Everyone who has a gastric lapband will tell you that we all want to find that sweet spot where we have enough fill in the band to give us good restriction while allowing us to eat enough to stay healthy.  It’s not easy!  Some people visit the clinic many times getting more saline injected into the port and then back again to get some out.

Late last month I got the second fill and got too much in there and couldn’t swallow spit, so now I know that if I gurgle just after the fill that it’s too tight.  Gurgling is NOT good.

It’s important to note that when you have a gastric band that doesn’t have the proper fill, you might as well not have a gastric band at all.  No restriction isn’t going to get you to your goal and will allow you to gain weight instead of lose.  So after all you went through to get the band put on (meaning the tests, insurance and permissions you needed to obtain prior), you’ve done it all for nothing.

My fill is pretty tight.  I can’t eat in the morning until I have had  a cup of tea or coffee and that seems to “oil the works” so that food goes down ok.  If I don’t eat regularly during the day, I have to have a hot drink before I do eat.

What happens if I eat before I drink something hot?  Pain.  Not pain that I’m going to die but quite a bit of discomfort.  It’s like a baby elephant is sitting on my chest.    I’ve learned that if I have the slightest inkling that food’s not going down well, I stop eating immediately.  I wait about 10 to 15 minutes and then try the hot drink and food will go down nicely.

Many people with gastric bands will tell you that there are a few foods that they cannot eat.  White bread is a good one.  They can eat toast but not plain white bread.  I haven’t found anything that won’t go down as long as I eat small bites and chew each bite thoroughly.

I had an appointment with the diabetes nurse this week and she was really pleased with the 4.5 kg (nearly 10 pounds) that I have lost.  I’m getting closer to that goal all the time.  I want to weigh under 140.   I have 19 pounds to go.  I have started walking with the group again – one hour 3 mornings a week and sometimes even on Saturday morning.  Why are the last 20 pounds the most difficult?  I have no idea but that’s how it seems to me.

I came back to Australia a couple of days ago to see my surgeon and get another fill in my lapband.  I’ve now got 6 cc’s in a 10 cc band.  I don’t think I can hold any more, although by the numbers I should be able to get 4 more in there.  Fat chance!

After she injected the saline into the port under the skin up and to the right of my belly button,  she asked me to drink some water – slowly without talking so I didn’t swallow any air.

“Maybe that’s too much, I can hear you gurgling from over here,” she said.

Like I want to go around gurgling!

The water went down ok and no pain so I said I wanted to keep it in the band and I’d just eat even more slowly than I have been.  I’m determined to get this weight off over the next 6 months.  That’s my goal.  All off in 6 months.

I’m not that far off my goal so if I get in gear and do the walking, the weight training with the dumbells and eat to my plan, my commitment to myself will all be worth it.

Now, about this EFT.  I told my surgeon about it and told her I felt really foolish doing it with my shrink but I still have no cravings for sweets and I haven’t looked for something to put in my mouth for a week.  I know it’s not a sure thing but I haven’t gone a week without eating for emotional or anxiety reasons for more than 30 years.  Who knows, maybe it’s 40 years.  It’s certainly been a long time.

I found out that an acquaintance of mine is an EFT counselor in town I used to live in back in Australia (errr..  where I am right now) so I’m seeing her tomorrow just to see what she has to say about it.  My shrink didn’t give me tons of details.  When he told me what we were going to do I rolled my eyes and he said, “You’ve done it your way for 40 years and it hasn’t worked, at least TRY it.”  I couldn’t argue with that logic.

I’ll post more photos in a few weeks.

Oh..  according to the surgeon I lost 3 kilos over the past month.  Not enough.  Better than gaining though!  Any loss is better than gaining.

I got a really nice note from Losing Proposition through Entrecard.com asking me if I’d fallen off the planet because I hadn’t posted in a while.  I have been under the weather but I’m getting back in the saddle, I promise.

