Question about Recovery

[lapband4meNOW 0]

Hi Everyone.

My surgery is Feb 8th. I am pretty nervous. All the info here has made me feel better.

Just wanted to know your experience with surgery and right after surgery. How long until you felt like you could get up and say go to the office?

Someone else told me a couple days and they were back at a office job.

Want to know if you are aware of it inside you and did you vomit at all.

Just mostly curious about what the experience was like and the first week after.

Any answers would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you so much!

[Kat817 19]

I went to surgery at 9:30 AM, was up and walking around the hospital just after noon. I flew home 5 hours in the air, and another 5 by car on the 3rd day, and have seldom slowed down since then. I went shopping (we were remodeling my DD's house) the day I got home. If it was an office job I could have easily done it by day 3. Getting in and out of bed was the hardest, nothing to leverage on! Now....that being said, my SIL and I were banded together, at the same time...and she did not walk much in the hospital, and was down for a week or so when we got home. I attributed it to her being older (she is 58), and the fact she layed around rather than attmepting to move. Some people do have serious pain---it is all individual. But by and large most people I have heard, consider the surgery and recovery to be a simple one.

Good Luck!! And WELCOME to LBT!!!

Kat

[lapband4meNOW 0]

Wow. Thank you for that info. I am 35. I will make sure that I walk as much as possible in the hospital and right after. Do you feel it inside you? Do you ever feel hungry?

[Kat817 19]

Well keeping in mind I carry the majority of my weight in the belly...if I poke around I can locate my port, which is low profile, and located just left of center, about 6-7 inches below my braline in the front. It is not obvious...even the Dr. has to probe! As for the band itself on my stomach---no, I never feel it, other than knowing I have restriction, and the inability to overeat...but physically feel it...no, never have. I was hungry following surgery, while I was on liquids...it is a time referred to around here as Bandster Hell----an empty band, and being unable to eat. BUT we have all dieted and survived it, and you can survive this time too!!! Once you begin seeing the weight go down, it helps! I was banded the 24th of April, was on Clear Liquids for 7 full days after leaving the hospital, then full liquids (cream Soups etc.---just had to go through a straw) for another 2 weeks. I went for my first fill in the middle of June. I suddenly had to seriously slow down when I ate...but that was about it for restriction. By this time I was on full foods, and was just being careful about what I ate. I went for a 2nd fill towards the end of July, and I met restriction with it. I am only able to eat a small amount, and I eat it fairly slowly...and am full. I have not felt actual hunger since the 2nd fill. I have to remember to eat if I get busy--I just forget! Not being hungry gives you a control, that is awesome, you are able to choose your food wisely, not just grab the quickest fastest thing!!! You know you are only going to eat a few bites, you really are not starving, so I find myself willing to go the extra, and make it really good!!! Where before a bag of chips was handy and quick, and soon empty! Now I can take my time,and make some cheese rolls, or something healthy...I am not rushed. Makes eating a whole new ball game!!

Kat

[lapband4meNOW 0]

Kat,

Thanks for all this information. You are so helpful. Because you were only on clear liquids for 7 days, did you have a lack of energy? Did they give you any supplements to take so you have some nutrients?

[revolution 0]

I got my lapband done on the 17th of January and I'm not in bed but I'm on leave because I'm definately not ready to go back to work. I hope I'm good to meet society next week but 3 days is a miracle and if anyone did that, i commend them cause after 3 days, I was still in bed, barely able to move.

[Dreamer 0]

Walking is key to a faster recovery. The surgery is the easy part! Getting the fill adjusted properly is a bit more difficult as far as I see it. But as Kat said ..we are all different.

I cannot feel the band itself around my tummy...but Yes, I do feel the port which is just to the left of my belly button...it feels like a hardened area just underneath the skin. The port is attached by a few stitches to muscle and during the healing process, you may have an occasional twinge, but it's not even to say "uncomfortable"...it's just an awareness that you have a foreign object inside your body. Your band will be empty of saline until your healing process is over. After six weeks I was gaining weight back that I had lost pre-op....but I had no restriction. So don't be suprised to feel more hunger as you heal.

Yes, I do sometimes feel hungry even now. I've had 3 fills since my surgery last April. I do best when I eat several small meals a day. When I allow myself to get to feeling hungry, I tend to eat too fast and take too large of bites.....that's big No-No. PBing is no fun!

Try to look at your surgery as a new beginning...a journey that will take you where ever you want to go with it. Lapband is just a tool...how you use it is up to you. Good luck and let us hear how you are doing. Folks here are a wonderful support team. You'll never go through anything that someone here has not experienced. So don't be shy!

Sending you a big hug and lot's of good wishes! Welcome to LBT.

