RestlessMonkey

Call your doc.

I have 7 cc in my 14 cc band and feel marvy.

Good grief go get a small unfill. You may be getting dehydrated. Get the unfill; keep the appt on the 20th. You can get MORE put back then if you want.

You're young. I don't know what you weigh now...but can tell you you may or may not have loose skin. HOWEVER...at your age, if you are otherwise healthy, odds are that it will tighten up. I CAN tell you that for every year you stay fat, the odds of having loose skin get better! In other words girl, you are at your peak of elasticity! :wink: A good surgeon will address this with you. Other issues will come into play but your young age is a BIG old plus in your favor.

Honestly for some reason, younger women seem to feel more pain than older ones. I have no idea why...maybe your nerves are younger or something! LOL But you are more likely to be nauseated, in pain, and miserable. IT STOPS! And I don't mean when you're 80, either. I mean the nausea, vomiting and pain will go away. You took a HUGE step to being trim, fit, healthy, HOT, gorgeous. Your stomach is pissed off at you...you aren't feeding it like it's used to AND AND AND you put a BELT around it! It will get over it. Give it time. Trust yourself...the you that wasn't hungry and drugged and unhappy, but the you who thought this over and wanted the benefits. The nausea will pass; eventually you'll be able to eat, your stomach will get on board with the new situation, and all will be "copacetic".

Bottom line, do what your surgeon says to do. Obviously mine isn't as reticent, especially since he gave me a prescription for a pill pain killer post op. But do what your surgeon says, especially initially. As you go on, you'll find what works for you. Since I CAN take anything (and have no problem foods either) then I obviously am not risking anything...I'd risk dying of boredom if I had to crush or open and mix in with food all the pills I take! LOL .... but we all have different constitutions, swallow strength, and surgeons. So do what your doc says. If he says you can take pills, odds are you can. and vice versa.

Some people swell when their band is "messed with"...so it's possible you have that. Just stick with your liquids, make sure you get your 64 oz Water for today (very important) and see how you feel tomorrow, is what I'd advise. I don't know what time your doc closes on Fridays but I'd give it until about 1-2 pm (providing he's open friday afternoons) and see how I felt...If you still are uncomfy, call. Of course you can call earlier, but if it is just that you are swollen, it will go down and you'll feel better.

Next you'll be telling me you have a Steel Drum Band from Jamaica and a soccer team from Brazil joining in. Sigh. You better bring 2 monkeys.

My big postassium pills aren't supposed to be crushed either. I found crushing to just be a pain in the posterior....and why bother if you can take them whole?

Don't think I haven't noticed, too, that you've managed to invite Beth, Ice cream, Richard Simmons AND a monkey to our secret Tucson Thursday. I'm letting you slide because I just LUV my HH, but I noticed! :wink:

hmm. I eat my steak well done. If it's less well done it gets stuck. I have no issues with any food. I can eat about a cup of food at a time and I am losing well. To my way of thinking you're a little too tight. What you can eat (cottage cheese) is slider food...mushie. According to my surgeon and his lovely chart, that's not good. And yes it is common for some people, for their fills to take a couple weeks to really "work". I think you should call your surgeon; you may be too tight. He can help you navigate this; but eating a few bites of food is no way to live, nor to lose in a healthy way.

You really need to call your surgeon on this one.

Well, let's list the pro's and cons. Pro: HH, Richard Simmons and a monkey Ice Cream Good company (Beth) Cons No VDO or JP. Aw hell I'm in. :wink: I never can resist a monkey.

Maybe you can. It depends on you, how tight you want to be. I take a postassium pill that is huge. I'll measure it later and post the measurements on here. I take TWO each day (they are the generic K-dur I hate the suckers!) All told with my supplements and few prescriptions and drugs for my bone spur I take around 20 pills a day. No problems. never. I take a lot of pills, to be a pretty healthy person! in fact the doc gave me a pill prescription for post op pain...Darvocet! So you may have trouble while you are healing, if you are swollen. AND you may prefer to be so tight that you have issues. I am at my sweet spot, though, and have no trouble.

You got good advice. If he won't tell you, don't use him. And no there is no place you can get that info on line; which is one reason it's so disturbing that he is being coy with you.

