sarae

Rollercoasters... I can fit them now but I'm on my last click! And I also make sure that I see someone bigger than me on the ride before I try to get on.

I love to dance.. and I NEVER do. At parties or weddings or clubs.. I never dance because I feel like I look stupid next to my thinner friends.

And I can't wait to see my friends from high school after I meet my goal.. it's been like 2 years since I've seen many of them.. I'm sure they'll be shocked! :biggrin:

His office is pretty busy.. my first appointment took about a month also.

I actually spoke with my PCP last March and he told me that I would have to go on a 1 year supervised diet and go through meetings with a psychiatrist and nutritionist. After my one year was up then he referred me to Dr. Rosen... and I made an appointment that was, like I said, a month later. After that I had a follow up appointment about another month later then I had my pre-op appointment two weeks after that and finally my surgery was another 2 weeks after that.

So in total I did my supervised diet from March 2008-March 2009.

Then my first appt. with Rosen was in early April, second one was in early May (this is when we scheduled my surgery). Pre-op appt. was June 4th and finally my surgery was June 19th.

Oh and there were about a million tests and x-rays, ultrasounds, blood work, all that good crap in the couple months leading up to surgery.

And I had my first post op appt a couple weeks ago and everything is going fine. I haven't had any problems and I'm pretty much feeling like myself again. I think my first fill is going to be next Wednesday which I'm kind of nervous about but as far as I know Dr. Rosen does small fills because he wants to avoid having to unfill. Good luck let me know if you have any more questions!

I was really scared about getting the band too and I wondered what the negative affects would be in 5 or 20 or 50 years I mean.. I'm only 20 and I didn't want to make a stupid decision that would lower my quality of life later on. Ultimately, I decided that I would do it and take the risk because the band is reversable and a lot less dangerous than any other procedure. Plus I plan on having kids in a few years and pregnancy seems to be an easier journey with the band. :thumbup:

It took me a year and half before actually getting the band and that gave me lots of time to think about it. It's always nice to get other peoples opinions and thoughts on the matter but at the end of the day, for me atleast, it was all about educating myself and really looking at WLS from every possible angle then deciding what was truly best for me.

Good luck to you with your decision!!

I had my surgery ten days ago and so far I've lost 25lbs but that includes my 2 week pre-op liquid diet.. :thumbup:

Hello I had a pretty great experience so far with Lifeweigh and their staff. My surgery was last Friday and everything went fine.. I'm still recovering and my first post op appointment is tomorrow so hopefully Dr. Rosen says everything is fine and by Friday I'll get to start eating pureed stuff

I would recommend him though. I've looked through this forum quite a bit and noticed that a lot of people have so many questions about their diets and whats ok and how things have gone wrong and I haven't experienced any of that. Dr. Rosen is really thorough with his diets and he really has the patients health in mind. I mean he's been really honest and been able to answer all my questions. I'm a real smart ass and I loved that Dr. Rosen could answer every stupid and hard question I had to ask. Plus he's never had a patient die or have serious complications which was a very nice perk :frown:

Let me know if you have anymore questions I know how much I would've appreciated having known someone that had used Lifeweigh but since I didn't I'm glad to be the guinea pig for someone else.

I also couldn't stomach the taste of Isopure Water... they made me want to vomit. For my 2 week liquid pre op I did a mixture of Special K Protein shakes, Muscle Milk Light, Myoplex Lite, and Lean Body shakes. On different days I liked different things.. I also mixed the vanilla flavored ones with Decaf instant coffee and ice and they tasted sooooo good. Not so much the Muscle Milk but the Special K and the Lean Body (40 Protein grams per serving just like Isopure) were REALLY great with it.

Right now I'm a few days post op and I've just been drinking fat free milk since I'm sick of all those Protein drinks and now milk is on my 'ok to drink' list. Good luck to you!

Yeah I'm not sure why my surgeon didn't come in to see me. Maybe it's because it took so long for me to wake up. He did talk to my mother and brother and let them know what was going on. But I guess I can ask him any questions I have this Thursday at my follow-up.

I wasn't having a hard time walking the first day and a half but then all of the sudden yesterday I bent down to pick up my laptop and when I got back up it felt like I had ripped something open. I checked all 5 incisions and they looked fine so I figure I probably irritated something inside. But now when I try to walk/get up/lay down do ANYTHING basically it feels like I'm ripping my body apart. Maybe the heating pad will help...

