ParrotheadCathy

Depends on your pre-op diet. If you're on liquids, obviously the answer is no. My pre-op diet was 2 Protein shakes and 2 lean meals that consisted of 3-4oz of lean protein and vegetables and, yes, I could have eaten lettuce but salad dressing would have been a no-no. Frankly, to me, lettuce isn't worth chewing because it has little in the way of nutrients and is mostly Water. Dark greens like spinach, turnip greens, and others are much more nutritious. I suggest that if you don't have a written list of permitted foods for your pre-op diet, you should call your doctor's office and talk to the nutritionist or PA about any questions you have about the food list.

Another option may be to rent one. Depending on the severity of your OSA you may see a rapid improvement after surgery and not need the machine for all that long.

Deb, on the welcome page of this site, there is a link to a comparison of gastric bypass vs. lap band. My own thinking (whether medically correct or not) was that I wasn't fat enough for bypass surgery...LOL. I needed to lose 134 pounds and I felt that the rapid weight loss of bypass wasn't what I was looking for. My internist agreed with me when we talked about it. In the end, you are right ... you and your doctor should decide. But don't let anybody try to talk you out of your own decision! You are the only one who has to live with your choice. Ask the questions that will help sort out the differences (good and bad) between the two procedures. Keep researching! Ask us any specific questions you might have and I'm betting someone here has an informed answer.

With your surgery just 8 days ago, I am assuming you are on an all-liquid diet and perhaps will be moving to mushy food very soon. This is the time when we all started getting pretty hungry and it is tough. But (if you are on liquids still) drink some extra broth, eat some SF Jello or SF pudding. If you're up to mushy stuff already, try low fat cottage cheese....it's quite high in Protein for a small serving and protein takes longer to digest so it keeps you full longer. I only had .6cc in my band after surgery and that was left ater the doctor tested it before he placed it. I'd say most of us had negligible amounts of Fluid in our bands immediately post-op. It's bandster hell. As your stomach recovers from the insult of having that band put around it and most likely stitched into place, the swelling goes down and you do start to feel hungry and that is "bandster hell". It gets better. Just keep sticking the foods on your approved list, take in a little more .... and you will feel better and do fine!

"Stuck" is about 95% operator error. So be careful.....cut your food into bites about the size of a nickel...all of it, before you start to eat. Put your fork down between bites and chew at least 25 times (may take more with some proteins). And, if that protein is a little dry, take a small sip of water WITH it to better chew it or use some sort of sauce like a flavored mustard, etc. to moisten it. I have to watch myself when I'm really hungry because that's when I get stuck. I've learned that if I cut everything up before I start eating, I don't get carried away and take a big bite. Hope it helps you as much as it helps me. I always make my fill appointments for EARLY in the morning. That way, if I were to have a problem, I can go back to the doc's office the same day. You sound like you really want to get back on track so chin up, chest out (yeah, I'm poking fun a little....did you smile?), and go get that fill.

Since your calorie count is so low, that is probably contributing to your slow weight loss. Today, try adding a snack of protein .... a serving of cottage cheese, cheese, even leftover meat or (my fave) a few steamed shrimp. And make your dinner portion of protein a bit larger. Tomorrow, slight increase the size of your protein servings at all three meals enough to bring you up to about 1,000 - 1,100.

I'm one of those incredibly lucky people -- it takes something huge to nauseate me. My fills are no big deal as far as I'm concerned. After my first two fills, I could have solid food right away. After the third, it was up to me. For the 4th and 5th, I was told liquids for the rest of the day and then the day after was up to me.

Normandy, I had a C-section that had to be re-opened a few years later to repair an incisional hernia and I had my gallbladder removed back when they cut you from the sternum to your appendix. My surgeon said he had one banding that he could not perform laprascopically because of extensive scarring from an open gallbladder removal -- but had no problems with mine. Realistically, the C-section scarring is much lower and therefore out of the way. Likely your wife had laprascopic gallbladder surgery (wish they did that back in 1984!), which produces a lot less scarring than what I had.

Mel, white rice is just one of those foods that commonly cause bandsters problems. That doesn't mean it will cause every one of us problems. The only white rice I've eaten was in sushi and I didn't have a problem with it. Soft bread, however, doesn't work for me -- it's on the same list but a lot of people eat sandwiches without a problem; NOT me. Asparagus, celery, well you've probably heard the whole list. I can safely say that what doesn't work for me will likely not cause you a problem ... and what does work for me may not work for you. It's just the way this thing works.

Laura, go ahead and go to the surgeon you choose. Most of them can do the medically supervised diet with you and during that time get your testing done and out of the way. They will put together the application for approval to your insurance company and submit it as soon as you've finished the diet. That way, you've streamlined the process! The surgeon's office can help you meet the requirement of the diet plan but still be qualified for insurance approval for your surgery. It does sound like you may very well have sleep apnea. You will likely have to have a sleep study done as part of your pre-op testing. Best to get that out of the way because the CPAP machine will help you be more rested when you wake up in the morning! Thankfully, that was one problem I didn't have but it is a comorbidity that many overweight people suffer and don't even know about!

