new L&D RN

Well I joined a gym close to my house. I can't go on the days that I work because I work 12 hours shifts and after running around like crazy all day I must get in enough cardio...ha ha!! On my days off I work out for about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours depending if I do the weight circuit or not. I do 35 minutes on the elyptical and 45 minutes on the treadmill alternating the incline up to 6 and then back to 0. I find that works your butt muscles pretty good. When I dont do the weight circuit I also add in the bike for 20 minutes. I get to the gym about 3-4 times a week. I get 4 days off a week, but sometimes that first day off after working 2 twelves in a row I find I need to rest and just do errands. I have only had the one fill so far, but I think I have restriction. I got something stuck about a week ago....a peice of very tender baked pork chop that I guess I did not chew well enough. I did not PB or throw it up, but boy was that slimy spit nasty and it felt like I had a golf ball stuck in my stomach. It eventually went down, but I am extra careful now.

ShhhDontTell, Sounds to me like your family needs to be good enough for you...not the other way around. Families can be tough and we cant choose them. The only thing we can do is change our own outlook on things and there comes a point when you realize you can not change your family.....we can only change the way we react to the things they do and say to us. Trust me after many therapy sessions and a lot of forgiving but not forgetting I have come to realize this. I hope your weight loss journey helps you to be more accepting and loving of yourself because that is what is truly important. The love and support of your husband and daughter are both there to guide you also!!! Good luck with your journey and we are all here to support you!!! Twyla

Hi everyone!! I know it has been a while since I have posted. I have been reading everyones posts though and am glad to hear how great we all are doing!! Well my lap band program fee included a pre op fitness evaluation and two post op meetings with a trainer who shows you how to exercise. It is all done at a fitness center run by the hospital where I had my surgery. The place is pretty much like a medically supervised Bally's. Anyway , I went for my first post op training session yesterday and boy do my arms hurt today!! I have worked out in the gym before, but this session was an hour and a half long. Granted, part of the time the trainer was teaching me to properly use the equiptment so I was not working out the entire time.... But I did many laps walking fast around the track, walked the treadmill, did the recumbant bike, the elyptical, and then hit the weight circuit. We skipped the abs because I wanted to ask my surgeon first if I can do abs yet. It has been almost 5 weeks since my surgery and I can sleep on my stomach and everything just fine, I still baby my abdominal muscles a little though. I have another meeting to go to with the trainer at the hospital center and then I have to stay motivated to go on my own at the recreational centers that are closer to my house. The hospital center is like a 45 minute drive. This kinda stinks because I like the center and the trainer and my surgeons office even has a program you can join there that costs only $30 a month and only gastric gypass and lapband patients can attend and we all work out together. You also have free run of the fitness center while you are there. The class meets a couple different times a week and you can go to as many as you want. I really wish it was not such a drive because I think the support from the other post op patients would be awesome. How is everyone else doing with exercise???? I was walking everyday before I went back to work. Now I am so tired after those 12 hour L&D shifts I use my days off to clean the house and recouperate. But since I have lost some weight I am finding I have more energy than I used to. Sorry such a long post!! Feels like I have been off the chats for a while!! Twyla

Hello everyone!! I am a nurse also. I have my BSN and am a registered nurse in labor and delivery. I am the first nurse on my unit to be banded but another nurse had a gastric bypass 2 years ago. My unit has been very supportive. I go back to work on Monday the 22nd. I started my unit orientation in June and it lasts 6 months. I just graduated from school in May and passed boards in August, so I am very lucky my unit was supportive of my surgery and let me have the time off of work. I just hope I did not forget too much of what I learned the past three months!!! I am a little nervous to go back on Monday, I feel great but we have some heavy pt's and I can't lift them just yet so that may be a little challenging. I love the area of nursing I am in, it was L&D or critical care for me. I worked 2 years in 2 different ICU's as a care partner and did an extensive externship at a level 1 trauma center in the ICU, but I chose L&D because of the unique interactions I get to have with my pt's and their families. It is also usually a very happy area to work in and the pt's are not usually "sick". I hope to loose this exra weight to allieviate my PCOS symptoms and start the family my husband of 5 years and I are hoping for. I dont have anymore excuses to not have kids soon, I got my degree, have a great husband who has a stable job in the NAVY, we bought a house, and our parents are starting to give us the "when are the grandkids coming??" talks. I chose the band becasue it does not cause any absorbtion issues and I want to have kids after this weight is gone for good!! :whoo:

Hello Everyone!! I am very excited to say that I went to my firts post op appt. yesterday and I have lost 18 pounds!! :whoo:16 of them since surgery on the 4th!! YAY!! I guess all the walking at the park helped a lot!! I just hope it stays off now that I have been advanced to mushies. I do not think it should be a problem though because I made some egg salad and tuna salad, and I can only eat about 2 tbsp or so every 2-3 hours. I actually feel full!! What a weird feeling to actually feel satisfied with such a small amount of food. I was worried I would be able to eat a lot of mushie food becasue I can eat about 3/4 to a cup of Soup but my doctor told me I would be suprised how the change in consistency would allow me to feel the pouch more now. Boy, was he right.... I hope everyone is progressing well and tolerating their diets. I just have to say I am so glad the liquid phase is gone for now....I have my first fill appointment on the 15th of November.

