RestlessMonkey

I was told well-cooked rice and pasta are ok. They both can continue to absorb liquid and swell, so she said to make sure they are pretty well done before eating them.

I think you should run your concerns by your surgeon.

Ok Bad news...you do not HAVE to stick to "the lap band". You can eat around it. Some do. That's just a sad fact of life. If you want something that is closer to 100% guaranteed, get the duodenal switch. Good news: The band makes it MUCH easier to stick to the diet part of "diet and exercise", IF you are committed to losing. It does not make it easy...but it makes it easier. What percentage of people lose weight and keep it off with diet and exercise alone? Something like 5% I think? With lap band the average is much higher, the odds are in your favor, but it's not guaranteed. So be ready to work! If you are committed, though, it can be darn near miraculous.

When were you banded? Depending on when you were banded yes it might cause a slip if you aren't well healed. Otherwise all you can do is 1. WAIT for the food to go through and 2. REMEMBER to listen to your body. If you overeat on foods that aren't sliders, you're going to pay for it.

Can't feel my port. Your BAND probably won't flip (!) it will be your port.... My port is tilted I had no pain I have no pain, and my doc still accesses it just fine. I think they often move around a bit but a move doesn't mean more surgery, necessarily. If I were you I'd just quit mashing it! :biggrin:

It depends on the requirements of your insurance. Good luck!

Welcome! There's so much TO the lap band, it's hard to answer your "Anything I need to know now?" LOL like, what DO you know? What DON"T you know? :biggrin: Narrow it down a little and I'm sure we'll be glad to help!

That's great..over 50 pounds in about 3 months! Good for you! Welcome!

The band is a big decision! And it can be frightening. I'm glad to help allay fears any way I can! :biggrin: Some things we should be aware of and avoid (like eating the wrong things too soon on your post op "recovery" diet) and some things we fret over that don't really have to be an issue at all. :smile2:

Good luck! And if your uric acid is high but he won't (for whatever reason) prescribe the med, your reg doc can take care of it for you!

I don't know your surgeon of course but as i said, MINE monitors our blood work etc and mine is the one who prescribed the allopurinol for me because of my uric acid levels (on my bloodwork) and my high protein diet (often a causative factor in gout)...so if your surgeon monitors your blood work etc frequently then he should know if your uric acid is high...and if he won't prescribe allopurinol to you he may be able to tell you what doc to go to. If you don't want to ask your surgeon you can just go to your primary; if it is gout he/she can prescribe for you without a big ruckus and if it isn't, he/she can refer you.

Nazzy how did they make you pay? Did you tell them you couldn't attend them because of work?

Why not call your surgeon 1st?

Please follow YOUR surgeon's post op diet as given to you and do NOT do what people on here do. Different surgeons perform the same operation differently and their patient base HEALS differently. Having patients move to mushies "early" may work for some surgeons, because of how they install the band, or for whatever reason...but you need to do what YOUR DOC tells YOU to do. If you are hungry, call and ask if you can advance faster. Don't just do it. Please. Even if it doesn't "hurt" you right away it MAY hurt you on down the road. (a loosened stitch may mean the band doesn't heal in place properly and set you up for a slip or erosion down the road, for example) You chose your doc, you trusted him/her to do your surgery, now trust him/her to guide you through the post op healing phase.

I was a 53 year old obese RN guest in my cath lab....I just graduated with my BSN so I understand. But you can speak up without being offensive and being a guest doesn't mean you should tolerate rudeness. THAT is something they try to teach us, too! Have you been through "management" yet? I AM sorry that you were offended, but maybe next time you can say "WHOA dude you need an attitude adjustment" or whatever. Further I can think that if a bunch of their cardiac patients ARE obese (and it is way more common for "fat" people to have heart trouble, as we all know) then maybe they get frustrated being unable to "fix" it. Medicine is about healing, fixing, making well (for the most part) and when you have nothing to offer the obese patient except "quit eating the wrong foods" I can see how it would wear on you. They need a change of venue, an attitude adjustment, it sounds to me, much in the same way that working with cancer patients or in hospice can take a toll. Not excusing them, you understand. We are professionals and must act that way...but you don't get off the hook just because you are a "guest". WHile it isn't your place necessarily to raise the rude RN, if something bothers you enough that you feel the need to post it on a board like this, then it must have been onerous and saying something WAS called for. In my experience nursing is a field with a good chunk of overweight people anyway. I've found mostly professionalism and acceptance, but maybe I give off a "don't stick your foot in your mouth around me" vibe! :frown: The VERY few times I have encountered unprofessional behavior, a comment or two usually gets everyone back on track. I'm proud of my profession, and sad when someone acts like the RN you described, and sad when someone like you won't speak up; if not for yourself, then the patient. You are a patient advocate too. Hopefully next time you'll feel empowered enough to say something. To me, it's part of your job.

