Shinyhappymommy

Hi guys. I was banded February 8th. I'm beginning to have trouble with the post op diet. I find myself drawn more and more to solid foods and I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Nothing I have eaten has caused me problems, but I know I'm jumping the gun on my surgeon's guidelines. Sometimes I feel so lost as to what I can eat, that I just try to do the best I can and some of the choices aren't the best. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I ate a muffin this morning. I chewed each bite slowly enough that it was liquidy before going down, but there's no way I can justify that a muffin is pureed foods. For dinner tonight, I had a baked potato (which would be fine, except for the carbs) and a few bites of meatloaf. After chewing, I ended up taking anything that felt too solid out of my mouth. I need to back up a bit and stick to pureed foods for another week. The silly thing is, when I talk to my surgeon, he says only pureed foods, but then mentions that some soft deli turkey would be okay and cottage cheese is okay. Also he says that as long as I can get the food to a liquid state in my mouth it doesn't have to be run through the blender. I think those comments are what make me feel like I can move forward with more solid foods as long as I'm chewing them thoroughly. Those of you who were banded toward the beginning of the month, what are you eating? How are things going for you guys, diet-wise?

I'm jealous about the belching. I needed and wanted to belch so badly the first few days after surgery. I still am not belching much, which at this point I guess I'm grateful for. My gas out the other end hasn't been much either, in fact it's much less than pre-banding. My family is probably grateful for that! LOL Sorry to hear about the complications you had, but I'm glad you're doing so well. Welcome to this side of Bandland.

Becca------------------March 6th Shinyhappymommy------March 6th Enchantedruby----------March 7th Jaxbanster--------------March 11th CynthiaMcc-------------March 12th Sadie-------------------March 13th Marathinner-------------March 13th Sharon160--------------March 17th mhazelrigg--------------March 17th Viridesence-------------March 18th Nicolek-----------------March 26th Ponomimi---------------March 10th Jennyxo----------------April 3rd What's weird to me is that I won't be on regular food by the time I have my fill. I think I'll be on mushies.

March 6th!

I don't know the rhyme or reason to why some people lose quickly after surgery and some don't. I have been really surprised at my own quick weight loss, but I fully expect it to slow down any time now. I noticed that you don't have as much weight to lose as I do. That could be part of it. I've heard it said a lot that those who have lots to lose, usually start off quicker. I've lost 24 pounds since February 3. There is no way that even most of that is fat. I know that a huge part of what's leaving my body right now is Fluid. So I am excited about the pounds lost, but I know I have so much work ahead of me still. Hang in there.

No advice, but I hope everything works out alright. Let us know what the doctor says.

I fell through my friend's floor once. I was mortified. I fell about 3 feet into her crawl space. I got a pretty good bruise on my leg, but a bruised ego was most of my ailment. Her landlord had worked under the floor and not properly secured the boards afterwards. The family knew not to walk on that spot, but I hadn't ever been advised. I was animatedly telling a story and stomped forward with my foot and BOOM! It was on my birthday too. So sorry to hear about your much more serious and scary experience. Hopefully you'll get some good sturdy stairs that will last another 100 years. Here's to a quick recovery.

Hi. I was banded Feb 8th. I had a good first few days, had moved my way successfully to full liquids. I started getting headaches about a week post-op. They would go away with a heating pad and some Advil. Yesterday, though, this progressed into nausea and vomiting. I don't have the headaches so much now, but I am having a hard time not vomiting. My surgeon said I'm probably dehydrated, I admitted to him that I wasn't necessarily getting all my fluids in. Water makes me feel a little woozy. So he said to push the fluids and I'll feel better. I've been trying to get as much Fluid in, but I vomited again today. It's more of just heaving with only saliva coming out. I haven't yet seen any bile. I vomited three times yesterday and once today. I'm nervous about band slippage and just band complications in general. Have any of you experienced something similar? Did you figure out what was causing it? If I'm still nauseated tomorrow, I'll definitely try to get a prescription for anti-nausea medication. If I could just sleep for long periods of time I'd be fine, but I have a baby and dh is working today. Can't sleep unless baby is. Any help or reassurance would really be appreciated. Melissa

Just wanted to check in and let you know I'm feeling much better today. I haven't felt nauseous, but took the anti-nausea med just in case. I've done pretty well today and I think I'm on the way up. Thanks for the help and concern.

So is there a reason our pouches can't handle sugar, or are all the sugar free suggestions from the doc simply because we should be losing weight and sugar isn't really conducive that that? His pre-op instructions included Jello, popsicles, etc, that weren't necessarily sugar free, but the post op stuff all says sugar free. His only explanation was that things needed to be sugar free if I want to lose weight. I'm losing weight fine, but need some calories, carbs and Protein right now. I have a hard time with the artificial sweeteners, even Splenda, so I avoid those products usually. Anyway, I'm just curious if there's some irritant in sugar that we need to keep out of our pouches, though at this point, nearly all of what I take in goes right through the pouch since I'm on Clear liquids.

