Hi,

I was banded back in August and from then up to my first fill I was able to loose over 50 lbs. mainly through excessive exercising and the liquid diet.

Since the filling began I have been back 6 times for adjustments and at $200 a visit is money I can not afford.

Anyhow, we increased the filling until food was getting stuck and was quite painful and caused me to bring the food back up.

A little reduction last week an one would think it should have been perfect.

I still get food stuck sometimes but am able to put up with the pain and inconvenience. My problem now is that I can still eat anything I wish. My poor eating habits are still there.

I can still eat too fast, not chew and am able to over eat on special occasions.

Yesterday, I was able to have 2 T bone steaks with salad quite easily and can digest bread and cabonated drinks.

All of these things I was told would be problems.

Since the band filling began I have put back 7 lbs (mainly in the past 3 weeks) and I still continue with 5 hours exercise each day. I believe something has gone wrong but don't know what to do next. Can the band become dislodged or something similar. I am becoming very frustrated with the outcome and am getting no feed back from the doctor, just requests for more follow up appointments $$$$$ :tongue2:

Edited December 14, 200817 yr by Sixpack

big rule in my doc's office no carbonated beverages, they can cause erosion. you band may have slipped as well i would consider asking for a barium swallow.

I was also told NO carbinated beverages. Not only can this cause eroision, but also I was told it can cause your upper pouch (which holds the food that makes you full) to stretch.

Well, from the research I have reviewed the band is a tool and it requires work on our part. The band does not take away our poor eating habits. It never promised that. But you already know this since you did your research prior to having the surgery.

So perhaps connecting to a support group will help. And I don't mean this forum. I mean one in which you meet with people face to face to help you be accountable. Or maybe a counselor or a nutritionist.

Are you sure your fills are staying in?? Does your doctor pull out the old fill to see what is left before putting in new fill? Are you losing any of the fill?

Have you price around the other doctors in the area. So you can get some advice that you might need. I know you are tired of paying out all that cash but I really think you might want to talk to a doctor on your options that you might have. Like some one already said you might have a slip or your pouch is stretched.

Good luck and please keep us updated on what is happening with you.

Well i was told YOU CAN have carbonation after 6 months of healing...every doctor is different but it sounds like toomuch fill was removed to me...call ur doctor and explore ur options hopefully nothing else is wrong

The band is a tool and we all have to change our bad eating habits with new ones it did not take us a month to gain these habits and it will take time to break them.

I have changed my eating habits no bread, pasta, potatoes or greasy fattening foods. Its a lifestyle change and only you can make that change.

I understand where your coming from its frustrating at times and but I now in the long run I will be healthier and feel so much better.

If you ever want to talk feel free to PM me anytime.

Hang in there it will get better and maybe you need to have a talk with your doctor and tell him the issues your having. My doctor and his staff are very supportive thank goodness.

Best of luck to you!

How often are you getting fills? Maybe you need more time in between to adjust to the fill before getting more put in the band.

I agree with attending a local support group or meeting with a nutritionist. I have found online support to be great, but the face to face meetings each month are just as important. You are held more accountable when you have to meet and talk about your experiences in a live group.

Make sure you look back at the rules that will help you learn to live a new healthy life style. It does take work and it is not always easy to change the bad habits that we have become so comfortable with over a lifetime. Maybe focusing on one or two of those changes at a time would make it easier.

It sounds to me like your band is way too loose right now but that when it was tighter and you were having trouble with getting things stuck, it wasnt too tight but you were eating too fast/not chewing enough. Is this possible? Have you really learned to slow down and chew really well?

There is no easy way around it, for the band to work you MUST learn to modify your eating habits. There are also no *shoulds* about what you may or may not be able to eat, I can eat bread with good restriction and at goal! And I always have done.

If you're tighter, you need tiny bites, lots of chewing and take your time over your meal, or it will get stuck and come back up. Too tight, where you cant swallow liquids is another thing entirely.

If you're doing those things then I agree, you need to see the doc to check out whether a slip has occurred.

Edited December 15, 200817 yr by Jachut

Thanks for your replies but I must explain that I am abiding by the new rules as my 50 lbs loss would indicate. It does seem however that I am still on the diet that I have been for most of my life having to count the calories and leave the table unsatisfied

I was expecting the band to be helpful in allowing me to eat less food and this is not the case.

I was hoping that I would get a full feeling after just a sandwich but that is not happening. The larger than normal meal last weekend was not the norm but it did indicate to me that nothing had physically changed.

Today I almost choked on my first bite of a sandwich yet yesterday a huge meal went down with no restriction or discomfort. My fill is now at 6.2 and was at 6.5 when reflux and heart burn made it too painful to continue at that level.

It would seen that I am at the peak of fill level now.

If you have a 10 cc band you have a long way to go before you peak your fill level.

