Momotrips

Anyone have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) w/urgency, not constipation or PCS (Post Cholestectomy Syndrome - Post Gallbladder Removal) before being banded? Did it improve? The type of IBS I have is not the kind where you CAN'T go, it's when you HAVE to go. The removal of my gallbladder made it even worse. Some days I GO everytime I eat anything. I've learned to live with it and it's not that big of a deal. However, you guys talk a lot about being constipated, so I was wondering if the IBS would improve and I'd become "normal" or if it would swing the other way and I'd be blocked or if by some chance it would get even worse:omg: . It won't effect my decision at all, I'm just curious. Thanks, Melissa

I thought that my thyroid was screwed up after surgery because I was cold ALL the time. I think I'm back to normal now. I never even thought about the anesthesia. I don't recall that happening any other time I have had anesthesia. Weird.

Thanks, Jessica. I'm a very good dieter (fat lot of good that's done me in the past) - I can set my mind pretty well. It's the hunger and sticking with it indefinitely that gets me in the end. I've lost loads of weight lots of times. I'm hoping my band helps me put an end to the yo-yo and get all the way down to where I want to be. By the way, Jessica, we are "neck and neck" in the weight loss - 14 pounds. However, you will be entering "onderland" very soon and I'm jealous! I did have to purchase a new pair of jeans and got to go back to another smaller pair in my closet. Woo hoo! Keep it up!

Hey all, went to the doctor yesterday and he released me to mushy/soft foods. I'm almost 6 weeks out. I won't get a fill until Dec 28th (Merry Christmas to me!). That will be 10 weeks post op. My doctor is very conservative about fills. Where's KStar? When is your first fill scheduled? I gained a few pounds over the holiday because we went to the inlaws that don't know about my surgery. I did pretty well and stuck to the plan most of the time, but there and at my family's for Thanksgiving, I did munch on pretzels to keep my mind off of the other verboten stuff. I increased my water intake to counteract the sodium. My niece made me some home made butternut squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner. So sweet of her and delicious! My family all knows about my surgery, so they were very supportive. As of this morning, I am back to my pre-holiday weight. Yay! Back on track. I had tuna salad yesterday after my doctor's appointment and it was heaven! I went to the store and stocked up on mushies and soft foods. I can't wait to cook some fish for dinner. That sounds fabulous. Keep up the good work, everyone. We can do it together!

Bah! Sorry KStar. He's a stickler, our doc. Get that reflux under control - amazingly I haven't had reflux since banding. Amazing. I was doing so great before this week. Slow, but steady - was down to 218 from 232 before our trip to the inlaws (they don't know about my surgery). I was able to stick with my grits (fave) for breakfast and was able to bring soup for lunch. MIL always has sandwich stuff and salads, dips and crackers for lunches, so I just brought soup and had a couple of spoons of crab salad and salmon dip, because they had protein (and she insisted). I successfully fended off her attempts to feed me pie. I was not as successful at avoiding the white chocolate pretzels, however. Sigh. I was able to get soup at most restaurants, although they were higher in calories than Campbell's, I'm sure. We did go to a pizza restaurant and I did have to eat a small slice of pizza. I ate tiny bites and CHEWED. I ate about 3/4 - not the spongy outer crust, just the thin bottom. I also had a couple of bites of cinnamon pizza and a dab of pasta salad. All of this could have fit on a small plate. I was so full. Amazing. I didn't get in all of my water, so I'll have to go back to liquids and drown myself today to prepare for tomorrow. I'm back up to 222. I know 2 will come off by hydrating myself - I'm feeling swollen and thirsty. I see the doctor on Tuesday and want to be back down to 218, or at least 220. I still have to do mushies. Bummer. I really hope he'll give me a fill at first opportunity - I'm feeling more hungry since having a taste of "real" food. Gotta jump back on the horse...

Gawd, me too! Banded on 10/20 and lost 11 pounds. I am on full liquids around 800 cals./day and I DON'T cheat. I wish it were faster, but it's 11 pounds less than before, so can't complain.

Moon Goddess, hot tubs should be okay, but only after you're completely healed to prevent infection. Ask you doctor when they think it's okay to soak.

KStar - I find that Maalox (plus or ultra multi-symptom - cherry flavor) left in the fridge is the best cure for most heartburn, indigestion, gas, etc. I usually take Rx Aciphex, but haven't since surgery. It worked for my bloating on Saturday, too. Try it. Sorry you're having that problem. I have found if I sit slumped too long I get kind of an achy bloaty feeling, too, right where I imagine the band is. Also, I get that feeling if I try to drink water lying in bed - I have to sit up. I can only imagine what it feels like when something gets stuck!

Le2sha, that burning feeling is healing around the port and other "punctures", I think. I've had that. One day, 7 days out, it flet like it was crawling around inside of me. I guess it was settling in and growing scar tissue or something. Weird. Each day things seem a little more "normal". I still have some bruising around two of my incisions, though. KStar, I have not had any heartburn yet, but I am still doing full liquids. I did make tortilla soup and had some killer bloating, though. I don't know if it was because is was richer than most of the stuff I've been eating or if it was simply the beans. I took a couple of GasX and a swig of Maalox and it got better much to my husband's dismay - if you get my drift. Heh. I took my husband to the Four Seasons Hotel for an "overnighter" for his birthday and we ate at Zula (fabulous, fine dining - a favorite). Well, he ate - crab cakes and lobster and I nibbled a little fois gras and crab soup and a couple of bites of the most melt-in-your-mouth lobster from his plate. I also had about 1/4 glass of wine and I didn't get drunk, but I felt polluted. I won't be drinking again. The rich food made me a little rumbly in my tumbly, too. I pretty much had fasted yesterday, though, I had water and a 90 calorie EAS shake, so I won't beat myself up over it. This morning we had a massage - ahhhh. I suggest this to EVERYONE. Get someone to watch your kids, check into a luxury hotel with 400+ threadcount sheets, go out to a fine restaurant and finally, get a massage. It is expensive, but it should be done about once a year - you don't realize how stressful and boring your routine gets until you do something like this. We actually haven't done this in about 5 years. I didn't even ask my husband about it I just booked it and told him we were going. He loved it. I loved it. Save your pennies and get away. You'll find that it's worth every penny.

I had the juice from tortilla soup on liquid stage and I have had some thicker tortilla soup with veggies, etc. blended up on full liquid stage. When you get to mushies you can have mushed up beans & cheese. Just the little taste of Mexican was satisfying with the soups. I'm looking forward to mushies so that I can try the beans...I'm 19 days out.

Jacqui, the older you get, the more things seem to go all wonky with the period and the hormones. I have a heart arrhythmia that almost only bothers me right around my period. I keep telling my cardiologist and he says it's possible, because hormones affect everything, but he's never heard of that. Every other women that has PVC's that I've ever spoken to says that theirs only happen around their period or are worse then. My IBS sometimes becomes constipation at TOM - that's SO not my problem the rest of the month. However, IBS is funny, some have constipation, some urgency. Crista94, my husband cannot eat olive oil. It literally runs right through him every single time. It makes him instantly sick. He doesn't really have any other symptoms of IBS on a regular basis. This just developed in the last several years, too. Maybe that's what's happened to you, you just happened to develop this sensitivity around the same time you were banded. I'd go to your GP and ask about it. Perhaps visit a gastroenterologist. There are treatments if it is really bothersome. Otherwise, I'd just say you're lucky that your body is rejecting bad foods!

Sonia, I had the same thing - there appeared to be glue on the outer incisions, but apparently he used real stitches inside and two or three of them had the tail of the stitch sticking out. One was right where my bra would rub and each time it hit that stitch it felt like I was getting stabbed by a needle! I trimmed as much as I could from it and put a tiny bandaid on it. Weird. I keep wondering if I'll ever be able to wear a bra without it bothering me again! My surgeon puts his ports in an odd spot - under the left breast ON the rib cage, like a pacemaker. The tubing runs down the ribs to underneath. Sometimes when I bend over you can feel the tubing moving on the ribs - creepy! It must be a low-profile port, though, because it doesn't stick out much at all, however, it is still a weird bump. Luckily I have large boobs so it won't show!

