Padanelle

Hi Scotgrl, Saw your post on the NYU site. I always feel like I have to be careful what I post there. Tammy seems to take any criticsm personally. I can't say enough great things about the whole surgical team. During the whole process - from the moment I checked in for the surgery until I left - I felt like I was in good hands. Everyone seemed genuinely warm and caring. If you have any questions or want further info, feel free to send me a PM. Joan

I became a GNC Gold Card member ($10). For the first week of each month you save 20%. I more than made up for the cost of the card on my first purchase.

unjury chicken broth Protein powder (21g protein), and Isopure protein waters (40 g protein p/20 oz bottle) or New whey Protein Bullets (42 g protein) should count as clear liquid. Unjury you need to order online. The others you can get at GNC. Good luck!

I am so sorry to hear about your daughter. I can only imagine how devastating that is. I turned 60 in Dec, and had great difficulty in actually [/url] saying my age. I felt like I was on the back 9. There was so much I wanted to accomplish before then. Lap-Band surgery has given me a new lease on life. I was banded 6 weeks ago, and have lost over 30 lbs before. I no longer have difficulty walking, my blood pressure is normal, and I feel great. 60 is the new 40!

The mushie stage was such a welcome relief to the shakes. It is imortant that you make healthy choices. Proteins will help you stay full longer. Scrambled eggs, blended soups, LF cottage or ricotta cheese, fish, LF/SF pudding are good choices. One of my favorite recipes is adding tomato sauce to LF ricotta & topping with some grated parmesan. To increase the protein count I add vanilla or chocolate protein powder to pudding, and unjury chicken broth protein powder to soups and instant mashed potatoes. I cook with lots of spices, so other than the way the food looks, the mushies taste great.

Khaliah Ali (Mohamed Ali's daughter & Dancing with the Stars) had lapband surgery. She wrote a book about her experience with chapters on the technical parts written by NYU surgeons Drs George Fielding & Christine Ren.

I'm 6 wks post op. Last week I tried steak. It was rare, and I cut it into VERY tiny pieces. Fortunately, I had no problem.

I satisfy my choclate urges with Viactive Calcium Chews. Fortunately, that does the trick for me.

As Agnes pointed out, every situation is different. I've seen quite a few posts where poeple have had a fill at surgery. I didn't, but I've seen posts from people who had the same surgeon as me say they had a fill at surgery. So its not necessarily based on a surgeon's proceedure, but most likely depends more on the patient, and the band. I had my first fill 4 wks after surgery. It seems most people post that their first fill is 6 or more wks afterward. I've also seen posts from people who had the band for over a year, NEVER had a fill, and consistently lost weight. Hopefully, you checked out your surgeon. If you have faith in him/her, trust that they will give you what should work best for YOU. Good luck on Monday!

I was banded on Jun 8 at NYU. It took about 2 weeks before the swelling went down and I started to no longer feel like a beachball with arms and legs. I'm 6 wks post op, and since I started the 2 wk pre-op diet I have lost 2.5'' in from my bust, 3.5'' from my waist, and 3"in from my hips. Hang in there. You'll start to see the results soon enough.

I have had high blood pressure for years. Under medication, it is normally around 140, which my PCP considers ok for me. When I finished my 2 wj pre-op diet my pressure was consistently around 110. Because of my high blood pressure & history of heart trouble in my family my surgeon required a cardiac clearence, which also wound up including a stress test & caroted artery test. As with everything else with this surgery, evry doctor seems to have their own way of doing things. Good luck.

Hi Ebar, I was also banded by Dr Fielding and fortunately have not vomited or PB'd yet. I am 6 weeks post op now, and have been steadily loosing weight. All my fdoods/liquids go down ok, even though I know I am not eating/drinking as slowly as I should be. I always seem to have an urge to burp (small one, not PB), especially after eating. Last Thurs I had an urge for steak, and tried a small piece. I cut it in very tiny pieces & chewed it at least 30 times. It all went down ok, and afterwards I burped. Since then, I have been able to regularly have small burps. Go figure...

I agree about the water. I've always suffered from dry, peeling liops. I've found that vaseline works better for me than chap stick.

I've read posts where quite a few people go back to work after a few days. I even read where one person went back to work the next day! Everyone's experience is different. If I HAD to, I probably could have gone back to work after a week, maybe even earlier. Its easy to push papers around on a desk job. But a second week was nice. My head was still a bit foggy from the anesthesia, which cleared up after 3 weeks. For me, beyond that is vacation.

Hi Malka, I was banded at NYU and I HIGHLY recommend them. Not only are their surgeons great, but their whole bariatric team is. They have an excellent follow-up program as well. If you haven't already done so, I recommend you attend one of their information seminars. You can find the schedule & more info on www.nyuweightloss.com You should contact them to see if they accept HIP. It is usually the insurance, not the surgeon, that sets most of the surgery requirements (e.g, BMI, 6 month pre-op supervised diet, etc), although a surgeon may have some of their own as well. I have heard of some surgeons requirening some patients to loose a certain amount of weight before surgery, however I understand Dr Fielding specializes in extremely obese patients. Good luck!

