I have had the lapband for a year now. I still do not understand one thing, and I read the post-it which was good but still did not hit my exact question.

When I eat, I thought the upper pouch that was made by the lapband was supposed to be my "new stomach" and that it could only fit a small amount of food and then I would feel full. If it was tight enough, I would get full there first and then slowly the food would drain down into the old stomach.

So I left it really tight for a long time and I could only eat a bite or two at at time and mostly threw up until it became so swollen that I had to have an unfill - gained 16 pounds in 10 days and am now back to a refill. I feel I can eat a lot. I am so confused!! You would think I would get this by now, but I think I had it all wrong all along.

I think the post it leads me to believe that by placing the band, I am actually just restricting the size of my original stomach and that I have to have restriction for what? To prevent too much from coming up over it? See - I am clueless. Somebody please clarify to my stupid self. Thanks

Hello I am am also a year out myself. I had a fill three weeks ago and did what you did and hurt my throat and made my insides swollen from eating a pickle !! I did not have to get an un-fill though.

Where they place the band first of all is to send a message to your brain that you are full so you dont crave as much. However the small pouch that is above the band is your "new" stomach. Once this is full you cant eat anymore because if you do you will get sick. You are to eat just enough to feel satisfied. Now the food sits in the upper pouch for a while till it slowly falls into your old stomach and then on ward. That is why you should not drink after you eat becasue the Water can either hurt or flush the food down

You are to eat protiens first becasue these stick around longer and keep you full longer before they drop into your old stomach.

So the food sticks in the upper pouch making you feel and think your full until it continues on its journey. This should take 1-3 hours depending on what you eat. So you eat less and less often.

I hope this helps,

Rae

______________

316lbs post op

banded 10/08

current 194 lbs

Too tight is exactly that, TOO TIGHT. It can ultimately mean that most of the foods you should be eating get stuck so you start eating easy (slider) stuff that doesn't necessarily get you the nutrition you need!

RestlessMonkey says she can eat just about anything, but in much smaller amounts than pre-band. There's a couple of things I choose not to eat (soft bread, flour tortillas) because they get stuck often enough to not be worth the trouble and I don't need the carbs anyway.

I'm sorry your doctor hasn't made sure you understand this! Basically, you have it right for the most part. The band creates a smaller stomach out of the very first part of your stomach. You should be able to eat somewhere from a 1/2 cup to 1 cup of food at a meal (for me, it varies depending on what I eat .... for instance, I can eat more salad than if I ate just Protein and a vegetable). You shouldn't drink during or immediately after a meal so that you don't make the contents of your pouch prematurely empty into the lower part of your stomach.

Restriction is what the band is. SATIETY is what it makes you feel. What is satiety? Satisfaction from eating. When you eat the prescribed size meal, you should feel comfortably full (not stuffed to gills) and you shouldn't feel hungry for about 4 hours or so. If you're so tight you can barely eat, then you are too tight. You can be so tight you can't even drink. If you were that tight, you'd call the doctor right away! So just remember that it's really no different if you can't really eat a meal.

My doctor sais that a meal should be 3 oz of lean protein, a steamed or raw vegetable and if you are still truly hungry, to eat a single serving of a whole grain carb. At lunch, I am always still hungry, so I eat some whole grain Special K crackers. At dinner, I'm usually good with just the protein and vegetable. For Breakfast, I have been having a Protein shake just because it's convenient but I've gotten completely sick and tired of them, LOL ... and I should be! The last few days, I've been eating a serving of Greek yogurt for breakfast. It's still convenient and that's all I care about in the morning. I don't really want to have to cook a meal for breakfast. And, if you have a long stretch between lunch and dinner, as I do (I get off work at 5:30 and sometimes traffic keeps me from getting home until 7:00 or so), then you should have a small snack of pure protein. LIke a little low fat cottage cheese or a boiled egg. That way, when you are preparing your meal you don't start grazing your way through the kitchen:tt2:.

Thanks = now I get it. I guess though, if you are tighter and tighter, your pouch size remains the same, so I am still a little confused about that part, but one thing I have learned about this thing is that IT CHANGES ON ITS OWN. A refill yesterday with little restriction today does not stay that way. I will "weight" two weeks before I ask for more filling...thank you SO MUCH!!!! I feel so relieved.

Noahsmom...think of, say, a zip loc baggie. (stomach isn't shaped like that, but it'll do). Now, imagine putting a big rubber band around the middle of it..so it's kind of split into 2 sections (make the top section smaller).

Ok? NOW...start tightening the rubber band. The top and bottom sections are still the same size. The zip loc baggie is still intact (no new baggie and old baggie, just 1 zip loc baggie) but the opening between the 2 sections gets smaller.

In fact, you made an "artificial" opening between the 2 sections by putting the BIG rubber band around the bag, and tightening the band makes that opening smaller.

IF that hole is TOO small, what you put in the top of the baggie comes back out the top...because that's the path of least resistance. rather than go through the tiny hole, UP it comes! If that hole is TOO BIG..the stuff flows on into the lower part of the baggie and you have "room" to eat more.

The goal is to make that hole a good size so that what you put in the top hangs around there a while and then flows on through. We are "tricking' our bodies into thinking the stomach is full by keeping the food up in the upper portion of the stomach longer.

Therefore, rather than eat a pot of macaroni and cheese to fill the stomach, you eat a cup (or less). It sits in the top, goes on through the hole to the rest, and you think "wow I'm satisfied on that cup". Your body, the hormones, the triggers for hunger...all think "wow I got a lot of food!"

The stomach is intact. it isn't "old" and "new". The band just creates a road block, if you want, up close to the top, so food hits there and SLOOOWS down. So your body has time to think "WOW SATED NOW! GROOVY" and you don't eat too much.

Because our bodies are living and not machines, they don't always immediately register things. Some systems take days to respond, some don't. For many, that tightened band isn't perceived right away.

Now..the goal is for the pouch to remain small. HOWEVER it isn't really a baggie, it's stomach. And stomach is ELASTIC! So consistent overeating once you have restriction can stretch the pouch out (called pouch packing) and make it bigger. you don't want that but an occasional overindulgence won't cause it.

Your goal (as is the goal of all of us!) is to get that band tightened enough so that you feel full on less food, can eat whatever you want to, stay full for a good long while, and lose weight. Because we aren't all the same, and because our bodies change (again, we aren't steel and plastic, we're a machine of living biomechanisms!) sometimes finding and keeping that optimum fill level is hard. But when you hit it , it's almost miraculous.

Did that help, I hope?

Edited August 12, 200916 yr by RestlessMonkey

very , very good analogy restless. i think thats one of the best breakdowns of how the pouch works that i've heard

Thanks Jennifer! Gotta practice that "patient teaching" you know!

next time someone asks me how the band works im gonna try using the baggie and the rubber band for a visual aid. i think it would be a huge help for someone with no medical background.

so have you taken your boards yet? working ?

Can you say...denial? LOL I take the boards 8/19 and after a summer of angst, self searching, praying, meditating, mulling etc I'm going into psychiatric nursing if I can find a job. I love it...the people motivate me the most in nursing, and so many other disciplines don't give you a chance to really interact, you know?

What do you do with your degree if you don't mind me asking? (and I guess I should've PM'd this so as not to hijack the thread...)

Restless Monkey... my first ever post on here.. and will be to you and saying Thank You! That was a great way to explain it!

I had my band placed 1/26/09 and have just now found this website! Took forever for me to find out was "pb" was! But boy do I know what it is!!

PB is a nice little term for something very Un-fun, isn't it?

I guess I must be a little hungary cuz all I could think PB stood for was Peanut Butter!!!

RestlessMonkey - thank you! that was such a great word-picture and explanation of the process. THANKS!

Restless - EXCELLENT !!!!