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i'm all set for my banding on monday morning. i'm not exactly nervous, but there are some dark thoughts swirling around. in no particular order: 1. what if i don't make it? i'm a single mother with an 8 y/o son. what if i get wheeled away from him and never come back? he's very aware of what's going to be happening. he went with me for my pre-registration at the hospital and was even able to play with an actual band, tube, and port. we did have a talk about what the surgery meant, and how there's always a risk any time you go under. i reassured him that he'd be fine and well taken care of by his father, blah blah blah, and that both myself and my doctor thought that nothing bad would happen to me. (this was a VERY kid friendly conversation, really.) he actually seemed better with the surgery after we talked about what might possibly go wrong. he hugged me and said "i know you'll wake up and come home. i hear that those doctors are real professionals." :faint: that kid has a tremendous capacity to break my heart. 2. what if i didn't follow the pre-op diet correctly and they won't perform the procedure once they get in there? my doc uses a high-Protein, low carb diet for two weeks. day before surgery Clear liquids only, nothing after midnight before. the first week i was WAY great, really really limiting my carbs (way below the 30 grams a day i was allowed) and i could tell that i was dropping weight. this second week, i haven't cheated AT ALL by eating breads or sweets or anything, but i think the carbs have crawled up via nuts and sugarfree popsicles, etc. i'm probably hovering right around 30 grams. am i just freaking myself out and borrowing trouble? should i go all protein no carb at all tomorrow? 3. what if this whole experiment fails? i'm probably just thinking about this too much.

well, i'm home! so, i guess i woke up and did the diet correctly. two out of three down. i had to spend the night because i'm a high bmi patient, and because i'm on cpap. had an uneventful night; slept a lot, walked a lot, didn't need too much pain medication. had to do a leak test in the morning, and they made me drink this truly dreadful liquid. tasted like damnation. but that was fine and i was able to start on liquids in the morning. the pain isn't very bad at all. i've got some gas pain in my side and my shoulder, but it's bearable. my incisions all feel and look good. the only strange thing is i was given lortab elixer for my prescription. i asked the nurse if i could take one at the hospital to make sure it wasn't going to make me sick, and i started to get a very weird reaction to it. started off as a red spot on my jawline and spread to all over may face and neck. not raised like a hive, but certainly producing heat. so, obviously i'm not going to be filling that script. i just got some extra strength tylenol adult liquid...my pain isn't all that bad, so i think i'll be able to stay on top of it just fine with the otc stuff. thanks again for all your good words!

so sorry to hear your news. i'm also scheduled for surgery on the 21st, so i know how it would feel to get that news at such a late date. i had to have an ekg and an echocardiogram as part of my pre-op testing. the ekg went fine, but they had a very difficult time getting the echo to show a clear picture...presumably because of my body condition. had to repeat the test with a big, burly man. i was literally bleeding after the test was done, but we got a picture, dangit. and it was a heck of lot cheaper than a stress test. but the first time the test failed, i really felt like giving up. the whole road to the surgery, for me, felt like it had been lined with bombs and delays and more and more tests to do. i seriously started to feel like maybe i just wasn't meant to have this surgery. but i realize now i was just reacting out of frustration. your surgeon just wants to be sure that this will be safe for you. keep the faith, and you'll get a new date shortly. good luck!

congratulations! that's quite an accomplishment, and it really, really shows. you should be so proud of yourself!

thanks for your response, bettina. i appreciate the feedback. i guess it's just nerves. still worried about the diet, though. good luck with your banding!

gallbladders are evil little organs. i had mine out a year ago; it went out with quite a bang, to. the pain of that was SO much worse than childbirth for me. didn't need any pain meds post-op, though. taking it out was blessing enough. good luck!!!

i just got my date, too! it's a good feeling. i'll be right ahead of you on the 21st of august. good luck to both of us!!

i'll be an august bandster! i've finally gotten a surgery date of 8/21!!! i attended my seminar almost exactly a year ago. spent some time waiting for my insurance to change with my employer, then wasted some time trying to get it approved through the new provider. when they denied again and again and again, i was ready to give up. but...my family stepped forward and all agreed to band (ha! pun intended) together to pay for it amongst themselves. my family rawks. i've told them all i'll name a body part after each of them. meet my right foot, barbara, and charles, my kneecap. i'm so ready! not excited, really, just so tired of waiting for this to begin. the pre-op diet has been easy and i can tell based on how my rings fit my sausages that i'm losing some weight already. i've got about 250 to lose, so my journey will be a long, long one. i'm finally ready to get it started. wish me luck!!!!

