Lap Band Surgery Day Stories

[dimplefacecutie 0]

Hey I am very new to the band. Got banded Dec 22nd. I got in 5:45 a.m after not sleeping all night out of fear i wouldnt fall asleep from anastesia. yeah im like very paranoid. my mom said i should be more worried about waking up after any surgery. yikes! anyways, I had the New York Times writing a story about me which will be published sometime in middle of 2011 so therefore i was rushed to every process I got in at 5:45 and was in the OR by 7a.m. Maybe even earlier. I dont remember exactly what time i woke up but i had such a terrible dry throat that i just couldnt breathe. The pain was a little bad but mainly just so unfamiliar. I was given morphene but that was a funny experience. My mom walked into the recovery room and for some odd reason i started crying my eyes out. i had no idea why. i kept telling my mom it doesnt hurt that much and im not sad but i dont know why im crying. I have a new nickname now.. haha. but anyways the staff there were so incredibly nice to me and i got a room within 20 minutes. and then all i wanted to do is sleep. my neck and shoulder pain was constant but i thought that it was from the hospital beds. I walked around a while which helped the gas and i left the next day at around 2pm. Got home and again just wanted to sleep. the next day was torture but now i feel like my old self. as if i never got surgery. im on the liquid diet and lost nearly 2lbs a day so i started 266 on surgery day and now im 252 im very excited. i been off the pain meds since the 2nd day back from surgery. i feel great and am at work now. cant wait to see whats in store for me next

[Southern Leo 0]

I got banded on Dec 28, 2010. I had to get up at 5 to be there at 6:30am! I was taken to be gowned at 8am. We had to wait to go and my surgery was started at 9am. My daughter was with me. She told me I said I loved the anestheologist as he was preparing me. I remember them trying to wake me up but I didn't want to wake up! I got plenty of ice and Water. Since I could walk to bathroom and go I got to leave about 2pm to go home! I slept most of the day and the next. I made a mistake of not drinking much water after I was home.....2 times I passed out while getting up(probubly from dehydration) I felt better as I got more water. I was getting tired of Clear Liquids and glad to go to full liquids so I can have pudding, oatmeal and laughing cow cheese on saltines. My aches are gone enough to move my muscles around more. In a few days I will be on a soft diet. I can feel some restriction today. Have showered and that was really nice! Didn't need pain med today. Looking forward to this.....

[BigRueb22 0]

New Bander From TX! 2 Days Strong! Got Banded The Evening Of The 30th! Still in alot of pain! I'll share my story at a later time. Took my pain meds and I'm really drowsy! Happy New Year! Good Luck!

[PattyB57 0]

New Bander From TX! 2 Days Strong! Got Banded The Evening Of The 30th! Still in alot of pain! I'll share my story at a later time. Took my pain meds and I'm really drowsy! Happy New Year! Good Luck!

I was also BANDED Dec. 30th about 9 a.m. in San Antonio TX. Got to the surgery Center about 6 A.M. as my sister was going to go first. All went pretty much according to schedule. I woke up in quite a bit of pain and my blood pressure was pretty high. They gave me like 3 doses of morphine but it really was not doing much good. My sister was in a little better shape. They got me up and walking and then to drink the juice while they took my xray. Everything was good. My Mom and my Daughter were with us so we drove on home to Austin about 1.5 hours, having to stop every 20 minutes to walk per Doctors instructions. So I am 9 days in and doing pretty good. Not really sick of the liquids because I really feel no hunger. YEA!! I realize this might not last but I also know that it could.

Take care everyone!!

Patty

[Guest brockwayn]

I know this forum and this topic is meant to help and share, however, I was feeling wonderful about my surgery until I started reading this topic! I think sharing stories is great so that people can be prepared, but I also want people to know that everyone is different. Just because something bad happened to one person, doesn't mean it will happen to you.

This is from my blog: http://relinquishthe...e.blogspot.com/

I was banded Dec 2, 2010 in Milwaukee. Please feel free to email/contact me if you have concerns or questions. I wish I had someone there to ease my fears beforehand.

Yesterday was surgery day. We got to the hospital at 650 am. I was surprisingly not nervous. I knew it would hit me later though. Like a ton of bricks. Or like that anvil from the old cartoons.

Got all settled in and the nurse came to take my vitals, put my IV in, and as she was leaving she patted me on the leg and said "We're going to take good care of you."

BAM! Lost it. Bawled my eyes out. And then she said "Ohhh honey you're going to qualify for them extra good drugs!"

About 845 the doctor came in and asked if I had any last minute questions. I just shook my head as the tears welled up. BAM! More waterworks. He kind of just grinned and said I was in good hands. Then the anasthesiologist came in. It was like fricken Niagra Falls up in there by that point.We talked...actually what happened was she talked and I shook my head while I was drowning the room in tears. She should have brought her Water wings.

