Goannabanda

When food get stuck in your pouch, your body makes lots and lots of saliva to try and get it down. If you can't swallow it, you need to spit it out. It's gross. If we remember to eat the bandster way (chew slowly and take small bites) it shouldn't happen.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Losing just 10% of your body weight normalises your hormones, and for many seems to send your fertility into overdrive. Hence you "fell" so quickly. Please make sure that your surgeon ob/gyn actively manage any nausea throughout your pregnancy and delivery, especially over the next few months while your band is healing and your morning sickness is peaking. My surgeon said just three months post band is enough for surgery healing, so you are nearly there already. Enjoy this very special time!

Yep - everything happens for a reason - good that you had your mole checked out early rather than later. You will be all fixed and living in the land of the banded before you know it. I'll be thinking of you.

I think you'll find the info you need here. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=14814 Cheers!

I had to have an echo too, but only because the specialist physician found that I have a heart murmur. It's no big deal, just lie there and listen to your heartbeat for half an hour or so! My surgeon doesn't require an upper GI either.

Colleen, I put a notice on band2gether.net for you. Have a great lunch. Anna.

Bandsters Rearely Eat Animal Droppings TGHNP

Hi everyone! I've updated the surgery list, based all posts to this point. Please let me know if there is any more wierdness with the numbering format of the list, or if I have anyone's dates wrong and I will sort it out. Sorry for any mistakes getting it going - I did it late at night! Well, I had my final surgeon's consult today, which lasted all of 5 minutes. Suited me, because I didn't have any questions at the time, but as soon as I started driving home, I remembered what I had to ask. DOH!:doh: Should have written a list! Oh well, he'll call me back, or else it can wait until surgery day. Apart from the last minute domestic:washing: and work panic:ranger:, I am good to go. :eek: And I can't go soon enough.:confused:

One of the final things I need to do pre-op is to give my 5yo a better explanation as to why I am going to go to hospital for an operation next week. He'll also want to know what will happen during the operation and when I come home etc. So far I have told him that "mummy is going to hospital to have a little operation to fix my tummy and that will help me to be healthier so I can run and play more with you". He has taken that in his stride, but I feel that he needs a better explanation closer to "The Day". I want to give him more information, as he is a smart kid and will pick up on little things and worry about me if I don't tell him more, but I don't want to overload him with too much. I am trying to decide how much information he needs to know, and how I can best convey it to him in a manner that he will understand and that will not cause him to worry. I would like to hear from those of you with small kiddies how you have let them know about your lapbanding and/or how you discuss lapbanding with them in your daily life. <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Hi gang, I've moved our list of band dates to my post at the top of this thread, so we can always find it easily! Cheers!

Thanks gang, Thanks for the reassurance. I like your ideas and ways of dealing with this. I would never lie to my kids, but sometimes it's hard to guage how much information they need. So far so good. Last night I told him that I'll have a present for him in my hospital bag, as a reward for going to sleep in his own bed at night. He likes to go off to sleep in our bed at night. Carrying 40 lb sleeping boy back from our bed to his every night is killing my back, and hubby has a bad shoulder so can't do it either. It's been an issue we've wanted to deal with for a while, this is a good chance. So I said to him I wouldn't be allowed to carry him anymore for a while after my operation, we need to do this together. Now he says "mummy I really can't wait until thursday for my present, can I open it now please?" Little devil! All is good for surgery next Thursday - I'm happy, and it appears the family is too!

You need to tell the truth, if you don't and get found out later, your employer would never trust you again and you would could lose your job. I wouldn't personally make up any other types of surgery in case you had to go back at some point in future and really have it done, and besides, it's also a lie that if found out, would lead to trust issues with your employer. As an in-house nanny, you need to be super-honest and trustowrthy - these people trust you with their kids and their house, and I imagine that therefore they would be super-sensitive to any unethical or dihonest behaviour from their staff. You have genuine need for time off so you can deal with a health issue. Your employer should be reasonable enough to accept that and manage to provide you leave in advance. Your employer needs to know if you can't do any lifting etc for a while afterwards. However, telling the truth doesn't mean you have to tell them all of the details. Here's what I did, it worked a treat: Just say that "I need time off for a minor surgery, it's nothing major really, but will put me out of action for a few days afterwards". Just leave it at that, the rest is none of their business. Being female, people assume it's "women's surgery", and don't ask any questions. Even if they did ask questions, just say "It's very personal, I'd really rather not talk about it". And leave it at that. Repeat yourself as many times as necessary. But stay calm about it. Your employer is not entitled to an explanation about your personal life or health issues. Good luck!

