Kami63

Dr. Nicholson did my surgery on March 6th. I am very happy. Very easy recovery and no nausea or vomiting. I was up walking about 3 hours after I got back to my room and didn't even get back in the bed till I went to sleep that night. I was at Forrest Park~Frisco. Nice place, I don't know why but I was given one of the VIP suites up on the 4th floor. Nice 2 room suite, so it was comfy for my hubby who wanted to stay with me.

I think most of his staff is great, the PA that visited me in the hospital the next morning was wonderful. His PA in the Plano office though, I have not been overly impressed with for follow up visits. Had one at two weeks then six. I don't have another till 6 months which will be in Sept. but will request to see Dr. Nicholson. I just think she didn't do much. She weighed me, told me what to eat and was out in 3 minutes flat. Was pretty much a waste of my time. I asked her if was going to look at my incisions at the 2 week check and she said no! I was pretty shocked! BP? Nope. At 6 weeks I asked her to check my incisions.

I think Dr. Nicholson is a wonderful surgeon and would use him again or recommend him to anyone. My scars are so small.

Oh, and he does the leak test in the OR so no yukky swallowing stuff the next day. It also means you can start sipping as soon as you wake up! Major upside!

I agree! It was nice to not have to do the swallow and get fluids as soon as my nausea went away. I would definitely recommend Dr Nick as well. I haven't ad much experience with the PA yet though. I will keep that in mind.

I will tell you that the left side pain goes away around week 3 post op. I was twisting in bed one night and it felt like a balloon popped inside my stomach (did not hurt) and then I was 100% pain free! Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Glad to see you didn't back out! Right before my surgery I must have had a look on my face because everyone who came in told me not to run off lol

Good luck to you both! Try to enjoy yourselves over the holiday. The answer will come...

Wow! I also had surgery on 6/25 at Forrest Park with Dr Nicholson. Small world I still have the pain on the left side too. I had nausea after surgery but never vomited..yay! I just went for my first walk outside this morning since it was only 80 degrees. What have you been doing for exercise with his heat?

I started off strong with the pre op diet consisting of the 3-4 Protein shakes per day. I had lost a total of 16lbs sticking to the diet. However I went off the diet and gained 10lbs back. I had no idea that if you gained any of the weight back you would be required to start over. So now I have till August 1st to lose the required 10lbs or I can not keep my surgery date of August 30th. If anybody has any advice I would greatly appreciate it.

First remain calm! I altered my eating habits for over a year and lost 50 pounds including 10 on the preop diet. Basically you will take one day at a time and make a lot more good choices than bad choices. You have one month to lose 10 pounds so find something that you can stick to and choose foods that you don't mind eating routinely. The Southbeach diet is one that has worked for several of my friends. Usually in phase 1 you can lose 10 or more pounds. I never had trouble losing weight, it was just keeping it off that was my problem lol good luck!

I was sleeved on the 26th. Feel great except this right incision where they removed my stomach is killing me constantly. Do you think that's just the process or maybe I separated it too far?

Sleeved on 25th and mine big incision hurts pretty bad. Taking it easy and taking pain meds still. Hopefully in a few days we will all feel better.

I have been reading various posting and found yours to be more personal. I had to have a MRI on my knee and found I have multiple tears. I have been told in the past that I should consider the surgery by a doctor. I guess I was more nervous because I would hear the negative stories about people not making it afterwards. I have my appointment with my primary doctor to see what she suggest. This time, I will obey the instruction and act on my Faith in God. I am 53 yrs old and want to live healthy life... I am sorry, I did not do this when my insurance approval me. I am encourage and want to feel better ....

I am sorry to hear about your knee. I hope that you and your doctor find the right option for you. Also, i do believe that everything is meant to be and has its timing. I was scared too because I already had the lapband fail. I also,started to get scared that I would not make it through the surgery but I tell you, everything fell into place so perfectly that I had to believe this was the right choice for me. There were so many things that all had to be perfect and they kept all happening. I told my husband that I felt I was meant to not be approved 3 years ago because I would have had the bypass and that surgery scared me and I already have problems with my Vitamin levels so I don't need the mal nutrition. I took it on faith that this was the right decision for me and I had my surgery on 6/25. I am not going to say that recovery is easy but I know that I will be able to live my life again and my back will get better and better as my weight decreases. Good luck and I will pray for you. Also, if you have any questions feel free to message me, I would be more than happy to answer them for you.