Some of it is still going to come down to your choices of what you put in your mouth, how long you chew, how big of bites you take, how long you take to eat a meal, whether you drink with meals etc. The rest is getting adequate medical care.

You said you are working out five hours a day? What are you doing for exercise and how do you have time for five hours of working out?

I am retired and have been exercising most of my life.

I go to gym 3 mornings a week at 6.00am and usually cycle there and back (10 mile).

Prior to the workout I walk or jog about 4 miles along the beach (even with my knee replacements). Later in the morning I usually do a 30 mile cycle ride with a few mates getting home mid afternoon.

This causes a problem as I am usually dehydrated and also my lunch is very late. I am not supposed to drink before of immediately after meals but find this difficult as I an so thirsty. I go swimming training 3 nights a week between 6 and 7pm and again my meal time is either late or irregular. I have never been a big eater with the exception that on special occasions I do overdo it.

Cake, pastry, sweets and take-aways have rarely passed my lips.

All of my life, doctors and dieticians have scratched there heads as to why I put on weight. We were hoping that the lap band surgery would have helped but I am beginning to think not unless something has gone wrong because except for the pain in the centre of my chest, nothing else has changed and I am putting weight back on

Edited December 15, 200817 yr by Sixpack

Just some thoughts:

1) In a 10 cc band, I had a fill of .4 ccs that I ended up getting an emergency unfill of .3 ccs of that cause I was ridiculously tight. That .1 ccs got me to the 'sweet spot.' Sometimes it only takes a very SMALL amount to get you to where you need to go.

2) Different foods go down differently for me. I can eat 'a lot' of certain foods, but not very much of others. This may be what you are experiencing.

3) Are you drinking with your meals at all? Drinking with meals, if you are not at optimum restriction can wash the food through the band, making you be able to eat more... and it only takes a few sips to make the food go through...

4) Dehydration will sometimes make a band very tight, and once you rehydrate it will loosen. This may be another reason you are having odd band issues. When I am dehydrated, I can barely eat ANYTHING, but if I am fully hydrated, I can eat more...

HTH!

Yes I was also informed soda are a no no! If not already you need to get on this Lap Band support chat a lot of super nice people! I gained a lot of knowledge encouragement and support. All of my friends on lap band support is so special! Good luck to you and I pray for your strength and success!!!

Yesterday I had a new experience and was sick after my first mouthful of chicken. This proved to me that the band was working, however I was able to continue on and finish my meal with no further complications. This experience showed me that the food was immediately trying to pass into the lower stomach and had difficulty.

I was of the understanding that the food stays in to top pouch creating the feeling of fullness and with me this just does not happen and any sign of being full is in my lower stomach.

Again there was no restriction of what I was able to eat and everything just felt like pre-operation except for the fist mouthful.

I am still gaining weight since being allowed back on to normal food 5 weeks ago and am thinking seriously of going back to the protein shakes which at least did work prior to the banding

Thanks for your replies but I must explain that I am abiding by the new rules as my 50 lbs loss would indicate. It does seem however that I am still on the diet that I have been for most of my life having to count the calories and leave the table unsatisfied

I was expecting the band to be helpful in allowing me to eat less food and this is not the case.

I was hoping that I would get a full feeling after just a sandwich but that is not happening. The larger than normal meal last weekend was not the norm but it did indicate to me that nothing had physically changed.

Today I almost choked on my first bite of a sandwich yet yesterday a huge meal went down with no restriction or discomfort. My fill is now at 6.2 and was at 6.5 when reflux and heart burn made it too painful to continue at that level.

It would seen that I am at the peak of fill level now.

From my understanding, you lost 50 pounds before the first fill while you were still on your liquid diet phase. You may have been following the rules then, but from what I can see, you aren't following the rules NOW. Eating 2 steaks would not be within the rules regardless of how often you do it, you said yourself in the first post that you are not eating slowly and you aren't chewing your food well. Then in another post, you said you find it difficult not to drink while you eat because of being dehydrated. This implies that you are drinking while you eat and you are not drinking throughout the day. Your exercise schedule is preventing you from eating on a good schedule like you should as well. If you are exercising on an empty stomach, you are scaring your body into thinking you are starving it. All it knows it that it is spending a bunch of calories and not getting any calories coming in, so it will hold onto as much as possible and drop your metabolism. You also admit that you are drinking carbonated beverages, which, for a lot of doctors, is a no-no. In your last post, you said that you had a signal from your body to stop eating the chicken and you ignored it and finished your meal. I don't mean to be rude or anything, but exactly what rule ARE you following?

The band will not do all the work for you. Exercise alone will not help you. Eating well alone will not help you. You must have a good balance for this to work. It really does not sound like you are using it as a tool in the way it was intended. You can't screw in a screw with the butt end of the screwdriver. You have to use it in the way it was intended for it to work.