About 5 days post-op, I started having problems with pain in the band area from the front to the back. The pain was intense and it only hurt when I was in an upright position. (Weird) My only relief (and it was instant) was when I would lay down. I thought that maybe my band was catching on something. I knew I couldn't continue to lay down for the rest of my life, so I contacted my doctor and he had me go to the ER for a CT scan. They could not find a problem. The Nurse Practitioner noticed from a urine test that I was really dehydrated also. So they pumped me full of fluids and then let me go home. I just wanted the darn thing OUT! Later that evening, I noticed that I was feeling much better. My husband asked me how much water I was drinking and I told him that I was just sipping. I was afraid to drink too much because I did not know how much my tummy could hold. He thought maybe it was dehydration causing the problem.

Well, while I was in the ER, they had me drink three 8 oz. glasses of apple juice with the iodine in it 15 minutes apart for the CT scan. I told her that I could not drink that much. Was she nuts? She said that I should be able to handle that amount. So... I drank it. And I was fine. I actually thought that I would hurt myself if I drank too much. (What a silly woman I am!)

So I took my husband's advise and started drinking 4 bottles of water a day and the pain has never come back!

The moral of this story? Drink, Drink, Drink! You may feel like you're waddling if you're not use to drinking that much, but that feeling goes away and then you start craving the water. New habits are hard at first. But it gets easier with time...:confused:

Thanks for sharing your experience -- we all know to drink our water, but this puts it into a real important reason why we should! Hope you keep feeling good.