What should I be feeling after 5 months and 4 fills?

I was banded in June 2016 and have 5.1 cc in a 10.0 cc band.  What exactly should it be feeling like by now?  I honestly don't feel much different than I did before.  I can literally eat as much as I used to.  The odd time I get a the feeling like I had a turkey dinner after a small portion, but that's rare.  The nurse at the clinic told me that I'd have to learn to start controlling my eating.  What?!  I understand that I still need to control the type of food I put in my mouth, but I thought the band would help in the quantity of food.  I told them that I didn't feel like I had any real "restriction" yet, and they told me that that is not what the band is intended to do.  What?! 

So can anyone please tell me what I should be expecting to feel?

Hi Karol, 

I did not have the band but see if your surgeon offers regular support group meetings. Hopefully you can reach out to those that had the band.

Good luck to you!

I had a band in for 10+ years and had it out due to complications and revised to RNY 7 weeks ago. 

Restriction with the band does take a while. I remember having several fills before I felt any. If you are over restricted you can't eat anything but slider foods or you get stuck constantly. The feeling isn't anything like what you used to feel like when you are full. It's more of a tightness in your neck or chest. If you eat too much it will come right back up. The other issue is, with the band it's not constant. Sometimes you are tight and can barely eat and other times you can eat as much as you want. At least that's how it always was for me. I'd call and make an appointment with your surgeon. Good luck. 

Exactly what conazza said.  The band depending on what your eating will feel different, more than that depending on the time of day or your personal body's water weight storage will change how it is.  I called mine the "little plastic demon".  I'll give you some examples so you can experiment.

Try to eat only dense meat with nothing else.  No sides or drinking.  See how much of that you can eat.  Do something like grilled chicken and note how moist it is.  The less most the more it should hit that banded portion of your stomach and just sit there.  

Next try the same chicken on another night but eat mashed potatoes or another moist food like salad with dressing with that chicken.  You should notice you can eat more.  This is because you won't "clog" the drain hole up and the food will slide into your lower stomach portion which can hold nearly as much as you could eat before.

Now for the full effect of knowing your new plastic friend.  Sit down to a meal of something like a creamy pasta.  Something fairly moist like spaghetti, with this food you should notice hardly any restriction and you should again be able to eat a very similar amount as before. This is because the tightened portion will not clog and it'll drain right into your lower stomach just like before.

Lapband succes isn't going to depend much on the band.  I had mine for 8 years and it did help at first because I was scared to eat many things because each fill was always something new.  Also sometimes in the morning I'd be tight and breakfast wouldn't go down, I'd have to drink something warm like coffee to open it up.  Other times when my monthly visitor would come I'd be tight all week and so I'd stick to slider foods.  Me and the band developed some pretty bad habits.  It was always easy to eat nachos but never easy to eat plain grilled chicken.

The best way to use your band is to eat solid proteins such as meats and cheeses, limit the amount of moisture in any foods you eat, and put solids down first to clog the drain and then put sides on top.  Now for your fills you want to be able to eat a small portions and feel full which feels more like a ball in your chest than full IMO however the goal is to get your fills every several weeks until you can eat a reasonable portion without getting stuck often.  I say often because depending on your body swelling and water weight it will be tighter some days over others.  One day you can eat corn, and others you will get stuck and throw it up, normally at a restaurant when you really don't want to. It took my until I was at about 8 of 10 on my fills to get the just right feeling.

Anyway feel free to ask me more questions as you want to.  In then end I had that thing pulled out and VSG done and I'm happy for it.  However I lived with it for 8 years so I can tell you all about it.  Overall the band wasn't horrible to me, I don't have any horror stories like some people do.  But it was not the right tool for me as me and it found ways for me to still eat whatever, whenever, and almost as much as ever. 

Hello my lapband was placed in 2007. It took awhile for me to get restriction and to feel full on smaller amounts of food. If you can still eat larger portions and tough meats without your food getting stuck or feeling full I would say you do not have enough fluid in your band yet. My surgeon would ask me to wait 3 to 4 weeks between fills so it took awhile to get there. I also had a smaller band. When I was filled properly I could not eat bread, tough meat, or dry meat. My food would get stuck if I didn't chew my food up really well. Due to complications I'm working on getting a revision to RNY. Tell your surgeon what types of food you are still able to eat. He may just being cautious so you don't have to get an unfill. I hope this helps, good luck!

I felt that way for six years until I finally had it removed and revised to a DS, two years ago.  I never found my "sweet spot" and the same as you are describing, sometimes I could eat a lot and other times a few bites of chicken left me feeling stuffed with a Charlie horse like cramp in my chest. I know it works well for some people, but it just never did for me and quite honestly, after 6 years I felt hopeless. When I had it removed I weighed 325 pounds at 5'2", today I am 134!!! I hope you are able yo figure it out...best wishes

I had a 10 cc band and did not begin to feel real restriction until 7.5 cc's my first fill was 5 cc's and I slowly got .75 each time until I reached my sweet spot that got me to my goal at 9.5. My friend who was banded at the same time as me had more internal fat around her stomach and reached her sweet spot around 8.5. Everyone is different . When I reached my sweet spot, I could eat about 1/2 cup of protein but NO WAY could I eat bread.... I could however still physically eat a cheeseburger awhen I only had 5-7 ccs. Feel free to pm me if you have any questions . 

Sorry to hear about your experience.  What you are describing is exactly what happened to me.  I never felt any real restriction and it's been two years now.  I'm schedule for revision surgery to the duodenal switch next month.  Hopefully things turn out better for you.