beautifultina

thanks for all your replies and helpful suggestions. i am allergic to latex and to tape so they used latex free bandages on my incisons after the surgery and i have 5 squares of black gunk on my abdomen. I am doing pretty well. went back to work today. having some port incsion pain and the iv site developed phelbitis and is very sore. i will try the rubbing alcohol trick. my own mother had suggested i use WD 40 ...I said HELLO i have open incions on my body. i dont want to get them infected!! lol what a goof ball!

every doctor is different. my doc required it because he had a self pay patient wake up with out a band because he was unable to manipulate her liver to put the band on. her liver was too fatty. He has you do liquid protien drinks for two weeks pre op to help prevent this from ever happening again. You body stores fat at your liver and esp if you binge eat it will be huge and too big or very difficult for the surgeon to apply your band. it is only a precautionary thing but worth it i think. the fear of waking up not being banded scared me into sticking to the diet as bet I could. not all docs require it. call your doc and ask what he/she suggests. Best of luck to you in your surgery!

ok the thread is so long did anyone ever find out if we were able to get a group rate at the EXCALIBER? I will be flying down with my bf Harry if this thing is a go. I am not able to recieve PMs here because of a pop up blocker thingie...Delara if you would would you please email me? Beautifulnurse@aol.com thanks. I am very excited to know what the most current information is. thanks for your help.

holy cow.. i need to step back..i have been taking GIANT leaps with my new stomach. I am 6 days post op and been trying bites of baked potato and a bit of tuna and a bite of baked chicken and a few noodles. I have never had more than a few teeny tiny bites and chewed til the cows came home and i have never had any pain or PB or slimes...does this mean my band is only in my head? am I pushing too hard too fast? should i just stick to the broths protein shakes and wattery soups and popcicles that I was on for hte first couple of days? HELP!! I DONT WANT TO RUIN MY NEW STOMACH!

HRATB.....Harley Rebels Against Taking Baths. ok now go with LTDDS

give you the moon.....you are priceless as is your picture of all those cute hinnies!!! thank you for making me laugh! De lara....thank you for the happyness quote i put it in my journal today. and i printed one out to stick on my bathroom mirror. Have a great day and I hope you can crack your whips at the HEAD DEAMOND of HUNGER!

do you have a local support group for gastric bypass or lap band patients? we have both here and are planning to do big clothes swap. all are asked to bring clean and neatly folded clothes to the event. some women are even bring bras to swap..those buggers really do get expensive. and i look at it like this...i can always re wash things myself once i get them home to be sure that they are clean for me when i go to wear them. and I will be sure to pass along my nice ones to others as well. Beats the hell out of spending $60 for two bras every time you turn around. Best of luck to you. And JACK..I want to see pics of you shaving your legs. and your pitts too if you are brave enough to show them here!

ok weighted in at 288 today.not sure where that puts me for the challange. but i have lost 20 pounds total since july 3rd. On 7-3 i weighted in at 308. Keep up the good work everyone!!

Kari You and I both had our surgeries on Tuesday, July 26,2005. We are a pair. I had to do the liquid diet for two weeks prior to the surgery. I lost 14 pounds. Its Monday and I went back to work today. Hurting only at my port site. I woke up from the general anesthesia with the dry heaves....AWFUL! I thought I was going to yack on every person who came with in a two foot radius of me.:sick I have also developed phlebitis at my IV site and have been put on rancid tasting liquid antibiotics..YUCK !!! :lick I weighed myself this morning and I have lost 6 pounds since surgery.:banana Been mostly consuming broth, protein shakes, the occasional 1/2 cup of soup and lots of SF popcicles!! I wish you the best as we embark upon this journey together. I look forward to hearing about your successes and being here when you fall as I will be here asking the same of you. LOL! One of the women at my lapband support group meeting came up to me and hugged me and said WELCOME TO THE OTHER SIDE!!!:chinese and that is really how it is. We jumped the hurddle of getting the surgery and now we on the journey to the healthier and happier us. I am glad to be here with you.

i peraonally had to have initial consultation with the surgeon, educational class, psychological testing, nutritional evaluation, letter of reccommendation from my primary care Dr., pre op visit with surgeon, had to have all my previous attempts to lose weight documented and submitted to the surgeon, al my previous and current memberships to gym and health clubs to my surgeon, all my prior medical records concerning my weight submitted to my surgeon, have an upper GI, had to have my primary care dr order some baseline blood work for my surgeon. and i had to attend at least one support group meeting for my surgery type (ie lap band vs gastric bypass), and i had to have any and all out of pocket, deductible or surgery co-pay paid in full before my surgeon would schedule me for surgery.

ok well the day has finally come and gone and now I AM BANDED!!! I was banded july 26th at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno, Nv. I guess the surgery went better than expected..it only took an hour for the whole thing. I did wake up from the general anesthia with the dry heaves causing me to have to stay over night. the Upper GI after the surgery was yuckie. I almost heaved all over the poor girl in the Xray dept. (sorry to you who ever you are). they kept me on morphine and phernergan all night . I was forced to get up and walk around the floor at 3 am. I was also on my period when I went in so that made it a real bloody mess. I was home and taking my liquid loritab by 10 am on wednesday. Its been a relaxing couple of days off. I go back to work on monday. lol my boss called me yesterday to make sure of that. I have develpoed some phlebitis at my IV site in my left hand and have since started on Augumentin for that. (no its not normal to have redness swelling and a red streak going up your arm). I took a shower for the first time yesterday. it was horrible peeling off the bandages..(so i am a chicken..bite me..) I was happy to have washed my hair. There was a support group meeting last night that I attended. most of my fellow bandsters and hopetobebandsters were amazed to see me there. I was proud to stand up and say i was two days post op. We had a local plastic surgeon there as a guest speaker and he looked at my incisons and said that I was already healing fine. (made my day to have a handsome plastic surgeon looking at my bloated gut and saying nice things to me). Today and the rest of the weekend i plan on yapping on line and walking around the shopping mall with my friends. Thank you to all of you who have shared with me your plethera of information and your new friendships.

ha ha ha THE SHELF...my mother calls my layer of boobs my shelf too. After eating she would tell me that I need to DUST off my shelf..lol i would have crumbs and splotches of my sauces all over my shirts. I too, would have to change shirts after eating lunch or be a pro at using the shout wipes and such and walking around with a big dark spot on my shirt all afternoon. How embarrassing. :speechles I look forward to having to tell my mom to dust her shelf off....

I tried the 8th Continent Soy milk Light Vanilla flavored...tastes great but as it turns out I am allergic to it. It almost jepordized my surgery. I was adding the soy to my protein shakes to up my protein intake and ended up in the ER with my throat nearly swollen shut.:devious They gave me a dose of prednisone to clear the swelling. I went to see the Doc the day before my surgery was scheduled for to be sure my throat was in good enought shape to handle the anesthesia and was almost denied my surgery due to the weight gain from the prednisone and the mere fact that prednisone is a steriod and compromises your immune system. I was left in the exam room waiting for 40 minutes to hear whether my surgery for the next day was still a go or not. The nurse prectioner came back in to find me a balling mess of tears and snot. :cry She asked me what was wrong and I looked at her as if to shoot her dead in her shoes. :dead I said well, you left me in here for 40 min. not knowing whether or not I am going to have my surgery tomorrow. I have jumped through a lot of hoops to get here -even jumped through a few hoops you guys forgot to tell me about and now here I sit wondering if I just paid for a surgery that I may not get to have. she laughed and said oh honey you're ok. the doc said he will see you tomorrow in the hospital. hugged me and left the room. :speechles all that being said...just be careful if you have a tendancy towards allergies and you are still waiting to be banded.

UUGGHHH!!! THE HEAT!!! THE HEAT!!! Its been record breaking heat here in northern nevada for quite some time now. We had over 10 days in a row of triple digit heat!! That is crazy! I hope you are all sip sip siping your water and lounging by your pools with popcicles and iced teas. remember the sunblock to ward off nasty sunburns. Leatha....I am prouid of you for opening yourself up to that man to try to help him. even though in the end it was you who recieved the help..yes you did...he showed you that he is shallow and has unrealistic goals for himself. maybe the advice you should have offered him was to look for his perfect mate in a kennel. ALL humans have flaws, they are what make each of us individuals. It sounds like he wants a 20 year old. Point him in the direction of the nearest college.

i too had my surgery on tuesday. I had the dry heaves when i woke up from the general anesthesia. they kept me in the hospital over night and on morphine until i left. They sent me home with liquid lori tab and told me to sip sip sip sip sip. i am three days out now and I still feel twinges of pain in my belly. but I am also trying to keep up with the chewable GAS X that was recommended by other bandsters in my area. That really has helped to eliminate the bloating from my gut and to keep the burps at a minimum. Hopefully it will work for you too.

donali, thank you for better expalining it to me. I felt very stupid for asking. I appreciate you not making me feel any more stupid. This site and the people here have been so helpful. Best of luck to you all in your continued sucess.

female...........

i am not yet banded. WIll be in 5 days though. my understanding is that our new stomach can only hold 1/2 cup at a time. how can you put more in there and not stretch it out?

not being married and not being a mother i have little to offer in the way of advice. Is there some one from your family that could stay with you for a while to help you out? an older neice or cousin who is off for the summer? a volunteer from your church? heck maybe you could call the mother of the septuplets and ask her for a few numbers for some volunteers to help...and ask your hubby to seek help from his friends and family too. its gotta be very hard for the both of you. I wish you and your family the best of luck. CONGRATS on the 10 pound weight loss. Its not anything to sneeze at.

