AlienBandit

do u live in a dorm or can u cook for ur self? In College if u have a apartment style housing it can be really easy to cook for your self. If u have a meal plan then eating in the cafe can be a challenge. Look for yogurts and softer foods like Soups etc your first little while post op or pack Protein shakes etc that you can eat between classes. Since your surgery is on Wed and u dont go back til Mon you should be fine. If ur keeping it a secret just tell people you slipped on the ice ( if there is snow then) or hurt your self working out if anyone asks why ur taking it easy. The first couple of days can be sore but make sure u move around a lot.

I didnt want to tell anyone about my surgery. That is only because I live half way across the world from most of my friends and family. I told a co worker at each school I work at in case I ran into problems with the surgery and also to translate to the payroll department not to charge me for lunches anymore as I was making my own lunches lol

so I always hear about people having to get their gallbladders out after a big weight loss. Has anyone had their gallbladders removed?

I would just say it is a kind of chinese ( or herbal) kind of detox as you want to start a diet. Or say that you feel a little under the weather and like to drink a lot more Soup when sick. Maybe you can work an excuse around your reasoning for taking time off. (ie if u went on "vacation" and got strep throat while away etc).

I was banded october 10th. My weight ticker is not up to date I cant remember how to update it. I have lost 11 kg so about 25 pounds I think since surgery. I have an 11cc band with 8cc in it right now. I have a little bit of restriction ( just got 3 cc put in 3 days ago) but hoping the saline will settle giving me more restriction so I can get in full gear for weight loss. Doing well but I am still struggling with the head hunger and stomach hunger debates daily.

I live in South Korea. I have lived here for over 2 years. I never thought I could get the surgery as it is expensive and I have a low BMI to start with but found a great doctor here in Korea and was able to work out a payment plan and paid way less then what I would in Canada. We talked about what I would do when I go back to Canada but he said he has many patients who are foreigners who go back to the states or Canada no problem and find places for their fills etc. I am planning ahead and looking into finding a fill center now. Before I go back my doctor will help me as well looking for a fill center if I dont find one myself.

where does everyone go for fills? Is there a doctor near barrie that does fills for people who have had surgery outside of Canada?

honestly the fill isnt as bad as it sounds. I am the worst when it comes to needles and the more I get poked the worse it gets. I went for my second fill yesterday ( I have a 11 cc band) last time I got 5cc put in my band and I had no restriction at all. Yesterday I had more saline put it and I felt restriction so the doctor made me sit up and drink while the huge needle was still in me. I kind of started to freak out. Just the thought of that made me almost pass out but after a minute i got the courage to sit up and drink. Just make sure you can swallow Water before leaving the office after getting a fill and you should be fine. It really doesnt hurt part of my problem not liking the needles for lapband it because even if someone just touches my belly button or near there i get nauseous ( totally a head thing) so the thought of a needle in me there makes it worse. Just take a deep breathe dont look at the needle and it will be over so fast.

you become a mathematician and you are always doing math in your head. Example Going to restaurants and thinking ok a dinner dish/meal on a plate 2ce the size of a regular plate that is 4 times the size of the plate i eat off of and only eat half the amount of my plate makes this meal last for about 8 meals etc lol you buy food and water dishes for your pet rat and think they would be great size serving dishes for yourself for meals and the occasional dessert ( like jello etc) I seriously considered buying a few of my own lol

Thanks so much I searched before and couldnt find it and even used the search engine and it didnt work! I was getting really frustrated

so how much weight has everyone lost? I have been at a stand still since my two weeks post op :thumbup: went for a fill but it isnt doing much so I am going back in 2 weeks

I really wish I could keep it to myself. I think when I go back for a visit I wont tell anyone but once I go back to live in Canada I will have to tell my parents as I will be under their health insurance ( will need to know what is covered etc) and will be living with them for part of the year ( holidays and vacation away from school). I'm also worried that if something happens no one will know that I had the surgery.... :S

For me it is now or never. Once I go back to the "real world" I will be a student again and wont have money to do any kind of surgery. Plus everything is cheaper in Korea. so I cant decide whether I should get it done or not.