The good news is I heard from my son in Atlanta today and he’s lost 74 pounds since his lapband surgery was done in December.  74 pounds!!  Imagine!!  He’s very, very happy and so am I.  Ok, he had a lot to lose and wouldn’t have been around to see my beautiful little grandchildren grow up if he hadn’t done something.  How much did he weigh before surgery?  Just at 400 pounds.  He’s about 6′2″ tall so he carries his weight much better than I do at barely 5′ tall.  He still has a long way to go but he’s so dedicated.  He goes to the gym every single day and he’s up to 30 minutes of cardio exercise a day.  He’s an inspiration even though he’s 8000 miles away from me.  We talk over the net nearly every day.

I asked him what his goal is and he said he doesn’t have a specific weight goal but he does have some goals.

6.  He wants to need a new belt.  He’s on his very last hole.  He’s gone from a size 60 pants to a 52. (still sounds big, doesn’t it?)

5.  He wants to need to get his wedding ring resized.

4.  He wants to need to buy a new belt

3.  He wants to be able to run up the stairs without losing his breath.

2.  He wants to be able to buy clothes from somewhere other than the fat man store.

1.  He wants to be in a room where he’s NOT the fattest man there.

I think he has every chance of meeting those goals and many more.  I’m very proud of him.

As for me, I still have a damaged band and I’m off to see my surgeon in Australia at the first of March.  It will be fantastic to get it working again and not feel hungry ALL the time.  I’ve started walking with a group of women in our town.  We walk 3 mornings a week for a bit over an hour.  It feels good to get active again after feeling rotten for months.

Hope you’re all doing well!  I’ve missed you.

My son received his liver shrinking diet from Dr. Kuri’s patient facilitator this week.  He must be on this diet for exactly 3 weeks before gastric banding surgery.  I know it’s to shrink the liver before the lapband is put on but I never really knew much about it until I read the intro to the diet:

The liver can become enlarged and contains abnormally large deposits of fatwhen a person is obese. This causes problems for laproscopic placement of the Lap Band because the liver is “in the way” of the surgical area during band surgery. The liver must be held back with surgical instruments, and when enlarged, it is very fragile and bleeds easily when touched or manipulated. This bleeding can be difficult to control and the extra care required with an enlarged liver increases surgical risk, as well as anesthesia time. Longer surgical and anesthesia times can make both immediate and longer-term recovery much more difficult for you.

An especially large and fragile liver has even caused some Band surgeries to be cancelled for the safety of the patient.

There is absolutely no cheating with this diet and if he does, chances are they won’t do the weight loss surgery.  If any of you are interested in the diet, I’m happy to share it with anyone who requests it.

I just returned from a trip to the US to visit my elderly mother and my grown children in Atlanta and Orlando.  I had a great time.  Ate too much, now I have more pounds to exercise off but that’s ok.  When you live away from the US and go back, you just _have_ to eat all your favorites, don’t you?

Why is today a great day?

My son weighs around 400 pounds depending on the day you ask him.  While I was there I talked to him about a gastric lap band and if he’d be interested and he said that his doctor wanted to give him a gastric bypass but he was scared shitless of doing that.  So we investigated getting a lapband for him and he’s scheduled to have it done in Mexico at a special hospital that caters to lap banders.  My really good friend had hers done there and she couldn’t be happier.  The cost is $7500 for everything.  Not another cent owed.    So he’s having his surgery on December 18th.  I’m SO stoked.

This surgery will save his life.  He’s over 40 and has two very young children.  My youngest grandchild turned 1 the day I left.  This is very good news for a very worried mother.

I have only one more antibiotic tablet to take — just one.  I don’t need a doctor to tell me that I’m nearly all mended, I feel it.  The nasty looking wound has turned to mildly gross, but my sparkle is coming back.  I jump out of bed when I wake up instead of feeling around to see what hurts today.

So, what did I do to celebrate?  I made an appointment to get a fill for my gastric lapband.  When I got banded back in November last year I was supposed to see my surgeon in 6 weeks to get my first fill. That’s where saline is injected through a small port that’s just under my skin.  The port is just above my belly button and to the left about an inch.  I can feel it if I poke around but it doesn’t bother me at all.

