bandita

Am having my revision on monday at 7am. Freaking out a bit! Havent felt a bit of hesitation until now and i am really anxious and excited...does that make sense?

O my band to sleeve revision was done on monday the 27th. It has been an awesome experience. I can honestly say that for 2 days i had absolutely no pain. When i was switched to oral pain meds my pain has been holding at around a 1-2 out of 10. I am still in the hospital because i have not tolerated advancing to full liquids as my dr would have liked, but thats ok, i dont want to go home and have to come back and the accomodations are amazing. I should be going ho,e inn The a.m. If i stay like this. Overall thisentire experience has been much less traumatic than i expected and i am really excited to get moving. Dr came in today and said i thinkyou will be surprised at how much weight you lose. That was soooo exciting for me to hear! Willcontinue to updqte asi progress

Havent posted in a while but got over the stall on sunday and now down 3 lbs!!!! I'll take it! It took almost a full 3 weeks to come out of this first one but now i feel much better that it is gone! Funny thing is that the day before i came out of the stall i cheated myself and ate 3 chocolate chip cookies over the course of the day. I had read that people were able to come out of their stall by putting something eally unhealthy in their diet for a day and wouldnt you know it...i am not sure if it was already over or if the junk food helped break the spell but there has got to be somethingt to it! Down 27 lbs!

Thanks so much for your replys and encouragement. Im holding on...

Tomorrow marks 2 weeks without any loss. I am post op 3 weeks. How did you know you were out of the stall? Was it drastic or gradual?

Yes i have read a thousand posts on the commonality of stalls. I started my journey on aug 13 th and surgery was on aug 27th. I am down a total of 23 lbs of which 9 have been post surgery. I am at 235.5...235.5....235.5....235.5....235.5....235.5 i am going to pull my hair out. I put the scale away...but that only lasted for a day. I am using fitness pal and getting right around 800 cal a day, i started walking a little but still to afraid and weak to work up a sweat. If this stall doesnt break soon....i just might! UGH!!!!!!!!!!

I had the left scapular pain when i had the band and honestly did not know that the band was the cause until i had it removed and the pain dissappeared. When you have your vsg make sure you tell your surgein about your shoulder pain because obviously there is an innervation of nerve and it seems as though maybe it is entrapped in scar tissue. I hope that you can get some relief soon!

Uh oh, this is day 3 that the scale has not moved. After watching it go down so quickly it is a bit frustrating and concerneing that i may have hit a stall so early post op. Tomorrow marks 2 weeks. I did just change to pureed food 2 d ago...could that have something to do with it??? Have not started excercise as it has only been 2 weeks. I have read every post on stalls and was thinking that maybe this was m y 3 week stall but does anyone know if people refer to the 3 week stall as 3 weeks from surgery or from pre op diet and sugery? I am down 23 lbs from start of pre op diet on aug 13 th. But 16 of those pounds were during the liquid diet phase. I am freaking out a little bit ( i know its probablly ridiculous) but am only down 7 pounds from surgery and less than 2 weeks out with a stall. Any one with any kind of similar experience? I'm trying to remain calm : )

I have had my sleeve for 2 weeks on monday. I was converted in one surgery. I have nothing but good things to say about the sleeve so far. I am down 23 lbs. And feeling pretty good all things considered.

Glad the lap band worked so well for you! What a huge accomplishment! I think that you will find that most who have had the band removed have gained weight....myself included. While you could put yourself on a low calorie diet and potentially hold off the weight gain do you think that you could do it on your own indefinitely? Speaking for myself only, that is why i had to have the band in the first place and why i converted to the sleeve when the band failed. If you can see obesity as a disease than the lapband was to the obesity as the pacemaker is to the heart.

I am 12 days out and shoild be starting puree on monday but have found myself rather hungry and tolerating full liquids so tonite i made my first puree. Mashed potatos with protein powder and cheese and fat free sour cream. It was amazing....i finally got to see what it felt like to be full on about 1/2 cup of food and what a great feeling. I am so satisfied! It has been An hour and i am still way full...it feels as tho i have eaten a huge meal! This was the part i was rather skeptical of because i remember with the band i would be at a stopping point with my eating but still very hungry! This surgery is the real deal! Praise the lord!

I am 10 days out from my sleeve and doing good, today i felt a bit off and somewhat tired etc. But overall it has been a swift recovery. I have a question for anyone who is recently post op...how long does it take you to drink 8 ounces of fluid? The reason i am asking is that i have been slowly increasi g the amount of fluid and decreasing the time i amm drinking it and finding that clear liquids seeem to be going down pretty quickly. I tried some applesauce today and my stomach had a little twinge cramp and then started making lots of noise and i wasnt sure if this was me overdoing it or just a normal series of events for diet advancement. After that applesauce i am a bit nervous about advancing to the pureed diet stage on monday. What kind pf experience was it and should any amt of pain cause me to stop and and go back to full liquids? I havent had any nausea or vomiting but a little bit of burping.

Yes me too...i can drink fluids as though i never had the sleeve. I mean i tried going slow like i was told but the fluids just go right down no problem and although it does not hurt iwant to make sure that im not damaging anythig.

Omg! Congrats! I am 8days postop and so far doing great! Oct will be here sooner than you know it and just in time to get ready for summer of 13!!! So far no regrets except i wish i had done this sooner!

