Wanjiku

My band kit was listed on the insurance bill as being almost $8,000. :thumbup: Fortunately, insurance gets to eat most of that.

When you feel the pressure of needing to burp, try leaning forward (support yourself if you need to). I wait a few seconds (sometimes a little more) and up comes the air. It took me a few days after the surgery to figure this out, but it helped immensely in relieving the pressure and getting the gas out. The pain was horrible until I learned how to get the burps out.

On the day of my surgery, doc ordered clear liquids, but then he moved me on to full liquids a few hours later because I was able to tolerate the clear liquids fine. It was clear liquids for a week and then on to mushies for 2 weeks, followed by full food. My doc's progression seems to be much faster than what most other places recommend, but he's ranked as one of the top bariatric surgeons in the country - so I trust his recommendations. While on full liquids, I mainly consumed protein shakes, jello, and cream soups. On mushies, I'm eating all sorts of things - fish, cottage cheese, eggs, pureed cauliflower, applesauce, butternut squash soup, sauteed mushrooms, babyfood (some of it is really good), etc.

Congratulations! That's awesome. Kudos to you for going for it!!! Soon enough, you'll be one of those skinny ladies!:tongue2:

Hi Janine, I, too, was frightened about getting surgery (as I'd imagine most folks on the board were). However, I'd gotten to a point where I realized that the things I'd been doing to try to get my weight under control either weren't working or were only working temporarily. I needed to do something more drastic if I really wanted a lifelong change in my weight and eating habits. I gathered strength from the stories of folks on this board and others who had struggled as I had in the past, but were able to achieve remarkable success with the lap band. Then I mentally committed myself to pursuing it and kept on putting one foot in front of the other. Staying committed was hard the night before my surgery as a little voice kept telling me that I could still back out, but then I remembered how far I'd come and what I stood to gain - so I bit the bullet and went for it. Really, the surgery itself wasn't half bad. Now I'm on the other side and am looking forward to getting through recovery and getting on with my life!

Don't heat your whey-based protein powder! I got the idea this afternoon to make a protein-based hot chocolate of sorts. Big mistake! The protein turned into an extremely unappetizing rubber mass floating on top of the water. Yuck!!! Won't be doing that again...

:cool2:I'm not sure there is a "normal" with regards to hunger or not. It seems like people are all over the place. In my case, I was banded 5 days ago and have just figured out that some of my post-surgery discomfort is actually extreme hunger. For some reason, it took me four days to realize that after I eat, the discomfort goes away for an hour or so. I'd say count it as a blessing that you're not feeling hungry - as long as you're able to get your Protein down!

Here's a funny one for you all - So...I was banded yesterday in the AM and was checked in to a hospital room around noon. At about 1pm, I got a roommate - an older woman who had just undergone eye surgery. Her daughter came in to sit with her and the nurse came in and gave her a menu to order "whatever she wanted - and as much as she wanted" from foodservice. She was SO excited! She kept repeating over and over how great hospital food was and how amazing it was that she could order just like she was in a restaurant. Oh my goodness - I kid you not - they spent an hour (no exaggeration) discussing the menu and different foods they like and don't like (and why). Fortunately, I wasn't feeling hungry or interested in food at all - I just found the whole situation rather humorous. THEN her food arrived and they spent another 30 minutes discussing it! My BF and I were cracking up at how absurd the whole thing was - we think it would make an awesome cartoon for bandsters to chuckle at!

I'm one day post surgery. I pulled off the bandages as I was planning to take a shower (but still haven't done it). There are steri-strips under them and i have no idea if there are stitches or what under the steri strips. Doc said I could shower and that they'd fall off on their own by 2 weeks and that if they haven't, I can pull them off. All of the bandages came off easily but one - that one half pulled off one of the steri-strips, but I stuck it back on.

We went in at 6:30am for an 8:30am surgery appointment. Got checked in, garbed in gown and slip-free socks and then the doctor came in for a visit to say “hi” and answer any questions I might have. After that, the anesthesiologists came by and explained what they were going to do. They gave me a numbing shot in my hand, inserted the IV and started a saline drip. My eyes glazed over and I immediately started to feel groggy. I asked the nurse anesthetist what he had given me and he remarked, “nothing yet”. Guess I’m highly susceptible to the placebo effect! They gave me a heparin shot in my stomach which really didn’t hurt much at all and then told me that they were going to give me stuff to make me sleepy and it would take about 30 seconds to kick in. It hurt a fair bit at first going into my hand and then all I remember is asking my BF for a kiss. The next thing I remember was chattering a lot and fading in and out in a recovery room. I slowly woke up and became aware of a nice warm sensation all over my body. They had hooked me up to some sort of hot air warming system that inflated a pouch inside my gown with soothing warm air. It was wonderful! I was thirsty so I asked for some ice chips which they promptly brought to me. I spent about an hour and a half in recovery and then they wheeled me to my room. I got ice Water to sip on and my BF came to sit with me. I was surprised by how good I felt. I didn’t really feel any pain except for when I tried to move around and experienced the soreness of my stomach muscles. Drinking water was fine and I didn’t feel any “tightness” in my stomach. After a few hours, they wanted me to eat something to see if I got nauseous. They brought me a popsicle, lemon icee, Jello and apple juice. These things were all sugared and I am diabetic – but they said it was fine to have. I got the popsicle and jello down without any trouble, which seemed to please them. Soon a foodservice person appeared with a big platter of more stuff – tea, broth, milk, pudding, and cream of chicken Soup. Having been told that I could only have clear liquids, I figured they’d made a mistake and didn’t eat the stuff. The nurse came in and asked why I hadn’t touched it. Apparently, they had moved me on to the phase 2 diet without informing me. She said I needed to eat some “full” liquids to check for nausea as they were planning on discharging me early (I had originally been scheduled to stay overnight). I was more than happy to try them if that’s what it would take to get to go home (I was getting bored in the hospital room). The full liquids went down just fine too. Later on, the dietitian came by to explain the post-op diet to me in detail and a few hours after that, the surgeon came by to check on me and to answer my questions. He was very friendly and told me that everything had gone smoothly with the surgery. He asked me if I wanted to go home or stay and I requested to go home so he wrote up a prescription for painkillers and told me that he was going to discharge me. I got to pack up and go home! We went to Walgreen's to fill my prescriptions and spent about 20 minutes walking around waiting. That's when the gas pains started. At first, I wasn't sure what they were, but I felt sharp pains in my back, shoulders and abdomen. It was pretty unpleasant. When I got home, I took some gas-x strips and a painkiller and went to bed. I tried laying flat in the bed, but felt a great deal of stretching in my stomach area when I was horizontal so I opted to sleep sitting mostly upright in a recliner which was much more comfortable. The next morning, the gas pains were gone and all I felt was abdominal soreness. One issue I did notice post-surgery was that I couldn’t seem to pee normally. I was able to pass urine, but it was slow and required a great deal of pushing. They didn’t seem overly concerned, though as I passed an adequate quantity of urine. I’m now one day post-op and I’m still having trouble urinating. If it hasn’t normalized by this afternoon, I plan to call the doctor. Over all, the surgery was less painful and went smoother than I had anticipated. It's still kind of hard to believe that it's over. I’m now looking forward to a new life with the band!

I'm scheduled to go in on 10/28. Nervous as all get-out, but I know it's for the best. Had my BF take my "before" pics this morning. Good heavens - now if that's not motivation, I don't know what is! The pre-op diet hasn't been nearly as bad as I had anticipated. 2 protein shakes during the day and a low-fat, no-carb protein/vegetable dinner. Down 10 lbs so far - which serves as a good motivator!