Rhonda's journey

My surgery was May 19th, I woke up in recovery in intense pain and throwing up. By the time I got to my room I felt fine. I had no pains meds after that and was up and around quickly. Walked all over the hospital the next day and even drove myself home. I only took pain meds once after coming home. The lack of being able to eat any thing of substance by day 5 had me weak and really in pain from hunger. I finally ate some yogurt and felt better. I have progessed from there. I have had no foods get stuck and no throwing up since recovery. I had my surgery on a Thursday and went back to work on the following Wed, with no restrictions and I do manual labor, so I am quite active.

The past few days I have been in a great deal of pain. My belly buttton sometimes aches, to the left of my port I get sharp pains through out the day, especially the more active I become. Also I get a great deal of pain whenever I bent down from my port area. Now when I bend down it feels like I am nausea , my stomach contents seem to roll around, it is very unsetttling, and even painful. I have lost almost nothing and I know I can eat far to much.

My doctor is different then most in that she requires us to only ever eat Protein, that you can cut with a knife. NOTHING ELSE. She is insane, I feel like crap eating all this meat. I am so ready to give up. I feel like such a loser that I had to resort to a lap band to lose weight and it has done nothing for me. Not to mention I physically feel terrible most of the time. I have always had a high pain tolerence, so all this pain I am now starting to experience has me very worried..............

Hi there

I have had pain on my lower left side since surgery.Please don't give up! You can do it! Suggestion to you is you can try and eat what I have since the pre-op diet when we had to eat protein and all the green vegetables that you could eat.Six cups of vegetables for the three meals and protein.My Protein Shake I get it from my clinic ,but I ran out and I bought the vanilla protein with a green leaf on it,you can buy it at Loblaws.or Wal-mart.its about $62.00.I ate Mary-Janes chicken nuggets with no breading,I buy them at Wal-mart as well they are 10.99 a box and five of them are a good meal with salad.I ate a lot of tuna, salmon,cottage cheese ,chick peas,kidney Beans, green beans,cucumber& cottage cheese,green peppers,bock choy,broccoli,chinese cabbage,my favorite meal was green salad with tuna drained and rinsed off-I added was 1/4 cup of cottage cheese and then I added my vegetbles to that with no salad dressing.and hard boiled eggs.We wern't allowed to eat any fruit, grains or breads.It was very successful for me.I lost 14 pounds before surgery and have gone back on the same diet for the next two weeks.It has worked for me.I also had to put a cloth of my side where the pain was constantly paining and used a rub for pain and then it finally went away.I don't know what it was ,but it was very sharp shooting pains.Good luck and let me know how you do.Also drink your eight glasses of Water and I also took Gas X strips when I got the sharp piains as well and they work and I carry them with me at all times.

I had my surgery on 2/11/09. As of this morning, I've lost 157 pounds. I started at 300 pounds and this morning I weighed in at 143. I am 5'7". My surgeons office told me I hold their current record for most weight loss with their lap band patients. My BMI that started at like 46 to 48 is now 22.4, which is in the normal range btw. I used to wear a size 26W/28W or 3x/4x. I just bought a pair of extra small scrubs pants and a small shirt. I also just bought a pair of size 6 jeans. NEVER IN MY LIFE WOULD I HAVE THOUGHT I COULD HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THIS! YOU CAN DO THIS TOO! IF I CAN.... ANYONE CAN! This tool has been a miracle for me. I love my life.... although it's been a crazy two years. You really learn who your true friends are. I am a different person..... inside and out.

You look amazing!! You sure give me something to look forward in my journey.I had some fear with the lap band and seeing your progress.You have uplifted my worries.If you have any tips for me with what you went through ,I would appreciate your views Thanks

Hi Rhonda,

I have a group in London we meet every 4th Thursday of the month and there are few of us we meet here and there for dinner. We also have Facebook page. please look me up Alla Landa and I will ad you.

Hi Heather

This would be nice to meet you girls.I am in London on the 16th and would like to meet up with you,maybe we can go for lunch or something.I tried having a meet up group here in Hamilton, but no one responded.I think it would be a great support for all of us to get together and talk about our success stories. my email address is Rhonda_hay@hotmail.com Talk soon

Good Luck tomorrow. I was just banded this past Thursday. I felt the same way right up until I went in. It really is not bad. I will be thinking of you. Please let me know how you are doing.

Hi there

Just stopping in to see how you are feeling after your surgery? I hope you are doing well.If you want to chat please drop me a line and tell me how you did.I was banded on May 2nd/2011. I have been doing o kay ,but feel very full.I just had my first fill yesterday and they only filled it with 3cc.I hope I do good in the next three weeks before I go back for my 2nd fill.hope to hear back from you

I'm sorry you find my observations unfair but I've only seen what I've seen.

I would be very interested to see your newspaper - I don't know what publication you're speaking of but it could definitely change my opinion if the statistics come from an unbiased source.

I don't understand why you wouldn't want my story told to potential recipients of the band. There are many folks here talking about their great experiences so I don't think my experience is going to out weigh that - just a potential situation. I would have been glad to know of someone's experience at Bluewater before I became involved with them. Don't know if it would have changed my mind but it would have been more information to weigh.

Good luck everyone.

Sorry! that you had a bad experience.I have had great success with my lap band surgery.I had it in Toronto at the CIBO Clinic.I was banded on May 2nd and have lost substancial inches .I lost 14 lbs on my pre- op diet.My surgery was a success and my surgery was 45 minutes and I was only in the clinic for a few hours.I had no sickness and I healed very well.I had my first fill yesterday and only put in 3cc.I have been very full and I have lost inches and I feel great.I haven't been able to exercise for about five years now,I do my exercise everyday and feel great about my results.I am so glad that I chose Lap band over the Gastro bypass surgery.I feel great so far and hope my weight loss journey will continue to be a great success for me.Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience. Rhonda

Hi I am to banded in Sarnia on friday the 8th and just read your post, what kind of problems did you encounter and how did you find the support in sarnia I choose sarnia becuase it was close to london . very interested anne asullusk@rogers.com

Hi there

My name is Rhonda and I live in Hamilton,Ont.I was banded in Toronto at CIBO clinic.I have had great support from all the staff there.They are all very supportive.I had my surgery on May 2nd 2011.I lost 14lbs on my pre-op diet.I was very satisfied with the weight loss.I have healed very well and never got sick at all after the surgery.I have had my first fill yesterday with only 3cc.I had a large band put in and I find I'm not very hungry.I have lost quite a few inches since having surgery.Look forward in hearing your story.Thanks Rhonda

Hello! My name is Heather and I was banded on April 5th. I'm looking to connect with others in the London area who have been banded. I was banded in Toronto and travel there for fills etc.

Looking for key contacts to buddy with on this journey!

Heather

Dear Heather

I am from Hamilton and was banded on May 2nd 2011.My name is Rhonda,47 years old I have had great success .I feel great.My first fill was yesterday and they only put in 3cc.I haven't ate very much ,so the surgeon just wants to make sure everything is okay.I come to London every other week.I have my kids there.If you ever need to talk please feel free to email me and we can connect.My email address is Rhonda_hay@hotmail.com.I am also on face book as well and we can always connect on there as well.Looking forward in talking some more