Woodslass

Sending you lots of good thoughts Brenda, I hope everything went well for you today. EastEnd, Carerjem, good luck on the 6th! I'm going to be thinking of both of you when I have a few moments of lucidity tomorrow and sending you lots of good vibes Less than 12 hours now, counting down! Spot, my friend, have a fantastic flight, I hope you eat tons of seafood tomorrow and have a safe and worry free night. I will absolutely be sending you mental hugs and encouragement! Peace Out!

slm started it!

I adore that list! I agree with each one of them - thanks for the chuckle MMichelle

I took photos but they were all clothed. I don't want to see myself naked and I sure as hell don't want anyone else to - yuck!

Woodslass, pre-op diet March 21, surgery April (due for surgery tomorrow - sending healing vibes, Woodslass) Thanks Joanne, and everyone else

I had never been to our hospital, Spot, so I drove by it on my way home from work. There's tons of litte places to eat, you can't miss the hospital and the Crown Point Surgery Center sign to the left of the main entrance. It looks nice on the outside, it's definitely on the newer side. Good luck on your trip here, I will be thinking of you tomorrow as I'm driving there - and good luck on the 6th! I can't wait to hear from you and everyone else here when I'm back up and coherent again Carlene

I'm with you all - surgery is tomorrow at 9am. I'm not scared, although I'm not looking forward to the healing aspect. I wish I could just skip right through it all and already be on solid food and losing steadily Good luck to us all!

Well, surgery for me is the day after tomorrow. I've got everything in place that I could think of. My only worry is that I have only lost 1/2 a lb for the last 3 days. I have not cheated at all, but I think I've not been as active as I was before. I've been working from home since Wednesday, but I've gone to the dr's appointment, taken the dogs back and forth to the vet, made dinner. Nothing terribly different than before, except now that I look back at it, I've been pretty sedentary. The other thing that I suspect may be the reason is Diet Snapple and Crystal Light. I've been drinking them since I started the diet, but I have a feeling that the artificial sweetener in them may be messing with my body, making it believe I'm having sugar. I think today and tomorrow I'm going to drink Water only and see if it helps. Plus I need to start clearing out the pipes for surgery - I would rather not have to take that nasty Ducolax! Today dh and I are going to clean out our spare bedroom and get rid of some of the junk that has accumulated in there. I think I'll take the dogs to the dog park too, throw the ball, get out into the fresh air. It's supposed to rain/snow tonight here, and get cold, so today will be the last warm day before surgery. Have a great Sunday, everyone - our banding month is well underway!

Welcome to the group Joanne! Glad you have you with us Carlene

I did the same thing and nearly went through a half ream of paper printing out recipes. THANK YOU

I took a week off. I'll be off from April 5th (day of surgery) to the 12th. If I need to, I can also stay home and work for the rest of that week so I will probably have about 2 weeks off total.

Well that makes three - I eat really fast. I think I learned this from my dad, who was in the Navy - they all learn to eat fast because they only have about 10 minutes sometimes. So I'm going to have a major hard time with this too. Know what I did? I went and bought a few sets of toddler spoons and forks, and I've been practicing eating with them. I may look pretty stupid, but I know I'm taking smaller bites now Something else I'm going to have a major problem with is not drinking while I eat. I usually have a huge glass of something that I gulp down, but I think that's also because I was eating a lot of things that are salty. Now that I'm doing the pre-Atkins, I think I'm weaning myself off that, so I really have to watch my drinking while eating. And chewing...boy this is going to be hard.

Congrats to you too!!

Oh I forgot, the picture! It says on your clipboard that they want to take a photo, but you don't have to. I actually reminded them because I want them to put it in my file and take one when I've lost a lot

The three prescriptions are Loritab - for pain. Then Zofran ODT for nausea, and Keflex to make sure any infection gets wiped out before it gets started. You start the Keflex the day after surgery, 3x per day for 5 days. He also wants us to use a product called Hibiclens for 2 days before the surgery - it's an antibacterial wash, the same stuff surgeons use when "scrubbing up" for surgery. It actually builds up an antibacterial layer on your skin, and he's never had anyone get infections in the incisions when he's had them use this. I bought the generic brand because the drugstore was out of the actual name brand. You also need to use Dulcolax (he says suppository but says you can use whatever you feel best about) to empty the pipes before surgery - he said we do NOT want to have to strain during the first few days. I don't like the idea of that, so I bought the Dulcolax granules you dissolve in Water, I'll take that instead. We can have nothing to eat 8 hours prior to surgery and nothing to drink, no gum or anything like that at all, 4 hours before surgery. Not even water. My surgery is at 9am on the dot, so it shouldn't be a huge issue. Spot, my friend, we are in GOOD hands

