MrsJroChicago

I originally had surgery in August 2012 to have a lapband put in. I had complications beginning almost on the one-year anniversary once I had the “right” amount of fluid in the band to make it actually do something. I had my lapband removed on May 27, 2016 and had a revision to gastric bypass at the same time. It was, quite frankly, miserable but now that I’m three months out, it’s the best thing I could have done. I couldn’t live with the pain, reflux and inability to eat anything with band in and because of the slipping, I had the fluid out more than I had it in. After MANY long talks with my doctor and his PA, we decided that a revision to bypass was the best bet. 
 
My recovery sucked. The surgery was longer and more complicated than they originally thought it would be because there was so much scar tissue from the band. But, they had already decided that they wanted to do the removal and revision in one surgery, so they did whatever they needed to get it done. I had two drains when I came out of it and the larger drain I had for 17 days. The smaller on, the “JP drain” came out before I went home. Generally speaking, that bigger drain isn’t part of a normal bypass but is more common when they do the removal/revision in one step. I was in pain, nauseous, and uncomfortable until it came out. I was in the hospital for about 5 days. Since it was a holiday weekend, I wasn’t in any big rush to get out in case I had any problems. I was nauseous on Sunday when they talked about letting me go home, so they had me stay. They then decided to order “home health care” to change my dressings for me since my insurance would cover a few visits, but no one was available until Wednesday, so they had me stay until Tuesday. I was pretty stir crazy by then but it was nice to have them there to take care of me but shaving my legs in the hospital was a pain! I had to fight with them on Monday to let me take a shower even though I wasn’t going home. I needed it. I came home and took the rest of the week off. My husband was with me in the morning and evening to make sure I had what I needed and to give me my Lovenox shots. My mom came by almost every day to help me make food—not that I was eating much—and to keep me company. I needed more help because of the drain. It was painful and hard to put on any clothing including a bra because of where it was. It’s called a “G tube” which basically was a drain from the part of my stomach that would no longer have food going to it and it needed to be “trained” that it wasn’t going to be used anymore. It was not pleasant but it was “capped” so not draining into anything before I left so at least I could tape it up to my stomach to keep it out of the way and from pulling or banging into things. Jonathan took me to my first follow up on the first Monday in June and then I was cleared to drive and go back to work. The following week, the drain finally came out. It was a long 17 days.
 
The drain removal was no fun either! They just kind of yanked it out and it hurt for a good 24-hours! It took about 3 weeks for the hole to completely close, but I got pretty good at the gauze changes. They didn’t stitch it or anything, they said the skin would grow back together and it did. It was about the size of a dime at first. Now it is a small scar to match the others from the surgeries. The tape was awful. I found that if I used the sensitive skin kind, which was about $8 a roll at Walgreens, it was better. I was so happy when the hole was finally closed so I could stop taping up my stomach and start wearing a regular bra! So, I’d had a lot of tape on me because of the tube and because of the drain hole. It took a few days to get the residue off!
 
I had to travel on June 24 for a work event. It was exactly four weeks from my surgery. I was going to be gone a week and I was a little nervous about getting through it. I still wasn’t cleared to lift anything and I was still getting tired pretty easily. But, by then I was already 20+ pounds lighter since the surgery so I felt good and actually built up my stamina as I was there. I managed to get food poisoning on my last day in Philadelphia, so that was no fun. But, after a few days, felt better.
 
Three months out now and I’m down over 40 pounds from surgery day and 75 from when I started the lapband journey. Even though I was miserable immediately afterwards and asked myself everyday what the heck I did to myself, three months out, I’m so glad I did it. I’m basically eating normal foods, albeit nothing too high in fat or sugar, and I’ve not really done too much salad yet but have added back most vegetables. I’m careful with fruit because a lot is high in sugar. The first few weeks after the surgery with the various stages of liquid diet was really hard and I probably started to add things like cottage cheese in too fast, but I needed to chew! I have a few friends who have done the surgery and we’ve created our own little support group so it’s nice. We come to the same events as well so it’s nice to know other people in the room understand how we eat!