Perfect (Tight) Restriction after 5 years and changing Surgeons

Hello....

I just wanted to stop by and say hello, I wanted to update everyone on my restriction after I changed surgeons 4 months ago. Well I am very happy and very angry at the same time, I am happy that I have finally achieved the GREEN ZONE that is lasting, my restriction is not going away this time -- so far after my last adjustment 40 days ago it's still going strong, this has NEVER happened since I've been banded up until now.
 
I lost weight by simply continuing going back to see my now (old crooked surgeon) and to get fills IF I WANTED TO LOSE WEIGHT which resulted in over 60 fills and unfills some were warranted, -- I got so many unfills I avoided a slip since I KNEW so much about the band and the dangers signs of band slippage, I saved myself..lol, I've never had "good" restriction that lasted longer than 2 months for the last 3 years, we played that too tight too loose game for the last few years up until I finally got sick of paying for "FALSE" adjustments and gave up and I ASSUMED I had a stretched pouch since each time my old surgeons office would give me an adjustment I would get reflux and upchuck in my sleep and out my nose to the point I thought my band was about to slip so I stopped getting fills altogether last year and as a result I gained back 40 pounds  due to very little restriction for 26 months and scared of reflux, and this is a wake up call, that if I did not have restriction at 5 years I am sure I would have slowly gained back up to 300 pounds.

This is why I chose the band over RNY because I KNEW that if that pouched stretched I would be in big trouble years out like I am now, trust me it is VERY EASY in the first few years, but if you find yourself with little or no restriction you can gain weight extremely quickly. Thank god I found another surgeon before considering a revision.

Anyone who is bashing the lap band should be shot , coz it is now my savior and I have the best restriction that I've had since I've been banded 5 years ago, the only thing it took was changing to a LAP BAND SURGEON THAT ONLY DOES and specialized in LAP BANDS.

The strangest thing now is I have tight restriction and I have to be very careful with eating and drinking but I don't have reflux at 5 years, the last time I had tight restriction when my previous surgeon's office filled me resulted in horrible nightly reflux where I could not sleep at night.

Now this is very clear to me now that I was not being filled properly all this time and I assumed that it was something wrong with my band, I hope this helps someone else, because reflux is the number one complaint of bandsters who can't achieve GOOD tight restriction without pain and nightly reflux, it just may be your fill giver.

I am happy and LOVE MY SAME BAND AT 5 years , thanks for listening. Now I have a chance to start over which no other weight loss surgery can do at 5 years out, I've lost 15 pounds since my last adjustment, so I am on my way back down again.

Peace and Love to my fellow bandsters!

Nana,

Congrats on finding your restriction even though it took you yrs to do it , but you finally got it and you didnt give up .

Im like you that is one of the reasons I didnt go with RNY to many people I know that stretched their stomach out with the gastric they are now stuck unless they want go and have another surgery done which the lapband can be put on after the gastric its harder to do but can be done .


And you are so right about chosing a doctor that only does the lapband . Mine does only the lapband nothing else that is his speciality so I feel very comfortable with him.

I asked him how he knew how much to fill me up and so forth when its my time *surgery nov 22nd )  He told me he asks me a bunch of questions and if I keep a chart bring that to him and I have to be totally honest with him and he goes by what I tell him on how much he will fill me or to take out of me.

If im not losing weight he will not just go in there and put some in he will say okay looks like you are not exercisng enough lets try that first and see if that helps you to start losing again .  Then go back and if that still didnt work he will do what needs to be done.

His main goal is to do this the healthy way .  He told me first off ifyou expect to lose huge amounts of weight with the lapband the first yr then this isnt the surgery for you .  If I lose more then 10 pounds a month then he starts to get concerned 12 or so would be fine but if gets to be any higher then he will take some out of me .



I would say he is conservative on fillings but like he said I know my body , I know what I have been doing so I have to be truthful to him for him to help me the best way possiable.

Thank you, you are very wise and lucky to have a surgeon that only does lap bands, good luck to you.  I think you have so many people that bash the band because they don't have the adequate care they need, the band can be the great gift from god or it can be a disaster depending on the skills on the surgeon and the fill giver.

Im so happy for you nana, i read previous posts of yours and i know you were going thru a hard time. Im glad you have the desired results that you were looking for. By the way when i first started researching getting wls your pics inspired me to go with the band. So thank you very much.

shireen

Thank you sweetie for your kinds words , yes I was going through a hard time, yes when the band works IT WORKS, I've managed to do very well with it, up until I lost restriction for close to two years, but I am thankful now I am back on track.

Congratulations Nana,

This gives us Newbies alot of insight and hope...

God BLess,

Audrey


Banded 10/18/2010

Thank you and may you have a uneventful journey with your band!

Having some of the same problems that you had finding restriction, Naomi.  So what exactly did your new doc do that was different than your old surgeon?

BTW, not only does my surgeon only do lap bands, he is banded himself.

Hi Judy,

My only advice would be if you are having the same reflux issues get a total unfill let it rest for about 6 weeks and start over (I know that is hard to do but you must heal before you can move forward) if you've already done that, I would make sure the band has not slipped or you don't have a hernia at the band site that could be causing issues, I would recommend spreading your fills further out, example if you don't have much restriction NOW, I would ask for the smallest increment and then if that is not enough I would wait for another 6-8 weeks before getting another adjustment this may have helped me, this year I spread-ed my adjustments out very far apart, almost 2 months between adjustments, whereas in my first few years, I used to get them every 4-6 weeks, some people stomachs are more sensitive to fills which may cause issues of reflux.  I am very tight now and I don't have ANY reflux issues like before.

You may want to try that, or consider changing surgeons and see if that helps...also when I did have reflux I had a magic cure that cured night time reflux immediately, it's a few papaya tablets and chew one Pepcid before bed and my reflux went away immediately.

Good luck

Glad you have found the happy place - congrats on the 15 pound loss!!