I also feel little bubbles if I drink too much. I think I am going to burp really big, and then just a little bit of air trickles out. Now that I am on mushy foods it is not as bad. I get full really quick and it lasts a few hours. I also am having trouble getting all my protein in. My doc wants us to shoot for 80-100 grams a day. I think I average 70-80.

I was banded on October 4th, and my steri strips are still on. I was tols to just trim off the edges with scissors if they came loose, but not to pull the attached parts off. I took off the gauze bandages the day after my surgery. I just keep washing them when I am in the shower with mils soap and water like I was told, and they really clean still. I have not had any drainage issues at all.

Hi Everyone!! My name is Twyla. I am 26 years old. I have been married for the last 5 1/2 years to my great husband who is in the Navy, but we have been a couple since I was 17 years old and he was 20. We were both born and raised in Michigan. We now live here in Virginia because of the Navy. I recently graduated from Old Dominion University with a Bachelor's degree in Nursing. I currently work as a registered nurse in labor and delivery at a nearby hospital. We bought our first home a year and a half ago, and remodeling it had been quite the adventure. It is a 2 bedroom 2 full bath end unit townhome. We have replaced nearly everything, and I currently have my kitchen cabinets stacked up in my dining room area waiting to be installed. I put off the kitchen demo becasue we will have to be without a sink for 2 weeks while our countertop is being made, and I did not want to be without a sinke downstairs during my post op recovery. I have Poly cystic Ovarian Syndrome and have slowly gained weight since my late teens/early twenties. My endocrinologist says by loosing the excess weight I will increase my fertility, and we really want to have a family. I can loose weight, but just cant keep it off. I had surgery on October 4th, and am feeling pretty good now. I go for my first post op appointment on the 17th and boy am I anxious to get off of the liquid phase!! It is nice to meet everyone and this thread was a great idea!! I am going to try and attach a picture of me and my hubby.... Sorry the image is big, I cant figure out how to shrink it...This was taken at a nursing ball on a boat ride when I was still in school about a year ago. The only thing that has changed is that my hair is longer....

hello everyone!! Well I am now on my 7th post op day and I am feeling pretty good. My DH and I went to the park and walked around the lake this morning a mile and a half, and I did just fine. I even drove there. I am glad to see everyone seems to be on the road to recovery also and doing pretty good. I am not going back to work for another 11 days. Being an L&D nurse is very active, a lot of lifting, bending, running around like a crazy person. There is no way I could take it easy at work. But I am going stir crazy here at home. Grey's Anatomy comes on tonight, so I am looking forward to that. I am definately loosing weight everyday but I am not going to change my ticker until my official first post op weigh in on the 17th. I am sick og liquids...but they are getting a little better...okay that's a lie...but I now how important it is for us to heal. Way to go everyone who has been banded and good luck to those who are being banded soon!!! :clap2: Twyla

It is not good to put any type of petroleum based lubricating product, such as vaseline, onto your lips or in your nostrils when you are getting oxygen either by nasal cannula or an oxygen face mask because of the risk of combustion (FIRE---OUCH). I am a nurse and this is a big hazard, but you can ask for the nursing staff to give you a water based lubricating product for your nose and lips if the oxygen is drying you out. No vaseline or Vicks rub though....

Holly, You will do just wonderful. I look back on my experience and think I made it out to be more dramatic because being a nurse I know what goes on in the OR. I also expexted the same care to be given to me that I give to my patients....I guess we all have different standards of what excellent pt care is. But, I will take this experience being a pt and use it when I go back to work and try to be even more compassionate to those I care for. We just have to learn to make the best of everything. I am now on post-op day number 5, and I think all of the swelling in my stomach is gone becasue my water and thin protein shakes go down just fine. You will do great, and the pain is short lived.......update as soon as you feel up to it!!! Loads of support!!! Twyla :clap2:

