Startingover!

Name Current Goal LOST! Starting Over......220...........205........0

I had my surgery June 17th. My surgeon used dermabond to seal the incisions. I noticed around day 3 that one of the incisions had what looked like a big dried blood bubble around it. I didn't think much of it. Last night I dropped some stuff and after I picked it up I noticed that blood was draining out of that same incision. Not a lot, but enough to make me uncomfortable! So I just laid down and haven't been up much since. There was some blood on the sheets since, but not a lot. Has this happened to anyone else? Should I call my surgeon? I hate being that patient that calls on the weekends or nights!!

Thank you so much for everyone's input. It hasn't happened again today, but tomorrow I'm still calling the doc because of the persistent diarrhea and I'll mention it. Darie-My hunger has been amazing! I feel like someone has switched inside of me. I am not hungry at all, not even mentally. But I'm not getting too excited...because I don't want to curse it and start getting hungry/starving before that first fill! I'm glad your has gotten better!

My 2nd day I felt pretty good, it was my 5th day that broke me!! Because I was so anxious to have the surgery I scheduled it when my husband was working 12 hour shifts. I thought I would be fine. So I have only seen him a little bit and have only had my 6 year old son here to take care of me. LOL He's done a wonderful job! On day 5, I called my hubby at work crying saying I wanted him here with me. I was so miserable that day (which was yesterday). Every day I do feel better. But I'm still just uncomfortable feeling. And the pain in my left shoulder is killing me. I have kept the heating pad on it, Icy/Hot patches, everything....and it just hurts. I am walking on the treadmill (only 10 min) and around the house and the gas is finally moving.

There is no way I could have went home the day of, I was in too much pain. I'm beginning day 5 and am still just kind of uncomfortable if you know what I mean? As far as being hungry, I am getting hungrier, but nothing too bad, thank god! I'm lucky if I'm getting in 300 calories a day. I've eyeballed the chips & cake sitting on the kitchen counter a few times, but then I think about all the pain I've went thru this week. It's just not worth it. I've got to do this. I can do this! Since my surgery I have thought about how ridiculous it is that I had to go to this extreme measure to lose weight! What is wrong with me???? Why couldn't I do it on my own? Well, because it is so extreme, I am going to succeed, plain and simple! I have to keep this attitude or else I will fail!

Hi all, this isn't the most pleasant thing to talk about....but....I've been doing pretty good since my surgery on Tuesday. But today around 11am I started having diarrhea and it hasn't stopped. I have literally went over 10 times since it started. Has anyone else experienced this? :rolleyes2:

I also had a hernia repair and was in a lot of pain. It took a lot to get it under control. I also did not have the best nurses so getting the pain meds was a bit difficult also. So I literally feel your pain! They ended up alternating me with morphine every 3 hours and dilaudid every 4. It still didn't completely kill the pain, but it made it tolerable. Sorry you have such a bad time. But I hope you're doing better now. I definitely think having the hernia repair at the same time makes it considerably worse! Take care of yourself!

Reading everybody's else's "Surgery Day Stories" has helped me, so I figured I would share mine! I was banded on June 17th, just three days ago. I arrived at 5:45am as I was the first one for the day. They promptly started getting me ready for surgery. Everything was gone good until we got to the IV, which I was worried about because it has become a problem for me. It took 3 painful tries before they were able to get the IV running. Shortly after that they redeemed themselves by giving me my cocktail in my iv. Then they gave me a shot of heparin in my stomach. Thank god they waited until after the cocktail! Then they wheeled me off to the OR. Once in the OR they had me move to another table and I could see everyone setting up for my surgery, which made me even more nervous. So they gave me another cocktail. Next thing I know there was a mask being put on my face and I woke up in recovery. I was in more pain than I expected. I don't know if it's because they repaired a hernia also or what. But it just hurt a little more than expected. The nurse in recovery was great. She kept on giving me fentanyl (spelling) to try and get the pain under control. This went on for about 2 hours. Once stable I asked to go to my room, I was still in pain but the nurse said I would just get more pain meds up there. I was tired of recovery!! So they wheeled me to my room. Where the fun just continued! It took over 15 minutes once I was placed in my room for my nurse to arrive. She was very slow, but nice. So I had to adjust to her pace! She quickly discovered that the new IV machine wasn't working. So she had to replace all my tubing on my IV (I was scared to death that they would have to replace the entire IV, but they didn't), which still didn't work, then she had to replace the IV machine 3 times before getting one that worked. So in the meantime I was waiting for my pain meds, and getting grumpier and grumpier! It wasn't until 1:30 that I finally started feeling some relief and things started settling down. Then a steady flow of people just kept coming! I had to have my finger pricked every 6 hours, and a shot of heparin every 12. They were alternating me between morphine every 3 hours and dilaudid every 4 hours. For some reason the dilaudid couldn't be given thru the IV, so that was a shot. The morphine started giving me a headache so we stopped that and just continued with the dilaudid. Once my pain had leveled off I began walking and walking and walking. I walked the hall 9 times the first night. I was proud of myself! I had some gas in my left shoulder that I couldn't get moving. Nothing seemed to work. By the morning the pain was manageable. I walked 2 more times around the hall before having my upper GI. Once the doctor said it was ok I was given hot tea, chicken broth & Jello and a 2 tbls cup to drink with! I had 2tbls of tea, a few sips of broth and a few tiny bites of jello and I was done. I was not allowed anything on day one except for swabs to wet my mouth. so this meal was delicious! My surgeon came to see me after my meal and said that my hernia was the largest he has ever repaired. So that was why I was in so much pain. But that everything had went fine. After that I was given my instructions and sent on my way! I did get a shot of pain medicine before going home. I had an hour drive, so I'm glad I did. It is now day three and the pain is getting better, but I'm just kind of uncomfortable. I scared of eating too much or too fast and feeling the pain everyone refers to on here. So I have had very, very little to eat thus far. I will try a little more today. Thanks for reading and sorry it got so long!

