Mac the Knife

Giving up caffeine, nicotine and food essentially all at one shot is NOT something I recommend. While I wouldn't exactly class myself as being miserable, I'm making others around me miserable - and I know it. I'm finding myself to be tired all the time post-op, sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches and feeling too weak to exercise as I should. The wife keeps nagging me to go for a walk, only to get a more hostile reponse each time for doing so... broth and Crystal Light have run their course for me pretty much in terms of bland-food consumption. Anyone else finding themselves either wanting to sleep or at least too tired to move much post-op?

Had my band installed Wednesday. Don't worry about too much - relax as much as you can. In my case, on a 1-10 scale for pain, this ranked at about a half, and I'm a puss when it comes to pain. I'm not at all hungry, roughly 60 hours post-op. I've had a little Crystal Light, a little chicken broth, but otherwise have sipped Water and been fine - and as someone who as little as two weeks ago was putting down chicken wings 40 at a clip, that's saying something. I'm sure everything will go well for you tomorrow. Just don't try to be the hero - listen to what the doc's tell you, and do what they tell you as well.

I'm rather astonished at the lack of pain. I fully anticipated 'pain management' to be a big issue for me, but thus far it's been fairly easily dealt with. I'm not sleeping regularly yet, but fortunately I sleep predominately on my right side, opposite nearly each of my incisions.

I had the same problem, even daring to say that I probably drank more Diet Coke than you (at my peak closing in on a GALLON A DAY). I was able to pare it down pre-op, but by Monday I was still downing way too much of it. Had an absolutely wicked caffeine headache Tuesday and Wednesday prior to surgery, but honestly haven't even thought about Diet Coke since (well, until now, that is). I'm not at all sure I'll miss it that much.

This just in: the coughing hurts. A lot. :mad: It's okay though. My coughing is rather infrequent, and I actually am so comparatively pain-free (compared to what I thought was to be the case) that not even the coughing bothers me that much. Ever laughed so hard, or rode in a vehicle that jostled you around so much that you've somehow strained the muscles in your stomach? Well, that's exactly what I have felt like post-op thus far: the kind of pain I'd describe more as a nuisance than anything else. Even after coughing, I can live with it.

Oh, it's no big deal for me actually. I don't miss having one, don't crave one, and I honestly think if a lit one were brought in my presence right now it'd make me sick. Hopefully it'll be that way a week, month, year, decade from now as well! :cursing:

Well, while the surgeon himself has proven to be great, his office staff proved themselves to me to be borderline incompetent - they missed key points all along the way, only remembering them if I brought them up. At one point someone among their office staff said they utilized a "team approach" to the process, at which point I piped up that if that were true, the team had a strange resemblance to the Pittsburgh Pirates or Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Indeed, thanks for posting this. I'm slated for Wednesday afternoon, and while as the time gets closer I'll admit to getting somewhat nervous about it, it's full steam ahead!

I think my head's about to explode. The insurance company, in a move I'll never be able to explain, reversed itself. I'm back on for the 13th. Woo-hoo!

I found out Monday that my insurance company has rejected coverage for surgery, primarily due to a paperwork snafu with my surgeon's office. Consequently my surgery, slated for 2/13, will more than likely be delayed. While the doctor's office staff is keeping the date open, I know enough about this process to know that I can pretty much kiss 2/13 goodbye. The real sad part is that I put a whole slew of logistics in place (family coming in from out of state to help with things, postponing business appointments, etc.) that I now essentially can't reverse - and will have to repeat whenever I finally do get approval. I'm not disheartened about getting approval (eventually, one way or another, I will), or that my surgery will in all likelihood be delayed. I had a sneaking suspicion all along that my timetable would be thrown off somewhere along the way. I'm kind of pissed though that I've either spent or pushed aside around $10K (when you factor in plane tickets for family members, postponing revenue-producing business, etc.) that I not only now will never see again, but which I'll at some point have to repeat.

I'm slated for 2/13, currently weighing in at 335. I'd ultimately like to be at 175 or so when everything's said and done, but I'd gladly settle for anywhere in the 215-230 range.

True story: a friend of mine and I were walking the midway at a fair when we were both in our early 20's. He was lamenting his inability to ask this girl out, and I was giving him advice on the subject, when out of nowhere she appeared. My buddy, realizing he couldn't back down in front of me or face my wrath, timidly asked the girl out. "Oh, Tom, you're my friend, and I don't date friends," she replied. I then taught my friend a valuable lesson, jumping into the conversation. "I'm not your friend, but wouldn't mind getting to know you better. How about I pick you up around 8 tomorrow night?" Now this girl, who had known my friend for nearly a year but didn't know me from Adam, took me up on the offer. Showed my buddy just how comparatively shallow, superficial, and cat-like women can sometimes be. I never went out with the girl (actually I stood her up as a show of 'solidarity' with my buddy), but he never quite looked at women the same way after that.

I did this exact thing last night: ate a large meal even by my own standards, then wondered, "How in the hell am I going to do stop doing this?" I'm not backing out by any means, but I am beginning to question whether or not I'm properly mentally prepared for the change my life is about to undertake.

I wouldn't be calling her out like that. I'd be calling in hopes of taking her out instead.

Congratulations! I have a somewhat unrelated question to ask however, brought on by the statement above. Am I on some sort of fast-track with my LapBand, or is six-plus months an unusually long time to go through the process? Reason I ask is that from beginning (first meeting with doctor) to end (surgery) my entire process will be under three months - and that long only because I've drawn it out a little. In reality I could've had my operation perhaps as early as Christmas-time had I not had outside factors intervene. I'm not necessarily wondering why it would take so long to get all the I's dotted and T's crossed, but merely if it's the norm.

Hi, Amy, As one of Moran's pre-op patients I'm curious as to what 'unhappiness' you've heard from them. I'm not trying to defend him or anything; it's just that he's thus far seemed okay to me.

Next time you speak with your friend, ask her if she thinks it'd be prudent for someone with coronary artery disease to refuse undergoing an angioplasty or heart bypass operation, extending their life by perhaps as much as a quarter century, because of how it'd be perceived by others. Or if she feels that someone is better off dying of cancer rather than having a small tumor removed surgically upon its discovery. What you - what all of us - are doing is ultimately aimed at one goal: extension of, and perhaps enhancing the quality of, life. Nothing more. Explain how obesity has so many impacts on overall health (off the top of my head I can think of cardiac issues, respiratory ones, motor skills and mobility, not to mention early onset of arthritis and other ailments), and how the steps that you're taking - easy way or not - are going to help relieve whatever symptoms you're having. In short, ask your friend if she'd rather have you around to age 80 by taking the 'easy way,' or dead by 50 instead? That might change her point of view a little.

Y'know what, Ted? It's no one's business but your own. Tell 'em whatever you want to. I've deliberately kept my planned surgery to those who are on a strictly 'need to know' basis only - if they aren't directly impacted by it in some fashion, they aren't being told a thing. Not because of any fear of potential backlash from friends or family members, but simply because it's no one's damned business but my own. Down the road, if someone asks me how I lost weight (and presuming they aren't in similar straights as I am), I'll simply say, "I'm eating less than I used to." There's no reason to elaborate if you don't want to, or to profess the wonders of LapBand unless you're inclined to. What you do with your body is your business. And no one else's.

I used to be incapable of turning around in one direction without, at some point within a few minutes, being compelled to "right myself" by turning around in the other.

As part of the final, final round of tests being conducted in preparation for my surgery date (13 Feb 08), a blood test was conducted. The test has shown me to suffer from hypothyroidism, which while I far from see it as the reason I weigh what I do, I understand it may have an impact. Does anyone else have any experience with hypothyroidism, and particularly its impacts on bariatric surgery? While I haven't been told that my surgery would be postponed, denied by insurance or whatever, I'm somewhat fearful of that possibility.

That's good to know. I've had it in my head all weekend that this was going to completely derail my surgical track; that my insurance company was going to take a stance of "he's hypothyroid, which may mean he doesn't need LapBand." While I still have this concern, your post Nadean helps me not sweat it quite as much as I had been. I'm 37 days away now and my thyroid test was literally the last step in my pre-op evaluation process. I'd hate to think I'd get this close only to have the proverbial rug pulled out from under me.

After speaking with my surgeon's office staff I'm somewhat confused. For example, I was told I should begin walking and exercising as soon as I'm physically capable following surgery, but was told to avoid driving a car for at least a week. Seems to me a little odd. So I'll ask the gang here who've been banded: what post-op mobilities and/or exercises were you able to do right "out of the gate," and what things in your life did you find yourself having to ease back into?

I've actually been considering this, and probably will organize something along those lines within the next few weeks. Have to tend to EOY stuff first!

Sports was a concern of mine as well... after reading this I'll not worry too much about wuss sports like softball and flag football.

I'm pre-op, but I have absolutely no fear of being 'thin.' The reason? I still can't wrap my mind around the concept, let alone think enough to be afraid of it. I don't fear breaking chairs I sit on, or going to a restaurant and ask to be seated at a table because I don't want to (or can't) squeeze into a booth. I try if anything to laugh at the absurdity of it, but it's something I cannot change on my own - it's my reality, and consequently I have no need to fear it. The same, I suspect, would be true of being thin - it is what it is, so why fear it? What I fear is the thought of dropping dead of a massive coronary. And given a choice between that and being thin - I'll take thin. Gladly.