Do you feel your band

[stormy]

Someone told me that you can feel it there all the time. One person told me that when she goes somewhere where the elevation is different, she gets sick. She can not even drink water. Does that happen on the plane? Are these people crazy? How much can you feel it and how long do you feel it, will I always know it is there?

[karenlynn79]

Someone told me that you can feel it there all the time. One person told me that when she goes somewhere where the elevation is different, she gets sick. She can not even drink water. Does that happen on the plane? Are these people crazy? How much can you feel it and how long do you feel it, will I always know it is there?

Hey Stormy,

I've been banded almost 2 years and rarely have I felt the band. The only time I can "feel it", like being physically aware of it, is if I was tight, then ate, then PB'd, tried to eat, didn't work, etc.... If I really really irritated it. Then I can feel this tight feeling that is uncomfortable. I wouldn't be worried about feeling it all the time. Sounds like they might be too tight and irritated and feeling it because of that.

[Phoenix]

Altitude makes sense...if you buy a bag of chips here in Phoenix, the bag is at normal atmospheric pressure. If I go up to a ski hill, the decreased atmospheric pressure causes the same bag to inflate and pillow out.

If your friend has plenty of gas in her band still, that could happen.

Dr. So removed 1.2ccs of gas from my band yesterday. If it were still there, it would feel like 2.8ccs, more at high altitude.

I felt mine when I first got it and twice since when things *almost* got stuck.

[snowbird]

You don't feel your band. However, you do feel the port. It is stitched into your abdominal wall, and it can pull and twinge if you twist or move your abdominal muscles very much. I can also feel it pinch against my ribs sometimes when I bend over.

You feel the effects of the band when you feel tightness and restriction. That is what the band is supposed to do, to limit your food intake, so I don't really understand your question. If it didn't make you feel any different, you wouldn't be getting any results from it, after all. You feel what it does when you eat, but you don't feel the band itself, ever, as far as my experience goes. I feel totally normal when I am not eating, unless, as karenlynn says, I have eating something I shouldn't have and have just puked it up. Then my stomach aches a bit around where the band is. But again, I don't really "feel" the band itself.

I flew a couple of weeks ago and didn't really notice anything different, except I may have been just a bit tighter afterwards for a day or so. No big deal anyway. I have driven to northern Arizona (over 7000 feet) to the coast to the mountain passes driving up through California to Washington. I noticed absolutely nothing from any of the elevation changes.

[julieburns]

My experience is pretty much as the others have explained it. With eating and if you have restriction you are aware of the full feeling, and overeating or going too quickly certainly has its consequences. But on a day to day basis like when I am at work I don't "feel;" the band itself, perhaps what it is dong to help me feel full is all.