bev712

Good news: my surgery has been moved up to Wednesday, January 25th. My guy's surgery is Monday, January 23rd, so we'll both be on the same diet schedule, the same office visit schedule and the same fill schedule. He's pretty pain-tolerant, so he'll be off the Percocet in time to drive me to the hospital. This is all going so well it seems it's definitely meant to be. We had our pre-op education class last Wednesday, we have our pre-ops at the hospital this Thursday, and then a week later we'll both be home together and starting our new lives. It was funny at the class when the nurse gave each of us a sample band to hold and look at, I thought of them as being like wedding bands! We're young seniors with grown children, and we aren't married and aren't going to be, but the two bands really symbolized a new kind of life together, with a new kind of commitment, to the program and to each other. So, we're going out for prime rib and steak dinners tonight to say goodbye to Big meat and then gearing up for the next week and a half of pre-op doctors' appointments, hospital appointments and surgeries. We're ready. Thanks to you all for both factual and moral support.

I had the same experience, altho not at the group but right in the psychologist's office. I'm 5'2", am aiming for 128 pounds (my 20's weight, and I still have the photos!), and when she told me I should expect to be only174 pounds - a 30 pound loss - I hit the roof. I told her, you don't know me, Dr. L. doesn't know me, and I can do anything I set my mind to. Many people here told me the same thing. The problem is that the psychologists get hung up on the AVERAGE weight loss, which is 60% of the ideal weight loss. For me, that calculation was incorrect anyway - it should have been 40 pounds and 163, which is still 'way too much for me. So I just keep telling myself that I'm NOT AVERAGE and will be one of those who "beats the spread" and gets down to where I want. And so can you.

YOU know you can do the work, but remember, your doctor doesn't know you at all! Many doctors prefer the gastric sleeve or bypass for severely morbidly obese patients for whom they feel that very rapid initial weight loss is important, for health reasons. You're young, and you can still exercise. If you want the band, get it. It's your body and your choice. Never forget that.

I had the same problem. Here's my very weird solution: watch an actual video of the surgery from start to finish. Go to YouTube.com and search for lap band surgery. There's a five-part video made for a TV show by a surgeon in Kansas City, a Dr. Malley, who explains in detail exactly what he's doing as he operates. You can see the OR, the staff, the prepped patient's belly, how he inserts the instruments, and then you can see exactly what he sees on the monitor - what the surgery is from beginning to end. It's not gory or bloody at all. It's actually fascinating, if you really want to know what will happen. It helped me tremendously. My feeling about all my previous surgeries has been, put me under and do whatever you want, but this time I needed the "inside information," if you will! My guy is scheduled for January 23, and I'm on for January 30th. We're both ready for a new life together. Almost like getting married again!

Hi guys. Happy New Year to all! We saw the nutritionist today, and she's a love - very well informed, very pleasant - and the diet restrictions are much less severe than I'd heard and read about. However, the saga about projected/predicted weight loss continues. You'll recall that the staff psychologist told me that I could only expect to lose 30 pounds, from 204 to 174 because that's what the surgeon noted in my chart but never discussed it with me, and I hit the roof. Then I found out by calling the nurse the next day that that was not a maximum expected weight loss but an average weight loss, which was encouraging. Today the nutritionist gave me more accurate and even more encouraging information. She told me that the normal weight for my height (5'2") was 136 (still too high, I think), so my ideal weight loss would be 70 pounds (up to 206 today). Then the formula for average weight loss at 18 months is 60% of ideal weight loss, which is 42 pounds, so I could expect to get down to 164. That's still pretty fat for me (it would be a size 16), so I see no reason why I can't get down to 135, which would be a size 14. I'd prefer a size 10-12, but I'll settle for getting down from a 22 to a 14! I suggested to her that everyone in the office get their act together and provide consistent information. Another example: the nutritionist said that we should cut our food to the size of a penny, and she was very surprised to hear that the psychologist told us it should be the size of a pencil eraser, which is ridiculous. I don't like the psychologist at all, and my own psychologist thought some of the things she said and did were very strange, like wearing scrubs, as if she need to in order to be taken seriously. I think she's very insecure, felt intimidated by my own set of degrees, and had to try and prove she was smarter than me (she's not). And she runs the support groups. Fortunately, so does the nutritionist, so at least I can trust someone there. Anyway, we'll get the call tomorrow to schedule the nurse's education class and surgeries this month. I still haven't got my head wrapped around the fact that I'm actually going to do this. To me, it's now something that I have to do whether I want to or not. Not "elective" surgery at all. Bev

