Getting banded on April 26

[bigwelshguy 1]

The wards have several doors which lead to small 2 or three bed rooms. I was given a room with two beds, one of which was a Flemmish chap who was in for Gaulstone removal.Nice!!! Again he was English spoken too as most are.

My op was about 2pm so I was told just to sit back and relax and make most ofthe quiet time. So IPOD ON, fell asleep for an hour which was nice.When I woke up a nurse came in with some consent forms which I had to read andsign and also she took my stats, like blood pressure, temp, ECG, and also tooka blood sample x 4. She gave me a gown and told me that I had to wear thatcloser to the time.

A few hrs passed and so it was time to put the gown on. I laid there on the bedwatching tv and another nurse came, this time to shave my stomach ready for theop. This I had done whilst at home as a missus dont like me being too hairy. So with a few sweeps of the old razor andwas as smooth as baby's bottom.

About 10mins later, Dr Chris arrived with his pre-op chat. He explained that itwould take about 45mins, explained where he would cut and how long the cuts wouldbe and also explained the ratio of slipage, corrosion, heamoraging andfatalities which he as to. A bit scary but I came too far to back out.. He saidthat of the worse things that could happen is not sticking to the two week portop rule of fluids only. The band is sewn in place and is healing during thistime. If you push your luck and try a food group that causes you to vomit, youare putting undue stress on the band resulting in possible tare on the stomachwhich could result in internal bleeding which is fatal.

With this thought...he left me and said that he would see me later on after theop.

Within the next 1/2hr I was ready to be taken down to theatre. They wheel youdown on the bed and into a theatre waiting room which is extremely quiet andsterile looking. I was there for what seemed a lifetime, but after about 20mins I was put onto an operating bed and wheeled into theatre. Now....... Itsat this point I was getting scared.. Ive had about 7 ops in my life all in the UK. And itsusual to be put to sleep in a prep room prior to going into theatre, so younever get to see what the theatre looks like. This time things were different.eek. The theatre was what you would expect, clinical, big big lights and veryvery cold. I was greeted by the anaethesist who explained that hewas going to but something cold into my arm but which time he did. I was toldto breath into the mask and off I went to the land of scobby doo.

WAKE UP TIME.

Coming round was not too bad other than an extremely dry mouth. The pain wascontrolled by putting painkillers to my drip which I forgot to add was put intomy hand pre-op at about 11am that day. I stayed in recovery for approx 1hr Ithink. I remember asking for Water all the time but they would not let me haveanything. Bugger.

When I was in control of my faculties, and they were happy with me, theywheeled me back to my room where I slept for the next 4 hrs or so. I rememberwaking up at approx 7pm, managed to sit up a little and had some long awaitedwater. Heaven!!!!!! Pain was not too bad, but was still under pain killers.Watched a bit of TV till about 11pm which they intermediately took furtherblood samples, took my temp and BP.

[bigwelshguy 1]

NEXT DAY.

Woke up feeling a bit sore but refused pain killers as I wanted to assess howbad the pain would be. I must say, nothing that you could not handle. I was upand about walking and had a wash, brush my teeth in the on-suite privatebathroom. Had a pee for the first time which was nice and was able to getdressed in t-shirt and comfy shorts.

Again more bloods were taken as well as my stats. And also an anti clottinginjection into the stomach to prevent er...clotting.

The nurse said that I will be given five to take home to self administer eachday. Dont ne too scared of this. They are prefilled and the needle is tinyalmost like an insulin pin. I had some Soup for Breakfast with 2 cracker toads,like round french toast. I ate 1/2 my Soup and one cracker and was full.

At about 12pm the nurse came back in to remove a temporary drain they insert tocatch any blood that may bleed inside port op. I was pleased to see mine wasclear. Its placed in with a 5mm pipe through the stomach and is held in with astitch. She cut this free and pulled the pipe out from my stomach which wasapprox 10inches long. This, whilst not too painful was just a bituncomfortable. Next was the drip. This was pretty straight forward. Turn thetaps off, disconnect the pipe from the needle then pull the needle out. No bigshakes here. There was one more thing that they needed to do and that was anx-ray. It involved drinking a liquid then standing up on the xray bed wherethey take shots in different positions to make sure the band is where it shouldbe before you go home. All ok, i was led back to my room by wheelchair.

