Success in lapband

Synical Chick: I had had a hysterectomy 16 years ago and apparently ALOT of scarring (adhesions) so when Dr.K. went and put in the laprascopy he punctured my colon which was adhered to my stomach. Not his fault, not my fault but I must go back to get banded after my colon heals. But the good thing is I won't be afraid next time I go in because the surgery is a cake walk. I went shopping went I left the hosp. and I could be taking regular tylenol for the discomfort (no pain~just sore) but they need to see an accurate temperature on my body watching for an infection from the colon thing.

Tracy; I was released from the hosp 23 1/2 hrs after surgery, the only reason I had to stay overnight was the sleep apnea.My Dr.said he was more concerned about my sleep apnea than the surgery;of course that was said prior to the colon being punctured.

So I got released this AM, I woke up at 430am and was tired of being there. I really did not need any pain meds at all but I have taken 1/2 the suggested dosage 1/2 the time. I am not a pill popper. The liquid stuff Loritab does not make you drowsy just takes the edge off. I was more sore this AM than yesterday. When I finally got released we went to (my favorite) walmart, the video store and Longs. You would never know I just got out of the hosp, unless you knew me very well, I am wearing really baggy sweats (huge suggestion). The worst part of pain is when we hit pot holes in the road driving around, even the little pot holes and cracks in the asphalt, I just moan a little bit everytime we hit one, not that bad though. To tell you how cool my overnight was last night; Two nurses to two patients, seriously (i am not lieing) we ordered pizza. Of course I did not eat, but the 2 nurses did and the backsurgery patient in the next room did, we all watched american idol and grey's anatomy, it was like a pizza sleep over more than a hospital, it was cozy. FANTASTIC staff!! Dr.K.is concerned about me and made the nurse give me his cell phone, I am to call him tomarrow regardless of how things go, it is all about fever and the colon thing, I am okay as of right now. I am going to try and post a pic of my incisions not to be cutsey but more just so you know what you will look like. I think my incisions are probably bigger than normal because he was doing alot more than "normal". I am curious if he will use the same incisions to do lapband surg. And I think I am more sore than what is expected because he was in there more and doing more stuff. I think I already posted I was changing my mind as I was wheeled into surgery.

Gail!! Read Chris' post about protein a couple posts up from this one.

Gail; To answer you questions: They weigh you every single time. They never "officially" did the weigh to verify I had lost my 10% of excess weight, and as a matter of fact, I asked Dr.K. about that and he said it was more important to do the bariatrix than to lose 10%. The 10% rule was old and did not mean anything to "him". During my surgery he said my liver looked "great" for whatever that meant. The preadmit appointment at score is to get an EKG, bloodwork and give them your insurance cards etc. I don't have any ins. paperwork, they just took copies of my insurance info, and they would have made me pay if I had a co pay. They take copies of your ID and sign the "necesseary paperwork" in case of stuff etc.

Not complaining..... Just sharing; I went to the hosp today to get the band,but did not get banded, when the surgeon was inserting the prongs in my abdominal cavity my colon got punctured because having adhesions and being in a wierd spot in my abdominal cavity, so the dr. spent 2 hours taking care of adhesions. He said he could have done the band but wanted to be safe than sorry. I totally am happy he made that decision. I have a post op appt on 2/28 and will ask alot of questions, but now am looking very forward to coming back and smooth sailing with band surgery. I am writing from hosp. bed and would do this again if they asked me to tomarrow AM. Was extremely nervous and as they wheeled me into surg. room I asked them what would happen if I changed my mind and I am sure they knew I was backing out and the next thing I was in recovery, thinking "is it over?" thank you lord; I made it! I am not tooooo bummed, I am happy it is easy, I am happy that I can come back and I won't be scared next time, and I am very happy that the surgeon and this hosp staff are taking such great care of me! I don't know alot of the answers to the same questions that are going through my mind as they are going through yours, but I have a post op appt on 2/28 and can ask all the same questions then. Including... when can I resched. my surgery?

