one_elle26

Hi Kate, the only people I know who get paid before they provide a service are doctors ....(I'm a Nurse which I think gives me the right to be cynical about the medical profession) my Surgeon wanted all of the 'out of pocket' money this week and I am talking about thousands of dollars (He's taking my Band out in 2 days and my Bypass is not until March 2013), the Anaesthetist wants $500 and the Assistant Surgeon wants $500 before Thursday. I hear your pain about paying 'upfront'!!!!!!! I hope everything goes well for you, I think we are having surgery on the same day....my Band is coming out on Thursday 13.12.2012. one_elle26

Hi Kate, I had a similar experience, my GP wrote the referral to the Surgeon, but I wasn't sure I had his support until after I had booked my 'Band removal' surgery. he doesn't have many patients who have had WLS, however, he knows that my weight is an issue and like you, I value his support. Roll on Thursday, when I say goodbye to my Band.

Hi Mimz, I have everything crossed that your results do not show Barrett's Oesophagus but if they are positive for this condition, why are you reluctant to have a 'Bypass' (RNY)? Here's to the results that you want in January. one_elle26

Hey Nessa, Fanbloodytastic!!!!!!!!!!! What a great motivator you are!!!!!!! WELL DONE!!!!!!!!! one_elle26

Hi Kayargh, I can only offer general support as I am waiting to have a 'bypass' done in early 2013....Sorry to hear that you are feeling so 'ordinary'!!!! I would fully support you in seeing your GP as it seems that there may be more going on than routine post-op recovery. 'Aching bones' and feeling 'as stiff as a board' are not common symptoms experienced by people recovering from having a major operation and an anaesthetic. I would be suspicious that you have a 'virus' or a condition known as 'post viral syndrome' ; you may also be anaemic or undernourished. Also, you may be able to apply for 'special consideration' for your exam if you have been unwell for such a long time and you will need a Doctor's certificate to support an application for 'special consideration'. Do you know that you can get some of your Nutritionist/Dietitian's fees covered by Medicare by having a Health Care Plan completed by your Doctor or one of his/her Nurses? Perhaps you can ask your Doctor about this when you see him/her tomorrow. I am happy to give you more detail about this if you are interested. Good Luck with your exam tomorrow and I hope your Doctor can give you some answers about your mystery illness. Best Wishes one_elle26

Hi Shell, thanks for the info re Facebook; I am waiting for a reply. one_elle26

Hi Shell, can you please tell me how I can get invited to the 'facebook' page? Many thanks one_elle26

Hi Mimz, Sending you a BIG hug that the Surgeon tells you everything you want to hear. Please keep us posted? one_elle26

Hi, don't get too stressed about having the drain out....make sure you have had some pain relief and follow the Nurse's instructions as she/he removes it. You may feeling a tugging sensation, but it only lasts a minute and if the Nurse is good at their job then it will quickly become another distant memory related to your surgery. Congratulations on taking this BIG step and I hope you have a speedy recovery and achieve all of the goals you have set for yourself. Best Wishes one_elle26

Hi Lila, your new photo is terrific and YES I can see a difference between your first photo and the new one. Great work, you are an inspiration to me as I wait to have my 2nd Band removed and then wait to have a 'Bypass' sometime in the New Year. one_elle26

Kelli, that is wonderful news!!!!!! She really is in good hands in our Royal Childrens' Hospital. may all of the angels watch over her and her loving family so that she can soon be cuddled and loved as every babe should be. Best Wishes one_elle26

I am sure she has LOTS of angels watching over her and I am sure she will be gurgling and cooing like every other 4 month old very soon. My thoughts are with you today. Sending lots of healing energy to you and your niece and to all of your family. Love from one_elle26

Hi, I am a Nurse so I would like to reply to you in 'Nurse mode'. There may be many reasons why your Surgeon wants you to have a catheter and I would suggest that you ask him why that is part of his surgical regime. Here are some suggestions as to why he inserts a catheter for the first 24 hours post op: he may have found that his patients are more comfortable and able to rest for the first 24 hours post op. He may have had male patients who have developed post op 'urinary retention' (inability to pee) post op, which is a very painful condition and which requires the insertion of a catheter while you are awake, much more uncomfortable for a male than a female. Do you have a history of 'prostate issues' which he may be trying to avoid complicating. In answer to your question about 'removing the catheter', keeping in mind that I am a woman, so can only give my version as a Nurse removing a catheter, it is a slightly uncomfortable procedure but it does only take a minute to do and hopefully you will still have plenty of pain relief on board so the discomfort should be minimal. Good Luck with your surgery and wishing you a speedy recovery. One_elle26

