BandedPlicatedDude

Yes.

After a long absence I decided to come back and make a very quick post here... I celebrated my 2nd surgeversary a week or so ago. I started out at I think around 260 as my pre-op weight. Within shortly after a year I reached and exceeded my ideal weight of around 150-155... For the past year I have been successfully maintaining my weight... It fluctuates between 137 and 143, never below or above really. Have been very active and I still strictly adhere to a lifestyle of no to very low-carb eating habit with lots of Protein. I take my daily Vitamin supplements; do anywhere between 10-20 minutes of light to moderate cardio (nothing fancy). Try to take daily walks (I'm in a wheelchair, so I guess it'd be rolls?!). This was one of the best things I ever did for myself in my life. Oh and since we’re all adults here... let it suffice to say that the sex life has improved TREMENDOUSLY!!! OMG! Just stay positive and try to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. Watch what you eat, when you eat, and how you eat it. Remember, just because you can have the cake and eat it too, you shouldn’t!

Hi all! I've been a lurker on this forum but finally decided to sign up and get busy posting with only two days to my surgery day! I am doing the band + plication on Thursday and have just started my pre-op 2-day clear liquid diet... So I was wondering if any of you out there has been told to do the same or not. If so, what's on the menu. Mine does include sugar-free Popsicle and Jello. Other than that just Water and the sugar free soda, tea, coffee, and low-sodium chicken broth without bits. I have never ever tasted chicken broth... Bought a can or two from Target the other day, but I have no clue what the best method to drink it is! Do I heat it or just cold? Anyhow, any tips, pointers, etc. will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Wow! Thanks for the update. And a job well done to you! I did my band/plication in July of 2011, and have lost 110 lbs. since then. I had my gallbladder removed at the same time and had my severe hiatal hernia fixed as well--not fun, but looking back, I have no regrets whatsoever... I started at 253 and I'm down to 143 now which is about 10 lbs. below my goal. Again, great job & thanks for the update!

There's always the option to add the band at a later date... I did the band+plication back in mid-July. I have lost an average of 11 lbs. per month since I started my journey on June 1. But every month that passes, it does get more difficult to get the weight loss up to that 11 lb target--meaning I have to watch what I eat even more carefully and work out even more... but I started this process with this in mind, so no surprises. Also, keep in mind, the less you weigh, the harder it is to lose more weight... Anyhow, wishing you all the best of luck.

Hi there Spice, Did my Bandication (as someone referred to it once...) on July 14. I had a GB filled with stones for a few years and my doc knew that it had to come out; at first he did not want to remove it until months after the surgery after weight loss... Apparently it's a lot easier to remove it laparoscopically if you weigh less. I was ok with that except that my insurance did not cover any type of WLS & being broke and all I thought if the surgeries are combined, since the insurance will have to cover the GB removal part, it'll help me a lot. So I convinced him to do it. Fast forward to the day of the surgery now... Went in the OR at around 9:15 a.m., expecting to be out by 11 or so... When I woke up in the recovery room, it was 6:15 p.m. Later i learned that the surgery ended at 3:30... Almost 6.5 hrs of anesthesia... It was brutal indeed & I ended up staying at the hospital for 3 days as my heartrate was high & my potassium was low & some other things due to the length of the surgery and the GB. Surgeon later said the removal of the GB was to be blamed. It took him the most as it was "gigantic" but he still managed to do it laparoscopically, for which I was grateful. He had to fix a huge hernia which obviously contributed to the lengthiness of the surgery. It took me a good month or so to shake off the whole anesthesia and a bit more to just get adjusted to the new me--I had no nausea really and took very little liquid pain med; had 0 gas pain; but did have lots of what I want to call discomfort around my incision areas in general, but that was expected as I've always been in a wheelchair (rare birth defect totally unrelated to any of this), so transferring myself from bed to chair and other places was excruciating for a while... Look, I am not going to sugarcoat this... It wasn't easy FOR ME at all, but I'll do it ten million times over (except I'd wait on the GB removal until after the WLS surgery) again as the prize has been well worth the trouble... I've been losing an average of 11 lbs. per month. I've lost a total of 48.5 lbs. since I started this journey in June. I'm only 33 and still cannot remember the time I weighed around 204... Been fat all my life pretty much. I'm now so used to eating very little and also to avoiding carbs and all the nastiness they offer. My carb intake is never more than 30 grams per day. I try to drink plenty of Water and eat lots of animal Protein. It's been much easier than I ever imagined to avoid sweets, etc. and it's been so rewarding... Still working on my strength to be able to add more physical activity to my routine, but definitely getting there... Having said all this said, do not worry at all for good things (really good things) are in store for you and you don't even know the beginning of it yet... Put off the GB removal until after your WLS surgery just like your doctor suggests and I think you'll be good to go. Good luck and keep us posted please!

