BillOh

I did run into one situation where I had to tell one person I was eating lunch with. I got a piece of chicken stuck while dining with this person. While not an overly serious situation, what I was going through could appear to me something much worse to someone who has no clue about your surgery. If you totally put weight loss surgery out of your mind, the look on my face and my actions could be interpreted as a much more serious issue (choking or stroke) come to mind.

Interesting reading, thanks for posting. Mine was done at the Ohio State University and involved first doing a 200 question multiple choice test before the discussion with the doctor. At the time I was taking medicine for depression and was worried they wouldn't approve me for surgery.

My insurance company and hospital requires a BMI of 35 with certain morbidities. My doctor did tell me I was the smallest person he ever worked on. But I'm so glad I did it. I'm totally off blood pressure medicine and am almost cured (as of 17 pound ago) of my sleep apnea.

Sounds like we are both lucky to have good doctors, sure made this process easier.

I'm glad the OP started this interesting thread. I couldn't have gotten away with not telling my family doctor. I didn't need a referral, but I did have to get a weight history from my doctor showing I was obese for more than 5 years.

I couldn't disagree more. My wife and I both when through this and some people can be down right rude and can't take a hint about not wanting to talk about it with them. My wife and I have each other and a few friends and don't need any further help from others, but would like to avoid some people and their relentless coments and inquiries.

The main thing is sleep apnea can be fatal, and they want to make sure you are being treated. I am 6 months post surgery and am almost cured of my apnea, but if you don't get treated, the additional stress from surgery can be bad. It would be possible to die in the weeks after WLS because of sleep apea. If you are being treated for it, your recovery will go smoother. That said, my being banded was primarily because I wasn't using my CPAP machine, I just couldn't stand it. I was supposed to bring it with me on surgery day. I didn't, but I was on oxygen that night and my level never dropped.

Most people have a hard time understanding how something called a sleep study can be stressful. I've had 5 and I am hoping will never have one again. On the bright side, I was considered to have SEVERE sleep apnea with over 200 "episodes" an hour and my blood oxygen level slipped to 79%. I revisited my sleep doctor after losing 50 pounds and did an overnight test where you just wear an oxygen monitor on your finger and it has improved dramatically. I am going to repeat the test when I hit 200 pounds.

My doctor made me weight 8 weeks, However, I did feel some restriction even without a fill and lost 40 pounds prior to that fill.

On the bright side, if you didn't choose to tell the people around you that you had this surgery, they are more likely to think you lost the weight completely on your own when it goes slow. I'm down to less than a pound a week, but still losing.

I'll open this up for discussion , but based on my own experience I recommend if you are taking a diuretic medication that you call your doctor and ask if you can temporarily stop it the day before surgery. The only bad thing I can say about my stay is they were pumping me full of fluids after surgery and having me take my diuretic which made resting/healing hard than it should be.

I was a runner in high school, but that was 32 years and 110 pounds ago. Today I completed my first 5k run. I started running again this spring after losing about 40 pounds. Today's race went better than I expected. I had hoped to complete it in 30-33 minutes, but I ended up completing it in 29 minutes, and that was after dodging traffic for the first mile or so. I'm not the sappy emotional type, but I really did draw energy from the people around me. It was the Susan Komen Race for the cure benefiting breast cancer research. I was on the starting line and had to make way for a trolly full of people who are currently battling breast cancer to lead the race. I saw a woman, who became overwhelmed at being cheered for by 45000 people. All during the race I really felt like I received energy from the people in front of me with "In memory of....." on their shirts. I think I'm hooked on 5k's now.

I'm sure looking forward to it. This time last year I couldn't run 100 yards. I did a 5k distance in prep Wednesday at 32 minutes. It has been so worth it.

My wife had her tubes tied and it was done laproscopically (sp) The procedures seem pretty similar, except there is one bigger incision during the lapband.

I took (till this week) the same medicine. I didn't take it the morning of surgery, but they gave it to me that night. Made for a very long painful night getting up to go so often.

I can remember a lot of weight loss tips from before my surgery and I'd have to say now that adding them up, most are pretty good ones. The one that sticks out in my mind that is wrong (for me) is to not weigh yourself every day. I definitely weigh myself every day and once in awhile, I may gain a pound or two for no reason, and I can accept that. I just buckle down for a couple of days to get it back. I've taken up to a week to just get back the 1-2 pounds I may gain, but at least I'm conscious of it. I fear if I only weighed myself once a week, I might not notice and gain more. So how often do you weigh yourself? Once I hit my goal weight I might think about only weighing myself a couple of times a week.

Also a WII fit user for tracking. My doctor scale and home scale are close. WII has me 1-2 pounds lighter. I put a piece of plywood under the balance board and the readings got much more reliable.

FYI, scales on carpets tend to be off more than scales on hard floors. An indication if your scale is off because of being on a carpet is to weigh yourself several times, the value shouldn't vary that much. We bought a scale we really like from Sharper image.

In cases like that they will typically take what they know and add time to it so they can't be held libel. Is has mainly to do wiht healing and that is a very individual thing.

A common misconception, and only true of poorly maintained units. There will be less germs or other nasty stuff in my hot tub than your tap Water most times.

Erica, As moderator of whatsthebest-hottub.com and a fellow bandster, this is something I dealt with. The hospital told me two weeks after surgery, but the surgeon gave me the green light after 12 days because my incisions were closed and not red.

Same thought I had, but I remember being told (I went to an audition) there is a pretty extensive legal agreement they sign that is pretty controlling, I would almost bet no WLS is in that agreement. Even the people that are kicked off get trainers back in their home town.

I took the doctor recommended 2 weeks, but could have went back after 4 days.

I think that only applies to bypass patients, though on my discharge papers it said "Don't take iburpofen and continue to take ibuprofen on consecutive lines. There were a few things on my discharge papers that were specific to bypass patients, I guess they use the same forms for both.

Still taking my daily Multivitamin, what was your concern against pills? Is your restriction too high to allow it to pass?