riley4183

Oh on the contrary Nicole, you are probably the only normal one here! LOL

I forgot to say, in SSF (1/2 of my support group is SSF, the other 1/2 is Richmond) the pre-op diet is either replace 2 meals with SF carnation instant breakfast mixed with soy milk or non-fat milk, or replace all 3 meals with same. That would have been too much carbs for me unless I used the Soy Slender - which is only 1 net carb. I get it at Lucky's or Raleys.

I am on soft foods, frankly I do not have any problems eating ANYthing. Lasagna even! No noodles tho. I am just now getting hungry, it is 11:30 and I have not eaten since last night, when I had extra firm high-protein tofu, zuchinni, and a sugar-free pudding.

I was only 1 lb. less than I expected to be, so I don't know that it worked THAT well . . . . I lost 3 lbs from Sat AM to Monday AM, according to their scale - would have been 2 lbs. on my scale at home. I did a LOT of diet cranberry mixed with Tazo passion tea (decaf, sweetened with Splenda) - like, a gallon a day. For protein I did sugar-free chocolate soy milk (Soy Slender) with no-carb soy protein powder from Trader Joe's. I also did smoothies with tofu, Soy Slender vanilla and sugar-free torani syrup. No yougurt or regular milk because of the carbs. I avoided carbs like the plague! Yes, my BMI was 39.6 and my liver was so flat the in the surgery pics you can actually see the band through my liver when they passed it behind. A year ago I had fatty liver disease, so I wanted to be extra careful!

I didn't eat . . . put myself (and did not tell Kaiser) on a liquid diet the weekend before surgery (mine was on a Monday) because I REALLY wanted my BMI under 40 for surgery, and my liver "flat like a pancake." It worked! I have another friend going through SSF who is on a liquid diet for 2 weeks before, but she is very high BMI. You are supposed to eat your normal 1200 calorie diet. My friend the other Jane went out to Chinese in SF the night before, then was scared to death she would weight too much on surgery day, and was SO relieved when they did not weigh her!

OOP! Sorry Nicole. Yes I got weighed, on an old 2-beam scale. They weighed me then asked me what my goal weight was, so I coulda said anything! No, I did not get to keep my panties on! They make you strip everything off, put on little non-slip booties that they give you, and give you this HUGE gown that you can wrap around you several times. Then they weigh you, then take you to the "spa". they put all of your clothes in a patient bag and you have it next to you, I had my cell phone in there (pre-op) and stuff. You sit in a recliner and they give you nice, warm blankets and "fluids" (through on IV!) The heparin shot is in your arm and I did not even feel it. They also gave me stuff for naseau in my IV, it felt sorta warm but that's it. Dr. Baggs came by & said hi (& assured me that he had had a good night's sleep, since I asked!) & the anesthesia guy came in, then the OR nurse came and said she'd be back to get my in 2 minutes and she was even faster than that, she walked me in to surgery. The only embarassing part was win they got me to sit up on that skinny OR table, Dr. Baggs had to run around behind and "unwrap" the gown from around me before I could lay down! Oh well, at that point I didn't care, I knew I was going to be naked in surgery anyways. I wanted my band too bad to say no! But do tell Dr. Baggs when he comes to see you in pre-surgery that you are shy about that stuff, he is very kind and won't expose you more than he has to. My friend Jane (the other Jane) just had surgery at SSF and she didn't get weighed, either! The scale at Richmond was kind, tho - no worries! I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!! Riley:laugh:

Seriously, it was pretty wonderful! Lap-bands go first, so there is no waiting or anything . . .Dr. Baggs gets there early too. I was in surgery by 8 and out of the hospital by just after noon. What do you mean by pre-op? I had pre-op labs, etc. done up here, then just had anestesia appt. the AM of surgery.

