clhendrix2

Congratulations!!!! I am 19 weeks now and have lost a pound or two since finding out in late January. I have not had any fill taken out, I am doing pretty good so far. I do have an appt with my lap band dr in early June to check in with him, may have some fill taken out then, we will see. I am due Sept 17th. OB is pleased that I have not gained any weight so far, but says between 5 months and thru the end of my pregnancy I should expect to gain no more than 15 pounds. I hope I stay within that guideline, sure do not want to gain any more than necessary.

I am 13 weeks pregnant. I have not had any fill taken out, my lap band Dr and my OBGYN both seem to agree that I am ok to maintain for now and will only have some fill taken out if I start to throw up, have reflux issues or more issues when I am further along in my pregnancy if the baby starts to push against it or begin to have pain. So for now we remain the same. It is hard to not see the scale move anymore. I am glad that I am not gaining yet, but its like an all stop. The scale has not moved in 3-4 weeks. Not used to that. Its like my body said ok were prego and I'm not letting go of a single pound! haha I had my surgery in May 2010 and had lost about 80 pounds when I found out I was pregnant. It was a complete surprise, we were not trying, it just happened. So once we got over the shock, we are excited. I was not quite able to make my goal of losing 100 in the first year but I came close. I just hope that the weight that I do gain with the pregnancy is reasonable and I will just pick up where I left off after I deliver in Sept 2011. My OBGYN gave me chewable prenatal vitamins and they are great! I wish my lap band dr prescribed these to all his women patients that get the band. I wish us all the best with our pregnancies and our healthy babies!! God Bless!

Hey May 2010 Bandsters! How are we all doing???? Lets catch up its been a while. I have been doing pretty good I guess. It seems like the first fifty pounds came off pretty fast. At the end of August I hit 50 pounds lost. September has slowed down a bit, think I only lost about 5 pounds or so. So that worries me a little, I go back to Dr tomorrow. Hope they are not as disappointed as I am. Maybe they will give me some pointers to get back on track or jump start things again. Ok lets have it....Updates!!!!!!

Hello all, I was banded on May 7. I had one fill, then when I went for the 2nd fill my port had flipped, I had surgery on July 2nd to resecure the port and my 3rd is scheduled for July 28th. I have lost 38 pounds and it is wonderful. Currently I swim to get in my exercise. My biggest challenge is not drinking with a meal and for an hour afterwards. I struggle with that everyday. Before I know it I am grabbing for a drink. LOL Its like a subconsious thing. Anyway. Proud of us all. We can do it and we are worth it! :-)

steveelea thank you so much for the words of encouragement, I really do need it now. I know what you mean about putting off the inevitable. I too had thoughts about just seeing how I did for a while on the rerstriction that I had, but my surgeon was adamant about me getting it fixed now. cshylton sorry you still have not had a fill yet, hopefully you will soon. I had not heard of a Seroma. Dr Provost is aware money is a real issue for me, he is waving his fee for the surgery, but the hospital of course is not. So I will have the hospital fee, just glad they are not making me pay anything up front. I go this morning for my pre-op visit & to pre-register at the hospital to find out what time my surgery is tomorrow. Wish me luck!

*Update* I went in Tuesday to see Dr.Provost for my second fill. He tried with 4 needles to hit the port, but no luck. He has decided to replace my port. I am only about 7 weeks post op. This is such a disappointment. I really cannot afford more surgery. The Dr is doing it under medically nesessary so the hospital cannot make me pay anything up front. I guess I will just have to pay it out forever. I have been losing pretty good since my surgery almost 30 pounds. The money part worries me, but I just cannot give up now. I dont know what I am going to do, but part of me says the hell with the money, get the port replaced and keep on losing! So tomorrow morning I go for the pre-op visit and Friday July 2 is my surgery for a new port. Please pray for me. This surgery has got to be sucessful. :thumbup:

When we go out for Mexican, I usually have a chicken enchilada with sour cream sauce. I have had tacos and they were crunchy. Again just chew really well and small bites. I am still having to remind myself of this all the time. LOL When will I ever learn? It makes such a big difference, and still I find myself either taking too big of a bite of swallowing too fast, not shewing long enough. Gotta slow down.