Hi, my downfalls are potato chips, chocolate and ice cream so I don't have them in the house. I don't go without these things completely though, if I am at the shops and I want ice cream , I buy a single serve and enjoy every mouthful. There are some sweeteners that are organic and therefore a lot less harmful than the processed sugary sweets that make us crave them. Have you tried having a protein fruit smoothie sweetened with organic raw honey or Agave syrup...very sweet,yummy and satisfying!!!!! My Nutritionist has also suggested organic Coconut oil which I eat straight from the spoon, because the weather is cool at the moment it is semi solid but apparently in the warmer months it turns to liquid, it is supposed to be great for lowering Cholesterol and if you like coconut then it's not too bad to take.....when I think of some of the weird stuff I have taken in the past to lose weight this doesn't even register on the 'yucky scale'. It may not be chocolate that you are craving but something that is in the chocolate, like the fat or the caffeine or the sugar so substituting alternatives that are similar in texture might help. Please keep in touch and know that there are many of us who have been in a similar place to you and that we will always be here to support you. Sending you some positive energy to ward off your 'chocolate demon'. one_elle26

Hi Scotty, Congratulations on your surgery and your recovery. Do you know what you have done to damage your shoulder? I had Rotator Cuff surgery on both of my shoulders two years ago and recently I re-injured the left shoulder. Thank heavens for my great surgeon because after lots of different opinions and treatments including an MRI we discovered that I had some sort of 'soft tissue' injury. I have found Myotherapy to be fantastic for reducing the discomfort and another little trick that is working is to put my arm in a very loose sling at night so that my arm and therefore my shoulder don't end up in an awkward, twisted position while I am asleep. My Myotherapist does acupuncture and 'cupping' which has slowly been reducing the pain in my shoulder. Heat packs might also help. I hope you get some relief soon. one_elle26

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! you must be feeling really good today. best Wishes one_elle26

I bought Gillian's 30 day shred today, I'm six weeks post op so will be walking the girls to school everyday- 6k a day-, doing some light yoga this week, trying some 10mins runs and maybe will start the 30 day shred next week! Although I have lost 16kilos I was called an "Inward thinking, self absorbed piece of garbage" and "you really are a fat & miserable scum of the earth excuse for a mother" by a very unpleasant man over the weekend and am in need of a positive self esteem injection in the form of healthy eating and exercise! Because the best revenge is a happy healthy life :-D Hi Kayargh, Apologies, I sent this post to the wrong person. Recently, I heard a great new expression to use either out loud, in the case of the extremely unsavoury man, or in your head if you don't want to offend someone "Control, Delete" meaning that whatever it is that you have just heard is not welcome in your life now and you are permanently deleting it from your memory in just the same way as you delete unwanted text from a document. You are so much better than him because you are taking responsibility for your own life and not belittling others in the process. Hang in there, you are doing a great job and I look forward to hearing about your success. one_elle26

Quote Although I have lost 16kilos I was called an "Inward thinking, self absorbed piece of garbage" and "you really are a fat & miserable scum of the earth excuse for a mother" by a very unpleasant man over the weekend and am in need of a positive self esteem injection in the form of healthy eating and exercise! Because the best revenge is a happy healthy life :-D Hi Marguerite, Recently, I heard a great new expression to use either out loud, in the case of the extremely unsavoury man, or in your head if you don't want to offend someone "Control, Delete" meaning that whatever it is that you have just heard is not welcome in your life now and you are permanently deleting it from your memory in just the same way as you delete unwanted text from a document. You are so much better than him because you are taking responsibility for your own life and not belittling others in the process. Hang in there, you are doing a great job and I look forward to hearing about your success. one_elle26

Hi Kate, I hope I haven't given you the wrong impression, it isn't my intention to get you to change your decision about what surgery to have, I was saying that having been a 'guinea pig' for the band, I would be cautious about being the 'first' to have a relatively new surgical procedure. I did do some more reading after seeing your post and there are a few Surgeons in Melbourne who do the 'revision' in one operation, so I guess, at the end of the day, you need to be confident in your Surgeon and his team. I'll look forward to hearing about what you decide to do. Best Wishes One_elle26