I'd love to come, but will be in Adelaide for a cousin's wedding. A liquid wedding feast for me. LOL!! I'll have to meet Jacqui and Mary some other time. Have a great time!

DOH! I got my dates mixed up, thinking the meeting was next week! thanks for making me check my diary - I have my pre-op at the hospital at 8 am, and I would have missed it! I am getting excited about the op!!

Hi Melbourne girls, I was over at The Glen today, and 1626 have an outlet / sale stall out there, with clothes from just $5!!! They had heaps of end-of-season pants, coats, tops etc in all sizes from 16 to 26. The sale items are located on a stall which is located in the walkway leading to Villa&Hut. The girl working there said the stall was for other 1626 stores to send their end-of-season clothes, and that it would be set up there until Christmas. I don't work there, or have any affiliation with 1626, but I do know how hard it is to get great looking plus-sized clothes, so enjoy! Cheers!

Sydney would be a stretch for me - the flights are cheap, but nothing else about going to Sydney is. Albury / Wodonga / Renmark etc would be great. I could drive there easily, and car-pool with local gals to cut the cost. What is the conference in Canberra? When is it? I heard aus_colleen mention it at our Melb lunch, but didn't find out what it was all about...

I too am planing on having more children post-banding. There are many inspiring stories around LBT of band-babies, especially where fertility issues have been overcome with the help of lap-band surgery. My surgeon says to wait at least 3 months after band surgery (for healing), and that once pregnant, that he will work with my ob/gyn to actively manage any nausea to avoid vomiting, and I will have an unfill early on so as not to be losing wieght during pregnancy. He will continue to work actively with my ob/gyn throughout the pregnancy to ensure the best outcome. My surgeon and ob/gyn also said that a body weight loss of just 10% (20 to 30lbs) can send your fertility into overdrive - so look out post-banding or you might find yourself pregnant before you know it! I was MO when I had my son 5 years ago, only about 30 lbs lighter than I am now. I actually lost weight during my pregnancy with him, mostly in the first trimester (30 lbs). I ended up only putting on about 12 lbs by the time I delivered, and walked out of the hospital 12 lbs lighter than when I fell pregnant. Pity I put it all back, with an extra 30 lbs, during the next twelve months nursing, and trying to get hormones back to normal. My ob/gyn isn't worried about pregnancy induced weight loss, providing that overall dietary intake is okay, and says it is normal for large women to lose weight during pregnancy. However, the ob/gyn and lap surgeon have both said that they wouldn't be happy about band-related weight loss, particularly during early pregnancy, as this could be detrimental to the baby. They say there is research that suggests that inadequate dietry intake during the first trimester causes problems for the baby. Hence the early unfill. I hope that my story and information is useful to you, but of course, you should get your own advice from your lap-band surgeon and ob/gyn, as your case will be different to my situation. Good luck!

The risks of complications with this surgery are VERY VERY low. I wouldn't be having this surgery if it were any other way. Plus the lapband surgery has the benefit of being 100% reversible and removable should any complications arise. That's good enough for me. Stomach erosions happens when the band moves into the stomach for one reason or another. It is extrememly rare. Just four out of 299 patients (1.3%) had an erosion. Stomach erosion is surgically repaired, often with band removal. Some lapband patients are found to have gall stones during their pre-op testing or during their banding surgery. Gall bladder removal is often done at the same time as the banding to avoid a separate surgery later. It's not routine or a requirement of lapbanding to have your gall bladder removed. It is only done when medically necessary, same as you can't get banded unless it's medically necessary. The same applies to stomach hernia repairs and other similar sugeries you have no doubt read about on the LBT forum. You must remember that LBT and places like it is where people come for support - usually when they are researching surgery, newly banded, or in times of complications. It's a skewed view of reality - most of the people who are successful and don't have these complications don't need the support - they are out enjoying their new bodies and greatly improved health. It pays to be aware of what can go wrong, but try to keep a realistic view of the rate of complications. Any surgery has risk, but some everday events like crossing the road or driving our cars has a far greater risk than this surgery. For me, the risks of NOT having this surgery and instead heading for a life of obesity-related disease and pain are far greater than the risks of lapband complications. The inamed website has very good information about the risks of lapbanding: http://www.allerganandinamed.com/products/obesity/us/patient/lapband/prodinfo.html http://www.allerganandinamed.com/products/obesity/us/patient/lapband/risk.html Good luck in your research and decision making. You will know in your heart of hearts what is right for you. If lapbanding is not right for you now, then maybe at a later date. Only you can decide.