2pm Dr CHRIS calls in for his final chat. Again do's and donts etc, explainedthat the stomach before the op was aprox the size of a half inflated averageparty balloon and the banded sections is now only the size of a 10p piece. WOWsomething I did not know.

We shook hands and he wished me luck and off he went.

I sat back on the bed and watched a film before I was ready to leave in my owntime. 5pm I decided to leave. I called for the nurse who cut off my band andgave me the meds to go home with and also a letter for my GP and a general InfoPack regards fills and dates etc etc.

I walked down to the entrance hall and to the reception area, where I asked ifthey could speak English, of course they could, and asked if they could call mea cab back to Hotel Campanile. She said she would call a cab and the call cost70c, I gave a 1euro. Cab came in approx 15 mins and he took me back at a costof 8 euro and arranged for the same taxi to collect me in the morning to go tothe airport at 7am. Collected my key and went back into my room and watched TVfor the night. At about 7pm I was hungry so I made a cuppa soup and had a strawberryactimel for pud. Nice!!!lol

Fell asleep at about 11pm.

FINAL DAY - GOING HOME

Flight was at 9.30am

Taxi came to pick me up. At first I was sore getting out of bed and found it astruggle lifting my self up, but once out and walking around the room, thingsgot better. The Airport is Huge and is daunting if you hav'e not been therebefore and you are on ya own, but once there its quite logical if you look atthe boards, see where the check in gates are and see where the boarding gatesare. There are 100 boarding gates so you can imagine the size. My gate wasabout a mile away from arrivals which I'm sure you go through every floor andpassage way there is at the airpiort. lol

Anyway there were 6 on the plane on the way home, and was in Bristol Airport in about an hour where my lovely wife greeted me to take me home.

THE GAS

Well what can I say... during the op the inflate you with gas to make more roomto operate. This goes away on its own accord but takes about 4 days or so. Myonly advice is walk, walk and walk. Keep moving. The pics below shows howinflated I was 1 day after surgery. Here you can see how tight my stomach hasbecome. There are 5 scars. One on my lower left side is where my drain was. Thecut is about 10mm. The other 4 is where the rods went in. Again all are about15mm long except for the one on the front left which is about 30mm long and this is the most painful.

SORRY THE SITE IS NOT ALLOWING ME TO POST MORE THAN TWO PICS ON THIS THREAD?????? ANY IDEAS????

Remember there is alot of swelling too as wellas the gas. Today though..........1 week on, swelling is down and gas has goneand Ive lost 1.5 stones in 7 days and feel great. Drinking loads of Water,coffee, and soup and Protein shakes.

I'll carry on with the progress pics if you can all stand the look of me andkeep you posted next week where I get my stitches out by my GP and let you knowis reactions as he does not know yet. eek!!!!!! Also a pic when the stitchesare out.

SORRY IF THE POST GOT A BIT LONG WINDED. JUST WANTED TO SHARE MY EXPERIENCE ASCANDID AS POSSIBLE FOR OTHERS TO HAVE A FORESIGHT. IN A NUT SHELL - BELGIUM, DrCHRIS, HUGE THUMBS UP AND ABSOLUTLY NOTHING FOR OTHERS TO WORRY ABOUT. I FACTTHE BRITISH HEATH BOARD COULD LEARN A TRICK OR TWO FROM THESE GUYS. A SIMPLE,EASY, FUSS FREE SERVICE WHICH WAS TOP CLASS.

[bigwelshguy 1]

[bigwelshguy 1]

VIEW FROM ROOM

[bigwelshguy 1]

OP INCISIONS

[bigwelshguy 1]

Looks like one pic per reply. BUT At least I know how to work the system now.

TILL NEXT WEEK.

[bigwelshguy 1]

Looks like one pic per reply. BUT At least I know how to work the system now.

TILL NEXT WEEK.

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4/5/11

Hi all

Had a pretty tough time last night. At about 7pm I started to feel sick and the bloating and gas pains and indigestion left me in agony. Not sure what I was doing wrong but it obviously boiled down to what I drank.

Actimel and coffee for Breakfast

Tomato cuppa Soup for lunch

Protein shake mid afternoon

after work had

a peti felouy yogart

1/4 mug of hot chocolate sugar free

I ve not had the yogart before and albeit being a fromashfrey or how ever its spelled I dont think I handled it too well. Too soon. That and with the Protein Shake was too heavy for my system which may have resulted in blockage.???? The feeling I was getting was:

Bloated stomach

Extremely windy. lol

Indigestion up at the chest level

Sweating

Shivering

wanting to go sick but did not.

I had to lie down for 2 hrs with a cold flannel, not good.

Id like to know about others who have had similar experiences. Thanks

[jo_jo 3]

hello bigwelshguy,

Thank you for this thread, Im off to belgium on monday

How are you getting on?

Jo

[bigwelshguy 1]

Hi Guys and girls of course

Not been here for a while now. Well.... I had two options for my 1st fill. One was 3 weeks after the op or 8 weeks after the op, due to availability in Newport. S.Wales. This being closest to where I live. The three weeks I felt was way to soon as I was still on Fluids and feeling full after a small drink. But also I was still tender around my port. So...I opted for the 8 week oppertunity which is on the 24th of this Month.

I managed to get 2 stone off reasonably easy during the 1st 4 weeks which most of you will without even trying. Weeks 5,6 and 7 have been ok but Ill tell you now, there is no restriction and you can eat what ever you like, but at times Ive had to bring up some food, particularly bread, dowey bread. Toast is ok, even crusts using whole meal, but I have problems with Wraps and the like. I still try and stick to mushies as much as possible but have had a few bad days (who would'nt lol) Anyway Im still 2 stone down and have not gained any more which is good so the fill next week I hope will the the push for a further 2 stones making my weight from 19 to 15 which I will also increase my cardio activity.

How do I feel??

Well I feel 2 stone lighter. lol I have much more energy and even feel a tad bit more confidence in my self and Im looking forward to the next long awaited stage. Im sure that from this youll all get a sense of aprehension which I did too prior to the op. But tell you what...do it, it will change ya life, but I make no bones about it, if your brain aint in gear to help, youll fail. Full stop.!!! You still have to watch what you put in ya mouth and also drink loads of Water. I know 5-8 ltrs a day is a lot to drink but youll feel great. Just drink all you can.

Pain???

I work in an office all day sitting down and went back to work 2 days after the op. Its ok, but do get up and walk around as the pain around the port get uncomfortable but not painful. Just go to the toilet or outside or walk around the office to the copier or the like then back to your seat. You should be ok for another hr. Just keep moving, walking etc etc which will speed up recovery.

Anyway that me for a while. Ill write again on the 25th after my first fill. Wish me luck!!!!

Oh ye Pics of 4 weeks post op to come of the scars. lol

[dylanthomas99 0]

great news bigwelshguy, I'm 8 mths on and only lost 2 stone have had all fills and am very limited to what I can eat, getting loads of hiccups aswell, will start and drink Water more see if this helps x

[bigwelshguy 1]

well had my first fill. Nothing to it really. It was in Newport (s.wales), Fred was there, asked how I was. Weighed me lost and kept off 2 stones, whey!! Then I lie down on the table, he prodded and felt my port then he wiped with alcohol swab then injected the saline. 2 secs its was all over and painless. I was made to drink some Water to see if I could keep it down. Ive got the french band so the 1st fill is 4mm max. He said that if you have the Johnson and Johnson, they are 6mm for the 1st fill as these are a larger diameter band, im guessing for bigger people.

Next fill is end of July. He also said that 1st fills were pretty much un-noticable so I could eat almost anything, which it aint true coz now I deffo cant do bread, meat or other such foods as it gets stuck and I have to bring it back up, which isnt a good situation to do all the time. I reckon the second fill will be a massive charge. Roll on end of month

[bigwelshguy 1]

Hi Guys, Hi Jo, hope you are doing well, keep us posted.

Anyway, 26th July saw my second fill done by Bart. Well what can I say, we had a chat and he was very informative is showing me what he was doing and explained about the second fill. Basically he showed me pushing in the needle and then pushing the saline in to the point I could see the plunger bouncing back up again from the resistance. He explained that by pushing the plunger in and feeling the resistance he could guage the amount I needed for restriction. Basically I had another 2ml.