Then I got some nice relaxing medicine in my IV. I was half asleep by the time they got me to the OR. Once in the OR I met a few more nice nurses and they put the mask on me and then..........

.......I don't know what happened, do you? Because then I woke up in recovery. IN ZERO PAIN. For reals. The recovery room nurse asked how my pain was on a scale of 1-10 and I told her zero and she looked at me like I was crazy. Then I remember if asking her if I had a catheter in and she said no. And I went "Yayyyyy for no catheters" and then I fell asleep again.

I was in and out from that point until they decided to move me to a room where I basically just needed to wake up. Still in no pain. When I got up to walk around I felt the first twinge, but really, it felt like I had done 90 billion situps. I just felt like my muscles were sore. I was shocked. As was everyone else that I wasn't in any pain. I must have a really high threshold. I remember not being in any pain when I had my breast reduction too, but I thought that was just because I had good drugs.

The one thing I will say that was icky about my experience was the nurses when I was in my actual room. The first one, while very very nice and patient, she was kind of a wishy washy little thing. I asked her what the best way to get out of bed was the first time. She said it was up to me. (thanks for the guidance, i see that RN school did you well). Then I asked her if I needed to keep my circulation massager things on my calves since I was up and walking. Again, it was up to me. Seeing as how my care was completely up to me, I must have an RN degree and didn't know it. So, if you ever need RN advice, I'd be happy to help.

Around 330-4pm I was ready to be discharged so I called the nurse. And a new one showed up. She didn't even introduce herself. I had to ask her if she was my new nurse. (And she still didn't even tell me her name). I told her I wanted to go home. She said she'd go check. So she came back and said the Dr was in surgery and we'd have to wait. I said that's fine, no biggie, I just know that the pharmacy downstairs closes at 6pm, so if we start to get near to that time we've got to figure something out. She looked me dead in the eye and VERY patronizing said "Well...um. The doctor is in SURGERY. Do you understand what that means?" And I looked her in the eye and said "I'm a 30 year old woman who does not need to be patronized and I am not stupid."

(She's lucky I didn't get out of that bed and slap her right upside the head.)

Anyways, I finally got discharged about 5. And I basically spent the rest of the night sleeping.< /p>

This morning I feel just about the same. Just sore. I'm going to stop the oxycodone today and just use the liquid tylenol I think. The waiting now is going to be the hardest part. As much as I wanted to wake up this morning automatically a size 6, that didn't happen. I'm really confident I am going to be able to follow the eating plan to the letter.

I just can't wait to start seeing that scale go down. I finally have hope again.

______________________________________________________________________________

Now, above I wrote I was going to stop the oxycodone the day after surgery. That's what happens when you think you are superwoman. I ended up finishing all of the oxycodone I was prescribed. It wasn't excrutiating pain, but just enough that it was uncomfortable. I did have the shoulder pain a couple days after and that was the really the worst of it. The incision sites were sore, but nothing unmanageable.

The worst came about 3 weeks post op (very odd my doctor still doesn't know why). I started getting this pain in my left side. I thought I was about to die and it turned out to be gas. I ended up in the ER because it was so bad. I had no idea gas pain could be so terrible. Again, not meant to scare, just so your prepared and don't think there is an alien growing in you. Some have it, some don't. Either way....I'm glad I went through this.

[dFaults 1]

(Had to get ridd of the 666, I'm superstitious ok, as you were)

[djmixon 1]

Dr. Hollis banded me on 12/30/10 and I felt like hell warmed over for a few days. I got really hungry the second weekend and actually ate some food in small portions and well chewed and have come to the conclusion that I need to get back to the liquids. I have to find somehow to make them taste better though because as they are, they are awful! Further, I have to get back to my schedule which includes going to the gym for an hour or so a day. My pain meds are all fouled up since I have to crush everything and my surgeon says I cannot take my long acting meds, so I am in pretty much constant pain. Not where I had hoped to be. Further, since I was so ravenous this last weekend, I actually gained 1.2 lbs, so back to liquids I go.

This is going to be a long row to hoe...

[4MyHealth2011 0]

I do not think that my story will let anyone know what to expect. I met my surgeon a few minutes before I went under. He asked me how much I weighed. I met him again about an hour before I was discharched. It only took three weeks start to finish for my pre-op to post-op status. Too much fun!

[NewDez 0]

Hello, I had my surgery on 1/7/11. So far all is going pretty much as expexted...I had gas and arm pain thru today and incision pain today. I am still taking my Medication cause it is still uncomfortable, but hope to stop by Wednesday. Reading all of the different experiences makes mine seem pretty tolerable...thanks for your input. My BMI was under 40 (just under) so I though I could "trump" the system and eat solids well chewed, but after reading this forum I have decided aginst it-THANKS!!!!!!!!!!

Guess I will keep reading for now...

[mom2amwt 3]

Hi All. Here is my surgery story!

I was banded on January 11th at NYU. I have all the respect in the world for my surgeon - I had a 3 for one procedure (lapband, hiatal hernia repair and gall bladder removal). The surgery itself was a breeze (especially since I was out the whole time), but leading up to it was fairly miserable.

I was scheduled for surgery at 9:45am. They told me to get there at 7:30am. I left my house at around 6:30am and was seated in the waiting room around 7am. I made all my payments (I am self pay ) and filled out all the forms. At around 7:30am, they brought me back into the waiting area. 7:45am passed, 8:45am passed 9:45am came. The surgeon stopped by to give me a few bits of info and then said that there was an emergency surgery required by one of his partners. There was no room available for my surgery and we would have to wait for them to finish. He also reminded me that if there was any problems at all with the gallbladder, that they would not be able to move forward with the lapband for a few weeks. While I understood both of these things on an intellectual level - for some reason I got very emotional and started crying. I waited for the Dr. to leave . 10:45am passed, 11:45am passed 12:45am passed. I was getting more agitated and upset each hour. Some part of it was because I paid 15k out of my own pocket and had to endure this, the other part was just stress of not knowing what was going to happen. Being the baby I can sometimes be (I am 40) - I told my father that I was going to leave at 1:45pm if they didn't take me by that point. I don't think that really was my intention, but I was very emotional. I was also torturing my husband by text during this period - he was home taking care of our 4 children. My dad felt bad for me and told the staff that I was upset and wanted to leave. I ended up have the other surgeon come in to talk to me (the one who had the emergency procedure). She was very very nice - which just made me ball more and look like a complete idiot.

Things started to move around 1:45pm. I started signing consents (OR nurse, Surgical Assistant, anesthesiologist etc.) Not sure exactly what time surgery started or how long it lasted, but came out of it fine, was able to see my dad and they wised me out ofin recovery a up to a room. I don't remember any bad pain or discomfort. Was thrilled to find out from my dad that they were able to do the lap band. My heart felt lighter then - some of the nurses were encouraging me to stay overnight, my dad was and my husband was. I wasn't completely in my right mind due to the anesthesia, so I agree to stay the night. Wonder how much that is going to cost me??

My roommate that night was a lovely elderly lady who kept the light on until 1am and coughed up a lung the entire night. The nurses were lovely, but there really wasn't much for them to do for me.

They set me free the next am and I was home by 10:30am. I have some gas pain and general discomfort in my stomach area. it hurst to take a deep breath. The pain medication makes me feel a little dizzy - but I am a big believer in not stressing your body with pain. Spending a lot of time on computer and sleeping when I can. I will definitely walk on the treadmill tomorrow am. My mouth is dry and parched - it is hard to get down enough Water to combat it!

[amybethy 0]

Well yesterday was my big surgery day and it went very smooly my sergion got done with his first patient a bit earliy so he was actually waiting on me for the iv and all lol. My. Fiance got to see me right before I wlked from the pre-op area to the surgery room and 8:35-8:45am and he's pager went off like 9:50 and was a bit worried cause the board sait it should take 80mins and it was my surgion ready to talk to hime saying my surgery was done and it went great and that I was in the recovery room. So by 10am I was awake and by 11:30 on my way back to the post-op area and left the hospital by 2pm. The gas pain was the worst yesterday but today not much gas pain as tummy pain and trying to drink when I do wake up have sleep most of the day lol. Taking my pain meds as perscribed every 4 hours. Not hungry butwishing I could eat already lol.

[nurse_b11 0]

