vanilla_bubble4

does anyone know how long after surgery you can drink alcohol? i am on a full fluids stage at the moment. i have never been told that i can not drink in this stage, nor when i can resume drinking post-op. anyone have any idea?

just wondering how it went and what your recovery was like? i stuck to my optifast diet 95% of the time, and the operation went fine, however I am having problems with pain management and was re-admitted the day after i was discharged from hospital because of this. this is day 5 since the operation and the pain and the port site is still very bad. i am on 3 anti-inflammatory tablets, 2 indigestion tablets, 2 other tablets (which i have no idea what they are for) daily and digesic (strong?) pain killers every 4hours... and the pain is still there. getting in and out of bed, trying to stand, standing for more than a few minutes at a time, laughing, coughing, raising my voice.. i could cry from the pain! is this normal? how long did it take you to get over the pain? did you find anything that worked for you?

ok so it was only this morning that i posted my blog entailing how hard i was finding it on a liquid diet. i had not slipped for a week on it...until tonight :cursing: i had a few mouthfulls of mashed potatoe's and i mashed up some weet-bix. they would be fine on the 'mushy' diet, but i am still on liquid. they went down fine, but i was surprised how i little i could eat! i havent had my first fill yet, but i still am feeling full after eating less than a quarter of what i use to eat! its crazy! but it's good i guess. i dont know whether i should continue to cheat a little so i can survive, or discipline myself more and stay on the liquid diet. its just so hard :thumbup:

ok so it was only this morning that i posted my blog entailing how hard i was finding it on a liquid diet. i had not slipped for a week on it...until tonight :thumbs_up: i had a few mouthfulls of mashed potatoe's and i mashed up some weet-bix. they would be fine on the 'mushy' diet, but i am still on liquid. they went down fine, but i was surprised how i little i could eat! i havent had my first fill yet, but i still am feeling full after eating less than a quarter of what i use to eat! its crazy! but it's good i guess. i dont know whether i should continue to cheat a little so i can survive, or discipline myself more and stay on the liquid diet. its just so hard

Today marks my one week anniversary with my band. The last week has been the hardest of my life, no exaggeration. The pain has eased since i was discharged from hospital on friday, but it has still been hard. I am struggling on the liquid diet. I have never been a fan of soups or milk (in shakes) so i am finding it very difficult. I have stuck to the liquid diet, but i don't know how much longer I can do it. It's not that the liquids aren't filling; I don't get hungry... I just want food! I miss the chewing and swallowing food and the taste and freedom to eat what I want. I never considered that having the band would be so hard mentally and emotionally. I cried all night last night thinking that I have made the biggest mistake of my life in getting the band, and that if it wasn't for all the pain and bad experience I went through in hospital to get it in, I would have it removed. Everyone keeps telling me to invisage myself and what I will look like in a years time, but the thing is I don't care. I was happy with who I was. It wasn't until I started considering the band and had all my appointments that I started becoming unhappy with who I was (probably because all the doctors and specialists were telling me that I was not good enough because of my weight). My weight was not really holding me back; I still went out with friends, I didn't have any problems with men and dating. This realisation has made sticking to the liquid diet even harder. On another front, the night before my surgery I had a date with an amazing guy. He knew that I was going into hospital for an operation, but not what for. he came and visited my whilst I was recovering, but has now backed off, saying that he cant be the support that I need while I am getting better (I think he thinks that I was sick, hence having an operation.. not that it was elective). If I didnt have the band, none of this would have happened and we would have continued dating. I don't know how things will work out now. I am going to suggest going out next weekend to him (I have my post-op appt with my surgeon on Friday, so I will ask him after that, and let him know that I am recovered). I really hope things work out well with him because he is the most gentlemanly man I have ever met! Weight wise, I have only dropped 0.5kg since the operation. I am still swollen and bloated, so I am hoping that once that goes down so will the weight.

exactly the same it has been a week today since i had my surgery and it has been a huge battle for me. its not so much that i am hungry, but rather that i crave and want food. i'm also finding myself very down and depressed because i know that there are still weeks left of this for me and there are even times when i regret having the band put in and want it out! i havent slipped either yet, just because of the fear that i will vomit and have to be back in hospital. i have no idea how i am going to get through this!