Private message me if you want to have a tip on cheating; if you can't take it anymore and must cheat! If you are going to cheat, at least cheat sensibly. I will be pissed! If I have to do that 2 week diet again! I am planning on striking a deal with Dr. K and him NOT making me do that diet again. . Probably he won't go for it but at least we can "talk" about it. I am doing so good, however, take the pain meds, because as soon as they start to wear off, you can feel what you don't want to feel. AND the loritab does not make you drowsey. I am taking 10cc's every 4 hours right now, not nauseated, no headache, soreness is coming, no gas. If they offered me the surgery tomarrow I would do it!

Chris; Did you ask him about the "last meal" on the night before surgery? Did he laugh? Then did he ask for the Nutritionist name so he could remove them from his preferred list?

Red: I sent you a private msg. about your hysterectomy, I hope you got it.

Chris: I had a hysterectomy when I was 26 ( I am 43 next week) and they took out my omentum ( the curtain to hold in your guts~ goes from under my breasts to pelvic bones~sorry so graphic; just trying to give medical info) yadda yadda yadda. I talked with Kozar at legnth about this, and when he put in the 5th prong it poked right into the colon (I think has something to do the the adhesions). He said he could have proceeded but too risky for him, which I appreciate playing it safe, so I will come back 4-8 weeks from now for banding, BUT I know how everything will go and what to expect. I was disappointed, but appreciate his conservative additude on my health. HE WAS IMPRESSED WITH MY LIVER! It was in great shape! Not fatty! Yea for Pam!!!! I am mentally going through in my mind what I need to do to keep the weight off that I lost through bariatrix, I am going to try very hard. But Kozar wants me to follow a liquid diet till my post op appt on 2/28. My colon needs to heal. So Red: This means I am avail to meet you at Golds for walking!!!! Anytime I am ready.... After your work or before your work...

Gail Thank you~ so how did today go for you? And Red: How did you post op go? Also Chris: THEY DO have wifi thru St. Mary's (freebie) you just need to find it. Surgery and so far recovery is a breeze, even though I am not banded I have all the holes as if I had been, they DID do alot of removal of adhesions (2 hours worth)~ Dr. Kozar said he was surprized at how much (he had not ever seen so much) so "if" the banding is this easy..... OMG cake walk. I am bending over everything normally, I am even in my own clothes. Never any nausea once they gave me the versed cocktail, slight sore throat but almost not worth mentioning. The chicken broth is totally worth mentioning: Go buy some I am sure it will qualify for the liquid diet. It is Herb ox Chicken bouillon (hmm wonder what the difference between bouillon and broth) it only has 5mg of sodium YUMMMMMMY. However I also think the jello is really yummy too so maybe that is the deprevation perception theory. I thought the jello flavor was intense. I SAY I won't be nervous next time, it was totally okay once the versed (happy juice kicked in) I get to go home tomarrow at 930am!

OK.... I woke up, Dr. Kozar did not do the band,slight complication,colon was punctured,I am in recovery and need to spend the night, Band in late March or April. I will fill you in more tomorrow.

Not to complain but more to share.. And I understand these are totally normal feelings... I have read these boards nightly for hours and hours and on occasion thought to myself thinking more curiously about why people would be experiencing some of the feelings they were having and synopsizing that they were induced by something other than the band. Rethinking about some of those situations... I am thinking I was wrong.... I am so friggin nauseated right now. I am seriously thinking about using one of anti nausea meds for after surg. So it may be that I head over to the hosp. earlier than scheduled just to try and calm nerves. I did not want "the big good bye" (I HATE goodbyes) at work today so I faked that I had to run an errand and never went back. I am not going to cheat at all tonight at dinner (in prep for tommarows procedure) and in honor of CHRIS not eating his big meal on his eve of his surgery on the recommendation of his nutritionist. And on that note: the nutritionist at our doctors office is sooooo incredible I am so glad that I chose her to do my nutritional eval. She has gone so beyond her normal job answering many questions via email or phone message.

Gail; How is your liquid diet coming along?

Red: So I think you went your post op appointment yesterday. How did that go? What did Dr. say?

1ting2lose If you lost 15 pounds in a week you MUST have restriction and not even know it! Which in my opinion would be optimal! Right on!!!!

Gail; So what do you think will be a realistic weight or size when you go to Tx? Did you tell your son about your surgery?

