Here's a few bits of information for you non-lapbanders out there. Read more about the typically lingo you might read on a lapband blog...
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.
