30 lbs including presurgery liquid diet. Ok, i know most of the problem is my fault and i still eat candy and Cookies. But in all truth,even knowing the truth, i was hoping it would do some of the work for me. Sounds like some of us have that gift but i surly don't. My other issue is that i've had fills and unfills. I recently had a unfill becaus I could bearly eat at 3.4 and now at 3.3 i can eat tooooo much. My doc says he can't really fill in between those amounts. So discouraged. I should just accept my life time of obesity and be done with it. Ok, feeling sorry for myself and rambling, thanks for listening.

mdg, please read this, I just did and it is a good reminder for us all.

Adjustments

I have Omnipaque in my band. First fill was saline but when I went back for another it was not there so they started using the Ominpaque, have not had any problems with losing that at all. Again, I am at 4.2cc in my 4cc band. Hopefully this will be my sweet spot. On liquids and mushies today so tomorrow I will try regular food and see what happens!

Good luck everyone!

Kim

Banded 1/26/07

Dr Spivak, Houston

236/197/165

I just got a fill today and I have 2.5 in there now. I was excited

because last time he put 2.5 in there, I couldn't drink the Water

he gave me. This time I had no problem. He said that meant

I lost fat around my stomach. Yay!

I can already tell the difference. It was a lot harder to get

a Protein Drink down today.

I just got a fill today and I have 2.5 in there now. I was excited

because last time he put 2.5 in there, I couldn't drink the Water

he gave me. This time I had no problem. He said that meant

I lost fat around my stomach. Yay!

I can already tell the difference. It was a lot harder to get

a Protein drink down today.

That is great news Denise. When I have a good fill the next 10 pounds just fall off.

Go Denise go!!!

I am tempted to get another fill, but some days I am lose and others I am tight, so if I really worked at it, I am pretty confident that my final 25-30 pounds will come off with this fill. If not, I have lots of room for one more fill.

I hope so Paulax. Now that I have a good fill, I think it will be a lot easier to watch the portions. I have been worried about stretching my pouch, because it didn't seem like I was getting full.

The other thing I have read about that I find interesting is the Omnipaque. Some band patients have that put in their band instead of the saline and it is a thicker substance that provides more friction for the food to pass, so therefore a fill of 1.0 saline is not as restrictive as 1.0 of Omnipaque....

Anyone here have Omnipaque in their band?

Hello everyone! I have Omnipague in my 4 cc band. I am particularly frustrated and a little depressed right now. I am on my second band. My first band slipped and I got a new one last summer. The band is in the perfect position on my stomach and my port is in the most awesome spot that I don't have to lay down or anything to get a fill. My port actually protrudes just a tiny bit, so it's really easy to find. The doctor just sticks me and does his thing and I am done. However, it seems that my band must be leaking. I had to wait three months after getting my new band before I started getting fills. My surgeon just wanted to take the extra prcaution since I had a slip with the previous band. I got my first fill in the new band last September. By November my band was missing saline when I went in for a fill. My fill doctor injected my band with Omnipague because it can be seen leaking out on the flouro if there is a leak. We could not find a leak showing up on the flouro. He left the Omnipague in and started adding saline to it at each fill after that. I guess eventually there was more saline than Omnipague and when the two mixed the saline thinned out the Omnipague enough that it leaked out. I have a three hour drive between my house and the fill doctor. Before I even made it home I could tell that it had leaked. I got really hungry and I was burping up a lot of air. So, from my next fill on, I only get Omnipague in my band. The last few times I went for a fill from that point on I wasn't missing any Omnipague when he would draw everything out before doing the fill. Then I had plastic surgery on May 1st. My fill doctor wanted me to get a complete unfill before the surgery just incase of nausea and because of having a tube in my throat during the surgery. When he drew everything out I was supposed to have 4.2 cc's of Omnipague. He only got out 3.6 cc's. He said there could still be some in the tubing, etc and if I had been laying down it might have been easier to get it all out so I didn't worry. Deep down though, I felt like I probably had leaked out .6 cc's. I was unhappy about that, but I decided that if I could just stay at 3.6 cc's or so that would be okay. I didn't have great restriction, but the band was really helping me out by suppressing my appetite. When my band is pretty full, even if my restriction is not that great, my stomach hardly ever growls. If it does it's in the evening time when it's time for dinner anyway. I have had real problems getting good restriction with the second band. I am baffled by that because my first band was also a 4 cc band and I was too tight with a 3 cc fill. Why would this band be so different? The only thing I can figure is that I was fat when I got the first band so I probably had some fat on my stomach when I was banded. I was 134 when I had the first band removed and the new band put on. I probably have little to no fat on my stomach now because I had lost so much and because I carry most of my fat waist down. That's just a theory. Who knows. Back to the original subject - Omnipague. I went back to my fill doctor after my plastic surgery to get filled back up. He said he couldn't put 4.2 cc's in there in one shot. It would be too much at one time. He put in 2.3 cc's and I was fine with that. I could feel the difference before he even took the needle out of me because the Omnipague is thick. I actually had a little bit of throbbing on the way home because it was tight. I figured it would swell a little and then go down and I would just have to be good until my next fill when I get back to 4.2 cc's. I got the 2.3 cc's on May 11th. Yesterday, June 6th, I was having a smoothie for luch and I started having a lot of air just gurgling up my throat. That's not a good sign to me. Now I am worried that some of the Omnipague has leaked out! I can't imagine why my band would have held atleast 3.6 cc's of Omnipague before my unfill, but it wouldn't hold just 2.3 cc's now. I understand that the fuller my band is the more pressure the band and port would be under to hold the Omnipague in, but my band is only about half full now so I wouldn't think it would have a hard time holding the Omnipague in. Maybe I am just paranoid and the band is fine, but I won't know until I go back to the fill doc on June 19th. What really just kills me is that I have been through so much with having to get my band replaced and I have had three plastic surgery procedures trying to get my body fixed up. I am self pay and I have spent so much money and now I am facing the possibility that the darn band isn't going to work for me at all because it won't hold saline or Omnipague! The biggest thing that really eats at me though is that I have been through all of this and I have absolutely no control over the leak! There's nothing I can do about it. It's just my bad luck! The thing is though, every time I get a fill it is with Omnipague and it is under flouro so we can look to see if it is leaking and the doctor can never find any sign of a leak! I guess it doesn't leak out right away. It must wait a while and slowly leak over the next month. I just don't know! I have a feeling that the port is leaking. I don't know why, but that's just my theory. If it is the port, I know lots of people have had their ports replaced for different reasons. The front desk ladies at my fill doctor said I could probably get a port replacement for about $1200-$1500. While I am not anxious to spend any more money, I could handle that if that's all it would take to fix my problem. The only thing is, if the doctor can't ever see a leak, how will we ever know if it's the port or not? I have an appointment with my surgeon the same day that I get my next fill. I will go see what's going on, if it has leaked out or not and get another fill, hopefully back up to 4.2 cc's and then see my surgeon after that. It will be my one year post op check up. I just think it's pretty bad to pay $15,000 for a band that starts leaking within two months of the first fill! I know that the surgeon won't care though. He got his money. I am not even trying to lose any more weight. I just want to maintain. I wouldn't mind losing five more pounds, but it will be okay if I don't. I am just terrified that without the help of the band atleast being tight enough to suppress my appetite I will gain weight in the long run. I just had a lower body lift and I sure don't want to mess that up! I have been at the same weight for a year now. I have yo-yo'd up and own by a few pounds, but with counting my calories and going to the gym every day after work I have kept my weight in control. I was thinking that I would just have to try really hard until I could get good restriction with my second band, but I am starting to worry that I am going to have to do it for the rest of my life! I know that's how "normal" people who don't have bands do it, but there's a reason that I had to be banded to control my weight! Although I am thin now, I feel like I am still a fat girl in my head. I have changed a lot of my habits and I do lead a much healthier lifestyle now, but I am terrified at the idea of my band just being in there, empty because it leaks and having to be scared evry day of stepping on that scale and gaing a pound. If I get on the scale and I am up it just ruinsmy entire day. I will worry myself to death over it because I am terrified of being fat again! Sorry for such a book of a reply! Anyone else out there with similar problems? I am just trying to have faith in myslef and all I can do is take things one day at a time and make the choices I need to make each day in order to stay thin. I guess I just needed to get this off my chest. I can talk to my husband, but I don't think anyone who has never had a weight problem and who doesn't have a band really understands how I feel. Thanks guys!