countrymomma

Hi Everyone!~ I've had two fills (my doc left but he comes back once a month).. Each fill leaves me barely able to swallow water for the first 10 days and I quickly lose weight those days... but then Im loose enough to eat again which sucks. The first fill was 3cc and .5 cc had to be removed because I couldn't swallow water at all.. it just sat there. Second fill was just 1cc. My next doc visit is middle of Oct and I'll prob get another 1cc. I can only handle that much at a time I suppose. As for weight loss, it's been AMAZING! I only have 30 pounds to go until I reach my goal, although I plan to go another 10 pounds past that. When I set my goal I really never thought I would reach it. I'm sitting at 180 now and I remember telling myself that I would be totally happy to make it to 175.. Well, I'm nearly there. Seeing the inches fall off has been the biggest motivation of all. I was able to bag up every single item hanging in my closet and give it all away. My smallest winter top could fit two of me in it. I probably should have kept a pair of pants or something now that I think of it for picture purposes but I didn't ever want to look at it again. I can wear medium sized tops for the first time in my life and it just feels amazing. I lost a LOT of weight in my legs and it's all skin and bone there. NO fat at all (which I now feel that it's gotten colder). I'm quite happy! As for foods: I still do a protein shake or a protein bar in the morning.. a protein bar or tuna salad for lunch and some type of protein and veggie for dinner. If I snack at all it will be string cheese or other type of cheese or cheese/meat product or yogurt and fruit. I can not do bread at all. It gets stuck in a second and I HATE that feeling. I have yet to PB and I don't ever want to. I still haven't vomited and again don't want to go there either. But getting stuck is a painful nightmare for me.

Hi Everyone! I'm Paula.. I was banded on the 25th and was on a liquid only , 800 calorie diet for two weeks prior to surgery. Surgery was horrid. I was outpatient (total drive thru), had breathing problems and then had OMGosh pain afterwords for a solid week. Gas pains were minimal but the muscle that the port is sewn into?!?!?! WOW. I thought I was going to die every time I moved I had searing pain. I downed my little bottle of liquid vicodin (and I hate pain meds) by Sunday and was begging my doc to refill it. He just told me to go to the ER. ER couldn't find anything wrong and when I followed up with him on Thursday (a week and a day out), he informed me he was leaving the area (he told my husband this after my surgery and I had forgotten) and would be returning ONCE PER MONTH for fills but I can always drive three hours south if I need a fill or need some removed!!!! UGH. So not only did my pain get blahhhhhed over (he basically told me that I'd get over it and more narcotics weren't the answer... made me feel like I was some druggie looking for a fix) and left me wondering WTH I was going to do for fills. THAT NIGHTMARE aside, So far I am doing okay. Not hungry thanks to that pre-op diet. That diet made me go thru all my crabby 'must have food now" phases pre op so now I really have to push myself to get all my Protein and calories in. I may have hated every minute of that pre- op diet, but I'm LOVING it now. I've dropped three pants sizes, two shirts and two bra sizes (okay, not real happy about that part) and 20 pounds. I surely can't complain now. I do have some restriction when I eat mushies. I can eat about a half cup of food at a time before I feel full.. My doc leaves his office next week after my next follow up. I won't be getting a fill as I'm not on solids, but I am worried about fills starting since he only comes once a month and him being so far away. I think I'm going to have to find another doc. Glad we all survived!!!!

We seem to have a small little group! Hopefully we get more active! I was banded on the 25th and just now feeling human. I posted my story on the surgery stories board. It wasn't pretty but it's done and I'm happy to start working on losing. I can drink broth, slimfast/atkins, pudding or Jello as well as sugar free drinks. I get that full feeling (lump in my throat) if I try to eat too much or drink too fast. My biggest problem so far is with sipping. If I sip, I feel like I'm swallowing air too! UGH! I'm tempted today to eat some cream Soup. my doc told me right before going in that liquids meant liquids... even cream soups/tomato Soups with milk.. etc... so I may try some cream of mushroom soup tonight because I'm just done with broth. How long did the port pain keep you on pain meds? My port hurts bad when I move so Ive been on my meds up until today.. I haven't had any since this am.

