Steeners

I use little tiny spoons and forks.

I have a blog! The link is in my signature.

I had my surgery on a Saturday and went back to work on Wednesday. I'm a teacher and was pretty exhausted at the end of the day. Thursday and Friday were much better though.

Hello, I've been lurking around the boards for a little while and now that I've got my surgery scheduled I thought I would finally make a post. My husband and I are Americans living in Daegu, South Korea (about 4 hours south of Seoul). I decided to have lap-band® surgery here because it's only about $6000 to get it here, and you don't have to jump through nearly as many hoops to get it. I had my first consultation on October 23rd, and my surgery is scheduled for October 30th! My doctor only requires full liquids for 2 days post-op, then mushies for 5 days, and my first fill can be a week after surgery. He also does unlimited band adjustments free for the first 3 months after surgery. I was a little shocked at first to hear all of this, but he's performed over 1000 procedures in Korea and last year he received an award from Allergan for performing the most lap-band® procedures in Asia. He also showed me many before/after pics of his patients (a few foreign patients as well). It really makes me wonder how necessary everything that American docs make you go through really is. My only concern is that there's not a nutritionist meeting, so I'm really having to do my research on foods to eat and calories and whatnot. Thank goodness for this forum! You guys are a wealth of information and such an inspiration!

Oh man, I have to say that I don't envy you and having to deal with Korean in-laws and weight It was bad enough when I was teaching adults and the women were always either giving me diet advice ("Eat rice! Don't eat so many hamburgers!") or just flat-out commenting on how fat I am. I guess one good thing from all of it is that it's made me really see myself how others do--I'm fat! I think living in the US kind of made me put blinders on and I really didn't see just how fat I'd gotten. This is one reason behind the name of my blog.

Unfortunately, no. His Korean site is http://cafe.daum.net/lapbariatric though.

A couple of years ago my cholesterol was over 200, and my doctor prescribed Zocor and lots of exercise. Well, I followed doctor's orders and exercised, ate lots of oatmeal, and tried to avoid red meat and shellfish and within 2 months my cholesterol went down to 111. Lots of good advice here, but remember that medication is not the end of the world.

Hi all, I just found this thread--glad I can be a part of it! I just got banded on the 30th, so not much to report yet. Mostly just soreness and some pain. I can start mushy foods tomorrow (hooray!) and I go back to my doctor on Saturday for my first fill (things are obviously done a little differently in South Korea). I hope everyone is doing well in their post-op stages, and I'm glad we're in this together :wink2:

Well, I'm not to the point where I need to get new clothes yet (I was just banded yesterday!) but I already know that for some of my better-quality clothes I'll definitely be getting them taken in. I've got clothes from the last 6 years ranging in sizes 14-24--at one point I gained weight so fast I wasn't able to really get a lot of use from some of them.

I just had my surgery yesterday, October 30th, in Seoul, South Korea. Things are done a bit differently here, but in a good way (I think). My surgery was scheduled for 9am so I arrived at the clinic at 8:45. They took me to my room (which had nice flowers, cabinets, table and chairs, and pink bedspreads) to change into my hospital pajamas (which were also pink and quite comfy). From there they led me into the OR where I got on the table and they started prepping me for surgery. Dr. Kwon took my hand and said "Okay, now we're starting anesthesia," and I was out. Next think I know, I'm waking up in the recovery room and my husband is in there with me. After 30 minutes - an hour maybe, they made me get up and walk to my room. They don't really have the same views on privacy in Korea as in the US, so I had to walk through the waiting room and I'm pretty sure I just waved as I walked by (I'm sure I looked awful). The nurses gave me lots of pain medication, and bought lunch and dinner for my husband. Dr. Kwon also called a former patient of his to come act as my translator because he couldn't stay all day. She was really great--she actually had her band removed because she'd had some problems, but she's getting re-banded in a few months. We left the clinic around 5:30pm... every time I tried to leave, they gave me another shot of something that would make me feel nauseous and I'd have to lie down for an hour. We made it home around 9pm (after a 40 minute taxi ride and 2-hour train ride) and now I'm just dealing with soreness and gas pains. I have a cool little pain med pump called an Accufuser--I can take it out whenever I want, or wait for the medicine to run out which is about 2 days. I also have a compression band that I should wear around my midsection; it's mostly to keep the port from flipping during healing but it's also nice because I've had a cough and coughing is much easier with this thing. I've also got additional pain pills and antibiotics to take for 3 days. I'll be on Clear liquids through today, and tomorrow I can start mushy foods. I go back to work on Wednesday, and on Saturday I can get my first fill. Now I'm just trying to burp and fart (although farting doesn't really seem to be happening!) as much as I can to get rid of this pain. Hooray for bodily functions! :wink2:

I know it's the 10cc band. I was armed with a list of questions when I talked to him and that was one of them :sneaky: Thanks for the encouragement, I'm getting kind of nervous now that it's so close. Also, I just got a cold yesterday so now I'm worried that it will interfere with getting the surgery. I'm sure it won't, but I really just want to get my lap-band already!

I'm not sure what band exactly, I know it's by Allergan though. My doc is Dr. Kwon at Yedain Clinic near Apgujeong Station. P.S. I've read your blog, congrats on all the progress :-)