gentylwind

I noticed when I was about where you are the "full on top, hungry on the bottom" thing....where I could feel my "pouch" was full but the bottom of my stomach wanted food. It gets better as the swelling goes down and begins to feel more like a normal "full" feeling. Hang in there.

What RestlessMonkey said is exactly correct. Tell your surgeon so he can decide where to go from here, in your best interest. Four days is nothing...it gets worse for a while after the band, not better.

Yep, get those....its usually a sign I ate or drank too fast I am noticing.

Mine is 15 before 30 after. And yes, its so you eat less and thus lose weight. Drinking with a meal flushes the food through faster, allowing you to eat more and hampering weight loss.

So? How did it go??

Good for you! Absolutely if you CAN do it without the band, you should! And your doctor sounds whack. If you ever change your mind, definitely find another one.

I am so sorry to hear about your father and will keep you and your family in my prayers. I lost my 13 year old son to cancer not quite two years ago and understand the intense grief and helplessness you are feeling. You have gotten good advice above. The last thing you probably feel like doing is exercising, but it can and does help with the stress a lot. Even a stroll type walk can do wonders for your spirit. Its hard, but be patient and kind with yourself during this time. And being kind to yourself means taking care of yourself by eating within your band guidelines. Carry food with you or have a plan each day for where and what you will eat. It gets tough if you are at the hospital, so you may want to buy some cans of tuna and packets of mayo or those microwavable bowls of Soup to carry with you. You can also talk to your surgeon about what is going on. He may be able to refer you to a grief counselor or may recommend a slight unfill to help you get through this.

This is absolutely how I feel about it too. It can be a very unpopular opinion around here though. :thumbup: Good luck with your band! It sounds like you are going to seriously rock it.

Call your doctor and ask. Don't take advice from here about that.

Hi there and thank you. I did not want food at all for about four to five days after surgery. On day five, I definitely began to get hunger pains...the likes of which I have not felt in a very long time. I do, however, have good restriction, so can only eat a small amount at a time. Since I am on liquids I eat whenever I am hungry and get full really fast. I am doing great in the loss department. I am on the eigth day postop now, shopping, doing housework, working full time and living life normally and without pain, but with a lot more control over my food issues. Best of luck to you...feel free to PM me if you have other questions.

Call your surgeon on Monday. From an anesthesia standpoint, if it is in your chest you can't have it until you are well. Head cold anesthesia-wise should not be a problem. But I don't know about a lot of coughing and sneezing immediately postop. That might be pretty hard on the band, not to mention painful.

The preop diet is very hard, no doubt about it. I hate to tell you this though, but the postop diet is even worse once your hunger comes back. Learning to stick with it and muscle through the unpleasantness is really important right now. Restless Monkey is the only one I have heard of waking up without her band due to an unshrunk liver, but it is proof that can happen. But there's more reasons for that diet than just shrinking the liver. Its breaking old habits, getting the stomach used to less food and letting you know before you have this surgery whether you can do what you need to do to protect your health after the surgery. I doubt one cheat is going to hurt you, but I have to be honest. We all know once you say "ah, just one won't hurt", its easy to rationalize another. And after the band is on in particular that can be disasterous. I would call your surgeon and let him know what happened to be honest. It will keep you accountable and let you know if you need to delay your surgery or reassure you, one or the other.

1. I am one week postop (8 days). My dermabond is drying and flaking off my incision sites, which are still obvious but are also healed shut. They itch like mad. 2. I came home with liquid Lortab. I used it a little less every day and by the fourth day postop I was not using it at all. Get adult liquid Tylenol to transition to. The pain for me honestly was not at all bad. 3. I went back to work on the fourth day after surgery. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Froggi, it will likely be all liquid until you add solids to your diet. But it should calm down and only be a couple of times a day.

One week postop now, down 16.5 pounds, doing GREAT! I feel wonderful, spent the day shopping shopping shopping the sales. I have great restriction, am being creative with my liquid diet and am not really struggling at all. Life is good.

I am one week postop. Updated stats: Weight at beginning of preop diet: 242 Weight on date of surgery (11/21/2008): 236.8 Weight as of this morning: 225.5

Dr. Atkins would recommend having 1 oz of sharp cheddar cheese when craving something sweet (even though its not the flavor you want). It works..the sweet craving goes away. Might work for you?

It definitely helps to walk and move around. You don't have to do a ton. Just fetch your own drinks. Get your own socks. Take a lap or two around the living room and down the hall. The more you move, the better you will feel the next day. Its really, really true. You won't feel like it, but the body seems to rise to what we expect from it to a certain degree. Don't lay on your back very much. Spend time lounging, sitting up, moving your legs. You don't want pneumonia to develop from laying flat or blood clots in your legs, which laying flat also puts you at risk for. Truly, the more you move, the faster you will start to feel better. It seems counterintuitive, I know.

Yeah, the diarrhea sucks! You may just now be flushing some stuff from the anesthesia out of your system...I am just one week postop, and I am all done with the constant diarrhea. Still drinking liquids so still having, well, you know....but its not so often now. Just once or twice a day.

I am so glad to read you are improving!

I get it now and again, nowhere near as bad as some of you though, I admit. But when I do, if I sit on my left hip with my legs curled to the right, it seems to relax my diaphram on that side and the shoulder pain goes away while I am sitting that way. I sit that way to read and such, even with my laptop now. It really helps!

I admit I have four bites of mashed potatoes yesterday. I would put a little amount on my spoon then fill the spoon up the rest of the way with turkey broth. Tasted like mashed potatoes with gravy!

You really should consult your physician's definitions..it seems everyone's is different. I am on full liquids since the day after surgery, and can have creamed soups, tomato soup, any kind of broth, FF pudding, cream of wheat cereal, V8 juices, SF popsicles. Mushies include any soft food the consistency of baby food, including mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes can get stuck in the band due to how fibrous they are and we were told not to try it until after 6 months. Obviously though my surgeon does things differently than yours though, as you are just now starting full liquids. So they may define full liquids differently.

Yesterday rocked...my Joe made me made turkey broth with the legs and thighs, reduced it down by half (make it very rich and flavorful) and I had it and about four bites of very thinned out mashed potato. It was actually a wonderful, peaceful holiday at home, but I did a good job of eliminating any sense of a traditional thanksgiving by sending the kiddos off with their dad and my family being out of town this year anyway. The scale took a four pound hop downward this morning. I had my first lunch out today at La Madeleine and could not finish a small cup of tomato basil soup, which cracked me up and made me giddy with delight. That's usually a large bowl for me, not a small cup, certainly not HALF of a small cup, plus i usually would get strawberries romanoff, bread, butter, jam, maybe some pasta salad. Half a cup of tomato basil soup and I was full for three and a half hours and satisfied. No grief or upset that could not finish it at all. I was ecstatic. I get hungry pretty often, every two to four hours and eat a little bit when I feel the need according to my postop diet. But I seem to have good restriction still at this point, and my first fill is three weeks from today, so as it eases up, my ability to eat whole protein will increase with the loosening of my postop diet to mushies and softs and help me control my hunger until my fill comes along. I am thrilled with my decision.