lol@alatina. not writing an article..just was curious because we share the same name and i too had lived in alabama. Working in a grocery store doing the books and cashiering part time has opened my life up to many oppertunities to be belittled. We have a "regular" who is a rather large woman herself. She is constantly grilling me about being over weight. She is so obese that she can no longer carry her own weight around long enough to do her grocery shopping. she had the nerve to ask me if my employer discriminates against me because I am such a big fat girl? or if i had problems finding a uniform to wear cause i have such a fat ass? I nearly jumped over my register to giver her a free sample of a knuckle sandwich. However, to her advantage my boss was standing there. She proceded to tell me to not allow the african american bagger to touch her groceries as she didnt want a dirty (N word inserted here) touching her things. At that my boss told her to leave our store and never come back. odd how being rude to me was not a big deal to my boss but being a racist was. huuuuumm and people wonder why i am not telling him what kind of surgery I am having. and KARE>>>our new T shirts should read... Don't forget..I will remember what you said when I was fat!!

wow. I didn't realize that dr.s could hold fills over your head like that!!! Did the fill natzi ask you for your journal to see how you are doing on a day by day basis? (do you keep one?) As much as I have had the greatest of intentions with just my pre op liquid Protein diet I have fallen off the wagon and dusted myself off and got back on. Keep your chin up and if you haven't started one-start a journal; write your meals and exercise and Water consumption along with the emotions you are feeling. Its also a great place to document your personal victories..like "yesterday I almost lost my watch cause its getting to be too big for my wrist." " Life isn't a destination- it's a journey. We all come upon unexpected curves and turning points, mountain tops and valleys. Everything that happens to us shapes who we are becoming. And in the adventure of each day, we discover the best in ourselves."

Geeta, I too am about to be banded. Tuesday , July 26 is my date. I have had great sucess with the liquid protein diet. It takes a lot of will power to stick to the liquid diet before surgery. Keep up the good work. Best of luck to you with your band.

I have been cruising around this site the last two days and discovering so much here. I wanted to post my eating for today to get things kick started for myself on my pre op liquid protein diet agin. Breakfast (not on my liquid diet but gave into the urge to chew) 2 cups frosted shredded mini wheats (1 cup is 190 cal 1 gm fat 5 gm protein)380 cal 2 gm fat and 10 grams of protein 1 cup 8th continent light soy milk vanilla flavored (8 oz is 60 cal 1 gm fat 7 gm protein) {thinking out loud...16 tbsp=1 cup then 8 tbsp=4 oz so 8 oz=1 cup..} 60 cal 1 gm fat 7 gm protein total bfast: 440 cal 3 gm fat 17 gm protein Lunch: 1 scoop Pro Rated Alpine Vanilla protein powder (120 cal 1.5 gm fat 22 gm protein) 7 ounces (mixed according to the protein directions) 8th Continent light soy milk Vanilla flavored 52.5 cal 0.88gm fat 6.13 gm protein) total lunch : 172.5 cal 2.38 gm fat 28.13 gm protein My plan is to have another protein shake for dinner. i have already drank 2 16.9 oz bottles of water between breakfast and lunch i will keep up on my water intake. i some times add the 5 cal crystal light packets to my water bottles so if i do i will be sure to include them in my cal intake today. Do i get credit for exercise for having to calculate all those odd numbers to get my intake amounts for each thing i have? LOL my big concern is this: my understanding of my new stomach is that it will only be able to hold 1/2 cup total. How do i properly feed myself and keep myself hydrated if I only have a container that hold 1/2 cup max? i understand the concept of sipping my water and that but as far as once i am back on solids how do I know how much of what to eat? do i get 2 ounces of protein and the rest veggies and then carbs? I am concerned and want to do this the right way as not to learn unhealthy behaviors for eating with my new stomach. I read on here that some one is going to re-train herself to eat the way she would a new baby. leave the junk out. introduce the proteins and veggies and leave the sugary and carb loaded options out. I am going to try that as well. I was concerned that I may be taking this too literally but, after reading your threads about how easy it is to eat the wrong things. I want to make the most of what I have invested so much time, effort and most of all money into getting this for myself. I want to utilize the tool I will be getting to the fullest extent. I am going to start keeping a journal of everything today. what i eat . how i feel when i eat. how much i exercise and my hopes and dreams for the new me. the purpose of my journal is to allow myself and my dr to see where i am with my lapband and my life. I think it could also be a useful tool to others who decide to embark on this journey. I know that if there were a journal out there that I could peek at and read I would. And I would take the best parts of it and apply it to my journey. I have found that in this web site and I am very grateful for being allowed to be a part of it. :cheeky

well fasting means nothing to eat or drink for a specified number of hours. most drs ask that you take any meds you normally take with as litlle water as possible. When i was fasting and came up with a dry mouth i would swish ans spit (in private of course). as if you were rinsiing your mouth out after having brushed your teeth.

ok my surgery is now only 6 days away. Do any of you have any suggestions for angles for your before and after pics? I want to have them with some good SHOCK value to show off how much I will have lost. and Nanna...i think i missed your post about whether or not you used any scar reducing treatments.. could you please share that with me? I appreciate you all shareing your pics here.. you guys are so great here. Thank you for shareing your stories and pictures with us here.