When I reach my goal my biggest debate is whether I will get any plastic surgery work done. In my doctors office they also do plastics so I wont be worried about who I am getting it done by but whether it is worth it or not. I lost a lot of weight a few years ago and wanted a tummy tuck ( my stomach wasnt THAT bad but who doesnt want perfection). Anyways now I am wondering if a tummy tuck would even be worth it if a few years down the road I have kids. I want kids sooner rather then later but wont have any, any time soon as my life style ( single female traveling the world etc) just wouldnt work with kids. My pets are close enough as kids for now ( but always wish for a child... biological clock maybe?). But I am wondering if a tummy tuck will be bad for my stomach if I have one and then 3-5 years later have kids. Has anyone had a tummy tuck and then had kids? Will I need a tummy tuck again? Not that I am anywhere near my goal but just thinking ahead :thumbup:

hmmm my doctor didnt say anything to me about birth control when I had my surgery. He knew I was taking it but I guess wasnt concerned. Just my luck that I lost my pack of birth control for about 2 weeks around the time I had surgery so didnt take it anyways lol

Best of luck I didnt take off any time after my surgery. I had my surgery on a Sat and went back to work on Mon. I am a teacher and just asked my students to help me if I couldnt do something.

Wow! 34 pounds?? Great job~! I was banded October 10th and I have only lost 20 pounds. Should have had a fill 2 weeks ago but chickened out. Since then I havent lost any weight because I havent started going to the gym yet and I havent been eating the best ( getting paid once a month kills me the last 2 weeks of the month since I have to pay off the surgery, students loans etc). Can't wait for my first fill on Saturday and getting paid on the 25th means gym and better eating :bored:

someone just posted a video on here the other day called sunday program or something and in the video the doc said the band cost $3,000

I had my surgery on a Saturday afternoon. I remember looking at the clock when I got back to my room after surgery and it was 4:10pm. Went back to work Monday morning. The pain from surgery wasnt that bad but it was the gas in my lungs and body that really bothered me.

I was self pay but there are no insurances in Korea that cover the lap band surgery. Lucky I didnt have all the hassels of trying to get surgery in North America though :biggrin: How did everyone manage to cover all their costs? Between surgery and student loans I am drowning

Dont worry both pains are normal from what I have been told. I would get the worst choking feeling at all times during the day and night. For a while it would wake me up at night hours afte eating and drinking. When I went to see my doctor he explained my throat was still healing. I am a teacher and therefore need to talk alot and it was affecting me working during the day because I had to take a second for the choking feeling to go away if I was teaching. I went back to work 1.5 days after surgery and it didnt bother me till I stopped taking the meds the doctor gave me ( one week after surgery) Now that I am 4 weeks post op it has finally gone. As for the back pain it took 3 weeks for the gas pains to go away and for me to feel better. I would get that sort of pain if I excerised. The gas took forever to leave! A new pain I didnt get till a week after surgery was also my teeth and they were killing me. Mostly I took tylenol if my teeth hurt or if my throat was hurting too much and it went away.

for some reason my doctor said potato chips were ok right now because i just had surgery. I tried and sadly it was almost too easy to eat chips. Thankfully chips in Korea are mostly gross so I wont be eating those often. Maybe once I get a fill they will become more uncomfortable to eat.

I am so used to drinking right before meals so now after surgery I find it a little hard because when I am making my meals I like to drink water or something but that means I must wait another 30 minutes before eating. You get used to it but I still catch myself cursing that I didnt have a drink sooner. I feel like eating making me thirsty so I sometimes dont want to eat because I want a drink instead.

My doctor cut the staples in half and then pulled out each side. I had to get him to freeze the area as I am the worst when it comes to pain. He laughed at me because apparently I was the first person who needed freezing to remove staples. I swear though there are still some parts of the staples in me. Let me know how the area feels a few days after you get your staples removed. I am interested to see if someone else has the same feeling.

I got stitches but when I had mine removed one incision was not good so the doc stapled it. Once the staples were "taken out" I can still feel something weird in the spot where the staples were. I asked my doctor and he said it was the tube to the port I feel but I dont believe him I was not impressed with the staples and even refused to have another incision stapled after it opened up. Cant wait for an x-ray to see if there are still parts of the staples in me. Has anyone else felt some hard spot where their staples once were?