Singingcello

I will be banded on August 10th by Dr. Felix Spiegel in Houston, TX. I live in Austin, TX and I am looking to hook up with other bandsters in my area for support, etc. There are talks of a satelite center for pre-ops, fills, and support groups here in Austin through AIGB (I believe) but there is no word when that site will go up. I would love to know where those who live in Austin and are already to the fill stage go to get their fills. Let's get together and celebrate! :clap2:

:crytoday is my second full day after surgery, and boy has this been a tough road so far. If I had known then what I know now...at this point I would not do it again. I'm having a terrible time getting rid of gas, so much so that all last night I was vomiting uncontrollably and big pockets or air were coming up...and ocassionally (so sorry) green bile. I called the emergency number for my doc last night and his nurse called in some phenagrin for me...and told me just to keep walking and taking in fluids (which I had been doing all day and the day of surgery). Talk about being terribfied. Of course after of this puking, I can feel the band around my stomach and I asked her is that could be a problem, and she said "your band will be fine, you esphosgus is what I'm worried about...it stretching when you wrech. I have followed all instructions to a tee, so not sure what has happened, except that I can not belch up the gas for some reason, and I think I have a problem swallowing air when I drink my fluids. I have tried just about every anti-gas product that there is out there, with no success, so now I'm trying a suggestions to drink mint tea. If any of you have any suggestions, please let me know...so far this has been a VERY unpleasant and painful experience. So much so that I wouldn't encourage anybody to have it done unless medically neccessary. I honestly feel like I have made a mistake, but I"m hoping that feeling will fade once things turn around. It's just that right now what's I've done is feeling a bit drastic to me. If anyone else has had a similar experience, I would like to know about it and how things have turned out afterwards (I'm so worried about messing up my band and stomach). Thanks in advance!:help:

Hey! I'm having surgery in the morning (I'm in Houston right now). As soon as I get back we should work on starting a support group!

Do you know if I will have to go back to HIS office, or if I can go to a location in San Antonio, etc...something a little closer? Houston is a 3-4 hour trip and I have not planned to take any additional time off from work for post-op peek-a-boos unless absolutely neccessary (especially since he's only open during the work week). Thanks for all of your help Barbara!

I will be banded by Dr. Speigel on August 10th, 2006. Because I haven't received much information from his office (even when I call and probe) regarding pre and post-op, I'm not exactly sure what to expect. I called his office three weeks ago to see if I need to start a two week liquid Protein diet that I have read about other banders doing before their surgery. I was told by Spiegel's office that there was no need for me to do the 2 week liquid diet to shrink my liver and that during my pre-op (day before surgery) they would go over everything with me. Thing is...I sure would like to know what to expect, especially post-opt. I know I'll have to do Clear liquids, liquids, mushies, etc for a while, but what kind and for how long. Maybe I'm a bit anal, but I sure would feel better if I had this information and could prepare myself before hand (going shopping, etc. instead of having to do it after my surgery when I won't feel like it). I'm sure other people have had this experience with this office, since it seems it doesn't have the best reputation around. It sure would be nice if he had a friendly and helpful office staff to go along with what I hear is great surgical skill. I would love to know anything about your post-op experience with Dr. Speigel that you would have found helpful had you known before your surgery, as well as how long it took you to recooperate. I have my surgery on Thursday and am planning to go back to my desk job on Monday - think this is possible? Thanks in advance! BTW-I currently live in Austin and heard from one of the seminars I attended that there will soon be a satelite center in Austin for fills, support groups, and pre-ops. Does anyone have any updated information on this.