hmarko

I just had surgery w/ Dr Ren - she is great. Right now that whole practice are my hero's especially her :biggrin: My surgery was 9/11 - Oh if they ask you to do the trial drug for anesthesia to prevent nausea DO IT! I had NO nausea at all whatsoever! I think it made a big difference. They will ask you the day of the surgery. There is a whole team assigned to you its very cool. Dr Ren did the single incision on me - i have no scars really the biggest one is in my belly button. Dr Fielding has a video of it on you tube its cool. Lets stay in touch. Pls feel to PM me if you have any questions - and good luck!

I have told a lot of people and got varied responses. From my brother - you are not that big you don't need that ( i am muscular so don't look my weight but I'm still big). He was mainly afraid he has a friend who did this and was in a coma for two months! Coworker are all supportive as are friend.. BUT I have heard this comment that drove me crazy... 'well that is how normal people eat'... and this was while i was on liquids!!! there is NOTHING normal about that! Those are the judgemental types that assume I eat out of control (I don't i have endocrine issues). THen I had a few friends that were so scared for me that they turned white and their nervousness showed - I think they were thinking it was too drastic not sure or were just nervous at the thought of any surgery.

Hi Michelle: I can feel my port the nurse at my doctors office showed me how. I have to sort of go in circular motions and it feels like a lump. The doctor needs to be able to find it to inject it. How obvious is it to you? I had to try and find it with them explaining how before I just poked around and couldn't feel. But if i apply sideways circular pressure I can now find it. Loveslady - cool your all done! I needed the pain meds from Friday night (night of surgery) to Monday night.

It could also be that the tube disconnected and the saline has left the band. I don't think this is dangerous but don't quote me. I asked my surgeon what can happen if I fall off horseback riding (i regularly ride) and she said usually the port disconnects and you would know that because suddenly you are eating a lot.

Yes I agree! 31 lbs is great! We should expect the weight loss to slow down. To lose a lb of fat you need to deficit 3500 calories.. if you do the math you are probably over that amt in weightloss (I know I am ) so at some point we will catch up. Multiply your weight by 10 or 11 to figure out your maintenance calories.

Amanda i haven't caught up yet... why do you think you were nauseous? Did it happen after eating mushies what did you eat? Hope you are doing better. THis is a learning curve for us to understand how much we should eat. I saw my esophagram and restriction or not - that is a significant narrowing. My doc told me she put in a little restriction but when i went for the post op check they said its really nothing they just prime the tubes really.

I had the single incision - about an inch inside my belly button. My surgery was 9/11 and I have wore jeans yesterday for the first time- it was ok. I try and position them above or below though the incision as much as possible.

Yes that is from the incision by your breastbone to pick up your liver and the air the blow into us. It affects our diaphragm. Did they give you that breathing thing? Its important to work through that to ensure your lungs are inflating (they can deflate from the anesthesia). I am a week out and that is gone now. I had the Single incision as well. Very psyched about that!

I am getting diarrhea on the protein too but sorry for the TMI - its around a two hour period (evening). I usually eat the protein b/t 12 and 8 pm. Drinking water all day. Tried some fiber pills didn't do much. then again the barium swallow also causes diarrhea and i had that yesterday. I start mushies tomorrow and will be doing same as u eggs and tuna, and flaked sole. I may treat myself to soup (but here is where I don't know what the calories are because I'm not making it myself). on second thought I will wait

I'm able to drink the whole thing in about 15 mins but I only use about 4 oz of water (sometimes no fat milk) and 4 icecubes or no icecubes. Also the one I use Unjury is not thick at all some of the premade ones like EAS and atkins are pretty thick. Unjury is only protein. I have lost weight successfully 20 years ago (and kept it of for maybe 5 years?) from 500 cal liquid only diet under a doctors care. In the last 10 years though I have put on about 60 lbs and usually its been fast spurts over 2 months which i spend the next year trying to lose. Then another 20 lb spurt again etc etc. I have endocrine issues so the fat and carbs don't get metabolized properly calorie for calorie. So I'm a bit worried about the honeymoon ending. I want to take advantage of this as much as possible. The hardest thing back when I did the liquid only diet was getting back on it but I guess here we have added motivation when we do the fills (my doc wants to days of liquid 1-2 days of mushy after each fill).