Iam really struggling with pain below my right ribcage. When i take in a deep breath it is excruciating. The pain meds are not even giving me a little relief. The only thing that helps a bit is if i stand up and bend forward to take a deep breath. I am 6 days post vsg and so this pain started on day 2 or 3 and really has had no improvement. Slast night my husband massaged my upper back and it seemed as though the pain had subsided but this morning it is back full force. No fevers dor elevated heartrate or nausea and vomiting. Ekg and bloodwork and chest xray all normal. I am just freaking out that this pain may never go away and nothing is helping it. Lap sites and stomach feel great, bowels are normal.....please please let me know if you experience any of this type of pain and what you did to help relieve it! Thank you

So i ended up taking a trip to the emergency room because i could no longer handle rhe pain. The firstvthing that they did was an ultrasound of my gall bladder and it was pretty painful because they had to push really hard to see and guess what happened....well i couldnt exactley tell you but rhe pain just vanished and has shown up on rhe left side now. But much less intense. I am convinced thatvit is a gas pocket. They are making me stay overnight for observationa but i feel like a complete ass. Apparentlygas pains canbethe worstpart of the surgery. Anyway i am hoping that tomorrow will bea much better day!

I called my surgeon and he said to keep taking pain meds and that this pain is probqblly caused by irritaion from surgery. Hwsaid if itgets worse to come in burfor now just wait at home. I am applying heat and laying on my left side fortunately i have no nausea orvomiting or signs of infection, i just about feel normal except for this. Imeqn myenergylevel isdown quute a bit but iam slowly leavingthe fog of the leftover anesthesia. Rhanks for yourreplys and i will update as soon as this pain is gone!!!!

Am 5 days out from surgery and for the past 3 days i havebeenhaving chest painthatis brought on by deepbreathing. The dr did. A chest xray taht was normal and an ekg that was also normal, i am just really concerned because if i lay on the side that doesnt hurtby morning the chest pain is on the unaffected side and not the side of my chest that hurt. Heartand lungs are normal, has anyone else had such a weird phenom and what did you do?

O i was revised to the sleeve on monday the 27th. Thngs have been getting progressivly better with minor setbacks that have left me in the hospital until today, in fact i am going to digning my dc papers. I have been sooooo pleased with vcu health because they really put my health and safety in the forefront. I ahve a couple of issues that maybe some already sleeved can answer. I have been having pain in the center of my chest, kinda like heart pain. It is made worse when i take a deep breath. Thw doctors tested me for pulmonary embolism and heart condition and everything is perfect. I am chalking it up to gas pain but wanted to know if anyone else had experienced this. There is no leak as they have been testing. The fluid from my drain and the pain is reallyo not severe so i convinced the dr to let me go home. I can honestly say that my pain rating throughout my stay never went above 2 and thats because i was out of bed and moving within 10 hours of surgery. And had great pain control. I did have low blood sugar once and after taking so sips of juice it corrected itself. So i just got home and guess what i did....hopped on thw scale and low and behold i am 1 lb heavier than when i went in for surgery. Wtf...i wasnt expecting much but it has been 5 days since surgery and so surely i am not still retaning that much fluid.

I am about 10 hours post op anf doing great, this vcu health sys team is absolitely excellent! I am pain free and resting comfortablly! I will update wheni can start having clearss but so far so great!

Oh thats a tough one. I totally see what you are saying. The only problem is that the sleeve could really take you down to a much much smaller weight than is healthy t the point that you are at. One thing that i did to see if i qualify for the conversion (because i too was below the bmi standard for bariatric surgery following my lap band) i checked out my insurance co policy and it did say that a certain percentage of weightloss i.e. Less than 50 percent ebw was considred to be a failure and that i would be eligible to convert to a different surgery, however my bmi is in the mid 30s. I cannot imagine that any doctor is going to perform such a surgery if you are as small as you say. As far as your cincern for the weight gain maybe you could talk to your dr about a prescription appetite suppressant, i have taken one called phentermone before and it worked really well, i can only imagine how difficult this must be, especilly being at you goal! Hang in there!

Am 6 ays away from my sleeve and that means 8 days into my pre-op diet. I have lost 10 lbs as of today and cannot believe it! I will NEVER se those 10 pounds again! I am getting really excited for surgery and am hoping to lose 3 more before the big day! The doctor said i can expect to lose about 60 percent of ebw with the sleeve....does that include the pre op diet loss. Do people tend to lose more in their first few weeks post surgery and anyone know where i can find info or research studies that show or prove the 60 percent Average. I need to lose 80 pounds ro fall within ibw and was really hoping to reach that. I am not going to limit myself but also dont want to be set up for disappointmebt. Has anyone lost all excess weight?

I did not have to lose any weight before surgery. My starting weight was 258.5. I have been doing the pre op diet for 9 days and am down to 247.5. If you have to lose weight before surgery this shake diet will def get it off of you! I am in ketosis and actually feel pretty good, i would never do this type of diet if i was not close to surgery because i imagine as soon as i would stop it the weight would just jump back on. But if you are moving forward with surgery it would get that last 15 lbs off quickly...if you can tolerate the bad breath and constant peeing! Hope that helps good luck!

Hey richmond sleevers! I wish that i had foubd you all sooner. I too am in richmnd and scheduled for my sleeve on monday the 27th of august. I amm at the vcu health sys and dr kellum is going to be doing my surgery. Let me just say that i am a lap band pt and had that surgery done at st marys hosp. And now speaking from experience there is no comparison and vcu is at the top! Not to say that the surgeons are not just as good at st marys but the whole process is much more organized, the staff are excellent and the nurritionists are superb. I agree with alicia....dr bautistas staff is incrediblly cold. Vcu has a nuritionist that does all of your counselling...not a nurse. They function on evidence based practice which means they are using the latest information and not necessairly something tried and true that may not be as healthy or effective. The unit that i will be staying on is absolutely gorfeous...all private rooms etc and it makes me feel safer that should i have any complications the doctor os always in house....or the fellow surgeon (no back and forth phone calling). It doesnt hurt to have every sub specialty at arms legnth in case they are needed. I wish all of you the best of luck!

Tammy...good luck on monday! Keep posting updates!