Prayers are a' comin' babe, for the next 3 days and as long as you need them! Use your "successful surgery" CD, and remember it's OK to be super-excited! I hope you get Icy tomorrow morning (pre-surgery nurse), she is uber-great! Riley

Woo-hoo Nicole, so CLOSE!!! Are you excited!! I was super excited, but I did sleep on surgery eve - used my CD! It totally works! Yes, I am on real food now and I still get totally full on very little food. I log everything I eat at caloriecount.about.com, and I only get 500-600 cals a day, but 50 grams of protein. NO I am not starving between meals! If I do not drink for a couple hours after eating, I stay full for hours and hours. WARNING tho: just because I am not hungry doesn't mean that I don't want to eat! I feel like I COULD eat between meals, but I am not physically hungry very often. I am getting hungry right now, but it is 20 minutes before lunch so that is totally appropriate. I am not hungry in the mornings, but Robin has me eating breakfast anyways. My biggest "meal" is at night, when I can eat 1/2 cup and still manage to get down a sugarfree pudding cup, woo-hoo! Now that's living! I don't think I need a card to eat out, if I had one I would not use it. I just tell them that I am very limited in what I can eat, can I just get 1/2 of a plain grilled chicken breast, they bring it, I eat 1-2 ounces and put the rest in a box for dinner that night AND breakfast the next day! Seriously, that was lunch + dinner yesterday and breakfast today! At Starbuck's in the mall I just get a banana, I eat 1/4 of it and one of my boys will eat the rest. I used to just bring my little 2-oz. containers of puree, of course I am VERY open about my surgery and can laugh along with everyone about it. For me, going out to eat is about the people not the food (now) and no one at a restaurant has ever said boo to me about it! They even offered once to warm up my little purees! I think Kaiser does not want you to go out to eat for a few months, so I would not ask Dr. Baggs - would wait and ask Liz or Robin. About the port. . . . well the pain itself is gone, but that little bugger is a pain in my as*! I feel like it sticks out and totally gets in my way when bending over, typing my shoes, etc. I don't know HOW I am ever going to do cruches, and believe you me I need to do crunches!!! I see Dr. Baggs on the 10th and I sure hope he tells me that it will get better as my stomach fat goes away more, but I am down to a 16 (yes ladies, I started at 22 and I am in a 16!) and it's still in my way. But you know what? Even if it never gets out of my way, I LOVE MY BAND!!! Riley

Yay Tina, welcome back! I think we're all doing good . . .MomC, you are living my fear! I have stopped losing now, I wanted to slow down when I got to 60 lbs. lost but this is insane! Riley

Holey cow, a single shake and water! Yikes! I lived on sugar-free jello, sugar-free popsicles and chicken broth my first week. I never got to do the shakes, so don't know if those fill you up??? Can you only drink like 2 or 3 ounces at a time?:crying: Maybe food will come sooner for you & you won't have to wait as long as I do, LOL . . . meantime, think of all the weight you will be losing, and it's NOT comin back girl! Yay!

Hi Christine, I'm doing great! I got more excited and less scared as I got closer to my surgery date, too. Being in pre-op was so surreal! I don't think that I really believed that were going to give me a band until I was in pre-op, then I was just so happy and smiley! When Liz told us in pre-op class that no one had ever died on the table, 99% of my fear vanished because that was my big irrational fear! I was doing a lot of affirmations that it would be easy and I would recover quickly, Dr. Baggs is very positive and affirming too, and it was just - easy! You will do GREAT! You can just put the CD on to sleep, it WILL help you sleep and your subconscience still gets the messages. I didn't start using it until a few days before, they want you to use it al least a couple days I think. Worked for me, that's for sure! Robin should be calling me to move to Stage 4 early next week, I'm worried about going on "real" soft foods! Needing to have everything liquid or pureed was nice and limiting, I could not just "grab something" but soon that will be an option for me, and I hope I'm up for it! Time for me to live in the real world again!! Riley

Yay Goose! So glad it all went well! Don't assume you will get hungry later on, because lots of people don't! The trick is to not drink after you eat, and Protein protein protein! I am not on solid food yet (still Stage 3) and I rarely get hungry. I LOVE IT!! Hi Boopie, yes I did go through awfully fast, in fact 3 1/2 months. I was not really trying to, but when I had lost more than my goal by the time I saw my surgeon on a friday, he got me an appt. with the case manager for the monday 3 days later, and she scheduled my surgery less than a month from then! A lot of it was just luck though, none of my appoinmtnts ever got rescheduled or anything. I'm at Richmond Kaiser, I think they are the fastest place but a bit too far for you! Take care all! Riley

YOW Christine! Woot! Woot! Only 2 weeks left!! This was the point when I got scared, and really needed my "successful surgery" CD. Did you get one?