I mean I have a pretty high tolerance for pain and I hate to seem like a burden to my mom so I've been trying to just push through the pain and walk around but this morning I finally broke down and started crying from it. Also the pain medicine doesn't seem to really be doing anything for me.. I doubt I'm the only one who has had that problem though. Medicine has never really made me feel better. I'll have my mom pick up some thermacare Patches or something today.. hopefully it makes things feel less tight. :biggrin:

I still don't regret anything I just can't wait for this pain to go away.. anyone have suggestions for the chest pains from the big liver and hernia combo..? I'm open to anything.

My doctor has me on 1st week liquid, 2nd week pureed, 3rd week is the soft/mushies, and the 4th week is solid food as tolerated. Soo I guess you'll just have to experiment and make sure to chew chew chew :biggrin:

Yep I think he told my mom that he removed a hernia. Maybe that's what it is.. did it take long for the pain to subside? I'm not normally a whimp about pain but this is just an unpleasant combo of stuff right now.

LNMLISA.. my doctor told my mom and brother after I got out of surgery that my liver was still pretty big even though I did my 2 weeks of liquid.. you mentioned that yours was big too.. so your doctor told you that's why your chest hurt? Because I've been having a really hard time breathing and my chest has been hurting me since yesterday. The pain meds dont seem to be helping anything.

Hello everyone.. I got banded yesterday also. Got to the hospital at 5am and left around 4pm.. I didn't get to see my surgeon either and I just wanted to ask which size band I got. But I don't have any bandages or anything. All 5 of my incisions are glued together. I can see and touch them. My left is really killing me. And when I get nauseous my stomach constricts so much and its the most excruciating pain I've ever been put through.

I've been having a really hard time breathing. I can only take very shallow breaths and my chest/heart seem to really hurt. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but I'm kind of concerned. My mom keeps having my do my breathing exercises but it doesn't seem to be helping. The pain medicine isn't really doing much either. And oh man I didn't expect those damn heparin shots to burn so bad.

Im having a really hard time getting anything down. And for some reason i'm terrified of showering.. I don't want my incisions to get all soft and then start hurting again. :tongue: Hope it's worth it.

Thanks for all the responses I asked my boss for monday and tuesday off and it was no problem. Well that was the good news. A few hours later my entire company was laid off :thumbup: And you know what's horrible is that it makes me want to EAT EAT and EAT and I'm on my stupid 14 day liquid diet soo.. this is difficult. Atleast I don't have to worry about not being ready to go back I guess :/

Well I can't worry about that stuff now.. my surgery is in the morning Atleast I have something to look forward to.

January 2008-Made appt with dr.

March 2008- Actually got in to see him (busy guy!)

March 08 to Feb 09- My 1 year with the nutritionist/psychiatrist

March 09- Made appt with surgeon

April 09- 1st meeting with Dr. Rosen put on 4 week diet

May 09- Check up with Dr. Rosen

June 09- Pre op appt... start liquids

June 19- SURGERY DAY!!! It's tomorrow :thumbup:

I have BCBS and the whole process took about 18 months. Well worth it.

I'm getting banded this Friday.. :blushing: and I JUST started a new job.. so I only requested Friday off hoping that by Monday morning I'll be ready to go. But I'm just hoping that I'm not getting in over my head by trying to go back in 3 days.

It is an office job so it's nothing too strenuous but I don't want to make a bad impression.

So how long did it take you guys to get back to semi normal.. or atleast functioning without too much pain?

My surgeon is in Downers Grove... so far I've had a great experience with him my surgery is this Friday. His website is www.lifeweigh.com ...I'm not sure how far it is from you but I've really loved the whole experience there.

I'm on day 12 of my 14 day liquid diet and so far I've lost 16.6lbs. The first day I lost 5lbs and then it's been pretty steady at losing 1lb every day. I'm hoping to lose 20lbs before Friday (surgery) but if I don't then oh well I've done good so far. :wink:

My pre op diet is also two weeks. It really sucks.. I'm on day 11 right now. I haven't cheated. Well I had two cups of Jello today instead of one. And the other night I had 3 cups of chicken broth instead of 2. But I haven't had a bite of food and even though I crave it like crazy and it's hard going to cook outs, and out to eat, and sitting at dinner with my family it's all worth it. Just keep reminding yourself why you're doing it and that in just a few short days you'll get to enjoy all that food again :bored: Good luck hope it goes well for you!