Exactly what I was told. Although we both have Australian doctors, so they might have the same training background... My surgery centre really stressed that they need us to be on the pre-op diet for the last 2 weeks pre-op. They say it will be the last diet we will ever be on! YAY! Our pre-op diet is based on medical Meal Replacement products. It has choc or vanilla shakes, chicken Soup, choc mousse, choc bars and choc berry bars. Some variety in the textures, but it all tastes pretty much the same weirdness. To that we can add 2 cups of non-starchy vegetables (NO carrot, potatoes, peas (other than snow peas), Beans (other than mung beans), carrot, pumpkin, sweet potato etc), 1 piece of fruit per day (limited selection, eg. apple, pear, orange, strawberries, pineapple), diet jelly, diet soda, herbal tea, and some basic herbs and condiments. Absolutely no alcohol or caffeine is allowed. I'm basically having one of the shakes for breakfast; a salad and a bar for lunch; fruit for afternoon tea; stir-fry, grilled or soup veggies for dinner; a bar or dessert and diet jelly for supper. Plenty of herbal tea and Water in-between, and just the odd diet soda if I feel like one. So far the pre-op diet's generally not that bad. I'm on day 5 of the diet today - a bit hungry today, as I had my "special lunch" :hungry: with the girls yesterday, and I guess I'm getting over that. Day 3 was also hard, I got really grumpy and cold.:confused: I thought it was because of the heavy gardening work that I was doing, but TOM arrived yesterday, so it was probably that making me grumpy (usually that would have been fixed with chocolate! LOL!). Thank goodness it came now and not when it was due (on surgery day).:clap2: Different surgeons have different methods of working, or have different view of the relevant research and literature. I think that my surgery centre is very conservative in terms of pre and post op diet requriements, but less conservative in other ways. As long as the outcomes and recovery are good, that's all that should matter. Good luck to all as we count down the last few days until 1 October! Let the banding begin!:clap2: :clap2:

***singing*** "...and the kneecap's connected to the thighbone..." Congratulations on a terrific NSV Sharyn. That's great work!

Bumping this thread for any more October bandbabies out there.

Hi bandsister! Welcome to LBT!!! Here we go to bandland on Oct 5th!! Anna.

Oh! Kellie! I am so sorry that things didn't work out as planned for you, espeically after the mental and physical preparation that you have done! Obviously everone wants all to be well for tha man who had the emergency, but it is frustrating for you. Ask to be first of the day next time, to minimise any chance that the surgical team will be delayed or called away for emergency again. I hope that you get a new date quickly - if it's 5th October we can be band sisters! Keep us posted with how you are going.

OOOHHH!! Goody!! Another band sister - BandaCat - looks like October 5th is a big Banding day! With JDru and myself - that makes three of us on the same day!:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: Another LBT firend - Wheeler - is having revision surgery on Oct 4th.:clap2: Definitely a busy surgery week in early October. I didn't pig out before the pre-op diet - I haven't felt the need, as I am (nervously) READY to start my new banded lifestyle. However, I did make sure to have a few things this week that may not be terribly band friendly later, that might take me a while to work up to eating again, or that I shouldn't be eating anyway (eg. sticky bento rice, sushi, asparagus, chocolate and some cheesecake). I only had normal servings of each, at normal times. Since deciding to get banded, a lot of my old habits and attitudes are already changing. I just don't want to eat badly at the moment (hooray!). My girlfiends are taking me out for a Thai buffet on Sunday, and we are having a BBQ party at home for my dad's retirement on 1 Oct, so there'll be couple more good meals yet. :hungry: hehehe!!! I'll just avoid carbs / fried as much as I can, and won't drink any grog or caffeine.:biggrin1: I lost 1 kilo after Day 1 of my pre-op diet - but spent the whole day and half the night peeing:eek: sorry, TMI (too much information!), so it must be all just Water weight. I am also doing a 15 day digestive system detox (QuickClense, which is just herbal / fibre supplements), so that would be contributing to the water loss also. Looking forward to joining bandland with you all!

aaaaaawwwwwwwwwww!!!! What a cutie pie! (And hubby and the baby are not bad either... hehehe!) Congratulations!!! Hope it's me reporting in with baby news next year...