I will be banded next Tuesday. As soon as I had a surgery date I began eating everything in sight because I knew that my days were numbered! After a couple of weeks of this I started feeling physically and emotionally terrible. And I started realizing a few things. That I am addicted to food. I do not seem to have that "full" switch in me that I read so many people talking about. I truly do not know when I am full. These past couple of weeks I have disgusted myself with the fact that I cannot stop eating. I have tried to recognize that full feeling with no success. So this has me worried that once banded the problem will continue and I will never feel full, or at least recognize the feeling. Has anyone else experienced this? I truly feel like a bottomless pit! I'm kind of worried that I think the band will be a fix all for many aspects of my life and am beginning to wonder if I will feel disappointed. Because I know deep down that it will not fix everything. IT is NOT magical, which is what scares me. I guess I will then have to face why I have this bottomless pit, with no full switch and thus the reason I am fat. I never viewed myself as having a eating problem, just with enjoying food. But here I sit at 230lbs getting ready to have weight loss surgery, so duh! I need to wake up and take a hard look at myself. Sorry for rambling on....but does anyone else feel this way or has anyone else ever felt like this? Thanks for listening.

Ok, on June 17th (yeah) I'm finally getting banded! They are also fixing my very large hiatal hernia. I was wondering if I could get some others experiences who had a hernia repair at the same time as being banded? I was just wondering how it differed from just being banded. I want to hear the good, bad and the ugly!! Thanks so much everyone!

Thank you so very much to everyone who has replied to my thread. It is so nice to know that someone else understands and can relate to what I'm going thru. I just never thought I had an emotional attachment to food, but duh, I'm getting ready to have WLS!! So guess what? I need to deal with this! I guess it is kind of like mourning something. It was great to hear from people that the "full" switch does exist and is noticeable after surgery. I am real concerned about that. I guess as long as I do what I'm told and use my new "tool" I should be able to do this! Honestly the fear of the pain from eating the wrong thing, eating too fast etc does scare me. So I need that feat to stay with me until I get every thing under control. Thank you again to everyone for their input. It is truly helpful! Amy

Hard to believe we're both getting banded on the 17th!! You have really been thru the ringer with your hernia repairs. I hope this is the final one for you. You have a deal! I will pray for you, you will be fine...we'll make sure of it! Stay in touch and keep me up to date please! Good luck to you!

I am really getting anxious about my band date. At first I could barely control my excitement. Now I'm going thru tons of different emotions. Everything from excitement, anger (because I have to wait!), sick of being fat and disgusted with myself, to not wanting to go out of the house until this is all over with. I keep telling myself to hang on, just 2 more weeks and I'll have my chance to be a new me. But it seems like it's never going to get here. I don't guess it helps that my doctor is in the process of adjusting my hormones. That is a roller coaster ride in itself. And my son just graduated from high school and is moving out on Friday, June 6th. I guess it's just a lot going on. I hope I don't have too much resting on the surgery being the "fix all". Does that make any sense? Thanks for listening!!

I'm due to be banded on June 17th by Dr. Larson in West Palm Beach. I've already met a few people on here that have used him. But I'm hoping to find some more. I'm just curious about everyone's experience with him. Thanks Amy

I was wondering if anyone who has been banded would mind giving me their menu on any given day? I'm just kind of curious what everyone is eating in a days time. Also if there's any food that you cannot tolerate at all and what works the best with the band. Sorry for all the questions. Just trying to gather as much information before being banded!! Thanks!

I'm due to be banded on June 17th and am very excited! But I am very nervous about the idea of the fills. So I was curious if they are uncomfortable, painful or what? Also, has anyone had any problems with the fills? Thanks to all!

WOW! Everybody eats so healthy! Thanks everyone!

thanks! I'll go check that out!

I have a very large hiatal hernia that they will be repairing. Thanks for everyone's input. I am so excited. I feel like I'll be getting all fixed up at one time! I have suffered with terrible reflux for 9 years, so I'm almost as excited about the hernia repair as the lap band!

Does anyone have a Myspace page? It's a great way to stay in touch and see before/after pics! My surgery is June 17th. I plan on posting my progress pics on there. Mine is: MySpace.com - ~Steve & Amy~ - 36 - Female - West Palm Beach, Florida - www.myspace.com/steveamy050303 Amy

Hi, I'm pretty much a vegetarian. I only eat boneless skinless chicken breast, very little if any, and shrimp and crab meat. I'm scheduled to have the surgery on June 17th and am a bit concerned that I won't be able to get the required amount of Protein. Does anyone have any good ideas for sources of protein? thanks a bunch !

thanks for everyone's reponses. It does ease the worry a little bit! I guess I'll feel better about it when I actually have one done. I'm a big baby! But I guess if I could live thru 6 cortisone injections in my back last year this should be a breeze! The anticipation is probably worst than anything. Thanks again!

:blushing: I'm getting banded (yippee) on June 17th!! I can't wait!

Wow...thank you for everyone's input! I will definitely have to try some of the things!

:wink2: I'm so freakin excited I can't stand it!! I just got approved today after 3 long months!! Now I just have to schedule the surgery. So excited I can't stand it!!