Hello Everyone,
I am very excited to have found, what appears to be, a really good chat forum for people like us lol
I had my initial lap banding on August 15th, 2011.
My Pre - Opti Fast Weight was 118.9kg.
My surgery went really well and I was home by lunch time the following day.
However, 4 days later I got a stomach bug and began vomiting....many times. Although this didn't seem to cause any initial issues, I awoke at about 3am the next morning with horrific right shoulder pain!!!
I am not generally referred to as 'soft' but was walking around in tears. Of course, the conclusion was that I was having a bad case of the gas pain from the surgery.
So, I took Tramadol and Ibuprofen (am allergic to Codeine) for the next 3 days until I went back to see the surgeon for my Week 1 Check.
Week One Check
The Dr advised me that it did sound like 'Gas Pain' and wrote me another script for Tramadol.
Week One Weight = 109.4
I was floored to see that I had lost 9.5kg in just 3 weeks!!!
The following weekend my partner and I headed to Melbourne for the weekend for his sisters 50Th. Luckily for me, still in stupid amounts of pain, my brother in law is a surgeon in Melbourne and after much discussions and phone calls to my surgeon in Adelaide, I was given a script for Morphine and an appt with my surgeon as soon as I got back to Adelaide.
Seeing The Surgeon
The Surgeon sent me straight in to get Blood Tests and Ultrasounds and Scans, which revealed that the and had completely slipped and part of my stomach had come up through the band.
This was definitely caused on Day 4 when I was vomiting!!!! So I am not a sook!! LOL.
The placement of the band had gone from sitting nicely in a horizontal position with a pouch of approx an egg size, to the band sitting completely vertical and with the amount of pressure put on it from the vomiting, I ended up with a pouch about the size of a grapefruit!!!!
There were concerns that there could have been damage to stomach, and that it could move more and block off my oesophagus completely!!!
So, surgery was arranged for Tuesday 20th September. There was a high risk of stomach damage and that meant that the band would have to be removed, for now, while I healed....that was my worst case scenario.
Surgery - Take 2
I was a lot more nervous the 2nd time around....More so the fear of waking up with the band gone!!!
It had taken me about 5 years to finally have this done, and with the scales already giving me amazing results, having it removed was not an option I told the surgeon lol.
I woke up so much sorer the 2nd time, but they used the same key holes as the first time and I needed to re heal internally again as well - Dr said this was to be expected!
My Weight Today 30.09.2011 = 101.9 - Total lost, So Far = 17kg.
Regrets = NONE.
If anyone else has been through anything similar or wants to chat .... I am happy to share anything that may your journey easier.
I am loving this!!!!!
Have a great day.
Cheers,
Deb.