dwright

By the 4th day post op the shoulder pain had pretty much stopped. I was banded Fri and Tues saw the doc for a followup. He said the shoulder pain from gas should be gone by now. I told him that laying on my right side alleviates the pain in the shoulder and left side of abdomen. When I get up, it will often return. He said because of this he did not believe it could be a blood clot in the lung. The pain should not go away no matter what position you lay in. When I told him I took docalax 3 days in a row without relief he said that is probably what's causing the pain. Take MIRALAX (or store equivilant) and if it doesn't work, take some more. Today is day 7 (Thursday). My abdomen still hurts some (quite shocking when I yawn or cough, but the shoulder doesn't hurt often. I hope the abdomen hurting on the left side after 7 days is normal???????? Taking 4mg Hydromorphone??? does wonders if you need it.

I was banded Friday 12th and today's Tuesday 16th. Yesterday my left shoulder was killing me on and off. It's from the CO2 they pump in during surgery. Also, below my left rib hurts (where the port is located) when I take deep breaths or try to pull myself up from a lieing position. Yeah, it's kinda irritating and will be happy when this part's over. I guess I'm not one to make a major deal over a minor inconvenience. I've watched women who are pregnant with attitudes like they can't do anything and the world revolves around them because they're pregnant. For me it was no big deal. If you are a drama Queen when pregnant you will probably find a few days of tightness and pain as a bigger issue than it should be. If you are have had a band installed, put your big girl panties on and SUCK IT UP! In all probability you will live through this..... :bored: You took a major step to improve your life. It's a process.

I just wanted to put a note on here after something my doc told me. He said there are studies being conducted on the Lap Band for people as low as 30 BMI. It would not be for someone who just put on the weight. More for someone who has been there a long time and it's doubtful they will ever get the weight off and keep it off. Yo-Yo dieting. Anyway, he said they're having great results and other countries will be approving the lap band for folks at 30 BMI soon and eventually it will be approved in the U.S.:bored:

NOTE on the protein diet: Two days before surgery I went to see the doc for the pre-surgery visit. I was 5' 5" and 208.6 lbs. That's a very low BMI for surgery. I got to talking to him about the protein diet and he said, "At your weight the protein diet won't make the least little bit of difference" SERIOUSLY!! :bored: He's a great guy (Dr. Brient in Gainesville FL), wish he was a general practitioner. I looked at him like he was crazy and thought, "Really, you think I'm staying on this diet now? I will be chowing down on BREAD until noon the day before surgery." Apparently the protein diet is important when you are closer and over 40 BMI. I was banded on Friday Nov 12 and wanted to record my experience for others. At 6:45 am I went into the Surgical Pavillion and was home by 1:30 pm. I could have been home earlier except my husband was stuck at a dr's appt AND I couldn't seem to get my eyes to stay open long enough to go home. Good drugs I guess. I felt fine, just a little stiff with the exception of nausea when I got up to go to the bathroom. Then it was just dry heaves. I held my stomach and tried to keep the heaves as gentle as possible. I got them again when I got home and got out of the car. Haven't been nauseous since. They gave me shots in the IV and a motion sickness patch. I took the patch off a few hours after I got home. I am pleasantly surprised on how NON-traumatic the whole experience has been. It's not like you can feel anything inside your body. The funny part is I had a little voice in my head ask a few times; "Are you sure he did anything?" That's how NON -traumatic it was. :thumbup: Today is Sunday. The doc told me because it's a LAP-BAND®® and not by-pass, drink as much liquid as you can (beginning in the recovery room). So I've been pretty much drinking low cal GatorAid, Apple Juice, Sugar Free Tea, Coffee (with cremora and splenda) non-stop. I also ate Jello, sugar free popsicles and chicken broth. I haven't been hungry but it seems my brain has a problem dealing with not eating anything of substance for 48 hrs. My stomach has cramped up on and off. I just get up and walk around. Lieing back in a recliner seems to be the most comfortable position. Today (Sunday) it's just a little stiff. My stomach felt/looked like it was puffing up last night, but seems back to normal now. Could have been my imagination. I will be eating cream soup etc today. I tried instant grits and at a few small bites but that's all I wanted. I drank 2 oz of a protein shake. So far so good!:smile2: I will see the doc on Tues for a follow up and he'll do the first fill 4 weeks from surgery date.

Don't chicken out. I was banded 2 days ago and it was no big deal. I went into the Surgical Pavillion at 6:45 am and was home by 1:00 pm. I would have been home about an hour sooner but my husband was at a doctors appt and they were running behind. Feels like I did a bunch of situps. I'm going to write on my blog so check it out if you want to know what happened. Good Luck! dwright

Good luck! I will be banded Nov 12 so I'll enjoy watching/reading about your journey while I start on mine.

Sounds like your doing great. 10lbs a month seems to be the max weight loss once the initial phase is over. Works for me! I could lose 100lbs but I'd be Hollywood thin and I'm not into the swizzle stick look.

I think you are going to find yourself losing a lot of weight just becuase of portion control. I found myself fixing larger and larger plates of food for dinner as well as eating/picking at candy and junk. You are on your way to a whole new life!

I think I may be figuring out how this site works (answering or commenting on blog.... comments). Hi again. :cursing:

It was great to hear from everyone. Seven more days to go before banding. I have seen blogs on a few folks that did not see weight loss for awhile until after 1st fill. I have not weighed to see if protein diet has done anything, but I can feel a difference at the waist. Yesterday I went in for the upper GI, EKG, Lap tests, Chest X-ray etc. No food or drink. By the time I got back to the town I live in and to the voting booth I thought I would die from starvation. I went into the store and bought a routisserie chicken. On the way home I could imagine sucking down the entire chicken myself. I ended up eating a thigh and wing and that was plenty. At least it was protein and not sugar or carbs. I have looked online and seen a big discrepancy on what to eat on the liver shrinking diet. Fortunately, it looks like the biggest deal is if you are over 45 bmi. and an occasional cheat is not going to totally negate a week of great dieting.