well, it is done. I have the band and was not expecting as much pain as I ended up having, but it was not too bad. I found Dilaudid does nothing for me, and the Morphine just took the edge off. I went in to the hospital at 6:30am and was taken back to surgery at 8:30am. The nurse who prepped me and started my IV kept telling me how she had a friend who hated her band and wished she would have never gotten it. How she had had it for 4 months now and only lost 20 pounds. Then she emphasized how I may never be able to eat certain foods again. What a downer attitude to have to put up with right before surgery!!! She did not know I was a nurse and had researched the surgery and weighed all of the possible outcomes for over a year now. I looked over at my husband and he rolled his eyes at what she was saying. She should definatley not be the nusre prepping lap band patients. Anyways.... I was out of surgery by 12:30 and doing by swallow test by 1:30. Boy was that stuff nasty!! Worse than barium!! Everything looked a-okay and I had my pain somewhat controlled and was up and walking by 3:30pm. We left the hospital by 4:30pm and I just kind of camped out on the couch with lots of pillows that night. Going up the stairs to get the the bathroom was a challenge the first 2 trips, but now is fine. I am a nurse, so the hardest thing for me to do is ask for my husbands help. It is hard to be the receiver of care when you are used to being the caregiver. I have only had to take my liquid lorotab once so far today, at 9am...I am going to take a dose here in a minute though. I was taking it about every 4-6 hours around the clock the first day after surgery and the day of surgery. I will update more later. I took a shower today and that felt really good!! Hope everyone else is doing well!!

TNNurse linda ( I live in southeast lower virginia), and Oregon Holly, I do plan to say something to my doctor at my post op follow up on the 14th. She definately needs to be spoken too, because even being as educated as I was she made me have last second doubts which is not the state of mind you want to be in right before surgery. Anyway, enough negative stuff. I am now on post op day number 3 and my hubby and I are going to go out shopping for Halloween decorations. I figured it would be a low stress way to get some walking in, and I am a little stir crazy in the house!! I am still sleeping on the couch with pillows, but only becasue our dogs sleep in our bedroom upstairs and they like to sleep in the bed and I am afraid they will step on my stomach. I have a yellow lab and a pomeranian. I can get up and down without too much help now, I just had to learn how to get up without using my abdominal muscles. I seem to have to drink fluids all day to get my requirements in. Clear liquids go down easier than the tomato Soup, and I seem to get a little bit of acidy burning with the tomato soup. I do not feel hungry. My husband ate sweet and sour chicken with rice in front of me, and I didn't even mind. He brought me a big thing of wonton soup broth and I sipped on that. Boy was that good!! I am trying to stay off of the scale until my first doctors appointment, but I have taken a peak or too, but do not remember what I weighed immediatley pre op to be able to compare.....I will post again soon!! Thank you all for your concern!! I am going to scour the site for liquid recipies!!

Hi everyone, Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but now that I have my surgery date (10/4) and have been going to support groups, fitness evaluations, and paid in full my non-refundable program fee.... I am really feeling some anxiety. I have put so much hope into this surgery to provide the tool I need to be successful long term with getting rid of this weight and changing my life. I keep lingering on all of the what ifs.... like what if food gets stuck if I do not chew it enough....what if I get dehydrated becasue I cannot sip fluids all day at work.... what if the band erodes... I am driving myself crazy. I am a worry wart, but it has gotten to the point where I feel this knawing ache in my stomach and have to take pepto bismal...I already take previcid daily. Is anyone else feeling this way?? Maybe not to the extent I am...but maybe even just a little?? I even checked my bank account last night to see if my check had cleared for my program fee, wondering if I should stop payment. What a nut ball, huh?? It had not cleared yet, but I did not put the stop payment on. My husband tells me to just calm down and everything will be just fine. He knows how motivated I am to change. This will be the first surgery I have had that I had the choice to have or not. (say that 3 times fast!!) I have had my gallbladder out laproscopically and my adenoids out. I am a circulating nurse in the OR during c-sections...and I have even watched a laprocopic gastric bypass during nursing school a couple years back. I don't know if all of the OR exposure has helped me or made me more nervous. Okay this has been entirley too long of a post, but I am just feeling every emotion out there from scared, excited, dissapointment in myself for not being able to keep the weight off, nervousness...etc. Anyone else having an array of emotions???:help:

Hi, My name is Twyla and I am new here. I am scheduled for surgery on October 4th, and am excited, nervous, scared, anxious, and happy all at the same time. Anyone else feeling the same?? I am a registered nurse in Virginia. My husband and I have lived here for 5 years, but are originally from Southeast lower Michigan...most of our friends and family are still there. My husband is active duty Navy, currently on shore duty for the first time in 5 years. I have been researching the surgery and have chosen to have it done because I can loose weight with the best of 'em, but the trouble is I find it again almost as quickly. I have had the best success with the South Beach Diet, but only loose weight by sticking to phase 1 and exercising 2+ hours a day. The exercise schedule is just not realistic since I work 12 hour shifts as a labor and delivery nurse. I am scared getting in all of the fluids and eating slowly will be a challenge once I go back to work because at work we usually eat and drink when we can, and rarely take a full 15 minute break let alone 1/2 and hour for lunch. I am very motivated, and want to get rid of at least 80 #'s and keep it off for good. I weigh between 250 and 260 right now and it is my highest weight ever. My husband is very supportive, and actually proud of me for trying all of the diets realizing they were not a long term fix for me and now taking the next step to have lap band surgery. He is an amazing support system. I also have PCOS so insulin resistance makes it hard for me to feel full for long periods after eating. We are hoping by loosing weight I will increase my chances of becoming pregnant. We have been married 5 years now and have had no luck in that department because of the PCOS, but my endocrinologist says loosing the excess weight will most likely solve this problem. I am 26 years old and tired of feeling trapped in this body. I know I would be much more outgoing and enjoy life more if I felt comfortable in my skin. I look forward to chating with you all and supporting eachother through this journey!! :biggrin1: Twyla

