dawneb

Hi everyone, My thoughts and prayers are with all of today's bandsters. I go in tomorrow morning at 5:30. I was told that my surgery could be anywhere from 7 - 6pm - YIKES! Sitting NPO that whole time!!! But when I was at the doc's on Thursday for my pre-op the nurse told me that since I have to have my gall bladder out that they will probably do my surgery first - YEAH!! Hopefully I'll go in at 7. I think that waiting around for almost 12 hours would just be so nerve wracking. That happened to one of the ladies on my NW Washington site. She came in a 5:30 - waited till 6pm and then got bumped due to an emergency surgery (not bariatric). They gave her a bed and made her wait til the next morning. I'm starting to get pretty nervous now. Last night when I was tucking my 3 and 4 year old into bed I just started crying. Thank goodness the lights were out and the kids couldn't see me. I was trying to explain to my daughter why she was spending the night at Nana and Papa's house. She's very bright so I can't just give her some pat answer. I told them that I was going to the hospital to have something taken out of my tummy (gall bladder) that wasn't working anymore. then she looks at me and wants to know how the doctor gets his hand all the way down my throat to my tummy! Kids can sure make you laugh sometimes!!! I just told her the doctors have other ways of doing things and tried to change the subject. I definitely don't want her to worry. All of a sudden I'm just really worried about waking up after the surgery. My kids need me!!!! Am I being selfish by chosing to do something that could be potentially life threatening? I am very strong in my faith so I just have to keep telling myself that God will take care of everything. Wow - sorry about the long post. Did anyone else have worries before the surgery? I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Hi everyone, OK, so 3 days to go till surgery. I've finally come to peace with my clear liquid pre-op diet. Which is a good thing since I'm on liquids for one month after surgery. The first week - clear liquids with no protein drinks. that might be hard but hopefully I wont' be hungry. I'm trying to gear myself up for the gas pain. It seems that almost everyone has it. My doctor said that gas-x or phazyme wont do any good because the gas isn't inside your organs. It was pumped into your stomach and has to dissipate through the tissue. So he said not to waste my money. Did anyone find that this truly helped or do you think it was a "mental" help? (Does that make sense?) To everyone who just had surgery, keep your chin up. It sounds like it gets better everyday. I'm praying for all of you to feel better very quickly. take care.

Hello everyone, Well 3 days till surgery. I can't believe that it's actually going to be here. It seemed so far away and now it's almost here!!! YEAH!! I've kind of come to peace with the clear liquid pre-op diet. I figure I better since it's the same (minus the protein shakes - yikes!!) for a couple of weeks after surgery. It's really strange though. I check my scale every day - which I know I probably shouldn't do- and even though I'm only getting about 450 calories a day, I've had a couple of days when I haven't lost anything. How is that possible??? You'd think that weight would just be dropping off!!!! It's kind of frustrating. Anyone else have this happen? Maybe I need to up my water intake. Also, I've had this pain in my left side to back for the last couple of days. Any ideas?? I could understand if it was my right since I have to have my gall bladder out. Could it be my kidney on that side? Hope everyone is doing well. Everyone that had surgery a week to two ago sounds really good now. It's encouraging to us about to go through it. Take care. Dawn

Thanks Merrillee for the words of encouragement. I'm going to try drinking a lot more and also not waiting till I'm starving for the protein shakes.

:faint:Hi all, I feel absolutely terrible right now. I've cheated on my pre-op diet twice in the last 24 hours. Last night I had a special k bar and then this afternoon I had 5 bites of my daughters mac and cheese - YIKES!! I'm just so hungry! I'm on a total clear liquid 10 day pre-op with 3 protein shakes a day (water based, no milk allowed) I figured it out and I'm getting about 450-500 calories a day. No wonder why I'm hungry!!!! Can my doctor really expect us to follow this to a "t"?! I guess the good thing is that after the mac and cheese bites my stomach does not feel very good. I'm sure it's gotten used to being empty!!! Ok - enough whining. I hope that you are less hungry after the band. Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

:faint:OK - feel absolutely terrible. I have cheated twice now on my pre-op diet. I'm just so hungry now. I had 5 bites of my daughters mac and cheese (which happens to be one of my favorite foods) and I had a special k breakfast bar last night - YIKES!!!! Did anyone else have trouble with this total clear liquid diet ahead of time? I feel so bad. :help: I hope everyone else is doing well.

Hi Renee, I'm on day 4 of the pre-op (10 day) and I'm struggling too. you are definitely not alone. My doc. has me on a clear liquid pre-op with only protein shakes 3 times a day. Other than that it's Crystal light or SF jello or SF popsicles, water, etc. Pretty darn hard to follow. I haven't "snuck" anything yet only because I know myself so well. Once I start doing that I'll keep doing it. I hope that I can be "good" the whole 10 days. I keep praying for strength and telling myself that this is not forever and also take one day at a time. The funny thing is that I'm not really hungry but I just want to eat something. I can see why I got this way. I seem to want to eat for every occasion. YIKES!!! OK - enough about eating. Staying busy really seems to help. Keep trying hard and I hope a month from now things will be much easier. Dawn

Hello everyone, I had my final pre-op this am so now I'm cleared to go for surgery. YEAH!!! One week from today. It still seems so far away but I know that it will go fast. I'm going to have to have my gall bladder out at the same time. So glad I don't have to have it out first then wait til later for the band. Some docs make you do that I guess. I'm on day 4 of clear liquids. Not too bad. The protein shakes really help with the hunger. The only really bad part is that they put me on Augmentin yesterday for a throat, sinus, ear and eye infection. YUCK. The Augmentin is pretty hard on your tummy so the Pharmacist told me to take it with food - hah!!! I've taken it with my protein shakes and so far so good. Hopefully it will stay that way. Glad to hear that everyone is doing great.

Hello everyone Just got back from my visit with the internal medicine doc. St. Francis hospital in Fed. Way Washington requires you to have clearance from an internal med. doc prior to surgery. I got the go ahead so I'm verrrrry excited. I do have to have my gall bladder removed but Dr. Srikanth will do that at the same time as the band surgery YEAH!!!! So I'm all set for a week from today. I'm on day 4 of my pre-op diet. We have to do total clear liquids for 10 days pre-op. We do get to have 3 (30 gram) protein shakes a day but they are mixed with water not milk. So far I haven't been toooo hungry but the urge to just actually chew something is getting bigger. I am definitely counting down the days. The good thing is that I've lost 5 pounds already woo-hoo!!! I'm getting a little nervous. I know that's normal though. Well, good luck to all of today's bandsters and congratulations to all of yesterdays. I hope everyone does fantastic.

Hello everyone, Well I started my pre-op diet today, clear liquids. So far not too bad. We've all been pretty sick with nasty colds though so I'm not really hungry anyway. The sugar free popsicles are great and the jello gives the feeling of having something more solid to eat. I'm using the EAS protein supplement from Sam's club. Pretty good deal. You get 6 lbs for $25.00. That seemed pretty good compared to some of the other things out there. Tastes pretty good to. I added some sugar free caramel sryup (like for coffee) to the chocolate earlier. Pretty yummy. I'm having a hard time getting in all the water though. I've never been good with water so it's a real challenge for me. Hope everyone's well and enjoying this nice weather. I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Take care.

Hello everyone, I'm new to this thread. I was wondering if there was a June '07 one. I'm scheduled to be banded on June 12th by Dr. Srikanth in Federal Way, Washington. I can't wait. I start on my pre-op diet of liquids only tomorrow. I'm pretty nervous about that!! I just found out a couple of days ago during my pre-op ultrasound that I have quite a few gall stones - so now I'm waiting to hear if that can be taken care of during surgery. I hope so. Some people have to have their gall bladder removed prior to surgery and I just don't want to have to wait for the band. I've gotten myself all geared up for it and it would be kind of a let down. To everyone who got banded recently, congratulations and my prayers are with you. Keep us posted as to how you're feeling. It definitely helps to hear others stories. I think that things are a lot scarier when you don't know what to expect.

Thanks for the response. That's one of the reasons that I picked him - his compassion really comes across. Also the way he interacts with his patients. He just seems like a great person as well as a great surgeon. I mean, he used to do organ transplants so he's got to know his stuff!! Question for you. I don't meet with him until June 6th again and I can't remember what his post-op diet is like. I know it's liquids for the first week, then what?? I'm totally dedicated to this so whatever he says, goes! I'm having a hard time believing that it's actually going to happen. I feel like I've tried for so long that it almost seems impossible to lose weight.

Hello all, Question - I just got done today with the rest of my pre-op testing, the abdominal ultrasound. The ultrasound tech said that I had a lot of gall stones. What if anything will this mean to my surgery? I have Dr. Srikanth. Him and Dr. Oh have worked together closely in the past and I think that they run things basically the same. So to any Srikanth or Dr. Oh patients out there - did this happen to you? If so, what became of it? I just dont' want my surgery post-poned. I did wonder that since I'm a self pay maybe if they need to remove my gall bladder, maybe they could do it at the same time and insurance would pick up some of the cost?! That would be a bonus!! Probably wishful thinking. Take care everyone and please let me know if anyone has had this come back for them. Thanks

o2bthin, I seriously thought about going to MX since I'm self pay, but then my mom said that she would help with the cost so I decided to stay here. From what I've read there are a couple of really good docs down there. Best of luck to you.