Update! Yea unstuck!!! I was in such a panic about this today, I had been stuck, not able to get anything down, not even water for almost 6 hrs, so I called my Dr. He called me back and said do not panic, try to relax and even exercise if you can, it should get things moving again. He sounded alot less stressed over it than I was. I was just so worried about the throwing up. Anyway I went down to a friends house that has a pool and about 30 minutes after being in the water, I actually felt it slip on through! Whew what a relief! Instantly that pain and pressure in my chest was gone. Man I was so thirsty by then I was guzzeling water lol I do NOT want to experience that ever again! I was miserable and fearing the worst, hopefully I did not do any damage to my band :smile2:

OMG....I was banded on May 7 and I have had my first "stuck" episode today, actually right now. This is aweful! It hurts so bad. I got stuck on steak this morning. After about 3 bites wham the pain started. Also my first time throwing up since being banded and that scare me, I do not want to make my band slip. I have had steak since my surgery but this is the first time since my first fill on 6/10. WOW this stinks. I feel so thirsty and want to drink water but that just sits there and hurts too. Is there anything that I can do? I have thrown up some but there has to still be a piece stuck in there, nothing is going down. And this excess saliva is just gross and I keep burping. Help!

AWESOME!! I just landed there myself and it feels great! My shorts and swimming suit from last summer fit so loose, it is a great feeling! My surgery was on May 7 and I had my first fill on June 10. 26 pounds gone! I could not be more happy. Praise God.

steveelea thank you so much, it has been an ordeal, glad it is over and still optomistic about my next fill. Looking at your diagram my port and scar is more in line with your blue mark but a little more towards the middle and about mid way between my bra line and my belly button. Definately feeling the restriction when I eat, was taking 3-4 bites before now its more like 2 bites then wait...:frown:

WOW, hopefully I will get there some day. I have only had one fill so far, next fill in about 2 weeks. Right now, not drinking something with my meals is very hard to do. This is going to be a hard habit to break!

*Update* I went in yesterday morning at 9am to see Dr.Provost. He tried with 2 needles to hit the port, but no luck. So he sent me across the street to the hospital where I had my surgery, to do the fill under flouroscopy ($100 by the way! ). I went over and as soon as they had a machine available they called him over. I was glad to see that when Dr.Provost came he brought his PA Chrystyna with him. I was glad at this point to see friendly, familiar faces, seeing as I was extremely worried at this point. And cold, that hospital was freezing! So after seeing my port on xray, its not perfect but maybe not completely terrible either. My port is sort of angled upwards, it is not laying flat as it should be, but it is not flipped over either, so no surgery to correct it is planned at this time. They still hope that it will lay down as more swelling goes down and I lose more weight. Dr and PA were there to see exactly how it is facing and how to manipulate it to flatten it out and get the fill done. So I got the fill, I am very, very sore and bruised! My tummy looks like I got hit with a baseball! :frown: The Dr wants to do my next fill in a little over 2 weeks. Wish me luck! I am feeling a little more restriction, now then I did. But no issues swallowing or vomiting! Yea! Thats a good thing.

*Update* I went in yesterday morning at 9am to see Dr.Provost. He tried with 2 needles to hit the port, but no luck. So he sent me across the street to the hospital where I had my surgery, to do the fill under flouroscopy ($100 by the way! ). I went over and as soon as they had a machine available they called him over. I was glad to see that when Dr.Provost came he brought his PA Chrystyna with him. I was glad at this point to see friendly, familiar faces, seeing as I was extremely worried at this point. And cold, that hospital was freezing! So after seeing my port on xray, its not perfect but maybe not completely terrible either. My port is sort of angled upwards, it is not laying flat as it should be, but it is not flipped over either, so no surgery to correct it is planned at this time. They still hope that it will lay down as more swelling goes down and I lose more weight. Dr and PA were there to see exactly how it is facing and how to manipulate it to flatten it out and get the fill done. So I got the fill, I am very, very sore and bruised! My tummy looks like I got hit with a baseball! :frown: The Dr wants to do my next fill in a little over 2 weeks. Wish me luck! I am feeling a little more restriction, now then I did. But no issues swallowing or vomiting! Yea! Thats a good thing.

