The Icy One

I chose "Other." For me, it is just darned ornery-ness. I would get going on a weight loss program, lose a pile of fat, feel all good about myself, fall off the rails, gain it back, invite a whole bunch of that fat's friends to the party and start looking at new diet programs. And WLS. The more I dieted, the more seriously I looked into surgery. Then I would get p*ssed, get back to work and start the whole stupid cycle all over, again. In 2010, I lost 130 pounds through hard work and diet. Over the next few years, I gained almost all of it back. And I knew that I had hit my breaking point. I had to get off of that idiotic roller coaster, once and for all. I Googled Lap Band discussion forums, landed here, lurked, read for a day or so, saw an ad for True Results in Scottsdale, hooked up with them online, registered an account here and the rest is history.

My Fitness Pal sounds like a great tool. I know that a lot of people who have had surgery use it to track their food, calorie and Fluid intake and track their exercise.

They must feel that it is medically necessary that you stay another night. Just kick back and let them spoil you. You'll be home, soon enough.

Good for you. I wish you success, however you go about it. If you don't feel ready for WLS, it is not right for you. You need to be certain. It is a huge, permanent step. Yes, a Lap Band can be removed but it is intended to be in for a lifetime. So, barring an erosion, slip or, in very rare cases, rejection, it stays with the patient. I went back and forth on surgery for years. Will I? Won't? I tried. Did okay a while. Then blew it. Looked in to surgery. Changed my mind, tried again, did okay for a while, failed, gained back, considered surgery, rinse and repeat. I finally got to the point and a weight where I knew that I had to get off that roller coaster. But that was my process, my decision, my reasons. We are all different and have to do what works for us.

Tyger's Mom, that doctor is a jerk. Dump her *ss. Get a new doc. It's a perfectly okay thing to do. You need to be a strong advocate for your own health care. Start by kicking Dr. Jerk to the curb. Weight loss surgery is a huge step to take. It can be a fantastic, health improving, life saving step but it needs to be done thoughtfully, carefully and only after you have done a great deal of research, reading, given it a great deal of deep thought and know without a doubt that you are making the absolute right decision for yourself. Not only is there the consideration of surgery, there is the type of procedure you will eventually decide to have. You are thinking Lap Band? Are you absolutely sure it is right for you? For your body, health concerns, the way you eat now and can adjust to eating in the future? Can you live with lifelong aftercare appointments to maintain and keep watch on your Little Silicone Friend? Do you LOVE the idea that you can control and adjust your WLS to your very specifications? Can you learn to eat very small portions, take small bites and chew very well? Can you learn to time out your bites? Learn to listen to your band? It does talk... You have to learn to listen to it! If you can answer yes to these questions, the Lap Band may be for you. If the answer to any or many of these questions is no, a different procedure may be more suitable for you. In the end, only you can know what is perfect for you, for your body, your health concerns, the way you eat, can learn to eat, what you can live with, what works with your personality and so on. Don't let some judgmental doc who just met you and doesn't know the real you tell you. Let you tell you. You won't steer you wrong.

Woo Hoo! Sounds as if you are doing great! I am so happy for you.

Everyone's different. If they don't feel that you need it, they probably won't give it to you.

Bwahahahaha! "Do Not Feed The Bandster!" *laughing like a hyena*

Every doc is different. Every patient is different. My surgeon had me fill a pile of scripts before my operation. A liquid pain killer (which I ended up not needing and never even opening) fast dissolving anti nausea med, a liquid antibiotc that I had to take for a week after my surgery. (That sh*t was soooo nasty!) My usual meds are smaller tablets that I was able to keep on keeping on with, I knocked them in half for the first couple of weeks, just to be on the safe side but that crap got old and I got bored with it and I just started knocking them back en masse, once again. My Vitamins present a challenge, now. I take a horse pill multi that I knock in half, swallow the halves at the same time, drink a huge cup of hot coffee to dissolve it, then start taking the rest of them, a couple of minutes apart, interspersed with more Water and coffee. I finish with my dissolvables as a treat.

Yay! I'm so glad that everything went well and you are recovering. You know, it's funny, I don't usually have difficulty with my breathing coming out of surgery... I had two surgeries prior to my Lap Band surgery and my breathing both times upon coming out of anesthesia was flawless. BUT, when I woke from my band surgery, I had a bit of difficulty, some weezing, coughing, and I needed a quick breathing treatment. Very unusual for me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that my surgeon messed with my diaphragm when he did my hernia repair? I don't know... Anyway, after the treatment, I was rocking my little spirometer, and I was fine so no biggie. Nattering. I can do it. Keep us posted on how you're doing.

Try starting your morning with a nice, hot drink. coffee, tea... Whatever turns you on. A lot of people find a hot drink will help loosen up and relax things a little, making it easier for protein shakes and water and so on to pass on through. If you are on full liquids, you should be good to go for protein shakes.

Sooo... How'd it go?

Woo-Hoo! And Welcome!

Everything you are feeling, all of those thoughts are so normal! We have all felt them, had to turn around, shout them down and tell them to SHUT UP! I'm, healing, here! It feels as if it will be forever until you can put your coking skills to work then, one day, that day will be there, you will make up a beautiful meal, sit down and savor every little bite. Until your band tells you to stop. Just give it time. And enjoy the ride. You only do this, once. And, shhh... You're going to mess up my cred.

