Come out of the band failure closet!

lizzy h · May 23, 2008

So here is my story....Banded nearly 4 years ago. I was 294 lbs when I decided I was going to have WLS come hell or high Water. I had surgery a quick 6 months later. Surgery day my weight was 232, I had thrown myself into starving myself on 900 cals and a 3 mile walk everyday. Post op I did no walks and managed during the next two years to get down to 210 at my lowest. Post op I had developed an insatiable sweet tooth. I was not eating much quantity - just high calorie foods so I was not going to lose weigh without making changes....For the 1st two years I usually did not feel full - I just was never really hungry. I did on occasion eat to the point where it hurt. At the three year mark something snapped in my head and I started working out 2x's a day and back to 1000 cals a day. The results were amazing. Go figure I ate less and moved more and I found myself at an almost sexy 178 lbs......thin by my standards! But then disaster hit....gradually I started to have wicked bouts of needing to throw up anything I ate or drank - even H2O. This led to reflux and 6 months of hell.....finally I had an unfill. Previously I'd had only one fill and I have an older generation band that is harder to adjust. Fast forward to my weigh in today 215 on the nose - yikes nothing fits in my closet and I am back on the + side of 200 lbs...I have done this to myself. The band is not helping me stop eating and I am not working out. My med insurance is such that I see docs that just don't get it. So today I went to a private clinic and opted for diet pills. I am desperately looking for the cattle prod that will get me back on track, the eating less and moving more track. I need medical professionals that understand I don’t have it within myself to eat less and move more without a well equipped toolbox. I do, and will have success, but what works to keep on track today, may not always work. Eating less and moving more will always work - that is the simple truth. So I need a medical partner that is willing to say, hey its time to try this tool to keep you eating less and moving more. Kaiser in California are you listening?

brandyII · May 25, 2008

What are you saying in the end, I'm getting you put back on some weight and that sucks, automatically, but what is the relationship between your struggle now and your insurance company. I'm missing something, thanks brandyII.

lizzy h · May 26, 2008

Hey thanks for asking - its a data dump here...

My current insurance is not who put the band in. That surgeon was all about the patient. He wants you to be successful for you. So if you need 45 office visits in 20 days to get the band right he would be all hell ya........Kaiser however - my current insurance is not at all tolerant. I should say I even had Kaiser when I had the band put in. But because they were and are still mired in the simplicity of get your head straight, move your rear, and put down the fork. Any lack of success is a failure on the patients part NEVER the procedure. I should also mention I interviewed 4 surgeons before picking the one I did. The backlash in medical records from subsequent docs has been palpable. They do not like being screened, or competing for the job. So here I am after almost 4 years of success backsliding. Needing a band adjustment does have some play with what is happening (I have had 1 fill post op, one unfill 3 months ago, and one .25cc fill 3 months ago thats it!), but the sabotage is coming from me. I am "eating around the band", although I have minimal restriction. I am not moving and my motivation is in the toilet...heck if it was in the toilet I would go and get. The real prob is that I don't know where to find my motivation. So I am just lamenting that I can't go to my doc and simply say this isn't working for me know, is there another tool I can use? What is new, what are my options this week? He will and did 2 months ago tell me to diet and exercise....not we should work on tweaking your band, we should consider changing your band, hey we have a weight loss discussion group you can join, anything, something...nope it was all back on me and damnit if I could have done it on my own I would never have been in this position in the first place. like an alcoholic I will always be a "foodie" but an alcoholic can live without booze, I HAVE to eat

brandyII · May 26, 2008

lizzyh,

No you sound a lot like me except my band problems started right after the banding. I had lost 25 pounds and was down two sizes in jeans with buttons and zippers not stretchies. I'm an apple shape so the larger my waist the bigger the butts and legs in jeans so I end up in stretchy pants.

Anyway so a lot of my problems are because of my own head and some unfortunate fills. The first two I got were very little, less than 1/2 cc all together for the first three months because the fill nurse thought I had a 4 cc band and I had the 10 cc band. So for the first three months I was chewing and chewing then realized I don't have to because I have no restriction. So that's the first screwup that affected my head when it came to the band. I lost no weight because I had no restriction.

Then the surgeon gave me my third fill and took out everything that was there and that's when it was discovered that I didnt' have enough and he put in 3 more so I was up to about 3.5 and I was full.

