Do fills relax?

[tnm75]

I have been struggling with eating after my second fill. I ate two decent meals afterwards and now everything gets stuck; beans, chili, cheerios, deli meat, cheese, etc. I have emailed Dr. Acosta, but have not heard back from him yet --- I am sure I will today. Will my fill loosen up? Or do you think I should consider heading back to the OCC for a partial unfill? I am losing faith that I will be able to eat and it work as it should with everything getting stuck. I am doing liquids at the moment. Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks, Kristy

[Clynn]

If you are getting stuck all the time then your stomach is getting irritated and making things worse. Try being on liquids for a few days and give things a chance to settle down. If you're still unable to eat solids after the few days of liquids then you are probably too tight and should get some fill taken out. Being too tight is actually counter productive as your body will go into starvation mode and you will cease to lose and may even gain weight as well as it could cause a host of other medical problems.

If you cannot get liquids down then you are in an emergency situation and need to get fill taken out asap.

[tnm75]

Thanks CLynn! I can still drink as long as I sip and wait a few seconds before my next sip; however, I can "feel" it backing up. I'm pretty sure that with so many things getting stuck that I have some inflammation going on. I'm doing liquids for now. And, waiting to hear from Dr. Acosta. I understand the starvation mode as for five days I stayed at the same weight. I have lost one pound since my second fill and that is with very little food going in.

Kristy

[sarahrnrx]

Hi Kristy, I am sorry your not feeling that great. I would wait to see what Dr. Acousta has to say. I am sure he will tell you to get a unfill. I also get things stuck. But I absolutely love the restriction. Plus, I read on the forum somewhere that once you lose more weight, the band gets looser.right? Anyway, hopefully being on liquids will calm stuff down and solids will be ok afterwards. Hope you feel better, keep us posted!

[AngelaAnn]

I have been struggling with eating after my second fill. I ate two decent meals afterwards and now everything gets stuck; beans, chili, cheerios, deli meat, cheese, etc. I have emailed Dr. Acosta, but have not heard back from him yet --- I am sure I will today. Will my fill loosen up? Or do you think I should consider heading back to the OCC for a partial unfill? I am losing faith that I will be able to eat and it work as it should with everything getting stuck. I am doing liquids at the moment. Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks, Kristy

I got things stuck a lot with my second fill--it took about a month for it to loosen up. I lost about 8 pounds i that first month. I'm getting a small third one tomorrow since, I'm ALWAYS hungry now and can eat a lot of food.

[determination]

Hi Kristy, I am sorry your not feeling that great. I would wait to see what Dr. Acousta has to say. I am sure he will tell you to get a unfill. I also get things stuck. But I absolutely love the restriction. Plus, I read on the forum somewhere that once you lose more weight, the band gets looser.right? Anyway, hopefully being on liquids will calm stuff down and solids will be ok afterwards. Hope you feel better, keep us posted!

Glad to see that you are getting the restriction, finally. It was nice meeting you! Anne

[trulytangledgrl]

Hey Kristy and other bandsters - -

I have been having the same problem with my fill for about 2 months. I got a fill in end of December and I was really restricted for a couple weeks, and eventually it loosened up. Then I got another fill - only about .2 cc more. Again, I was very restricted but figured it would loosen up. I was rarely able to get ANY solids down and if I could it was maybe 1-2 bites. I could not get down any solid proteins so I had to resort to drinking protein shakes and even sometimes that was difficult to get down. I have not lost a single pound in almost 2 months. I am ashamed to say it but I have resorted many times to foods that I should be avoiding JUST so that I can get some calories in because I am not able to get anything in otherwise. I have been exercising 2-3 times a week (cardio), I get personal training once per week for an hour and I so the same routine as I do with my trainer on my own once. SO, I am getting plenty of exercise that is for sure.

That said, I went for a fill last fri. I told my Dr. what was going on and she seemed very concerned and she took out .2 cc of fluid. I am able to eat a little more now, but sometimes, like tonight, I cannot get food down without feeling extremely uncomfortable. Take it from me, get some fluid taken out. I have been unable to lose ANY weight for months now and its extremely frustrating and not being able to eat is frustrating as well, as I am sure you know.

I hope that you get the problem taken care of.... keep us updated!

[FindingMeAgain]

I have been struggling with eating after my second fill. I ate two decent meals afterwards and now everything gets stuck; beans, chili, cheerios, deli meat, cheese, etc. I have emailed Dr. Acosta, but have not heard back from him yet --- I am sure I will today. Will my fill loosen up? Or do you think I should consider heading back to the OCC for a partial unfill? I am losing faith that I will be able to eat and it work as it should with everything getting stuck. I am doing liquids at the moment. Any advice would be welcomed.

Thanks, Kristy

Hey Kristy after my second fill I ate fine for 3 days then suddenly NOTHING...not even some protein shakes would go down! I felt like everything got stuck. I spoke with Dr. Acosta and Dr. Martinez, I was not too happy with having to fly all the way back to TJ...then he asked me two questions...did I have a long plane ride shortly after the fill or did I eat anything spicy? Well yes to both was my answer...but the more I thought about it I ate fine the day after my flight so it couldn't be that.

He said that it could be inflamed due to spicy food or something got stuck which irritated the band. So I took children's motrin (liquid only) for the next two days and drank lots of Gatorade to not get dehydrated. On the third and fourth day I ate some yogurt and ice cream and it went down fine. On day five moved on to soups. By day six I was experimenting again with solid foods.

You have to get the irritation to go away before continuing with solids. I am so glad I did not waste the money to fly back. It has now been two months and I am doing fine! The only concern that is important is if you cant tolerate water or Gatorade then you have to get it unfilled...but if it is only like that after you get something stuck wait until it gets unstuck and do not try anymore solids for a few days.

Of course when Dr. Acosta emails or calls you back follow what he says, but they might both remember when I was asking them to open on a Sunday in December because I didn't think I could handle even one more day like that!! And with his idea that it was inflammed led me to the above regimen and within a week I was better than ever!

[CanadianBandster]

I am hoping my liquids help me - I honestly think its cuz I irritated in when the first day I was on solids I ate noodles and had a horrible pb session for an hour and a half. So - going to take it easy and see if that helps.

[BrandNewDawn]

Kristy,

Tighter is not better. You really can slow down your weight loss with too tight restriction. We will find a way to eat and all those not so healthy choices seem to slide down no matter how tight our bands our.

I was too tight for two weeks. It did not get better. It got worse. But...there are plenty of others on the forum that say their fills "loosen up" after losing X amount of weight.

I was like you, I could only take a small little sip and I could feel it back up and "gurgle" as it emptied. Weird feeling, very uncomfortable. Dr. Acosta said I waited too long and then I had to stay on liquids for three days and take Mylanta everyday.

You might be okay after three days liquids. Just take it slow and see what happens. One other thing that was going on with me was the night coughing/choking/reflux which made it difficult to sleep and I had pain when swallowing and trouble breathing. I think these are all more severe symptoms of a too tight fill but unless you have actually been through some of this stuff, then you cannot relate. If you are having any of these symptoms, then you know what I'm talking about.

I guess the point that I am trying to make is that there are varying degrees of "too tight" and it all boils down to what you personally want to live with/tolerate, and how you want to manage your band. There is protein shake in the morning too tight and there is medical emergency too tight. Only you can decide which one you are. Believe me, you will know if you get to medical emergency too tight!

Good luck. I hope you feel better soon.

Dawn