I'm in hell...band too tight

[lizzie_07 0]

Josie - Yes, I definitely learned my lesson. No more quick fills for me.

Sades - Yeah that's a good idea. I'll have a hard time finding anything to do there though because it is a small little town in the middle of no where. No malls, no shops.

On a side note, I just tried to take some children's liquid tylenol for the pain and it's stuck....my stomach must be insanely swollen. I called my surgeon and he said the pain I'm experiencing is normal after being too tight. I hope the swelling goes down soon...

[lizzie_07 0]

Oh and Sades, yes I hope this will at least kick start my weight loss again. It'd be nice to get at least one positive thing out of this ordeal.

[JoJoBanana 0]

I was so miserable after my last fill for at least 3-4 days---but for the life of me I will NEVER get a defill!!!I will wait till it goes down-as i did then.Wow it was so painful-I vowed to take a Valium before the next fill.

And it was done under floriscope.He just couldn t get it to "pop".had to stick me 3 times.

how can I get the weight meter on the bottom like you guys have?////so cool

[Oregondaisy 2,020]

Try putting a heating pad on your tummy.

I was overfilled once. I am lucky I live 5 min from my dr. I got the fill on a fri and got the unfill on monday. It felt like I had an elephant standing on my chest the entire weekend.

[Kristin1031 0]

That sucks! I've heard elsewhere if you go to the hospital and ask for a chemo nurse to do an unfill they know how to do it. I'm not exactly sure what chemo nurses do but apparently know how to put fills in and unfills, etc.

Linda

They know because our port is nothing else but a Mediport, which is what they put into patient who are going to be taking chemo for a long period of time.

That is why they know.

[lizzie_07 0]

jo jo - are you sure you were as tight as I was? throwing up your spit? can't get any fluids down without throwing them up? I needed a defill..the swelling would have just gotten worse over time and I would have had an even bigger problem on my hands had I waited any longer than I did. I don't recommend being so against getting a defill. I always thought I wouldn't want one either. But being "too tight" can differ greatly. I see people on here who don't get a defill and are too tight to the extent that they cannot eat solids. I could not swollow my spit. There's a big difference.

It makes sense that a chemo nurse could do it but regardless the nurse I spoke to gave me no guarantees and it wasn't worth waiting around in emerg for nothing. It's good to know though for next time (hopefully there won't be a next time)

Update:

It looks like the swelling has gotten worse. I just tried to drink apple juice (which I drank right after my defill) and it got stuck and came back up. If the swelling doesn't go down by tomorrow I'm going to need another defill. I have had maybe 2 cups of fluids stay down in 2 days. Not good.

[steph_co 9]

jo jo - are you sure you were as tight as I was? throwing up your spit? can't get any fluids down without throwing them up? I needed a defill..the swelling would have just gotten worse over time and I would have had an even bigger problem on my hands had I waited any longer than I did. I don't recommend being so against getting a defill. I always thought I wouldn't want one either. But being "too tight" can differ greatly. I see people on here who don't get a defill and are too tight to the extent that they cannot eat solids. I could not swollow my spit. There's a big difference.

It makes sense that a chemo nurse could do it but regardless the nurse I spoke to gave me no guarantees and it wasn't worth waiting around in emerg for nothing. It's good to know though for next time (hopefully there won't be a next time)

Update:

It looks like the swelling has gotten worse. I just tried to drink apple juice (which I drank right after my defill) and it got stuck and came back up. If the swelling doesn't go down by tomorrow I'm going to need another defill. I have had maybe 2 cups of fluids stay down in 2 days. Not good.

:eek: That sucks, Lizzie. If it were me, I honestly think I'd have a complete unfill to let the tummy calm down and not worry about restriction right now. The tummy needs to heal. I'd be scared my band could slip or erode from the irritation. I hope you get it to a level that things can heal up. That doesn't sound fun at all.

[lizzie_07 0]

Steph - Yeah, I've thought about that. When I called my surgeon he said the swelling would go down and that he doubts I did any serious damage to my band. My aunt (the nurse) is staying with me and recommended I take an advil to help with the swelling. She said not to worry about the lack of fluids right now because I'm young and healthy and she said the swelling should go down in 48 hours. So we'll see. I am drinking a bottle of room temp. Water now and it seems to be going down well. I think the apple juice may not have gone down because it was cold. I'm going to drink a LOT of water now that I know it's going down.

[lizzie_07 0]

Not sure if anyone is still following my progress...but I'll post a final update anyway:

I could not swallow anything but Water all day today, and even that was giving me difficulty. I called the clinic where I had my surgery and they said if I could not swallow apple juice I needed another defill. So, for the 3rd time in 3 days I drove 1 1/2 there and back to get a defill. I almost fainted when she was doing it because I was so weak from not eating or drinking for 3 days. I am now down to 3.6cc from 7.2. I feel MUCH better. I had some yogurt, milk, and Tomato sauce today and it was like heaven. It's going to take a LONG time for me to reach restriction now because the fill nurse wants to take things really slow after this episode, but at least I don't feel miserable.

[Sades 4]

It's a shame that you had to get the defill but you really don't want to suffer for the sake of weight loss. Glad to hear that you're on the way to feeling better.

I got more fill today, 1.5cc... now I'm 6.5cc in a 10cc band. I was told they didn't want to go to 7cc... too drastic. I will book another appointment to go back in 2 weeks... hopefully won't need it.

[Oregondaisy 2,020]

I remember very well what it was like to be overfilled. It's too bad you have to drive so far but it's worth it. It's awful to be overfilled.

When I don't have good restriction, I try to drink a lot of Protein drinks and eat less so I don't gain. I figure if I did liquids only for 4 weeks after surgery, I can do it again.

Hope all is well and you can get another fill as soon as you're ready!

[NYgirl01 0]

Lizzie I am so glad to hear you were able to get a defill. It sounds like you have a 14 cc band like me. I was at 7 cc's and when they filled me to 7.5 I felt like it was too tight. My doctor told me to wait it out. After 2 weeks it got so bad I couldn't even swallow and had to call my doctor to get defilled. Fortunately my doctor only does lapband and has a 24 hour access and a special place in the hospital that you just go to and get it done. I am in New York.

I wound up getting dehydrated. I hope you do well and good luck.

[lizzie_07 0]

Thanks everyone! I'm still only able to eat semi-puree foods like yogurt and spaghetti sauce...I'm hoping the swelling goes down more soon. On a side note, while all of this has been going on my grandmother has been in the hospital. I was there all day yesterday and am going back for the rest of today. She's not going to make it =( My fill nurse said stress causes the band to be tighter so I'd say thats probably making things worse as well.

[kelli 0]

So sorry about your grandmother. :angry_smile: Hope your restriction is easing up too. Take care.

[lizzie_07 0]

Thank you Kelli. She was the greatest woman I've ever known.

I thought getting the defill would make it so that I lost all restriction but it didn't. I'm only at 4.6cc right now and the band is perfectly tight. Perhaps the swelling from being so tight is still lingering. Either way, it was worth it because reaching restriction has been amazing for me. I finally have my motivation back =)