Lap Band inside you

[bellatrickz 0]

Hello everyone....I'd like to know how does it feel to have the lap band in you?:tt2: Please be descriptive ........Thanks

[tashanicole1271 0]

I was banded 1/14/09 and up until this point, I haven't felt anything! I have had no pain to let me know I have this foreign object in my body. I have only had one fill, so I have not had much restriction yet. The only thing that has let me know something is different with my body is, there have been a few occasions where it feels like my food or drink is moving very slowly and I am sure that is a result of the band. Hopefully others will reply who have felt something more descriptive with the band.

[cattoy71 0]

I only really felt the band in me directly after surgery. I could actually feel the squeeze sensation for the first few weeks.

Otherwise I don't really feel a difference except on the rare occasion I have eaten too much.

[lipstix64 1]

You cant feel it. No one feels it. This is basically how it works:

Since you have a band around your stomach and it gets filled with saline, that makes it harder for a lot of food to go through. Now, let me explain "restriction".

Because once your band is filled enough for you to "feel restriction", then you will feel "full" faster and eat less. But feeling full is different from feeling restricted. Let me explain:

You eat something and after a small amount of food is taken in, you ARE PHYSICALLY INCAPABLE OF EATING MORE, not because youre full, you just cant get in anymore, otherwise it will come back up or just feel like its stuck somewhere between your throat and your stomach and sometimes feel so annoying and uncomfortable that you get relief by throwing it up.

Now, if you do get more food in and you eat fast, take big bites, and dont chew, then you will get pain in the upper part of your chest that feels horrible and sometimes the only relief you will get is if you throw it up once again.

Now, dont get me wrong. Even though I cant get anymore food in, I still want to eat more, I just cant. And, after afew times of feeling like what I just described, I've learned to stop before I get to that point and I'm ok and I've been losing weight, so its a trade-off

These are lessons you will learn the hard way, but it will teach you a lesson to slow down, take small bites, and eat slowly.

Now sometimes, your band is just to tight and it might need to be unfilled a little so you can eat without all this happening, but more often than not, its just us being ourselves eating like we used to and thinking we can still eat that way.

Its okay, though. I wouldnt change a thing

[GoneFishin 0]

lipstix64

I am not yet banded and I appreciate your explanation.

[crzytchr 3]

I never feel the band except when I am getting a fill. Then it feels weird, but only until the fill is over with. I can, however, feel my port.

[Sue Magoo 71]

Hi:

How Lipstix64 explained it is very good. The only thing that I would add is that once you start losing because of your band you'll grow to love it and like yourself more.

Best wishes to you.

Sue

Edited March 20, 2009 by Sue Magoo
spelling issue

[maestrita 43]

I was just banded last week, and I can feel my band and my port. It may be that after the surgery ick wears off you can't feel anything, but I can feel it now. It's hard to explain, but you don't feel it in the way I think you are asking. I imagined that I would feel it sitting there, and I don't. It's like you feel only where your stomach used to go is strangely not available and there is just a firm barrier there. It gets cold when you drink icy stuff, and you can feel it being cold longer than the tissues around it. I am realizing that it sounds grosser than it actually feels.

The port is different, though. I can actually touch my stomach and feel the port and what may be a small section of tubing, or may be a band of inflamed tissue, and it stings every once in a while when I am moving around, mostly if I bend over forward. If I am gentle, I can slide the tissue over the port some, and it like when you slide the skin around over your elbow and the bone doesn't move. I think that will likely subside with time. It is swollen quite a bit around the port, and if it doesn't begin to lie down eventually, I will talk to Doc to see if it needs to be moved. Right now, it looks like a marble halfway embedded in my ab wall. I will never get my six back with a lumpy port in the way!

[paulawally 0]

If you have a great surgeon that knows what he is doing you shouldn't be able to feel anything. A good surgeon is the key for a successful Lap Band. :tongue_smilie:

[coloradobanding 5]

I have never been able to feel the band at all or the port (inside that is). If I press on the outside, I can feel the port. The only time I've felt anything is during my fill, which was "bubbling". It actually felt like little bubbles, but that went away in seconds.

[Jodi_620 37]

Your stomach is a muscle and it has no nerves so you can't feel the actual band around the stomach. (There ARE hairlike nerves hanging down at the top of the stomach, these are not part of the stomach, they sense when you are full and send that message to your brain, but there are no nerves where the band is placed). The stomach is behind the liver so you cant feel it with your fingers either.

The tubing from the band and the port are stitched in muscle and nerve so you will feel that, especially as you are healing!

There are sensations that you will feel as a result of having the band but you will not actually feel the band inside you.

You will feel full faster, at least after a few fills.

Most of the sensations related to the band itself, the sensation directly related to eating are in the esophagus (in the middle between your breasts on up to your throat) but not in the stomach which is toward the left just below your ribs.

If you eat too fast or too much, the food presses on your diaphragm or backs up into the esophagus and you will feel pain or pressure there. If you get stuck, that is where you will feel the pain (chest or throat area). After I get a fill I feel a pressure/sucking feeling and that is felt in the esophagus.

Edited March 20, 2009 by Jodi_620

[bellatrickz 0]

Thank you everyone for sharing your information with me.....this was my first post....I am very happy to have found this forum with a lot of wonderful people....

[flowers 0]

Mostly I cant feel it, unless I do a lot of twisting in bed when I can't sleep. I can feel it with my hand when I touch the area, its a little poofed out.

[KartMan 58]

I am only 4.5 weeks in with no fill yet, so my only restriction is due to swelling – but I do feel some restriction as described above. I never have felt the band itself. You may think you would feel it in the same way you feel a watch on your am, but really you don’t. As the others have said, I can feel my port. It is sort of a “thicker” spot in my skin just above the larger of the scars, but it doesn’t hurt at all. I have had the sensation of two distinct stomach growls when I get hungry or shortly after I eat which is a bit odd, but not bothersome.

[maestrita 43]

Jodi, Your explanation is very good, and I think you explained what I was trying to get at. You don't feel it just sitting there around your stomach, but you do feel it in surrounding tissues. I do wonder, though. Why can you feel an ulcer if there aren't any nerves in the stomach? I am kind of fascinated by this. I think I am going to look it up in Grey's.