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I was banded on May 30th and I am still in the liquid stage. My doctor wants 3 weeks of liquids. Anyway, I am starting to be able to drink more and more. Is this OK and is this normal. I also worry constantly that my port has moved. My doctor said that he was a little concerned about the port placement due to some excess fat where he placed it. Is it easy for the port to move, or am I just being overly nervous. Thanks for your help! By the way, I have lost 20lbs since surgery!!!! YEA!!!!

Hello all of you seasoned post-op people! I'm wondering if any of you has a tempurpedic mattress, and if so, did you have trouble getting in and out of it post-op? If you have one you know they are amazing, but not exactly easy to get in and out of. There is no "bounce" to give you leverage. You just kindof sink, and I'm wondering if the effort to get up would be too much strain on new sutures internally and externally. We are making preparations this week so I appreciate any experiences you can share!

I don't have a tempurpedic mattress but after my surgery I slept in our spare room because my dogs usually sleep with us and climb all over me. The bed in the spare room is high and has a deep mattress, and I'm short. I ended up using a step stool to get in and out of bed for a couple weeks. It worked great. :-)

I'll share at 12 weeks out, And 50 lbs down, that the RNY is great! I have no regrets, and have not had a perfect road. No matter what WKS you go with, it is a tool. You will continue to have the desire to eat when not hungry. My recommendation is to get help. Support group, therapy, etc. because after your surgery, no matter which you choose, you will still have eating issues.

Yeah, I grew up on the cool side, near Portland. Love the green, can't deal with the rain. I've been to St. Francis Hospital several times--Dr. Srikanth's office is in the attached medical building, and I've simply gone ahead and gotten my testing done there--so while I haven't yet been inpatient at the hospital, I've seen a fair bit of the complex. I have been extremely impressed by the general attitudes I've observed of other staff and how they interact with patients. Also, it's scrupulously clean, and doesn't feel crowded, either in the public areas or the exam and testing areas. The pre-op testing, almost all of which I've done over there, was handled extremely quickly and efficiently, with an eye to making it convenient for me to get multiple tests done in a very short period of time to reduce travel. I don't think I'm getting any special courtesies because I'm self-pay, either. So far everybody's been very professional and very, very nice. This might sound a little weird to notice or care about, but every time I've walked into the lobby of the hospital, it feels sunny (even on a rainy day) and airy and spacious. The people going back and forth carrying out their business are friendly, smiling, and all of them seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs. It makes me feel confident that I'm in good hands, not only with my surgeon, but that my care team will be kind and professional and knowledgeable. I'm scheduled to spend one night in the hospital, and then I will be staying in Federal Way for a week before my post-op release to travel back home. My husband will be going with me and staying there throughout. I may end up doing a second night in the hospital, but the stay is really supposed to be brief, since the surgery is going to be done laparascopically. One last thing I picked up on and thought was extremely encouraging, is that with all of the testing that I underwent, several of the people doing them commented that they thought Dr. Srikanth was actually a little over-cautious in his battery of required tests, compared to the other surgeons who do the same surgeries at St. Francis. They were off-hand remarks, made when I'd hand them my order sheet for a particular test. Frankly, I don't think there's such a thing as being too cautious about my pre-op health, when the results of it are going to be such a life-changing event. I don't think that caution counts negatively against Dr. Srikanth at all, and in fact makes me worry less about complications both short-term and long-term. I'm considering blogging about the whole experience--I'll have nothing but time on my hands post-op, and I'll have a laptop and internet access, and I won't be able to walk, walk, walk all day long, that's for sure.

Thank you guys for the advice! I will definitely use your suggestions:) as far as the throwing up goes, it's not all the time and only occurs maybe a few times a week.. Really seems to occur on those days I did not take the acid reducer. And partly because I have not mastered the "full" feeling yet until I am stuffed and sick.. I am getting there.. Slowly but surely!

It look about a week for me before I could sleep on my stomach again. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using the BariatricPal App

My surgeon puts all her patients on medication to stop gallstones. We take it for 6 months post surgery. I’m only 2 1/2 weeks out so I don’t know if it works or not.

ok I have lost 75lbs and it really sucks when you've lost that much weight and you're still fat. My question is when will my bags on my inner thighs, my spare tire, and my back fat go away?? I am 5'5" and 215, anyone start around the same as me know that answer to this. I know every person is different, but I want them gone!!! I go to curves 3-4 times a week and follow the weight watchers diet.

