Tiggy

Ohmygosh, HUGE victory - I just called the hotel where I'll be staying for my trip, and not only are they willing to accept a delivery of groceries for me a day before I get there (local grocery stores don't deliver on weekends, and I'm arriving on a Saturday), but the hotel is also willing to accept grocery deliveries mid-week (for replenishment), so I won't have to miss any of my beading classes! SO grateful, this will make trip planning a zillion times easier. I'm glad I called to find that out as well, rather than trying to suck it up and go grocery shopping after a day of traveling. Shout out to Hilton for being so accomodating! I'm making this happen, darnit!

4/2/13. Loving it so far! Try #2 - much bigger support system, much more maturity, and so far a really good outlook. And doing everything I can to make sure those things all stay in place!

After ascertaining that I did indeed wake up from surgery, the first and next 30 questions out of my mouth were "were they able to complete it?" Thank goodness the answer was a consistent yes! Loving my RNY so far. No problems with my band, but no successes either after the initial weight loss (which I subsequently regained and then some.) Just never had enough restriction, except when inflamed by being sick...

Thanks SO much! I just ordered a variety pack of syntrax nectar singles after reading your post. That will come in SO handy when trying to deal with TSA in case they make me throw away my isopure (despite me planning on having a doctor's note to try to help my cause). Gotta love back-up plans! :)

It's hard to tell - took me about a week to get down to the weight I was when I entered the hospital. I have not yet begun vigorous walking, still on casual walking but for longer distances (e.g. 3000+ steps yesterday).

When I got home from surgery, I'd "gained" 9 lbs - all from fluid they'd pumped into me during my stay. Fortunately, my doc's office had warned me about it, but it still wasn't fun having to "re-lose" the weight I'd worked so hard to lose via my pre-op liquid diet. The excess fluid did come off, it just took its sweet ole time in doing so.

Congrats re: your daughter! I'm going to be away for 9 days at 2 months out. I'm going to be working with my nutritionist to figure out what to bring with and what I'll need to buy at a local-to-my-hotel grocery store while I'm gone. It's going to be a lot of work, but I wouldn't miss my trip for the world!

I have this - it's getting better with time. Apparently it's related to our bodies disagreeing with the operating room table. I've been off daytime pain meds for some time now, but still am under doc's orders to take something when I go to sleep, and then pop a tylenol upon first waking afterwards. I had the worst insomnia before we figured that out. Now I've gotten into a routine of sleeping until my pain meds wear off, be up for about an hour to an hour and a half while waiting for the tylenol to kick in, and then sleeping through till morning afterwards. Way the heck better than being up every hour or two due to pain!

No regrets, if you weren't ready, you weren't ready! Sounds like you are now. I'll look forward to meeting you. Let's support each other through this! I too live in MG county.

Dr. Long did my band to bypass conversion. He's awesome, as is Brian Wallace (nurse practitioner). I had a really positive experience at Sibley - the nurses were very helpful and very patient, very on top of things. Hope to see you at one of the support group meetings! I went to my first one this past Thursday.

Day 19 over here and still minor pain during the day after walking a bit more than I was used to, plus nighttime pain (currently being managed by a single dose of oxy at bedtime + a tylenol when I wake up after the oxy wears off after 4 hours). It's getting better, it's just taking me longer than most. I can live with that, so long as I know that each day is better than the last.

I live in MD, a teeny bit NW of DC. I had my surgery on 4/2/13. Would love to get to know some other locals who are going through this process!

I struggled a lot with pain after surgery (12 days on pain meds, not like they helped that much), and still am having trouble sleeping through the night. My docs are attributing it to time on the operating table having reaked havok on my hips. They even put me back on a once-a-night dose of oxy to try and get me to sleep through the night, vs. waking up in agony. It hasn't been working so far. Frustrating!! Still, I have no regrets, just wouldn't mind one bit if my body decided to heal a teensy bit faster.

In a heartbeat, yes. It's been a roughish road for me - no complications, but a lot (a LOT) of pain, but my diabetes is officially in remission (no diabetes meds since the day of the surgery!), and that alone makes it worth it.

Hi all! Another band-to-bypasser over here. Banded in 2003, never had enough restriction with it despite it being overfilled. RNY on 4/2/13, so far so good! I'm very excited at having another chance, and feel great about having the gold standard surgery this time around.

$22k in DC. (would have been $19.5k but I had to have a band removed as well.) Shop around; another program I'd looked into locally wanted $60k for the same surgery. That kind of difference is fairly mindboggling. No complications here, but I almost ended up having to spend a fourth day in the hospital due to pain, which would have been an extra $1k-ish/day.

If you need it, please consider getting a home health care aide to help out for at least your first few days back. I had one on stand-by in case my mother proved unreliable. I had a rougher road to recovery than many (no complications thank goodness, but a lot of pain), and at the beginning needed help with really really basic stuff, down to not being able to pull down my own underwear when I had to pee. I don't know how I would have managed without a pair of helping hands there. If you don't have anyone lined up, someone at the hospital may even be able to help you to arrange to get someone using your insurance. Best of luck with your recovery.

North Bethesda here - I also had surgery at Sibley with Dr. Long. I'm thrilled with how well everything's going so far!

Hi all! I just discovered this forum. I had my surgery on 4/2/13 (revision to RNY from a 2003 lap band), and am so happy with how things have been going. I'm on day 3 of soft solids (FINALLY!!!!), and am trying to find a balance between eating enough and finding where full is. It'll take a while; I've been mostly erring on the not-quite-full side for fear of stretching my pouch. About the only big problem I've been having is with sleep. I wake up with pretty bad hip pain of all things (which I never had before, ever), which my docs have attributed to the time I spent on the operating room table. One of my docs had me re-start pain meds just one dose at night, last night, and that helped a LOT, though my sleep cycle remains disrupted. Nothing I can't handle in the grand scheme of things. I'm so excited about this process, and am looking forward to having people to share my journey with. Thanks for being there!

Lots of luck to you - I just had my revision from band (2003) to bypass (4/2/13) and am LOVING the bypass so far. Finally, hope again!