terrasmom

Well you have definately got a point there, obesity is the real killer and the worst thing of all, although you do live with whatever your choice is for the rest of your life too. But whatever it takes!

Everyone has second thoughts before surgery, this is very normal. This lap band is simply a tool to help you change what you eat, how much you eat and help you to change your life. You will be doing all the work; the band will simply make it hard to binge and over-eat at one time and make it very easy to be full. It's a tool you have with you 24/7. The key is that you have to eat much less and exercise more. The eating less is critical. I decided to have it because I figured if I had not done it by now I was not able to do it on my own. It has been very helpful but if I do not restrict my calories to 800 or 1000 a day then I am not loosing weight. However that is not the fault of the band, it's my bad choices. And so it will be for you. Make great choices and the band helps a lot. I am sure your son would rather have you alive and healthy than anything else you could do for him. Good luck!

You will be OK. If you were not OK, it would have hurt internally by now. Just be careful in the future, as it hurts real, real bad when you do it wrong just post surgery! I found that out the hard way and don't recommend it!

I would ask a pharmacist at Walgreens or my own doctor for a general idea of how much weight loss would reduce the need for blood pressure medicine. It probably varies hugely. Ask him to tell his doctor, or you tell his doctors nurse to give the doctor the heads up about this and see if another medication does not have this side effect. Use www.webmd.com to read all the potential side effects of your husbands medication and see if lack of drive is a side effect. You could also make an appointment and get information without discussing your husband specifically, then relay the information back to him. Good luck!

I was simply pointing out that a lap band is reversible, no harm done to your stomach. A sleeve cuts off part of your stomach, could never be reversed, and is therefore more risky. Cutting part of your body off because you have abused it by over eating is not a good idea! Further it's more risky surgery and it's more major surgery. There have been many complications with the gastric bypass; now they have modified that and called it "the sleeve". My doctor won't even go there. I wouldn't either.

I am grateful for a chance at a whole new life. I am grateful that friends and family really supported me doing this surgery and that I got through it and on to reshaping my life. I am grateful that I have been given another chance to change my eating habits and exercise habits and rework my life; that I am alive and well and getting better daily. I am grateful that my diabetes medicine is now a thing of the past and so is the blood pressure medication. I am grateful for how good it makes me feel now when I exercise (the following day, not right away). I am actually even grateful that I have to work at re-doing my life and my eating now and that I am being given yet another chance to be dedicated to myself and make this happen for me. I AM manifesting a whole new me and for that I AM truly grateful!!

Well, the band is not magic. It only works if you also hugely restrict your calories along with bringing in exercising too. My doctor says to use an 800 calories a day diet and I will loose rapidly. When I do that he is correct. More than that calorie wise and you are prolonging the whole process. The band does not prevent you from making bad food choices or eating the wrong stuff. It only makes it hard to binge and eat too fast or too much at one time. It's possible to go around it completely if you really want to do that. If you want to cooperate with it and get healthy, it's a portable reminder to eat right that never leaves you. The fills won't save you, honey, and the band won't either. You must do the work and the band will help you get there but that's all it does. The rest is you controlling you. Good luck!

I would say get another doctor! The sleeve is not a good idea. It takes off part of your stomach and you never get it back. You can reverse the lap band, God forbid but you can, because it does not injure you inside. Not so the sleeve. It's a rediculous suggestion! Try another doctor for a second opinion before you let this guy do your surgery. Find a doctor whose done thousands of these surgeries. Go for experience, nothing else. Good luck!

Oh honey you have just had MAJOR surgery! Huge, major surgery. You are going to be very sore and tender and your new best friend will be Gas X (forget all the other one's, this is the only one that works for air and gasses trapped under the ribs and band area). Call your doctor and ask about the pain, make sure it's at the level that he expected you to be feeling. Then do some things to get more comfortable! For example, get a wedge. A foam wedge, like from the stores that rent wheelchairs or other medical supplies. sleep on the wedge slanting downward at night (tall end towards your head). This will help you get up and down off the bed without that pulling feeling. Use a pillow. Pull a pillow against you firmly when you must get up or change positions or go up/down stairs or get in a Jerky car. The lack of jerking motions the pillow helps with is very good for you. Sleep more, do less. Get magazines and cut out photos of clothes you WILL be able to wear again; focus on where you are going. The first five days are the hardest; of those, the first two or three really are the pits. But inch by inch, every day you will be doing better than the day before. If you really must go out of town that soon, plan to do a lot less on your trip and take your doctors' nurses' phone numbers with you! Walk if you can stand it. Walk with the pillow if not. Try to find a way to move that is not jerking you around any. It will move the gas and trapped air out sooner, or so the nurses told me. I did not do much the first five days. You can do this. Evey day it WILL get better and better. This is the toughest part right now -- two days post surgery is just the pitts, but it wil be over very soon!!!! I promise!! Be kind to yourself. You are on the road to a whole new life now, this is just a valley, soon you will be wondering how to navigate that new life instead! In the meantime, rest! This will be over soon. Best of luck to you!

This sounds completely rediculous! With Dr. Spiegel we have to get this x-ray done just before the fill -- drink a barium drink that tastes like chalk first; they saw the location of the port exactly and put it right in, first stick, first time, done by doctor. Twinged a tiny bit, stung, but nothing big. It felt tight and so he put me back in front of the xray machine and no, it was done perfectly. I soon got used to it. I had to drink 16 ounces of water before leaving to be sure it was not too tight and was able to do that easily. I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience! What is wrong with those people? It should never be a hunt and peck method to finding your port hole!

I don't think coffee is an issue; it's the caffiene in it that the doctors are not fond of. Can be dehydrating. Don't sweat your coffee but GOLF? This quick after surgery?? Call your doctor NOW and be sure it's OK to do so. You don't want to pop the sutures or cause yourself other expensive difficulties for a game or two of golf! I was told not to lift anything heavy, they did not even consider I'd be twisting and turning playing golf! Be careful, call the doc and be sure your fine to do so. You have come so far you don't want to mess it up now! Good luck!

Just calm down a little, you will be fine. This is about more than your liver, that's just one reason they say be on liquids before. They do not want you vomiting up all the anesthesia is another reason. Nausea and other issues is a third reason. So many reasons!! Do your best to coax yourself into cooperating. The pre-op diet is awful, I remember it well, and post op I had to do it again also. I will probably never eat Jello again my whole life with any luck. I turned to Campbells chicken noodle Soup, drained, drinking just the broth. It calmed me down and helped me feel like I was not going to starve myself with the band before surgery and like I was closer to normal after surgery. But then after surgery I got over-confident and ate a sandwich and boy it HURT sitting there on top of my lap band. I called the doctors office and they were not happy with me at all!! They were telling me liquids only after surgery so that the sutures and area could heal up. I was aching something terrible, but I lived through it and it finally went into the band. Do your best to comply. Soon you will be focusing on more important things like how to change your life and your habits entirely after the surgery. Best of luck to you!!

This depends on how hearty or motivated you are in part. I had my surgery Saturday morning and went back to work on the following Tuesday. Looking back, this was a bit soon for me. Five days off would have been more ideal. Mostly I was tired easily. Make life as easy on yourself as possible. Stay on the liquids, don't push the band or stomach to be more normal than a "recovering from major surgery site" is going to be. It's a big deal getting the band done! But it's fast coming back from it compared to any other surgery. Get a foam wedge and sleep on it at night on your back. Use a pillow and hold it against you so you do not bounce when you walk around the house. Sleep extra. Stay on the liquids and take it slow food wise. You can do the school, just know you will need to pamper yourself and not do a single thing extra for about two weeks or so. Good luck!

Just tell your husband. If you want to tell others later, as you loose the pounds they'll ask anyway, and you can tell them how you've changed your foods and habits or you can tell them about the lapband too. The thing about the band is that it just sits there; you really have a lot of work to do once you have it in to change your life. So to say the band did it for you will be to take credit away from you for your good choices. No one really has to know. If they won't support you, if they won't cheer you on, then don't tell them. Instead of this focus on how you are going to shift your life after the band is in place. Best of luck to you!

