Hi guys, well I am day 1 post op, everything went well, I am in a lot more pain than I anticipated. I remember waking up in recovery in severe pain and I was kinda surprised at that. Was given alot of pain meds and spent about 2 1/2 hours in recovery before going to my room. I slept off and on all day yesterday and got home today. I had the barium swallow and this morning and everything went down fine!! I don't have any gas pains yet. More inside pains if that makes sense. Some pain on the left thats where my port is the doctor said. He said my liver was perfect didn't need to retract that during the procedure which means the preop diet was a success!! Anyway, i'm just going to take it easy drinking a little juice and broth for dinner not too hungry at all but I know I better try to drink. Was given liquid roxicet for pain and took that. I do seem to be swollen in my belly although my incisions are small and painless. I'm glad to be on the "banded" side now!!! Good luck to the rest of the May bandsters!!!
I kept wondering, "am I in green zone", is this it yet" "how will I know". Then I had my third fill.....(first took me to 2cc, 2nd fill took me to 5 cc, third fill took me to 5.6 cc). At 5cc, I found it. I dont have to wonder what green zone it. I literally realized at 12:30 today that I hadnt eaten anything all day....still wasnt even that hungry. I ate 1/2 cup and was fine. I was able to walk past a try of chocolate and donuts and not even struggle. The hunger and thought of food just disappeared. It is so wonderful. I finally am not doubting this band. If it stays like this, I will drop all of this weight b/c it is so nice to remove the hunger and food obsession. What a blessing.
If you have to ask if you are in the green zone, I would argue that you are not. At least that is my experience so far!
I just don't understand why you shouldn't drink while eating. I am pre surgery so i haven't had whatever experience you all are sharing. It just seems counter intuitive to not be able to drink some while eating. Can anyone explain this for me. I am a big fan of learning from other folks mistakes but not without reasons.
It's not a matter of being ashamed or in denial of where you came from. I think many of us feel like who we are on the outside does not match who we are on the inside. So when the outside finally matches the inside, it would be disappointing to have people still view you how they did before. But at the end of the day its not something we can control. Just my take on it anyway.
Interesting question. I hope people will not see me as who I was in the past. I am starting to change not only externally, but Internally.
I have lost 70lbs in the past 9 months (16 of that was post surgery) and I do get very uncomfortable when people who haven't seen me in a while react shocked by how I look. I know it will only get worse when I lose the remaining 90lbs. lol.
Usually a lurker but had to let you know how much I LOVE Goodwill! After I lost 90 pounds and reached my goal, I had to replace my entire wardrobe. I sold EVERYTHING I owned on ebay and as I did so, I replaced with high quality, nice looking clothes. My wardrobe dropped by 1/3 because it took two or three things to sell to be able to buy one thing.
But ebay takes time and I like to try things on --you know, shop!
Then I found Goodwill and I'm hooked. There are three stores near me. I go as often as possible. Since I'm over 55, I receive a senior discount --and I go on 50% off Wednesdays. Because I am thin (yes, really --I keep myself about 10-15 pounds below goal weight) it seems everything fits and looks good! Most recently I bought a suede jacket (with tags still attached) and a summer dress --total cost? $7.50.
I'm a teacher and as I said, a bit older. I don't wear "the latest styles" but I do wear nice clothes every day. The only things I don't buy at Goodwill are shoes. I wear a size 12 and have never found any to fit me!
I've been the same size for 7 years now. That's one of the lovely things about lapband --I get up every morning and know my clothes will fit. Perfectly.
Maybe I've replaced my food addiction with a Goodwill addiction! LOL.
:-)
I was banded on 5/21. I did a 10 day "liquid" diet prior, but actually it allowed fruit and cottage cheese, so I didn't suffer too much.
Between my 10 day prior diet and the week after, I lost 16lbs. It seems like I've leveled out, but I'm struggling with a lot of mental battles.
For context, I lost 25 lbs before surgery on my own across 4 months. I needed to know I could do it and I made a lot of small lifestyle changes. The dietician visits helped more than I expected to show me what I was doing wrong (I was mostlyl on track, but my portion sizes were out of control.) Visiting with the counselor for the psych eval helped a lot too. I plan to keep visiting her to help me reprogram my internal "voices" and messages that I choose to believe. My intent for the band was to help me to slow down my eating, to be a reinforcement to help me continue to take off more weight and to help me keep it off.
I am finding that post surgery I am struggling with a lot of mental battles and being aware of that is half the battle. It seems that before surgery everything was my choice. Now I have a ton of restrictions on me and it "feels" like I have no choice. I'm a little rebellious and struggle with being told I can't do something. I find myself struggling with desires and cravings that I didn't have for over 6 months prior to surgery. I'm trying to figure out where all of this is coming from. I will overcome it, but it's just frustrating right now. It doesn't help that I feel like I could use a fill RIGHT NOW and I have two more weeks to go.
