theodoru

Today I felt completely normal all day. No gas pains or bloating. Oddly, for the first time I actually felt a little pain by my port incision. It was probably there all along but was masked by the other pain. I am in day 12. I am still on sick leave tomorrow, but on Tuesday I start on line training for 3 days that I am going to do from home. A couple of other people are doing this training from a training room at work. One other is doing it from home, but works remotely from home all the time because he is in Florida and we are in Connecticut. On Friday I am going back to the office. Until today I could not imagine going back to work and was actually worried about the training.

I seem to be doing much better today. The gas is not nearly as bad. It helps I guess that I have spent almost no time sitting.

OK, I am 10 days post op and sitting here feeling like I am going to explode with gas. Yes, I walked a lot today, including twice around a park. My doctor said that I am swallowing air because of the work he did around my esophagus, and that I can expect to experience this for a while. Next week I am in an important training class and getting up and walking will not be an option. I am really not looking forward to that. My lower abdomen is also extremely tender, and I am wearing clothing that is 2 sizes too big because as my abdomen expands during the course of the day, the pressure against clothing causes even more pain.

My feet have even gotten skinnier. Some of my shoes are actually flopping around on my feet. A couple of days ago, I was shopping with my granddaughter for her school clothes. As the sales clerk finished, my granddaughter picked up the bags and said "Thank you, Grandma". The clerk did a double-take and said "Grandma?! I would never have thought. Way to go grandma!". My friends are telling me that I look 10 years younger.

I have started attending monthly support groups lead by the hospital's Weight Loss Center's dietition. She has promised to bring in some roasted root vegetables for us to try. Obviously, the belief that nothing that grows beneath the ground is not a universal belief.

I consider myself to be on the other side of menopause, yet I got a light period right after my surgery.

On my way to the movies with my friend I stopped at GNC to see if I could find a chewable vitamin that contained enough biotin to keep my hair from falling out. The only thing they had was a liquid vitamin called Miracle 2000 Total Body Nutrition. I figured that I would just throw a capful of this stuff into one of my protein shakes and I wouldn't even know it was there. Wrong! The moment I opened it up the smell almost knocked me out. And even additional chocolate syrup in my protein shake did not kill the taste. It has lovely ingredients like spirulina, garlic, peppermint, rosemary, and the list goes on. Looks and smells like swamp water. I had better be darn healthy after drinking this stuff! .Oh, by the way. Do go see "The Help". I have never been in a movie that had a standing ovation before. It was absolutely fantastic.

My name is Linda. I am going a little stir crazy today. I was told I could not drive for a week, and I am only doing a little light duty housework. It still hurts to cough or sneeze. The pain is not at the incision sites. It is in the lower abdomen. It feels like I did way too many sit-ups. Tomorrow my friend is going to pick me up and take me to a movie. We are going to see "The Help". I read the book and it was excellent.

I was banded August 10th. The doctor found a large hiatal hernia after starting surgery (upper GI did not reveal it) so I got a twofer. I am divorced, with one adult child and two beautiful grandchildren. Before surgery, I lost about 40 pounds between WW, the hospital's dietition, and working out. Since surgery, I have lost another 5 pounds. I have some clothing waiting for me to try on. At my current weight, I should be able to wear some of it. However, my stomach is so swollen that I know it would be futile to try now. I can't say that I am in a huge amount of pain, but there is a fair amount of discomfort. I plan to take to take 2 weeks off from work and then work from home another week. I really don't see how people could go back to work after just a few days, especially if they did not tell anyone at work that they had this operation. I have trouble bending, moving fast is out of the question, and it takes a lot of time and effort to consume the recommended diet during the day.

Yes. It was the end of day 4 for me also. Now I have no problem at all.

I am on day 4 after banding. The first few days I had actually gained weight, but I knew that was just from the post-op swelling. Today the swelling is starting to go down and I am finally breaking into new territory on the scale.. Prior to banding I lost 40 pounds and had reached a point I had been to several times in the last 5 years. Previously, this is the point where I would fall off the wagon and start putting on weight again, only to end up even heavier than I was at the beginning. This time I am going to continue to lose weight and I will finally get to buy new clothes. I have the feeling that I will be at least one size down before I go back to work in 2 weeks.

I also wasbanded on the 10th. I have not had a bm since the 8th, so it is 5 days for me now.

Lung machine? I have no idea what that is.

I am on my 3rd day , and I am experiencing more discomfort than I did in the first two days also. My lower abdomen is very swollen and it hurts just to stand up. I am able to get some Protein Drink down though. I have a glass of something next to me all day and I am sipping it at the rate of about 4 oz and hour. This seems to be a small sip every five minutes. I am alternating between clear fluids and full fluids. So far today, I have had 12 oz of protein drinks and 4 oz of blended and strained cream of mushroom soup. My clear Fluid is Crystal Light with benefiber and Miralax mixed in to keep things moving. Maybe it helps that I am drinking these fluids out of my best wine glasses. They are just the right size to hold 4 oz and it makes it just a little more festive.

