karmaandkismet

Morning after surgery. Still gassy and sore. I'm trying to tell myself that this is going to feel a lot better in a few days.

Me too! The gas is the suckiest part. Ugh. I'm officially banded! Everything went amazingly well - I can't believe how smoothly it all went! At home now. Very sore and have some gas pain, but no nausea, Thank God... It sounds like if I can just make it through the next 2 days or so, the worst will be over. Looking forward to this brand new chapter in my lfe!

On the other side now! Everything went smoothly. Band is in place and had a hernia repair also. My incisions barely hurt. I do feel like I've don 10,000 sit ups and the gas pain is pretty intense right now. I took some gas-x and I'm counting down he minutes until I an have some pain meds again. In the mean time I'm laying with a heating bad to my upper back to help calms the nerves for the gas pain. An added feature of my heating pad that helps is that I .have a vibrating heating pad. The vibrations help take the edge off of the intest.

Glad to hear everybody's doing ok. I'm doing the countdown to Tuesday. I'm dreading tomorrow because I have to take a pre-op bowel cleansing laxative (I already have had diarrhea this entire pre-op diet) and try to work and teach a class tomorrow night. UGH. I was trying to remember what everybody recommended to have on hand at home for after surgery. I've got my pain meds, my anti-nause meds, my gas-x strips, heating pad, broth, shakes, water. Somebody please remind me what else is on the list.

So, I'm on day 10 of my pre-op liquid diet. My surgery is on July 19th. Well, today I had a weak moment and I cheated and I feel so horrible. I've been immaculately good to this point and here's what happened..... I had part of a protein shake this morning (I get two protein shakes per day plus some applesauce and some pudding in between). Then I had to take my son to the doctor and then we came back to our house for about 20 minutes and I had a pudding. We then went to another appointment and from there we went to a movie. During the movie I started getting a "hunger headache". I'm sure most everybody has had one. Most of the time on the pre-op diet I can just ignore plain hunger but when I start getting a headache, that really messes with me. Then I started feeling nauseated on top of that. So, here I was sitting in the movie with a headache and feeling nauseated. The least offensive thing I could think of was popcorn so I had my son go get me a small popcorn. I would have tried to hold out but I knew that after the movie I was going to have to drive thirty minutes to pick up my other son from where he was and then it was going to be 45 minutes back home before I could get a shake or a pudding AND I still had to wait for the movie to be over. I feel horrible about this, like I'm not deserving of the band if I can't even make it through the 14 day liquid pre op diet.

Thanks for everybody's encouragement! I guess I need to plan more and prepare for "what ifs". I have a hectic schedule and have gone long periods before without having puddings or shakes on hand, but for some reason it really hit me yesterday and I just never considered "what if I get nauseated or get a hunger headache?". I'm going to have to carry a shake with me or carry a little backup cooler perhaps like moms put baby bottles in. Tomorrow I face another challenge when we take my husband out for his birthday dinner. I think I'll be fine on the temptation scale (although my husband IS an enabler and he's not been the most supportive about me having this done). I'll just have to get over sitting in the restaurant and looking stupid having a shake while everybody has food.

You're having your lapband AND your gallbladder out at the same time. Your motto must be "Go big or go home"! I wish you all the luck in the world. My surgery is the 19th and I'm nervous but I'm trying not to think about it too much right now. I'm sure everything will go fine for you. Of course, you probably won't be able to go to the midnight showing of Harry Potter, but that's how it goes sometimes.

That is awesome that you resisted the pizza! I know it must have been very hard, especially after a weekend filled with temptations. My husband is out of town and my stepdaughter is off at Universal Studios, my boys are at their dad's. So for the next couple of days I don't have anybody running around with yummy food in my face. I'm on day 6 of my pre-op diet and for some reason it seems harder right now than the first couple of days as far as hunger goes. Hang in there. We have each other on the forums here to help us get through.

Does anybody else have IBS? All this liquid is still going right through me. I'm more miserable because of that than I am because of any denial of food. In fact, I haven't consumed my allottment of protein shakes and other foods that I'm allowed because if I'm at work I'm going to have to go run to the bathroom 4 times over one protein shake. Yesterday all I had (besides water) was half of a protein shake.

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ok, so I'm on day 4 of my pre-op diet. I think my husband secretly hates me or something. The first day of my pre-op diet he took the kids out for frozen yogurt. Tonight he orders in pizza. What the hell is he trying to do to me? He's not been real thrilled about me having the procedure done, but this is just sadistic. On top of everything else, the liquid diet is doing nothing to help my IBS right now. I'm taking my meds for IBS but everything is cycling through me so fast and I keep having to go to the bathroom (not to pee). I think that part is more miserable than the diet itself.

I am having surgery on July 19th. I've got a BMI of 39.2 and am on day 3 of my pre op diet. Its not that terrible. The worst for me is giving up coffee and I'm weaning myself off of coke zero. I was supposed to have the surgery a year ago, but 12 days before my surgery I found out I had mono. I had been really tired but I had chalked it up to peri-menopause, having teenage children, and working a lot. I was very sick for 6 months and even after that my labwork was still abnormal. I was cleared (again) last month. All the stuff I had already done was still good insurance-wise so I only had to do my pre-assessment for surgery again. I still had all my protein shakes from last year so I'm making good use of them now. I use the Oh Yeah brand. They're pretty good. The chocolate is good. The banana is not so good on its own but if you mix it with the chocolate it gives you that chocolately-banana taste.

