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Hey guys, I haven't been on for a few weeks and I apologize for that. I was banded 9/28 and since then, my life has gone through several twists and turns. I would say the 2 weeks after banding went as smoothly as possible. My band was a little tight the first couple days, had my first "unfill" on day 3 and from then on was pretty good. I took about 8 days off of work. Then it turns upside down. I returned to work on 10/8 only to be fired on 10/10 (really out of the blue, too.) I've been working with a lawyer to get a settlement on my contract and looking for new jobs. Frankly, the past 2 weeks have been the worst of my life and they have NOTHING to do with my band. In fact, I'm so stressed out, it's kind of good that I haven't had a fill yet because I'm really eating at a pre-surgery pace. I have always been a stress eater and I've never experienced as much stress as I have in the past couple of weeks. I was self-pay, the first credit payment is now overdue (will they repo my lap band? <grin>) I talked my wife into quitting her job to stay home with our 5 year old about 2 months ago. I tell ya, it's been about one Chevy truck and a dog away from a country music song. The good news is that I'm still losing a little bit of weight. I may grab for the chips or fast food, but it's WAY less frequent than the old days. This still has very little to do with the band. I'm feeling little to no restriction unless I eat really fast. Anyway, I just wanted to check in and those of you that are of that Faith if you could say a few words for me and my family to see us through the next couple of weeks as I attempt to rebuild my life. Plus, my first fill is on Nov 2. So I'm not really sure how that will factor into all of this... I'm still really struggling sleeping and having any energy, I'm falling into a little more depression after really feeling that I was coming out of it after the surgery. All I wanted was a "normal" weight loss surgery (if there is such a thing) but I got way more than I bargained for. I am still excited about the band, but it's just way on the back burner right now. But this, too, shall pass.

Wow... with a title like that, I am sure this will be the most popular thread EVER!!! Actually, I have a semi-serious question. I'm 2 weeks post-op and about 5 weeks into losing some weight. I've lost about 22 pounds so far. Which is great. Here's my problem... my fatty-guy stretch marks itch like HELL. They itch under my armpits and around my belly. (Gotta be careful cuz of the scars...) Is there a proven method to relieve these and possibly heal these stretch marks or at least make them better as my body begins to snap back to its "normal" size??

Okay, I sent my wife to the store with my post-op grocery list (which was WAY shorter than the normal lists I send her to the store with. It's amazing when you take Doritos and Dr. Pepper off the list how light it gets.) Anyway, I had on there sugar-free Kool-Aid. Now, she did what any normal person would have done and got 5 packets of regular Kool-Aid (which says UNSWEETENED on the packet). This was not, of course, what I wanted so I went back to the store and got the right stuff. Now, hopefully someone has a trick here because 5 packets of regular Kool-Aid were 5 for a Dollar. 5 Packets (1 box) of Kool-Aid sugar free was about $2.75. I'm going to blow through millions of dollars drinking this crap unless I find something cheaper. (okay, that was hyperbole, but you get my meaning.) It's either this or Water and I'm about tired of water and need some taste!!!!!!

DW is something you'll see on a lot of different forums if you happen on communities like this. In my case Dim witt is pretty close - but it stands for most people for "Darling Wife" - others are DH - Darling Husband DS - Darling Son DD - Darling Daughter Just a quickie way to refer to your family - plus some might have problems with them having their names on the Internet.