I got out of the hospital this morning, and have slept most of the day at home. Yeah! No one kept waking me up to check my vitals or give me more shots. I am sore from the incisions including the one for the hernia the doctor found, but I don't seem to be experiencing bad gas pains that others do. I did do laps around the ward yesterday afternoon, so that may have helped. I am taking the pain meds for the incisions, and they make me tired and my eyes blurred. Maybe in the next day or 2 I hopel be able to discontinue them. My surgery was very quick. I checked in by 7am an out of surgery by 11. By 1 I was up in my room, but they did not do the swallow test until almost 4. After that I was to finally have a sip of Water. My mouth was dry as a dessert because this was my first sip since the night before. My roommate had checked in at 10 for a noon surgery, but they did operate on her until 5 so she just lay on a stretcher waiting all day. Not sure what happened there, but she finally arrived in the room at about 9. They had already given her her swallow test, so he proceeded to wolf down the stuff on her dinner tray and got a lecture about eating too fast. She sounded as if she was in a great deal more discomfort than me but she left at the same time this morning.

I am getting banded on the 10th. I have to admit that I am a little frightened, since I have never had surgery other than on a toe before. I have been relieving my anxiety by purchasing clothing on line that I will cannot wear until I have lost some weight.

I have told several coworkers. Most of them are quite supportive. Management is acting as if this a cosmetic procedure and it is really inconvenient to them for me to be out. The one person who is the most supportive at work is the other person who has exactly the same job I do. He had it done about 5 years ago, and I can really discuss this with him in detail. Good thing because we work together very closely. I have also told all of my family. I had a discussion with my 15-year-old granddaughter, who lives with me, explaining that while I have nothing wrong with me at this time other than being overweight, that will not remain so if I do not do something about the weight. I told her I plan to be around a long time for her, and that is why I am being proactive about my health. I quit smoking a few years ago, work out religiously, and eat healthy food. I just have an issue with portion control.

The detailed instructions my doctor gave me for the first stages after surgery require me to consume small quantities of food or drink every hour. I worry that at times I will be in long meetings and it will be difficult to do this in the middle of a meeting. How does everyone else do it? Also, do you actually use baby food for the pureed stuff? If so, which ones taste best?

I have just finished day 3 of the pre-surgery diet. I am allowed to eat, but I have to count grams of carbs and protein, and keep it under 1000 calories. I am drinking protein shakes for two meals and having one regular meal. Today's lunch was a lobster I had steamed while I grocery shopped and a tossed salad. So far it has not been too bad. Only a couple of times I felt hungry and I lost 4 pounds in the first 2 days. Now in day 4 and I have lost 6 pounds already.

Thank goodness for this topic. I have not yet been banded, but I have joined WW. My nutritionist was actually pretty nasty to me when I told her. She said that I could count points if I wanted, but I still had to fill out her paper sheets manually or she would not tell the doctor that "I get it" and he would not band me. The next week the doctor basically told me that I was not going to be able to eat more than 6 oz of food a day. No snacks between or after meals. And some of my favorite foods like shrimp and asparagus would be forbidden. I can understand some of this, but eating only about 600 calories a day will make me weak, unable to think, and eventually I will die of starvation. Reading this makes me realize that eventually I will be able to eat the normal WW diet again after recovering from surgery. WW has worked for me in the past, but only temporarily. Every time I would leave and gain the weight back. Between getting older and quitting smoking after 37 years, I have now put on so much weight that I am actually scaring myself that I won't live long enough to enjoy retirement. Hence I am pulling all stops: WW, the band, and excercise. I have lost 7 pounds in the last month am starting to dream about shopping for normal size clothing again.

For the last month I have been making my round of doctors, tests, and counseling sessions. I hope to be approved within the next couple of weeks. One good thing about the tests is that I found out I have sleep apnea and need a CPAP mask. While I have had yoyo weight issues all my life, my weight did not become alarming until the last 5 years. Just this last year I passed 250 pounds for the first time, and I have decided I must do something about it now. I am beginning to have problems doing things like tying my shoes. I quit smoking three years ago, and am now in my mid 50's, so these are all factors that are making conventional dieting and exercise less effective. I do not have any real health issues yet, but my mother died of heart disease in her late 50's, and I do not want to follow her path. My plan is to retire in 7 years and be healthy enough to enjoy it. I am sure that I will be approved for the surgery, but my next step will be deciding when. I have a trip to India coming up in May, and a cruise in June. At first I wanted the surgery ASAP so that I would be thinner before I went to India, but after reading the post-surgery regimen the dietician gave me, I believe that I should not do any traveling for at least 6 months after the surgery, especially to foreign countries. As a result, I am going delay the surgery until the summer. I see this surgery as a journey, the other side of which I will be a much happier person. After hearing the weight the doctor thought I would be able to obtain, I am getting excited about finally starting this journey.