My suggestion is to make the fill appointment. If your doc's office is like mine, they will do more than just fill you. They will talk to you about where you are and what isn't working and why. Yeah, you may truly need a fill so it's good to go, but the accountability thing of getting on their scale, talking about where you head is, etc. can really help you out too.

I admire you guys who do an all-liquid pre-op diet! My pre-op diet was two Protein shakes a day (breakfast and late afternoon snack) and two lean meals that consisted of 3 oz of lean protein and raw or steamed veggies. I lost plenty of weight and I never felt deprived. Post-op liquid is a different animal. For about the first 7 days I didn't care that it was all liquid. Nothing appealed to me. And on Day 10 I was advanced to mushy food. I realize now, by comparison, that I had it pretty easy. Hats off to you guys!

Well, I believe in what works for me, LOL. She doesn't have to drink them if she doesn't want to.

I drink a SlimFast Low Carb Diet every day for Breakfast. 20 grams of Protein, and 2 NET grams of carbs (total grams of carbs minus grams of fiber equals net carbs). I like the taste of the chocolate! The vanilla is just tolerable, but I don't like much of anything that's vanilla anyway. It did make a good smoothie though. My main thing is I wanted an RTD that tasted good to me. I long since learned to read nutrition panels because I was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic about 14 years ago.....the 70 pounds I've lost has returned my blood glucose level to normal without medications but the habit is probably ingrained for life now. The Low Carb Diet is a fairly recent product, I think. When I first discovered them, they were hard to find but now I find them in lots of places. The so-called "high protein" SlimFast has 15 grams of protein (yeah, go figure) and something like 27 grams of carbs. You definitely have to read labels for any food product.....simply because the face label can be misleading.

I was only out 3 days. Short-term disability usually requires that you use one week of personal time/vacation time before you can use your STD benefits. I used 2 days of vacation time and the third day, I used a bunch of extra hours to make up the day.

PBs are not a given. 95% of them are completely what I call "operator error" .... So, remember: You should cut your food into bites about the size of a nickle, put your fork down between bites, AND CHEW REALLY WELL. This will be a given for the rest of your life. I only PB when I slip up and I've learned pretty darned quickly that I can prevent it from happening. My weight loss hangs in at around 2 pounds per week. I'm down 70 pounds now. Am I thrilled? You betcha! It will happen for you. You're getting that first fill and you should truly be on your way. GOOD LUCK

Well, Steve, that sounds like a plan to me! Let someone ELSE eat the chocolate, LOL. Weight Watchers always tells people who make it to goal that they need to stay within 3 pounds of their goal weight. Makes sense if you think about it. 3 pounds isn't too tough to lose. 30 pounds is another issue entirely. So you get to whatever goal you declare, weigh yourself weekly and if you have a big week and pick up a pound or two, go ahead and get rid of them before they are joined by friends. This is where almost all of us have failed in the past. But I believe the band will help me to stay close to my goal weight at all times. Of course, I'm only a little over half-way to goal (I need to update my ticker to the 70 pounds I've now lost) but I'm with Billoh: It would be nice to see what all the successful bandsters do.

Pasta, by virtue of what it is, can very easily turn into a gummy ball that can block the stoma created by your band ..... and can take hours to digest enough to break apart. I can't eat pasta at all. Period. The most miserable experience of my life. Go ahead and try it, but chew it REALLY, REALLY well and don't eat much and see what happens. There are plenty of people who can eat pasta; maybe you'll be one of them. The main thing is that you know that you might not be.

