Info on getting stuck

(a) Eating too much. When you stretch the pouch you may experience pain. This is your body warning you that you have eaten too much, especially if you have pain in the left shoulder. This means the pouch is stretched. Remember, the volumes we express are not the minimum to eat but the maximum. Successful patients eat a portion and walk away. Do not eat until you "feel full." Your band will slip if you chronically overeat your pouch.

(b) Eating too fast. When you eat too fast you can cause pain in the pouch. This also leads to eating too much. Successful patients eat slowly over 15 to 20 minutes. Unsuccessful patients tell us that they don't have time to eat -- and yet manage to get more calories in than they need. Eat slowly. Slips happen when patients eat too fast.

(c) Eating too large a bite. Slow down. Take your time. Put nothing in your mouth larger than the fingernail of your smallest finger. If you eat too large a bite things can become stuck. If you eat too large a bite it can become lodged into the pouch and cause discomfort and lead to a slip.

Eating with Lap-band weight loss surgery:  When food becomes stuck

It will feel like a golf ball underneath your breast bone. You may be in pain. You may not be. You may "slime" and produce a lot of saliva in your body's attempt to dislodge this.

Things that become stuck:

Chicken is the worst offender, especially chicken that has been microwaved. Re-heating chicken tends to make it so that it will be too tough. This means microwave dinners, like Lean Cuisine, are not a good idea.

Chicken with other things that get stuck are also a culprit -- chicken and rice, chicken and noodles, or chicken and tortillas or other bread type of products.

• To make chicken so it won't get stuck: get a meat hammer and pound it.
• DO not overcook it so it is dry.
• Marinate the chicken.
• Slow roast.
• For a simple dish -- take a chicken and place into a crock pot. Cover it with Salsa -- put on slow cook -- when you come home you should have a moist bit of chicken.

Breads, pasta, rice -- all can become stuck.

Vegetables that are fibrous -- humans do not digest the methyl cellulose in vegetables. So, cut the vegetables so that the fibrous material does not sit in your pouch obstructing things periodically.

Best way to not get things stuck:

Avoid the problem. Chew well. Eat slowly. Do not overeat. Avoid dry chicken or re-heated chicken -- or avoid chicken.

If something gets stuck: Stop eating. If it burps or vomits up -- good. IF it is stuck for more than 20 minutes then do not eat for 24 hours. Instead go on liquids. Once something is stuck for a while it will cause the stomach lining to thicken, so you will be prone to have things stuck.

To help get things unstuck -- stand up, walk, jump. It will pass. If it does not -- we may need to take fluid out of the band. It will pass.