how much pain are you in? like the poster a few pages ago, i also got a fissure during childbirth. (that's not the only way you can get them, and is in fact one of the least likely ways to become fissurized.) the pain of a fissure is really, really bad. like having a bowie knife stuck sideways in your bottom. my fissure was very severe, and i bled constantly. the blood was bright red, and there was always so much in the toilet that i couldn't see anything else in there. it was even able to obscure toilet paper. eventually, i had to have surgery to reverse the situation. nothing about any of it was easy or fun. INSIST on a colonoscopy. it will probably answer all of your questions, or at least rule out lots of possibilities.

such a very well written post. it was a joy to read. i'm also right on the edge of getting my band. i've got roughly 250 pounds to lose to get to my ideal weight, and originally met some resistance from my doctors about having the band. however, i would have never considered the bypass as an option for me. i recall at the seminar i attended for my surgeon (who performs both procedures) the woman who had the rny looked like she'd suffered a devastating illness while the woman who'd had the bypass looked perfectly healthy. they'd both lost equivalent amounts of weight. for me, there was no other option *but* the band after seeing that. i've got my last consultation with my surgeon on the 14th of august, and will get a surgery date then. i'm going to be starting my preop diet a week before that last appt. so hopefully i can have the surgery a week later. :Banane56: you'll be done and home and comfy by then, but i'll be right behind you!

i'll be having my surgery with dr. sherrod from southwest bariatrics. he seems very nice and i've found that he really listens to what you have to say rather than giving you canned answers. i've got a very high bmi so i've had to have quite a few pre-op tests (sleep study, ekg, echochardiogram, exercise, nutrition, and blood work) so i've been just sort of plugging away getting things done. i just finished the last of them on friday, so i'm just waiting for the results to make it to dr. sherrod so i can schedule my very last pre-op appt. with him and schedule this dang thing!

i always like to add yogurt or Jello to cottage cheese. about half/half. the jello sounds gross, i know...but it's really pretty good. i don't know if this would count as a mushie or not, but you can make a sort of 'pancake' out of cottage cheese: 1 c cottage cheese, 6 egg, a few tb flour. basically, beat the eggs, add the cottage cheese and a few tbs flour to bind it together. you *may* need as many as 6 tbs flour for six eggs, but i'd start low and mix it until you feel like it won't spread out too much in your skillet. these are very, very light and very moist as the curds melt a bit while you cook them. they're great with some salsa, or some chopped fruit or made into a wrap with a piece of deli turkey... amanda

my surgeon is in austin: dr. mike sherrod, bariatric surgeons group. he offices out of seton northwest. quite a drive from san antonio, but closer than dallas!

hello, board! my name is amanda, and i'm on the road toward getting the lap-band surgery in austin with dr. mike sherrod. i've researched this for years and years, and finally decided to move forward. my insurance has an exlcusion listed on the master policy, so i'm going the self-pay route. actually, my family is coming together to pay for this, so i guess they'll all own pieces of me when this is finished. i'm very, very large with a bmi of 64.9. however, i don't have any comorbidites at this point, so i'm ahead of the game on that count. the whole point of the surgery is to make sure i don't develop diabetes, hbp, etc. etc. i'm still relatively young at 34, so i should experience no problems with the surgery. it's a good thing, too, because i simply wouldn't consider any other type of wls. i've had my first consultation and the ekg and psych consult. due to my size, my surgeon also wants an echocardiogram and a sleep study in addition to the standard blood tests and exercise and nutritional consults. i was all fired up to run out and get all of this done so that i could schedule the surgery ASAP, but...fate has a few other plans. :faint: almost immediately after the consult, i caught pink eye from my little mobile petrie dish of a son. it was the bacterial kind, and caused enough other problems to make me get an ear infection, which led to a sinus infection, which then grew into an upper respiratory infection. i've been sick with this string of crap for over three weeks now, and just can't seem to shake anything. :cry i can't very well do the sleep study and get 'real' results when i can't breathe at all! lol and i'm coughing so much the thought of surgery is just out of the question. so, right now, i'm trying to get well and work on boosting what clearly isn't a very robust immune system. last thing i'd want is to get rid of the colds and have surgery and end up getting an infection because my body isn't trying to fight anything. so. i'm just sort of sitting on my thumb on the side of the road for a few weeks longer. but i know that the surgery is just riiiiiight there, ready for me to be ready for it. looking forward to learning and sharing a lot here! amanda

i have united ppo and it was denied due to being listed specficially as an exclusion on my employer's policy. if that's the case with your policy, no amount of appealing united will make any difference at all, unfortunately. amanda