From the day I first had my consult with my doctor I am down 40 lbs (started at 230lbs at 5'1"). I was on a pattern of gaining 30lbs every 10 years. It was creeping up and I was going to be at 300 by the time I was 50. I am glad to have this forum. It helps so much to find others feeling or experiencing similar questions or frustrations. It's just nice to know I'm not alone in what I'm dealing with. There doesn't seem to be a normal experience...everyone is unique in how they heal, how they adjust, and how long it takes. And that is very freeing to know.
I do need to get plugged in to a support group, just to talk to others in person who are also going through "stuff". Sometimes it just helps to hear others' problems or struggles. They bring my own into perspective.
Regarding the surgery, I've had a lot of surgeries on my knees, feet, ankle, carpal tunnel, etc...so surgery wasn't a big deal to me. The anesthesiologist is my favorite doctor (next to my lapband doc). It took an hour to hour and a half. I had 5 incisions on my stomach, 4 that were maybe 1/4 inch, those are the laproscopic incisions and one that was 2 inches about mid mass. It would have all been healed by about the 10 day mark if I hadn't had an allergic reaction to the adhesive. They put tape over each wound. The portion of skin covered by tape reacted and looked as if I had poison ivy. So the 2nd week of healing I was "overcoming" the itching from THAT.
I didn't need any pain killers. I went home and slept the day of surgery. The day after (that would be Day 2) I felt like I had done 1300 situps and could barely roll out of bed. I had to have help getting up. Day 3, I could roll out of bed, but when my skin shifted and moved my wounds, it kind of hurt, but just the area around the wounds. By Day 4, I could roll out of bed fine and by Day 5, I felt fairly normal. Internally, I can kind of feel where the port is if I rub around. You can't feel where the band is. The first two weeks, my insides were sore/tender... I kept thinking it's not normal to feel my guts. They were just sore and if I moved wrong, it would be tender. But now over 3 weeks out, I'm back to normal. No tenderness. My scars itch some, but I'm dealing.
It did take a good 2 1/2 weeks for the swelling in my stomach to go down.
I really expected to have the restricted-I-can-hardly-get-500calories-a-day-down-feeling my friends had. But I don't. So I can't wait for my first fill. I loved the weight loss prior to and right after surgery - it's major incentive to get down to my goal weight. If I feel this good at 190 lbs, then I'm going to feel AWESOME in another 30lbs and another 30 after that, I I don't think I'm going to be one of those that drops tons fast like so many I've heard do. I expect it will be around 1-2 lbs a week of weight loss. But that's ok. The longer it takes, the longer it will stay off. I just want consistency and to keep it off. I'm not going down this road again. Fat is not who I am. I refuse to keep filling that role. (Pun intended )
Two friends who I speak of, a husband and wife, it has taken her 2 years to lose 120 lbs, but for a long time was wasn't taking in the minimum required calories so I think her body has fought her on the weight loss, although there is nothing wrong with her timeline. I think she wants to lose another 20-30 lbs. Her husband reached his goal weight of 130 lbs lost afer surgery within 11 months.
Ladies, men typically lose weight faster. FYI. Don't bother being jealous. We're just different.
For those researching this, I wish you luck in your search. It is a lifetime commitment and a major lifestyle change. But don't do it because you want the band to do it for you. It is not a "crutch" as many like to call it. It is a reinforcement mechanism that you CAN ignore and bypass by stretching out your "new stomach"... Many do fail because they aren't committed. Know your weaknesses and don't rationalize. You have to want it and to want to do the changes required to get it done and keep it "done". And most of all, being overweight is symptom and not just of a lack of discipline, there are internal messages or voices that you likely listen to that you need to address, deal with and reprogram if you're going to make lasting change. People do what they do because they rationalize or justify it.
And I think I just pep-talked myself into a better place. LOL! Hey take care and feel free to drop me a line if you have questions or comments!!!
Here's to being a skinny fat person on my way to being a healthy, fit and balanced slimmer person. I'm unzipping this fat suit and letting my inner skinny OUT!
PS: I forgot to mention the gas. Meaning they pump you full of air in the surgery and that air or gas has to escape slowly over time. I had pretty bad shoulder/trapezius area pain the first week or so. Laying flat made it stop, sitting up made it worse. Also some back/rib pain. It was gone by the 2nd week. I've known others who dealt with it for over 3 weeks. You just have to move and work it out. It's "normal".
PSS: and the burping... It was worse the 1st 2wks. Now I find it's associated with what I eat or what my body position is. I find a few burps will slip out if I lean over... I think they're escaping via the body angle... LOL!
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