I think if things had happened the way they should have it might not have screwed up my head as much but at this point I was now really restricted and probably too restricted. I wasn't used to dealing with it because of my underfills so I was bping the whole time and then started eating around the band because it also happened to fall around the holidays so naturally if you can't eat Protein but a Chirstmas cookie or piece of fudge goes down well what are you going to do?

So the next time I met with the fill nurse I had put on probably about half of the weight and so if you're gaining weight they thought you weren't restricted enough and gave you another fill. Wanted to see me in two weeks to check on my success. Two weeks later I had gained another 4 pounds so I must need another fill. This fill was the killer. She put in more than she had thought and wrote down the wrong amount and I was puking on the way home and for the next ten hours was puking up my own saliva until I called the on-call service and one of the surgeons met me at their office 45 minutes away and she took out all my fill and that's when it was discovered the nurse had written down the wrong amount and she took out the excess 1 cc that was killing me.

So about 4 weeks later met with the surgeon amd at this point I was close to have gaining back all 25 pounds and I begged him to take me down from 4 ccs to 2 ccs and he did after trying to get me to keep 3! So now I'm at the point where I'm kind of trying to get started again I have 2 ccs and I can eat regular food, still can't eat hard boiled eggs or hard Proteins but I can eat a half of a sandwich. I wanted to eat the normal foods again in a normal amount so that I wouldn't compensate with eating the "slider foods" like I had been doing. My biggest problem is not buying those slider foods!

It's going to take me a while to get this damn thing to work and as God is my witness it will work by one year or I'm getting it removed and going for RNY like my daughter is having this Tuesday!

Sorry to take over and do the "enough about me what do you think about me" scenario but I just had to share story and I was banded just last August!

I'm sorry you're having conflicts with your new doc/insurance company. I wonder if there was a way for you to discuss it with your doctor so that he does work with you other than giving you the BS that he has been giving you. Maybe you need an adjustment of having some removed. Look at me not losing, gaining, give her a freakn fill! It doesn't work that way. I see so many like to be really tight and not be able to eat at all hardly but that method does not work for all people. Sometimes we need a "big salad" you know?

Anyway I hope you can get things worked out, I read your post late but wanted to get back to you. Take care and keep us posted, brandyII.

lizzy h · May 26, 2008

Ahhhh you are speaking my language. I am not a fan of therapy, but something that desperately needs to be studied with banders are "slippery foods" and how we will gorge on these when the band is too tight. In fact with me I started eating non stop because with no protien I never felt satisfied (sometimes I was even full, but not satisfied) so I ate more and more and more. When I was unfilled I could eat a whole pound of bacon without getting sick. As a matter of fact the only thing I could eat with out throwing up was bacon and toasted french bead slathered in butter. I could not even drink coffee or Water without throwing up, so bacon was my friend for 4 months. Fast forward to getting refilled. I can now eat non slippery foods and have weaned myself off the bacon, but the compulsive eating is haunting me. I got fat overeating and being sedintary. I was not a compulsive eater. I think compulsive eaters always have something within arms reach that they can munch.....that is what I have become...... I clear away the food, take walks, brush my teeth and call friends..... but then the other 20 hours of the day I obsess about food......ahhhhhhh get out of my head

Fanny Adams · May 26, 2008

Brandy, How has it been going since you got your unfill and hopefully are working with proper restriction levels? Have your hunger levels stabilised now that you can eat more normal foods? Are you having less problems with PBing?

Hang in there mate, once you get the fills worked out, it DOES become easier to work with and the weight will start to move - slowly but surely...

brandyII · May 26, 2008

Like I said I'm still working at it and it's not easy. A lot of people are bulk eaters and so the band is heaven to them. But there are the some of us who are a bit more cerebral or is it manipulative and seem to screw it up! Hey at this point I'd be happy weighing 200 pounds for the rest of my life but getting there isn't going to be easy. Good luck to you, it does help to talk about it! I'm sure someone out there will probably inspire you.

brandyII · May 26, 2008

Brandy, How has it been going since you got your unfill and hopefully are working with proper restriction levels? Have your hunger levels stabilised now that you can eat more normal foods? Are you having less problems with PBing?
Hang in there mate, once you get the fills worked out, it DOES become easier to work with and the weight will start to move - slowly but surely...

Thanks Fanny,

I'm still trying to focus on eating normal foods and not going for my "sweets"! I didn't eat any today, yippee! Anyway I feel as if I could get some more restriction but not too much so I'm thinking of going from 2 to 2.5. I don't think I should be able to eat as easily as I can with some foods although I fill up I don't have to chew chew chew like I used to. But I don't want to be too tight also. I don't get my fill until the first week of June. Plus while my in-laws were here there was a bit too much eating and drinking so that messed up any chance of weight loss but I knew that would happen.

Anyway how about you, are you still in "wait" mode for the kink issue to have that fixed. Are you feeling okay? BrandyII.

Fanny Adams · May 26, 2008

I'm fine - doc has said he's happy to let it wait until the insurance kicks in. It doesn't really bother me at all (except when I've spent every night for a week poking at it, wondering what it was and bruising the area - LOL!).

I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to get another fill. With mine, it can take up to 2 weeks to really kick in before I feel the effects. I don't know how that works, but it seems to... might be something to do with daily Water retention fluctuations, ToM when I get the fill, etc. Either way, I think you are far better off being underfilled than overfilled. You can always eat some more nice crisp salad veges to fill you up if you are underfilled and hungry, but if you are too filled, the temptation to go for slider food becomes hard to manage. Don't forget to plan in a treat for the end of the day, as part of your daily allowance!

faithstep · May 26, 2008

I too have been hesitant to say anything negative about the band. But I will no longer keep silent. I was banded in May of 2004 and did lose 90 lbs. However, I vomited from the get go even before my band was filled. I had 1 fill and my problems began. Acid reflux so terrible it shot thru my nose at night waking me out of a dead sleep. I also could never eat anything but soft foods. We went thru the filling and unfull. I then had an endoscopy and was told my opening was swollen almost completely shut. They advised to have the band completely unfilled. I did but I still vomit, and have pretty bad acid reflux ( I sleep with Tums beside my bed). I have been advised to have the band taken out but have been unable to afford it. Not everyone can tolerate this band - even not filled.

lizzy h · May 26, 2008

Faithstep what I was told is that once the reflux is that bad expect it to take months to go away.......for me it was just shy of 3 months. I became a huge grouch some days with the frustration of never being able to get anything down....I had an RX for prilosec and eventually it worked. It may have taken 3 months because I was even throwing up the meds......It takes months because your esophegus is chewed up and basically swollen. Everytime you eat or thowup it is like rubbing us against an open sore - harder then heck to heal......get the meds - even of you use the OTC's and start over. Just know it will be a few more months. BTW Tumms did not work for my reflux. and I was convinced I would die in my sleep from choking on my own, well you know

WASaBubbleButt · May 26, 2008

I too have been hesitant to say anything negative about the band. But I will no longer keep silent. I was banded in May of 2004 and did lose 90 lbs. However, I vomited from the get go even before my band was filled. I had 1 fill and my problems began. Acid reflux so terrible it shot thru my nose at night waking me out of a dead sleep. I also could never eat anything but soft foods. We went thru the filling and unfull. I then had an endoscopy and was told my opening was swollen almost completely shut. They advised to have the band completely unfilled. I did but I still vomit, and have pretty bad acid reflux ( I sleep with Tums beside my bed). I have been advised to have the band taken out but have been unable to afford it. Not everyone can tolerate this band - even not filled.

Careful with TUMS. They cause more problems than they cure.

The problem with drugs like this is that it may resolve the problem right now, but a few hours later it causes rebound acid. IOW, you end up with more than you started with.

Have you talked to your doc about a proton pump inhibitor? Something like Prevacid, Prilosec, Protonix, something like that? That prevents the acid from being produced to begin with. TUMS only neutralized already existing acid.

brandyII · May 26, 2008

Thanks Fanny,

I"ll have to see how I do between now and the fill, it could over do it with just 1/2 a cc. My daughter is getting her gastric bypass tomorrow so I'll be out for a while take care, Nancy.

PattiU · May 27, 2008

I'll say prayers for your daughter and you, My daughter had it years ago and is doing great, I should have had that I think, then I just would not have been able to eat!

Patti

brandyII · May 27, 2008

Thanks so much PattyU,

I think the same thing but then again who knows, I probably would have found a way then too. I'm sure I'd be the person who didn't get dumping syndrome! Anyway it's a totally different focus when it's your child and she's just starting out her own life, 19, for c's sakes! Her weight has really affected her in a terrible way and it's the only thing we could do for her and so far she's lost 37 lbs since her preop diet and she even looks like a whole new girl. And smiles! She's suffered with depression also and it's not a good combo.

Anyway I only want the world for her as I'm sure you do for your daughter, thanks for the well wishes her surgery is noon tomorrow so I probably won't sleep tonight. Thanks again, brandyII.