It took a week for all but 1 of my incisions to stop hurting. It took another week for my biggest one (the one they removed my stomach from) to stop. And then it was another week before the abdominal muscle under that incision to stop hurting. I took my Oxy pain meds for the first week. After that, just Tylenol, except for when I bumped my incision into the corner of our island. I was in agony, so I took it for another 2 days after that lol But that first week? Oh yeah, pain meds all the way. You have them, that's what they're for, use em and give yourself some relief.

im 27 years old and i have surgery next week. i never knew finding someone to go with me and someone to watch my kids would be so difficult. ( 2 girls ages 3 and 7months ) im not nervous for the surgery, ive had many for other reasons. im more concerned about the after. the managing of my 7month old. or going back to work as a assistant manager of a fastfood chain. im 5'1 and my bed stands at 4'8 i worry about getting in and out of bed, will i miss a step or get in wrong. and then i worry most of all who will stay with me during the day until i can pick up my 19lb baby girl who is teething and ive always done baby wearing and i wont be able to. meh. i look forward to sharing my progress, and hopefully these nerves go down. walking 5miles is nothing to me now. riding a bike is easy. the liquids have been a peice of cake '( no pun intended )' i dont miss pizza or pasta or bread. ive done fine without it.

I am 8 weeks into my weight loss journey... my total loss is 27 lb... I am thrilled with this loss... I was stalled for about 2 1/2 weeks and I think I am moving past that... it feels good not worrying about losing ... I am fine with a slow loss because I know it will come off eventually...

I am not post surgery, and it REALLY helps to hear the struggels so I can wrap my head around them. I kinda think (hope) that it'll be like the pre-op preps. Seemed SO LONG at the start and so quick now that I have a surgery date. This time, I will not weigh myself often. I'll just 'do the stuff I need to do', and watch the belt loops... I can get too wrapped up in data. PS, I'd take a 4# loss a week for darned sure!!!

I looked back over my online food tracker at my weight loss; by the time I set up my tracker I had already lost 24 lbs since surgery 5 weeks prior (20 of those lbs were in the first 2 weeks post-op btw), but I just now decided to look back at the bulk (ha ha) of my weight loss and calculate on average, how much weight I lost during my steadiest era of loss. in 13 weeks I lost 50 lbs which averages out to about 3.8 lbs a week, that was from the end of month 2 post-op to the start of month 6. It seems no matter what the F*** I do, no matter how morbidly obese, no matter how faithful and perfect a patient I am, I am one SLOW A$$ EFFING LOSER. -.- *cough* sorry about that, little peeved ... Even when I still weighed in the high 200's (260s), and was eating 600 calories a day with only 20g carbs, I STILL, was only losing a pound every couple of days. So, has anyone else done calculations like these? How much did you lose, which period post-op, and how much were you eating?

Def a no go on pizza or fries. We went to a movie and got fries and it was one if thr worst pains (pretty close to dumping syndrome feelings).I agree with the food choices listed above. Where does ur doc have u at 4 weeks post op for ur diet? Mune had me at puree stage, so even taking some pureed baby food is something that would work. Cream of wheat also works good

I am also having problems urinating. Its only been three days so I'm hoping it goes away but I have to sit a while just to pee. Uuuggghhhhh! Its horrible!!

I still do veggies, but I don't do fruit and I can usually keep it around 30g a day. I have a protein powder that I mix with coffee and it comes to 25g of protein and only 3g carbs. I often eat eggs for breakfast and sometimes throw in some turkey bacon. My favorite is 1 egg plus 2 egg whites made into an omelet with portabello mushrooms and low fat cheese. I also eat a lot of low fat cottage cheese, string cheese, grilled shrimp and grilled chicken which I sometimes put on a salad. Sometimes I just grab some deli meat and roll it up for a quick snack. I make pizza bites by microwaving pepperoni so it gets a little crispy, then i top it with a little dollop of sauce and some low fat mozz cheese and toss them back in the microwave again. Dinner will often be salmon, chicken or shrimp by itself, in a stir fry or with a side of asparagus or broccoli. I like to snack on almonds or celery dipped in hummus. Last week I was craving tuna salad, so I made some but used romaine lettuce leaves as a wrap instead of a bread product. I even had corn on the cob one night and had a lot of beer last weekend at a bbq. I just planned it into my diet and made sure to be ultra low carb for the rest of the day and I still managed to keep total carbs around 30g.

you are doing great. I was banded 9-28-09, had my first fill 1 month out and have had fills every month since. I am at 9 cc's in a 10 cc band and still haven't hit that "sweet spot" everyone talks about. I've lost 16 lbs so far so you are doing much better than I am at your weight loss. It is slow and from researching you should lose 1-2 lbs a week so I think you are on track. I just didn't take my band seriously and thought that the weight would just start falling off like it does with gastric bypass patients but it doesn't. Just hang in there and if you are getting hungry soon after you eat, you need a fill. I go about 3-4 hours in between meals. I eat 3 meals a day with 1 extra protein shake as a snack. Good luck to you. Robertsgal68@yahoo.com

What Kim said. It does get easier. When I gave up smoking years ago the first 3 days were pretty miserable. You'll get over that hump and it won't be so bad. It was the same with the liquid diet. Hey...at least you get a bar! I would have cut someone for a packet of saltines after the first week. You got this!

It's not just a chewing matter, it's also how fast we eat. If your band is adjusted properly, the hole(stoma) is very small. If you eat too fast or too big(or both), food starts to back up into your esophagus because the food can't pass through quick enough. This is where the sliming comes in. Food in your pouch isn't exposed to the slime. It's exposed to stomach acids. Your esophagus thinks food is stuck and is trying to lubricate so that the bolus of food you've eaten will pass through the lower esophageal sphincter. Prolonged stuck/sliming episodes can cause esophageal dilation. Slow down and take smaller bites. BTW-I'm speaking from experience and I'm one who still struggles with this identical issue a few times a week.

Ok, so I had been really good about snacking and not overdoing it on any foods. That is until this past week. I've been eating peanut butter by the spoonfuls and adding some chocolate chips ( I never eat chocolate!) on top. I am throwing the PB and the chocolate chips away NOW and stopping this naughtiness. I don't know what happened. I think I got upset about the debacle of my second fill and things just did a downward spiral from there. No excuse, so I'm cleaning up my act! Thought that putting it in writing will make me stick to it!

I am almost at my one year surgi-versary and needless to say, my life has changed beyond what I ever imagined. Last week I was asked to be the "Living Proof" speaker at tonight's information seminar. Of course I said yes....I would sing the sleeves praises from the roof tops!! Anyway, I was put in a office while he began the seminar and before he introduced me he put up my before picture. Almost like a grand reveal, I was brought in. There were gasps in the room!! I heard an "amazing" comment, a "what an inspiration" comment and a "you are beautiful" comment! It was so nice to share my story knowing that it wasn't that long ago I was right in that seat in the very same bundle of nerves. It hasn't always been easy and there have been bumps in the road but at the end of the day, I am happier and healthier than I've ever been.....that's sayin' something I think

HI I just posted today. I am getting my sleeve in two weeks. Have been off the band for two years. How are you doing?

I had a band to sleeve revision almost 6 months ago. As for pain post op, I was in less pain, though the band was my first ever surgery. I took pain meds for three days then. For the sleeve I didn't take anything after the first night. Although I did stay in the hospital 2 days due to nausea. And I did have some nausea weeks 2-4. As for restriction. It is so much different than with the band. A few bites with the band and I'd be in pain, but then I could eat anything. I never found my sweet spot. With the sleeve, no pain from being stuck, just an uncomfortable feeling if I ate to much. I'm much happier with the sleeve I'm a slow loser, not terribly, but slower than a lot of people on here. Like I said I'm almost 6 months out and including my pre op im just under 50lbs lost. Would I go back to the band, hell no, or would I ever recommend it to anyone, no way. The band is horrible and I don't know why it's still used. Do I regret having the sleeve, not a bit, only that I didn't revise sooner, maybe I would not have gained back everything I lost with the band [emoji20].

Sorry friend, I would not EVER let anyone take pictures of my muffin top. And, 8 weeks post op, my weight loss is showing in my face, boobs, my hips and legs -- but the stomach is always the last to go. I am an apple also. Good luck on your journey.