No, but I've read several posts of people who wanted it badly and freak out when they have it...THAT happens. AND I've read of people who have ins that won't pay for the band because they can't get psych clearance at all. I know it's hard but...be glad. If you don't have any issues, well, good for you. If you do, better to address now than come to in recovery feeling like you have the baby from alien in your gut! :wink: (I'm only exaggerating a little, too, about how some people feel. They didn't expect to feel that way, but they do!) So it's vile, but wait it out. I had to get my band almost 3 weeks later because I didn't follow my doc's preop diet; so I understand better than you think. But it's a process; it'll happen. Just do your "homework" with the psych person and it can only help!

I always say that I wish I had realized how vital AFTERCARE is for the band to work. I've been to my doc almost monthly in the last year, had 8 fills and an unfill! I'm very glad I didn't have to "travel" to do that, although I would if I had to (but I don't think I'd have gone as often!) Many surgeons will not accept another surgeon's patient and it isn't just those from out of country. It's those from out of county...or from a different practice. They don't know what they are "inheriting" and some who will take on another's patient charge pretty high fees to do so. So I always ALWAYS recommend lining up aftercare before you leap into surgery. So many of us are so oriented on getting the band, we don't think of afterward (like a whirlwind romance and wedding LOL) Fill Centers USA will do fills (if you have one locally) but you also need access to a medical doctor who can treat you if you have GERD, or a bad stuck incident, or the stomach flu and need an unfill, or whatever So you're really smart to line up local aftercare before you go to Mexico. If you can find a comparable surgeon who is a little more expensive but is close to home, you may weigh the pros and cons and change your mind about having it done "away". Or not! But this is something you do need to address. Be careful where you GO, in Mexico, too. I live in San Antonio (grew up in EL Paso which was just across the Rio Grande from Juarez) and many friends just don't go to border towns right now. I don't know about where you live but we get horror stories frequently about the strife over there....just last night there was a minivan found with 5 dead tourists but I forget the city (some border town...Nuevo laredo? Don't remember. It wasn't TJ or Juarez, though that I remember) ANYWAY not to scare the poo out of you...just be aware. Something can happen to you in your own neighborhood too; you just have to weigh the odds and make your best choice.

How tight is "too tight" is very subjective and based on MANY factors, not just how much "fill" is in the band, nor on how large the stoma is. So yes, it happens, you can be too tight even with an x-ray assist. If you can't keep your liquid down call your doc; you'll dehydrate over the weekend. :wink:

Well like I said, I had my husband remove it the minute I got home, but some really like and want it. So in your case, tell your surgeon you DON'T! :wink: Or you can just wait and see if you think you need it. I could've had it removed at the hospital but they would've had to get orders from my doc and it would've generated more paperwork for them; so for me it was easier to just tolerate it until I got home.

No; it depends on your surgeon. However if you are worried about pain and think you'd like one, discuss it with your surgeon! :wink:

Thanks Mimi...and it's good to see you "out and about"! :sneaky:

It's a lot of info! And the on-Q thing...neither my husband (who's been an rn for 25 years) nor I (who was enrolled in a BSN program) ever even HEARD of it! The nurse at the hospital sent the directions home with us so my husband would know how to remove it! :sneaky: It does help a lot of recovering surgical patients...but I just couldn't stand it!

it is a system where a cue-ball sized rubber bladder holds an anesthetic (like lidocaine, but not sure what exactly is in it) and it is attached to a very thin hose (called a catheter, but not like the one they use for your urinary tract) with holes in it. That THIN hose threads through an opening the surgeon makes in your abdomen (again...it is small and thin) and lies across the area the surgeon wants to target with pain killer. In our case it would be near where the band is placed, the port, etc. Over the course of time (I think a day or two, not sure) that anesthetic slowly drips out (kind of like osmosis) and keeps the internal organ(s) and site bathed in the anesthetic ...effectively numbing it and reducing/stopping pain. I had my husband pull mine out the minute I got home. However, many people find it helpful.

Monkey holds you in the highest fondest regard but she likes her ice cream frozen and her men to look like Vincent D'Onofrio, or Joaquin Phoenix before the Hip Hop career. However, we could double date with you and Brad Pitt and GO for ice cream. That would totally work for me.

I don't think that matters that much, honestly, because all my "entry and exit" wounds for the lap equip are midline...the band is midline, etc...What helped me was 1. I'm stubborn 2. I didn't want to sleep in my recliner and 3. I have a four poster metal-framed bed and that helped a lot getting up! :sneaky: