SeattleSweetie

My surgery was last Monday, and I don't have any swelling, but I do still have a good amount of pain where my IV was. It's fine if I leave it alone, but if I touch or press it hurts quite a bit. From what I understand, that's normal and it will go away, however, I've not heard that swelling is normal, it sounds like you should call your nurse as you're planning.

Stick to liquids for a few days just to make sure you're getting something down, let your stomach calm down, and then call your doctor after the holiday.

I'm still on my post-op liquid diet, and I've been losing weight really quickly on it because I've been really good to get in all my Protein and keep my carbs pretty low, but I've been to Starbucks twice for a small frapuccino and even though they're a few hundred calories, I know that I'm making up for it because I'm doing so good elsewhere. I'm staying well under 1000 calories a day right now, so I know that 2 or 300 extra, just once or twice, isn't going to be a big problem. Now that I've had a couple though, I know it's time to lay off for a while and make sure I don't start indulging too often. And honestly, I'm okay with that because I haven't let this big craving build up to where I cant control it and just go nuts. Better to have one cupcake every now and then, than to let a craving build and binge on 10 of them at once when you finally can't handle it anymore! As you should! It sounds like you're doing great. :thumbup: Happy 4th!

I'm so sorry for your loss, MM! You're not crazy at all, dogs aren't called "man's best friend" for no reason! When I was in high school my dog got cancer and had to be put to sleep. I was completely devistated, and I'm sure it's even worse to lose a loved pet in an unforseen accident like you did. He looks like he was such a sweetie. :thumbup: Huge hugs to you and I wish you all the love in the world.

Yes, this has happened to me too (though not due to excercise, it just happened on it's own, probably from a weird movement I made or something). When I saw the yellow stuff I started freaking out a little (okay, a lot!) so I went back to my doctor and had him look at it. He said it was fine and pretty normal. So long as there was no pain, swelling, redness, smell, etc that it was fine. He cleaned it up, taped some fresh gauze over it and said to keep it clean and change the guaze as needed, but otherwise not mess with it. Let us know how it went when you saw him. Hope everything thurned out to be okay for you too!

I had to pay a program fee (which I don't have a big problem with, for the reasons IndioGirl explained above), but this was clearly explained at the time I scheduled my first appointment. If this appointment that you're going to is your FIRST appointment, then they really aren't out of line to expect payment, they've told you about it before you started the program. However, if you've already been seen and started your pre-op stuff, then that's a whole nother can of worms and it seems very inappropriate to me.

Dr McMahon is my surgeon! I just had my surgery last Monday, and he and his staff have been really great. Someone (Usually Jeri or Carol) is always available to talk to when I have questions or concerns, and Dr McMahon himself has been really great throughout my time with them. He always makes a point to stop in and see how I'm doing anytime I come into the office for any reason, even if it's just to talk to the nurses or nutritionist, or whoever. I was originally scheduled for surgery on May 5th, but when he went in, my liver was really really big and there was just no way to do the surgery laproscopically, it either needed to be converted to an open surgery or I could just diet for a few weeks and come back and do it right the second time. He stopped the surgery, feeling the diet was the best option (He said he didn't want to give me a huge scar across my whole stomach at such a young age (I'm only 24) without at least trying the diet first, and we could do an open later if the diet still didn't work.) Anyway, as soon as he stopped the first surgery, he went out and found my mom, who was the person with me, in the waiting room and sat and talked to her for, like, 15 minutes all about the surgery, what was wrong, what the options were, what he thought would be the best plan of action and answered all of her worried-mother questions and was just very supportive. My mom's been around the block a couple times with various surgeons and doctors in her life, and she was really impressed with him, probably even more so than me, just because he was so willing to sit and talk to her about everything as if there was nothing more important to him at the time. So anyway, back to the point here, I don't know anything about surgery in Mexico, but if that's the route you choose, maybe it wouldn't hurt to see if doctor McMahon and his staff could handle your fallow-up care and fills here afterward? I wish you all the luck in the world, whatever your choice!

Hi Donna, I'm doing okay, how are you doing? I'm kindof worrying right now because I have this wierd drainage coming from two of my incisions and I don't know if it's an infection or this 'melting fat' thing I've read about, and I can't get a hold of my nurse right now. Other than that though, I'm good. How are you holding up? Still have pain and whatnot?

The same thing happened to me at about 5 days. The immediate area within about an inch all around the incisions turned a very deep, sickly looking yellow color, but then went away about 2 days after that. My incisions from surgery back in the beginning of May did the exact same thing, so I guess it's natural. I thought it was really strange though, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one who's experienced some odd things.

Right now, the concern isn't stretching the pouch, the concern is making sure that your stomach doesn't have to digest anything you're eating because the movements and contractions your stomach makes to digest food could tear your stitches, causing a number of different (very serious) problems. Your doctor is telling you to puree your food for a good reason - for your own health, it would probably be a good idea to stick as close to that recomendation as you can. I wish you luck!!

You could always supplement with something like a SlimFast or Atkins shake to help get a couple extra hundred calories in between meals without affecting how much solid food you're able to eat?

Yeah, like everyone else said, it's probably port pain. However, I know what you mean about feeling a hard lump under your incision that seems like it would be the port - I have the same thing under two somewhat large incisions (1 1/2" and 2 1/2"), and it turned out to be scar tissue.

Yes, you are definitely NOT alone! I was banded the day before you (Monday) and by Wed/Thu I was starving too. I was supposed to be on clear liquids for THREE weeks (are they insane??!) but I just couldn't do it. I called the nutritionist at my Dr's office and just basically cried to her and she told me not to worry, that if it was that bad, she'd go ahead and okay full liquids. Some doctors seems to be much more conservative about what they instruct you to do, but there doesn't seem to be a big difference between the safety of chicken broth and the safety of a Slim-Fast drink (after all, you have to have your Protein Drinks and those definitely aren't "clear"). If it's really that bad, tell them that you have to have something and that you wanted their input - but one way or another you won't last on clears. After all, what are they going to do? Take your band away? Really, they're there to support you and help you in every way they can. If they really understand what's going on and where you're at, they'll be more equipped to do so. Also, just a side tip - Slim Fast has a lot of carbs - basically empty calories - but if you can find them, the Atkins brand makes a high-protein, low carb vanilla drink that's really good instead (The Atkins chocolate is not good - very bland, but the Vanilla is pretty great). They have about 150 cals, 15g Protein, 9g fat and only 3g carbs. They seem to keep me from being hungry about as long as a thicker Soup does without all the extra fat and cals that cream soups have. I wish you luck and good job on your weight loss so far! 10 lbs in a week is GREAT!!!

Thank you thank you thank you all of you! :wink_smile: I know! How sad is that! I'm going to have to test if I can eat them if they're toasted and semi-crunchy instead of soft and chewy. Maybe if I take teeny-tiny bites... Ah, a girl can dream. :bored:

Yes! I had to do the horrible low-carb diet for six weeks (it sucked, it was really depressing and hard ) but I did it and it worked! I went back and got banded on June 23rd!!! YAY! (This is me jumping up and down shrieking! LOL)

Well, after having to postpone my surgery back in May because my liver was too big and they couldn't get around it to do the surgery, I did my low-carb diet for six weeks and tried again. Honestly, the diet sucked. I stuck to it, but I really wasn't happy. I got so damned tired of eating tuna fish and cottage cheese! During the last week of my diet, I found that a deli in my building where I worked sold these organic bagels that were *just* low enough in carbs (30g each) that I could have a bagel for breakfast if I didn't eat any other carbs at all for the rest of the day. Let me tell you, that is the only thing that got me through, I swear, I was missing bread so bad! So anyway, I went back in for surgery on June 23rd, this past Monday, and it went really well. My doctor told me afterward that my liver had shrunk so much that it was only a quarter of what it was at the last surgery (my liver was really huge before, apparently). So everything went great, I got my band in, they kept me overnight, and released me the next day. My large incision still hurts a bit, and is pretty tender, but it's so little that I'm off of pain pills as of yesterday. Also the gas pains were gone before I even left the hospital. I lost 29 lbs on my low-carb diet and I've lost another 8lbs since surgery (though I hate to see how much that's going to slow down once I'm allowed to eat real food again), so I'm doing really good and I'm super-happy! Thank you guys for all your support before!

Ditto here. In addition, the medication they put me on after banding was Vicoprofin - a combination of Vicoden and Ibuprofin. Taking more IB at home would have just been an overdose for me.

Hi Kaye. This must be really hard for you, but please reconsider before having your band removed - hair loss is fairly common and normal for anyone losing lots of weight, no matter how they do it (diet, lap band, bypass, etc). Once you've gotten to your goal weight and you stop losing, your hair will come back as thick and beautiful as before. This is pretty common with significant weight loss. I don't remember the exact scientific cause of this, but my doctor did warn me of it and said not to worry, that my hair would come back when I was done with my weight-loss. Also, you need to discuss the port and vomiting issues with your doctor. Can they give you an injection of local anesthetic when they do your fills so it doesn't hurt while they're poking around? And it sounds like they need to work with you a little more on just finding the right fill level for you so that you can eat without throwing up. All of this can be worked through, Kaye. Just talk to your doctors more. Don't feel like this has to be the end. Best wishes.

Happy to help. :eek:

No, from what you've said here, it sounds like you're doing great. Low-and no-carb foods are fine when you're trying to shrink your liver. Your liver basically feeds off carbs, so make sure you stay away from those and you'll be doing good. I don't mean to seem like I'm tooting my own post-horn, but I wrote a post on why the low-carbs diet works for liver shrinkage and how it affects you. Take a look at the top section or two and it will give you the basics on how it works, and you'll probably feel a little better knowing that what you're doing is just fine! http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f84/how-shrink-your-liver-increase-st-weight-loss-low-carb-pre-op-diet-65020/

Glad I could help, baby! That's awesome, I'm so happy for you. Congratulations on your banding. :biggrin2: I wish you the very best, good luck with your surgery!

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How to shrink your liver (and increase short-term weight loss) – the low-carb diet I was planning on writing a fairly short and concise post to reply to someone’s question on this in another thread, but I seem to see the same “How do I shrink my liver” or “How do I lose weight quick for surgery” questions fairly often, and unless I missed over it, I didn’t really see a good explanation post anywhere, so this is my attempt to help anyone with these questions… if it turns out someone already covered this topic, then my apologies. One of the fastest ways to shrink your liver to get ready for surgery is with a super-low carb diet. Fat, Protein, salt, and even calories don't matter quite as much - it's really all about carbs. “Why?” Carbohydrates are basically sugar and starch, and they break down into glucose molecules. When used as energy, carbohydrates become fuel for your muscles and brain. If your body does not have any use for the glucose (for those of us who don't do daily weight training, run marathons, or get regular extensive exercise), it is converted into glycogen and stored it in the liver and muscles as an energy reserve. Your body can store about a half a day's supply of glycogen. If your body has more glucose than it can use as energy, or convert to glycogen for storage, the excess is converted to fat. So, the amount of carbohydrate you eat determines the amount of glycogen stored in the liver and thus, the size. *** “How does it work?” A good way to shrink your liver for the short-term is with a diet of less than 30 grams of carbs per day, and preferably only 1/3rd of your day's calories coming from fat. Without eating carbs, you will start draining glycogen from your liver immediately, reducing it’s mass, and as an added bonus, at the same time, your body will start converting fat back into energy and working it off to supplement the missing glycogen (I've lost 24 pounds since May 7th by doing absolutely nothing except going low-carb. A good part of that is, of course, Water weight, but more on that below). Conversely, if you only do a low-fat diet, but continue eating many carbs, you won't get automatic weight loss (or a smaller liver), you will still have to work off your stored fat by either exercising or dramatically reducing your overall caloric intake, because your body does not need to burn stored fat if you have plenty of carbs (and thus, glycogen) coming in to support your energy needs. You must burn 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat, if you go this route. That doesn’t mean you reduce 3500 calories from what you eat now, it means, you have to eat 3500 less than your body actually burns, and if you sit on your ass all day, as I do, your body doesn’t burn much, trust me. I should mention, the goal here isn't to burn a bunch of fat, it's just to shrink your liver by not storing glycogen, and to lose any weight required by your doctor or insurance company pre-op. This diet will help you burn fat the longer you stay on it, but initial weight-loss is mostly water weight. More on that below. (Please realize though, a low-carb diet is not necessarily healthy long-term, see A Low-Carb Diet is Wrong for further explanation) When you start a low-carb diet, you'll probably find that your daily calorie intake also drops, even if you still eat a large quantity of food. That's because a lot of low- or no-carb foods actually tend to be low in calories as well. A huge three-egg (or even four-egg!) omelet filled with onions, mushrooms, bell peppers and cheese will only run you a few hundred calories, and very few carbs (about 5 or so total). “Are there any short term side-effects?” Well, I’m definitely not a doctor, so I can’t tell you ‘no’ for sure. But I can say from my experience this past month, there are only two things I noticed, and both have to do with what comes out of your body more than what goes into it (be forewarned)… The first week or so, I peed more than I think I ever have in my entire life. I swear, I was going to the bathroom once an hour. Actually, I was a bit worried until I Google’d it and found out that this is because glycogen contains large amounts of water, so burning glycogen leads to the release of water and increased urination. Also, I had fairly soft, almost diarrhea-like BMs for the first couple of weeks until my body adjusted. This is for the same reason noted above. Other than that, I’ve had no short-term problems that I know of. No fatigue or lack of energy so long as I kept protein in my diet, and everything else seemed normal. There can be long-term side effects if you decide to make this a permanent eating plan (see this site for explanation), but let’s be honest, none of us want to live a life without yummy carbs forever, right? So this probably shouldn’t be a big problem for us. “Cool, I’ll just stop eating bread!” That's a good start, but it's not good enough. You must research and watch your labels - fruits, many vegetables (squash, tomatoes, corn, etc), milk, yogurt, many other dairy products (except most cheeses, from what I’ve seen, I don’t know why), salad dressings, and any sugar-containing condiments like ketchup, barbeque sauce, relish, etc, all contain many carbs. It's not just about bread and Pasta. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg! One cup of milk is 13 carbs (no, I don’t mean ‘cup’ like the big-a$$ cups you drink out of at dinner, I mean a measuring cup – 8oz)! That’s half your day’s allotment right there. A yogurt can run you from 20-40 carbs, depending on brand. One cob of corn is 30 carbs, a tomato is 5, salad dressings average about 5 per tablespoon, a simple and healthy apple is still 25-35 carbs, and don’t even think about having a glass of orange juice. Also, check the labels on those prepackaged foods advertised as 'low-carb'. By USDA guidelines, they may be allowed to advertise as low-carb, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re low enough for YOU. A "low-carb" ice cream bar is still 8 grams of carbs - nearly a third of your allowed daily intake just for one wimpy little desert that doesn’t even taste good! “Fine, I need to shrink my liver, and I’m going to use a low-carb diet to do it. Well, where do I start?” The first thing to do that will really help you is to start a daily carb count list. This can be a big, dramatic Excel spreadsheet or a simple list on a piece of scrap paper, but either way, it will help you keep track of what you’re really eating, and help you make sure you’re really sticking to your limit. You just need some place where you can write down the number of carbs you’ve eaten for the day so that when the nighttime munchies come around and that gross low-carb ice cream bar is starting to sound really good, you can see that you already hit your carb limit for the day and grab a piece of cheese or a hard-boiled egg instead. I use a fairly simple excel spreadsheet myself, and I only track calories, fat, and carbs because that's really all I'm worried about right now. At the bottom of each column, a “Daily Totals” row has a basic formula that adds all my entries together and gives me a total for the day. It’s simple enough for me and not too much fuss. This is an example of my spreadsheet: (Don’t use my meals here as an example though, I’m still a bit too high on fat, and need to be a bit better at cutting back on it.) The second thing to do is to start reading the labels on everything you put in your mouth – and I mean EVERYTHING! I know it sounds harsh, but remember, this will only be short-term. If you stay on track now, you won’t have to live this way for the rest of your life. Check out the carb count for all your packaged food, and for any fresh or unlabeled food, look it up online. Here are a couple good websites to help you out: Carb Counter on about.com My favorite nutritional guide, Eddie on Everything, is currently down as I write this post, but I’m including it just in case it’s just a temporary glitch and it comes back up. If it does, this is a fabulous resource. Also, don’t forget to include everything you drink on your daily tracker also. fruit juice, milk, hot chocolate, and especially soda can include an entire day’s carbs – or even more! – in just one serving. If you must, at least go for diet/sugar-free soda, but if you can handle just sticking to water for the time being, that’s the best. This is a good thing to train yourself on before your surgery anyway, as drinking liquid calories after surgery can really sabotage all your other hard work and keep you from losing weight. Also, stay away from coffee drinks with milk – lattes, mochas, etc. If you absolutely must have your caffeine hit, drink tea or drip coffee and watch the carbs on any cream and sugar you use. “I can't do this! Everything I like has carbs in it!” Okay, hold up, don’t get too discouraged yet. Remember, this isn’t forever. Besides, there are lots of good things to eat that will keep you on track. You just have to think a little harder about it. Here’s some ideas: Breakfast: A cup of cottage cheese and a hard-boiled egg or two. Scrambled eggs (with just a tiny bit of milk mixed in) or an omelet with some chopped onions, a bit of bacon crumbled in (just watch the fat) or a few slices of lunch meat ham cut up in pieces, a chopped bell pepper, and some shredded cheddar or colby jack cheese mixed in or melted on top. Lunch A 6 oz can of tuna fish with a little mayo, a small bit of relish (watch the carb count on it), some shredded cheese and maybe a bit of diced cucumber mixed in. Eat it like a salad instead of on bread. Shredded or diced chicken mixed with some cream cheese (the 1/3 less fat Neufchatel kind is really good! I like it even better than regular cream cheese) or a couple Laughing Cow cheese soft wedges and spooned onto cucumber slices. Try English cucumbers, they have zero carbs, a thinner and better-tasting skin than normal cucumbers, and very few seeds. Taco salad with no chips or tortilla shell. Use sour cream instead of salsa – there’s more fat, but salsa has lots of carbs. Dinner A big, huge, lean steak with some salad or veggies on the side. Check the carbs on the salad dressing, but don’t think you can’t have any at all. Just make sure you stay within your daily limit. Grilled chicken or salmon with some veggies on the side (just make sure they’re lower-carb veggies like asparagus, steamed cabbage, steamed or grilled bell peppers, etc. Helpful hint – butternut squash is not only delicious, it’s also the only squash with virtually no carbs, so go crazy!) and a sugar free Jello cup or two for dessert. Also, remember, this isn’t famine time. Go ahead and put some butter on your veggies, just don’t go crazy. A quarter-cup of butter isn’t going to taste any better than a tablespoon will. Trust me… Oooh, helpful hint... a company called Walden Farms makes a bunch of no-calorie, no-fat, no-sugar, no-carb, no-glucose condiment type items that actually taste really good! Salad dressings, mayo, fruit spreads, pasta sauces, dessert things like a really yummy chocolate syrup, etc. (The only thing I DON’T recommend is the Peanut Butter. Trust me on this, it’s not good.) They’re a bit pricy, usually about $4 or $5 an item at the grocery store, but if you can afford it, I highly recommend them. They taste really good, and they’re practically nothing but air. When I eat salads, I’m one of those people who likes to drench my salad in dressing. But let me tell you… 4 or 5 tablespoons of regular dressing with 10 grams of fat and 5 carbs each tbs sure adds up quick. Walden Farms is a much happier option for me. Check them out at their Walden Farms Website. The last thing to remember is not to beat yourself up too much. Yes, you really do have to be careful while you’re on this diet. But like everything else in life, if something goes wrong and you fall off the wagon, one bite, one meal, one day, remember tomorrow is a new start. Wake up, start over, and remember than your best effort is better than no effort at all. Well folks, that’s all I’ve got on the top of my head right now. Hopefully this post will help someone out there. If you have questions, or if there’s any big topic that I missed, let me know, otherwise, I wish all of you the very very best on your journeys! ***most of this paragraph was copied from this page. It provided a better explanation than I came up with on my own. This isn’t an attempt to steal someone else’s writting and claim it as my own.

I won't miss shopping from the Lane Bryant/Woman Within catalogs because even the clothes at the Lane Bryant store don't fit anymore. :thumbdown:

You need to call the office and speak to either the office manager or doctor, preferably both, and tell them exactly what was done. If this is a hospital-affiliated clinic, contact hospital patient relations (call the switchboard, tell them you want to lodge a complaint against an employee and have them direct you to the right person or department) and file a formal complaint. If you are serious about persuing a lawsuit, then tell them so and see if they will offer anything. However, I suggest you not say something like this unless you are well prepared to do so and intend to follow through if the response they give you is not satisfactory. You don't want to open that can of worms unless you're well and truly serious. In the mean time, assuming this woman truly is the culprit, she should truly know better than to do such a thing. I don't know if technically what she did was legally wrong (gossiping about seeing someone come through her doors, versus handing out personal information out of your medical file), but she nonetheless deserves a strong, official reprimand from the office/clinic/hospital. Regardless of the legality, it's just not ethical. However, all this only applies if you're okay with her getting in serious trouble. Just because she's a single mother doesn't excuse her actions. You can always talk to her first, explain how upset you are and the consequences she could face if you raised this issue to her superiors and see how it goes.