Good job, Mednar. How much did you lose during the first two months following the surgery if you don't mind me asking please? I haven't read all your posts, so was wondering if you did the plication alone or the band + plication... It's very easy to get discouraged... The way I see this whole thing, it's a total lifestyle change, and requires big commitment. My doc is HUGE on keeping the carb consumption down to 30 grams per day and adding 20 minutes of physical activity (any activity) to your daily routine. If I eat my Protein, there's normally little to no room for anything else, and with the added 20-minute per day activity (going for a walk around the block, etc.), I can definitely see the pounds coming off. I have good days and not so good days. When I deviate from the new lifestyle's routines, i can be sure the scale will remind me of it. Anyhow, keep up the good work & keep us posted please.

Hi there, I am really happy for you and your weight loss journey. But I do not appreciate your spamming messages in ALL threads and forums here! You can just start a thread and talk about yourself and promote your blog, but please stop these chain postings in every single thread in this forum... Let's please stay relevant and also courteous of others who take the time to start a thread to talk about a particular topic... That's just my personal opinion and may not necessarily reflect those of SleevePlicationTalk.com's administrators.

Will definitely do that... Just haven't had time... Hopefully tonight... Oh another thing I forgot to add was that I also had a huge hiatal hernia as well that he fixed! So it was really multiple surgeries all in one... Thanks for the encouraging words and the advice. I am already feeling much better with the strange feeling in my abdomen area. It wasn't really pain, but it was kind of like starvation... but I wasn't hungry... Anyhow, it's much better now... It wasn't acid either by the way. I have been on Prilosec OTC for 11+ years... yup, one every day. Until the day of the surgery. My surgeon promised me that the last Prilosec I'd ever tale was the one I took the day before my surgery... and boy was he right. The pain and all the discomfort was worth just having my acid reflux. I'm still in full disbelief! OK. I have not heard that one before... but you never know... our body is capable of some strange things for sure... thank you all for the advice and tips. I'll definitely make a post under the appropriate forum. I'm feeling much better already, and to be honest with you, having been in almost misery for almost 2.5 weeks, just the fact that I'm feeling a little bit better for me is a victory... Weight loss will definitely come second to feeling better. I have decided not to weigh myself for a while--just continue to eat healthy and in small portions like I have; in addition, I'm trying to get at least 20 minutes of physical activity per day, which according to my doctor will make a world of difference. Having felt better, tonight I went for a walk (I'm in a wheelchair, so I guess it's called a stroll) for about 35 or so minutes which felt really good. I didn't get that tired. Good things should follow next, no? Take care all!

Oh ok, maybe my pinky and ring finger numbness is due to the IV... I had it for 3 days, so perhaps it's taking longer?! One thing I forgot to mention is that I have felt no pain whatsoever in my actual stomach area.... I had the band+plication, and the band is not filled yet, so I have had no episode of getting things stuck although I have been having "soft" food for a week+ now. But thankfully, I have been able to eat my food with little to no discomfort. I had my first salad yesterday... it had shrimp and crab meat in it as well as lettuce, cucumber, and even some bacon and some ranch. I had less than 1/4 of the bowl and I was satisfied and full. In my pre-op diet, I would've finished almost all of the bowl (and I did eat lots of salad in my pre-op diet, and lost weight too). So at least I can eat OK

