SeattleSweetie

Yep, agreed. Congratulations on being banded now though, PB! I'm sorry that your experience wasn't what you thought it would be, but I'm still happy for you that you got a band.

I woke up from surgery to find I didn't have a band at ALL because my liver was too big. My doctor was considering doing an open surgery, but didn't want to go so drastic since I'm still pretty young. He put me on a 6-week low carb diet instead, and when I went back to try surgery again, it went great. He said the diet reduced my liver by more than 50%. He had photos of my liver from both surgeries. The first, it was like a big huge floppy steak. Just laying there. He couldn't hardly move it at all. The second surgery it was way smaller and he took photos of it being lifted up and turned partially over and of all the extra space there was. Anyway, this is probably way more than you wanted to know...

Yummy!!!! I survived my three weeks of liquids! And I didn't kill anyone!!! :biggrin2: My version of a chicken Pot Pie or Chicken and Dumplings... These food are all soft and were preapproved and cleared by my doctor and nutritionist at my three-week appointment today. YAY!!! (Oh and yeah, I know it's a lot of food, but I cook in large batches and freeze individual portions for the days I don't want to cook.)

I was never told anything like this either. I'm on Junel FE and nothing was ever mentioned to stop taking it.

Do you have your fills with Flouroscopy or the Water method Nance? (And thank you Dr, that's really what I was wondering.)

Thanks Fluff! I'm feeling really good and motivated. I'm 3 weeks out and I've only lost 17 lbs since surgery (probably because I've eaten a lot more fattening cream soups in the last week or so than I should have, when I started getting really desperate and hungry). The other 29 lbs I lost on my low-carb diet that I had to do for 6 weeks before surgery.

I keep hearing about how many people don’t have good restriction until their second, third or fourth fill, and there’s a couple things I don’t understand. Anyone who knows, can you help me out here? 1. Does the method of fill (drinking Water vs fluoroscopy) make a difference in whether a person feels restriction after their fill? 2. From what I understand, is the 'drinking water' method something like having you drink water as they fill you, until the water won’t pass through your band anymore, and then they take a little out? (I’m only 3½ wks out from surgery, I haven’t had a fill yet to know). 3. If that IS correct, then how would you not have restriction after the first fill? 4. If that’s NOT correct, can you please tell me how a fill is preformed with the ‘drinking water’ method? Like I said, I’m only about 3½ wks out from surgery, but I’m just trying to kind of get an idea in my mind about how all this will work. My doctor typically does fills with the ‘drinking’ water method and I’m kindof trying to mentally prepare myself and understand. Thank you so much. :cool2:

Hi Josh, congratulations!! You're doing so well! I was banded on June 23rd and you're describing my experience exactly. Quick weight loss, feeling starved, and the wierd burpy thing all happened to me. I'm not a Dr, so I can't say the burps are normal, but I can say that you aren't the only one who's had them! It sounds like you're going to do GREAT on this, best wishes!!

Aw, I'm so sorry, I know how frustrating this can be. :party: I've been there myself. When I had my first surgery on May 5th, I was in the hospital, asleep on the table, they had started the operation, and when they got to my liver, the doctor said it was just way too big. There was no way he could get around it and do good work. He said he could have done a kindof half-a$$ job, but he wouldn't have felt comfortable with it and I would have been more likely to have slippage problems in the future. Before that surgery, I was supposed to be on a low-carb diet, bucause carbs are really what help make your liver so big - they break down into glycogen, and glycogen is mainly stored in your liver. So when I was doing my diet, I stayed away from like, bread, Pasta, potatos, etc, but I wasn't really careful with the rest of my food. I wasn't reading labels like I should have, and I came to find out later I had been eating MANY more carbs than I was supposed to because many foods have carbs in them that I wouldn't have expected - fruits, veggies, dairy, etc - and my attitude had just not been in the right place at the time around to learn all this. So after I woke up from that surgery, I was SOOOO dissapointed. I cried quite a bit, it was horrible. But it was bad enough and I was desperate enough that I kicked my butt into gear and did a really strict low-carb diet for the next six weeks (under my doctors instruction) so that it would shrink my liver and my next attempt at the surgery would go well. The thing is, when you're on a low-carb diet, most of the initial weight that you lose is Water weight, however, it can be a LOT if you stick to it - I lost 29 lbs in the six weeks between my surgeries on this diet, a lot of it was dropped really quickly at the beginning of the diet. It's not a lot of fun if you're a carb-fiend, but it's pretty effective for quick, short-term weightloss. Perhaps you might consider talking to your doctor about a low-carb diet, or doing low-carb meals on the plan you're on now? It can be much easier to lose water weight than real fat to start out with (Once you've lost the water weight, you WILL start losing fat after that, the water just goes first), and as a bonus, the first thing to shrink is your liver, which is the main organ that your doctor has to get around in order to do the surgery. If you think that's something that might help you, or that you'd want to consider, then here is a big post that I wrote about low-carb diets - an explanation of what it is and how it works, things to watch out for and how to make it really work for you. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/pre-operation-lap-band-surgery-questions-answers/65020-how-shrink-your-liver-increase-st-weight-loss-low-carb-pre-op-diet.html#post864546 Anyway, I hope maybe this can help you out? I'm sorry you're having such a tough experience, but I really hope you're able to get through this short, tough time and get your band. It will be worth all the hassle in the end. :tt1: ((((((((hugs!!)))))))) Edit: here's another good post of all the good things someone else ate on a low-carb diet and dropped a lot of weight really quickly - http://www.lapbandtalk.com/pre-operation-lap-band-surgery-questions-answers/65020-how-shrink-your-liver-increase-st-weight-loss-low-carb-pre-op-diet.html#post867196

So far as I am aware, most employers have a 3rd party company that handles disability administration (like at my job, we have a company called Prudential that handles ours), and they are the ones you should contact for disability (contact your HR or benefits department for the disability company's phone number if you don't know who to call). This third party company should do all the contact with your doctors, review any medical files they need to and approve or deny your disability claim. They will not pass on any info to your employeer except to tell them whether your claim was approved or denied, so that your employer can pay you appropriately. This is so that you can claim disability without your employer knowing the details of anything going on. I point this out just so people know they don't have to be afraid to apply for disability. Your employer will never know the details of your medical history if you go this route.

I don't have any good books to offer, but I have some webpages that helped me quite a bit: LAP-BAND: Laparoscopic Obesity Surgery | Procedure Lap-Band Surgery - Consumer Guide to Weight Loss Surgery Lapband.com - How It Works Gastric Banding and Lap Band Surgery for Weight Loss They all offer pretty good info on the lap-band. Hope this helps!

I used short-term disability. It paid 70% of my normal pay rate, and there was no waiting period (like having to use 5 days of PTO (same thing aclubb described) time before disability kicked in) if I was hospitalized overnight.

I was about 10 days or so out from surgery when I could finally sleep comfortably on my side.

If for some reason you do have problems with the extra air you get drinking through a straw, but love using them and just don't want to quit, it will help if when you drink, you hold the liquid in your mouth for just a sec and let out the extra air before you swallow, rather than just swallowing it all straight down. I'm a big straw fanatic and that's what I do to save myself the burpy pain.

I have one suggestion, having gone through something a little like what you're doing (my liver was too big once I actually got into surgery and it had to be stopped and postponed) - Reschedule your surgery NOW so that you have a definite date in 4 weeks. Don't wait till the 4th week when the diet is over and then ask about scheduling, it could take a while depending on how busy your doc is. Getting your date ahead of time will also give you something to look forward to so you don't have that feeling that things are never going to get better. Having your date can be a real help to keeping you motivated.

Yay! I'm very happy for you. :biggrin:

Congratulations to you too! :biggrin:

If you're serious about wanting to do things right, then by all means follow the advice of all the (very well-meaning) long-term bandsters who have posted here. Your first post sounded rather off-putting, that you were going to do it your way no matter what you were told. However, if everyone here just misinterpreted, then please understand their responses are only intended to help, whether it be with soft and cushy replies, or tough-love replies. The people who have been here and been successful for so long do wish to see the same success in everyone else who comes through this site, and anything they can do to help, they will. If they think you need to hear something you may not want to hear, they're going to tell you. That's how it goes, and in the long run, that's much more supportive and helpful than just agreeing with, and validating, someone who wants to do things their way, regardless of the consequences. However, no one here hates you, or anything even close. If you're here looking for real support and real help and you're doing your best to follow the rules given to you by your doctor, then we are ALL here to support you. Every single one of us. We will give you every piece of advice and info we can and we'll pass along every single thing we've learned in any manner that we're able. That's what this place is all about. It's really damn hard sometimes, we know this, we're all living it. But things do get better. Just make sure you do the best job you can of taking care of yourself for your OWN future health and happiness. Good luck and best wishes.

Hear hear! (or is it here? I don't know... :thumbup:) Also, you surgeon may not realize how much the last fill has affected you, maybe he thought it wouldn't be as tight on you as it is? If you're feeling good where you're at and you're losing weight, then go ahead and postpone your fill until you drop more weight and your band becomes looser and you start missing the restriction you have now. From what I understand, the point where you're at right now is about where most people want to be (minus the PBing, of course, but that will probably get better as you lose just a bit more weight and the band becomes a tiny bit looser, if you don't want an unfull). Good luck!!!!

I'm so sorry to hear about this, but all my prayers go out to a fellow bandster (or former, I suppose) in pain! :thumbup: I truly truly hope things start looking up and she will most definitely be in my prayers for a full and timely recovery!

I know it's still horrendous, but for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long, my BMI is finally under 50!!! I started out at 57, back at the beginning of May, and I'm finally at 49.7!! It wasn't even really a goal, but now that I just realized where I am, I'm super-happy and I feel really motivated!! :thumbup: You guys are awesome, I've felt really good having a place like this where i can come and read, even if I don't post that often. I've gotten great food and drink ideas, reinforcement to keep chugging along on my post-op liquid diet, and I'm so truly relieved to know there are others out there with all the same problems, concerns, and hopes as me. I really appreciate all you guys, so thank you.

Yep, that's basically what my doctor told me as well. I needed a 14cc band because I had a lot of fat around my stomach.

Congratulations on your decision, I hope you're able to get this done and meet your goal by next June, it sounds like you've got a good plan so far. That's great that you're able to get this done at such a young age, you'll be feeling so much better about yourself as you go through the rest of your life. I'm 24 and was only banded about two weeks ago. I wish I could have had this surgery 7 or 8 years ago (high school was hell :frown:), but I'm glad I can at least do it now, rather than living like this into my 30's or 40's. I couldn't imagine another 10 years of being as overweight as I am now, it's just miserable. The sooner you can work on it, the better! I can't offer any insight on the psych appointments, as I only had to have one, but I still wish you all the best and I hope everything goes really well for you. Keep us up-to-date on how things are going for you. Hitting your goal for graduation will give you a great emotional boost and I'm sure you'll feel awesome! :thumbup:

Great, glad to hear everything went well for you! :thumbup:

I would call your doctor and ask him what you should be eating/drinking to get your protein in. You should definitely - DEFINITELY - be getting plenty of protein right now to heal and to help you not have that sick/dizzy feeling, but he may not have made it clear or explained it too well. I would ask him for clarification.