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About this blog

I plan to journal my LB experiances here. It helps to express ideas, concerns, experiances in this way. Even if noone else reads it. I've found this website to be immensely valuable in getting me started down this road to significant weight loss. I h

Entries in this blog

 

Let the games begin

A few months ago my wife and I were talking about how I am struggling to lose weight. i'm very worried that if something doesn't change I'll not be around to see my children grow up. Now I don't have any serious health problems, aside from being about 140lbs over weight! Anyways my wife brought up the topic of lapband surgery (i had it on my mind, but was scared to bring it up). After thinking it over for a few months and doing some research, I decided to make an appointment to ask my physician.   A month later (yeah it takes a while to get in to see a doc with tricare prime). After voicing my concerns regarding weight, potential sleep apnea, and back pain, the Doc types out a referral for a gastric surgeon and a sleep study. I guess it helped that i suddenly seem to have developed high blood pressure. the visit seemed so anticlimatic. I expected to be given the third degree.   so now here I am tied up i knots waiting to see if my referral goes through tricare for the surgeon. Hence the desire to write out my experiances thus far.   From the sounds of the posts I have been reading I have a good chance of this process being approved. I hope so, because I am getting excited thinking about being able to be more active again. Soccer with the wife? Hiking with the kids? OH yeah baby.
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

6
 

Preparing for surgery

Tomorrow is the big day. I'm so tired of the protein diet I'm actually very excited to have the surgery, because I know it means that some day i'll be able to have something more substancial than a protein drink. I had purchased Essence Vanilla protein mix and it was very tasty for a few days. Now everything smells like the proten shake and i feel like gagging when I drink it. Anyways I'll be able to move back to more normal food before long.   My doctors instructions told me to take the magnesium citrate two days before surgery. Well this was a bit of a challenge because I have grad school untill 9pm. When I got home I decided to take the laxative, thinking that it would run its course in a few hours later. Yeah right!! Here I sit 12 hours later and I'm still making emergency trips to the bathroom. Note to anyone who reads this, block off a big chunk of time to deal with it. I basically spent my entire night on the pot feeling beat up. I can't wait to go home so I can take a nap!   Tomorrow is the big day. I have to be there at 5am. A friend of mine is going to pick me up so that my 1year old daughter doesn't have to get up so early. I am told that my surgery should be about 830am. It kinda sucks that I have to wait 3.5 hours, I'm hoping that they will give me a bed so I can take a nap while I wait.
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

3
 

Surgery date!!!

Two days after my consult I get a call from the surgeons office saying that I am approved and to set the date! March 25th!! WOO HOO I'm on my way to a new life. Not even worried about the new lifestyle.   I have a nutrition class I have to attend the week before surgery...I can't believe how fast this has progressed.
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

3
 

Minor setback

Getting my insurance to approve lapband turned out to be the easy part. Trying to coordinate the time off with my job is a pain in the rear. Since I haven't been at this job for a year (two months short). I don't qualify for the familily medical leave act, which would allow me to take a medical leave of absence. While I'll only be out of work for a week or so the small amount of sick leave I have accumulated won't cover it and my company requires me to be on paid vacation or leave of absence if I am gone. What I've had to do is move my surger date closer to the weekend so that I am only taking two days off then two days of weekend and back to work on money. I really hope that i am able to return to work after only 4 days!? New surgery date 27 March
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

3
 

Pre-Op diet

I'm been on the pre op diet for three days now. I've lost 10 lbs already. The preop diet my surgeon prescribes is fairly extreme, judging by other diets by folks on here. All I get to have are protein drinks and two protein bars. That is it...oh and all the sugar free jello and crystal light I want.   to be honest the drastic change in my food intake has left me feeling fairly weak and crummy. I've been battling urges to go get some "real" food. this morning I did cheat some and had some scrambled eggs. I felt light headed for a few hours after eating them, but now am feeling much better.   Only one more week and it is surgery time!
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

1
 

That was quick

Well after checking the insurance website obcessively over the past two days I broke down and called. I guess my referral was just approved today! I'm pretty excited, and a bit nervous. I'm not sure what my upcoming obsticals are. It seems as though once you have that initial referral approved then it's a down hill battle from there on. We'll see, I don't want to get too excited.   I've been doing quite a bit of reading about the procedure, complications, lifestyle postband.   Guess I'll start filling out the questionaire for the surgeon!
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