Thanks. Maybe I'll have to choke down some IsoPure Clear. It makes me nauseated, but since I already am, hey, what can it hurt? :cheers2:

Just woke up from a really good, long, nap. Waiting for the Chamomile tea to steep. I also realized this afternoon that my liquid intake should even be higher than normal because I'm breastfeeding my almost 1 year old. So liquids it is. My surgeon called and said he's confident we'll get through this and that he'll call in a prescription tomorrow morning for anti-nausea meds.

The only fluids I've really been able to get down today are peppermint and chamomile teas. When I had the chicken unjury is when I felt nauseated again. Maybe it's the Protein. I don't know. Also, I'd be all over getting some meds, but my town is podunk and there's not a single pharmacy open on the weekends. I think we'll be getting them at 9 a.m. tomorrow. My "baby" is actually turning one this week. It's rare that I'm home alone with him, so that really hasn't been much of an issue. My dh is due home from work any minute, so hopefully he can take care of me. I'm off to brew some tea and get some more sleep.

Sacrament bread! I hadn't even thought about it. I haven't been to church for two weeks, I won't be on solids by the time I get back there, so what do I do? What did the rest of you do? Re: Mitt Romney, I also hold out the hope that McCain takes him as VP running mate. I think they would actually make a pretty good team with McCain being strong on defense and Romney's economic background. It's so weird to me how in politics these guys are practically mortal enemies until things change and then it's all happiness and endorsements. My stake center is 2 1/2 hours away. We have limited what we attend there mostly because of practical reasons and finances. Oh, to be only 10 miles away. Our branch building is 39 miles away, so even church is 30-35 minutes away. I do miss living in more populated church areas.

I would have cried. Just cried. And then ate. Good luck for the next date.

Sorry that happened to you. I'm sorry but I can't imagine anyone being pleased with that comparison. That person must be lacking in the tact department.

Hang in there. I agree about the Valentine's Day treats. I'm just hoping they're gone soon. I tried one Optifast shake and couldn't tolerate it very well. Good luck with your diet. It will be worth it.

I had pretty liquidy (sorry) diarrhea from 2 days post op for 3 or 4 days and not much since then.

My dad always cured our hiccups with concentration. He'd talk us through deep breathing and then take a pen or pencil and move it slowly in front of our faces as if he were tracing curvy lines. We had to follow the pencil with our eyes, all the while breathing slowly. You can do the same thing yourself if you breathe deeply and pick an object to focus on. It works almost 100% of the time. The olive thing is intriguing. I'll have to see what that does next time. (once I can actually eat an olive.) I sure don't like hiccuping during my healing-from-surgery phase. Ouch!

It was definitely vomiting. I have yet to have any really good burps since surgery. What exactly were your burps like? I have to say that the most painful thing I do right now is hiccup. I haven't gotten a case of hiccups, but the occasional single hiccup always makes me cringe. Ouch! The rash around my incisions got a bit worse so I took off all the steristrips. I hope we can clear it up and not complicate the healing of the incisions. I'm taking an antihistimine and using steroid cream. I'm hoping they clear up soon.

Hi Everyone! This started out as a post here, but really turned into an extensive journal entry for my own records. I figured some of you might be interested in reading it. I'm not usually so longwinded. Enjoy! I'm home and finally feeling better after being banded. The day before surgery my dh and baby (11 months old) and I drove 3 hours to Denver and stayed overnight with some friends. All the pre-op stuff went well. (Except me being blindsided by a 9K quote from the surgery center! Thank goodness I'm insured and only have 10% of that to pay.) I had some anxiety beforehand and apologized to my husband if anything went wrong that I'm truly sorry. I just wanted him to know that if I died in surgery, or as a result, that I really didn't mean to and that I was going to be really disappointed on the other side if that's how it turned out. I shed some good tears and then moved on. He has been amazing and very supportive. I had to wait what seemed like forever. I was the third of three LapBand surgeries that my doc was doing that day. Before I was taken in, the first patient came by to say hi. She was doing fabulously and was planning on heading home in 30 minutes. That eased my mind a bit. I had a book with me and it’s a good thing because if I had nothing to concentrate on, it would have been rough. As I was drifting off, I remember them having me swallow a yellow or orange tube of some sort. Next thing I know, we're done. I didn't come out of the anesthesia very well. Instead of feeling like I was waking from a nice nap, it was chaotic and loud with people giving me instructions right and left and I was in so much pain. Don't they give patients pain meds before they bring them out of anesthesia? I didn't like that at all. I think I slept in the recovery room for at least an hour before they did the barium swallow and checked that my band was okay to go. I also had a lot of pressure built up in the middle of my chest. The flouroscopy showed a large air bubble in my pouch. I expected to burp it up and have it go away. I never did get a good burp in, I guess it absorbed into my body within a couple of days. As far as nursing my baby, Adam, I tried pumping about 3 hours after surgery and was only able to get about 1/4 ounce out. I made the choice to go ahead and nurse him then because Brad was getting ready to leave for the evening. I knew he’d probably get some of the residual anesthesia in my milk. It was a blessing for Brad because Adam slept 10 hours straight that night. (Not something he had done yet.) I stayed the rest of the day and overnight in the surgery center and only got up to pee and walk 3 or 4 times. I was worried that I wasn’t doing enough walking, (bloodclots in the legs) but it worked out. I had slept what I thought was all night and when I asked if it was morning, the nurses chuckled and said it was 10 p.m. There were two of the LapBand patients there and two nurses and that was it. I was surprised at checkout that I didn’t have a prescription for pain meds. Someone somewhere messed up and I wasn’t given one. The nurse did give me two percoset which didn’t seem to do anything at all. The drive home was uneventful , we stopped every hour so I could walk, but basically I slept the whole time. I think I slept most of the next couple of days, they’re kind of a blur. I did vomit my first night home. I woke up about 2 a.m. and was already having the increase of saliva that comes right before. I tried to will myself not to vomit, but it didn’t work. I ended up heaving about four times. I don’t think anything even came up, and it wasn’t a violent heaving, so I’m not worried that my band was compromised. I’ll spare the details, but I’ve also had diarrhea up until yesterday, (3 days of this). The first couple of days I couldn’t get much down. I couldn’t stomach the Protein powders I had been using before surgery. The Isopure Clear especially made me nauseated. I think I was basically nauseated for the first couple of days. Each day has gotten progressively better. I’m five days out, down 17 pounds (that’s in a week’s time) and feel great about my band so far. I moved to a full liquid diet on my 2nd day post-op. It was all I could do to survive at that point and I’ve tolerated it well. It was within the nutritionists’ guidelines, so I’m okay there. I do already have some restriction. I’m finding that I can only get in about half the volume of liquid that I was getting in before surgery. I can have about ½ to 1 cup before realizing I’m full. I have a hard time with Splenda. I’ve never been a fan of artificial sweeteners. I find I can tolerate it if I use a little (1 t or less) of sugar and ½ pack of Splenda for my sweetening. I’ll knock that off if I find that I need to tweak my diet. My surgeon told me on the day before surgery that he wants me to stop using milk. I was surprised, hadn’t heard that before. His reason was that milk has too much sugar in it. He said that skim, 1%, it didn’t matter. All had too much sugar. Interestingly enough, his nutritionist’s info includes milk, so for now, I’m using milk in the things I’m drinking. I couldn’t stomach the Protein drinks any other way. Again, something to look at if my diet needs tweaking. My incisions are healing nicely. I did develop a rash underneath the plastic waterproof Patches that he put over the steri-strips, so today we took as much of that plastic off as we could without removing the steri-strips. I’m prone to rashes with medical tape, so I wasn’t surprised. I’m treating it with a steroid cream and I think that will work well. Adam keeps lifting up my shirt to see my tummy. He knows the incisions are something significant and has taken notice. My feet are less swollen than they have been for the last 6 years or so. They still have a bit of Fluid in them, but look more normal sized. I am at peace and feeling good about this decision. I’m sure hard times will come, but for now it’s sure fun to step on the scale and see that I lost 4 pounds from the day before. My girls are getting into it, asking me each day how much I’ve lost. I’m fully aware that it will slow down at some point, but enjoying it for all it’s worth right now.

I'm newly banded and have sleep apnea. I'm wondering how those of you who no longer have apnea have discovered that fact. Did you have to go back for another sleep study, or is a pulse oximeter overnight study enough? I so look forward to not having to wear my cpap anymore. Also, what BMI did you need to get down to in order for the apnea to go away? Thanks.

I spent a big chunk o' change on a container of the Isopure Clear Strawberries and Cream flavor. I drank one of the shakes, two scoops per 12 oz of water and could barely choke it down. As per my surgeon's advice, I tried diluting one scoop in 32 oz of water. Still can't stomach it very well. Made me feel queasy. Do any of you have success in dressing this stuff up a bit so it's not so nasty? I haven't tried mixing it with anything but water yet.

I was a bit blindsided as we checked into the surgery center and I found out it was going to cost me over 9K just for their part of the surgery. When I originally asked my surgeon the price of the surgery, (I may have asked him his cost) he quoted me 10K. So adding the surgery center to it, the price basically doubled. Am I just naive to not have realized this before hand, or was my surgeon not very forthcoming in not letting me know that the surgery center would be just about as much as his quote to me originally? I had to just put the whole thing out of my mind so I could peacefully go through surgery and healing. Now I'm trying to figure things out.

I just dug out my copy of the paperwork that he sent to the insurance and his quote for surgery was just under $3,000 and his assistant surgeon was about $800. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention before because I thought we were already agreed on a price. If those amounts hold true, than we're only about $3000 over the originally thought price, instead of completely doubling it. I guess I just need to hash it out with the office. On top of this, I just found out our tax refund isn't anywhere near as big as I thought it would be. Bummer. That's what was going to pay for this.