Hi Kate, I am a newbie here too and it seems like a great group. Not sure if I can reassure you about your options but here goes!!!!!!! I have got my second band in place which I believe has slipped (just as the first one did) and I haven't lost any weight since it was put in in 2008, so I finally made the decision to look into having more surgery to have the band removed and maybe, have further surgery. I saw Dr Draper, who is now one of the top Bariatric Surgeons in Melbourne, on Wednesday this week, and after a very long discussion we have decided that the best procedure for me to have is a Gastric Bypass and not a sleeve. The reasons for doing a bypass and not a sleeve are that I have now had two major stomach operations, and because he removes the band , waits 3 months and then does the second part of the surgery, I will have had 4 operations in my attempts to regain my health. So in answer to question about 1 or 2 procedures to go from band to sleeve or in my case bypass it will take 2 procedures. Dr Draper did not even discuss the option of doing the revision in one procedure and I believe he is very up to date with his surgical practice. I am a Nurse, so I may be very cautious, but I think that from what I have been reading and discussing with others who have had revision surgery there is a very high chance that the stomach has suffered damage from the band and that it needs time to recover before a surgeon then moves onto removing the stomach. if you're not afraid of looking at the real operations of a sleeve then you will see how much tissue is affected by having the sleeve created. If you want to watch an Australian video of the op then go to http://www.melbournebariatrics.com.au/ and you can see the gorgeous Dr Draper doing the operation. Unfortunately there is no dialogue in the video, but at least it is an Australian surgeon doing the op!!!! Both procedures removing the band and then creating the sleeve are 'major' surgery and I'm not sure I'd want to be on the operating table for that long!!!!!! I am hoping to stay in touch with this group because they seem to have a huge amount of knowledge and empathy for others going through these surgeries, but I don't quite fit the criteria because I am having a 'bypass' but I haven't been able to find another group that is 'bypass' focussed. I do have some friends on Facebook who I have known on line since we all had a bands done many years ago, in my case, since 2003. Those of us who have had bands for 10+ years were 'guinea pigs' and it is only now that the evidence is available that the band hasn't been as successful as the surgeons thought they would be. I think if I was in your position, and given that I am now having more surgery when I thought the band was going to be the final answer for me, I would be cautious about being one of the first to have a brand new procedure done. At the end of the day though, the decision is up to you and your surgeon. I hope I have helped. I look forward to hearing about your success. best Wishes One_elle26

Hi Scotty, Congratulations on taking this step to regain your life (my first surgeon appointment is tomorrow). I am also a Nurse, so I hope I can help with your MIL issue. There are lots of places that you can get hernias but the the one that fits most closely with "stomach symptoms" is a hiatus hernia. I did some very quick research for you at this website: http://www.medicinenet.com/hiatal_hernia/article.htm , as you will see from the pics the condition is located right in the stomach. The repair surgery is done via Laparoscopy, you can 'fudge' whichever symptoms you can get away with. You could explain the Optifast away as being recommended by the surgeon to 'rest your stomach and improve your time of recovery. I wouldn't go into any more detail. Alternatively, you could completely knock her off track by telling her that you have a 'testicular hernia' and hopefully even as a nosey nurse (I can say that because I am a Nurse too*lol*) she'll stop asking questions because you are her SIL. As for the others, only tell them as much as you want!!!! You could just say that you have decided to try to lose some weight and your doctor has recommended Optifast to fast track the early weight loss. End of story!!!!!! Wishing you an uncomplicated operation and recovery and every gram of weight loss that you want. One_elle

Hi again Nessa, I hear how frustrated you are but you have lost an amazing amount of weight in such a short amount of time. You are averaging over 2kg per week; 24+kg = 4 dress sizes!!!!! gone forever!!!!!! Do you mind telling me what your weight is now? As I said I don't have a sleeve yet so I cannot say I understand what you are going through at the moment. I have just read your blog and you sound like a wonderful sister and someone who is normally full of joy. Does your surgeon have a psychologist who works with him? It sounds like you might benefit from having some sessions to discuss what is going on. Our brains can play some pretty funny games when we are doing something that is very different from past behaviour. Alternatively do you know that there is a way to get 'counselling' funded through Medicare? If you want more information please let me know and I can give you the details. Remember, we are all in this boat together and if there is anything I can do, such as give you a call, chat on line or just post messages to each other I would love to be able to help you through this 'yucky stuff'. Hawaii is one of the most beautiful places on this planet and you will be one of the 'beach babes' sitting on the beach this time next year. So hang in there, all of your hard work will pay off, I'm sure. if you want to email me privately, my email is: one_elle26@iprimus.com.au. Best Wishes One_elle

Hi Kayargh and Nessa, I am waiting to have a sleeve/bypass done very soon to replace an 8 year old Lapband, but I hope I can offer you some reassurance about your weight 'numbers'. It is very normal for our weight to fluctuate between 1 and 2 kg per day and with women who are still menstruating it can be as much as 5 kg, as I am sure you both know. Like you I have struggled with my weight for most of my life and there is nothing more gratifying than seeing the numbers go down and we get really deflated when they go up. Perhaps, instead of weighing every day (and we've all done it!!!!!) just weigh twice a week, at the same time of day and I'm sure that you will always see the numbers dropping!!!!!!! instead of being so aware of the normal fluctuations. Hang onto your "big girl" clothes and wear them when you weigh yourself and two things will happen, one you will feel how much you are losing because the clothes will get bigger and bigger as you get smaller and smaller, AND by wearing the same clothes there is no 'unknown factor ' in the weight that comes up on the scales. You are both doing a great job and I am confident that you will reach your goals. Sending you both lots of positive energy to help you stay strong. One_elle

Susie, the other thing you need to factor into this recovery period is that it can take some time before the effects of the anaesthetic get out of your system, so please don't be too hard on yourself. I suggest you try to rest as much as you can around your heavy work schedule and keep up your fluids because these help flush out the residual anaesthetic toxins. Most importantly, be kind to yourself, sounds like you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work. Regards one_elle