1
 

Surgery

I found others accounts of their surgery experiance to be very helpful, so I am going to do my best to recount the events of my surgery and the past few days.   The morning of surgery 27 March I got up at 4am and had a friend pick me up to take me to the hospital. My wife had to stay home, we didn't want to wake out infant daughter up that early. I arrived at the hospital at 5am and checked in and was immediately taken to my room, where I was given a hospital gown to change in to. Since it was so early I hopped in to bed and proceeded to fall asleep for about 45 min until a couple nurses came in to get me prepped. After several questions, (why are you here? what is your name? ect..)
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

1
 

Surgery

I found others accounts of their surgery experiance to be very helpful, so I am going to do my best to recount the events of my surgery and the past few days.   The morning of surgery 27 March I got up at 4am and had a friend pick me up to take me to the hospital. My wife had to stay home, we didn't want to wake out infant daughter up that early. I arrived at the hospital at 5am and checked in and was immediately taken to my room, where I was given a hospital gown to change in to. Since it was so early I hopped in to bed and proceeded to fall asleep for about 45 min until a couple nurses came in to get me prepped. After several questions, (why are you here? what is your name? ect..)
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

1
 

Surgery

I found others accounts of their surgery experiance to be very helpful, so I am going to do my best to recount the events of my surgery and the past few days.   The morning of surgery 27 March I got up at 4am and had a friend pick me up to take me to the hospital. My wife had to stay home, we didn't want to wake out infant daughter up that early. I arrived at the hospital at 5am and checked in and was immediately taken to my room, where I was given a hospital gown to change in to. Since it was so early I hopped in to bed and proceeded to fall asleep for about 45 min until a couple nurses came in to get me prepped. After several questions, (why are you here? what is your name? ect..). Now the two nurses started my IV which for the first time in my life was difficult because my fat hands hide the veins, now I have a nice IV bruise on both hands. I also recieved a shot of something to "calm me down." I figure I was already fairly calm, I did fall asleep. Next I'm off to some sort of surgery holding area. Here I have several differant nurses, specialists, chaplain all come over and ask me the same questions. Ths holding area was interesting, full of pre surgery patients all for various reasons. I was in here for about a half hour, then it was time to go in to the surgery room. I roll in to the surgery room and am asked to scoot over to a differant bed. Then someone hooked up my IV. I was sort of hoping that I would be told when I was being put under. I thought it would be fun to see how long I could hold out. Unfortunately the last thing I remember is someone attaching my IV then wammo I'm in a recovery room and my wife is holding my hand. After surgery and recovery I was wheeled to my room. Now my recovery for the most part wasn't that bad. I didn't seem to be in much pain, only the port site hurt. The nurses had me up and walking around with in a few hours. I was terribly thirsty I think I must have had ten of those little ice chip cups.   Ok I'm sorry I'm going to have to continue my tale a little later....I'm having so much gas pain I'm about to blow up...I'll tell you all about it next time.
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

1
 

Surgery part II

I'm feeling much better for the moment, so I'll try and finish my surgery experiance.   For the most part after surgery I was pretty sore around the port site (the big incision). Otherwise I felt pretty good. I was up walking around and eating broth. Aside from the nurse poking and prodding me every hour all night long my night wasn't too bad either. Although I do have to gripe a little. I thought it was pretty lame that they woke me up at 4:45am to take a shower. Before the shower they had to remove my bandages. Being the wimp I am, I got a little woozy watching the bandages peel off my wounds.   After my shower I went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. I felt pretty good when I woke up. The day was long waiting to be discharged. They finally let me go around 2pm. Even though the doctor cleared me to leave at 9am, I had to wait for the nurse to get her paperwork together.   I was so glad to be home...The hospital wasn't such a bad place, it is just so booooring!
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

1
 

We're rollin now!

I had put my name on the standby list at the surgeons office incase someone cancelled since it was going to be month before they got me in. They called the next day and I had my appointment the following day. It was an interesting expericance. First my wife and I waited 45 minutes after the appointment time before we actually saw the doctor. Once he did come in he was a pretty flashy dude. He gave me his speil, which I thought was mostly canned. The consultation took all of twenty minutes and by the end he had me sitting in front of his insurance specialist. The insurance lady was nice and told me I should have my insurance approval the following day. I couldn't believe how fast this process has gone. I'm also a little surprised at the lack of verification. My primary docor just took my word for it on the comorbidities and weight, my insurance doesn't require any additional testing. From start to finish this process looks to be about a month. If I hadn't taken so much time to research this surgery, the consult would have been a little upsetting. As it stands now. The doctor seemed to be very competant, his hands didn't shake and he has a nice facility. I've also checked his reviews/stats which are also very good. Can't believe I'm going to be getting this done and how fast it has gone. I'm really excited to start losing some weight! In four months my best friend is getting married and I'm anxious to be there minus a few pounds!
Emily'sDad

Emily'sDad

1
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