Funny story:

The day I got home from surgery, I went to "breakfast" with my brother and dad. They had the special: eggs, potatoes, bagel, coffee - $5.49.

I ordered chicken broth and hot Decaf tea. They charged me for "soup" $3.99 and $1.99 for the tea.

You do the math...

Ridiculous!

ok and OMG I just sneezed can you say aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh it felt like i got punched , please i beg of you all dont sneeze ever save yourself lol

Oh no! Better take my allergy medicine lol

I accidentally drank too fast I recommend not doing that my tummy hurts. Thankfully it was only about two ounces. I won't be doing that again...

My husband ate a hotdog the other day and it smelled terrible! I thought for sure I would throw up lol but I didn't. I guess everyone is different!

Congrats!!! My last few days felt like months but I was having a stressful time at work with taking my leave. Hopefully it will pass quickly for you!

I am day 1 post op, now resting at home from band removal and conversion to gastric sleeve. My surgeon said my surgery took over 4 hours because 1)my pancreatic artery was trapped inside the band, 2)lots of scar tissue posterior side of band, 3). Not only was my port sewn in side ways (hence the electrical shocks I had been getting) but was leaking Fluid. And the kicker is it was a port from the Realize band attached hodgepodged to an allergan lapband which are not interchangeable! No wonder I have had so many problems with the lapband. Good riddance lap band and hello sleeve!

What the he**? I hope you went to a new surgeon. That is crazy! I am so glad you got the band out. Hopefully us ex banders will thrive the sleeve

I had lapband removed and sleeved in 50 minutes. Was in OR for prep and surgery a total of 1 hr 20 minutes.

Fascinating...I wonder if that means tat my husband might naturally be able to eat more if he had the surgery. He is 6 feet tall. I would think the taller you are the bigger your stomach might actually be....

Good post thanks!

I haven't had any trouble drinking. But I'm further out than you. Just take it slow and try Gatorade.

I had horrible hiccups the first week but they are gone now. Wait until you sneeze

Also, I know this is tmi but we are all in the same boat. I didn't go #2 for 8 days. I finally mixed some miralax with my drink and the next day I went. Now it's all diarrhea. Everything I've read says that's normal because we are only drinking liquids.

Yeah I got the Gatorade so I will try some of that. Thanks!

I heard last Tuesday from my doctor that my surgery was approved by insurance. But they submitted the wrong code.. Hey submitted the one for the Lap-Band.. So they had to call in the new code to insurance to assure approval. As of Friday evening they still haven't done this.. And they won't set up anymore of my appointments until this is done. So once again I am at a stand still.. I am a planner and would love to know when my life is gonna change.. Ugh.. Just bummed I guess..

I am sorry. I guess the coordinators can make mistakes too! Hopefully if they approved you for a band, they'll approve you for a sleeve. Hang in there ...

I crush mine per my instructions. I put the in the chocolate Protein Shake. It seems to mask the taste the best. I tried swallowing one small pill whole and it hurt so I will crush mine until I see the doc for my two week.

Yup, dr's office told me they are fine as long as you are drinking slow and taking my Pepcid. If they become uncontrollable though then to call back. I am ready to not have them lol

Wow. I have had trouble getting in liquids today. Is everyone else still having trouble getting liquids in? The color of my pee still looks ok. Sorry if TMI. If that changes I'm going to call the on call Dr.

I quit the week before my preop diet because I knew I would already be battling with not eating lol. So I didn't feel great for 3 weeks but I think I would have felt worse if I tried during my preop diet. I don't want soda by the way. I am trying hard enough to ge liquids in that Soda is not appealing at all. I did have Decaf coffee in the hospital which tasted great but you have to balance that with Water and Protein so I don't think I will go back to having coffee every day.

I was banded in 2004 developed reflux and have been un-filled. Looking into the sleeve.

Hey there! There is a section for band to sleeve revisions if you want to see some stories. I had my band revised to a sleeve on 6/25. I am newly out of surgery so I still have pain. But I have no regrets. I am just tired. If you are like me, you may have horrible chest pain from where the band sits. That pain never went away for the 6 years I had the band. Right out of surgery it was gone! This was the right decision for me because my band failed 7 months out of surgery. The rest of the time was spent throwing everything up and fill then unfilled then fill... They could never get it right. then test after test where they told me there was nothin wrong with my band. This went on until 3 years ago when I got a NEW surgeon and he completely unfilled my band to let it heal. We started trying with the insurance at that time to approve the removal. After being denied several times, finally in May of this year I got approved with my current insurance for both the removal and the sleeve. Here I am, sleeved

I am sure I will have more to tell as my journey goes on. I already feel a difference between the two though. Good luck with your journey and I don't mind answering any questions you at have.

Hi everyone. Just a post to share my story. I was banded in 2008 and have had a love/hate relationship with this band ever since. It took a year and a half, and a dozen fills to get it right. I did lose just over 50 lbs and have kept it off. But my eating for the last few years seems terrible to me. So many healthy foods I can't tolerate. Eating out is miserable. Travel is the pits. The fickleness of this band boggles the mind! Sometimes I can eat my portion fine, the rest of the time I'm stuck and vomiting on two bites. The constant tightness in my chest and pressure when I eat. And don't get me started on the heartburn! I never had it pre band. and it has been constant these last 5 years. I am so grateful for these years of weight loss, but I am so ready to try the sleeve.

We took a family trip to Disney in April and I ended up in the bathroom vomiting at almost every meal. I think our flight went up to a very high altitude, and the band was mad at me for the whole trip. I knew I had been having more vomiting episodes, but this just made it very clear in my mind that I needed to do something. When I got home I immediately went to my hospital website to see if they are doing sleeve now, they are, and I made an appointment that day. I was very interested in the sleeve back in 2008, but it was not performed at my hospital then, and no insurance coverage either.

I did spend some time considering having the band removed and not doing another surgery. When the band was put in I was told it was for life, now it's a very different story. Based on that I can't help thinking that 5 years from now there may be a different story with the sleeve too. But in the end, I can't go back to 255 (at only 5'2"), and I'm pretty sure that is what would happen.

So far I have met with my surgeons assistant who recommended me for revision. The psychiatrist and the nutritionist. I now have an appointment on July 18 with my surgeon. I am thinking there are tests he will want to do. And I am nervous about getting insurance approval. But one step at a time. I am hoping to have the revision in the next few months. We'll see.

LapBandTalk and this site have been so amazingly helpful through all these years. It's been great to be able to read all the stories of other people going through this revision process. So a big thanks to all of you!!

Sounds like you are on your way! You have support here. I just had my revision Tuesday so I am still navigating the sleeve...lol no regrets just tired as hell. The Band surgery was worse for me in the way of pain , but this surgery is worse on being tired bc it is difficult a first to get your liquids and Protein in. Good luck on your journey

Made it home this afternoon. Fortunately I didn't require a blood transfusion. Keeping liquids and Protein down ok. Minor tummy spasms. Positive thoughts to everyone this weekend.

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Great! Glad you could go home where you could be more comfortable.

I was sleeved Monday, June 24th. I am having a tough time drinking fluids also. Very frustrating. Constant fullness. Taking my crushed pills is the worst.I just made myself a Protein Shake , took one sip and I am so full & uncomfortable!!! Hard to take my hydrocodone also. Hopefully this will pass soon!!

Glad to know I'm not the only one. It feels like my new little tummy cramps when I put anything other than crystal light in it. But I cannot take the taste of the crushed pills in crystal light, so I put them in the Protein shake and ssssllllooooowwwwllly drink the shake. I agree that I hope this gets better!