I'll go with the gallbladder theory - did your doctor remove your gallbladder during surgery? Did you have it removed at any time? PCS (post cholestectomy syndrome) happens after having your gallbladder removed in more than 40% of patients. It can happen immediately after removal or even months or years after. Most doctor's will only tell you about 15-20% of people experience PCS, but with practical information from patients, and asking patients months and years after their gallbladders were removed, a lot of doctors will tell you it is more like 40% if not more. It is a dumping syndrome - you can also have a type of dumping from IBS. Lucky me, I have both. My gastroenterologist gave me Librax to help combat it - it has a small amount of anti-anxiety medication in it, because anxiety is a big trigger. Funny thing is though, he also gave me Glucophage to help me clear my liver and try to lose weight. I told him that his humor was not lost on me! I will take my Glucophage at night, but if I am going to be somewhere out and about, I will NOT take it in the morning. No telling where you'll be when you just GOTTA go. The weird thing is you can feel it. Somehow, everything is liquified and all of a sudden just shoots through your intestines - you can feel it moving through back and forth. Very weird. So, you don't have a shortened intestines like in an RNY, but your body makes short work of whats there.

According to all of my doctors' staff, UHC is the best insurance with which to work and easiest from which to collect. Yes, there are many different policies, but WLS being covered or not is usually a stipulation of the employer, not UHC. I believe a company's policy is cheaper if they don't allow it. (Same with infertility - I got lucky on that one too. My former company changed the policy the MOMENT I gave birth! Hee!). I had no problems at all. I contacted all of my doctors and had them send my records to my surgeon, the surgeon's staff packaged it in the way UHC requests and off it went. My only snag came in that it floated around the UHC office longer than I would have liked. UHC was willing to let me get the surgery with just a phone call from my surgeon's office, but they preferred to get the official approval by letter. My surgeon loves to work with UHC - he has you pay the estimated difference up front and then they deal with UHC for the rest. Simple. I paid $600 out of pocket and may or may not get some of that back. Haven't gotten the hospital or anesthesiology bill yet, though. You never know with that stuff. I had a 39 BMI and co-morbidities. They ask for proof of a doctor assisted diet, but apparently it isn't really required. Especially since I checked off 95% of the list of recognized diets on the questionnaire for my surgeon! It was easier just to mark out the ones I hadn't tried! Good luck. Call UHC and ask them what your policy covers. I called one day just out of curiosity (and being sick and tired of being fat) and they said yes that I was covered! It all started from there.

Eww, those low carb Slim Fast's are nasty! So are the Nouriche smoothies. Yuck. I prefer the Slim Fast low carb, extra creamy or the EAS Carbvantage which has 100 less calories than the Slim Fast. I LOVE the Jell-o sugar free puddings for a sweet treat, they have the best flavors - Dulce de Leche and Mint Chocolate Fudge are my faves. Sorry about dropping your soup, Sonia. Bummer.

Hey guys, I'm doing great at 17 days out. I've only lost 10 pounds, but I have been absolutely religious about following the rules. My doc has me on full liquid until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and then on to mushies. I haven't been hungry or felt deprived, I even served my family pizza last night - I did chew up a tidbit of Italian sausage, though - shhhh! I need to step up my exercise - my treadmill is fixed, so that should help and I need to start some light upperbody free weights if my goal is to wear a sleeveless dress or blouse. I have been consuming about 800-900 calories per day - am I not taking in enough? I have been getting 30+ grams of protein (my doctor doesn't like to over do it on the liquid stage) and eating three times per day plus a snack. Maybe I should call my nutritionist about that. Anyway, even though I've only lost 10 pounds, I can already feel the difference in my clothes, so that's a plus. Good luck to everyone and let's keep in touch.

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments. I'm glad that I'm not "abnormal". I will try to start walking around the block tomorrow to speed the recovery process. Much better today, but port site and incision closest to it still pretty sore. I wasn't as rumbly today, but I have gotten more so this evening. Luckily I haven't had any real gas pains like in the shoulder. I had a laparoscopy in 96 and the gas pain was terrible. Supposedly many surgeons have a way of removing a lot of the gas now. Good luck to all having surgery this week. Keep us updated.