My surgery was yesterday, Jan 12, 2011. I was told to be there at 8am (I am a night-shifter so that was really early for me.) I was scheduled at noon. I got there they took my vitals, asked me questions, started my IV signed my consents. The anesthesiologist came and talked to me and then they gave me two valium. I was txting a friend when it finally took affect and lets just say that it was a messed up txt, lol. They took me back to the OR at 10:45am. I scooted over to the other table, they strapped my arms down and then the next thing I knew I was waking up with my all of my friends and my DH around me. I apparently was complaining of some nausea so they gave me some Zofran. (I don't remember that) I was taken to radiology as soon as I woke up enough and had the barium swallow. I took 6-8 xrays. After the first one I had to walk around and drink some warm tea to get it movin good. And of course I am a nurse so I knew exactly what I needed to do to get out of there the same day. I was up walking and walking and walking. I sipped some tea and drank maybe half a cup. I had some pain that I rated at a 6-7 and so they gave me morphine (I had never had before) and it didn't phase me at all. Then they gave me some liquid lortab and that stuff worked great. So my doc called in my scripts to the Walmart. It took them forever to get them filled. I had forgotten my wallet so I didn't have my insurance card soooooooo. I didn't get my pain medicine until today at about 4pm. Crazy crazy stuff with walmart and my insurance. Anyway I was at home around 6pm yesterday. Well then I realized that we had just moved and we didn't have any furniture in our living room and there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to lay flat on my bed. So we went to my grandmother's house and stayed the night there. She is giving me the recliner so we should be going home tonight. I have had some awful gas pain that is relieved with gas x strips and the pain is better now that I have my pain meds. I really need an abdominal binder but the only one I could find is $52 and I forgot to ask for one from the hospital, lol. So I guess I can just deal with that. Because there's no way I can afford that, lol. But that's my story. Other than the millions of xrays to make sure the barium went through was pretty typical. oh and he had to take a biopsy of my liver because I had some fatty deposits on it already. He basically said it was a very good thing that I had this surgery when I did. So yeah! lol I'm gonna go rest in my recliner now. =)

[Ambersue48 0]

I had surgery yesterday and everything went so smoothly. I got to the hospital at 11:15 for a 1:45 surgery. I wasn't nervous at all since I have had laproscopic surgery before. My surgeon was very surprised at how calm I was. As I was wheeled into surgery, I was given some relaxing medication. I remember getting into the room and then they put an oxygen mask on and then I was out. I woke up in the recovery room and I was so groggy still. I felt a little nauseated so they gave me some medicine for that. I don't remember much from the recovery room but I remember a nurse taking me upstairs to my room. I started waking up around 6:30 since my bariatric nurse had to leave at 7pm and she wanted to go over how to drink my liquids before she left. I started my liquids right after and drank 1 oz every 15 minutes. I spent the night in the hospital and woke up around 6:30am to start my liquids again. I had to get up and walk and drink my liquids all morning and I was discharged around 12:30pm. I am feeling better but I still have some gas pains in my back and shoulders. My neck is achy as well but I don't know if that is from the gas or if it's just from sleeping in a hospital bed.

[Steph951 1]

Wow all of you were lucky!!! I was banded 1-11-11 at 7:30 and did not have a drink sip ice cube Nothing until the next day around 12pm!! I was very dizzy and nauseous when the physical therapist wanted to go for a walk and didn't make it very far. From there I hit the morphine snooze button and was out pretty much all day. It was very hard getting out of bed to go pee and I had to pee alot from the iv. It wasn't as bad as I thought but I'm 3 days in and still a bit sore with gas and cotton mouth. I'm a huge baby who doesn't take pain well an I'd rate this as a 3/10 except when trying to get up.

[momtofourredheads 1]

I had my surgery done on Jan 12, 2011 by Dr. Cobourn at SWLC in Toronto. The whole process was streamlined and smooth and very comfortable. I arrived 35 minutes late because of traffic caused by a snow storm (even though I allowed and extra two hours for snow traffic, it just wasn't enough). I was afraid they would cancel my surgery but they were so nice and told me everyone was late for the same reason so it all worked out. They took me up to get prepped, asked me to change into a hospital gown that was swimming on me (but at least it wasn't too small!!!). They weighed me, asked me some pre-op questions, then settled me in a nice recliner with an electric blanket and some magazines to wait for the Dr.

After about twenty minutes, Dr. C came in, super friendly as usual, and asked me if I had any last minute questions. Then the anesthesiologist came in and went over in very grave detail exactly what he would do during the operation. I found this weirdly comforting. After that (about noon) they lead me to the OR where I climbed onto the table and put in the IV...and then away I went. I awoke in recovery and felt great, just a bit tired but no nausea or pain. The nurse was nice and friendly. She gave me some Water sips over the course of an hour, then helped me get dressed and gave me some demerol for the ride home. My hubby was called and we drove home around 3pm. I slept most of the way home and was totally myself by the time we got there...which is good because my kids are still all so little and they worry easily.

I was fine the rest of the day, didn't really need any meds but took the demerol as a precaution to help me sleep. I slept in a recliner because there was some pressure on my chest when I would lie down. Next day was the same...no meds, no real discomfort...slight ache in the shoulders that was easily alleviated by the magic bag (you know, the one you microwave :-) I was very hungry and had trouble sleeping last night because I was so hungry. i drank a couple sips of skim milk around 2am and that actually took my hunger away and I was able to sleep better the rest of the night.

Hope this helps you feel more comfortable about your up coming surgery...I was so worried and nervous and it all turned out to be so easy.