Has anyone been upset with your surgeon's presurgery predicted weight loss? I had my psych screening today and am very annoyed with my surgeon's predicted total weight loss for me. I'm at 204, and I want to achieve my own goal weight of 128, which I weighed in my 20's (I'm 66 now). The psychologist informed me that my surgeon has predicted my weight loss to be only 40 pounds, to 174. I think that's ridiculous, and I argued vehemently with her that he doesn't know me, she doesn't know me, and there was no way I was going to go through the surgery and settle for being what I consider to be still fat. At 174 I'd be a size 18, only 2 sizes down. Hell, I can get down there myself without surgery - I'd gotten down to that 6 years ago, until I met my guy and started eating the way he does. (We are doing the surgery together.) Ok, my metabolism is slower than what it was in my 20's, but there are loads of women in their 60's who are at their ideal weight. Bottom line: I'm angry, determined to lose a LOT more than they expect, yet now apprehensive that they may be right. Not if I have anything to say about it!! I think they're dead wrong. Who's beat the prediction? Is my surgeon being more conservative in his predictions than most?

When I woke up this morning somehow I just knew the psychologist had made a mistake and was misinterpreting what the surgeon had written. I called and spoke to my surgeon's nurse and told her what the psychologist had said. She told me that what my surgeon writes in the chart is the AVERAGE projected weight loss, not the maximum !!! I was very relieved and said someone should tell the psychologist she was giving out inaccurate information, and the nurse said she most certainly would. Unbelievable. This psychologist told my guy he could expect only to get down from 317 to 217, which would still leave him in the "obese" category. Now he knows he can reach his goal of 180. Oh, about my math - I was wrong, 204 to 174 would have only been 30 pounds lost! I feel much better now and am looking forward once again to being my normal weight (not skinny by any means). Now I only have the problem of being able to respect this psychologist in order to work with her in the program.

Wonderful! I know I'm not "most people," and obviously neither are you. I don't believe in lowering people's expectations of what they can do. Interestingly, these people are VERY worried about suicide among those who discover their lives haven't magically changed with the weight loss. Blah, blah, I know all that. Waste of two hours, except for the psychologist. She made some money.

Andy, relax. My surgeon said liquids were only necessary for the first 2 weeks POST-OP. I've done some online research, and apparently now some surgeons don't think it's necessary for everyone to go on a pre-op liquid diet. Definitely go with what your surgeon and his staff have said - if you don't need it, that's great. Just relax and make plans for the post-op diet.

I think you're all doing so well! I've been on liquid diets for one or two days before my colonoscopies every four or five years, and I thought THAT was hard. I've only just met with my surgeon, last Thursday, and he said that the liquid diet was only for the two weeks following surgery. With any surgery, of which I've had plenty, it's nothing to eat or drink after midnight, which is just to make sure your stomach is completely empty. I have no liver or gall bladder problems, so I don't see the need for a long liquid diet. Has anyone NOT have had to do liquids before surgery?

I'm considering lap band surgery and am concerned about the liquid diet. I'm allergic to dairy, soy, wheat and most fruits. I haven't talked to the nutritionist yet - first appoint with the surgeon is this Thursday, 12/8/11. Has anyone else had this problem, and if so, what did you drink? I'm in South Florida, and my S.O. and I are planning to have the surgery together. Thanks.

Do you mean Flax milk?

Veggie soups with veggie protein - that's a great idea. We have a blender and a food processor. I can cook up a batch before I have the surgery and have it waiting for me when I get home. I have plenty of time to experiment. It's such a pain. I'm allergic to nuts, so I can't have almond milk, and something in the commercial rice milk affects me, too. There's a Whole Foods nearby, so I can use them as a resource. Thanks.