Surgery moved up from 11/19 to 10/1, and I have a few questions

Shrinkage · September 16, 2007

Howdy all!

I was originally scheduled for a 11/19 banding, and my surgeon's office called me a couple days ago to say that I was approved (yay! - though I'm still in the process of gathering all of the comorbidity letters from other doctors, just to be sure), and that I could move up my surgery to early October. I chose October 1st (to paraphrase Billy Crystal in When Harry Met Sally, when you finally decide to change your life for the better, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible). So instead of my surgery being 66 days away, now it's only 16.

So suddenly, the pace to ask whatever questions I still have isn't as leisurely as it was a couple days ago. So while I've been lurking on the board for weeks, and I probably ran across the answers to one of two of these questions before, please forgive me is I ask questions that are answered somewhere else in the forum. Sorry if they're a little wide-ranging:

How long do you usually spend in the hospital? Is it outpatient? Overnight?
How many days did you have to take off from work?
What are the warning signs that your band is slipping?
How do you take pills in general – mash 'em up in apple sauce?
Most importantly, has anyone here dealt with Dr. Constantine Frantzides in the Chicago area? The Dr. who referred me called him "gifted with a laparoscope". He mainly does laparoscopic gastric bypasses, but he also does the Lap-Band. His many patients sing his praises on obesityhelp.com, but again, they're mainly bypass patients.

That's all for right now, though I may have another question or two soon.

Thanks in advance for your help!

P.S. I wrote a big multi-paragraph post introducing myself to the board, but it got deleted when I got logged out for taking too long to write it. So here are the basics...

39yrs. old male
BMI 43-ish
Overweight for approx. 30 years
I've tried mant many diets
Lost 50+ lbs. 3 times in the last 9 years.
Currently at my highest weight ever
Decided on banding when it finally dawned on me that if I were capable of maintaining weight loss long-term, I'd damn well have done it by now.

Dave01 · September 16, 2007

Howdy all!

How long do you usually spend in the hospital? Is it outpatient? Overnight? I stayed overnight due to long surgery

How many days did you have to take off from work?. Most go back quick, but I have 3months sick time saved up so....

What are the warning signs that your band is slipping?dont know

How do you take pills in general – mash 'em up in apple sauce? I am able to swallow them with no problem

Most importantly, has anyone here dealt with Dr. Constantine Frantzides in the Chicago area? The Dr. who referred me called him "gifted with a laparoscope". He mainly does laparoscopic gastric bypasses, but he also does the Lap-Band. His many patients sing his praises on obesityhelp.com, but again, they're mainly bypass patients.

That's all for right now, though I may have another question or two soon.

Thanks in advance for your help!

P.S. I wrote a big multi-paragraph post introducing myself to the board, but it got deleted when I got logged out for taking too long to write it. So here are the basics...

39yrs. old male

BMI 43-ish

Overweight for approx. 30 years

I've tried mant many diets

Lost 50+ lbs. 3 times in the last 9 years.

Currently at my highest weight ever

Decided on banding when it finally dawned on me that if I were capable of maintaining weight loss long-term, I'd damn well have done it by now.

Welcome and keep the questions coming...Dave

kacee · September 16, 2007

How long do you usually spend in the hospital? I went in at 6:30 in the morning. Procedure was about 11:00 I think. I left the hospital late afternoon. That was considered a long stay because they couldn't release me until I pee'd and I couldn't for a long time.

Is it outpatient? Yes Overnight? No

How many days did you have to take off from work? Surgery was Wednesday morning. I returned to work the following Tuesday. I have a desk job.

What are the warning signs that your band is slipping? Have not experienced anything like this.

How do you take pills in general – mash 'em up in apple sauce? At first I smashed them up and did the applesauce thing. Within a month I was able to cut them and swallow the pieces. Two months out I was able to swallow all my pills without cutting.

I'm from Houston, so I can't help you with Chicago.

Shrinkage · September 17, 2007

Thanks kacee, and thanks for the welcome, Dave! :clap2:

Can anyone else help answer my questions, please?

faithmd · September 17, 2007

Congrats on getting your surgery moved up! That's wonderful.

So suddenly, the pace to ask whatever questions I still have isn't as leisurely as it was a couple days ago. So while I've been lurking on the board for weeks, and I probably ran across the answers to one of two of these questions before, please forgive me is I ask questions that are answered somewhere else in the forum. Sorry if they're a little wide-ranging:

No problem, yes there are loads of answers out there, but you sort of need to know now. The search function here is good, but I'll try to help you out below.

How long do you usually spend in the hospital? Is it outpatient? Overnight?

Totally depends on your doc. CALL and ask, that's the only way to know for sure what your surgeon does. My surgeon required an overnight stay, many folks here had their surgery outpatient, and quite a few stayed overnight as I did.

How many days did you have to take off from work?

Again, it depends. There are LOADS of threads here asking how long we took off work, but unfortunately I can't predict what your doc will want you to do. My doc required me to be off four weeks. Was that overkill? Maybe, but I do do a lot of physical stuff, though I thought I could have gone back in two. If I had had a desk job, I think I'd have been okay after a week or so.

What are the warning signs that your band is slipping?

I'm not going to answer this one, A) because I haven't experienced it myself and because it does no good to start off in a fatalistic mood. There is a forum here for LapBand Complications, you may wish to check in there. I don't think it's the exact same for everyone. The biggest thing is to follow your doc's orders, especially on the post-op diet. The post-op period is for healing, not weight loss, the idea is to rest your stimach as much as possible so the band gets "seated" into place with scar tissue formed around it to hold it there. If you eat real food too early, you risk it not healing in the proper place. That then may contribute to slips later down the road.

How do you take pills in general – mash 'em up in apple sauce?

Depends, again your doc should have post-op instructions for what he wants you to do. My doc's office says that if it is larger than birth control pill-size it needs to be cut. In the immediate post-op period they wanted us to mash them and take then with applesauce or pudding or yogurt. My doc also says no more extended release meds, ever. You can't cut them, you can't smash them, and when you get to the point you can take them whole (as long a the pill/capsule isn't too big), then you still don't want them sitting in your pouch. That's not where they are absorbed from.

Most importantly, has anyone here dealt with Dr. Constantine Frantzides in the Chicago area? The Dr. who referred me called him "gifted with a laparoscope". He mainly does laparoscopic gastric bypasses, but he also does the Lap-Band. His many patients sing his praises on obesityhelp.com, but again, they're mainly bypass patients.

Sorry, I don't know anything about him, either. Is there anyone on the Doctors and Hospitals thread or in the Illinois thread that has him listed? Use the search function and put in his last name. Then try searching with his first name only in case someone spelled his last name wrong. You might get some hits. Good luck!

That's all for right now, though I may have another question or two soon.

Ask anytime, and best wishes for a quick and easy surgery! Be sure to check out the FAQ and references Forum, it has a list of things to have ready for after surgery.

TracyinKS · September 17, 2007

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You will be all done with Bandster Hell by the holidays....... WHOOHOO

A) My insurance required me to stay overnight.

A) Surgery on Thursday, back to work the following Monday

(desk job and I made myself walk, walk, walk, walk, in the hospital)

A) As long as you don't take a handfull at once, a pill at a time has always been fine for me.

A) Follow your docs rules especially for the first 6 weeks so that your band can (cement into place) i.e. scar tissue and your likelihood of a slip is greatly reduced.

A) From KC.. so I don't know anything about your doc.

Get your gasX meltstrips, Get your liquid Tylenol, Get your supply of Soup, and get ready to join us on the other side......

Take a pillow for the car ride home (to hold against your belly) Wear slip on shoes, oh............. and take some hard candy for the hospital....

Shrinkage · September 18, 2007

Thanks Faith & Tracy. You guys are awesome. :clap2:

I just scheduled my pre-surgical tests for Friday morning. Abdominal ultrasound, chest x-ray, upper GI swallow study (not looking forward to that one), EKG, and some blood tests.

Of course there's natural trepidation and nervousness, but overall, and especially after reading so many posts on this board, I'm sure I'm doing the right thing. I'm excited for myself, and for my wife and kids, because this is the best thing I can do to make sure they have my sparkling personality around for as long as possible. :confused: (rimshot)

Anyhoo, 13 1/2 days to go! :whoo: