I was wondering whether anyone has stretched out their pouch from too much eating. Lately, I have little restriction and everything and a lot of everything seems to be going down. I am due for a fill tomorrow but am concerned that I have stretched my pouch. If I stretched my pouch would I feel it? Would it hurt? How long of overeating will do it? Is there any way to unstretch it? I am concerned that I went through the entire surgery and have now screwed things up. Help!!!:tt1:

it depends on how much you are vomiting. if you are overeating and vomiting, you may have stretched it. if you are overeating and it is going down, you need a fill. The only way to know if you stretched it is by having a barium swallow, which is done under xray. if you did stretch it, it can be resolved but you will need an unfill and you will need to watch what you eat. My surgeon says that if you are not vomiting, you aren't stretched out.

From day one I have never felt like I had to vomit and nothing has ever gotten stuck. I hope you are right but I am concerned. The other day I had a meal of about 11 ounces of steak plus salad and veggies and felt satisfied but not overstuffed. This is way more than the 4 ounces of food I should be able to have.

it seems like you have lost weight, you must be doing something right? do you know what kind of band you have? Maybe its a bigger one that needed more to get to restriction. Or are you washing your food down and drinking while you eat? that could do it too.

I have an AP Large which supposedly holds 14 cc. I have had two fills of 2 cc's each and am going for my third one tomorrow. I do sometimes drink a little after eating and know I need to work on this more. My weight loss was great before surgery, pretty good right after surgery and terrible lately. I have even gained 4 pounds since my last fill which was a couple of weeks ago.

personally, i really think you just don't have enough restriction. Especially since you say nothing even gets stuck. The APL does hold 14, and since you have 4 in now, I am thinking you just need more. I really don't think there is a problem with your band at all. Good luck! let me know what happens tomorrow!

IMHO, you are able to eat that much because you are still wide open. I noticed that you were banded 2/20/08 which means that you are at the very beginning of your journey. Most people feel like they could eat the whole cow at that stage. A fill or so should help this.

Having said that, just because you can eat all that food doesn't mean you should. This is a lifestyle that you should be practicing even without a fill. If you get in the habit of doing that, you won't be doing the overeating thing in between fills. Try journaling your portions and the old weigh/measure thing. It's not fun but it will keep you from stretching your pouch in the future.

Sorry if this comes off harsh, that's not my intent. But you need to take control of the situation before you really do damage something.

Vicki

IMHO, you are able to eat that much because you are still wide open. I noticed that you were banded 2/20/08 which means that you are at the very beginning of your journey. Most people feel like they could eat the whole cow at that stage. A fill or so should help this.

Having said that, just because you can eat all that food doesn't mean you should. This is a lifestyle that you should be practicing even without a fill. If you get in the habit of doing that, you won't be doing the overeating thing in between fills. Try journaling your portions and the old weigh/measure thing. It's not fun but it will keep you from stretching your pouch in the future.

Sorry if this comes off harsh, that's not my intent. But you need to take control of the situation before you really do damage something.

Vicki

Hey Vicki,

That is excellent info because I should be banded in a few weeks so I am starting now just like u said. Also I see u have lost a great deal of weight. Congrats on your success...

mstrina27 - Congratulations on getting the band. I started my journey June 6th of last year when I started the process at Kaiser. I wasn't banded until 12/12/07 but did just as I am advising. I lost 70 of my 103 (need to update ticker :tt2:) prior to surgery. I continued to loose during Bandster Hell because I continued to do the same thing. I'm not trying to seem like I'm greater than anyone else. I did my share of ranting because I was hungry. But I decided I was doing this to loose weight and made the commitment the day I started the process.

People who think that when they get the band it will make them do something are kidding themselves. This is like having a hammer to build something with. It's a tool. Used wrong or letting it sit there and expecting something to happen is like putting the hammer down and telling it to build the house. Not gonna happen.

If you work with the band, you will go on a fantastic journey. You will accomplish things you never thought possible. The skinny, self assured person inside you will come out. Trust me, I'm living proof and there are a lot of us out there.

I don't know if you have a resource to journal with but fitday.com is the one I personally like. There's lots of them out there and some people just prefer the old fashioned piece of paper. Let me know if I can answer any questions and CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN!!!:tt1:

mstrina27 - I wasn't banded until 12/12/07 but did just as I am advising. I lost 70 of my 103 (need to update ticker ) prior to surgery.

So by the time you were banded you had 33 lbs left to lose? How did you qualify for surgery? I'm sorry if it's personal...I'm just confused.

I was with the Kaiser program and I got qualified by the weight I started the program with. That weight was my highest. The process takes several months to go through and they require that you loose 10% of your weight. They give you a diet to follow to do this. I asked them if I continued to loose weight if it would affect my ability to have the surgery and they said no. I have always been able to loose the weight but I can't maintain the loss. They were extremely happy with my weight loss prior to surgery because it made the surgery easier and also my recovery.

I actually had around 60 more pounds to loose after surgery. I have my goal weight set at 140 but I'm toying with the idea of 135. I want to be far enough into the "healty BMI" range for the natural ups and downs our weight does each month.

I would urge anyone who is going for the surgery to check with their insurances and if they have a wait and a requirement for dieting whether or not loosing too much will disqualify them. Kaiser doesn't have a problem with that. The only thing that I get now is my doctor trying to prepare me for the possibilty that I might not loose much more because the statistics say I probably won't. I told him to hold onto his statistics because I'm blowing them out of the Water.

Vicki

Trust me, if it were that easy to stretch a pouch, mine would be the size of a watermelon. Thankfully, I finally reached my sweet spot and can't gorge myself anymore! But before I had the right restriction my portion sizes were really hard to control.

I totally agree with you. I'm hoping that my fill on the 6th will get me to a good spot. I've had 3 fills but my doctor is rather conservative. I have around 4cc in my band which I think holds 10ccs. That includes the 2cc that they put in at surgery. I will love it when I don't have to be the food police.

I'm almost 3 weeks postop now and I'm noticing I can eat alot. I am making healthier choices but the volume of food has increased and I am hungry often. I went through some anxiety earlier today thinking "omg I stretched it" but the truth is (I'm sure) I'm wide open with no restriction and thats why I'm able to eat more.

Yesterday I treated myself after a very stressful day with a trip to Black Angus. I had a baked potato and filet mignon (7 oz). It took nearly 2 hours to eat it all (while relaxing) and I felt no discomfort at all. It was a real treat for me after 2 1/2 weeks of liquid. I am getting alot better at chewing and put my fork down and chew each bite at least 20 times now.

I know when I get my fill it'll be different. I think the anxiety about stretching it is normal I know it is for me.

ErikMesa

ErikMesa - I'm glad that you treated yourself to a night out and remembered to chew the heck out of things and put your fork down in between bites. You should, however, not eat for 2.5 hours. You'll be able to do this even with a fill and that will cause you to overeat. Next time bring the leftovers home for another tastey meal. I don't mean to criticize. I'm just trying to help.

You will not know you have stretched out your pouch until you get your band filled. I am one year out from my original surgery and had surgery last week for fix the prolapse of my band. It was not dectected until I went for a fill. If you can eat more than 1/2c. of food and continue to eat more, you will stretch the pouch and cause a prolape.