RestlessMonkey

I felt great!!! I was so glad to have the band. My surgery was in the afternoon and it was evening by the time I got home. I slept on my left side (the one with the port) the first night..although i did use a pillow to help brace and protect it. Night 2 I slept on my stomach (my norm). I felt wonderful but hungry. I drank easily and it was no trouble to get my Water in (I was on Clear Liquids, no Protein shakes even) I felt great and just took tylenol (the caplets, not even liquid) I was sore as if I'd done situps to exhaustion. My throat wasn't even sore for the 2nd surgery (keep in mind I had 2 surgeries within 17 days of each other) I felt great and recovered very quickly. I give a large credit about that to my skilled surgeon.

Maybe. I didn't. But some do.

AND you know depending on where your oysters come from, you really aren't supposed to eat them raw...not through October (if they are from the Gulf of Mexico), or through August if they are from another source...

Honestly I'd ask the doc. You don't chew them, do you? And if they are too wide to fit through your band, well, yuk. I think your surgeon can tell you if they are save or not.

I think you should ask your doc. The longer I have my band, the more flexible it is at allowing things like carbonation, and my doc has told me now that if it doesn't hurt me its' ok for me to have it. I drank a beer tonight (i'm at just over 11 months out)....it's best, at least until you have had the band a while, to follow your surgeon's directions.

nope. Been there done that ad nauseum for Weight watchers. I've weighed my steak a couple times just because I thought I wasn't eating much (and I wasn't, between 2-3 oz) and I measured out my lemon chicken with rice once to see how much of it I was eating (1 cup) That's it. You can if you want to, but you don't have to, to lose weight. I want to learn to rely on myself and my body's indicators. Eating a "serving" (or two) of things helped get me here now. I try to be totally tuned into myself, not to eating what someone else says a serving should be (even if that serving is only a cup, or less) Just what works for me

Sounds like great motivation, besides being smaller, to work the band! Sorry i can't help you about paperwork; mine was easy and handled by a wonderful lady at my doc's office. I kind of just did what they told me to, when they told me to do it! Good luck!

Honestly I was forced to sit thru a lecture by the nutritionist right after I got my band. I tried to pay attention but essentially tuned a lot of it out (she geared our talk to bypassers, and kept thinking I had the bypass. That exasperated me) I have done so many diets, between that and the nutrition class I had for nursing school, I have a pretty good grasp of what to eat and what not to. That doesn't mean I always do it though! LOL SO my point is you may (or may not) already know "what to do" While I had restriciton at 6 months out, I didn't hit my sweet spot until May (almost 9 months out) and good grief has that made a world of difference. I think partly you're just being too hard on yourself, expecting too much. "some" restriction isn't the same as the sweet spot.

I say ask your surgeon.

Well, my liver shrink diet was low fat (compares to yours) low carb (not the bread) low calorie (mine was about 400 cal a day) high Protein. However, each and every surgeon seems to have a different diet. I would think that your diet works or they'd have modified it by now. Unless you know your liver is really huge I wouldn't worry about it, but a call to ask them specifically would be good, too. Ease your mind, make sure you didn't just slip through the cracks.

I always thought, in a vague sort of way, that it kind of "depends" on the food, how full, how well chewed. in other words, I think it can be because it is sitting at the stoma and irritating the sides of the stomach...or you're too full and it irritates the esophagus. I don't KNOW this though...I just think it. I am going to ask my doc, too, Aug 30. He's a sharp guy and always good about answering my questions...it will be nice to compare answers

Good grief call your general practitioner. if it IS the flu, there are drugs to shorten it. If it is a bacterial infection, there are drugs. If it's a non-flu virus, you may just have to wait it out. But...you won't know until you go. If it's something treatable and you delay therapy you're only hurting yourself and your chances of surgery. AND if you are sick on surgery day they will delay it. They'll catch it and stop it and think you are a doofus for not telling them...congestion makes anesthesia problematic, and if you have an active infection the last thing they want to do is surgery. So call your primary now!

It's truly more prudent to NOT drink the shakes. A conservative fill schedule and scrupulous practice on your part can minimize the chance of vomiting. However I agree that the odds are, at some point, it will happen. I'm shocked you've made it to your age and never had a stomach bug! What I suggest is that you go to a behavioral therapist for help with your phobia. Anytime a phobia is stopping a person from living a full life, it needs to be addressed, and it sounds to me like you're there. I don't mean this at all unkindly, either. A good behaviorist can help you and you won't need to talk for hours about how your daddy never bought you a pony, or whatever, unless you want to. They'll just "fix it" with your help. I don't like to vomit, I vomited about 4 times in my whole life before I got the band. However, PBing is not like vomiting and believe me, compared to the pain I felt in my chest when I had my bad "stuck" episode, I gladly vomited. I'd have rather faced down a tarantula (MY phobia) than had that misery continue. A little therapy will help you. But don't proceed with the band until you can at least concede that while you may not enjoy it or seek it out, you will be able to get through an episode of PBing with your psyche intact. Because odds are it'll happen. And I hate to tell you this but sometimes medical issues happen and people vomit back their own spit, let alone a shake or Protein drink. So even if you COULD live an "all liquid" life, it won't guarantee that nothing will come back out the "in" door.

hang in there. i think many insurance companies hope people will give up. Don't give them them the satisfaction. It's worth it.

