Nick85

I just had my Lap band Surgery on 2/4/2011 and Dr. Paul Guske was my Surgeon. I chose him through the Subrban Surgical Care center (Kane Center). Dr. Guske has great Bedside manner and is a very down to earth guy. What i like best about him is that he always takes time to answer any questions i may have. He is very patient and understanding to all of his patients needs. Surgery itself is a scary thing for anyone to have to go through but Dr. Guske made the process a lot easier by helping me to understand everything that was going to take place. My surgery was a success and everything turned out fine. I am currently recovering but i feel great. I am a little sore but that is expected after surgery. I look forward to building a relationship with Dr. Guske over the years on my road to a new Healthy lifestyle.

So i am approaching the 3 week mark since my surgery. I am up to 1/2-3/4 a cup of food per meal now and i have really noticed that not drinking after meals keeps you full a lot longer. My problem is though that now i am drinking only about 32 oz of Water a day. The old rule that i remember was that you are suppose to drink 8-8oz glass of water a day. I use to exceed that before my surgery but now i have a hard time hitting the half way mark. I keep trying to tell myself that i need to drink more but i hate feeling hungry. Mind you i haven't had any fills yet and maybe once i have a fill it will change but right now i hardly drink enough fluids. Do any of you find yourselves in my postion? What do you do to take in enough fluids?

Thanks to both of you for the help. I'm not so scared now about something bad happening.

So i am on week 4 of my whole lap band experience (2 weeks liquid pre-op diet, 1-week post op liquid, 1-week soft/mushies). I have lost almost 40lbs since i started and it feels great. Weight loss has slowed a little lately but i'm not too worried. What i am worried about is the amount of food i am allowed to consume while still unrestricted. When i was on liquids (post-op) i was allowed 4-6oz every 2 hours or more. Suprisingly i did just fine on that, i mean i still got hungry at times but then i just poured myself 6 oz of strained cream of chicken and ate it over the course of 20-30 minutes as directed by my post op instructions and i was good for a few hours. This week i am allowed to start having soft foods (yogurt, pudding, mashed potatoes, refried Beans, ricotta cheese, etc..) but i am only allowed 1/4-1/2 a cup of food according to my sheet. Well i have been sticking to it but 30- 40 minutes later i am hungry and my stomach is growling. Now i have been good. I never cheated once on liquids which was amazing and i pride myself on that. I feel it shows that i am ready to change my life. My problem though is that i am still hungry and i have another 90 minutes to go before i can eat. So my question to those of you that are doing this or have done it is how much do you eat? I was thinking about eating more to feel more satisfied, but last thing i want to do is to start restretching my stomach. I have been really good and i am seeing my surgeon Tuesday so i was going to ask him the same question anyways but i figured what the Hell i'll ask here too. I was even thinking about going back to my liquid diet protien shakes since they kept me fuller longer. I'm very confused and it gets a little annoying some times trying to stick to the post-op instructions. Any input is greatly appreceated.

I am on mushies right now and i can't wait to try the ricota baked with marinera and Mozzarella cheese. I also am looking forward to the refried Beans. Good Topic!

Well, its official. I am now banded and i can't tell you how happy i am that i decided to do this. Since i first started this journey back in April of 2010 i have lost almost 40lbs. Whats great about that is that i have done all of that without the help of the band. I am starting to really notice the weight loss and i feel great. I have never been skinny in my entire life but i feel that now i have been given a chance to get the life i have always wanted and i don't want to let it slip away. I am so scared about my band slipping ever since surgery. I am also scared about drinking too fast or consuming more than 6 oz of soup at a time. I can't wait to go back to eating regular food again.

I am on day 6 right now and to be honest day one was okay but then again i didn't have the protein shakes till day 2 so at night time of day one i was a bit hungry. Once i had the shakes it became a lot easier. The shakes keep me full for a few hours but i get sick of making them and drinking them 3 times a day. I wish i could just make a big batch and leave it in the fridge. I found the broths to be a life saver. They are my key to sanity. Be sure to get a variety as it will help a lot!! I Also chew on popsicle sticks, toothpicks and gum to help me overcome the fact that i'm not chewing any of my meals. Also to try and force myself to eat slower i heat my broths up so they are really hot and drink them from a to-go mug so i sip them for about 20 minutes before i finish it. I have been trying to drink slowly but i usually take the shakes down quick because they are real sweet and i am not a sweet eater so i don't realy care for savoring the sweet flavors of the shakes.

I too fall under the same problem as you. My problem is more so that when people start to tell me how skinny i'm getting i am worried that i will allow myself to slip up on my diet and eat things that will end up putting the weight back on me. However i do look forward to running into the people that teased me when i was young and fat and are now trying to be all nice to me so i can tell them to go **** themselves. Hahahaha

I'm on Day 5 and am also struggling. My biggest problem is that i don't really care for sweets and it seems like everything i'm allowed to have is sweet. My doctor has suggested to me to have between 3 and 5 shakes a day. Thats fine and i like the taste of them but they are too sweet. I rarely ever ate sweets before i started my pre op diet and now i feel like thats all i'm having. So to combat this i have a lot of broth. I went to the store and bought a variety of broths to drink while on this. I too have also talked too and read about people that did not do the Pre op diet. It gets me wondering if i should stick with it or not but i look at it like this. The whole point of me having this surgery done is so that i can change my lifestyle and reclaim my health. So if i cheat at the very begining how am i going to hold up 3 months from now or even 3 years from now. For me cheating on the pre op is just the old me taking over again. The old me is the whole reason why i am having to have this procedure done. So i refuse to let the old me take over another day of my life. I don't have less respect for those that don't do the pre op diet because i'm not gonna lie it is hard (Hell, i looked at my steering wheel the other day and wondered what it would taste like?), but i think it is important to follow your doctors orders. If you don't agree than get another opinion but this is my first surgery and i don't want to mess around.

I just sarted my 2-week liquid diet today and i'm scheduled for surgery on February 4th. All i read about is how hard these two weeks are/will be and its kind of nerve wrecking. I have read that a lot of people slip up on the two week fast but i am going to give it my all and prey i make it. If i can go two weeks on a liquid diet i will be so proud of myself. I just hate walking around with a growling stomach especially at work and in class. Its really embarassing.

Hi everyone, I am set to start my liquid pre op diet either this Thursday or Next Thursday and i have my list of approved items that my dietician gave me for the two weeks of fasting. Only thing is that i have not had hardly any of these items in the past so i have no idea how good or gross they are. Do any of you remember what you preffered during your fasting session? I have heard good things about the protein shakes and that sounds like my best bet because i have taken plaenty of those before in the past. I am just curious if there is something that i can have that a lot of other people have enjoyed to make those two weeks seem less miserable. Thanks!! Nick

Hi, My name is Nick and i'm new to this site. I am set to be banded on either the 4th or the 11th of February 2011. I am waiting to hear back from my Hospital to find out the exact day. I have been creeping around here and have been reading a lot of diffrent threads about other people dealing with life before and after being banded. I look forward to talking with lots of you on here about dealing with my everyday hurdles with y weight loss and the lap band. Talk to you all real soon. Nick

i am going to try and keep my band a secret. My in-laws and my parents along with my wife know about it but thats it. To be honest i felt like a failure getting my band. I felt like i never tried hard enough and now this is my last resort. I know thats the wrong way to think but i still feel that way. So i figure because i feel that way other people will feel about the same and will judge me. My friends are all big drinkers and i was one of the biggest drinkers among my friends so i have slowly stopped drinking beer and fed my friends a story about how carbonation expands your stomach so i am try to quit it to see if i lose weight. I also quit going out to the bars except for special occasions. Even then i stick to mixed drinks or i'll order a beer and poor out the beer in the bathroom and add water so they think i am drinking beer. I have been big my whole life and i have been teased and judged my whole life so i feel that if people found out about this they would just do the same as before. So maybe after i have lost a considerable amount of weight and my confidence returns i will tell people but until then i am going to try and keep it a secret. As hard as that may be.