Oh I hear GREAT things about him! You go girl, you know what you want! You will BLAST through his 230. You just tell him you are going to be his most successful lap-band patient ever! You'll prove it soon! Congrats on getting your surgery date . . .it's REALLY real now!!!

Silly Goose, how are you? Check in girl!!!

Wow Minxz, who's your surgeon? I found that mine was totally pro-lapband, at least for my situation. They do say that they have better results with the band if your BMI at time of surgery is 42 or less. I lost 43 lbs. and got my BMI below 40 before surgery, so maybe that's why he was so great about it, he thought it was a good choice for me. Of course I also chose him because he does so many lap bands! At my pre-op class, Liz said that she does have a group pf lap-band superstars who are losing at the same rate as the RNYers. I have one friend in my support group who had RNY right before I had lapband, we weighed exactly the same on my surgery day, and I am totally keeping up with her - in fact I am 8 or 9 lbs lower than her. That will even out and she will eventually pass me, but frankly I don't want to lose more than 2-3 lbs. a week! My arms flab is starting already, LOL . . . :sneaky:

YAY Nicole! Isn't the lab there great?? I gave them very high marks! I gave everything very high marks except for the x-ray dept. for the barium swallow. Tell them to put it in a cup for you to sip! Those guys had no idea about lap-band limitations. And Dr. Baggs got the best marks of all! So glad you & Christine have him I saw my PCP today, he is very very very pleased, he could not believe that my High BP is totally gone, he checked it himself twice and finally pronounced me cured! I take NO meds now, ZERO. I actuaolly stopped taking the beta blocker 2 weeks ago, but it wasn't official until today. Getting off those meds has been a goal for a long time, who knew it would come so soon after surgery!!! Not happy with the scale today - or for the last 2 days - but my monthly visitor showed up yesterday & that may have something to do with it. Still not hungry!!! Best to all! Riley

Thanks for the poem, Lapbandgirl! I shared it with my support group, and it's PERFECT :thumbup:

Yay Christine! You will LOVE Dr. Baggs, he is great at that AP band placement to prevent hunger while not backing stuff up into the esophogus. Also puts some saline in there at surgery so it's easier to get through the first 6 weeks. Yay!

From Kaiser! Liz hands them out in the pre-op class :-)

Be sure to use your Relaxation CD! It really really works! By the time I was in pre-op, I just lay there and smiled - I was SO happy that it was finally here - was not even nervous! Weirded out yeah, but not nervous :-) The ONLY thing that I would do different is to not go back to work 6 days after surgery. . . 10 days was much better. And I thought that I was getting faint from not eating, but in fact it was because I was still on Atenolol for my Blood Pressure, and I didn't need it any more! It resolved SO fast. I was getting down to like 70/49 with a pulse of 41 after excercise!!! TOO LOW!! My pulse was not supposed to be going under 55! Now that I have been off those meds for 5 days I don't get weak any more :-)

Folks, I have to tell you - things get so much easier with a band! I must have the most perfectly-placed band in the WORLD because I have NO issues with swallowing or anything getting stuck, I am FULL eating 1/4 cup, and I stay full for 5 hours at a time!!! NOT HUNGRY!!! I actually put off eating so that I can have fluids. I am OFF ALL MEDICATION as of 5 days ago - my blood pressure fixed itself. I have eaten too much at a time - twice - and it is a stuffed-full feeling that it unpleasant enough that I'm not doing it again. I'm 15 days out now and just started on Stage 3. No issues! NONE!! I'm just melting!!! :-) Riley

Argh! My nutritionist just called, and I DON'T get to go to purees this weekend! I don't get to go until Tuesday the 10th! Oh my gosh how am I ever going to get the energy I need to do the 2 hikes I have planned this weekend?!?!?! I am a Kaiser patient and we are not "allowed" to do protein shakes, but I'm going to have to do SOMEthing to be able to excercise like I want and need to!! Does anyone else have a big lump where their port is?? I feel like he sewed a baseball in there. . . . . . Riley

Argh! Robin just called to move me from State 2 to Stage 3, and I don't get to start until TUESDAY the 10th! Arghhh!