Take a breath! You just had major surgery during which you were pumped full of fluids and drugs and you suffered major trauma to your body. Not only is it perfectly normal for you to not have lost any weight at this point, it is perfectly normal for you to have gained a few pounds. Pounds comprised mainly of water/fluid that will fall away as your body heals and throws off the excess Fluid load that was pumped in pre op, during your procedure and afterward. My advice is like earlier posters. Please cut yourself a break and stay off of your scale, love. You should not be worrying your head about your numbers. Just concentrate on healing and learning how to live La Vida Lap Band. I didn't even step on a scale until I was weighed at my first aftercare appointment, a month after my surgery. The band works. If you work it, it works. Relax, trust the process, trust your band and most importantly, trust yourself. It will happen. For now, take the pressure off of yourself and just... Breathe.

You can do it! Just a couple of days to go. Easy-peasy, lemon squeasy! I had to do three frakking weeks. By the time my surgery date came around, I was about ready to go insane. Pre op diets blow! Mine wasn't terrible, as they go... But I thought mine would never. end.

Good luck! I'l keep you in my thoughts. We'll see you on the other side!

I have Aetna and went through True Results in Scottsdale, AZ for my Lap Band surgery last November. It depends on your individual plan, but no, I did not have to pay up front. I don't have co pays with my plan, so there is that... I didn't pay a dime until after my surgery and all of the bills were submitted to my insurance, negotiated, paid by them then I received the bills for my percentage. All in all, my portion was a couple of grand, give or take a few clams. Not too terrible. I would have been happy with less but I was grateful that my insurance covered the surgery and is paying for all of my aftercare.

Really? REALLY???? BMI is the reason for not doing a band? Uh... I started at 5' 7" 378 pounds and a BMI of 59. My surgeon didn't hesitate to say yes to installing a band around my gut. My starting weight and high BMI were a concern as far as getting me safely through surgery but my surgeon and my psychologist (with whom I spoke for all of about seven minutes) had no issues with it where a band was concerned. The type of WLS each person chooses needs to be based on factors like their own food issues, their body type, lifestyle, how they like to eat, what they are comfortable with, what they are willing to live with, what they can be compliant with. If you are a volume eater who needs help with portion control and are okay with regular aftercare appointments and are a control freak who loves the idea of being able to customize your WLS tool to your own specifications, a Lap Band may be just the thing for you. (Those were the biggies in my decision when I chose the band. ) If you want restriction but not the aftercare, don't feel the need to customize, the Sleeve may be just the thing. Or, a Gastric Bypass... Only you can make that decision, after doing your research, reading up on all of the options available to you, thinking carefully about your own issues and which tool will best help you reach your goals. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, it only matters what YOU want, what YOU need. Clear the voices from the outside and look within yourself and you will find the right answer for you.

My hair shed, really badly for a good, solid six months. Then it suddenly stopped and returned to normal. I think it is our body reacting to the drugs during surgery, after surgery, the drastic change in our nutrition and it's struggle to adjust to it's new state of being. It is shifting the nutrients is it getting around to more vital functions and the "vanity" functions don't receive as much attention and suffer, for a while until the body learns to live in this new reality. For me, Vitamins, Protein shakes, shampoos, conditioners and so forth didn't do any good. My body just shed my hair. I'm just happy that I started out with hella thick hair or I would be in a real pickle, now. As it is, I just have what looks to the casual observer as "normal" hair, even tho to me, it is pitifully thin. I can't wait for this baby re growth to all grow in and my hair to return to normal. I miss my long, thick hair so much!

For me, rolling in my Green Zone is that feeling of satiety, serenity, release from food Jail. It is that signal that I am done when I am done. It is satisfaction hours after I have eaten. It is not feeling an urgent "need to feed" every time I turn around. It is the joy of forgetting about food in favor of other activities for hours at a time. It is never being stuck, never fighting with my band, never arguing with it. It is about working in harmony with my band to achieve my goals. It is a learning process. It is that delicious moment when my stomach has been growling like crazy and all of a sudden, my band communicates with my brain to shut it down and all is still. Calm. Quiet. And I just burst out laughing because for some reason, I find it hilarious. That is a little of what my Green Zone feels like for me.

Hi and welcome! People experience slips for different reasons sometimes, it isn't known why a band slips, a patient can be compliant and it just happens. Other times it can be because someone is living with a too tight band, experiencing a lot of Productive Burping and regurgitating and the force of all of that can, in time cause a slip. Others, if a person, for whatever reason throws up a lot... That can cause a band to slip. A slip doesn't always result in loss of the band. A revision surgery can, in some cases set the band back in it's proper place and after a period of recovery and healing, the patient can get back on with their bandster life. In other cases, the band can't be set back in place and has to be removed or the patient chooses to have it removed and either revises to a different WLS or none, at all. Slipping is a possibility, but it isn't a given. It is a risk that you need to consider as you do your research and make your decision. Yes! It is absolutely okay to exercise with the band! You can do anything with the band that you can do without it.

While not the same surgeon, maybe two who studied Lap Band surgery in the same school?

Three weeks?!?! Seriously? SMH I had to do forty-eight hours of Clear Liquids, then days three through eight full liquids. Then I was on mushies until my first aftercare appointment at the one month mark. I almost went insane by the time that month was up. The progression, whatever one your doc puts you on is important to healing but it is hard. in the process! If you have to have a hernia repair, the swelling from that will help. Mine kept me in my Green Zone for nearly two full months. I didn't have my first adjustment until eight weeks out.

Oh man! Recovering from surgery AND shingles? That. Blows! I had shingles Winter of 2010-11. I wanted to curl up in a ball and go away. It was awful. I can't imagine having it when recovering from major surgery. You poor thing!