Dreamer

[CLAUDIAGDLMEX 0]

CONGRATS AND GOOD LUCK

i went in on a wed stayed one night because it was required by my surgon just to be on the safe side and return to work the next monday .

I didnt feel no pain no gas maybe gas but minimal just very very very nasuated for 4 days . that was all .. just dont lift anything drink your liquids dont forget Protein and Vitamins and you be on your way to a new you !!

clau :clap2:

[Kat817 19]

Keeping your Protein up at that point is a must, both for energy, and for healing purposes. I used 2 things. I bought through a local GNC, bottles of Zero Carb Isopure...it comes in bottles, like the Sobe drinks...and it has 40 g. protein per bottle, and comes in several flavors. I would drink half in the morning and half in the afternoon, also did lots of broths. I also ordered and used (still do on occasion) unflavored proteing powder from Unjury (www.unjury.com) . You can mix it in any cold or warm foods or liquids. If I am feeling now like I have let my protein get low, I will add a scoop to the spaghetti sauce, or whatever, it works!! I also ordered and had on hand several flavors of sugar free syprups to use to make Protein Shakes. I buy the DaVinci or the Torini syrups...they are great for shakes, or to flavor hot chocolate...all kinds of things! When you get to the shake stage, you can add Peanut Butter, SF chocolate Syrup, SF & FF puddings....all kinds of things to flavor shakes. I preferred that to the ready made as a general rule. I always had some cans handy for on the go tho.

I chewed my Vitamins (I take plain old Flintstones!!) and used a sublingual B complex, following surgery---my Dr. approved both. When I began food, I added Viactiv chews for Calcium.

I think you feel kinda run down following any surgery, but you bounce back quickly!

Kat

[lapband4meNOW 0]

What is PBing'n? And does everyone do it??

[marjon9 6]

I am about 8 days post op and I feel like I could go back to work tomorrow but I'm going to wait until Monday. I'm glad I took this time and did not rush back to work, and I recommend taking a little time if you can.

I know a lot of people went bowling and horseback riding the day after surgery (exaggerating, but not much). But for me I felt a little weak for a few days. I also felt some concern because the port incision was draining for a few days. You need to be careful with the port incision because an infection there can get into the band and it can cause you to lose the band.

The point is, you just never know what may come up. I did not have much gas or other pain. I had virtually no pain. But I had other things that I did not predict. I just think it is good to schedule a little break right after surgery if you can. If you are feeling great and don't want to lay around then do something fun. Of course, if you must get back to work then that is another story.

[Kat817 19]

Seems like eventually we all seem too---lessons are hard to learn!! A PB stands for "Productive Burp", when you eat too fast, or too much, or don't chew well, food does not want to pass through the band into the stomach, and becomes "stuck". The first sign is usually a pain in the chest, where the food is backing into the esophagus. Following that you usually begin to "slime". Slime is a thick, gooey, mucus, that the body produces in huge quantities very quickly to try to help your body, by "slicking it up". The problem being, we have very small pouches, and they are already full, so the best way I have found to deal with the slime, is gross as it sounds---spit it out! When that is not successful, the irritating food, usually comes back up. It is a form of vomiting---not usually (although it can be) as forceful as normal vomiting---and there is not any stomach acid mixed into it. It is simply the offending food, and slime. Once it is over, it is always a good idea to go back onto liquids for a day, so you allow any swelling it caused to go down. If you don't you can start an evil cycle of eat, PB, eat, PB.....

Personally I had one bad episode ( I knew not to eat a damn donut!), and then I have definitely taken myself to a sliming point a few times. I do everything not to PB---it is said to be hard on the band.

There really are people who have followed band rules well and never PB'd....but I was never really good at rules!!!

Kat

[lapband4meNOW 0]

Do you think you will ever have it taken out once you reach your goal?

[Kat817 19]

I hope to have this band the rest of my life...or an equally effective way of controlling myself. There is a new band being tested now, that rather than being filled with saline is tightened down by remote control. Now only certified centers and Dr.s will be able to adjust it, you will not have your own remote, but it would eliminate the port, and the risk of infection from fills etc. If it is available in the future, and I want to, the fact that the band is removable would allow me to have that done. 10 years down the road, if the develop a pill to cure obesity, I could go that way. This is something that would allow me to go with the times...where as bypass, once they cut that stomach away----it's a done deal.

But if you were wondering if I would just take it out when I reach goal---no way! It will stay there working for me, and helping me to maintain for the rest of my life.

If something were to happen and cause me to lose it, I would look at having another. In the meantime, I would be down over 80 pounds, and I have regained the ability to work out, and have learned a lot about proper eating, and feel I would have a better chance of maintaining following it, than I had before it. I have learned a lot.

I just hope it works for me forever!

Kat

[lapband4meNOW 0]

That's good to know. You make some good points.