lingling

Well I am not a chef by any means! But I will share anyway! I roasted two free-range chickens Boiled up sweet potato, pumpkin, spinach and carrots. Made a very very watery gravy Blended it all up together and frozen in little 300ml containers. Tastes like I am having a roast meal! YUMMM

Um!! Don't know!!! I am seeing my Doc tomorrow afternoon so I will ask him what I am supposed to be eating. I am kind of enjoying the fact that I don't have to eat. ahha. probably a bad approach!! but every pound down helps! ha ha.

Well how interesting this band is... I am just not hungry at all. Thought I *might* have been today, but it was actually just empty pains. What I have realised though is that I can eat whatever I want so long as it's liquid and I won't get BLOATED and full, it will just go through and I am left with the same "not hungry" feeling. So I have to be a little cautious to stick to only healthy liquids as every day since my op I have had a small bowl of Movenpick icecream and I am feeling guilty!!! Today I ate: - Up and Go (1 cup of Protein shake type thing) - 1 cup of chocolate low fat milk - 1 cup orange juice - 2/3 cup of pureed veges and chicken - 1 cup icecream I am having a lot of trouble keeping my Water intake up... boooo... only cos I am lazy What are you guys eating day four post op? :smile2:

Wow, i was going to post and ask what it costs - but I guess self pay in Mexico about $10K US. What does it cost to have it done in the US if it's not under insurance? What are these advertisements on the side of this page saying $6000 band, and $11,000 bypass? I am too scared to click! In NZ, we have public funded healthcare, but many of us have elective medical insurance to cover procedures in private hospitals or if we don't want to stay on a waiting list. This surgery is not covered by public system, nor is it completely covered by private insurance. I have an insurance policy who make a one off ex gratia payment of $4,500 towards the banding so long as I met the criteria which I did. However, the rest of the bill needed to be footed by myself. The total cost before I get my $4,500 back was $16,200 NZD. Which is a LOT of coin!!!:smile2:

Same here moonbeam, I told my boss I was having girly stuff done, and same as one other chick at work. Our company are BIG Drinkers and very social, so I am going to have a tough time, especially since my alcohol tolerance will be RUBBISH after this! I think we can get away with "smaller portions" or ordering the Soup so we can at least eat most of it!! if we do it under the guise of "being healthy, trying to eat 6 portions a day, and I am saying I have a personal trainer who works me to the core every morning before work - they'll never know!! muhuhuhahahahha!!:smile2:

Don't cheat guys, you make it 10000 times harder for yourselves! After day four or five the ketones start to break down and suppress hunger, every time you cheat you have to do those five days again, its torture! Eat everything they tell you to eat and if you have to cheat have non root vegetables, carrot, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce. I totally ate more than my fair share of salad and veges, and my Protein shakes. Stick at it, it is ONLY TWO WEEKS OF YOUR LIFE YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

Took my dressings off today - and replaced them with new ones. Ugh!!! The biggest cut is about 2 inches long!! I am sure they heal up really well though, I just disinfected them and put new dressings on - I think that if they are kept clean and dry there is less chance of scarring. When there is no seepage I will use Biooil. Should be sweet tho! I am impressed that there was no stitches!

You know what, this is something that gets my goat about people. Everyone's a bl00dy expert. The thin people don't understand why you'd want to "RESORT to such measures" and the people that are bigger than you are jealous and wish they could have it done - OR are justifying their weight by saying that it is so drastic. All of these comments are about THEM and their own baggage, not you. You are doing what is right for you in your own heart - and I salute that - and if they were real friends then they would too! Stay strong!! xx

Hahah why not!! Got plenty of lost time to make up for!

You definitely do not wake up skinny!! But I can tell you three days post op I am definitely a few pounds down!

I'm just happy i'll be able to get more men into bed!!

I wouldnt stress too much about what you are taking to the hospital. I packed WAY too much!! What I did use was - toothbrush - facecloth - facewash/toner mist to freshen up. - warm socks - laptop/ipod to watch movies/listen to music - flipflops so you dont have to bend over to put shoes on when you leave - cellphone and charger. :welldoneclap:

Hey Smilan! Yay! We did it!!!! Make sure you are sipping like 200ml of Fluid over 10minutes and tiny sips like ridiculously tiny ! Does the spitting happen after the drinking? My doctor said drink as much as I like but do it SLOWLY as its just like a sink - if you turn the tap on too fast it will overflow! Maybe that is what is happening? Day 3 for me today. Have been sleeping on my tummy for the last two days - and feels okay. Probably won't take much pain meds today either. Feeling tender around wound sites though and sore abs. I tried on the dress I have in my avatar this morning - and it fits perfectly - a little saggy if anything! SO AWESOME!@

My doc said that I can drink beer but I'd want to sip a pint over 1/2 an hour - YAWN! I will give it a go - but not until a FULL month post op, the biggest risk is mean to be slippage, so I don't want to risk it till after I am fully healed. I also was given 12 bottles of french champagne - approx $1,000 worth - those things are going down my throat come hell or high water!!!! ha aha

It feels like someone turning a knife in your shoulder!! Not nice!

