I've had my band for a year and a half now. I got pregnant 6 months in, after losing 60lbs. Had the band unfilled over the coarse of time during pregnancy. After pregnancy my band was tight tight tight. It's still too tight, and I'm getting a scope in 2 weeks to find out what's up.

However, I know I'm breaking "the rules" and quite frankly I can't really remember a lot of them. Can you guys give me a refresher coarse???

As my doc gave me rules..... each doc is different....

No drinking 30 min or so before meals/and no drinking at meals/or 1 hour after meals...

eat only three small meals daily...

stop eating with first faint signs of satisfaction/fullness-- DO NOT take one more bite...

always eat Protein first, then veggies, and last are carbs...

eat only "good" foods/like good for you foods....

low or no cal. beverages between meals/ like no milkshakes etc....

THERE ARE 6 TO START WITH... I CAN'T THINK OF THEM ALL RIGHT NOW(it's late,lol) Good Luck getting back on track, hope the tightness is nothing to worry about.

Exercise. Exercise. Exercise, and oh yeah, exercise!

I've gone through three Band pregnancies (well, on my third). I've noticed that especially post-pregnancy, my Band can be very wacky! Even with no fill. Sort of like when I get my period. No doubt due to the weird hormones and such. So, just wanted to let you know that you're not alone.

As for the rules...

Chew! Chew! Chew! Chew to mush!

No drinking with meals or for one hour after. (I usually drank up until the meal came... but only Water.)

No carbonated beverages. No alcohol.

If you're breastfeeding, be sure to keep taking your prenatals.

I ended seeing a bariatric nutritionist, and she had me on six small meals/day rather than three. It seemed to work better for me as far as weight loss went.

Exercise. Every day. No excuses.

Not a real rule...but for me... I was always extremely tight in the AM, so Breakfast was usually sugar-free Carnation Instant Breakfast w/ hot skim milk... or if I was feeling decadent, Godiva Hot chocolate w/ hot skim milk. Then around 10:30 or so, I'd have either cottage cheese and fruit or maybe a scrambled egg + 1/2 apple.

I'm so glad to hear that about your pregnancies. When it was really bad, I was sending out threads trying to get info from other women who'd had babies. It seemed like I was the only one who had this problem.

How long did it take to resolve? It's been almost 14 weeks since I've had her. I had hormone issues prior to pregnancy, so God only knows. I've had a barium swallow, which showed me very restricted, but no slippage. I had improved enough to live with the tightness, but then all of the sudden I had BAD reflux. That's why we're doing the scope.

PLEASE tell me EVERYTHING! You're my first hope that this will get better!

HOLY COW, I just noticed you're preggers again! You don't mess around! My DH went to see Dr. SNIP SNIP last Friday, so we're OH SO DONE.

Hi Vanessa:

Honestly, ever since my first pregnancy ended, I've had trouble with my Band everytime I've refilled. It's always looked fine on fluoro.. but behaved strangely. It's driven me crazy... as I self-pay for fills and fluoro... only to have to have the fill removed a few weeks later. I'm wondering if part of it is psychological... that I just couldn't get back into thinking/eating like a Bandster. I also experienced tremendous hunger along with my restriction... which had never happened before. I'm going to try and refill again after this pregnancy... and will give it 6 months. If I can't figure things out, I'll probably have my Band removed and go for a VSG.

I hope you have better luck than I did If you're breastfeeding, your hormones still could be a little wacky.

Karla

I'm not breastfeeding, but I have polycystic ovary which screws with my hormones. I've always had hormone issues. As a matter of fact, this posting reminded me that I just got off my period, which explains why I had the horrible tightness recently. It had me back to the point of horrible reflux, which I had prior to pregnancy because I was too tight. I was barfing every night and was having the waking up in the middle of the night choking thing too.

My whole thing is I want to get this thing back to "normal" before I even begin to think about refilling. I actually was thinking about forgoing fills for a while and see what I could do with diet, exercize and supplements. I had thought this before I had these problems.

I'm just so glad to have come across someone who has had the same experience. When I first had this problem, I was so tight I could barely drink Water and NO ONE, not even Dr C. (who is my doc, by the way) could explain it.

I have found that really hitting Protein shakes, like one in the morning and on at night, really helps. I read that the number one cause of inflamation in your body is a lack of protein, which made sense to me.

But, it still remains weird.

By the way, I wouldn't make any decisions about revising your band until you're totally done with babies and I would give it at least 6 mos if not more. My doc had thought about putting the larger band in. That might be another option...