Crap - it's only been 5 days and this is already my second "complication" - I went walking this morning (thank GOD my DW was there with me) and got about 1/4 of a mile when I felt this stabbing pain about 1" above my port incision - I doubled over and I got really sweaty and weak. I just about called an ambulance and if my DW wasn't there I would've. But I made it home and called the doctor. They said that it was too low to be my band slipping - what I had done was probably popped a stitch in my port incision. OUCH. Anyway, they told me to take some motrin and chill... which really sucks because today was going to be the day I started being more active. It hurts like HELL but nothing urgent. I go see the surgeon for a follow up on Friday. Anyway, just wanted to chime in. --Chris

Could we have a "Money Matters" sub-forum added to the board? Since I'm "self-pay" and suddenly have this $17,000 Cheerio around my stomach, I'm trying to find some frugal ways to make this work. I think it'd be nice to have a forum where we can throw ideas on: Money saving food tips Online coupons Money-Making ideas (spam-free of course...) Just better fiscal responsibility ideas Here are 2 I'm willing to throw into the hat. My dietitian at our grocery store started suggesting 8th Continent Soy Milk to keep up my Protein. There's an online $1 coupon on their website: 8th Continent Soymilk - Light Soymilks (Click the $1 icon at the top) Also, I've been liquidating many of the things I've collected over the years that aren't as important as my lap band. One of them, has been my collection of over 1,000 CD's and DVD's. Rather than sell them individually at a garage sale or on eBay, I found two places that you can just put the UPC codes in and they'll buy them from you - as long as they're in relatively good shape. Those sites are: www.mx123.com - They do DVD's only Newtownvideo.com - Buy & Sell Your Used CDs, DVDs, and Games For Cash - They do DVD's, CD's and Video Games I've used them both and have made almost $300 just selling crap that was clogging up the corner of my office! Hope this helps some of you. What are YOUR suggestions for raising a little scratch while you're losing a little weight!?????

You might make sure there's not a fill in your band. This was my problem. I was terribly bloated - gas pain - couldn't keep even water down. Turns out it had 1.5 cc filled and that was too much considering the swelling around it. So they took it out and it was IMMEDIATE relief. This is day 5 for me and I feel WAY better than day 4.

Hot drinks - yes. I tried Hot Cocoa and that made me fell "fuller." Remember, the first few weeks aren't about losing weight, they're about healing on the inside. So if you put on a pound or two, that's okay in the bigger picture. You do want to start some of those good habits, but it's hard to turn a boat on a dime. Give yourself a break - your body's gone through a bunch!! You'll be fine. Just don't make a habit of it.

