Does restriction feel like a golf ball?

Anyalee · 03-06-2008, 08:23 PM

I feel this pressure in my throat like there's a walnut sitting in there or something (after eating). Is this what restriction feels like? I thought the band was lower and around the top of my stomach. This feels like it's inside my esophagus...any imput would be appreciated! Thanks!

shortgal · 03-06-2008, 08:57 PM

No restriction should not feel like that. Did you eat something and get it stuck?

Restriction allows solid food to sit in your pouch and that's helps to keep you feeling full longer.

Restriction reduces the size of the stoma, so food going in must be small bites, chewed well or it could get stuck.

Did you eat a lot and your pouch is over full?

Anyalee · 03-06-2008, 09:38 PM

I get the same feeling around 6:00 every day. I'm trying to figure out if it is in my head or if it is really happening. What does restricition feel like? Is it a feeling or just a lack of hunger?

shortgal · 03-06-2008, 09:49 PM

Mine feels more like a tightness ( not painful just tight) sort of in the area between my breasts.

As I eat and the pouch fills up, I get a feeling like I have to take a deep breath before I can take more bites, that's when I know I'm almost done (if not definitely done). A feeling of being not very hungry is also there for a couple hours after a meal. The lenght of time I feel full varies from time to time and sometimes depends on what my meal was.

Now sometimes even with this feeling of being full ( not right after eating) but a while after, I can get a craving for something, but If I ask myself if I'm hungry, I really don't think I am, so i don't have anything to eat. If I do think I really am hungry, I will have a bottle of water first and then decide.

Before being banded, I wouldn't even ask the question, am I really hungry, the food was already chewed and going down. LOL.

zetajenn5 · 03-07-2008, 12:26 PM

When I get the golf ball feeling (I like that imagery!) it feels like when you take a big pill and it gets stuck. Even though the band is on your stomach...when food gets stuck it does feel like something is stuck in your throat. It happens to me when I eat too fast or don't chew well enough. Just don't eat anything once you get that feeling b/c something is probably stuck. Try drinking a little to wash it through.

Anyalee · 03-07-2008, 06:55 PM

Mine is really more like a tightness in my chest too. But I get it even when I haven't eaten anything. It is the most noticable around 5-6 in the evening before I eat dinner. I'm not sure if I'm really feeling this or if I'm making it up. Do other bandsters get this feeling? I don't think it's related to me being filled enough or not.:confused2:

mquirion · 03-09-2008, 01:27 PM

I get that feeling too. I dont know what it is either. I started to get that feeling about a week after surgery. as a matter of fact I have that feeling right now. I did call the doctors office and they told me to make sure you take small sips of liquid and small bites of your food. They also told me that the feeling could last for weeks. I still get nervous about it though.

**Jack** · 03-09-2008, 02:12 PM

"Restriction" really doesn't feel like anything different.....until we get something stuck or try to force something down through the knot hole that won't fit...

In my own experience, 'restriction' means that I have a 'soft stop' telling me I really am not hungry and should put down my eating tools....there is a lack of sensation of hunger---but Habit (and genetic inclination to do things not especially smart) drive me to take another bite....

THEN I get the 'hard stop'....as in !You FOOL! I ~tried~ to tell you but you wouldn't listen~~

And IF I'm lucky, that sudden discomfort eases rapidly and is gone...

if I'm not lucky, I would get the 'flaming golf ball from hell'....which in worst form would produce copious sliming, repetitive spitting and vague nausea for hours and hours...

Gradually I was able to recognize that 'preGolfBallFromHell' stage, to actually being NON hunger....which I had never recognized in my life.

The subtle nuances we must learn to recognize, will vary depending on how much attention we pay to the warning signs.

Slow learners, such as myself, will have more difficulty with issues of PBs and sliming, not as much a symptom of 'restriction' but a symptom of an error of eating, such as "overeating"; 'eating too fast'; and 'taking too big of gulp'. There are other 'errors of eating'.

When I learned finally that I could avoid PB when eating a saltine in 20 minutes instead of swallowing it whole, I was on the way to understanding what the Band was doing for me.

Good luck. YMMV as my experiences may not necessarily be yours....

**Jack** · 03-09-2008, 02:16 PM

re: "tightness in my chest too. But I get it even when I haven't eaten anything. It is the most noticable around 5-6 in the evening before I eat dinner. I'm not sure if I'm really feeling this or if I'm making it up."

I used to get that daily.

It went along with 'first bite syndrome'.

Careful observation led me to notice that I would unconsciously tighten up various parts of my esophagus in preparation to gulping down another shovelful of dinner, as in old preOp days. Not actually doing such in reality, my body had to learn a new method of preparing for swallowing.

This 'presumptive esophageal hypertonicity' will respond to training and discipline in your eating methodology. It took me less than a year to overcome.