MTBiker

For me, the gas (shoulder) pain seemed to increase whenever I ate something, even just the liquids. But a few days and it will be gone. Pain meds seemed to help a lot with that, both in the hospital and at home, and it would always put me to sleep.< /p>

I had a lot of sore throat pain too. When the anesthesiologist came by the next day, I complained that they've been using those tubes for 100 years, and haven't come up with anything better, that doesn't hurt so much afterward. She asked if the lozenges helped.....Lozenges? so my advice is, bring some sore throat lozenges with you, or ask the nurse for one.

I didn't have a pre-op diet other than the weight loss routine I had been on, the only thing I did was eat something at midnight the night before surgery. My surgery wasn't until the afternoon, so I was pretty hungry by the time the rolled me in.

I had a hard time getting my pills down the first week. I had a large Vitamin, a large Calcium, 2 small Vitamin D, and two small rx pills. Most days I would take some, but not all. after about 10 days, I found that it really isn't a problem any more, taking them when I start the bathroom routine first thing out of bed. I do try to do them not all at once but in 2-3 groups, so each set of pills can get down and settle.

I was at Royal Oak Beaumont. Despite of the rantings in my email, they are really at top notch hospital. Extremely efficient and friendly.

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I checked with my surgeon, and he didn't think it was necessary to have a Bracelet, and was rather caught by surprise by the question. I think I will put a note in my ICE (in case of emergency) entry in my phone.

• Surgery date 11/4/8
  
• Highest Weight 280
  
• Preop diet starting weight 239
  
• Surgery weight (Your weight the day of surgery) 239
  
• Current weight 231
  
• Goal weight 172
  

because I had already lost 40 lbs, I didn't have to do a pre-op diet.

I noticed the gas pains the most right after eating something. They are caused by pressure on the diaphram, and manifest themselves in the shoulders. The pain medicine helped the most, walking around some helped too, but I didn't have any on my 5th day. So don't fear, they do go away.

I didn't tell many people before hand, but I found that I had to tell everyone once it was done. Having been through it this week, I can honestly say that is wasn't that bad, and you'll come out fine.

Come on, there must be other men than me out there who have been banded this month! I'm 45, married 20 years, and have 3 great daughters. I've been heavy since third grade, and have lost as much as 40 lbs twice in my adult life, only to gain it back and then some. I again lost 40 pounds in the 6 months leading up to my surgery earlier this week. My surgery story is in my blog (click on blog underneath my name on the left if you'd like to read it). I've always been active, playing golf and mountain biking, and the weight sure does get in the way. I'm looking forward to being able to do things without being out of breath or my pants falling down. But the main reason I've done this is to avoid becoming diabetic and having a heart attack before I hit 70. The downside is that I will need a larger nest egg in the 401k to pay for my longevity.

I'm glad you liked my story. I wanted it to be humorous, just to let people know we can get through this without such dread. The surgery itself didn't seem that big of a deal to me. Best of luck to all of you.

I wrote up my experiences from my hospital stay, and entered them into two blog entries, since the story is too long to enter into a thread. Click on Blog Entries under my name if you'd like to read about it.

Also, I can't get the ticker factory code to work right anymore. Any suggestions?

I lost 41 pounds during the 6 months leading up to surgery. I was following the diet recommended by the weight loss center, and working on getting in a lot of exercise. I've lost 8 pounds in the 6 days since surgery, but I imaging that will taper off, and perhaps reverse a little as my body gets acclimated.

Right now I am having a hard time interepreting the feelings from my gut. I get pains down there. Are they hunger pains? Too full pains? Surgery/healing pains? I just don't know.

I have 2x business casual shirts, t-shirts, khaki pants available. I am looking for the same in 1X or Large.

I am scheduled for 2pm on 11/04! I started this process in April, so its been a busy 6 months. Does anyone know of anything I need to think about, prepare for, bring with me, leave at home, ask a doctor about, ask the anesthesiologist about, ask my wife about? I feel like this is now rushing toward me and I've forgotten something important.

I'm glad to hear that these are generally available. I saw one online last year and it really encouraged me to go forward with it. I'm shooting for November if insurance comes through, and I'll be sure to ask for the video.

I know what you mean. I am now just severely overweight instead of morbidly obese. That severely overweight is a very large range though, it will take me a while to get down to where you are. But good for you.

My suggestion is to find something that you can do to get some exercise in. This may not work for you, but for me, riding a bike is much easier than jogging, or even walking. Someone in your neighborhood has a dusty bike in the garage that you could try riding on your street to see if it works for you. I've noticed that exercise levels are as much or more important to my weight loss than close adherance to the diet.

My weight loss center has a standard 2 week plan of 3 shakes a day, plus any 'free' vegetables that I can eat - like salads and such. However, I asked the dietitian if I could skip this pre-op diet since I've lost 37 pounds with regular diet and exercise since starting this journey in May. The dietitian agrees, but it will be up to the surgeon, and I'm still waiting for an insurance approval.

My insurance doesn't require the 6 month supervised diet, but it has been 4 months since my first seminar, and 3 months since I began a supervised diet under the weight loss clinic supervision. I am still waiting for the surgeon to get approval from insurance, and then they have a 4 week backlog, so it will probably be 5 to 6 months total time for me anyway. My clinic requires the sleep test, nuclear heart tests, ultrasounds and more. Many thousands of dollars worth of tests that my insurance thankfully all covered. Anyway, the only point being you have to work within the system that is available to you, and the insurance coverage that you have. To me it is a great opportunity to have insurance cover this procedure, and it is well worth the effort to play by their rules to make it happen.

I have read out here in the forum that if your caloric intake is too low, you won't lose weight. The body is very efficient at protecting itself from starvation. Keep up the walking, but try to follow the prescribed diet too. I would also suggest a big activity day once in a while if you are up to it, like walking farther or a different type of exercise that may give your body a jolt. Using a pedometer helps a lot, I know that if I have 10,000+ step days, the weight will drop off. Good luck.

I am in imaging systems architect for a major bank, and a member of the AIIM Michigan board of directors. Most of my time is spent on conference calls and answering email.

What is the reasoning behind not using straws? Is this a permanent requirement, or just while healing?

My previous employer's health insurance also didn't cover any weight loss. This is often due to the contract between the insurance co and the employer company, so your anger perhaps should be directed at the employer. I also filed an appeal, though not with a lawyer, and was summarily dismissed. My only break was that my company was aquired, and the new owner company health plan does allow for lapband. If you don't have a career invested in your current employer, it may be worth it to change jobs.

I am working with the Beaumont Weight Control center in the Detroit area. They are very thorough, and the best thing they did for me was give me a pedometer, and tell me to shoot for 10,000 steps per day. This way each morning I take a quick note on my palm pilot of my morning weight and the number of steps from yesterday. I've been tracking it on a spreadsheet, and while I have been pretty faithful to the initial diet (I'm not banded or on pre-op liquids yet) I can definitely see from the trends that days of high exercise lead to big drops in weight, while days with lower activity result in minimal weight loss. I think my body is very clever at trying to maintain or increase my weight, even when the calorie count has dropped. Adding exercise helps keep the metabolism up and lets the pounds come off.

So I heartily recommend getting a pedometer. You'll be able to see how a normal inactive day only results in a couple thousand steps, yet mowing the lawn, or vacuming the house gives you a couple thousand boost. I like to ride my bike, and I clip the pedometer on my shoe, since it doesn't register anything if it is on my hip. If you shoot for having a few 10,000 step days per week, with most days over 5,000, you may see some improved weight loss.