julie.ann

10/13/08 I started my pre-op diet a little early. My weight is 282, but a few days ago it was 285.5 so that is the highest weight I will record. No bread (!) potatoes, pasta or rice. I think the bread will be the hardest. I am doing basically an Atkins diet. Protein, low carbs. I have started to keep my food journal on sparkpeople.com again. I should have been doing that before. I don’t know how I will find time to exercise. I may wait until my first fill to start back to the gym.

I typed out a letter for my doctor to sign to try and get this approved through insurance. It didn’t work. No insurance means I start shopping around for a wonderful doctor that had good prices. What are the chances I will find that? WOW! What do you know…I found it! Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver has one of the lowest prices I’ve seen in the US I have found some of his patients on support groups on-line and haven’t heard a bad word about him. My surgery is scheduled for Oct 29th!

I typed out a letter for my doctor to sign to try and get this approved through insurance. It didn’t work. No insurance means I start shopping around for a wonderful doctor that had good prices. What are the chances I will find that? WOW! What do you know…I found it! Dr. Kirshenbaum in Denver has one of the lowest prices I’ve seen in the US I have found some of his patients on support groups on-line and haven’t heard a bad word about him. My surgery is scheduled for Oct 29th!

After my brother’s wedding I finally made the decision to have the lap band procedure. I don’t know where or how I will afford it, but I have decided to move forward. I spoke to Brad and told him why I wanted to do this. By the time I was done telling him why I was crying. He said yes we can after we sell our other house. Little did I know and lucky for me he wouldn’t hold me to that time table.

After my brother’s wedding I finally made the decision to have the lap band procedure. I don’t know where or how I will afford it, but I have decided to move forward. I spoke to Brad and told him why I wanted to do this. By the time I was done telling him why I was crying. He said yes we can after we sell our other house. Little did I know and lucky for me he wouldn’t hold me to that time table.

HELP! This stabbing pain in my left shoulder didn't start until 24 hours postop. Any advice, heat or cold? How long did this last for you. When I had my tubal ligation it was really bad, but started on the first day. HELP!

October 30-kygirl31;Slim2bnik October 31-watermum; lambgram It looks like we have a few more today and tomorrow. Good luck guys! Let us know how you are doing!!! If there are others just copy and paste into your post and add you name it. I can't believe it is almost November already!!!!!

Here we are!!!! October is here and we all want to hear how your surgery experience went. Everyone's experience is different. What happened during your story. What are you glad you did? What do you wish you could have done different? How was your doctor? Nursing staff? Hospital? Tell us all about it!!!!

Well I guess it's my turn to tell my surgery story. I met Dr. Kirshenbaum for the face to face for the first time at my appt the day before surgery. We had done a phone pre-op and I also had a phone consult with a nutritionist. I went to do doctors and the medial assistant took down my height and weight and took my vitals. Dr. K came in and we talked about the surgery. He didn't ask much about my pre-op diet. He just wanted to know if lost weight and how much. (14#!) We signed the consents, went over my allergies, he wrote the admission orders. We had time to ask him questions. He is very nice. We filled my scripts for liquid lortab, zofran and a dulcolax supposity. Insurance paid $10 (the only thing they will be covering) and all together it cost me $30 for my scripts. Not bad. The evening before surgery he had me take a supposity to help my bowls move. I forgot my stool softener. Don't forget to start that after surgery if you have firm stool. The narcs they give you will slow down you GI too. You don't want to become constipated. The morning of surgery I didn't have to be at the hospital until 9:30am, but I woke at about 7. When we got to the surgery center we sat in a waiting room that looked like a doctor's office until they called my back to a bay area. They were not very busy and everyone was THE BEST!!!!! Jan was my pre-op nurse, Caroline my OR nurse and Dr. Johnson was my anesteseologist. They wanted a urine sample, I got dress....or maybe I should say undressed :redface:in my gown. Scopolamine patch behind the ear, a pepcid pill, a zofran pill, an IV, levaquin hung since I am allergic to Keflex, decadron in my IV and one other IV med I don't remember. After all the questions Dr. Johnson was such a dear and pushed some versed IV. I love that drug of amnesia! I think I was in preop another few minutes, but I don’t remember it. I woke up in the Recovery Room. Renee was my nurse. She didn't have quite the sweet disposition that the others had, but she was nice. I was out of it in recovery. My surgery started about 11 and my hubby was called by Dr. K at about 12 and he said he could go back in about 20 min to see me. It was 1:30 when he called back about me and found out I had just woke up. Dr K and Dr. Johnson both came by to see how I was. Dr. K said that he had to repair a small hiatal hernia. (I wonder By 2:30 I had gone to the rest room and was ready to be dismissed from the Recovery Room. I am doing pretty well. So far I haven't had a lot of shoulder pain and my incisions are uncomfortable. I don’t' like narcs, but I will take my lortab for my 7 hour drive home today. No nausea so far. I have found if I eat my Jello too fast I get a little chest pain so I will nibble slowly. I haven't named my band yet. We have barely been introduced. I see how it goes. I love being a member of the band!

