How the Lap-Band actually works, fills and refills

[Wendell Edwards 73]

Wendall, thankyou for the excellent summary of fills. I am going to schedule my surgery in 30 minutes and appreciate the info.

:whoo:You GO!!!!:whoo:

:biggrin1:

[TimeTraveller 0]

My doctor told me after surgery that he put 3 cc's in with the surgery. He said that this is something that they are staring to do with the new surgeries when the capacity is 10 cc's and above. Has anyone else had this.

I have a VG10, and my doc put 1cc in at surgery. Got my 5th fill this week, which brought me up to 8.5cc and I'm having a lot of trouble eating & drinking now. Trying to wait it out to see if it's just swelling, but all other fills have leveled out after the first day or two. It's been 4 days as I write this, and I'm trying to determine if I need to go in Monday for an unfill or not.

[sfeiner 2]

this should be required reading!

[NM Sunshine 1]

I have a 10cc band. After surgery I felt restrictioin for a week or two then felt non. I went in for 1st fill in late Oct. Doc gave me 6.5 cc's I wasn't able to feel much restriction at first, then none. I'd lost only 10 pounds since pre-surgery. Thinking that the band wasn't going to work for me, left me very discouraged.:cry

I got my 2nd fill on Tue. Dec.4, 2.1 cc's WOW is this one working.:clap2:

It's working a bit too much as it is difficult to take Water, but chicken broth isn't bad. I get a strong pain and nausea with sliming with most food. It was so bad on wednesday that my ribs hurt from the throwing up. Have already taken off 2 pounds in 3 days. If my band stays like this, that is fine with me as I figure water is essential.

[Myweight198 0]

What happens when u cannot get any more fills and what do you plan to relay on fro your wieight loss or maintenance phase?

I have had one fill and plan to speak ith the docto for more info regarding when and is the last fill for the band and what is to come next with this process.

[Myweight198 0]

:clap2:Is any one out there that feels the way that I do?

[peaches9 3]

I was concerned about my 'fill' level too and the amount of NON restriction that I had.

This past wednesday I went for another fill .75cc's which brought me to 9.75 cc's total... freaking me out because I thought the BAND only heald 10 cc's but the Fill Nurse assures me that it holds 12-13 cc's...

And as you get a smaller and smaller amount with each subsequent fill, tiny increments will be all that is needed from here on in.

Today and yest. my food plan has been easier to stick to.. ie 1100 cals. per day... and I am doing o.k.

It is really HARD for me to be patient and wait for the right level of restriction to happen... it is a slow process.

Good luck

[Oregondaisy 2,020]

I got my 2nd fill on Tue. Dec.4, 2.1 cc's WOW is this one working.:clap2:

It's working a bit too much as it is difficult to take Water, but chicken broth isn't bad. I get a strong pain and nausea with sliming with most food. It was so bad on wednesday that my ribs hurt from the throwing up. Have already taken off 2 pounds in 3 days. If my band stays like this, that is fine with me as I figure Water is essential.

You might want to stay on Protein drinks for a couple of days to see if it will lossen up a bit. Do you have Protein powder that you can mix with water?

When I was tight like that, even low carb slim fast made me slime. I had to drink the Protein Drinks that I made with powder and mix with water so they were thin. I ended up losing 8 lbs in a week. It was great, but I finally did have to go in and have a bit taken out because I didn't want to live on Protein Drinks. I couldn't even have Soup without sliming.

[NM Sunshine 1]

Denise. I'm not sliming now. It just hurts at the bottom of my esphogus and top of pouch, as I feel the food going in. Water anything. But I take only a small amount at a time. If I took more I think I'd start heaving. My ribs actually hurt from throwing up the other day.

Protein drinks, veggie drinks, water that will be my diet for a few days and see how it all goes. WOW 8 pds in a week. I've lost 2 pounds

[dandydeb 0]

I think that is probably a good plan Wendall, to use a goal size. My Dr. told me to go by measurements rather that weight He thinks I will lose more in inches first instead of weight. so he wants me to track inches lost.

[herghost 1]

Wow! I was looking for exactly this information. I am eating amounts of food that I didn't think I should be able to eat, had gained weight after my first fill, and on and on. I'm due for my 3rd fill next week, looking forward to that.

My dr. is getting used to the 14cc band also, so not as sure as to the response to expect with fills. I've been seeing some people with as much as 8cc in their band. If that's the case, I have a long way to go. But I'm gonna hang in there, that's why I started this whole thing, it's not an overnight solution. If I had wanted that, I'd have gone with RNY, and even that isn't the be all end all.

Sue Stenzel.

[NM Sunshine 1]

With my first fill, I was really dissapointed as I could eat about anything and eat a lot. I thought I'd never get to experience what others do who have a good restriction. Then along came the second fill (last tue) and I sure am experiencing the whole gamut....throwing up, sliming, pbing and restriction big time. It is like all the warnings on what and how to eat are major important now.

When it happens you will know.

I have a 10cc band and my 1st fill was 6.5cc, my 2ed fill 2.1cc

I can certainly see how as you get good restriction those incriments get smaller and smaller with each fill. Also my surgeon told me that sometimes the body absorbs some of the fill.

[DrWatkins 5]

Opinions differ about how gastric banding actually works.

My opinion is based on the fact that stretching the stomach wall shuts down the appetite hormones. When your stomach size is reduced from a football to a golf ball you are going to get stomach wall stretch and appetite hormone diminution on much fewer calories.

Also, the food takes a while to empty through the restriction so the full feeling lasts longer. Some patients will forget to eat dinner because they are still full from lunch.

We know about some of the appetite hormones floating around but we know that there are many more and that the way the stomach and the brain communicate is very complicated. The drive to eat is a very powerful biological drive. If the brain thinks for an instant that you're trying to starve yourself it will take drastic measures.

The small stomach pouch above the band fools the brain into thinking you've just eaten a Thanksgiving meal.

In some patients the appetite suppression is very powerful and some patients say they are never hungry after band surgery. Some patients deal with lots of "head hunger" which is a complex process and not easy to deal with sometimes.

As you lose weight, the stomach tissue inside the band loses weight and that is why you need additional fills as you lose your weight. At your goal weight, the stomach tissue thickness stabilizes and the need for fills diminishes quite a bit.

I read a lot of posts where patients do not have their bands perfectly adjusted.

Here's my version:

Perfectly adjusted - full on small meals, not hungry between meals, easy to lose 1-2 pounds per week, amorous feelings toward your surgeon and staff, send them a Christmas card that will bring tears to your eyes

Too loose - hungry, can eat large amounts of food, hard to lose weight, feels just like you are on a diet.

Too tight - everything wants to come back up including liquids, hurts to eat or drink, bad heartburn especially at night (when you lay down), the only thing that wants to go down is Cheetos and ice cream (bad stuff)

I think if you don't fit the "perfectly adjusted" description you should call your band surgeon to make it perfect with an adjustment.

Also keep in mind that each patient's band journey is very individual.

Hope that helps

brad

[peaches9 3]

Brad;

Thank you for your explanation.

From my previous post Dec 7th until now... I have loosened again.

So back I go for another fill Dec 19th. This will be my 7th.

I am going to try and be patient a while longer...

Its nice to know that others struggle with this too, and I guess it just takes an investment in time (as well as money LOL)

[hollyberries 2]

Dr. Watkins-

Thanks for posting because that has got to be the best description that I have read. I appreciate that you are taking the time to help us. I am so new to this journey and this website has been very helpful and I hope that I have helpful to some.

I will enjoy reading your posts.

Cindy