When I saw my surgeon after the 6 weeks, she said I’d lost over 20 pounds and I didn’t need a fill because I’d already lost more weight than I should have for my size.  I’m quite short and I wasn’t grossly obese, but I had diabetes and hypertension so I qualified for the band.

So, then I moved to New Zealand in December and continued losing weight until April when I started having horrible pain to the right of my stomach.  I thought I’d overeaten and the band was talking back.  No, it was gallstones.  After many trips to the hospital by ambulance and months of being on the surgical waiting list, I finally got it taken out.  That’s how I got the nasty infection, you see.

While I was so sick, I pretty much said, “Screw it, I’m going to eat all the comfort food I need.”  And I did.  Because I don’t have any fill in my band, as long as I chew everything really well, I can eat anything and as much of it as I want.  I’ve gained about 5 pounds, which isn’t horrible but it’s going the wrong way.

My surgeon (and most bariatric surgeons) are shockingly busy.  The first appointment I can get is November 28th at 8:30pm.  My last appointment in January was at 10:30pm.  I told the appointment clerk that I’d take whatever she had and then I’d make my travel plans to Australia.  That’s where I lived in November and where my surgery was.

I can’t wait to get back on the losing trail again.  Now that I’m feeling better, maybe I can do it without the fill, but I kept asking myself why I’d want to.  If I’ve got an aid inside me that will make it easier to control portions, I’m an idiot not to take advantage of it.

Life’s good again!

I’ve decided that once I have the gall bladder out next week, I’m going to find someone here in New Zealand to give me my first fill in my gastric band.  When I was first banded I was never hungry and lost weight very quickly.  Then I got sick with gallstones and other problems and dieting was off the list of things I should do.

Now that I’m pretty well sorted out, I’ve begun getting hungrier.  I think it’s probably emotional hunger from all that’s going on in my life but I’m not happy about it.  When I was first banded I ate next to nothing and was never hungry.  I want to go back to that.

The final realization that I could put it all back on came tonight when hubby opened a Cadbury Fruit and Nut© bar.  I wanted some.  I wanted a lot of some.  I didn’t eat heaps but I think I’d have gone to bed wishing I’d had some chocolate if I hadn’t had some.  I didn’t eat the whole thing; there’s still more than half the bar left after both of us ate some.  But still…  I worry that I’m going backward instead of forward.

My good friend Cheryl tells me to get the fill.  “Let the band work for you because what you’re doing is dieting,” she says.  She might be right.  I went through all the bother of having this thing put on my stomach, why not let it help me not feel hungry all the time.  Then all I need to do is work on the emotional eating issues.

I weigh less than 150 pounds now and I want to weigh 120 (or less) so I don’t have a million miles to go but I want to see some progress.  Maybe I should make a deal with myself.  Lose 10 pounds and I get.. something.  It might have to be pretty good to get me really motivated.

I belong to a Yahoo! group of gastric banders in Victoria, Australia and today I got the most fantastic email from the forum. Rather than try to tell you about it, I’ll just post it without using her nickname.

Hi all from lurkville,

I thought I would update you all on how things are progressing with my fav journey. Went to the clinic today and I’ve now lost 160kgs…woohooo I’m just blown away and so is all there.

They want me to speak at the next seminar which the Prof will be attending. So, I will be at the seminar on the 1st July 08. I amnervous as hell about it, but I owe it to the Prof who saved my lifeand I owe it to others who are struggling and wanting to change theirlives like I have. So, if anyone is going to be there say hi.

On another note, my tummy tuck surgery has been booked in for the 7th August 08. They are trying to put it forward but its not looking too promising. Oh well it’s only 2 months away, that gives me more timeto lose as much weight possible.

Hope everyone is well and are kicking goals in their journeys of fighting obesity.

Can you imagine?? She’s lost 352 pounds after gastric banding! The sheer enormity of shifting that much weight leaves me gobsmacked. I needed to lose 90 pounds and that seemed so huge when I started. I was over the moon when I was more than half way to my goal weight; I can’t begin to imagine what it must feel like to lose that much. Feeling terrific would only be the beginning. Imagine her self-esteem? Imagine getting out and meeting people? Imagine looking in the mirror and smiling back at what she sees?