I had my surgery today. I feel great so far! Minimal pain, my throat is starting to feel better and so far I really haven't had any shoulder pain from the gas. I was going to stay in town until 3:0pm, but the way it is going I bet we leave before noon. I don't think I will need to stop and see Dr. K tomorrow. His staff is SO NICE. I will get to see his new office the week of Thanksgiving when I go in for my first fill. Thanks for all the nice words of encouragement. " I'm so happy I'm with the band!":party:

5 weeks! Wow my heart goes out to you! I am on Clear Liquids the day of surgery and the day after then I have full liquids with a transition to soft foods during week 2. I progess to regular food weeks 3-6. I bet you will dropped a lot of weight though to get you started!

Here I am. 3 1/2 hours after getting my lap band in. I joined the BAND!!! :lol:FINALLY! I am feeling pretty good. I think I will nap soon. I am sore, but not horrible pain. I just wanted to say hi. I will post more later. Good luck to those that are still in the hospital. Love to you all!

Well girls today is my day. I am up and it is 6:30 in the moring. I couldn't sleep in. I have to leave for the hospital at 9:15. I met Dr. Kirshenbaum and he is very nice and his office staff if great. Especially the medical assistant. She is so sweet. I am NPO as of right now. Oh, sorry. I mean nothing by mouth (NPO). I'm not really nervous like I thought I would be. Excitded, but not nervous. We went out to eat with friends last night since we are about 7 hours away from home it was nice to meet up with friends that live here. I'm glad we did. It was a great learning experience for me. The rolls were passed around and it didn't hurt to say, No thanks, I can't have one. I ordered some great fish. We ate at Red Lobster, so that made it a little easier. I've never eaten there before. Well I had to have a dulcolax suppository last night. My pre-op diet has basically been the Atkins diet so I have had to be careful and have been taking an OTC stool softner anyway. I have my liquid Lortab. (I hate narcs) and I also bought some liquid tylenol and motrin and my box of gas-x strips. Aren't those strips handy! We don't have worry about pills in our new pouch. I think I will name my band. I don't know what yet. Have any of you named yours. I thought I would wait till I have it. Maybe then it will be easier to name it. Some call it "my little friend" others I have talked to have have an actual name for it. "Trudy doen't like steak." I guess we will see. We I guess I will change my ticker and get the countdown to surger replaced with something else. I hope to get back on the boards soon. Good luck and prayers to all of my fellow Smashing Pumpkins joining the band today and those that will this week and a big thank you to those that already have. You have given some great information. I started to think that it sucked to be one of the last ones of our group to be banded, but I have had the chance to hear about you experiences and listen to your advice. I will talk to you all later! Cheers.

October 27- ebonie1015; alabamagirl1975; dicustr413; suziq53 October 28-Michele777; Rosie Sage October 29-knickerbocker; ~Bridgette~; SCTexasGirl; julie.ann; lauriel; dirigo; CMTurner; sunwyse; Altoonasoup; chrisfer1;wvgal33; gracie78; Tamisha; Road less traveled; debbie brooks; tomatogirl; vicbrad; mvane08 October 30-kygirl31;Slim2bnik October 31-watermum; lambgram This is the last week in October. Hats off and prayers for all that are to be banded this week!!!!!

Lap, that's great! Good for you. I'm glad things are going well for you and for all the other bandsters too!

Good thinking. I hadn't thought of that! I didn't know he would want to see me the next day. THANKS!

