I just gotta b*tch!

Well, went to get my 3rd fill on Friday. The surgeon only gave me .5cc. I have not been feeling the band at all. My weight loss is stalled. I feel like I paid for something that will never work. I wanted 2cc. He said I must be close since I am now 6.5cc in a 14cc band and refusedthe bigger fill. I had to settle for it, but I got him to do my next one in 3 weeks. Add to that, I get my fat a** up at 5 a.m. to exercise daily and eat small lunches and drink the water and do the protien. For what, I am just curious.

I can now feel it. Actually, I couldn't eat a pizza dinner at a meeting tonight and had to excuse myself since I started sliming. anyway, I am just so frustrated in reading posts on people who have the surgery and immediately lose tons of weight and just keep losing with almost no adjustment.  I want to be able to report that I reached that sweet spot and don't feel hungry and feel full. I am an impatient person, but damn I paid for this thing.

I am to the point of wanting to change doctors to find one who aggressively fills and does it on request. I read that a lot that some doctors let the patient drive the fills. I guess I am not having a good week and had to get this off my chest. -- Tom

Hi Tom, Hang in there!  It took me 6 fills to get to 7 cc's and I am getting another on tues/  slow yes, but safe and allows me to know what I can eat and not eat.  An example is your pizza days are over, now it is just the top and no bread for you or the sliming comes.  the band will become your friend making you choose wisely and with portion.  You will lose maybe slowly, but more than likely will not gain it back.
Too many people opt for agressive fills to have to get unfilled or get heartburn and other problems.  Remember you did not choose to have rny and loose fast, but chose a slower process.    Be patient and the weight will come off.~Ann~
p.s.  I know though what you mean about wishing the weight would fly off!

Aggressive fills may lead to band errosion, etc. Imagine how pissed you would be if you have to pay to get the band removed after living through all the side effects of malpositioning, errosion, etc.

Are you loosing inches?? Having more energy?? Less aches and pains?? Any positives?

I have to agree with the two replies, its a matter of trial and error to get to the right spot.  When I had my lap band my first fill was my only fill - and that was too much, I had total obstruction and it was less than 5mls in a 10ml band.  Even with all the saline out I had issues, and in the end had it removed and went with a VSG.

Everyone is different, and we dont all lose the weight at the same rate.  Whats that old saying "it wont happen over night, but it will happen"

Cheers - Col

There are definitely less inches in the waist and shirt size and I am already off one med. I guess I just wonder from my past experience if this can all just disappear and go the other way. The thing that bothers me is not having that full feeling assist from the band. If I just wanted to lose weight by diet, I would do WW and saved the $3,000.
 
I do seriously question if my surgeon has done enough band surgeries to understand it. He is big into RNY. Take note those who are contemplating a band of these 2 important questions:

1. How many lapband procedures have you done and what % of your surgeries are lapbands?
2. How do you work with patients on giving their fills and working on getting their sweet spot.
 
I regret not knowing to ask these two questions.
Tom

hello my young brother...

You need to cool you jets and chill

I can tell you are gonna get where you wanna go...just not today..this is a life long committment..remember...can you say delayed gratification...

right now..you are in the stage where you question everything, including your commmitment, and you doc...dont; do that..it's just destructive...

the weight comes off different for everyone..and you chose a more conservative path...so you be conservative..and quit thining about the money you spent...that is a nasty road...

now don;t make me spank you bare bottom to calm you down...

Russ

Russ, Thanks for these words of wisdom. I guess I keep trying to speed up the process. I do that in just about everything I do. This is looking like something that is not totally in my control and maybe should not be sped up. -- Tom

First of all what the heck is sliming?

Second, I have always heard it takes about 3 fills before you feel it. I also heard once that you will lose restriction after the fill as you lose weight cause there is fat on your stomach. I don't know about that one but the other I have heard enough to know it must be true.

Third, don't forget to breath to try to relax. It really does help. Just today I didn't rip the mother in law a new one for waking me up an hour early from her making so much noise.

Sliming is where food gets stuck because of the band and your body produces saliva to help lubricate and free it. The saliva then backs up and you throw it back up in the process. It reminds me of what dogs occasionally throw up. It is usually accompanied by productive burping (PB) which are the burps the body produces to help free the food.  Both are not pleasant. I can tell you my episodes this week have taught me a lot of when to stop before it starts and what I now can and can not eat. I guess that is learned progress.

I am better today. I just reached a frustration level where I needed to write it out. I find that I get these high and low points now and I have always been an even keeled person before. It is like this surgery has added some emotion to my personality that I can't control at times. My partner Brett can attest to the fact that I tend to keep everything in until it erupts like a volcano.

Russ' response was also good. I just need to focus and stop reading into things what they must mean. That is real hard for me. Add to that, I have a job where I tend to not tolerate things that don't work and I look for workarounds. I keep looking for the workarounds for this plateau. 

Thanks for listening.
Tom

oh so sliming is like what us RNYer's would refer to as the "foamies"?  I've had my fair share of food getting stuck and I would get the foamies and then bam.......puke city.