I was concerned about this, but it seems to be working out. Also, my surgeon's instructions are less restrictive - stop drinking 5 minutes before eating and don't start again until 20 minutes after. He says that once I am used to the band I can try sipping with meals to see if I can handle it. I work at home, so it is easy to pace myself. For Breakfast, I relax with my coffee, then will have a slice of quiche or some Cereal about an hour later. I try to drink liquids throughout the day, ahve something light in the afternoon. Before dinner, I relax with a "cocktail" - usually non-alcoholic, but sometimes a glass of wine. Sometimes its a glass of V-8, sometimes its half-bottle of Isopure - the blue raspberry looks so pretty in a martini glass.

You should check with your doctor/nutritionist as to how many calories/how much protien you should aim for each day. It seems to vary widely from doc to doc. For most women, 1000 - 1200 calories per day. What seems to be more important is the amount of Protein you intake each day. I've seen different posts range from 60 - 100g p/day. Because I'm under 5 ft tall, my nutritionist told me to aim for 50g of protein. In the post-op period, it seems that the main concern is healing and what your stomach can handle. Warm broths and liquids can be soothing in the first few days. They also help expanding the stoma, the passage between your pouch and the rest of your stomach. Cold liquids tend to tighten it. You'll probably find that it is tightest in the morning, so even after going on to solid foods, many opt to skip Breakfast or have a shake. Everyone reacts different. It's a matter of finding what works best for you.

I've tried the protein shots. They are good to have around when you don't feel hungry, but want to get your protein in. They are less than 4 oz. I add ice cubes to water it down a bit.

Up until I had my first fill I hadn't a clue where my port was located, as my surgeon only made 1 incision. The NP, who did the fill, showed me where it was, but quite honestly, with all the belly fat, I wasn't sure what I was touching. He had me do a crunch, and then I could feel it. So, if your fill doctor/NP has difficulty finding the port, suggest doing a crunch.

100 g or protein p/day is a lot, specially when you're not eating solid foods. GNC has several carb-free high protein waters. Cytomax comes in a 24 oz bottle & has 60 g of protein. I tried the tropical flavor, which wasn't bad, specially if you put some ice in it. My favorite is Isopure, 40g of protein in a 20 oz bottle. It comes in green & black tea, as well as several fruit flavors. A good alternative to just having shakes & will help you hit your protein target each day. Good luck. You can do it!

Call your nutritionist or surgeon's office and mention the wedding, and how close it is to your surgery date. As Enchanted mentioned, the purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink your liver, which I understand happens quite quickly if you follow the guidelines. Most likely your nurtitionist/surgeon will advise you foods that you can eat - limit the portion, avoid alcohol, soda, carbs, sweets. You are not banded yet, so you won't have to worry about restrictions or food textures. Good luck.

Without hesitation, for me it was the Protein shakes. I had 3 ad day for 2 weeks pre-op, then for another week post-op. I reached the point where just the thought of a Protein shake gave me the shivers, and stopped cold turkey. Wish I had know about other protein liquid alternatives prior to starting the process; e.g. Isopure and other brand protein waters, unjury chicken broth Protein powder. I'm 5 weeks post op, and including the 2 week pre-op diet, I have lost 30 lbs, and am thrilled. I have been lucky so far not to have had any problems.

My first mushie meal was scrambled eggs with pureed corned beef. The second was mashed potatoes.

So much of the literature I read pre-op warned about dehydration, and since I am not a big water drinker, I was concerned about this. I stocked up on Smart Water, which has electrolytes which help against dehydration. Trader Joe also makes an electrolyte water that is considerably cheaper and gatorade would do the trick too, but I don't like the taste. Emergen-C also makes an an Electro-Mix that you just add to one liter of water. It comes in a green packet and is only 39 cents. It has a lemon lime flavor.

Hi Popcorn, I felt tighter right away, and had no desire to eat for 2 days. After that, I still wasn't hungry, but was okay to eat. I started solids yesterday - very cautiously, as I had stopped loosing (actually gained .5 lbs) when I went to solids before. Now, I have to be honest, the week I was on solids was a very social one and involved wine and/or champagne several times. LOL. And even though I was on solids, other than english muffins or an occasional chicken leg, most of what I ate was more on the mushie side (tilapia, eggs, tuna). Psychologically, since they looked like real food and not mush, I thought I was eating solid food. I know its important to have more chewy food to loose, so will work at rectifying that this time. As soon as I had the fill I started loosingf weight and lost 4 lbs in 3 days - 2 the first day, .5 the 2nd and 1.5 the 3rd day. Today - nothing! Sigh... The fill definately gave me a jump start - or maybe it was just the post-fill diet. Have you seen the 5 Day Pouch Test? Its supposed to help people who plateau. It is similar to the post-fill diet I have, so I can see why several people on this site recommend it. I'm still so early on the journey, and there's so much to learn how to work the band for me. Most of my excess weight is a result of portion control, or eating beacuse its 'there'. Also, I love to cook and entertain, so there was always a lot of food around, and having been raised to eat everything on my plate, and not throw away food (think of those poor starving children in China, India, etc...), old habits die hard. I'm working hard to evict the Food Fairy who lives in my refrigerator who calls out my name whenever I go by to, temting me to eat. She gets really loud at night - I can even hear her from the bedroom. This has been a rather long answer to what could have been a simple yes. I have been really lucky so far, not experiencing any hunger (except the head kind), but as you can see from reading the posts on this site, everyone's experience is different, but it is so great that there is usually one or several people who share your experience. Good luck with your fill. Let me know how it goes. Joan