I was banded on May 25th and I'm still hurting pretty badly. I wish I was one of the easier cases but I guess I just got "lucky" that way. NOT. Anyway, checked in at 8:30am for surgery at 10am. This is a TINY county hospital btw. I got all hooked up, peed, iv'd, leg squeegies and anti nausea drugs. Then waited.. and waited. Apparently my doc was running late in surgery. Then I started meeting different people around 11am. I warned them all that I don't come out of surgery well.. Sometimes I can't breathe, sometimes I can't wake up. I did a breathing treatment before hand and hoped for the best. I was wheeled in around noon (I really don't remember times after all this), They gave me a shot in the iv to calm me down about the same time as I was moving over to the slab. I remember laying down and someone pushing the oxygen mask on my face and it HURT! They were forcing it down and I tried to move it and that was the last I remember. I woke up GASPING for air. I sat straight up in bed (ignoring the pain) and was gasping hard. They shoved a breathing treatment tube in my mouth and I had three additional breathing treatments before I could breathe well enough without making whooping cough noises. It scared me so bad that I was crying. My nurse had to hand over my care to the supervising nurse and she later came back and told me that I looked "MUCH BETTER" than before.. apparently I was blue/gray.. not nice to hear. They wheeled me back to my same day surg room and doped me up on drugs. My bp and my oxygen levels were VERY LOW. The monitor kept going off because I wasn't getting enough oxygen and they kept running in to tell me to breathe deep. It HURT to breathe deep! Then my BP was in the low 80/s over 50's.. They increased the drip on my IV and put me on oxygen again. Then they asked me to eat some Jello. They said if I ate 1/4 of the cup of jello that I could have more drugs. So it took me nearly two hours but I got 1/4 down. I asked for drugs, and they said "I don't know.. you are going home". WTF? I can't breathe without oxygen and I'm going home? They unhook me from the oxygen, and bp machine, practically yanked me out of bed to go pee. Whjile I agree walking is GOOD, I only had to walk two feet... I sorta wished htat I had been forced to walk more than that before being "allowed" to go home. I asked again about my bp and oxygen and was told that they didn't know.. only that it was time for me to go home and sleep. So I was up/dressed and a chair was waiting all within 15 minutes. I went home, and passed out. My hubby went and got my prescriptions of liquid loritab and anti-nausea pills. I drugged up and went to sleep. I woke up later asking for broth but ate only a couple bites. The next day I was in AWFUL pain. My port area hurt bad. I couldn't get up to pee, or move in bed. The lortab wasn't working and I was wishing I hadn't done any of this at this point. No gas pain though~ I was burping little burps so I guess that took care of it? I can't breathe deep at all though without a lot of pain. Second day out was a tad bit better. I felt well enough to yell at my husband (hehe). Today is the third day out and i made it out of bed without crying and haven't had any pain meds since last night. I have been able to drink down slim fast shakes, jello, broth and pudding (all on my list) but in tiny amounts. I get that lump in my throat feeling if I gulp to fast or if I have tried putting too much in at once. I am going to sit and watch a movie on the couch with the family (finally coming out of my room) and try to get to feeling like a human being again. I'm ready to make this work! I am ready to walk my way to onderland! It may have been a bit of a rough beginning, but well worth it. (my fingers are still shaky I guess so ignore the spell errors and grammar.. bugs me to see it but I'm too lazy to fix it)

I was banded yesterday. Today Im in lots of pain where my port is mostly. Hurts to move or twist. My doc told my husband that today would be the worst day of it all.. He was right. I'm hoping tomorrow is better. So far I've been able to handle jello, pudding, broth and Atkins shakes. I've had ice over the most painful parts of my belly, but going to try a heating pad next.. Gas/shoulder pain is minimal if at all. Good luck to those being banded after me!!!! Let the losing begin!

Hi Everyone! I'm glad to be here and really excited about my banding date in less than 48 hours! My sig. has my info/dates/etc. At my highest (not counting my last pregnancy where I hit 300), was 260. As soon as my husband's insurance changed and I found out that surgery may be covered, I started my Dr. supervised diet and dropped down to 220, but gained 10 back. At the time I started my preop diet I was at 230 and now down to 218. I've been wanting to do WLS since 1999 and came very close to RnY in 2000 but chickened out after a LOT of negative feedback from my family. When I finally got my nerve back, I didn't have insurance that would cover it - no matter what co-morbidies I had. My family doctor had Lapband and raved about it and she was worried that if I did RnY that I would get too sick. She referred me to her surgeon (who is in our local rural area) and I was able to get in immediately, get all my paperwork in order and get approved rather quickly. My date was set and here I am! I'm on my presurg diet and I finally have gotten used to not eating. My diet is a liquid only, 800 calorie diet. First few days were rough but my body started losing and that was all that mattered to me at the time. I'm worried about pain after surgery and pain meds... Most pain meds make me want to hurl and thats WITH food in my stomach. I can't imagine being able to take pills after surgery to help with pain. Any ideas or info on this?

Thanks for responding. I was terrified that I'd be subscribed some monster sized Vicodin ! LOL. I didn't even think of liquid form meds. I'm glad to hear that you are doing pretty good at 4 days out. Are you still on liquids?

Hi everyone! Im fairly new to the board, only because everything happened so quickly! I was just approved two weeks ago and immediately started my preop diet (liquid only, 800 calorie). My date is May 25th and so far only lost 12 pounds. I lost the first 12 within 4-5 days and then stopped. I've been pushing the protein and even bought protein powder (OMGosh! GAG), and even exercise a bit more but I guess my metabolism went into starvation mode. I'm really excited about surgery and hope everyone else this month who is already banded is doing well!

Tomorrow is my Band Day! I'm super excited but very very nervous as well.

My surgery date is May 25th! I am currently finishing day 2 of my pre op diet which so far is not going well at all. Mine is an all liquid 800 calorie diet. No solids, no veggies.. Two days in and I'm HUNGRY! I told my husband to hit a cow and bring it home... I'd suck the blood (its liquid!)... I even sucked on a cracker. SAD. Anyway, I've been working on this from the first day I found out my husbands new insurance would cover it. I did my 6 month Dr. supervised diet (lost 30 pounds - gained 10 back), then had my Gall Bladder taken out. Then we waited for insurance. It was submitted in February, and approved just last week. I called my Doc's office Monday and got the OKAY to start my diet and have surgery in two weeks! WHOO HOO! I do my pre-op testing on May 16th.