I am not sure about what is normal - but I have got five. The biggest is the one where the port is. They would not be bigger than an inch each and there are no stitches - just strips to hold them closed I don't know how bad they will scar as I have still got dressings on them, but I am going to use "bio-oil" LINK: Bio Oil - Uses to get rid of any scars. Better to have 20 scars and be healthy though, I say !

Well I am on day three of post op and I am struggling a bit psychologically - Today I have eaten (well drank) 1 cup miso Soup, 1 scoop icecream, 300ml of Vitamin Water. I am excited that I couldn't care less about food and I am not hungry at all, but I must say I do feel a little sad at the thought of not being able to sit down to a feast again. I know this is something I had thought through before hand and I know that I'd rather be skinny than have a feast but its a strange feeling to work out in my brain. The gas pains have gone but I am a burping machine! Still in a bit of pain as was stupid and went to the supermarket (grocery shop) today, which exhausted me and hurt my abs!! How's everyone else doing?

My last recorded weight was 130.4 at the surgeon's office on Wednesday. I will weigh again on Friday for you (its Friday night here now but I am full of liquid and bloated from surgery!)

I think that it is important to stay on liquids for as long as your Doc tells you to - mine says 2 weeks. Did not specify what kind, I am only one day post op and today I have had 1/4 cup pumpkin soup & 2 cups of chocolate milk. The reason you need liquid is so that the band and stitches heal and don't slip. be careful!

Walk walk walk, sleep sleep sleep and burp burp burp! Heat works too - and pain relief. It will pass! I have no gas pains now - and its been 36hrs since I was banded. Sore tummy though, but its the prodding around in there not the gas pains now.

Congrats Spirnat! I got banded yesterday too. (2nd April in NZ) have your gas pains gone yet? Mine are horrid.

Hey Guys Am home and in bed now. Yay it's good to be home. Although the hospital I stayed in was so tiny and cute - it had about five beds and the OR was tiny too. Really nice nurses more like a hotel hospital. I turned up at 7am for an 8am surgery, they took me through and told me to get changed into my very sexy gown, hat and booties! I then went and laid down on the bed in the recovery/pre-op room and they put these funny leg warmer things on me that inflated and deflated all the time (had to wear these for 24hrs) to stop blood clots. They covered me in this big plastic blanket which had a hole to pump in hot air, apparently higher body temps mean better recovery. Then the anesthetist came in - he was SO Lovely. I burst into tears and said "please don't let me die!" and he rubbed my arm and said I'd be fine and talked to me for about 10-15 mins and put my IV lure in my wrist (I love exciting stuff like that!) and then gave me SO MUCH PREMED sedation I was off my face - AWESOME. Everyone was having a laugh. They wheeled me through and then I had to shuffle onto the OR table and I remember saying "wow, thats a small table" - like you'd think they'd make it nice and wide but it wasn't. Anyway, the Anesthetist was going to put something in my IV lure and all I said was "Dont let me die" next thing I know I am in recovery and hearing beeps etc and then someone was testing the defibrilator and I freaked out and thought it was for me and I said "dont let me die, is that for me?" and they laughed and said no, and I was like "IM ALIVE!!!" I was so excited. Then they put me in my room and I slept for ages like three hours - tried to stay awake every time I woke up but couldnt - would snooze back to sleep - finally woke up about 4pm and logged on via my phone to tell you guys I was alive! Then back to sleep, and some visitors came intermittently from 5-8pm which was nice but hard to be bothered talking. The gas pains from the gas they pump you up withSUCK like you wouldn't believe. feels like someone has a belt around me under my boobs and is making it really tight. But I put a heat(wheat) pad on it which helps, but the pain refers up to shoulders as well, so just have to alternate or get three heat packs (Which I have got today!) to soothe the pain and walk around lots - which I didnt feel like doing as I was so sleepy. I took a sleeping pill at 10pm and was out to the count. They said I could sleep on my side - which was good - but it did put different pressure on the gas in my tummy so I got pains in different areas on my chest and shoulders. The nurse kept getting sick of me asking if it was okay that this bit hurt or that bit hurt etc. she said "you've just had an operation!" haha. So I am at home in bed today - they have given me some hard core pain killers, normal pain killers and some antiinflamatories. I don't think I need them too much though - its just nicer to have them. Am a little scared about what this journey (esp the next few weeks/month) holds for me. I am very scared of hurting the band - I cannot feel it speciifically and I cannot feel any restriction - but I am only on fluids so I guess I wouldn't. He said this morning that he put a little bit of fluid in it, and apparently I have a Johnson and Johnson band - which must be the Realize band - I don't really mind though. How is everyone else going - either in recovery or with pre-op jitters? x

Hey guys well with much trepidation i checked in at 7am this morning and i have got a band now. So exhausted have slept all day.

Hey! Never fear! You will be okay! I am being banded in 14 hours time (8am NZ time on the 2nd of April) and I was so freaked out about the surgery, and I am not any more. I don't know why, but I know I will be okay. I keep coming back to the fact that if the risks of surgery were that high, and if this was not the choice for me, then I would have come to that conclusion when I was contemplating this for the last two years - doing all the research - when I was looking at it objectively, not subjectively through anxiety-tinted glasses. You wouldnt have come this far if you didnt believe it was for you in your heart.