Well, I'm here and I'm alive, so I am grateful for that... The surgery itself ended up being a nightmare I'm still trying to forget somehow... One little detail I left out when I made my original post was that my surgeon was also going to remove my gallbladder. He actually at first was not a huge fan of doing that but since I had gallstones and the gallbladder had to be removed, and also because doing that would mean the insurance would cover at least part of my surgery, he agreed to remove it too... So fast forward to the day of the surgery now... I go into the OR at 9:15 a.m. hoping I'd be done by 11 or so and head back home by 2 p.m. same day. Well, when I opened my eyes in the recovery room, it was 6:30 p.m. The surgery took 5.5 hours on the accounts that apparently my gallbladder was a "mess" (he hasn't told me what that really means other than that it was big), so it took him an unusually long time to remove that darn thing... Ended up staying at the hospital for 3 days before I was released--what a painful, miserable 3-day. My poor wife deserves a humanity trophy for sticky by me all that time--never went home even; I was in a lot of pain and had a lot of discomfort from the very long anesthesia... the first night my roomy was a poor, homeless guy (the hospital was also my doc's choice--THE worst hospital in this town hand down...). Two full weeks later, I'm still dealing with the stupid anesthesia--5.5 hours of being under takes a long time to shake off apparently! At least he was able to do it all laparoscopically, but the biggest incision (near my belly button) still hurt pretty bad (no infections thank goodness) and the other 3 are not so great either. Now as for the results... Between my first pre-op visit (5/24/11) and my op day (7/14/11), I lost 18.2 lbs by simply cutting carbs out of daily diet (only 30 grams of "incidental" per day). Post-op, however, I have lost only 6.4 lbs. Haven't lost even an oz since 7/24/11 which is simply hard to believe! I eat just Proteins and vegetables--small amounts because of the plicated stomach, no carbs, etc. so I don't understand why the weight loss stopped all of a sudden! I don't feel hungry, but usually at night I get these weird feelings in my tummy area which feels like it's trying to eat my intestines and my stomach or something... very strange feeling... similar to starvation, but I am not hungry! Oh and I have a TON of internal gas and my stomach growls after the smallest amount of food intake. I had no pain that I could call "gas pain" really, but I do take Gas-X which somewhat helps with the bloating and gas in my belly area. Are these normal??! I saw my doctor 5 days post-op and at the time, he basically asked me to take more hydrocodone... My throat was sore (from the long intubation) up until a couple of days ago, and my right hand's pinky and ring fingers have been almost entirely numb since I got out of the surgery--doc said it's because of the blood pressure cuff, but the cuff was on my left arm not right! I didn't tell him anything then... but they are still numb--2 weeks later. So now you know why I didn't update you guys on my status earlier. I guess I was hoping all these would simply go away and I'd lose 7 lbs. per week and then I'd update you all on the good news... which ain't happening yet.

Well with only a few hours left to eat, I am proud to say that I think I am going to be just fine.... it went by real fast--work has been ABSOLUTELY CRAZY which I think has helped tremendously... I heated the chicken broth, added some white pepper (just a tad) as well a tiny amount of lemon juice (0 everything). I have always disliked chicken soup very much... this was better than chicken soup by a tad... not much. But when the closest to food you've had in 48 hours is coffee, everything tastes better I suppose. I could have maybe a cup over the past 2 days... Diet c4arbonated soda was on the list of the things I could have... I just had some diet ginger ale which was really nice (maybe 1.5 cans in the past 2 days). My biggest fear has been lever shrinking... I am hoping I've shrunk that bad boy down enough. I am pretty determined not to even use toothpaste tonight or of course tomorrow... no mouth wash, etc. Just good ol' floss, shower, some sleep (if I can get any), and then head out the hospital real early in the a.m. I have had a ton of surgeries as a kid pretty much since I was born and all the way to around 16... maybe once a year--but they were on my legs for my disability. So I have horrible memories of OR and hospitals in general. I've managed to keep my nerves kind of calm so far, but tomorrow will be an entirely different story I am sure. Do they give you something before taking you to the OR to calm the nerves? I'm gonna take it! Thank you, ladies, for the helpful hints. Wish me luck!