I messed up. I have given up bread, Pasta, rice and potatoes. That is my pre-op diet. I have been doing ok and I have lost 14 lbs. Tonigh I forgot my ah, ha moment. I had a test and I failed. i went out with friends and I failed. I suffered a last supper. I thought I will have what I am craving and I know it will be full of fat, but I won't be breaking my diet. I won't go into it. I know many of you are on Clear liquids. By what I had was breaded and I didn't think about it until after I was done. Of course the 3 grey goose and cranberry juices didn't help. I screwed up. So now I have to ask what did I learn from this? I learned that I need to remember that when socializing food doesn't make things more fun. That was my ah, ha moment. A few weeks ago I realized that food is not supposed to be fun. It is there to survive. It isn't fun. Fun is shopping for regular sized clothes and making love to your husband and feeling sexy. Fun is rock climbing and jumping up and down when you son makes a great miniature golf shot. Fun is sitting in a chair and feeling comfortable without a table in from of me to hide my body. Fun is not eating. Food doesn't want me to feel good. Food doesn't make me feel better. Food isn't my friend. It isn't my enemy. It is neutral. It is there to sustain life. I flunked my test, but instead of feeling like giving up like I usually do I am going to learn from it. I wanted to get in the 260's before my surgery. I may have just cost me that milestone. I will survive. I will achieve. I will learn from my mistake. I will research and be prepared the next time I am invited out with friends. It may take more work....but a skinnier butt is worth it!

I messed up. I have given up bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. That is my pre-op diet. I have been doing ok and I have lost 14 lbs. Tonigh I forgot my ah, ha moment. I had a test and I failed. i went out with friends and I failed. I suffered a last supper. I thought I will have what I am craving and I know it will be full of fat, but I won't be breaking my diet. I won't go into it. I know many of you are on clear liquids. By what I had was breaded and I didn't think about it until after I was done. Of course the 3 grey goose and cranberry juices didn't help. I screwed up. So now I have to ask what did I learn from this? I learned that I need to remember that when socializing food doesn't make things more fun. That was my ah, ha moment. A few weeks ago I realized that food is not supposed to be fun. It is there to survive. It isn't fun. Fun is shopping for regular sized clothes and making love to your husband and feeling sexy. Fun is rock climbing and jumping up and down when you son makes a great miniature golf shot. Fun is sitting in a chair and feeling comfortable without a table in from of me to hide my body. Fun is not eating. Food doesn't want me to feel good. Food doesn't make me feel better. Food isn't my friend. It isn't my enemy. It is neutral. It is there to sustain life. I flunked my test, but instead of feeling like giving up like I usually do I am going to learn from it. I wanted to get in the 260's before my surgery. I may have just cost me that milestone. I will survive. I will achieve. I will learn from my mistake. I will research and be prepared the next time I am invited out with friends. It may take more work....but a skinnier butt is worth it!

Can you help me? I am getting surgery at Crown Point. Do you have a recommendation for a hotel. The Hampton Inn is close. (only 2 minutes away) The Marriot (11 min) has been nice in other cities. Select Hotel by Holiday Inn is 6 minutes away. What do you think? Thanks in advance for the help. I need to make reservations tomorrow.

One more question. I am getting surgery at Crown Point. Do you have a recommendation for a hotel. The Hampton Inn is close. (only 2 minutes away) The Marriot (11 min) has been nice in other cities. Select Hotel by Holiday Inn is 6 minutes away. What do you think? Thanks in advance for the help. I need to make reservations tomorrow.

Thanks guys. You've made me feels tons better! I AM so excited. It seems like it would never get here. I am not going to work on Monday and we live 7 hours from Denver so we have a long drive on Tuesday before my pre-op appt. On Friday I went into work saying to myself that it was the last time I will work before I am banded. Everything is getting measured by that date! It will be a new life for me. I am determined and have a great husband to support me. I have haven't told anyone else about my surgery. Thanks again. I'll let you know how it goes!!!!!!!:eek: Oh yeah...I weighed this morning and I am down 14! I hope that keeps up!

I would love to ask you all a question. I go see Dr. K on Tuesday and I have surgery Wednesday! Oh, right....the question. I have been on no bread, potatoes, pasta or rice. Any way I have lost 11 pounds and I haven't been hungry. I am eating 1100-1300 calories and 120-130gm of protein, but my carbs have been 30-50. I am worried. Do you think I will be ok? I have really been trying to watch it, but even cottage cheese has carbs. Is carbs worse than fat?

I'm sure they pumped you full of fluids. Keep drinking like you should. You will shed the extra fluids you got from your IV in no time.:smile:

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