DooneyJC Hi there, I'm having Dr. Srikanth do my surgery on June 12th. Just curious - how has everything gone for you? Are you happy with him and his staff? He seems very friendly and knowlegdable. I also thought that it was important that he is part of the Center of Excellence at St. Francis. dawneb

Hello all, I'm going to be getting banded on June 12th. Can't wait. I'm hoping that I will be able to stop using my CPAP after I've lost some weight. Although, I have to say that since I got my machine (January 2007) I've never slept better. The only symptoms I had were very loud snoring (kept hubby awake) and being very sleepy all the time. My kids are 3 and 4 so I thought being sleep deprived was natural - ha-ha. My sleep study showed that I stopped breathing an average of 46 times an hour. YIKES!! If you even think there is a possibility of having sleep apnea you should definitely get tested. It does all kinds of bad things to your body including heart disease. It also runs in families so there's a good chance that some others in your family might have it and not even know. I've told everyone on my dad's side of the family because they are all snore heavily. You do get used to the mask. It took me a while but now I won't even think of sleeping (not even a nap) without it. The difference is fantastic. Good luck to all.

Sue - I'm glad that you seem to be feeling pretty good. 4 days post-op too, that's great. So how long does Dr. Oh have you on clear liquids after surgery? Can you do protein shakes? I'm scheduled for June 12 at St. Francis with Dr. Srikanth. I can't wait. I'm past the scared part and I'm to the "I can't wait" phase. I'm pretty calm about it all right now. I'm sure that could change the closer we get to surgery. Wendy and Pinenut, I'm glad that you seem to being doing really well too. It really helps to hear everyone's post-op stories. It actually makes it less scary knowing what to expect. jhut115 - I hope you're doing OK. We haven't heard from you in a while. Take care everyone and God bless, Dawn:)

Ljuht115- I'm glad that you're finally done but sorry that you had such the delay. I'm a little concerned because we have the same dr. and I'm a self pay. Did they make you pay for the extra night?? Glad to hear that you're not having that much pain. Hope all continues to go well for you. Sue - hope all's well with you and that your surgery went great. I start my 10 days pre-op diet on June 2. Evilah - I think it's great that you are already eating better. I seem to want to eat everything that I possibly can before I can't anymore - YIKES!!!! Does anyone else have problems with the "quick reply" part of this thread? It will never let me do that. I can only do a new reply:help:

ljuht - I hope everything went well for you. Let us know how you're doing when you get a chance. Sue - good luck tomorrow.

Wenjea and Pinenut- I'm very glad that you are both doing well. Wenjea, it sounds like you're getting better and better every day. I'm starting to get kind of nervous now, my surgery is June 12 at St. Francis. Today's bandsters, my thoughts and prayers are with you! Question - some of you have talked about shoulder pain. Why shoulder pain? Should I invest in a heating pad for after surgery?

OK - I'm trying with the ticker again. I forgot to save the signature line. Let's see if this works now.

Hang in there Wenjea. I haven't had the surgery yet but from what everyone says it definitely gets easier. I'm praying for you. Just keep thinking about how great you will feel once things have settled down and you're losing all the weight YIPPEE!! I haven't even had the surgery yet and I think that I had some blues today myself. I started worrying over how I was going to take care of my family for a while and hoping that my husband will be able to handle the kids and me. YIKES. I have a 3 and a 4.5 year old. They're really great kids (of course I probably biased) but sometimes I think that they overwhelm my husband a little bit. Enough of that, I'm just going to keep thinking positive. A few of you were talking about hernias. Do you know if they find and repair one, does that add to the cost?? Maybe it just depends on your dr? Just curious since I'm trying to account for every penny. I'm trying out my ticker - hopefully it works. Thanks for the help with that.:clap2:

LJUHT115, Hi, I'm getting banded with Dr. Srikanth on June 12. It was supposed to be June 5th, but I had trouble getting all the pre-op stuff done in time so I asked to push it back a week. I'm a self pay, but my general physician is ordering all the tests for me so that theyll be covered by insurance - that's part of the hold up. I can't wait. Wenjea and Pine nut, congratulations!!! I'm so glad that everything seems to have gone pretty well for you guys. It really helps to hear everyones stories. Question - how do you do one of these ticker things?

Does anyone live in the Pacific / Auburn area. I live in Pacific and would love to get together with other people going through this.

Hi everyone, Well, my date is set for June 5th. Wow - it's right around the corner. I have to start my liquid diet 10 days pre-op. Dr. says I can have a protein shake - is that what you guys are talking about with the chocolate shake? Where do you get this protein stuff from? He referred me to Vitalady. Is this a good place to go? I'm really excited but getting pretty nervous about the surgery. Good luck to everyone who is getting banded this week. My prayers are with all of you.