Yep, I am almost there and tonight my operating system on my laptop crashed, sooooooooooooooo.... I am on my daughters laptop at 1130pm because I gave up on my laptop. I will definately have it fixed by sunset tomarrow! I all in a sudden am losing 1/2 a pound a day right now! I am sooooo happy, and the starvation feeling "I think" is gone and I did not take loads of tylenol today. But talk about an emotional crazy woman! Doesn't anybody in this world see that "I" am going in for surgery? And "F" no I can't help you move on Saturday, and no I can't work for you on Sunday! F'n idiots, and at that point you say to yourself "This is exactly why I am fat"! I always am last on my own list so therefore don't have time to eat right, excercize and take care of myself. I have totally minimized this surgery to anybody who I have told I am getting it, so therefore they don't think it is anything more than me getting permanent makeup on, so I really can't blame them. Geeeeeez! I am not sleeping, and the anxiety attacks started yesterday. I have to chuckle about that, but if you have never had one you would never understand, and you have to understand why and how your brain works to understand anxiety attacks.

Becky; My dr. who is a center of excellence also said about 50% of his patients have hernias and warned everyone in the initial seminar that if he sees a hernia he will repair it while he has you in the OR. Is there any other Dr. you can go to? ~ Don't let one man stop you succeed in your life Quest.

Lapband4 me now: Maybe this is not "good" advice but it is what I think. I see skinny people eat 10 french fries and ice cream EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE. I think you made a bad choice eating those risky foods and risking your band and PBing but the situation at hand is that you probably wanted to eat 2 orders of french fries and you contained yourself to only 10. The chili was not that bad as dinner, french fries ~ well you could have probably gotten away by eating maybe 2 and the ice cream; you could have made a better choice there too and went to the grocery store and bought SF or skinny cow or weight watchers ice cream sandwiches. The point is that now you "binged" you need to get back to it and try ~ NO I don't want you to try, I want you to not to try, I want you to make healthier choices next time when you are getting out of control. But the behavior today was probably alot better than how you ate in December. I don't want you to think I am an enabler, but we are not always 100% perfect and either are skinny people. You just need to be as perfect as you want your health. So the point is, you did it, you are beating yourself up over it and hopefully it won't happen again this bad for avery very long time. Will you not beat me up for being honest? and if you want to swear at me for being honest will you just email me verses ostracizing me publicly? Seriously, I always read all your posts and am drawn to you because I like what you write, so I was compelled to try and help you. Your picture is of you soooooo happy and I know that being healthier would probably make you more able to do the things you wanted to do and was the reason you got the band and eating the way you did today is probably not the best choice you could have made, but tomarrow you will make better choices, seeing that eating those foods was not in your plans for success. I was going to write to you and tell you to come over to Reno so we could meet, but now maybe you hate my guts.

WOW! I absolutely would NOT! Call Dr. Ganser office and ask.

CVAden; The pre op diet is not FUN!! But it is for your safety for the surgery. I could tell you my ugly diet story but I am sure you can understand why we are all in the situation we are in. We all have ugly diet stories, do the best you can and just remember that it only lasts until surgery day and then it is freedom. You can do it!!! Self control is definately one of my downfalls, but I keep thinking of safety during surgery.

Red: So.... How are you doing, what do you think so far. Are you feeling full? Is it what you thought it would be?

Tracy What is your pre op diet consist of? If your gonna cheat, at least cheat healthy and eat lean meat or protien, drink an additional shake, don't eat shit food or you may get turned away on the surgery table. I know you can do it! You have 6 more days left. Drink more 2 more bottles of cyrstal light. You have come this far, we have all done worse diets and have stuck to them more than 6 days; you have 6 MORE days, you can do it. How about low sodium chick broth? 1 hour at a time then 1 day at a time. you can do it!!!!

Okay, I forget but i THINK it is Chris' Mom that works at SCORE. If so can you call and find out if they have wireless internet so I can take my laptop and get on the internet. I asked the nurse who did my pre surg appt and she did not know and did not understand what I was asking. This laptop and the internet on this website will settle my nerves~I am pretty cool calm and collected right now but anticipate I will have a melt down prior to it being over.