KDuckster

Wow, I can't believe all the variation in how soon some people can get fills. My doctor advocates the first six weeks after the surgery is for s-l-o-w-l-y working up to regular food and doing everything possible not to pb and unseat the band. Then they will start doing conservative fills. I'm just at the six week mark and will be getting my first fill tomorrow. I had some decent restriction after surgery up until sometime last week and my appetite has come back with a vengeance. I am hoping for added restriction from this first fill, but I'm not necessarily planning on it.

Hi Everyone, I don't know if you heard, but Park Nicollet has created a new meeting just for their Lap-Band patients. The first ever meeting is at 6:00 PM on February 1 - Wednesday. I understand there will be monthly meetings for the time being - on the first Wednesday of the month. The meeting will be held at 5050 Excelsior Blvd. in St. Louis Park. This is the old Citizens State Bank building and it's in front of the main Park Nicollet Clinic buildings. Dr. Weatherille is also my surgeon and I'd love to me you and other PNC bandsters. See you there!

Sorry - I just have to respond to some things that were said in previous posts. I would be really concerned about a bariatric surgeon who claims you will lose 30 pounds in the first month following Lap-Band surgery. If they are, they shouldn't be doing this surgery because they don't understand the band. Doctors place the band with no saline in it, let the stomach heal for 6 weeks, *then* will make adjustments. Since there is no restriction for the first six weeks, once the swelling goes down in stoma, there is no reason to believe you will not still feel hungry, because it's almost as if the band isn't there. I'm glad some of you are able to eat solid food so early, but you're taking your chances with problems further down the road. Also, the Lap-Band has always been an *adjustable gastric band*, meaning even when it was first introduced in Europe, it was adjustable. There is a previous surgery that is still sometimes done called vertical banded gastroplasty. Here's a picture: Uh ... sorry about the naked chick up there, I could have done without her but that's the only good picture of the surgery I found in a quick google search of VBG. But yeah, there's a band there, but there's lots of staples and you get a circle in your stomach. You can see they really screw up your stomach and the plastic band is not adjustable in any way. This is *not* the Lap-Band. Sorry for running off at the mouth like this, but I started researching bariatric surgery in 2001, have known about the Lap-Band from before it was even approved in the United States, and just want to make sure people get the facts correct. Thanks.

Ohmigawd - I can't believe some of you had your fills so soon after surgery since it's contraindicated until at least 6 weeks. The stomach is a very sensitive organ (remember what it did to you the last time you had the flu?) Any surgery on the stomach, Lap-Band notwithstanding, is followed by the same kind of diet we're on - clear then full liquids, mushies, etc. The reason for our Lap-Band surgeons to require this post-op diet is not to boost their weight loss statistics, it's to ensure long-term success with the band and to prevent vomiting for the first six weeks while the band gets situated and your stomach heals. There is an extremely high incidence of band slippage with people who don't heed the six week post-op diet. The surgeon most likely stitched a portion of your upper stomach to a portion of the lower stomach right over the band to keep it in place. This area needs time to heal. When the surgeon placed the band around your stomach and cinched it in place, your stomach reactly negatively and swelled. So with the combination of the stitches and the swelling, you NEED to be on foods that will pass easily through your new stoma. Like people have been saying, the first six weeks is not about how much you can lose - it's giving your new stomach time to heal. Yes, you should try to watch your calorie intake, but if you're hungry, have something. If you stay with liquids and soft foods with substance, like cream Soups and oatmeal, you're less likely to be hungry again so soon. You have to look at the big picture ... 1 year, 5 years, or even 10 years from now when you are at your goal weight and living life the way you have always wanted, the uncomfortable 3 or 4 week period post-op is a pretty insignificant amount of time. I beg you to follow your doctor's recommendations, go slow and take it easy on yourself.

Oops - it always helps to indicate what time the meeting starts - 6:00 PM.

Wow - tomorrow is two weeks since my surgery on 12/28/05. I can't believe all the changes I've experienced already in such a short time: 10. The most rewarding change? I've already lost 20 pounds!:clap2: 9. I stopped drinking my beloved Diet Coke a couple days before surgery and I haven't had one since. I don't even miss it. 8. I told my co-workers I was retiring the candy dish from my desk when I went on Christmas vacation. It's still gone. I don't miss that either. 7. I haven't eaten fast food in a month. This I still miss, but I'm working on it. 6. I walked the stairs to my basement yesterday and couldn't figure out what was different. Then I figured it out: my knees weren't making noises and it didn't hurt to climb stairs anymore. 5. I'm actually getting satisfied, and even full on things like cream Soups. 4. I took the steri-strips off my incisions a couple days ago, and you can already barely see them. 3. I have been walking more. And I actually want to. 2. I noticed I was walking taller this morning instead of my normal hunch. And the number one revelation and NSV after two weeks: I worked through my first mourning session over food. Last week when I was nauseous :sick and couldn't drink anything, I was really upset. (I ended up in the hospital overnight with an IV and I'm fine now...) I was thinking about how I'd never be able to go out again and have a Chipotle chicken fajita bol with chips (a huge amount of food!), :hungry: but then I thought - why the h*ll would I still want to? That was a 'fat Kathy' behavior and I'm doing my best to stuff her under the bed and eventually out of my life forever. It will be great to get rid of that big ball and chain. I consider myself lucky avoiding 'Bandster hell' so far. I've read that before your first fill, lots of people have a hard time because they're so hungry. I'm going to make sure and schedule my first fill right at 6 weeks. Pre-surgery, I really appreciated having LBT as a great resource to prepare me. Now I'm looking forward to supporting others who haven't yet gone through it.

Hi Cheri - I sent you a private message to add me - I had surgery on 12/28/05. Thanks!

Is anyone going to the Lap-Band Support Group meeting tonight at Abbott Northwestern? I attended my first one a few months back and this is the first opportunity I have had to be able to attend another one. I'm really looking forward to it, since I'm now "on the other side". Here's what you need to know if you want to attend (I copied this from the OSSGMN calendar...): LapBand support group at Abbott Northwestern Hospital Founders Mall Conference Room at the Sister Kenny Pavillion. Contact information:Joni Callahan 612-863-7501 Also, is anyone on this list planning to attend the Park Nicollet Support meeting tomorrow night? I've been told I will be the only bandster, but I'm interested in attending this since it's so close to home and I had my surgery through Park Nicollet. Thanks. Kathy D Banduckster 12/28/05 Dr. Weatherille/Methodist Hospital 244/224/125

Hi, I happened to catch this article someone posted on the SmartBandsters Yahoo message board, and it includes quite a few quotes from Dr. I. He sounds like quite an accomplished surgeon... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/health/03obes.html?emc=eta1

I am just one week out of surgery today. I still can't believe it happened this fast. I did okay the day of the surgery and the 2nd day, then I started to get nauseous from just about every liquid and when I could drink, it was filling me up so fast I couldn't drink enough to stay hydrated. By the third day, I knew I had to do something about it. My doctor suggested I check into the hospital to get an IV. He said it sounded like there was swelling at my stoma - a common post-surgery complaint, but that I needed to get re-hydrated in order to get better. I spent Monday night in the hospital and was back out by noon Tuesday. I felt much better yesterday and even better today. I don't have the nauseau or restriction I felt before, so I think it will keep getting better from here on in. The good news is although I wasn't feeling well, I managed to drop 18 pounds from my pre-surgery weight! What a great start! Back to work on Monday and back to real life.

Hi All, I had a little setback yesterday ... I was banded 12/28, and had been doing okay until last Friday when I started to get nauseous from even the smallest amount of fluids, and was getting the "golfball" feeling if I tried to drink more than a couple sips of something. It didn't get better and I got dehydrated. My doctor recommended an overnight hospital stay with an IV. I'm back home and feel m-u-c-h better! I know that I will NOT be losing weight this fast once I get to mushies, but I've lost 18 pounds since surgery last Wednesday! My doctor's post-surgery diet is super cautious and I am just now supposed to graduate to full liquids today, but he recommended another couple days of Clear Liquids to make sure I don't go back to the nauseau stage. No! I can't take it anymore! I want to take every last can of broth I have right now and drive them to the local food shelf. I am now having dreams of solid food - how pathetic!:ermm I guess I'd better follow his recommendations - he's done enough of these surgeries to know best. And it will help me to drop more weight in the beginning. Congrats to all us December bandsters ... 2006 here we come!

Boy, I must not be doing a good job of explaining myself. I didn't mean to imply that the referred pain from the gas is not real pain - it definitely is!!! It's just that a lot of people think it's from gas still trapped in your abdomen that somehow travels north to your neck and shoulders. It's not - it's from the diaphragm expanding and there's a nerve that runs from the diaphragm to the neck and shoulders that is touched off. It's really pain, and it can be helped by the liquid pain killer your doctor prescribed as well as a heating pad. The other gas that travels south from your stomach to your, uh.... is from the stomach trying to get used to a new way of functioning. I'm having the same problem there. Good luck everyone!