Having surgery tomorrow and scared!

[Shearhunny 0]

Hello all!

I am having lapband surgery tomorrow morning and am scared, worried and unsure :rolleyes2:. I am terrified of surgery (scared I wont wake up & when I do how much pain there will be). I am worried that I wont lose the weight and be a failure statistic, and unsure that I am making the best decision for my weight loss. I have thought about weight loss surgery for the past 10 years, since my mom got gastric bypass. I have always been the "skinny one" in my family at 5'2" and 214. My mom, sister, aunt & cousin have all had gastric and have had success and are happy with their decision to have surgery. I know I WANT this but scared about all of the "what if's". I am private pay and worry too about additional need for surgery to correct problems. I guess I am just looking to connect with lapbanders, perhaps even in PA where I am from, to help me through the jitters. My Doc's office has a lapband support group but because of my work & school schedule I have been unable to attend. Thanks to everyone for your posts! They truely have been an excellent way for me to stay informed and feel positive.

[RestlessMonkey 7]

If you do exactly what your doc says pre and post op (Ie following his diet to the letter, don't advance to solids/mushies etc before you are allowed to) the odds of complications are small. They are still there! (this IS life, you know!) but they are small.

Modern anesthesia is a miraculous thing and again the odds of you not waking up are VERY slim.

You have the same chance of dying on the table as you do dying from a fall in your shower or bath and yet you do that every day without a worry! :rolleyes2: That's just how slim the odds are (at least if the google site I found is correct! LOL)

The band is different from bypass so you must not MUST not compare yourself to your family. You will have it way easier in some ways (no dumping syndrome etc) but the loss will be slower. Brace for that and don't feel like a failure when it comes true.

On the plus side 5 years out bypassers and bandsters lose similar amounts of excess weight.

The band is a tool and if you are committed to losing, you'll figure out how to work it for you!

Good luck!

OH and the pain? It's really individual but I had very little. I took 2 doses of the presciption pain med on day 2 but otherwise tylenol or nothing at all did the trick for me. The pain will pass, regardless. And if you have a good surgeon who removes most of the gas they pump in to spread your organs out and facilitate banding, you probably won't have much either!

[ParrotheadCathy 0]

I can't promise you'll wake up with NO pain, but that's a strong likelihood. A lot of us here never even took any pain medication at all, or at most a little liquid Tylenol. I did not have an overnight stay at a hospital, just outpatient. And, I walked out of the surgery center, got in my brother-in-law's truck and rode away. I was thirsty and he stopped at a convenience store and got me a bottle of Water which I sipped all the way home, LOL.

How to make the first few days really good? Have these things on hand. Whatever liquids you can have for the first couple of days AND the more expanded you can have after that. sugar free popsicles and sugar free fudgsicles, SF Jellow, Crystal Light or K20 mixes (for when Water gets boring), a heating pad (will help with stiffness and gas pains (which have the darndest habit of moving around at will), Gas-X Strips (come in mint and cinnamon flavors) if you are belching. Make a pot of chicken stock (boil a chicken in a big pot, add carrots, celery seasonings, and simmer. Strain off all the solids and the resulting stock will taste so darned good going down! You can do the same with a cheap pot roast and have fantastic beef stock. Your favorite tea for hot tea. Iced tea. And, please, WALK AROUND. Moving around will make you feel better than you can imagine. It will minimize the gas pains and stiffness. You may make it to the mailbox and back the first time, but the important thing is that you do it! GOOD LUCK

[LindaD 3]

I haven't had my surgery yet - it's nearly 2 weeks off - so feel free to disregard my opinion here. :rolleyes2:

I keep thinking about the C-Section I had when my youngest was born. That was full open abdominal surgery. Recovery was hard, I DID have pain. But I also had my precious baby girl.

This should be less than that, since it's laproscopic (sp?) and yet we all still come out of it with something precious - a chance to reclaim our lives, our health, our fitness/comfort, etc.

I think it's going to be worth it.

Good luck!!

[dubbee 0]

I thought I was reading the post I wrote few weeks ago! While I was in the bed being transferred onto the operating table I was having second thoughts. I was scared. I was thinking I can still say "nevermind, I'll go home and lose this weight the old fashioned way". Stick with it and please know that it will be worth all this fear you are feeling. When your energy level begins to increase, when your clothes begin to loosen and then start literally falling and drooping when you begin to realize and deal with why you eat the way you do, these funky fears will truly seem funny then.

Being a self-pay should be motivation in itself to listen to your doctors and follow his instructions to success.

I've read posts here where patients are eating whatever they want and I think "come on!" There are times when I am really hungry and could easily sneak something I am not supposed to have. But I am learning about myself that I have more discipline and restraint than I EVER thought. I LIKE what losing this weight feels like. I LIKE what droopy clothes feel like. I like hearing family members say "your arms are getting smaller" "your belly is really coming down" "your butt is getting rounder". I LIKE getting to the top of the stairs and NOT being out of breath or my knees hurting. I had a ball the other day out on the baseball diamond with my grandsons actually playing baseball. I LOVE being enveloped in my husband's arms and his hands can reach each other.

Do it...you ...can...do...it!!!

[finallyready@51 0]

Shearhunny if you were not scared you would not be human! Remember always the decision is yours. I was scared you know what-less too, but I knew that for the past 35 years nothing else had worked for me. I lost the weight - several freakin' times I just could not keep it off. I knew I needed the help and assistance of the band if I wanted to keep it off and be healthy. My only regret is that I did not do it when I first started researching it.

My thoughts will be with you tomorrow! Let us know how you do!

[Libbyjane1976 1]

Good luck tomorrow! That's so cool. You will be uncomfortable afterwards but they can give you some drugs for that. Make sure as soon as you are able to you get up and walk, walk, walk. That's always the best thing you can do.

[bill4dme 0]

My surgery is also tomorrow. I am not scared of the surgical procedure and that is probably because I have had so many surgeries in my life. To be honest having been on this liquid diet today I am more afraid of 3 weeks of Jello LOL. I tried the bottles of Isopure today and BLAH!! I found them to be nasty. I hope that I can deal with the Protein powders after surgery. I will somehow choke them down and get thru to the end. Good luck tomorrow and I will send good thoughts your way.

[Brie_SDmamaofTwins 4]

GL tomorrow! I was terrrrifed of having this surgery! But once its said and done you'll look back and say it wasnt that bad. Of course your going to have some pain,soreness exp. when you need to walk or move. My only advice is to keep up on the pains meds even if you feel ok and to walk, walk, walk! It will help you heal faster and will help all the trapped in gas pains to move out! You may want to get a heating pad and some gas-x..heating pad will help if you get the shoulder gas pains. If you have any questions feel free to come in to Chat, great support group in there also~

Gl and congrats hun,

Brie

[Shearhunny 0]

Thank you everyone! I am starting to finally get excited again. I am still scared about the being put to sleep thing, but I realize it is the anethesiologists job to wake me up! This is just a small obstacle to overcome to be on the path to FINALLY losing weight and keeping it off not to mention improving my health. I will post again as soon as I can as I am not sure if I will take my laptop with me to the hospital. Thank you again for all of your support and understanding!