Help! I started the mushy diet today and I am still not feeling any restriction. I am worried something is wrong. I ate some pudding and some mashed potatoes for lunch and it went down very smoothly! Is this normal? I keep waiting to feel a lump in my chest, but nothing happens. Can you help? I am a self pay and if something goes wrong I don't have another $10,000 to do it again.

Try not to panic. Unfortunately this is completely NORMAL! It is what some refer to as "bandster hell". During the surgery they are only placing the band and port, they do not fill it. So after the initial swelling from surgery goes down most of us feel practicall if not totally no restriction. Depending on the size of your band and the amount of fat pad around the stomach it can take several fills before you start to feel good restriction. Until then all you can do is try your best to rely on that good ole' will-power demon we have all been able to battle for short periods of time in the past. But you really do need to try hard right now as even though the swelling is going down and you are getting more hungry, you are still healig and you don't want the stomach doing any more work than necessary while your body adjusts to the band.

Good Luck and welcome to the banded side of life!

I was banded on Feb 21 2008 and I started mushy foods too and have no restrictions. I cheated a little bit and had no trouble and still didn't feel full. It is hard to stick to mushy because I know I can handle regular food. Good luck I am just trying to focus on losing weight.:drool:

Just think of the mushy stage as part of the healing process! Maybe that will help!:drool:

Another way I looked at it was knowing that as long as I wasn't eating a lot of regular food I had a better chance of loosing weight.

I just got my first fill last monday and trust me you will eventually feel restriction.

I just ate 2 eggs for supper and yep I was right! No restriction! Rats, now I am a little nervous about the weeks until the first fill!!!!:drool:

Hang in there! I am at the same place, I am hungry and I really want solid, crunchy food! I keep thinking how long I waited for this lapband and how it is not going to be much longer till I get my first fill. We can do it!!!!!

im just on mushy stge today and i feel restriction even eggs wont go down smoothly and they feel like its lumpy or something i ate maybe 1 egg out of 2.. and i was full.. weird how ever 1 is diff

I haven't had any problems getting things down (although I haven't exactly tried anything too ambitious, either), but I still seem to fill up faster! I can be satisfied on 1 egg and 1 slice of toast. Before I'd have 3 eggs, 2 pieces of toast, pancakes and sausage at the breakfast place. LOL