I had an appointment today to see Dr. K for my pre-op exam. Surgery suddenly became very real! I was weighed in, and found that my scale is 3 lbs off of the office one. Then Dr. K came in and we went over paperwork. I got my three prescriptions, and Dr. K went over instructions for when to stop drinking Water and eating the night before, asked me how the diet was going, checked blood pressure and listened to my heart and lungs, and pronounced me fit for surgery! I told him that I had been reading posts and posting myself on this forum, and he was concerned that I was getting some misinformation. I let him know that he has an awesome reputation on LapBandTalk.com, and he was happy to hear that He also went over what would happen on the day of surgery, from the moment I got there until I went under. He said that my husband could give him our cell phone number, and Dr. K would call him from the operating room as soon as it was over, to let him know I was okay, which is great! Now my husband doesn't have to sit in a hard hospital chair all day, he can come home and try to relax a little before coming to get me in the afternoon. Dr. K also explained that he would look to see if there was a hiatal hernia, he does on every surgery, and if there was one he would take care of it without additional cost. He also said that if the opening between the diaphram and the stomach was too large, he would fix that too, to prevent complications with the lap band later on. He told me where the incisions would be - 5 total; one near the breasbone to retract the liver, one on each side of my belly so he could work with his laprascope with both hands, one on the stomach to put the lapband in, which is the biggest one, and another one for the port. He made sure I knew where the surgery center was, asked if I had concerns - I did have one. I know most people can fly within days, but I'm a local. I just found out there's a meeting I have to go to in California at the end of April, and it was stressing me out because I would be in the mushies phase. It would be very hard being in a hotel trying to order cottage cheese or mashed potatoes or soft cooked meat, and I didn't want to go. I don't want to have to do that until I could at least eat normal food. He just smiled and said to tell Natalie how long I wanted to be on a "no fly" order and she would type it up. So I don't have to fly until May 15th. Ha, take that, company meeting! I think it really made me feel better. As for exercise, he said I just can't lift anything, but I could start on my treadmill as soon as I felt ready, so that was great news too. I figured that also counted heavy luggage for travelling, so it counts towards the reason I can give my company that I can't fly I asked Natalie to take my photo before I left, so now we have the "before" photo. My husband took some of me as well, side and front and full face and side face, plus we measured everything from biceps to calves, so I can see results. I am ready for my new life! 5 days to go....

Well, my doctor has me on an Atkins-type diet, so I don't have an empty stomach. I just can't eat bread, rice, potatoes, Pasta, anything with wheat in it. I can have all veggies, meat, eggs, cheese, fats and 1 yogurt and 1 piece of fruit today. You will make it, I know you will. After a few days your stomach will shrink and you will be able to do this!

I'm just amazed there are so many of us in April! I think that's awesome, we are all going to have a lot to talk about Carlene

Good luck Carol! My last supper was Taco Bell, LOL!

7 days to go for me....this time next week I'll be getting prepped for my lap band!

How nice that you have a nutritionist in the family! I would be totally taking advantage of that I have a friend who's husband is a personal trainer, and I'm thinking about asking him to be my drill sergeant for working out when I get the ok from my doctor. 7 days to go for me....this time next week, I'll be at the surgery center being prepped for my lap band! WOOHOO!

Welcome, and thanks for sharing with all of us! I think all of us are scared and nervous. I think it's only natural to be that way - if you weren't, you wouldn't have really thought about all the aspects of the lap band. In a way, it's good that you are because you are going into this with your eyes open! I'm self-pay, so once I wrote that really large check, I accepted that I am fully comitted to changing my life, including my eating habits. I've done pretty well on the pre-op Atkins-type diet my doctor put me on, and as of today I've lost 10 lbs in 7 days. Funny story - on my ticker below, I was only showing 3 lbs lost. My husband saw it and said "Hey, that's not right!" I told him I wasn't counting my Water weight loss, which I estimated at about 6 lbs out of my 10. He demanded I put that on my ticker, because as he said, it doesn't matter if it's water or fat or muscle, loss is loss! So there you go I hope you have lots of support, tmw! And know you will have tons of support here. I can't wait till mid next week when some of us are able to come back here and give an account of how we are! Carlene

Peaches, I'm with you on the whole husband thing. My husband is not only skinny but shorter than I am. I always feel like an Amazon - an unfit one - whenever I see photos of us together! I can't remember the last time I crossed my legs either. Maybe around 18 or 19 years old? Long long time ago...that would feel great

Terri, you and I have a ton in common as well! I was a hairdresser for over 15 years, got burnt out and quit the business. My mother was a hairstylist, owned her own salon for over 10 years, but died six years ago. I totally get what you mean about image in that business, I think that's part of what has me messed up today! My mom always strugged with her weight, and was always dieting - once I hit 13, she put me on diets too. Her idea of what I should look like totally killed my self esteem and of course, I ate to make myself feel better. I had problems once I started doing hair, always comparing myself to the other stylists around me, wondering if I would be more successful if I was skinny...oh boy, I TOTALLY get where you are coming from! And this is a birthday present for me too, my birthday was February 28th, the only reason I didn't have my surgery sooner was that we were putting in a new computer system on all of my properties in March and I had to be able to take care of things. Now that's over, I can get my band put in and focus on me for a change Glad you're here with us, we all need the support of each other

After reading hundreds of posts over the last few weeks, I think I've come to the conclusion that everyone is different. Whether it's calorie intake or exercise, low carb or low calorie, eating healthy or eating what you want, everyone is unique. I almost can't stand the suspense of finding out how it's going to be for me. I have read stories of people urking over a sip of Water, and people in a panic because they are always hungry. I have surgery in 9 days, and the only thing I've really learned is that I have to find out how this is going to work on my own body. I know I have determination, my willpower has never been higher, and my monthly weight loss goals are achievable (10 lbs/mo). Plus I have the support of all of you when I have questions. That's the best comfort of all. Carlene