What do i Do from here

Since having my daughter in April, I lost the baby weight and then it came back and im gaining. It like my band doesn't work anymore. They have even taken out all the fluid in my band and made me slowly get it back in and not in that entire time did I lose a pound. I'm not losing any at all anymore. I'm just gaining.. I really need some support right now. I just feel like quitting. Can the band just stop working? and if it did, what do i do now? I'm very very distraught... help!!

Hi there...it's common after an unfill to have trouble finding the green zone.  Congrats on your new baby...

Do you feel like you have any restriction from the re-fills? If not, maybe you just need more fill, and you might want to talk to your surgeon about the possibility of a leak. All he/she has to do to check for that is withdraw all the fluid from your band. If what he pulls out is a lot less than what your medical record shows was put in, I'd have to conclude that (a) the needle missed your port during previous fills, or (b) there's a leak in the tubing or maybe in the band.

I had a complete unfill to treat a band slip and my experience of restriction after being re-filled was very different than it was the first time around. That doesn't mean anything was wrong with my band. The stomach is living tissue that expands, contracts, and is affected by all sorts of perfectly normal bodily processes.

There are a lot more things besides your band that can affect your weight, like medications, hormones, hydration, etc. etc. So bottom line: I think you should have a heart-to-heart talk with your surgeon about all this.

Jean

For me it was the hormonal change after having the baby. Are you still BFing? If so you still have those hormones that relax your stomach. This time around my restriction came back much sooner than my last pregnancy. For my last pregnancy after about 4 months of no restriction I went back to a liquid diet for one month and that brought back the restriction. Good luck I know it is hard and scary not to loose the weight.

I had a total un-flll One year out and at two years out and I never got it to work right after that first unfill.  Loser worked better than tighter for me.  But my band would get tighter as I lost weight.(not normal****il I got it out and found out that my body was walling it off with scare tissue.  So even thought they took fluid out it would just get tighter.

You need to talk with your surgeon to see what you can some up with.

The same thing happened to me. I had a slight unfill when I was pregnant and gained 90 pounds back (of the 120 I lost). Since I had my baby 18 months ago, I've only lost 20 pounds. I lost that within a month of having her. I'm thankful that I haven't gained in 18 months, but I still need to lose the 70 pounds I gained during pregnancy (plus 30 to get to goal). I feel like my lap band does not work anymore, and not because of a malfunction, but because I have learned how to manipulate it. I swear I have learned how to "loosen it up" and then continue to binge eat on things that the band never would have tolerated before. I'm wondering if it maybe slipped out of optimum position, but I'm not in any position financially to do anything about it so I feel kind of like I'm at square one. It obviously provides some restriction, as I'm not gaining and am still down 50 pounds from my heaviest, but I'm no longer losing with it. When I get some extra cash I'm going to go get a fill for the first time in awhile to see if it helps, but the last time I did that I found that I wasn't emotionally ready for it, so I fought with food constantly- trying to force it down, then throwing up, constantly trying to eat things the band wouldn't tolerate. And then I learned how to manipulate it. Ugh, I guess the purpose of this rant is to let you know you're not alone. I'm going through the same thing and am distraught as well. Old habits die hard.

I do not know how true this is, but I was told by several people at our support group that once the band is emptied for any reason, it doesn't really work the same way again.  I have no idea if that is true or not, I never had an unfill or any taken out of my band, but I have a friend who did great until she had to have an unfill for surgery and she has struggled since to get restriction.  I think she had 5 removed and now she's up to 8 mls in a 10 ml band.  She's not the first I have had who had a difficult time finding restriction once the band was unfilled.