Congratulations! Remember getting the band is the first step only. Then it's how to live with the band/eat differently/change your habits to support being healthy and active! You can do this!!! Congrats!

If you are becoming dehydrated you'll get a horific headache long before you'll get very far in being dehydrated. If you have just been banded, it's like being run over by a huge mac truck. Your pouch, stomach, areas around it are all swollen and trying to recover. It's major stuff. Sips of water if you can. Sleep on a wedge or at an angle or in a chair if you can. Be patient and baby your body. It is trying to recover from this and it will but it will take about 10 days. Call your doctor if this continues more than two or three days. People online are not your doctor and he can reassure you best! Good luck!

It can gum up the opening to your band. Some rice, like white rice, is more likely to do this than the denser, whole grain rice. Be very, very careful in what you choose to eat! Call your doctors nurse and ask about the rice. He knows what kind of band you have and if it tends to gum up with rice or not. Good luck!

You are not a failure. You are definately part of the learning curve that it takes to live with a band now. It's a different life and all of us have had setbacks and then gotten back on track. The key is sitting there being upset with yourself is wasting time. Go back to the doctors office, tell the truth, get their suggestions. Do not waste any more time on self loathing, it does not get you to the next stage. Do what the rest of us do -- simply say to yourself "OK I got off track, but now I choose to get back on track and do this right!" Good luck!!

That's how it works. Once insurance says yes, it all moves very quickly. Call your physicians nurse and start asking questions about what to do afterwards. You'll probably be on liquids for a couple of weeks, then able to eat 4 to 6 ounces per meal three times a day. Time to find out! Spend this time throwing out the bad foods from your house and getting it ready for your new life. The first "solids" you'll be on a couple of weeks after surgery will be clear broth or clear soups; stock up now. Again your doctors office is the best source of info on what your personal plan will be. Write your questions down on a pad of paper, get an appointment and take them in with you. Do not leave until every last one is answered. Good luck!

Do not get the sleeve and do not get anything at all done in Mexico! You will need follow up fills and I don't know that any doctor here will be helping you once you go there. Almost all the doctors have payment plans and some like Dr. Spiegel offer discounts if you go private pay. Go that route intead is my advice.

I know what you mean, truly I do. I had three incisions of the five that had these stiff, very sharp "fishing line" looking pointed things sticking out of my skin! I was not amused let me tell you! I was hugely bloated and looked very pregnant and I was scared that anyone would hit me in the gut and break it all open. Finally one morning I got up and it had gone way down but it was not soon for me. I did not cut them, touch them or mess with them in any way per doctors orders. He told the truth though, it all really does go away, you just have to wait for it. Lapband surgery is MAJOR abdominal surgery and the body has a lot to contend with getting healed up from it. Everyone makes very light of it and the recovery process involved but it's no piece of cake for the body to recover. Instead of worrying about this stuff, focus on how to eat differently, focus on changing your life now. The other stuff will fall into place when it does and your new life will be well underway by then. How you change the rest of your life is the task at hand for you to handle.

All of these symptoms will disappear in 4 to 6 weeks. Until then you'll have any number of things to contend with. Focus on living a healthier lifestyle instead.

NO, do not start your pre-op diet early!! Just follow your physician's instructions to the letter instead. You will not help yourself by crash dieting before surgery. You further have a week or more after surgery too of just liquids. It will be sufficient to make the pounds fly off quickly.

You remember you said that you WANTED to fill the restrictions of that fill! LOL! You may think differently afterwards! You must slow down all food intake, eat very, very, very slowly, chew everything really well and in the mornings the band is extremely tight, so liquid breakfasts are the best. It's how we get to our goal, but it's very easy to upset the band and get into pain or other issues. Go slow! Good luck!

I got banded may 23rd of this year. Have lost 28 pounds so far. Have had ups and downs with the weight; it's taken a while to know how much I can really eat, or how many calories I can take in and still keep loosing! My doctor says 800 to 1000; 800 is better. He's right! I'm post menapausal too but I don't think it has an impact really. I loose really quickly if I keep those calories low! Imagine that!! LOL!