I had that fear of not being able to get up from bed. The first night I slept at my brothers. After that I went home. I also had the reaction to anesthesia that caused ALL my muscles to hurt as if I had a very intense bootcamp workout. What I did was I have this stretching rope and I tied it to my headboard to help pull me up if i needed the help. I couldn't even lift my head cuz my neck muscles were shot. But it was good to sleep in my bed. It could have been the pillows in the unfamiliar bed causing the numbness... that happens to me all the time.

4-6 weeks sounds like a lot to me. My surgeon's paperwork says 1 week but they also told me people HAVE had the surgery on Friday and gone back on Tuesday. I went back on Wednesday and did a bit of work from home on Tuesday. i have the gas but it isn't horrible and they told me that takes weeks to go away. it was worse the first couple of days. I went back soon as I was off the Lortab plus a day.

Hi what are you all doing to mask the taste of your crushed pills? They are SOOOO BITTER! UGH. I tried mixing in a Protein shake and that didn't work. Anything? I'm not sure which particular pill is the culprit - allegra or bupropion (2) but 3 pills = nasty. Thanks in advance. Helen PS I am told these don't come in liquid.

YAY they let me halve them and the allegra do in thirds. Thats good enough for me. Thanks all!

Where I had my surgery (NYU) allows eggs even at the mushy stage - scrambled, egg salad and soft boiled (prob mashed a big though)

Your breath may be stinky in the liquid phase if it is no carb - because you go into ketosis and that is one sign of it. Shouldn't happen w/ food though?

I'm going to ask because i just can't do the crushing thing. I'm not even really restricted yet. So they are probably just being strict.

Hi - so I am 6 days post op go for checkup tomorrow. I'm still sore at port and in the mid chest area and have GAS in the stomach its really annoying. I've been back to work on Wednesday (surgery was friday the 11th). I lost 5 lbs in the 6 days since surgery this is just not normal for me! I almost don't WANT to go back on food. I don't lose like this if I introduce carbs or fat to the equation. So total of 19lbs... usually it takes me a year to get here. I should be starting mushies on Tuesday. I haven't been hungry. Drinking 3 protein shakes, water, broth. Today i actually had 4 protein shakes because I am figuring 300 cals a day is just too low (my protein shakes are unjury- only 100 cals). So far so good. Good luck to all the new bandsters.

Its the gas pain - its referred pain as they blow air into you to work better and it messes with your diaphragm. Its really our diaphragm in pain but it refers to the shoulder. Keep walking. People say to take gas-x but the nurses told me that doesn't work for this because it isn't intestinal gas. Though that doesn't make sense either - how is it getting out then? I'm sure they aren't blowing up our intestines or stomach - its weird. Anyway I have gas in my stomach now too. So maybe that gas made its way into my tummy. So I am living on gasx and walking too

Actually the hospital told me the same thing about the M&M - buproprion I thought was too large. I am seeing my Surgeon tomorrow will ask her (BUT their instructions say crush all pills from now on). Its the buproprion that is really NASTY!!!!! NOTHING masks that - i tried milk and honey nothing works.

Hi RM - I usually switch over time between allegra and clarinex (which is really small) but allegra tends to work the best. I keep trying zyrtec but end up w/ a cough (it doesn't control that). But I may go back to clarinex.

Thanks I may go back to halving or quartering. Yes can crush them one is actually time released but doc said its ok to just spread them apart. The rest aren't. Yogurt - can't do that yet. Monday on to mushees.

Kimo I agree with Kiz you don't want to end up with a complication. The food choices you are making also are 'difficult foods' (rice and bread) that should be avoided even later or tried with care well after you have healed. Ask your doc if you can go on to pureed foods - 4 weeks is a long time for liquids so I can see how you are not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. When they say liquid do they mean you can have pureed food? I got banded on sep 11 - i had to do liquid protein diet 2 weeks before (was allowed two cups veggies ) but now I have to do 10 days of liquid no solids at all and not pureed. That means it is thin enough to be sipped through a straw. Pureed food comes after for another 10 days. The reason I am keeping myself honest is because messing up can cause band slippage and I don't really want to deal w/ that. Please take care of yourself and call your doctor.

what I mean to say by saying 'if you stay with it' is that if you cheat and eat carbs you won't get past that 3 day mark and you will stay hungry. This diet levels out your blood sugars so the hunger goes away.