Why would your root canal delay your appt with the surgeon? I can see why it might delay your surgery a little, but not the meet with the surgeon. ?

Wow sorry you are going through this. My surgeon and the NP just prescribed allopurinol to me prophylactically so I wouldn't develop it. I am loving them even more now. High protein diets contribute more than low calorie ... so I guess because they push protein first they figure best to head it off at the pass.

I'm sorry no one has answered you...I didn't need the documentation you mention but have you just gone to your primary and asked him/her to help you? And if you are overweight, has your doc never talked to you about it?

A stoma is a hole... the stoma is the hole between the new "pouch" and the lower stomach. And yes, the esophagus is geared to moving things through. It's a conveyor belt, not a processor. IF you eat too much and food is in the esophagus rather than the pouch, the esophagus, lined with mucus membranes, produces.......mucous! To help move it along. It will contract and move the food up or down. That is one cause of a PB. Another is when a bite or bolus of food is too big or not well chewed...it doesn't go through and so will come back, again with the aid of mucous (which is called "slime" here). You CAN stretch your pouch, ONCE YOU ARE RESTRICTED, by overeating frequently. Also PBing too much can be bad for your band. However for most of us if we follow our doc's individualized post op instructions to the letter, the band heals well and we don't have slips or big issues down the line. PBing isn't like vomiting in that there is no stomach acid/bile in it. It isn't corrosive. Unpleasant, but not corrosive. OF course your doc would be the best source of info!

2009LB when they sent you away without a fill, what did they tell you? Bye come back we'll try again? or are they going to do something different? My port is tilted but my surgeon finds it every time; as his NP says, "He put it there". I'm shocked your surgeon couldn't do it. Good grief.

Welcome and good luck! Hang in there with the post op diet; it will get a little better every day!

Also if you aren't, add in some resistance or strength training. Muscle uses energy and food, fat just stores it.

Well, you haven't had a fill in a year; so I'd think yes you need to accellerate that appointment. AND...you haven't gained it all back. I figure the band is for life and for many of us, that means sometimes we're on a roll, and sometimes we are under the roll! All you do is just get that fill and get back with it. The band is still in there waiting to help. If you got bored with how you were eating, mix it up. Make an appt to see a nutritionist. Go to WW or Jenny or some such...there is nothing that says you can't do a formalized monitored diet with the band if that type of thing helps you. But get the fill 1st.

My point is...that was one person. She said "So much for caring and empathetic nurses"...I resent being painted with the same brush as he. And did she stand up for obese people? Did she say "I don't think you should talk that way?" I am sure that what she heard was hurtful, and maybe the guy did mean to be hateful to her. I don't know her. I don't know him. But as the saying goes (and I'm paraphrasing cuz I don't remember it exactly) All it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to stand and do nothing. If you don't like it when someone picks on someone else, speak up. Sorry she was hurt, and nothing good came of it.

Perhaps they didn't see you as being all that fat? You know we are usually our own worst enemies... OR you could come here to San Antonio. I had my cardiac cath lab rotation when I weighed about 380 and I can tell you the guys there (docs and RN's and techs) were all the nicest people anywhere. They let me go in and watch, the showed me how they program things, a doc let me observe VERY close up and took time to tell me each thing he was doing...and never a glance, raised eyebrow, etc. I know people can be nasty, but maybe they were at ease with you because they didn't think you were "fat". Just a different perspective.