Hello guys! I just need to have someone to talk to. Today is a low day, actually the past few weeks have been low. I have been doing really bad on this diet roller coaster that I am on. I haven't yet had my first fill and I feel like I am a failure. I am eating the way that I did before the surgery and I am hating it! I don't feel any different then I did before I had the band placed. I went for my 6 week check up and I actually gained 4 pds. I have lost 1 pd of the 4 but I think that its just because I have lost Water weight.

My first fill isn't until June 9th and I feel like I am starting to slip into a deep depression. I often think, what the heck did I do this for, I don't feel any different! Last night I actually signed up for weight watchers online! Then I cried thinking, ok I just went through all this pain of the surgery for what? To sign up for weight watchers! UGH!

I just need someone to tell me that they have been were I am right now and things will get better. I am so friggen frustrated! I have lost weight but most of it was before the surgery and right after, since a week or so after the surgery I haven't lost a thing...NOTHING! UGH

PLEASE HELP GUYS, I Need you now!

Thank you:confused2:

I am yet to be banded, but my sister has been for 3 years. I think we pin a ton of hope on surgery day, when the big stuff happens on fill day! Hang in, as of now you are really no better off than before surgery. Your "tool" has not be activated. Get ready! It's coming!

Heidi, Hang in there. I was banded on April 25th and initially lost 15 lbs pre op with Optifast and then when weighed at my post op appt had gained 5 of those lbs. This is a long journey and we have to remember this is a tool to assist us. It will get easier once you start getting fills. I have had one fill and I have noticed a difference. I have to eat slower and chew really well. Before the fill, I could eat anything and felt very discouraged. I finally came to realize though that this procedure is not the magic cure. I knew this in my head but still didn't really 'get it'. Now I know this is the truth. We have to work with the band. Give yourself time to adjust and don't be so hard on yourself. This is gonna take a while! I have not lost any more weight yet but my eating habits are slowly changing and the most important thing to me is that I have not gained any more weight. I have never maintained a weight loss for more than a minute! I am not dieting either. I eat protein first then other stuff and I use a small plate instead of a dinner plate. I just started back at the gym too. I am only doing a 1/2 hour on the treadmill to start but that is good enough for now. Don't get discouraged, make small changes and give yourself time to adjust. Once you start getting fills, the volume will decrease. You are going do fine. Just work with the band as best you can for now and the rest will follow. All the best.

Its ok...hang in there. So you havent even had a fill yet? I have heard most people say that they havent had any restriction until they got a fill. It might take some time, but you will get to the point of restriction that you need and the weight will start coming off. Dont give up on the band yet.

Also, as a person who has dealt with depression I can tell you from experience that my eating habits and exercise play a HUGE role in my mental health. I know you dont want to hear "eat right and exercise." However, you really need to make an effort to get your diet on track and to try exercising....for your MENTAL HEALTH. Also, you might want to try counseling. I have found that it can be a great way to figure out WHY you are doing the things you are doing...such as your self-destructive eating.

Hang in there, I am sure you will have success with time. You just need to be pro-active in your health. YOU are the most important component in your health care team!

Hi

I know exactly how you feel - i had my band 15/5/08 . and i am constantly hungry also - i thought iwas a failure - thinking that it wasn't working - but looks like we have to wait til our 1st fill mine is not till w/c 23 june - so you are 2 weeks ahead of me - i feel down also - but these replies make me fel a lot more positive - we are not going to wake up slim and have to readdress our brains re eating ect .

the only help i have found the more Water i drink the les i feel hungry xx

Hello Heidi and Nikki, it is normal to eat like you did before surgury until you get filled. Then sometimes it takes more than your first fill to hit your sweet spot and loose the weight. Please keep your chins up it does get better. Heidi...why is your dr. waiting so long to fill you? I thought all drs done fills at 6 wks. unless you had some sort of problem? anyway good luck on ya'lls LB journey.:sad:

My doctor won't fill until 7 weeks because insurance won't pay until after 6 weeks. You'd think he could wrap that into his fee but apparently not. My surgery was on 5/5 and my fill isn't until 6/26. I wish it was now but I can eat a lot of mushie food!

What you are experiencing is normal given the fact you haven't had a fill yet. You will feel better once you start to get fills. Good luck.

Hey Heidi. I'm sorry to hear that you regret having the surgery. It will be a year june and although every bodies are different, you will see changes soon. Also, you haven't had your fill as of yet. I am going on my 7th fill come june 3rd, at first i didn't even know what the other bandsters were talking about when they said they are restricted. umph girlfriend, let me tell you, u will be taking back all that you said when those fills starts to coming. Stay encouraged girlfriend.

Heidi I was there!! I cried all the time, I swore i was the only person on the planet for whom the band wouldn't work.

DO NOT PANIC :sad:

When you get the magic fill, and it can take up to 6 fills, you will know it without a doubt.

Until then, remind yourself it's a journey, forgive yourself, and try to pig out on salads and vegetables if you can't control your portions. Or try to do THAT more than "what you've always done."

Even controlling 2 out of 3 meals a day is better than giving up - and exercising daily, no matter how short or light, is even better.

Give yourself a chance! :frown:

hang in there

it really does get better, or maybe different

it took me 6 fills to get some restriction and I think I need another one. what you're going through they call "bandster hell" and everyone experiences it until they start on their journey of fills. Then everyone reacts differently and have to make adjustments in the amount of fluid in the band to get more or less restriction.

Don't be so hard on yourself, I ate too much also while I was in bandster hell. I am counting calories still to help me stay in control. And exercise really does help.

Read Wendell's opening post on how the lap band works-fills and unfills to see how common this is. No need for despair.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f13/how-lap-band-actually-works-fills-refills-41738/

believe me after a few fills you won't feel the same as you did before the band. you still have to stay on track and make the right food choices, but when you see the pounds melting away it's a great incentive.

Heidi

My Doc actually recommended that I combine WW with the band. I was banded 5/22 but don't have an appt for my first fill yet.

I'm sorry you are feeling so down. Some recommended counseling. You might want to give it a try. I started antidepressants a few months before my surgery and feel so much better now even though I am on the lowest dose.

I'm glad I found this blog , as I was sitting here, crying. I have been banded since May 20th, 9 days out, and on my 2nd day of a soft diet for 7 days. I got on that darn scale, and have gained 2 lbs since I started "eating". I'm going to my post op appt today. I usually don't eat breakfast, or have an atkins shake. Yesterday I didn't have anything, and then a lite lunch, at dinner, I felt bloated, so just drank sf fluids. I wonder if maybe I'm not eating enough, and my body is hanging onto every little calorie. I don't quite feel up to getting on the treadmill yet, I'm still pretty sore in the incision sites. Also, I'm afraid that if I eat, the weight of the food will weigh heavy in my lower stomach, causing dislocation of the band or tear the suture. I'm not hungry, no pangs. Reading that other ppl are also going thru this is helpful.

Hi Heidi, I just wanted to let you know that I am on my 2nd fill and do not have great restriction, I can still eat pretty good. So I took a different approach, one that has worked pretty good for me. Of course I am a little discouraged that I look on the posts and see that everybody has lost so much more than me. I do work out at least four times a week and work around the house the other 3. I watch what I eat, in hopes that if I am going to eat more it better be healthy. With that I have went down four inches in my waist and two inches everywhere else. I stopped getting on the scale because I drove myself insane with it. I will tell you what I go off of now - I FEEL GREAT! I FEEL GREAT! I FEEL GREAT! and I would not change a thing. I hope MY personal insight offers you some sort of peace of mind!