TXNurse77

Just made it home from the Dr's office and the nurse unfilled my band completely which resulted in taking out 1 cc of saline and the rest was air. She said I was way too tight. This helped a lot, however I am still having pleuralsy type pain in my left ribs. I am to go back on Thursday afternoon for my Dr. to make a rib adjustment. We'll see how that goes. I also got a steroid shot today in my right arm. While my husband and I was there another couple came in for the same thing. My husband recognized this couple, the gentleman was banded right after me that morning. He went the day after surgery and had 1/2 cc removed and back today with complaints for the rest to be removed. Thank you both for your input. I think now it's just time to rest myself again.

Hi MissMary, I'm 3 days post-op and I can feel an uncomfortable feeling around my liver also. All of my other pains and symptoms have dulled besides the pain I am feeling in my liver area. In fact upon breathing in and out it feels as if a few of my ribs have been removed. I have been "guarding" that area too when I'm walking and getting ready to lay down flat until I can get still in the bed. I'm not sure what your Dr. recommended regarding sex, but mine was 3-4 weeks or as tolerated. I see you are at a 3 1/2 week mark already. Maybe call your Dr's office in the morning to express your concern about this and to make sure it is normal. Hang in there and speedy healing!

I'm from the South where we take pride in what we cook. The bigger the feast the better! That was my old way of thinking before getting the band. I love food. I love preparing food for others. Today (3 days post op) I made my husband and our neighbors a pan of Peanut Butterscotch Chocolate Rice Krispies. Preparing that dessert made me feel good inside. I didn't taste any of it but I know it will put smiles on the recipients faces. Food comforts my emotions, especially down home southern cooking. When I'm upset or had a bad day it was nothing for me to go to Chick-Fil-A and get a sandwich, fries, and a sweet tea on top of eating my regular breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I did a lot of fast food dining. Food made me feel whole again when something just wasn't right.

Congrats! Hope you get to feeling better soon. I'm day 3 post-op and the worst of it for me is the gas pains and staying hydrated.

I was banded yesterday and the surgery went very well. I got to see a picture of my liver and my Dr complimented on how well I did on my pre-op diet. Well, I didn't do that great but still I made a lot of progress. Some not so smart choices I made during Pre-Op phase. Only did the diet for 8 days total. I drank a chocolate Peanut Butter banana smoothie almost daily. I had Wendy's LARGE chili at least 4-5 times I had 2 - 5 layer beefy burritos from Taco Bell 2 days after I started. The Day before surgery I had a bag of animal crackers, a chicken breast from Chicken Express with all skin removed. I'm not proud at all for doing this but reflecting back over this makes me strive harder to do better. I'm not telling anyone to go eat what they want. I just got dang lucky and I'm sure I could have lost more weight had I followed the diet - 2 Protein shakes daily, either a bowl of Soup or cottage cheese.

I have 3 incisions - 1/2" cut below my breasts in the middle of my chest, a 2 1/2 - 3" incision on the left side abdomen, and directly across from that one another 1/2" cut.

I was banded yesterday morning and I have this awful pain close to the surgical sites that every time I breathe in short breaths it feels like bad pleuralsy. My should is a dull ache to my fingertips and the pain wraps around my back and chest. Very uncomfortable. I've been walking since yesterday to get the gas to movie and the liquid pain killer isn't touching these aches and pains I have. Can someone tell me what they did to alleviate the pain?

Average cost of the Lapband is $9900 in the United States. Some places that are just starting up are offering it for $8900 as an introductory offer. Some people are going to Mexico to have the surgery done and then having their fills done State side. I do not know how much that costs since that was not an option for me. There are plenty of people in the forums talking about it though.

Care Credit is what I am using because we lost our employee health insurance when my husband lost his job this past December. You will get an instant decision online when you apply. The surgery center I am using next week participates in a 0% interest program with Care Credit if you pay off the balance in 18 months. The plan for doing that is pay the monthly payments, work any overtime I can, and use our 2011 federal tax return to pay this off in that amount of time. We will put ourselves on a more strict budget and our annual vacations will be put on hold for this 18 mo. period. HTH with ideas.

I can't give you any advice since my surgery isn't until next week. I can tell you that you may want to ask your Dr about changing your Phenergan order from a suppository to a rub on gel that absorbs through your skin. Yes, this is slightly more expensive and will need to be done at a pharmacy that compounds but you don't have to deal with healing from your surgery on top of unecessary routes of meds when there is an easier way. Hope you get to feeling better soon! Hang in there and Congrats!!

Oops!

Getting banded on June 2nd!

I am seeing Dr Kim in Colleyville and received my daily pre-op diet instructions as follows for 21 days. 4 Protein shakes with skim milk or 5 Protein Shakes w/ Water water crystal lite sf Jello unsweet tea black coffee Diet Green Tea Koolaid sweetened with an artificial sweetner Any 0 calorie, sf beverage. Is this it?? Being in the medical field even I notice something is missing and I'm not going to do so well on this for 21 days.

Thanks Everyone! I enjoyed coming home from our vacation and reading what everyone had to say. I am going to follow the liquid diet prescribed to the best of my ability and not just "slip" because I am giving myself an excuse to. I forgot to add some information and I would like to answer a few questions. I'm 33 y/o, with a BMI of 54. I am getting the Lap-band done. On the sheet for my diet guidelines it does not specify which diet it is for but I will assume that it's for all bariatric surgeries since it's title is "Bariatric Surgery Preoperative Liquid Diet". Day 1 Preop Diet here I come!:Dancing_wub:

I was surprised to see that my Surgeon would be practicing on New Year's Eve, however my surgery is early that morning. Anybody else?

I believe you need to do some research for yourself and not rely on what we may say. Some will say it is safe, some will say it is dangerous. Personally, I would not go into Juarez right now and I'm a very seasoned Mexico traveler. But that's JMO and you need to check out CNN.com and other newspaper reports.