I went in today after work for my first fill. I was excited and nervous at the same time, I was really looking forward to getting some restriction! I am alittle afraid of needles, but it has to be done. So I laid down on the table, got a shot of local anesthesia, good and numb. Yea! She was all happy and taking to me, then she seemed to be having trouble finding the port, well they found the port but was having problem getting the needle into the port. She was pushing and pushing, moving all around. She got out the ultrasound machine, took a look, said all looked ok, went back to the needle. She then administered more local anesthesia. So I asked is there something wrong? Did the port filp? She said no, its ok, just having a very difficult time going in. ?? So six sticks later and an hour, she decides that I need to come back in the morning to have Dr.Provost try. She kept telling me all was ok, this happens sometimes, and that I did nothing wrong. But I can't help but worry. Its what I do. Please, oh please Lord let me be ok. I cannot afford more surgery. :thumbup:

I went in today after work for my first fill. I was excited and nervous at the same time, I was really looking forward to getting some restriction! I am alittle afraid of needles, but it has to be done. So I laid down on the table, got a shot of local anesthesia, good and numb. Yea! She was all happy and taking to me, then she seemed to be having trouble finding the port, well they found the port but was having problem getting the needle into the port. She was pushing and pushing, moving all around. She got out the ultrasound machine, took a look, said all looked ok, went back to the needle. She then administered more local anesthesia. So I asked is there something wrong? Did the port filp? She said no, its ok, just having a very difficult time going in. ?? So six sticks later and an hour, she decides that I need to come back in the morning to have Dr.Provost try. She kept telling me all was ok, this happens sometimes, and that I did nothing wrong. But I can't help but worry. Its what I do. Please, oh please Lord let me be ok. I cannot afford more surgery.

My surgeon did not give me the Allergan card, but at my last appointment gave me two cards of their own, one for eating out and asking the restaurant to let me order off the kids menu and the other was for going thru security check points at airports and the like, they said that the port will sometimes go off in the metal dedectors especially if they use a wand. lol thats going to be a trip to set off the metal dedector! haha

My surgery was May 7th and I have lost 22 pounds, including the pre-op diet thast I started on April 23rd. Hunger has returned in a BIG way for me too and I can eat alot more than I could even 2 weeks ago. I worry about this all the time and have not seen much change in the scale this last week, just pray it does not go up! I get my first fill this week on June 9th. I am praying for restriction, because I know I am eating too much to feel full. I would love to take a few bites again and feel full. I miss that feeling that I had a couple of weeks ago. On a good note, My band has been healing well I suppose, the tenderness is better everyday. I have not had any sickness, vomiting, nausea, nothing, as I have read on here so many people have. And every food that I have tried has gone down fine, dont think I have had any 'stuck' episodes, from what I have read, I'm sure I would know it. Good luck to us all! I hope all of the other May Bandsters are doing well!

I was banded on May 7th and I had my first lunch out on Saturday with my family and my Mom after my son's tee-ball game. Man it was good. :-) We love mexican!!! I ordered off the kids menu!! LOL My husband just laughed. Hey, I now get to lose weight and pay less, $3.50!! I had one chicken enchilada with sour cream sauce & charro beans. I ate really slow and chewed really good. I did fine. No issues and was full. I could not believe it, I know before it would have been like 2-3 enchiladas, a basket of chips, and tortillas with butter! WOW

I was given a prescription for Lortab elixir, pretty big bottle of the stuff. I was banded on a Friday and took it about twice a day till Tuesday. Haven't had any since, still got about a half a bottle left.

YES!!! I was banded on may 7 and they are itching like crazy!