I am banded. All went well - however I am more sore than I expected. The folks on the lap band infomercial that say they went to work the next day are liars! My port incision and the other one on the far left are quite sore. The others are pretty much fine. The not being able to turn over to sleep is annoying. I hate sleeping on my back. Now I feel all stiff. I am able to stand up straight today, though. I had to stay in the hospital an hour or two longer than expected, too, as I didn't "tinkle" quickly enough. I am gurgling like crazy! Full of beef broth and gatorade. When did you guys start to feel "normal" again? The doctor wants me to walk, but I don't even want to get dressed. Maybe I'll just get on the treadmill. I walked around in the backyard this morning, but the doc says that doesn't count - he wants a walk around the block. Maybe tomorrow... Congratulations to all newly banded and good luck to those being banded in a few days.

OMG, I almost forgot! TxSunflower, good luck tomorrow and I hope it goes smoothly. Keep us updated. I'm Friday and I'm nervous! Still frenzy cleaning and can't sleep because I'm excited. We've got such a large group here! Yay us!

Thanks, KStar! I'm so glad you had a great experience. My surgery is at 10:30 also and they said I'd be ready to go around 5:30 and I figured that was probably not a good estimate. Nice to know that everything else they said would happen did. I'm so happy for you! I was just telling TxSunflower that the three of us will have to get together, since we seem to be the only ones from the west/SW Houston area. We can all share a cheap meal - one entree or three bowls of soup! Keep us updated and feel free to PM me or e-mail me if you want to talk. Thanks again for the reassuring response.

I realize you are 21 and probably don't want to lose your uterus at such a young age, but do your doctors hold any hope of you ever bearing children? With endometriosis and cysts severe enough that you have to be on Lupron for four years, I would wonder whether you will ever be able to conceive. If they assure you that you will be able to have children and you truly want biological children you are in a bit of a pickle. Are you married? Is this something you have thought about at this point? You may want to make the radical decision to have your uterus removed or have uterine ablation (they kill the lining of the uterus with heat). As far as I understand, they don't have to remove your ovaries and you would then have the alternative of surrogacy if you don't find that distasteful or against any religious beliefs. Otherwise, there is always adoption, not easy or cheap, but infertility treatments aren't either. I've been there. Ours was eventually successful (we have 8 year old triplets), but it took 5 LONG, HARD years and lots of time, money, physical discomfort and tears. Stacked against adoption, it's very much the same, except you don't have to put your body through hell for years first. Same outcome if you're lucky - you become a parent to a beautiful baby (or babies as the case may be). Try another set of doctors to see if there are any alternative treatments/drugs, etc. without the side effects of Lupron. It's a nasty drug. Birth control pills usually are used to treat endometriosis fairly successfully. Perhaps yours is too severe. It's worth trying for another opinion, though. Remaining overweight won't help your fertility or your overall health. Perhaps you could try alternative treatments and suffer a little until the weight comes off and then start treating more aggressively again. Or try and on and off cycle. It may take longer and you may have to put up with some pain and heavy bleeding, but you would be losing the weight which in the long run will improve things immensely. I took Lupron as part of my infertility treatments and it was always the worst part of the cycle. Aren't you just angry and sad and crazy all the time? I hated that stuff. Maybe you get used to it if you take it long enough. Good luck. I know how frustrated you must be. Try to be as proactive as possible with your treatment to see what can be worked out to improve your overall health.

Good to hear you're okay, KStar. I have questions! Was your experience a good one? Was the hospital nice? Did you really get a private room for the day like they said? I've always had a good experience with Memorial Hermann hospitals and their staff - did you? What time did you get to leave? PM me if you don't want to share details on here. Just curious as we share the same doc. I hope you get some good sleep today/tonight. It's a bummer that the port goes on the left, because since I've had my triplets, I sleep almost exclusively on my left side. Gotta get back to obsessively cleaning things up so it's perfect for when I'm "down".

Good luck KStar. Let us know how you do. I'm particularly curious because Dr. Naaman is doing my surgery NEXT Friday! I'll be thinking about you tomorrow. Relax and enjoy the day of "rest".

Hey everyone! I haven't posted in a long time, but I've been reading on and off. I finally got a band date - October 20th! I have excellent insurance, but I had a lot of stuff to gather and they took every day of the 30 days to approve me, even though they said it was basically "a formality". Whatever, I have a date! So many October babies. Good luck to us all! Here we go...

Perhaps Mr. Alex/LBT can implement a password protection feature for threads since some people are so proprietary. Sheesh.