Cricketsnoise

Hi! I'm Lyndsay and I was banded on November 19th. I'm in the Austin, TX area and my surgeon was Dr. Ganta. Surgery went well, though I was only supposed to have one belly button incision and woke up with 3 Apparently there was some bleeding to stop and it was an emergency. I'm a little sad because I had hoped to hide my scars and now that won't be possible. I started my year long insurance approval process at 5'3" and 235 pounds. If I had lost any, insurance likely would not have approved me. Once I got my approval I started my preop diet and exercise and lost 16 pounds. The day of surgery I weighed 219. The morning after at home I kind of wondered wth I had done- I was in SO much pain. For several days I could barely get down 8 ounces of water and 20 grams of protein- boy did that kick start weight loss!! I was pretty weak, probably from dehydration and lack of calories. Once my pain subsided and I started with some broths and adequate water the losing 3 pounds a day stopped- LOL. Now at 10 days post op I am at 207 and able to drink my 64 ounces of water and eat a few ounces of very soft food. I feel pretty good, plenty of energy and the pain gets less and less every day. I'm going back to work tomorrow and I'm a little nervous that I won't have the energy for it. I can work at home part of the day if I need to. We'll see how it goes! I also bought a blender for both of my offices so no matter what location I am at I can have my shakes! I REALLY wish at my follow up appointment (coming next Friday) that I could have a fill. I feel SO guilty for eating what I have eaten. It's not been HUNGER driving me to eat but that darned emotional attachment to food. Never less..... I'll have to wait 5 long weeks. At least I can get a clearance for the gym soon. I'm ready to blaze my own trail I'm hoping by this time next year I will be at my goal- 150 pounds. Wish me Luck!! I'm excited to be talking to others in my same circumstances! Take care! ~Lyndsay

Surgeon's skill is an important factor. I had the same surgery on my feet by two different surgeons: one the surgery was painless and I recovered quickly short term but there were long term complications. The second the surgery was terrible, recovery was long and hard but there were no long term complications. Believe it or not, the crappy recovery was the surgeon who was practicing for 25+ years and the smooth recovery was a surgeon in her 20's. It's hard for me to fathom a painless lap band surgery because it was the worst pain of my life but I can see how it is possible. Lucky people! If you need pain meds by all means you should be taking them. There's no sense in suffering.

I was banded on the 19th and am scheduled to return to work tomorrow. I really needed this 10 days to recover and am even considering short days the beginning of the week. I have a few good hours in me and that's it! I suppose it's the dehydration and lack of Protein from having a hard time keeping things down. I also have muscle soreness in the abdomen.... keep joking that its like a boxer punched me in the gut a few times. I'm sure it's all normal. Take your time and don't push yourself. Man, I really envy someone who can already do 30-40 minutes on a treadmill at this point!!!

I wasn't hungry at all and had trouble with even water the first few days. By day 5 I wanted some broth and by day 7 I wanted some food. I think I was missing food more than hungry. I'm at day 10 now and can eat anything that's soft in moderation. It looks like everyone is different. I wouldn't focus too hard on trying to lose weight right after surgery, but rather healing.... though it was nice for a week to watch the weight melt off