Yes, call your docs office and discuss your concerns with your doc or one of the nurses in the office. They can either allay your fears if there's nothing to be worried about, or delay your surgery a little. The preop diet is, as far as I can tell, mostly to shrink your liver and it isn't an issue for everyone, so you may be fine! or not...your doc and his staff will know! Just FYI it's really important not to cheat at all on the post op diet because eating foods ahead of time can cause a slip. You might go over this with your surgeon too, to get his take on it. You will be able to eat the foods you love (most likely...I can eat anything at my sweet spot, but it takes a lot less to do the trick) so you don't need to mourn so. It's common, but usually not for any good reason! Call your doc; I'm sure you'll be fine!

I think you're too tight. When you can't eat anything but liquids or "sliders" you have too much fill...go get a LITTLE taken out (sometimes .25 cc or so makes a HUGE difference) And Slimmap...slimeing usually (not always but usually) means you aren't doing the basics right...not chewing well, too big bites, eating too fast, etc. An occasional bout of slime and/or PB just means you didn't watch it...or you found a food you have trouble with. Doing it all the time, turning to soft foods etc, means you're too tight. So don't let an occasional "slime" episode throw you off; consider what might have caused it, see if you can correct it by behavior modification before you go get an unfill. It's so much to learn! Slimmap if you can't keep liquids down you ARE too tight, probably. If you can, give it a day or two. You are probably swollen from the fill and doing an all liquid day or so will give your stomach time to settle down. No liquids=dehydration as you know....bad thing! But you can go a day or two without eating; it won't hurt you.

As a student nurse I was taught "Pain is what the patient says it is". The flip of that, of course, is that pain is individual and only you will know the answer to that. However; I'd "guess" it will be on a par with your hernia surgery. Please realize there is a difference in the ability of surgeons...good grief, we know barbers and hairdressers all cut hair differently...well think of what all a surgeon has to do, even laparoscopically, and you begin to see there's room for a lot of variation. It's not straightforward, like an oil change. I think my surgeon, for example, must remove most of the gas they pump into you because I had little gas pain of that type. Not all do that. If yours doesn't, but your hernia doc did, then you'll feel more pain post lap band. But odds are you'll need a little pain med but find it "do-able" with tylenol, or positioning and distraction. The patient's attitude towards pain (and how much is tolerable) also plays a big role!

This is in line with what my surgeon told me: Dehydrated patient=Tight band well-hydratedpatient="normal" band Now that your hydrated, your band has loosened up, it sounds like.

i LOVE coffee but avoid it. It can have a diuretic effect and right now you need Water WATER WATER i don't think there's anything wrong with coffee (not a doc just headstrong LOL) but right now it isn't your wisest choice. You want to improve your hydration, not make it worse! Unless you just have 1 cup a day...I'd pass until later tonight or tomorrow...or at least until you have 64 oz of water under your belt and are keeping it down.

I'm not "newly banded" but I am banded and I am definitely a Texan (born and bred) so ... welcome and good luck!

Because of my doc's conservative fill schedule, I've been slowly adjusting downward the quantity I can and do eat. I am still pleased and surprised that I get full on less but I wouldn't say it gave me trouble. I still sometimes think I can eat more than I really can, but frankly I did that when I didn't have the band. It's not like I used to have a perfect ability to gage what would satisfy me and now its gone. The difference is preband if I took too much I'd probably just graze on it and eat it anyway. Now I don't!

I am sorry but want to state my opinion on this...firstly, taco shells and candy bars don't swell up after we eat them and fat doesn't make food swell. Pasta and rice, if not well done, can take on more Fluid, so my Nut. said to cook them well done. And you may (and will!) do what works for you but for many of us, treating food as "bad" and something to be scared of is counter-productive My surgeon said his goal is for his patients to eat anything in moderation. Life is full of choices and we make them every day. You apparently are tight enough that you have issues with some foods and you of course should do what works for you. But I want to counter that food isn't bad. Our choices may be less effective or more effective, but a candy bar never stole a dime, kidnapped a child, held up a store at gunpoint. Food is fuel; some types work more efficiently than others. Food is charged with enough emotion for many of us. A taco chip is just a chip.

Celery can't get tangled in the band so you should call her on that. The band is OUTSIDE our stomachs, the celery will be INSIDE. It might make a ball and get stuck, or some such (depending; I eat it fine) but it will NOT get entangled in the band. If it does, you would have a way larger problem than some celery!

It's one thing to eat slow, and another altogether to eat in slow mo! :smile2: I always say trust your doc but I think we have to be able to live with what we do. Waiting 3 minutes between each bite is something that I think would be problematic. Especially since I was told to stop eating at 30 minutes, that would mean I'd get, what....10 bites? LOL I think we need to use our own good prudent judgment...eating slowly, chewing well. I have also read/heard to take SMALL bites the size of pencil erasers. I find bites that small harder to chew! I do well with a bite about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of my "old" bite. My point...we have to do what works for us. To me it isn't even the time between bites that's the problem but how long I spend on each bite that counts.

I think your surgeon was really really lax in the preop education for you...and you already know I think anyone who fills during surgery has, at the least, a mean streak! May I suggest buying a book about the band? I expected going in that I'd be able to eat anything, and I CAN! but I didn't expect to feel full. It was made very clear to me that the feeling i was going for was "satiety"...not full. I can describe it best as "not hungry". I'm hungry, then I'm not. I didn't like that full feeling and so don't miss it. I think you need some good band lifestyle education and maybe some sessions with a therapist. It is different; if you've read on here you know we have to do things differently like no drinking while eating, generally avoid carbonation, chew small bites well, etc..and that much of the "good stuff" doesn't happen until we hit the sweet spot...usually AFTER we've healed (not during week 2) If you've read on here you know you are in what we call "bandster hell" right now. You just had a medical device implanted around your stomach. There will be a learning curve and a time for healing and if your surgeon glossed over that with you, then shame on him.