TinyTina, it sounds like you weren't given much (if any) of the information you needed to come through the immediate post-op period! Pain in your shoulder: This is gas. Apparently you were not told that they would pump gas into your abdomen to make more room for the surgeon to work. This gas has to be absorbed by your body after surgery and it tends to "roam" around in your chest cavity and that is what caused that pain in your shoulder. Once all the gas is absorbed, that should end and not come back. "Vomiting" .... you likely are not actually vomiting but, rather, PBing. If you eat too fast, don't chew well or take bites that are too big, they can get stuck (even before you ever get a fill). You should cut your food into bites about the size of a nickle, put your fork down between bites, AND CHEW REALLY WELL. If you don't, the bite (and any that follow) get stuck and can come back up. But it is not vomiting -- there is no heaving that empties the entire contents of your stomach and there is no stomach acid involved. Just that food. Not losing? Well, you are in the time frame we call Bandster Hell. You have very little noticeable restriction (I know that some Mexican surgeons put a few ccs in the bands at surgery and you say you are at 2.9cc). 2.9ccs is a small start. I had .6 after surgery and my first fill was 3ccs on top of that....and I've had 4 more fills since then to take to to 6ccs and I am FINALLY at my sweet spot. You need to go for a fill. Get whomever does the fill to draw all the Fluid out before they add any so that you know absolutely 100% how much fluid is in your band. A fill will NOT cause the gas pains you've experienced post-op. The fill goes into the port, which inflates the inner ring of your band. It is a closed system. Lastly, scars. You KNEW you would be cut; I mean, it's surgery after all. Maybe you've never had any surgery before? Scars take time to heal and fade. Technically speaking, what they call "scar modeling" can occur anytime in the first year post-op. The stuff you buy at the pharmacy isn't bad, but not anywhere near the best product out there. Cicacare is supposed to be the best professional product and is quite expensive -- you can buy it online and a 5" X 6" piece will cost close to $60 if you can find single sheets; a box will cost $500 or more. Even if you do nothing to the scars, in a year's time, they won't be red any more, those two nodules will flatten out in another month or two. My advice is RELAX and let your body do its job. Now, make that appointment for your first fill and put your band to work.

Tamra, your friend more than likely knows nothing or very little about the lap band versus gastric bypass. And, with gastric bypass, loose skin is almost unavoidable because the weight loss is so fast. Lap band aims for a much more healthy rate of loss and your skin has the opportunity to recover as much as it can. It continues to recover for as much as a year after you reach goal weight, too. About all I can think to say is "go with me to the seminar so you can learn for yourself!" Many people who attend the seminars take a friend or family member with them.

Well, I did notice the reference to cream-based Soups. I was told explicitly that after the "full liquid" stage post-op, I was not supposed to eat ANY cream soups. I suggest that your journal your eating if you aren't doing so already. There are several on-line journals that help you with calorie values, etc. What most people discover once they start journaling EVERY BITE that goes in their mouths that they are nibbling on things they shouldn't be eating at all. This will help you with portions. Aim for aboaut !,000 to !,200 calories per day. I drink a Protein shake (20 grams Protein and 2 grams of carbs) for Breakfast because I'm tight in the morning and don't/can't eat soid food. My other two meals consist of about 3 oz of lean protein, vegetables and a single serving of whole grain carbs (for me, since bread gets stuck every time, that's whole grain baked crackers). I occasionally eat a scoop of mashed potatoes, I have a very small slice of birthday cake once a month at work, SF popsicles are a favorite snack. For exercise, I don't go to a gym. I have almost an acre for a yard so I do all my own yard work and that gives me a fair amount of exercise. Fill in with walking. This works for me. I PB occasionally, but it's "operator error" ... I either eat too fast or in lieu of not eating fast, don't chew as well as I should. That has taught me a great deal about HOW to eat. So, anyway, you have my suggestions.

Here's a link to the FAQ section of this site: Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum - FAQ: LapBandTalk Forum Frequently Asked Questions This will explain a lot of abbreviations. PB is the most mystifying because until you experience you still sort of don't get it. You take too big a bite, don't chew a bite well enough, or maybe take a bite too many. You get stuck. You'll know immediately that you're stuck because it will feel terrible .... like some huge lump is in your chest. DON'T try to drink to wash it down. If I stand up and move around a little, a stuck episode may resolve itself. If it doesn't, it may come back up. This will be accompanied by a lot of mucus and foamy saliva that you're just going to have to spit out. That's a PB...when a bite of chewed food comes back up. It is NOT vomiting. There is no stomach acid involved. And, your stomach doesn't heave until it empties itself. It's just the stuck bite (and if you drank to try to wash it down, the Water or whatever that is sitting on top of the stuck bite with come up too). The relief is immediate and complete. It's not the most pleasant experience but the couple of times it's happened to me, it was such a relief to get "unstuck" that I pretty much didn't care what it took to fix it.

A small portion of dry roasted nuts. A little salty, protein, crunchy .... all in one.

Shoulder pain in the first few weeks after surgery is usually gas pains related to the gas they pumped into your abdoment when they did the surgery. Moving around, rocking in a rocking chair, putting your arms over your head and moving them around and a heating pad (especially on the pain in your shoulder) help tremendously. Moving around as much as you feel up to will make a big difference.

WOW! That's really high. I've heard of $250 a few times but $3,500? That's crazy. I had no program fees. Support group, which is great, is free. I also have a "lap band advocate" who is trained to answer questions and I can call her anytime and get answers very quickly. if it's beyond her training, either the PA or the surgeon returns the call, and because they aren't fielding ALL the calls, you do get a fast call back. All in all, I'm very happy with my whole arrangement. I think if they'd asked for $3,500 on top of what I paid for the surgery, I would have backed down and shopped for another doctor. That's just on the edge of downright outrageous.