GoyaChula

My husband and I got banded on 03/24/09. Our dr. went over the two bands and said that there's not much difference between the two. I think they said the lapband can hold more cc's- not 100% sure about that- but I remember that one can hold more than the other. Our Dr. said that he would make the decision when he's in surgery as to which one would be better for us UNLESS we preferred one over the other. We didn't have a preference- so I found out at my pre-op last Wednesday that I got the Realize and my hubby got the LapBand. So far I feel like I get full a little faster than before - but other than that I have no restriction. I can eat solids no problem. My hubby is the same. We both found that we can eat solids no problem after the second week. So far, no difference. We'll see after the first fill. Which is May 8th.

My husband and I had the surgery on the same day. We were able to wait until day 9. We had to go slow also, but we couldn't wait! LOL.

I had my post op yesterday. Everything went well. It was with Pam. She briefly looked at my incisions - everything's healing great - her words not mine. lol. We told her about our concern about the appetite- and she said it was normal. She went over what exactly was done during the surgery. for example, Dr. Kim did the hernia repair and the liver biopsy. She also told us what kind of lap band we got. I got the realize band. She gave us restaurant cards and we went on our merry way. So everything went well. I got my first fill scheduled for 05/08/09. I'm soooo looking forward to that! :sad:)

Dr. Kim did my and my husband's surgery on 03/24/09. I truly felt at ease with Dr. Kim. He made us feel totally comfortable. The surgery I was confused bc we were told we would be on liquid only for one week, puree for the next and then we can go on to solids. The book they give you at the university - obviously says something else. We actually have our full appetites back and we can eat solids with no problem. It doesn't get stuck and we don't get full like we did the first week. I was really concerned and talked to Pam and she said that the swelling in our stomachs had to have gone down and it was perfectly normal. But I'm scared to gain back weight that I lost during the liquid only time. :thumbdown: I have my post - op tomorrow and we'll see how we're progressing....

Originally from San Jose, CA now live in Fort Worth, TX woot woot LOL

Haha - I LOVE this thread. I'm excited for when I can post something here! I've lost 29 lbs and the most i have is my pants are feeling really loose. and i can take off my wedding ring without trying! it's not tight anymore.

It was my first surgery. And like you, I only had my well woman exam every year- that's it! I don't go to the dr. ever! It wasn't bad at all. I was waking up and I had to ask the nurse if they had done the surgery yet! It was awful trying to wake up after the anesthesia. It's like waking up for school when you're young- you just want to yell, Let me sleep! LOL. But once youre up, all you have is soreness. You'll do great!

Me and my husband were banded on 03/24/09 - and we feel EXACTLY the same way. We're able to eat a lot more and don't have any problems eating solid food. I'm glad to hear that we aren't the only ones. There are several people at my company who have done the surgery and all of them were complaining that it's hard to keep anything down. So we were feeling pretty down too. My husband and I have to keep each other in check. Sometimes it's good - and I'll talk him out of eating something. Sometimes its bad - and he'll give in to something I'm craving. I know how you feel- but I know we've worked to hard to let the same habits creep back up. We can do it!

We did it! The waiting is over. Me and my husband, chris had our surgeries on March 24th. Mine was at 8, his was at 9. My mom took care of us - if you're wondering. That's always the first question I get. :biggrin: The day of went pretty smoothly. We had to be at the hospital by 6. That morning we had to take a shower and use the wash the hospital provided. We got to the hospital and we had to dress in the gown. Start the IV- which is apparently very difficult. It turns out that I have tiny, rolling veins. I've never had any surgery before so I didn't know my veins aren't very cooperative. We had to wait a little bit and then we were rolled in- this is the last thing I remember. I fell asleep before I even left my room. Next thing I know I'm waking up in the recovery room. We had the patch for nausea- so I didn't feel nauseous at all. The nurse told me to breathe heavily for about 30 seconds and then it was fine. We had to do the barium swallow - which is like a chalky liquid that you swallow. There's an xray that you can see how the liquid goes down. This was cool bc I saw the lapband right after surgery. After the swallow, I got dressed and the hospital gave me an icepack and a pillow. Here I waited for my husband to go through all the same steps. Then we got to go home. The first day was tough. We were very sore. It felt as though we had done a thousand crunches. We didnt drink our shake when we got home. We were just a little too scared. We didnt want the shake to come right back up. The second day was a little better. The most painful part is sitting down or getting up. Our incisions were big deep purple bruises. We didn't have stitches- they used derma-bond. I got 5 incisions, chris got 6. The biggest one is where (I think) the port is- If i'm wrong, please correct me- all you who are already banded. This one hurts the most. The next day, we took a shower, that wasnt fun. haha. But overall we're improving. We're taking laps around our house (bc the dr. wants us to walk 30 mins a day). Oh and having a sneezing or coughing fit is the worst! LOL. Overall- the process was very smooth, no problems at all. My husband Chris has lost 40 lbs since March 3, and I've lost 27 lbs. We're able to be much more active now.

I'm a little worried- not too much because I'm going to have children in the future. Is there anything I can do to minimize the loose skin? Please share all the tips!

Like I said, I'm not too worried about it - because I plan on having a couple of kids in the future but the loose skin on the arms and legs - i'm a little worried about. Hopefully it will bounce back - but I always expect the worse. :tongue_smilie:

I'm glad to know I wasn't the only one confused! Haha. Where does one get this card? Does the dr. provide it? :tt2: