Lingo

So I'm a newbie both to the forum and to the band. Just had my surgery Dec 14th, 2012. I've tried to avoid posting because I wanted to figure things out and the lay of the land so to speak but I'm finding some terminology that I don't know. Please help!

The one word that pops out right now is slimming???? Whats that? I've also heard dumping. None of this was explained to me by my surgeon and I don't really know who else to ask!

I tried to find a thread to explain these words which is what I did with other word or abbreviation I didn't understand but I had no luck.

I had my LapBand for almost 5 years and I never dumped.  We are not supposed to have dumping because we do not have malabsorption issues. 

Sliming is a different story.  If you eat too fast, something that is too dry or if your band is too tight - voluntarily after a fill or involuntarily if your scar tissue has built up as mine did, you will slime.  Sliming is when your body produces huge and I do mean massive amounts of mucous to try to move that food item down the esophagus.  The slime builds up and you have to spit it out or vomit it.  The first time I slimed was on some cooked carrots.  I chewed them well but my Band didn't want them - I slimed for over 3 hours.  It was painful and a horrible experience.  You feel relief and then it hits you again and you have more slime.

 

That does not sound great at all! Once you start does it continue forever or does it stop? I know I could google these questions but I would rather hear from someone with actual experience.

Congrats on your new surgery, here is a complete list of lap band lingo that will help you understand the band.

Bandster Hell - Having to rely on your own will power without being aided by the band. You may find bandster hell right after surgery, prior to your first fill. Or you may find bandster hell somewhere along the journey when you don't feel any restriction and you can't lose a pound to save your life.

Diet - Diet is a dirty word in band land. We are not on a diet, and shouldn't think like dieters.

Fills - The process of adding more saline to your band to "tighten" things up. Saline is injected into your port, which is just underneath the skin on the abdomen.

NSV - An abbreviation for Non-Scale Victory. An example of an NSV might be fitting in a chair better, not having to ask for a seat belt extender on an airplane or fitting into a smaller clothing size.

Port - A titanium and silicone device used to increase or decrease the amount of saline inside a lap band. The port is attached to tubing leading up to the lapband around the stomach.

PB - An abbreviation for a productive burp. We lapbanders occasionally get food bits stuck in our stoma, and if it won't go down, it has to come up. It's not exactly barfing, but rather just food coming back up to either be spit out or swallowed again. I always imagine a snake trying to eat an object bigger than it's throat.

Restriction - The feeling of knowing your band is there doing it's job. You can eat, but you know that you have to have small portions and some foods won't go down. Restriction is a good thing to a bandster.

Stoma - The newly created smaller stomach pouch above the lap band.

Sliming - When things get stuck in our stoma our bodies try to help it go down by producing extra saliva. The saliva tends to get thick and nasty and often won't go down and then wants to come back up. It reminds me of raw egg whites. It's thick and nasty and could quite possibly be alien. Weird stuff.

Stuck - When food won't go through your new smaller stomach opening, it gets stuck. Stuck food often must come up rather than go down. This can cause a bit of pain, and we try not to get stuck if we can help it, but once in a while we eat something we shouldn't have.

Sweet Spot - This is the magical little place where our bands have just enough saline in them to produce good weight loss, little hunger in between meals and we can still eat a good variety of foods. Finding the sweet spot can be a little fickle. You know when you are in the sweet spot, because you don't really have to think about losing weight, that's when lap band life is awesome. If you aren't in the sweet spot it can drive you crazy. Better call the doc's office for a fill. (Also known as the Green Zone).

Unfill - Having the saline taken out of your band. We banders don't want unfills, because that means there's some sort of trouble, like we were sick or too tight and needed to get rid of all of our hard earned restriction.

Thank you both!

Welcome Heather! I have not had any of these problems and am coming up on my one year bandaversary. I have only had one fill, keep my band loose and limit my food to 1-1 1/2 c of food for my meal. No liquid protein once I got past my first two months. Real food only. Work with your NUT, it really helps as we have lots of old habits to break! A lot of it is in our heads!

WOW Sue congrats! I'm hoping to full as little as possible but I can tell you right now I feel like I'm starving by 8pm. I'm fine all day long. I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong but I have no idea what it is. I have my first real visit after surgery on the 22nd of this month so I'm sure I'll have more answers at that point. My surgeon did tell me I would probably feel this way. I hope to be a success at this!