15 days before surgery.. well the day before I started my two week liquid diet. And it was sooo great. And you know what I was relieved after it was done. Because I knew that was the last time I was going to live this lifestyle. Very exciting!!! :thumbup: Good luck on your journey!

I'm 20 and I'm really banking on my age helping me to lose faster than some of the older people who get banded. As far as saggy skin goes my surgeon told me that since I'm so young as long as I exercise like I'm supposed to that won't be a problem AT ALL.

Also a HUGE plus of getting it done around our ages is that you have a much lower risk of complications according to Dr. Rosen :grouphug:

WOW that's fast. I got approved when I was 19 and it took a full 18 months to get my date! I still haven't gotten banded!! Thats great though I hope everything turns out well with his surgery :grouphug:

My boyfriend didn't want me to have the surgery and he constantly told me that I was going to look bad and that I should just stay the way I am... and that if I did it our relationship wouldn't work because I'd be "changing".. soo you know what I said... GOODBYE. It was extremely hard ending my relationship of 3 years with my first love but.. remember that you are doing something to better yourself and if someone in your life can't handle you becoming a healthier person and making life better for yourself then they don't deserve your time. It took me a few months to get over it.. but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. Time truly does heal all wounds.

And keep up the GREAT work!! You shouldn't be sad.. you should be super excited that you're doing so good for yourself. :grouphug: Also, can I mention that breaking up with him was one of the best things I did.. I lost 30lbs without even trying.. and that was without a band. I know right now you're sad and you probably feel kind of lost and wishing things could be different but just give it time and you'll see that things are never as bad as they seem to be.

I haven't seen anyone on this forum from the Aurora area... I wanted to see if anyone else has had Dr. Rosen from Life Weigh Bariatrics in Downers Grove...

Yeah I've been reading some of those pregnancy threads and it seems that there haven't been too many problems with having the band on. I know every person is different but I guess just having it loosened would probably do the trick.

And kgloverii I appreciate the honesty I prefer not to be surprised by complications with the band in the future. I'd rather know the truth and go into the procedure KNOWING what may or may not happen in the years following. I'm all about being positive in my day to day but we all know life isn't ever perfect. Do you actually know of anyone who had to have it removed..? And... did they just gain the weight right back?

I still think that even if in 5 or 10 years something happens and my band gets removed that by that point I will have gained enough will power and understanding of how to eat to not let myself gain all that weight back. But at the same time I'm a realist and know that food can be soooo tempting :grouphug: Especially spanish food.. mmm.

And.. I've never heard of the sleeve. I've seen one or two people mention it but I had never heard of it before. The imageries I have are comical.. I'm pretty sure it's nothing like what I'm thinking.

Montgomery, IL... right outside of Chicago And I don't know anyone around this area who has had the band sooo I need a friend :thumbup:

I certainly understand the sentiment and as a walking billboard for success your opinion must be respected. However, I think her thought is very common and I shared it at the time. Many people choose the band, at least at first because it is reversible.

The MAIN reason I chose the band is because it's reversible. Not because I want to have it taken off but just knowing that if there was a complication that it could be removed with virtually no problem, unlike the other bariatric surgeries.

I do however want to keep it on, maybe I wasn't clear on that. I don't want to drop 100lbs then take it off and eat like an idiot and just gain the weight back. I know that the entire point of the surgery would be moot if I did that. I'm completely ready for this surgery and have spent the last 18 months making sure that I'll be a success story and won't need to add this to my list of failed weight loss attempts.

My issue is just that I'm young and haven't had kids yet and doctors have already told me that I might have complications trying to get pregnant due to some infections as a kid so I was wondering if the band would be an added stress down the line when I do want kids.

Also, I wanted to see if anyone out there has had the band for more than a few years and started to experience any problems with it? I guess my thinking is that.. is my body really going to never have any serious problems with this foreign object in it for the next 60+ years of my life.

Again, I don't want it off. I don't want this to be some quick fix and then just regain my weight. I know what I'm in for and I know what the band is meant for I just wanted some opinions.