(FYI... For the uninitiated, DW = Darling Wife) 5:00 AM (ok, more like 5:20 AM...) - WAKE UP CALL - Shower, Shave 5:25 AM (wake up DW) 5:30 AM (wake up DW again) 6:00 AM - Depart for Weight Loss Center - KC to Overland Park @ 6:00 AM = 33 minutes 6:30 AM - Arrive - Some paperwork - DW is cranky so I tell her to leave and get herself some caffeine. 6:45 AM - They take me back to the pre-op room where I change into my lovely gown. The anesthesiologist has a University of Kansas cap on. Not a good start to the day. I get dressed and the nurse starts to draw blood and start an IV. Turns out, not good on the veins to drink only Water for a day. She had a helluva time getting the needle in, but she did get it started. 7:00 AM - The anesthesiologist comes in and goes over his spiel and I spot a quick glance of Dr. Selim. Just a hi and bye. I made sure to tell them to not wheel me back before DW got back. 7:30 AM - Now, at this point, I've got to tell you that the level of obnoxious and my level of nerves both increased exponentially as the morning progressed. However, this is where the rubber hit the road and I really wanted to express all of the love you have for a person... For their courage to take this journey with you... For all of the little things and the big things... Yeah - missed opportunity there - because I think I just made a dumb comment and got wheeled away. (I'm sure she knows...) So, they wheel me back to the OR. They are very calm but not laughing at my jokes - probably because the jokes weren't funny by that time. They tell me to switch to the other bed and breathe dee.............. 8:50 AM - Out of surgery. 8:51 AM - Nauseous. Dry heaved a little bit. She said that was due to the morphine or the anesthesia - I don't remember which. She said she gave me "something" for the nausea. It worked. 8:51 AM - Dr. Selim came out and told DW that everything was fine, that I was in recovery and I was coming out of it. 10:00 AM - I'm back in the recovery room now and the nurse is really trying to keep me taking big breaths. I guess I got diagnosed with a little sleep Apnea while I was under. Weight loss will only help this in the future, but for now, it was causing me to block my deep breaths when coming out of surgery. She gave me oxygen and that seemed to help. 10:10 AM - DW comes back to talk to me. I'm in and out of consciousness for the next couple of hours. This was partly due to the anesthesia wearing off, but mostly due to the lack of sleep. I was TIRED. 10:10 AM to 12:00 PM - DW kept offering me ice chips. I think I ate two. Mmmm.... Ice chips.... 12:00 PM - My humor starts to come back, and my color starts to come back. I think I was given morphine at one point, but it started to wear off around noon. I actually started pretty good. I rested for a couple more minutes. The nurse asked me if I wanted a popsicle. Well, sure! I ate about half of it. It was orange and creamy. Gooooooood.... 12:30 PM - The nurse asked me if I wanted to try to pee and walk around a little bit. Well, sure! So, I got up, got my gown retied and started walking. I really didn't feel that bad! There was some obvious skin pain on my stomach from below my chest to my abdomen - however it kind of just felt like I was punched with a medicine ball or something. That pain remained constant, but even at this hour is just about a 4 - easily managed with medicine. 12:45 PM - Was walking and talking and even managed to trickle out some pee. Apparently, that's all the checkmarks they need to get you the hell out of there because next thing I know I was signing forms and changing back into my clothes. I still hadn't seen my scars or anything, but the nurses and doctors were keeping DW pretty informed. I was still sort of groggy so I'm glad they weren't giving me the directions on how to build something complicated. 1:00 PM - In the car on the way home. Yep, it was just that simple. 1:45 PM - Overland Park to KC @ 1:00 = 45 minutes. LOOOOOOONNNNGGGGG car ride. 2:00 PM - My symptoms at this point are the stomach pain and a sore throat (due to the intubation). However, I'm still very tired at this point and slept until about 6:30 PM. 6:30 PM to Now - Feeling pretty good. Walked outside for a little bit and had a popsicle. Even feeling well enough to update this blog and keep everyone up to date. In all, I wouldn't say my pain level ever rose above a 5 and from what I can tell, I was in and out in near record time. That wasn't my goal, but it's always better to recover at home. They did give me a liquid prescription for some pain meds which I took once since I've been home. I'll keep you posted on the details. Here's a picture of what my stomach looks like now (click on the link - it's not for someone who is eating of doesn't like scars.) Things from the message boards that I haven't seen yet: Gas PB Major pain Thanks for everyone's prayers and good thoughts!! It seems like today was an unqualified success!!!

Hey Cajun, Like I said, It's not something I'd want to do every day, but even after 5 days, I KNOW this was the right decision and I feel better already. (Still a bit weak, but that's because I'm hard headed and don't know when to quit...)

I finally found out why I felt like crap the past few days. It's day 3 since my surgery and I had lots of energy, but just couldn't keep anything more than about 2 sips of Water down. When I did take a big gulp of water, it felt like my sternum had a blimp underneath it. When I tried to drink/eat something else (pill, medicine, popsicle) I got the whole PB experience. Well, turns out, my band was "filled" with 1.5cc of Fluid immediately following my procedure. The nurse practitioner says that some surgeons like to do that and that the manufacturer recommends to put a little into the band when it's installed. However, it turned out that it was WAY too much restriction for me with all the post-op swelling. The nurses at the clinic, however, say that they get those folks right back and are advising their surgeons to just leave them unfilled. It's just too much restriction. I had a barium swallow today and it was just a swimming pool above the band. "Gee, let's try to take that fill out" the nurse said. Immediately she drew all 1.5 cc's out and it sounded like someone had popped a cork that barium swirled down so fast. I felt SOOOOOOOOO good. I didn't really have much to compare it to, but knew something wasn't totally right the first few days. I had gotten dehydrated and lost 13 pounds since Friday. That's nice, of course, but WAY too much to lose post-op. So, now I'm rehydrating myself and can actually get some non-clear liquid down and even feasted on sugar-free pudding this afternoon. Just an FYI to anyone to let them know that there's still some confusion on the surgeon's part. They let me go home Friday without a barium swallow which is the surgeon's preference also. While I appreciated getting out of there a little faster, it would have saved me some pain and some potential serious complications. So, after a nap, I"m happy to report I'm starting to feel alive again. Day 4 is going to really be great!!! (Plus, I'll still take the 13 pound drop... not the healthiest way to do it, but I'll take it!!)

Thanks everyone for your responses - it is a 10cc band. I honestly didn't know there were different ones. I am not feeling as restricted today but am still sipping liquids. Might try a milkshake tomorrow. I'm betting I"m still really swollen - I've been fairly active, walking, etc. That's not going to help the swelling - but I'd rather be active than the other way around.

You'll do fine!! The pain is only temporary and the drugs they give you are good!!!

Yep - turns out there WAS something wrong. This afternoon, after my scale said I dropped 13 pounds in 3 days, I called and they saw me. Did a barium swallow and it turns out they did a fill during my surgery. That's why I haven't been able to swallow anything. They took all 1.5 cc's out and that barium immediately swirled down into my real stomach like someone pulled the plunger. Amazing. My entire body reduced to the first two pages of a plumbing textbook. Immediately following, I feel AMAZING. I can finally take a REAL deep breath and a real drink of water. So... next couple of days, I need to rehydrate myself, but it's going to be a piece of cake!!!

I have this home scale, you see, and it doesn't talk to me when I get fat. I mean REALLY fat. It stops talking to me once I hit a certain weight. It only says "E" - Which must be some foreign language for "Too Fat." So, I haven't been talking to it, you see. I figure that I didn't start the quarrel, but I certainly shouldn't be participating in it. So I stopped talking to the scale. I got weighed about a month before my surgery and then the day of my surgery - both numbers were too high for my scale at home. But this afternoon, after 5 days of eating only water and broth, I thought I'd look up my old friend, the scale and see if it's ready for forgive me yet. It did. It started talking to me and told me that I've lost 21 pounds so far!! (Since I started this whole process - about 8 pounds since my surgery 5 days ago). So, I have someone else to talk to in the house now. Yippee!! (Yes, eating only water and broth sometimes makes me sound like a moron. The aforementioned is probably just that... thanks for putting up with me...) :whoo: :whoo: :whoo: :whoo: :whoo: :whoo: :whoo:

Bren, Yeah, only liquids, popsicles and today I had hot cocoa and chicken broth. Something pseudo-salty or at least with some taste. I've got to tell you that I'm going batty just "healing" - My wife is ready to kill me. I keep doing the dishes and cleaning the front room. I tried to explain to her that this is normally time I'd have been eating. I do find that the burping (not the PB - I've had a few of those) but just the burping that feels a little like heartburn or just a bad belch - that's getting annoying. I can't seem to find a comfortable way to sit/stand/lay where it's not a problem. Is there something I can take? I tried a tums the other day and I think I had too many (I had 2...) maybe if I take just 1/2?? Dunno. Thanks for the kind words!! Honestly, my energy level hasn't been a problem - I've been too energetic to where I think my body has needed me to slow down. - but I'm just so damned excited about this new tool. I want to be healed and skinny like yesterday...

I can definately see if you're starting to tone your body or really work on the last 10-20 pounds how this device could be amazing for you. But for fatty's like me where I've got 100 pounds to lose and I'm going to be in a 2,000 calorie deficit every day for the next several months, then bah. It's cool to wear when you're walking, but right now its a REALLY expensive stepometer. I am sure I'll get use out of it when I begin to approach my target goal. I just think lap banders aren't their target audience.

