iradi8fortheusa

Oh sure, tell me this after I have been banded!:scared2:

I am sure you will be fine! Consider it the surgery a minor inconvenience on your road to weight loss. I am glad to hear you are excited, I kept asking myself "what am I doing". Good Luck

Biker

Well I was going to go back to work tomorrow, but I decided to give myself the rest of the week off. I am still having a lot of pain under my left rib cage around where my stomach should be. I am not sure if it is gas, or if it is the band itself. I am using gas-ex and activia yogurt to help. I took a 1/2 mile walk down to the lake and back today to help work out my kinks. Right now I think it has caused a few more, but no pain no gain (not sure that is an appropriate saying for this website.) I should take a moment to thank my Wife Tina and my father for their support and help over the past couple of days! Sorry about cursing you over the potholes on the way home. You guys are great! I do have a tremendous support network and I know I can count on all of them, but Tina is who I live for. She knows how to keep me going, and just when I need that kick in the ass. It is funny to see us in public becuause I am a 6 foot tall biker complete with full beard and frame, and she is a 5 foot 2 inch dynamo who has no problem setting me straight, and I love her for it! Well enough of the mush, boy I can not wait for the mushy foods though. I would also like to thank everyone here for their support also. I have my first surgeons follow up on Friday. I will keep you posted!

Biker

I am glad to see you are feeling better. I am lucky I have not been hungry at all. Stay with your plan, and congratulations.

Biker

Well here I am 3 days post op and I am still kind of sore, but the worst feeling is the gas. I feel like I have enough gas to lift off the space shuttle. I want to burp, I try to burp, but I just can not burp. Well other than that I am doing ok. I changed my dressings today, and the one incision made for my liver was about 5 inches long with external sutures. The rest of my incisions are only about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch long. I weighed myself and I am down to 285lbs from 300; WOW! Well it is protein shake time. I will keep you posted.

Well I am officially on the band wagon. I was at the hospital at 06:00 hrs, and was the first one there. I got the usual regiment of questions, IV and stylish gown. My anesthesiologists name was Jason Tranquil. How cool is that. Well he promised me a pain free journey and hung around till my surgeon showed up. I my surgeon played the usual q&a game and off to surgery I went. The last thing I remember is the staff was checking out my tattoo. I woke up very uncomfortable and I noticed a rather large incision over my liver. Hmmmm. The surgeon came in and told me my liver was much larger than he thought and had to make the larger incision and manhandle it a little because it was in the way. That was the reason for the extra pain. Well it turns out the Hospital does not have a bariatric x ray table, so I had to wait till Friday to go home because they did not want me standing long enough for the swallowing study because of the whole liver thing. I had a rough evening thanks to a drug addict room mate, I also heard some very nice conversations amongst the nursing staff; they were bitching about my doctor brining in all of the heffers and fat scum bags, and how they were tired of dealing with it. Nice huh? One nurse said we were a bunch of fat losers who are looking for a magic pill, but we will always be losers. Well needless to say getting to go home was a great feeling! Well after my family found every pot hole on the way home, I settled in with the battle of keeping my 120lb black lab from jumping on me. I doped myself up and went to bed. I am still sore, but feel much better today. I will keep you posted later.

Twas the night before Lap banding and all through the house; not a treat was being eaten, not even a mousse. The protein shakes are lined on the counter and stacked with care, in hopes that surgery will go without despair. Then from my stomach arose such a clatter......ok it was really more like a large growl. Well if you have not guessed it is my Lap band eve. I am a little nervous, a little excited, and a little hungry. I would like to thank everyone for their support. Without all of the information you have shared, I think that this would be a lot harder for me. I will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow.

Biker

I am surprised your your pains were not blamed on your weight. Every illness or injury I have had in the last five years was blamed on my weight by my MD;

1. You got struck by lightening, well if your were not so morbidly obese you would not have been such a target.

2. You just got attacked by a tiger, well if you were not so morbidly obese you would not have been as appetizing to the tiger now would you.

3.You just got shot by a criminal, well if you were not so morbidly obese, you would not have been such a big target.

I guess you get the point. Good luck with your evil evil nurse.

why do they make you lose weight before the surgery?

One reason is so that you are more healthy for the Surgery.

Another reason is like a good faith agreement between you, your doctor, and your insurance company. They like to see you loose as little as 5% and as much as 30% of your body weight to show that you are serious about losing weight, and that you can do it.

The lap band is just a tool for weight loss, the actual weight loss is still based on your hard work.

Biker

Well today was day 1 of my liquid diet and exercise before surgery. After reading countless blogs I decided to try the Unjury product line. For Breakfast I had chocolate in milk, and that was pretty good. For lunch I had the strawberry sorbet mixed with water, and that tasted like feet! Blaaaa, it gave me a stomach ache for the rest of the afternoon. For dinner I had vanilla in milk, and that was as good as the chocolate. So lesson 1 strawberry bad; very very bad. Chocolate and vanilla good; very very good.

Now for the exercise part. I work as a Supervisor for a hospital in the VA system, and my department is on the third floor. I decided to use only stairs from now on. Do you now how embarrsing it is to be passed by an 80 year old couple on the steps? Then to have them turn around and ask if I am ok? I am going to need work on this exercise thing. I felt like Rocky when I acutally made it to my floor. Hey I will take any victory I can right now. Tick Tick Tick my surgery clock is counting down. Thursday is stalking me.

Well here I go on the eve of the start of the rest of my life. I start my liquid protein diet tomorrow before my Banding on Thursday 02/05/2009. Well I had my "last supper", which consisted of an appetizer of Irish egg rolls, a 10 oz sirloin steak, Tully's chicken tenders, vodka lemonade, beer, potatoes, and peanut butter pie for dessert. Wow, I am short of breath just typing it. Now it is time to get down to the dirty business of changing my life and breaking all of my very bad habits. I am still very nervous about the surgery, and keep asking myself what the hell are you doing? Down deep inside myself I know I need to do this, my health has been in a downward spiral for the last couple of years.

I have read countless blogs and they more than anything have convinced me that I can do this, and that it is the right decision. So I made a promise to myself that I would blog about my journey to help others. I am a 6 foot tall man who started at 345 pounds 8 months ago. Now I am down to 300 pounds and ready to go. So sit back and hold on, because HERE I GO!