NOTE on the protein diet: Two days before surgery I went to see the doc for the pre-surgery visit. I was 5' 5" and 208.6 lbs. That's a very low BMI for surgery. I got to talking to him about the protein diet and he said, "At your weight the protein diet won't make the least little bit of difference" SERIOUSLY!! :bored: He's a great guy (Dr. Brient in Gainesville FL), wish he was a general practitioner. I looked at him like he was crazy and thought, "Really, you think I'm staying on this diet now? I will be chowing down on BREAD until noon the day before surgery." Apparently the protein diet is important when you are closer and over 40 BMI.

I was banded on Friday Nov 12 and wanted to record my experience for others.

At 6:45 am I went into the Surgical Pavillion and was home by 1:30 pm. I could have been home earlier except my husband was stuck at a dr's appt AND I couldn't seem to get my eyes to stay open long enough to go home. Good drugs I guess.

I felt fine, just a little stiff with the exception of nausea when I got up to go to the bathroom. Then it was just dry heaves. I held my stomach and tried to keep the heaves as gentle as possible. I got them again when I got home and got out of the car. Haven't been nauseous since. They gave me shots in the IV and a motion sickness patch. I took the patch off a few hours after I got home.

I am pleasantly surprised on how NON-traumatic the whole experience has been. It's not like you can feel anything inside your body. The funny part is I had a little voice in my head ask a few times; "Are you sure he did anything?" That's how NON -traumatic it was. :thumbup:

Today is Sunday. The doc told me because it's a LAP-BAND®® and not by-pass, drink as much liquid as you can (beginning in the recovery room). So I've been pretty much drinking low cal GatorAid, Apple Juice, Sugar Free Tea, Coffee (with cremora and splenda) non-stop.

I also ate Jello, sugar free popsicles and chicken broth. I haven't been hungry but it seems my brain has a problem dealing with not eating anything of substance for 48 hrs. My stomach has cramped up on and off. I just get up and walk around. Lieing back in a recliner seems to be the most comfortable position.

Today (Sunday) it's just a little stiff. My stomach felt/looked like it was puffing up last night, but seems back to normal now. Could have been my imagination. I will be eating cream soup etc today. I tried instant grits and at a few small bites but that's all I wanted. I drank 2 oz of a protein shake. So far so good!:smile2: I will see the doc on Tues for a follow up and he'll do the first fill 4 weeks from surgery date.