Last August I was 12 days away from my surgery date. I had started my liquid pre-op diet and I was ready for this new chapter in my life. My pre-op labwork came back abnormal and so I had to reschedule my surgery and go see my primary doctor. It turned out that I had mono. I had been feeling really tired but I chalked it up to a busy work schedule, teenage children, and perimenopause. The tiredness got worse and the surgery got postponed indefinitely. Finally, here I am almost a year later and I have been cleared by my hematologist for surgery. I left a message with my surgeon's office (I've kept contact with them every couple of months throughout the ordeal) telling them I had been cleared and they would be receiving the documentation from my hematologist. So. What happens now? Will I have to go through the entire process all over again or am I still good to go because I am within a year of getting approval from my insurance? Or was it all negated when it became the new year in January? I understand that I will need all the pre-op labwork again and another EKG. Has anybody had this happen to them? Will I have to go through the psych eval again and the three month supervised diet again?

I have a small hiatal hernia. Does the surgeon fix this while he is doing the band or does it have to be fixed before you can have the band?

I just talked to my primary doctor and I am going to have to wait 3-6 months to fully recover from mono before I can have my surgery. I'm afraid that if it extends into next year I'll have to have all my testing redone.

I was on day 3 of my liquid diet when I found out that I was going to have to postpone the surgery. Now I'm waiting to hear back from my doctor to see how bad the mono has messed up my liver. That will be a big determining factor as to when I can have the surgery..... when my liver function tests and white count return to normal.

Found out this morning that my white blood cell count is still elevated and it turns out that I have mono. So, I've had to cancel my surgery AGAIN. My primary doctor says its most likely going to be a couple of months before I can have it. I am so bummed and cried this morning when the office called me to tell me.

Day 3 of this blasted liquid diet. It was rough making supper for my family last night. I told my husband he was going to have to cut up the chicken for everybody (it was a rotissiere chicken) because I had cooked everything and so serving it was just pushing it too far for me. (He's not been the most supportive person). I sure hope that the two week liquid diet POST OP is easier.

Yesterday was my first day of the liquid pre op diet as well! I ended up getting the ready to drink "Oh Yeah" brand from my doctors' office. They're ok. I had tried the Bariatric Advantage and those taste better even if you have to mix those ones up. I did ok on the hunger thing up until the afternoon and then I started getting really hungry despite the shakes. I went to bed with a hunger headache and woke up with a hunger headache. My nutritionist told me that the goal is to get about 70 grams of protein in per day, not much less and not much more. So, whatever protein drink you choose, just make sure that it totals up to 70grams of protein a day. I also get to have 4 oz of cottage cheese twice a day and 4 oz of juice. I've opted to go with the fruit chillers that you freeze so that I feel like I'm actually "eating" something. I guess part of my struggle is in my head. My initial pre op showed an elevation of white blood cells so I had to go on antibiotics and move my surgery date. I had my blood drawn yesterday to see if the white cells have gone done. I'll find out what the results are most likely tomorrow. So, if the white count is still elevated then I'll have to move my surgery AGAIN and see a hematologist. So I'm just hoping that I'm not going to be doing the liquid diet for a few days only to find out that I'm going to have to start all over again. I think once I find out that my white count is ok it will be mentally easier to deal with the hunger.

Day 1 of the liquid pre-op diet. I do have a bit of a headache, but thank goodness I'm not at work for the next several days so I can adjust to this before I go back to work.

My date is september 1st.

My surgeon's office called today and I've been approved and have a surgery date of August 18th. I think right now I am more nervous than excited. My hubby still isn't totally on board. His way of being supportive is not discussing it. I'm trying to rally support and enthusiasm from my friends who know what I'm doing and they are being great about it. Nervous about anesthesia (I'm a nurse so I know what meds they give you and how big that tube is they stick down your throat) and the fact that I won't know whatever anesthesiologist I get. I'm scared that I'm going to be more tired than I already am. I'm scared that once I lose weight I won't be pretty afterall and people like my dad and my ex-husband will have been right all along.

about a week ago I was at a restaurant that I frequent (I can get low fat burritos there) and I went to use the restroom and for some strange reason, there was one of those mirrors there that they have at carnivals that makes you look thinner than you are. Now normally I avoid mirrors at all costs and it was only by chance that I happened to catch a glance at myself. And then I stood there and LOOKED. It was so weird to see what I would look like if I were "normal". There is a mirror in Harry Potter that when you stand before it, you see your heart's desire. I've always said that if I stood before it I would see myself as thin and beautiful and it was almost as if somebody brought that mirror to me. Now, mind you, my hair was a mess and I had on no makeup and I was wearing my "mom clothes" so I didn't so much meet the beautiful part, but seeing myself like I could be was very surreal.

i am still in the pre-approval process. I do my last weigh in next week before they send off my packet for approval. One thing I've done along the way is make a copy for myself of every piece of documentation I've had to get for this lovely paper chase. that way if somebody along the way says "We don't have this paper" then I can say "well, let me help you out there because I just happen to have a copy of it." And that way I'm not dependent on having to call Dr's offices to get copies of things AGAIN or waiting on them to fax things. It may be too late for that now, but if you find yourself having to gather up papers again I'd make a copy and keep a file going for myself.

I am pre-band and went to a support group earlier this month. Some of the "veterans" were talking about chewing stuff like steak to get the juice and then spitting it out. When I heard this, I was mortified! It was like being in an anorexic group meeting, not a support group for lap band members. I know about eating too much and throwing up and PBs and some of the other things that come along with the band, but this was a new one to me. It seems like some of these people traded in bad eating habits for other practices that may not be as physically harmful, but it certainly sounds mentally screwed up. Are there other people out there that do this?