WOW what a massive difference from the first fill, (which had no affect, but they do tell you that anyway, so no suprises there)

First few days, I was really ill and nautious. Fluids were coming up, soft foods were coming up, gas pains in my chest, shoulders and even behind my ears. Very painfull. Costant hick ups and foaming of liquids and saliva. Not pleasant. The first 4 nights were hard to sleep as I was alsways belching, coughing and puking.

So decided to just go with the fluids only for the week as I physically could not eat.

Anyway.... week after all back to normal. Eating usual diet foods and eating alot of mash and gravy. lol Feeling great although now and again I vomit as some foods which is trial and error, get stuck which is very painfull.

Im now 15st 12lbs from 19st 3. so happy with progress but I know from now on I have to indroduce more cardio. Gym membership at the end of the month with fresh pics for me.

good luck all

[jo_jo 3]

Hi Ya Bigwelshguy,

How you doing?

Sorry ive been very quiet, been so busy at work the past couple of months.

So im nearly 4 months post op and have 3ml in my band, Having my second fill at the end of the month in Sunny Newport

Ive managed to lose 25.8 pound so far, Im going down slowly but at least its in the right direction

Hopefully things will speed up after my second fill.

Its been strange, since ive had my first fill, ive become more hungry, tummy rumbles ever so loud and the evil cravings have returned

Before my fill i was hardly ever hungry and i never thought of the naughty foods.

I know they say that the first fill doesnt make a difference but mine seems to have but in the wrong way.

I dont think i was still swollen or anything because i was 12 weeks post op.

So how is your journey going?

Jo xx

[bigwelshguy 1]

Ive been quiet here for a while. Im still at 15st 4 ish but not had a fill for two months or so, maybe three?!. So doing ok but still chuck up when I push the bounderies. Im looking to have a fill this month but have lost the telephone number of the lady in scottland whom takes the appointments. Does anyone have this number or even Freds Mobile number so that I can get an appointment this month in Newport if Im not too late that is.

Thanks

[bigwelshguy 1]

hey its the 15th December - 10 days to go. lol just as well I got a fill two weeks ago. Fred said it was going to be my last one as Im now pretty full. I had 1/2ml giving me 6 1/2 or 7 in a 10mm band. Well what can I say. This has made a massive difference. Again Water for 1st day then Soups for 2 then mushies. Experiences so far is sliming - loads of it, puking up most times (I think this is my fault by pushing myself too much regards to my boundaries...me bad) Ive been eating alot of cake which I suppose its easy to eat and fills in the hunger but I know its not the way to go. Qty of food is nowhere near what I was used to, even on the last but fill.

Not drunk alchol yes. Suppose Im holding back to have a small tipple over the holiday period. See how this goes. Now for the big bog problem. Acid reflux in the middle of the noght whilst sleeping. I know this is quite common but my god its bad. Either Im too full and need some out or my body is adjusting to what being done to it. This acid reflux comes with night coughs too. Well.... it starts by caughing then the reflux to the point that one night I must have spat out 1/2 pint of goo over a period of 6 hrs whilst trying to sleep. Sorry for being graffic but Im saying it as it is and want others to know whet can happen. Ive had acid reflux with every fill but not this bad. Im taking Zoton / Zantac Tabs before sleep and Nytol just to see me through which seems to help most of the time. Good news is that Im now 14 1/2 stone and Im chuffed to bits. Considering I was 19.3 when I started in April thats a huge 5st loss in 7 months, and I aint been trying that much apart from the GYM. I think that attending a GYM 2-3 times a weel kist for an hour for Non stop - not chatting no messing around cardio, as deffo made the difference in acheiving my weight loss. - So in January 2012 my goal is to be 14st, Ill increase my gym to 4 days a week with heavy resistande weigh training and cardio on top. My aim by June is to actually increase my weight by 1st (from 14 to 15) but also decrease %body fat. So Im hoping to me quite muscular and lean (well thats the plan) - Suppliments will be whey Protein, Creatine and some multi vits which I take anyway. Pleanty of good clean food and a good excersise program. Ill post some pics here too of before (at 19st) and after (me now at 14.5st) and also further pics next June so that my interest and incentive remains in focas.

Let me know if others are suffering the same. Be nice to share experiences

cheers me deers! MERRY CHRISTMASS AND ENJOY