(In Melb, Aust) My surgery cost $2800 (thats how much I was out of pocket after my health insurance and medicare etc)... there was a fee for a surgeon assistant that was another $520, dietician was $300, psychologist/weight loss counsellor was $300. I think I ended up being out of pocket about $3700 after all the health insurance and medicare.

to be honest, i didnt completly stick to the pre-op diet. i talked to several people who said that they cheated and it was ok. the doctors tell you its to shrink your liver, but the main purpose is to get you're stomach to shrink so you won't struggle as much on the post-op liquid stage. i stuck to the pre-op diet 90% of the time. I went out one night and had a bit too much alcohol, and i added some carrots and potato with my vegetables sometimes and had some low fat crackers a few times. My surgery went fine, I had no problems. As long as you stay away from fatty foods you should be fine :cursing: all the best!

i was banded on the same day as you! however i am in australia. initially i never had any hunger pain, i was just in pain! i also cant take deep breaths or cough or laugh... the pain on my left near my ribs (apparantly where the port of the band is) hurts too much. Congrats on the weight loss! i also gained a bit of what i lost post-op due to the swelling, am hoping that will go down over the next few days! are you on fluids at the moment? how long until you can eat normally?

my advice? get a new GP!

Yes they did CT scans and X-Rays and couldnt find anything wrong internally, and i didnt have a temperature or wasnt sick otherwise so it wasnt an infection, so they put it down to swelling. I am on anti-inflammatories for that... they have helped over the past few days, but the pain is still very significant. I am having a check-up with my surgeon in a weeks time. will let you know how it goes!

I am struggling with the post op fluid stage! I am not surviving on soups and juices! Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions, reciepes that they used for the fluid stage? Would be greatly appreciated :blushing:

correct me if im wrong, but i was under the impression that you can put on weight after the operation due to the amount of gas that they pump into you whilst on the table?

i am on fluids... the thickness i am aloud was described as anything that can fit up a mcdonalds size straw. so it is relativly thick compared to clear fluids. i am on this diet for 3 weeks, then move to a mushy diet for another 3 weeks before i have my first fill and i move onto solids. i am so sick of soups and shakes already! i have no idea how im going to do this for another 2 weeks! ahhh!

i lost 6.7kg on optifast (i will admit i did cheat a little on optifast. i had carrots and a few pieces of potato with my veggies), drank alcohol during the last week and had rice snacks once. my surgeon had no problems with my liver and the operation went fine. i weighed myself since the operation and i had gained .5 of a kg! (i'm assuming thats because of all the gas and me looking like im pregnant!) will weigh myself tomorrow! looking forward to it :blushing:

My name is Sarah. I'm 20. I live in berwick as well! I was banded on monday! (19/05/08) at the Valley by Chris Henssman. Am struggling with pain management and stayed an extra 4 days than usual in hospital because of this. Am happy to catch up (once I am all better and off this ridiculous fluids stage!) Hope everyone is doing well :blushing:

Ok well my stay in hospital was longer than expected! I was booked for surgery on the 19th of May, which went ahead fine... however the pain after surgery was a big problem for me. The surgeon was concerned about the amount of pain I was in and that something was wrong. So after endless people touching and feeling their way across my unbelievably sore stomach, x-rays and ct scans, they found that there was nothing wrong, however my internal swelling was taking more time than usual to go down... hence the pain staying for longer than it should. I spent 5 days in hospital on morphie and pethadine... NOT a good experience! hopefully it will all pay off in the long run :thumbs_up: This is my 4th day on the fluid's diet and already I am struggling! Not only do i feel the need to chew, but i want normal food! I want to be able to eat! It's driving me insane! Weightloss wise, Since I commenced the optifast (2 weeks prior to surgery) up to today (5 days post op) I have lost 10kg... a good start I think!

Ok well my stay in hospital was longer than expected! I was booked for surgery on the 19th of May, which went ahead fine... however the pain after surgery was a big problem for me. The surgeon was concerned about the amount of pain I was in and that something was wrong. So after endless people touching and feeling their way across my unbelievably sore stomach, x-rays and ct scans, they found that there was nothing wrong, however my internal swelling was taking more time than usual to go down... hence the pain staying for longer than it should. I spent 5 days in hospital on morphie and pethadine... NOT a good experience! hopefully it will all pay off in the long run :thumbdown: This is my 4th day on the fluid's diet and already I am struggling! Not only do i feel the need to chew, but i want normal food! I want to be able to eat! It's driving me insane! Weightloss wise, Since I commenced the optifast (2 weeks prior to surgery) up to today (5 days post op) I have lost 10kg... a good start I think!