Sorry I didn't see this post until now. I'm banded +3 days now and feeling pretty strange. It's still the general ache, but keeping stuff down is a challenge. Anything except Water seems to want to gurgle back up. I am sure this will subside, but a strange sensation for now. Swelling is going down and have had a unexpected amount of energy the past 2 days. Walked a mile yesterday (that was too much) and .5 mile today. Will try to extend that a bit this week. Go niners!!! Keep up the great work!!!

Here's what I "ate" today... AM... Sips of Water. 8:00 - Walked 1 mile outside 9:00 - Took a shower and took my medicine (diovan - larger pill) 10:00 - Popsicle - sips of water... feeling pretty good 10:30 - 2 Tums Okay, here's where the wheels fall off. PB - Tums came back up in about 5 minutes... pretty bad pain in my stomach for the next couple hours. Didn't drink anything. Feeling is like stomach cramps. 1:00 - Took some liquid hydrocodone and 3 sips of kool aid. PB - Kool aid definately came back up - probably some of the medicine. Called nurse - he said to take sips of cold water to see if it's any better in a bit. What should my level of concern be at this point?

Yep, I'm figuring that out first hand... the laying down with absolutely anything in your tummy will only get it to gurgle back up. Not really in a vomit thing, but just as a gurgle type deal. I've tried a little hot cocoa this afternoon and that seems to be okay, but I can't really do anything except stay standing while I'm drinking it. That's okay because the laundry was starting to pile up... This gurgle thing can go away any time now, however... it's starting to get a little annoying...

Yeah, the sips of Water seem to be doing just fine. I also laid down at the same time... that seems to have something to do with it, too. Also running a low-grade fever (99) - That's probably just the post-op, eh?

I'll try splenda today. I have never really gotten into tea. Since I haven't had a caffeinated drink in over a month and a half in prep for this surgery, if I'm going to drink caffein, it will be in something I like :confused: Thanks for the good thoughts. Was banded yesterday and things are going very well so far...

Quick follow up 12 hour later. I slept comfortably last night until about an hour ago. My stomach still feels no worse than if someone really punched me hard in it. But that was enough this morning for me to get up and take some hydrocodone. Waiting for that to kick in. I'm more astonished that I haven't had anything to "eat" since almost 36 hours ago. The last time that's happened was probably never. I'm hungry just out of habit. Drinking Water seems to keep me going fine at this point. I don't think I drank 64 oz yesterday, but I'm going to try to hit that mark today. Actually thinking about doing some running around today - get caught up on some chores. I have all of next week off and if things keep going this way, I'm going to get a LOT done!! Thanks everyone for their kind words!!

Oh, no question about it. Just wanting to find the most value in the whole thing. I might try the regular Kool-Aid with the Splenda and see if that makes any difference. Can you buy Splenda by the bag/can? Or will I just have to open up 200 of those little sugar packets??

Mesh is the new black. While you're in Mexico, can you pick me up some of those thongs they sell pretty much on every street corner? Maybe one with a Harley logo on it... or a picture of a weed leaf? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll look good in a thong. If you can't find that, how about with a pissing Calvin peeing on a FORD logo or something. I'm excited for you, it's really going to be a cultural experience. Hell, screw the lap band surgery!! I'm just going straight for the thong!! My only culture I'm going to get is that my surgery is in Overland Park - home of Target and soon to be home to all of my money while I'm in surgery and my wife goes shopping there. (And yes, I'm freaking out... 36 hours to go - so I'm pretty much living on this message board...) I think I've read every horror story on what can go wrong on Friday. It's kind of reverse psychology... but then again, I'm an idiot so... it could just be harshing my mellow. I'll keep ya posted. PS... I took my "before" picture today. (Chris Kamler's Blog Maybe the Royals will be good by the time I finally lose weight.) PPS... I still expect you to take me up on that Romantic Comedy bit. At least give me 5% rights on the back end. (I don't know what that means, but I like it...) L8r,