I am also having the whole food goodbye phase. Today my hubby and I met some friends for Italian. I had a small side salad and eggplant parmesean...(Yummy!!). The entire meal I kept thinking am I going to be able to eat any of these things in a couple months? Will my band let me tolerate all foods just in smaller portions or will I be one of the unlucky banders who can no longer eat steak, chicken, or stringy veggies like celery and aspargus??? All of these things scare me. But from what I have been reading on the postings our goal after banding is to be "loose" enough to eat the same foods we do now but "tight" enough to feel full and satisfied with greatly reduced portions. I hope my band works well and I am still able to eat the healthy foods I enjoy but just in smaller portions. :hungry:

I am a registered nurse....you definately need to call your physician IMMEDIATLY...do not wait it out!!!! If you cannot get a hold of your doctor...GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM!!!!

lizziee, I feel the same way about the whole telling your friends about the surgery. I also feel like they will think I am taking the easy way out and that I didn't try diet and exercise long enough. Believe me I did. I have poly cystic ovarian syndrome, so it is REALLY hard to loose weight and keep it off. Not many people are familiar with all the systems of the body this syndrome throws off balance, so by the time I try and explain the ins and outs to them they are just confused. Anyway...I have only told my husband, my family, and a couple of girls who are also nurses that work with me about the lapband. One of them has had gastric bypass and is really supportive. I did not tell my husband's parents because I am afraid they will judge me. I have not told any of my friends outside of work for the same reason. People are not familiar with the lapband in the USA, and unless they are educated on it as soon as you tell them you are having surgery to help you loose weight they automatically think you are having a gastric bypass. I just hope by the time surgery week comes I am calm and at least some of the nervousness is gone (especially this burning pit in my stomach!!). Twyla

Thanks you guys for posting. It is so reassuring to know I am not the only one feeling this way. I am so glad to have found this site and to have joined this support group!!

Gret job Holly!! I am excited to see there are soooo many of us!!

Lafs, I work at Chesapeake General Hospital.

OregonHolly, You can put my "real" name on the list...it is Twyla. My banding surgery is scheduled for October 4th!! WooHoo!! :confused: Twyla

Hi Lafs (and everyone), I am having my surgery Virginia. I live in Virginia Beach, but my surgeon operates out of a hospital a few miles away...it is either in Newport News or Hampton, Virginia. I thought it was quite a coincidence you said L & D had been your first area of nursing you worked in out of nursing school becasue it is the first area I have worked in since graduating with my BSN in May. It is a whole lot to learn. I always thought the nurses I worked with as a student were joking with me when they said nursing school barely prepares you for the "real world" of nursing. Boy were they right!! I am kinda worried after surgery I will have a hard time getting all of my fluids in when I am at work, because we usually drink and eat when we can...it is usually far and few between....and we often gulp down our food becasue we are so busy. Being a new grad nurse I am still working on my time management skills. My unit is very supportive of my decision, though....so that is a big plus!! Quite a few of the nurses at our hospital have had weightloss surgeries. :confused: Twyla

Well...my surgeon does not require a pre-op diet...but I am starting to try making different protein shakes to see how I do with them. I have found that mixing in a little sugar free pudding ( so far I have tried the chocolate fudge and butterscotch no cook jello pudding) in with ice, milk and a couple scoops of protien powder makes a yummy thick frozen protein shake that even my husband thought was a desert!! I used vanilla protein powder. It was pretty filling, and full of protein!! My surgery is scheduled for October 4th...hopefully by then I will have a handle on all the yummy protein shake recipes!! Twyla

Hello all, justwaitin2b (Karen), I am from the US, I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I can't post for very long tonite becasue I just worked a 12 hour shift and have another one to look forward bright and early tomorrow morning. So goes the life of a busy L&D nurse, but I love my job and wouldn't change it for the world. Havent had much time to feel anxious about surgery next month becasue I was very busy at work. Hope everyone is well!! Twyla