Weight Loss Surgery – LapBand Living 101: STUCK!

by MariaFitzpatrick on April 15, 2012

Welcome to the wonderful world of lapband life.

I had weight loss surgery, and having been banded 2 1/2 years I am very familiar with being “stuck". It can happen at any time, for any reason. I have eaten dense protein like chicken or steak and it went down just fine. then later that day I have attempted to eat Greek yogurt and it doesn’t want to go down. With the Lap-Band, restriction can vary from day to day, moment to moment. That is why I call my band a psycho band, lol.

• What I usually do when I am stuck is to take some Papaya Extract. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

• Coke is another option. Although carbonated beverages are generally frowned upon with most weight loss surgeries, this is an exception. The acid in it can break down the protein. It’s usually going to go down…….or come back up. Either way, it’s a plus. Staying stuck is not a good thing!

• Fluids in general can sometimes dilute it and pu**** on down. Since I am now used to following the “band rules" and not drinking with meals or for 30 minutes after, I wouldn’t do this initially because I thought I needed to wait 30 minutes after it finally went down to drink. Don’t hesitate though, if you’ve been stuck for more than a few minutes, take a drink. It may help.

Last night I was stuck and I received a few suggestions while on the Facebook Failed Lap-Bands and Realize Bands Group that I  had not heard before to deal with this, so I thought I would share.

• “It always helped me to walk around with my hands in the air… When your stuck you’ll try anything."

• “Hands up, head back, and jump around for a bit, hitting the ground hard. My family would laugh like hell but it was the only thing that worked. “

• “ALWAYS keep those individual size cans of pineapple juice on hand. It’s only supposed to work with chicken but it worked for most foods when I was banded. It dissolves what is stuck. You wait until you vomit and the liquids are out of your stomach then you sip on the pineapple juice. OMG, why do I know this one so well!

Now one sad comment that i heard was this:

“It’s funny whenever I’d get my stuck look, my husband would automatically say " arms up!" even our family goes through band hell"

My family knows that “stuck look" as well. And it saddens me that as much as I have gone through with my failed band, my family goes through this as well. I hate it when I ruin a nice dinner out with family or friends because after having no band issues all day, it will hit all of a sudden and then I can’t eat, or something gets stuck. As bad as this is though, I am grateful that I have not had some of the more painful band complications that so many other bandsters have had!