LeslieW

Thank you ladies! This is such a liberating experience. I am so looking forward to the rest of my life now!

OMG trollbusters. ROFLOL ... Oh no.. I still have incisions.. I dont know if I should be laughing that hard.

Happy birthday! Your blog post made me giggle! You have that Mohito! Celebrate you and what a wonderful hubby you have there! Have a fun day!

HOT DOG! Congratulations!!!!! How exciting for you!

It is important for me to share my journey with others. I will be honest about what I am feeling so that new people or people thinking about getting banded can have an honest view point. I believe most people are this way but there are also some trolls out there with weird agendas that want to scare people. There will be ups and downs as with anything, I am sure. It is my goal to honestly portray what it is like to be banded. I am 34 years old with a start weight of 305. I have a large blended family. Between my husband and I we have 6 children and a very busy life. I am 8 days post op today. My surgery included a hernia repair, lapband and plication. My band was not "primed" at time of surgery. My first fill is scheduled for 6 weeks post op. To be quite honest, I am one of those people who don't do well with any pain meds. They knock me out and generally make me groggy. That is what happened this week. Not only was I groggy but I experienced discomfort like never before in my life. This was me being unprepared as I have never had major surgery before. The gas pains alone threw me. They are not your standard gas pain. Until you have it you really won't know what people mean when they are talking about the gas. When you have your band do what everyone says and walk, walk, walk. The first three days after surgery, I was happiest when walking. Working out the gas pressure is a relief! My relationship with food this week has been an emotional roller coaster. In the beginning of the week, I felt like I had lost a dear friend. I am still on the clear liquid part of my post op diet. It seems like every commercial on TV is about food. Food I don't even normally like looks delicious. Now, at the beginning of my second week Post OP, those commercials no longer bother me. I have accepted the stage of the diet I am on and I know that eventually I will be able to eat "real food" as long as I keep it healthy I WILL succeed! My relationship with my husband has gotten stronger. I am 34 years old and needed help taking a shower, getting dressed and making broth for myself. He stepped up and did all of these things for me. He took the kids to school, cleaned house, and made their dinner all while holding down a job of his own. I could not have done as well this week without his loving support. When I was ready to start doing things on my own again he did not smother me. He is letting me take control back one step at a time, as I am ready. I am truly blessed to have him in my life. I hope everyone can find support in this journey as I have. I have had a lot of time to think this week. I took a long hard look at myself and have decided I will not fail my band. Notice I did not say the band will not fail me. I will not fail the band because I have made a decision to follow doctor's orders, to be honest with myself and to let my support system help me. I made the decision to take this step in my life for my health. Let's be honest here.. I also have dreams of feeling sexy again. I am 34 not 90. It is up to me to see that this tool helps me reach my goal. I believe with all my heart personal responsibility needs to be a big part of the healing process. So flash forward to post op day 8. I feel fantastic today! I have no more pain. I have not had to take my pain meds for two days. The gas is all gone. Food commercials no longer bother me. I am not weak or groggy anymore. So I promised in my title two NSV's (non scale victories) and one SV (scale victory). So already I am encouraged by progress. My first and a very important NSV is I was able to get my wedding rings back on. Not only are they on but they are comfortable and no longer cutting into my fingers! As I was heartbroken and sorely disappointed in myself when I had to take them off, I am overjoyed to wear them again. My husband is also very proud I am wearing his rings again. The second and also very important NSV.. I was able to sleep in my own bed last night! This was the first time in 10 years I have had to sleep apart from my husband when in the same house. We have never let a fight make one of us sleep on the couch. I spent the entire last week in my recliner because it was the only comfortable spot to sleep. I am so HAPPY to be back in my own bed. And drum roll please... My scale victory... As of this morning I am down to 289 from 305lbs. 16 lbs lost! I have not seen the scale move backwards in years and never has it moved 16lbs! I can do this. If you are a new person with doubts and questions.. YOU can do this if you want to. Do research. When you think you have done enough.. do some more. It is not easy. Oh boy is it not the easy way out.. It is a tool for you to use. If you want success, reach out and grab it. It is there for you. Remember success comes with bumps in the road. These are just things we all have to get through. It is part of life. I am sure I will have ups and downs. Lets be realistic. Of course there will be ups and downs. I will share as many of these as I can that I feel people considering this journey should hear. If something goes wrong (unlikely), I will be honest about it and what caused it. I will share the victories as well. Thank you for reading my first blog. I wish you all success in your own journeys no matter what road they take. I am happy to answer any questions I can if you have any. =)

I believe that person is from OH already. I am also sorry that happened to you but some of the things you say in your post just out right flag it as fishy. First of all.. you are not supposed to drink with your meals with ANY WLS. The band is the safest WLS surgery currently available and that is a fact supported by research. Had you done any research at all you would have known that without a doctor having to tell you. I am sorry you were not told of complications before your surgery but I find that hard to believe unless your doctor is just really a shady doctor. My doctor actually offers the B12 shot as regular follow up with fills. Malnutrition is not a side affect of Lapband. It is a known side affect of some other surgeries. Being in the healthcare industry, lapband DOES NOT cause AFIB. There were so many untrue things in your post it is hard to narrow them down. You have the right to say what you like but its not right to try to scare people with "Horror Stories". Lapband is a tool. It is an inanimate object without the ability to be good or evil. That was just silly.

my preop diet was the following... seriously it was on the hand out... egg whites, Protein shake as many as you want no limit, skinless chicken breast no sauces, sugar free Jello, sugar free pudding, chicken, beef, or vegetable broth. That was it. I was completely sick of it the day before surgery. Now i wish i could have it back because I have 3 more weeks of liquids and i desperately would love to chew something! Starting bmi is on my ticker.

I didn't cheat. I did the 2 week preop diet.. I was allowed to have protein like chicken with no skin on it and broths. Sugar free popsicles and sugar free pudding. However, my doctor prescribed me 2 antibiotics. Neomycin and something else to take the day before surgery.. for a total of 12 pills I had to take the day before surgery. I took that first dose and thought I was going to die. I had the worst visits to the bathroom I can remember in ages. I called the nurse and she told me to stop taking them immediately and eat some bread and banannas to try to help stop it. I did not eat the banannas but I did eat a grilled chicken sandwich. No condiments. Just the two pieces of bread and the chicken breast. I wouldn't classify that as cheating since I was told to do it. But if you are not told to do it, dont. Hopefully you wont have the same problem if you are given antibiotics the day before. I would not wish that on anyone.

Congrats and good luck!

OMG you dont know how happy I am to hear you say you still eat steak. I LOVE veggies. I actually love healthy food. I just got in this huge lazy habit of just making easy really bad for you foods. One of the things I was mourning was steak though. I thought for sure I would never eat another one. I have no problems giving up bread but I was really sad about the steak lol. Ok I can look forward to that a few months down the road.

No.. you must sip your water. You will pretty much be sipping A LOT but you have to go slow and trust me you will want to. If you drink too fast you will get gas and it will hurt. It takes a little getting used to but it is worth it. Now this is just right after surgery. A few weeks post op you will be able to drink more like normal and having a larger intake of water is great. However, you should not drink while you are eating. If you drink at the same time you eat it can push the food through faster. You want to get the full feeling longer and be able to have time to absorb your nutrients before they go through the different digestive stages. I am not sure about everyone else but I was not allowed to have ice water until today. Right after surgery they would not let me go home until I sipped 2 16 ounce bottles of water. But I had to go slow and they were cool not cold. The nurse said cold right after surgery is not good because it can cause your stomach to spasm. I dont know the truth in that but I complied so I could go home same day. Don't be afraid of failure. Some of the most beautiful successes have come from what someone would term "failure". It is just a word.

Well I am 6 days post op today. To tell you the truth I felt horrible until today. I was weak and just sleeping all the time. However, a lot of people do much better than I did. I do not react well to pain meds. They knock me out for days. Also, I had a hernia repair, lapband and plication done at the same time. So I think I just needed a little extra time. Because I had plication with the band my diet is 2 weeks clear, 2 weeks full, 2 weeks mushy, then to try for the more solid foods. I think the regular band diet is one week each stage. Now this morning, I woke up feeling great and got froggy. I went to a friends house and walked around a store for a few minutes. We went to Olive Garden and got Soup. I ate the clear broth off of one of their Soups. The experience was odd to say the least. I took three sips of my drink and have about 8 spoonfuls of soup and brought the rest home. I think the waitress was a little put off lol. I would say I was out for about 4 hours and promptly fell asleep for the next 4 when I got home. I have read a lot of people feel a lot better than I did sooner after surgery. I am happy to be feeling great now and really just think it is up to each individual body how well they are doing. If you can take at least a week off work, I would.

Yep that was my post. What they didnt see was my husband having to tell me I am ok and that I am not going to fail. He has been a trooper with all of this. He even has slept on the couch next to me all week while I have slept in my chair. I am so happy to have found this forum. I will be sticking around here lol.

Uh yeah.. LOL Hunger is one of my mega B**** triggers. I am in the process of finding other ways to deal with the inner demon lol.

Yeah it scared the hell out of me too! I am on day 6 and just now starting to feel good. I was like holy crap I am going to die even though I know that isn't true. I am a smart person. I did my research. It's not like any of us just rolled out of bed one morning and said gee I think I am going to get major surgery today. I agree With SinCityGal. It is a toxic site. I have been able to get my head back on straight by posting and reading here and in the group run by my surgeons office. My husband reminded me about that commercial for insurance that says.. it has to be true if its on the internet. LOL Bonjour!! I would advise anyone to stay far far away from that site. *As far as autoimmune diseases, the only one that is listed as a direct contradiction to the band is Lupus. But, even with Lupus, there are people who have it and still do just fine with the band. * I am not sure what all is actually listed as far as the company that makes the lapband but my surgeon said it was contraindicated in people with Lupus, HIV, and Rheumatoid arthritis. He went over all of that in my preop. He was very detailed in what expectations should be. I am so glad lupus has not shown up for you yet Missy. I do hope you dodge that one. I would not wish that on anyone. I admire your strength!

Dont freak! It's ok. We all go through that stage. It will be ok. You need to find out whatever you have to do to start having faith in yourself. Do your research. Educate yourself on the positives and know what could go wrong. Also know the band is a tool. It is not a magical fix. It is a great wonderful tool that can help you where diets and fads fail. It's not a diet. Start there. The word diet is no longer allowed in my house. I am not on a diet. This is just how I eat now. I eat healthier smaller meals but even with being on soups and liquids right now I feel so much better. I am proud of myself where I have never been before. Just think, you are doing something huge for yourself. For yourself.. don't do it for the kids, or husband or anyone else. If you decide to do it, do it because you need it for yourself and your health in the future. If you have questions, ask them here. Let people who have had positive outcomes and have been in your shoes help you out. They have so much knowledge and experience here! Research your surgeon just as much. Make sure you get a surgeon who's office staff welcomes all the questions you could possibly think of. Even if you think they are silly. There are no silly questions. Keep us posted. There is strength in numbers. Even through the internet!

Oh also.. in regards to the lupus... The person who says that is miserable because she developed lupus after she had her band. Her surgeon never told her the band is contraindicated in people who have auto immune diseases. My surgeon clearly laid out all of the contraindications with me. It is not the fault of the band or any doctor that she developed the disease and her body went nuts attacking the band. She was one of the people who attacked me for just saying hello.

I am newly banded.. Just had it on Friday. I went there because a friend told me to after I got home Friday night. I didnt really read the forum before I posted a hello. You can probably still find on there where I said hello. Immediately people were telling me I made the worst decision on my life and good luck the band will hurt you like it hurt me. They completely flamed my post. I was so shocked and disgusted that I posted how shocked I was someone would dare be that nasty to a person who just had surgery. Several people there came to my defense and one of them posted in her response about this forum. I have been frantically reading through everything on here despite five years of research and the utmost faith in my surgeon. That little what if they planted was really detrimental to the first few days of recovery. I told my friend not to ever tell me to go to another website. The venom there is unbelievable. When I finally made myself post a hello here I was greeted with warm hellos and congrats on the surgery. I belong to a help group run by my surgeons office. I love the group but sometimes you want to see more. I love coming here now and I have been on here every day since Saturday looking at what everyone has to say. I find this a much better place to come to get insight on what people are going through. It is not possible for every single band to fail.

This makes total sense to me. I have only been banded for 6 days but the week before my band I was having emotions almost like being pregnant. i would cry for no reason sometimes just thinking about life after the band. I said good bye to all of the food that I know I over eat on. I tried to explain the emotions to my best friend and my husband but they just looked at me like I was crazy. It is hard to explain the emotional attachment to food to people who don't have a problem with it.

Good luck!

I am glad you made it home ok! Just go slow. I have to be on liquids for the next 3 weeks. You can do it. I have one week down. The only time I had problems really is when the food my family is eating smells really good. I am on clear liquids only though so you are doing better if you can have the full liquids like shakes. I like crunchy salty foods too. Actually the sweetness of the popsicles bothers me a bit. If they had cashew flavored ones I might do better! lol Congrats on getting banded! You can do it!!

welcome to the banded world!

Congrats on your success!

Welcome to the forum! There are some great stories here. I just joined last week and have found everyone very welcoming. I hope you find the info you need here. Congrats on starting your journey.

yes. I was banded same day. I am still very swollen and feel really weak.