I’m still fighting with myself about my fat perception. I’m no longer clinically obese, just overweight now, but I still consider myself a fat woman. It’s in my brain. I don’t feel normal yet. I worry that perception will cause me to get fat again. When I look in the mirror I see a normal woman but take me away, and I’m still the old fat lady in my head.

If any of you have dealt with this, encourage me, ok?

My friend Cheryl and I were about the same size – short and round – before I got my lapband. She wanted to do the same thing but because of the health insurance rules in the US, she was declined over and over again. She doesn’t have the cash to pay for it outright in the US, so she decided to go to a hospital in Mexico.

It’s costing her $7500 and that includes transport from the border to the hospital and one night in a hotel. She lives in San Diego and went to a highly recommended hospital. They picked her up at the border and took her to the hospital for tests on Friday and she had the surgery done on Saturday. I heard from her by email today that she’s just fine. She’s gone for two long walks and has done the vacuuming already!

I did remind her that she has a perfect opportunity to be a slacker but she’s so stoked about this that nothing will hold her back. She’s a writer and she’s going to write everything that’s happened to her in her blog. I hope she ends up writing a book about her experience. There are so many questions we all have before we start this journey to thin.

So — now I’m really focused about losing weight. I’ve only got 30 more pounds to go. I know I can do it. OK if you’re thin and you think that 30 pounds is a lot to lose – fuhgeddaboudit! 30 pounds is nuthin to worry about now.

For me it’s all about portion size. I won’t eat more than 3/4 cup at any meal, plus I’ll be drinking all the healthy veggie and fruit juice. Watch me melt before your very eyes.

Recently I’ve been having some stomach discomfort in the middle of the night and I figured it was that I’d eaten more than I should and I was overfull and maybe it was tugging at the band. Ok, I didn’t have a clue but I assumed I was responsible. Last Thursday morning about 2am it started again. I was doubled over in pain and thought.. “wait a minute.. I didn’t overeat.”

When the pain didn’t go away in an hour or so I began to be concerned. Not only didn’t it go away, but it was getting worse. It got so bad that I asked my husband to call an ambulance. They arrived in about 30 minutes, took one look at me and said, “you need to come with us.”

I won’t bore you with all the details of going to the hospital, being transferred to another hospital, getting sent home, having it happen again, going back to the hospital, getting transferred to another hospital again and all to find out I had gallstones and need my gall bladder out. The problem was when I went to the hospital the first time, they tested my blood and then when I went back the next night, they tested it again. It turns out that I have a fatty liver and one doctor told me in his best technical terminology, “your liver function tests are off the planet.” Then he left with no explanation.

Next day a specialist came in and patted my leg and said that everyone with a gastric band should be told about fatty food and not losing too much weight too fast. When you get the band your liver copes just fine with the fats you’re eating but if you lose a lot of weight, your liver stores what it can’t process inside itself. Nobody said that to me. I’ve lost over 50 pounds since the first week in November and I should have lost no more than 25 and my liver would be fine. What to do?

Who knows? The best advice I could get was to not eat any red meat for at least 5 days and no more butter, cheese, cream or ice cream. I should eat as many raw vegetables and fruit as I can hold. It would be best if I juiced the veggies and fruit because I could get more nutrition that way.

So that’s what I’m doing. So far the veggie juice that I’ve crushed through this fancy dancy masticating juicer tastes like liquid shit but I’m drinking it and licking the glass. I’m being so good you’d think I was running for Ms. Lapband.

If you have a band and nobody has told you about liver problems or the propensity to get gallstones, listen up. Don’t lose more than a pound or two a week (less than a kilogram) and go lightly on saturated fat.

I’ve got 16.5 kilograms (36 pounds) to reach my goal. I can’t wait. I’m ready for new boobs and a tummy tuck but I can’t consider that until all the excess weight is off and my liver is stabilized.