lisacaron

food Addiction! I have to tell you that going through this pre-op diet, I have been able to recognize that I am a total food addict! It's my salve when things are rough. I've been having major stress this last week, at home having to put my 21 year old son into rehab because he got himself mixed up with things he shouldn't have…and there is lots and lots of STRESS!!! The biggest part of the stress was that I could not turn to my go to comfort. FOOD. I felt like I was going crazy talking to myself about it. Literally having a conversation with myself in my head! Saturday afternoon I stopped to get him some food on the way to the Dr. and I was good in the drive through, I was great at the order window those food displays I hardly noticed them, and even at the pay window I was good! When he opened that bag and scarfed a hand full of fries, I thought OK I'm ready to hurt ya kid if you eat one more fry in front of me! I'm going to knock you out of the moving car and scarf those fries myself! Whoa!!!! Lisa what was that?! I was shocked at the powerful affect that had on me not just in that moment but for the rest of the day. I had been doing well on this pre-op diet. Protein shakes, non-fat yogurt, a small salad here and there and maybe some low fat low sodium Soup. After the fry episode, now I was ravenous, and I couldn't satisfy the urge to EAT food any FOOD all kinds of food! I spent the afternoon fighting with myself, forcing the Protein shake down hoping to be satisfied, I tried a non-fat no sugar pudding…Jell-O (yeah right!) but none of that was not enough to satisfy this unbearable craving to eat eat eat. I realized then that I am a total food addict. I need it when I am stressed and there is so much going on in my world I turn to it for some kind of comfort. This time I had to not just battle but conquer it cause I don't want to screw up my surgery or postpone my date. I grabbed some carrots, and some low fat French onion dip, and chomped on those I crunched and savored those baby carrots and dip chewed them so slowly they lost their flavor after a while and my craving subsided. I got a grip on myself, and made it through the weekend. I'm sure that was only one of many times this is going to happen to me, but I know soon I will have the band as a tool to help me overcome it…but boy oh boy was this weekend a test!!!!! 6 more days!! Lisa Caron

The pre-op diet isn't bad. We found some low calorie, high protein low sugar shakes at our local SAM's club. I set a calendar schedule in my iphone that goes off every other hour so I am eating/drinking something all day long. I start at 9 with a 6 oz non fat yogurt, then a cup of coffee! At 11 I have a protein shake, then at 12 a bottle of water, 1:00 either chicken soup (low fat, low sodium) or a protein shake, 2:00 bottle of water..and so on through out the day. I find that if we are REALLY hungry, some sugar free jello or some sugar free fat free pudding does the trick. If I feel like chewing some sugar free gum works. We started the pre-op diet a week or so before the 2 weeks to give ourselves time to get used to it, and make mistakes before we were in the home stretch right before surgery. Hubby lost 10 pounds, I lost 2! But I'm not complaining!! Now my anxiety is just that, I hope I will do well with the surgery and recovery and be able to get up and out of bed and make it to the hospital to be there for my husbands surgery a couple days after mine, and back to work (yeah bit of a workaholic, might have to work on that) in a week or so.

I will be banded on May 6th and my husband on May 8th. We are both in the pre-op diet phase. Doing well so far, feeling great! Hubby is losing the weight leaps and bounds over me, but I'm happy for him!!

Actually plication procedure that I have heard about is where they fold the stomach in on itself and then stitch it. So it resembles the gastric sleeve without the cutting and removal of the stomach.

Hi Ron, Thank you for sharing! I know I worry about how well I am going to do when I come out of the surgery and even though I have had a few different surgeries over the years each experience is different. Keep up the great work and those positive vibes! They really help not just you but the people that you share them with.

Hi, I am new to the site. My name is Lisa and this is my story. I am about 2 weeks away from my surgery date, currently on the 2 week pre-op diet. My new husband and I are taking this journey down the rabbit hole together. About 2 years ago I had a sub total hysterectomy due to complications and pain I was having. I'm all of 5'1" and I really have no torso. It's all boobs, belly and butt. I don't know where my waist is even when I was a thin girl, my back kind of kablams right into my butt. So needless to say a swollen organ in there had no place to go and pushed on other organs to gain space and caused a whole lot of pain. After this surgery my Dr. asked me what I planned to do about losing some weight? He referred me to a Dr. and I went to meet him and check it out. I was excited about the idea of Gastric Banding but didn't feel I was quite ready to make that commitment just then. I had just turned 40, and though it seemed like a great idea, I just had major surgery and needed some time to heal and get back on my feet again. My husband and I got married in October, and we had an amazing wedding in Las Vegas just the two of us. We left our 5 kids and all the rest of our families at home. (Best way to get married!) We did a lot of walking around, and went to the Grand Canyon and trekked around and realized how out of shape and in pain we were. When we came back from our Wedding/Honeymoon, super storm Sandy hit Long Island and we really found out how out of shape, sick and tired we really were. Ken suffers from Osteo arthritis in his hips, and has severe bone loss and degeneration in his left hip. We made an appointment at the hospital for special surgery and they told him point blank you need a hip replacement sooner rather than later even though you are only in your 40's. He is in pain nearly all day every day, walking is hard, but sitting and getting comfortable is even worse. The doctor told him he would not do the surgery because of his weight and diabetes. He suggested he lose weight and do it now. The surgery would have a better chance of success and he would have a better recovery. That day I called Dr. Geiss and his office was able to squeeze us in the next day for a consultation. I had met the Dr. and the office staff a few years ago and I knew that Ken would like them and trust them. Of course he did, and he loved the fact that Dr. Geiss took a personal approach to meeting his patients and took the time to sit with us and answer any questions we had, and go over the procedure and what to expect. His staff has been a support through all the pre- certification testing, we have met with different members of his team several times for educational seminars and advice and you really feel like a person and not just another patient. Once Ken was on board, I knew I was ready to make this journey and doing this together would make us that much stronger in our commitment to change our lives. We are about 2 weeks away from surgery. I am May 6th and Ken is May 8th. We started the liquid phase of the pre-op diet by doing just that..phasing it into our lives. Starting with one Meal Replacement and then going to two and eventually breaking meals down to mini meals 5-6 times a day and today it's not so bad. We gave ourselves the space to acclimate to the changes, and still enjoy events we had coming up, and now we are in that strict diet mode before surgery. Though I am excited to get it over and done with, I am also a little nervous about the recovery. I hear good things about pain tolerance and less discomfort now then in the past, still I do have some anxiety about that part, though I guess that's normal before any surgery. Glad I found this website, it's good to hear different stories and read about the success so many of had with this surgery. Any advice?