My Dr recommended Gas Ex to help with the gas pains. And to get the bowels moving again Milk of Magnesia or MiraLax The MiraLax is a tasteless powder so you can mix it into any liquid, I put it in my protein shakes.

I was banded on May 7 and my port incision is just to the left of middle of my tummy about 3 inches above my belly button. I do feel pressure above the port incision right around my bra line, I figure it is the band around my stomach? I do have pain in my far left side under my rib cage that gets worse when I walk alot or am very active around the house. They swear to me that it is nothing but gas pains. Lets hope so. But I do not feel like anything is loose or floating around. I go in on Monday for my first post op visit.

I had my surgery on Friday 5/7. They took me into the OR around 10:30am, I remember going into the OR, then a Dr said I am going to give you something to make you more comfortable, then it was lights out for me, lol next thing I remember is being in recovery and the nurses talking to me, I had a hard time staying awake, I couldn't focus and I was dizzy and the dizziness made me nausous.I barely could open my eyes, and the only thing I could get out was "I'm sick, I'm sick" they immediatly handed be a barf bag and told me they were pushing something into my IV for that, and it worked, the nausousness immediatly went away and I was out asleep again. Then the next thing I remember was waking up in my room, (I stayed overnight for a 23 hour observation per ins) and my nurse and family talking to me, I saw the clock and it was almost 1:30pm, I had been asleep for about 3 hours. But I was ok, I did not have any oxygen on or anything like that, I had an IV pushing fluids and a morphine pump that I controlled I was more than happy to stay the night, I could not imagine getting up and going home at that moment, since all I wanted to do was sleep. My mouth was terribly dry and my throat hurt, that was my constant complaint while in the hospital, and still today my mouth is dry, I sip on water constantly. As the hours went on my head began to clear, it just got better and better. I think it was about 5pm on Friday when I felt like I needed to pee, the nurse came to help but I walked on my own to the bathroom and was able to pee, so the nurse was happy about that. I did lap down the hall and back. I continued to rest comfortably at the hospital Friday evening, still fighting the thirstiness. On Saturday morning they took me for an Xray and barrium swallow, the Dr there showed me the xrays and said that it looked great and my Dr would review them when he came in. Kind of neat to see the band on the xray. My Dr came around 11am spoke with me and said that everything looked good and he was sending me home. the ride home was a little uncomfortable. All I wanted was my water, still so thirsty. No appetite to drink anything else on Saturday but water. I cant believe that I am banded, I have to keep reminding myself its done! :biggrin:

I had my surgery on Friday 5/7. They took me into the OR around 10:30am, I remember going into the OR, then a Dr said I am going to give you something to make you more comfortable, then it was lights out for me, lol next thing I remember is being in recovery and the nurses talking to me, I had a hard time staying awake, I couldn't focus and I was dizzy and the dizziness made me nausous.I barely could open my eyes, and the only thing I could get out was "I'm sick, I'm sick" they immediatly handed be a barf bag and told me they were pushing something into my IV for that, and it worked, the nausousness immediatly went away and I was out alseep again. Then the next thing I remember was waking up in my room, (I stayed overnight for a 23 hour observation per ins) and my nurse and family talking to me, I saw the clock and it was almost 1:30, I had been asleep for about 3 hours. But I was ok, I did not have any oxygen on or anything like that, I had an IV pushing fluids and a morphine pump that I controlled I was more than happy to stay the night, I could not imagine getting up and going home at that moment, since all I wanted to do was sleep. My mouth was terribly dry and my throat hurt, that was my constant complaint while in the hospital, and still today my mouth is dry, I sip on water constantly. On Saturday as the hours went on my head began to clear, it just got better and better. I think it was about 5pm when I felt like I needed to pee, the nurse came to help but I walked on my own to the bathroom and was able to pee, so the nurse was happy about that. I began passing gas on Sunday evening, but still no BM. Maybe today? I will try a protein shake today. As you can see from all our stories we are all different, we handle anesthesia differently, I was terribly sleepy, but I was never scared. Good luck to you, you will be fine! :biggrin: