marjon9

It's great to see someone take their life by the Mountain Oysters and just make it into what they choose for it to be. Congratulations puddin

Kat is definitely right about this. But I want to add one thing. I think you will find that not eating for a while after surgery is much easier than not eating before surgery. After surgery most people don't seem to have much of an appetite. I wasn't hungry at all for at least a week. Also, the doc wants your bowels cleaned out because the surgery and medication they give you after surgery can cause constipation. They want you to start with a "clean slate," so to speak. I don't think a spoon of noodles is going to cause a major problem in this area. Good luck on your big day!

I was feeling pretty crappy all around for about two weeks after surgery. I never had much pain at the incision points, or pain from gas. But I had just about everything else. Bad cold, diarrhea, lack of energy. Think of it this way, you have an excuse to explore the intricacies of day time television. Don't worry too much. You'll feel better soon. For energy, I found that protein shakes were helpful. The pre-mixed kind in the can are easiest.

It's true most people find that there are certain things they can't eat. I'm still not able to eat much that is solid but that's because I just had surgery. But the thing I am noticing is that I am experiencing about twice the flavor in the things I do eat. I used to just wolf things down. Now, I savor everything I eat (because the band forces me to do that) and I'm finding that I really enjoy the actual flavor of the food much more than I used to. If this is a permanent change I'll consider it a good trade off even if there are some things I can't eat.

I just thought I'd pass along my story on this in case it might be useful to someone else. I had my surgery about three weeks ago. After about 10 days the steri-strips came off. The port incision was still a bit open/unsealed, and draining a thin, pink, clear liquid. There was no sign of infection so I figured I'd just put some Neosporin on it, cover it with gauze, and go on my merry way. Well, the darn thing never would close, even though I kept dressing it and changing the gauze twice a day. The draining actually started to get a little worse. So, I called my doc and asked what was going on. He said that the Neosporin was my problem. He said that stuff is great for an abrasion or some other surface injury, but a surgery incision is deep, and Neosporin is not the right thing at all. He said it gets in the wound and makes it into a swampy thing that will never close. He said stop the Neosporin, cover it with gauze, and see if it will dry up and close. Well, I cleaned off the Neosporin and covered it with dry gauze. The draining stopped in about 3 hours, and the wound sealed in a day. It looks great now and I am no longer worried about a port infection. Moral of the story: Neosporin is great for healing a port incision - NOT!!

I'm still really restricted, too. It's starting to bug me. I want to get to the point where I can eat some solids that will fill me up. When I try to eat solids sometimes they go down OK, but I still have problems inadvertently eating too fast or not chewing enough. It's so hard to get used to the new way we have to eat. Who has 30 minutes to eat a one-egg omelet? So, anyway, when I eat too fast I PB, then have my stomach swell up again, and I'm back on liquids and I have major restriction. I know this is bad. I feel guilty for doing things that result in a PB. I am just having such a hard time with the tiny bites and endless chewing. I'm just going to have to get a grip on this.

Nykee, this is serious situation that you need to get resolved. You need to work with your doctor about it. I'm no doctor and no expert, but this is what I understand: When you slime and the food comes up that is a PB. When the food is stuck, it is just that, stuck, it is not a PB. You need to get the tests back from your doctor so you can see what is going on. It is true that the band can slip to the point where you can't get anything down. Perhaps when that happens the band is slipping "up," I don't know. But it sounds like you might have a slip. If the band is not slipped, but just "placed very high," then that can also be a serious problem if it causes these symptoms. It might as well be a slip, because it makes the band unworkable for you. I can also say that you are supposed to take at least a day or two of liquids after even one single PB before you try and eat again. When you PB the stomach swells and it needs to heal before you try to eat anything. It sounds like you don't give it that rest and just continue to try to eat at a time when the stomach is swollen. Nothing will ever change if this cycle continues. It sounds to me like you need to get a complete unfill (assuming the band is not slipped), drink liquids for a week to heal up, then start the band filling process again from scratch. I know you are afraid you will start gaining weight if the band is unfilled, but you just have to go through this process if you are ever going to be able to get it to work for you. If you just continue trying to force food down over a swollen stomach this is going to lead to more and more serious problems. Above all, work with your doctor to get this fixed right.

Maxdog, as Ted said, getting a fill does not mean there is a problem. That's the way the band is supposed to work. You are supposed to fill (and sometimes unfill) the band until you get the level of restriction that allows you to feel full on a small amount of food. You are definitely not supposed to go around feeling starving. It sounds like you are doing great with the weight loss. Congrats! So go ahead and start getting fills until you find the point where you get full on a small amount of food, and then sit back and watch the scale keep dropping.

Hi terry, If you mean should your wife go with you to Denver, yes, she should. It's possible to be alone when you do the surgery. Some do it. For a while I thought I might need to go alone. But my wife was able to come with me and I am very glad she did. Some people are fortunate and recover almost immediately from the surgery. Others take longer. If you go alone you are gambling that you'll be one of those who can recover quickly and get home. But if it turns out you are not one of the fast healers, then what? I recommend bringing someone. And by the way, Dr. Kirshenbaum requires that you bring someone so that you are not alone for the first 24 hours after the anesthesia. You can make arrangements to come alone, but if you do you must stay overnight in the hospital, which is an exta $500.

Hi terry r, actually, I'm from Maryland. I still felt it was worth it since the price in my area is about double. There are no hidden costs for surgery. The only thing "extra" is just the cost of getting to Denver and staying in a hotel. From my experience out there, from talking to Dr. K and his staff, and from reading the comments of others on this forum, I'm convinced he is a very skilled surgeon and a good choice for the operation. If you have not yet done so, run a search for Kirshenbaum on this forum and you'll find some other comments from people who have used him. Good luck.

All I know is I have already started growing my beard combover. I don't know why I never thought of that before. It looks great!

I agree with the others' descriptions, but for me I don't find it that horrible. It's the food you just ate coming back up, before it has mixed with digestive juices. So, to me, it is not nearly as awful as actual vomiting. Other people feel that it is pretty much the same as vomiting. In any event, it can be bad for the band and it is to be avoided as much as possible.

I know what you mean about missing fruits and vegetables. I'd check with your doc but I think that would probably be OK. I think people don't often do the fruit and vegie plan you propose for a couple reasons: a) quite a few people have trouble eating a lot of fresh fruit with the band, and the same goes for vegies unless they are cooked very well (overcooked), and I think it is the Proteins that give you that "full" feeling. Getting that "full" feeling without eating a lot of volume is what makes the band work for a lot of people. You may not be able to get the same full feeling when the bulk of what you eat is fruits and vegies. Having said that, I don't think there is any reason why you can't do what you are saying if it works for you. But of course I'm no expert. I'd still check with your doc/nutritionist about this. I'd also be cautious about diving in to a lot of fresh fruit and vegies until you know these items will agree with your band, and not get stuck.

Talk about spelling problems! You might as well be speaking French!

Here's an article from Yahoo News Child stomach surgeries more popular <!-- END HEADLINE --> <!-- BEGIN STORY BODY -->By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago As the popularity of stomach surgery has skyrocketed among obese adults, a growing number of doctors are asking, "Why not children, too?" For decades, the number of kids trying weight-loss surgery has been tiny. The operations themselves were risky, with a death rate of about 1 in 50. Children rarely got that fat, and when they did, pediatricians hesitated to put the developing bodies under the knife. Only 350 U.S. kids had such an operation in 2004, according to federal statistics. But improvements in surgical technique and huge increases in the number of dangerously obese children have begun fueling a change of heart. A group of four hospitals, led by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, are starting a large-scale study this spring examining how children respond to various types of weight-loss surgery, including the gastric bypass, in which a pouch is stapled off from the rest of the stomach and connected to the small intestine. Three more hospitals have approval from the food and Drug Administration to test how teens fare with a procedure called laparoscopic gastric banding, where an elastic collar installed around the stomach limits how much someone can eat. The FDA has hesitated to approve the gastric band for children, but surgeons at New York University Medical Center reported in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery this month that the device holds promise. The 53 boys and girls, aged 13 to 17, who participated in NYU's study shed nearly half their excess weight over 18 months, while suffering relatively minor complications. Crystal Kasprowicz, of St. James, N.Y., said she lost 100 pounds from her 250-pound frame after having the band installed at age 17. "I'm a totally different person," she said. Before the procedure, Kasprowicz said she took medication for a rapid heartbeat and was showing signs of developing diabetes. Every effort she made to stop getting bigger failed. Dieting didn't work, she said. Her heart problems made it hard to exercise. Even walking up stairs was a challenge. Now, she's off the heart drugs. Her blood-sugar levels are in check. She also feels better about herself. "I'm very outgoing now," said Kasprowicz. "I hike a lot ... I go to the beach in the summer now. I'm not as self-conscious when I go shopping for clothing." Similar studies are under way at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago and at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian, which recently opened a weight-loss surgery center for teens. Doctors there expect to conduct about 50 operations this year. Children are only considered candidates for surgery after they have spent six months trying to lose weight through conventional methods under hospital supervision. But so far, not a single one has slimmed down enough to take surgery off the table, said Dr. Jeffrey Zitsman, associate attending surgeon at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. "That battle can only be won in a few instances," he said. The studies have followed a huge surge in the popularity of obesity surgeries among adults. The American Society for Bariatric Surgery estimates that more than 177,000 Americans had weight-loss surgery last year, up from 47,000 in 2001. Not everyone is pleased that kids might be next. "I don't think altering the human digestive tract is a solution to the problem of excess weight," said Joanne Ikeda, a nutritionist emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. "It's one of these quick-fixes that isn't a fix at all." Doctors, she said, still know relatively little about the long-term effects of such operations on the very young. The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released a study in July that said four in 10 weight-loss surgery patients develop complications within six months. Among adults, mortality rates among gastric bypass patients remain at between 1 in 100 and 1 in 200 patients. Laparoscopic gastric banding has been shown to have a much smaller death rate — about 1 in 1000 patients — but complications do occur. Of the patients who participated in the NYU study, two needed a second operation to adjust a slipping band; two developed hernias; five got an infection; five suffered mild hair loss and four had Iron deficiencies related to their new diet. After the study was complete, one patient asked to have her band removed because of discomfort, said Evan Nadler, a pediatric surgeon and co-author of the study. Nadler said those complications were minor compared to the chronic diabetes and cardiovascular disease teens would face if they remained that heavy into adulthood. "These are people who have tried everything they could possibly try," he said, noting that their mean weight at the study's start was 297 pounds. "Once they reach this level of morbid obesity, the vast majority go on to be obese adults," he said. Thomas Wadden, an obesity expert at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said surgery can be of immense benefit to some teens, especially those already experiencing health problems. But he also advised caution. Egged on by TV shows and commercials expounding the benefits of weight-loss surgery, adult patients have begun showing up at Penn's Center for Weight and Eating Disorders demanding an operation as an easy first step to thinness. "When we ask them, 'What have you done so far to lose weight?' The patients say, 'Nothing,'" Wadden said. "They're going right to a $25,000 operation for which they are ill-prepared." It would be tragic, he said, to see the same phenomenon repeated among children. "They have to be selected with caution to make sure that this aggressive step is absolutely necessary."

Since I got the band people tell me that I smell like a blend of lavendar, lotus blossums, rose petals, a pine forest at dawn, and fresh-picked apples after a rainstorm. It must be the Protein shakes.

I used to carry Gerber's when traveling also, but then my wife found it and told me I had some 'splainin' to do. :heh:

Over the last few weeks as I've read this forum the advice I see most often is "follow your doctor's instructions." So, if pureed chicken w/broth is on your doctor's list, I say go for it. As for whether it is a liquid or a mushy, I would say it probably just depends on how thick it is. One thing to consider is whether chicken, even in a pureed form, may require digestive effort for your stomach. I think it is this stomach churning that people are generally supposed to try and avoid for a while after surgery. But I have no idea how this should apply to you in particular. I just know that for me, it would have been a bit tough to deal with that type of food for at least a week or ten days after surgery. If you are feeling good eating that, then it is probably fine.

I have to say, you guys are on mushies WAY faster than I was. I tried mushies after about 10 days on liquids and still could not get them down. I'm 2 1/2 weeks out and just beginning now on things like scrambled eggs. I have to say, most doctors recommend quite a bit more time to let the stomach heal before moving to mushies. But each doctor is different, and you guys seems to be doing OK with what you are doing. So, enjoy!

As far as I'm concerned, Prime Rib is so good I don't even mind if I PB the darn thing. It just means I get to eat it twice, if you what I mean.

I don't know, maybe it's because I'm older than dirt. But there is no way I could have started serious excercise after 7 days post op. You youngsters sure do heal up fast. I'm 2 1/2 weeks post op and my port incision still has a little bit of draining (it's almost closed now. I think it will be by tomorrow). So I would definitly be reluctant to hit the gym even now. But I have lost 21 lb since 1/17. Yeah!! Congrats on your progress, Sheila. It sounds like you are doing great.

Yeah, I called him and confessed. He sentenced me to several days of broth and popsicles. I wasn't really trying to be bad. I thought that what I was doing was within the guidlines, if just barely. But, I pushed it a little too far. That golf ball feeling in the chest can really get your attention. I don't want to have that experience any more often than I have to. I think that is the main thing I learned about the band over the last week. That is, if you have restriction the band is totally unforgiving. If you cross the line of your limit, you are not going to get away with it, there will be a price to pay.

My understanding is that chocolate is not a "No No" because it bad for the band. Rather, chocolate is a "No No" because it is, well, chocolate. From what I hear it really goes down easy and is no problem for the band at all. That's the problem. (It's not that I have any personal knowledge in this area. Right.)

I agree that eating with the band is trial and error. My experience so far has been a little heavy on the "error." I've been a bad bandster. It's not that I've eaten bad things, but I have not really followed directions as well as I should have. I moved past liquids a little too soon, thinking I was ready. I was not. I PB'd several times over that and then went back to liquids for a few days. I've also had some trouble with eating bites that were too big, eating them too fast, and not chewing enough. Bad bandster!! So anyway, today I approached the matter with a new resolve. I made myself a one-egg omelet with cheese. I sat down at the table and ate it in tiny bites, chewing each one for a long time. I waited a while between each bite to see if I would have that "golf ball" feeling. Well, everything went well. I had no problems at all. I feel fine. So, the moral of the story is, there are no shortcuts with the band. When you are full, or eat a bite that is too big, it is like driving a car into a brick wall. You are simply not going to get past that wall, period. So, you have to be careful. But if you follow the rules, you can find things to eat. I imagine once you get your sea legs the whole thing gets a lot easier. I also want to say that from my point of view PBing is really not that big a deal. The only reason I am concerned about it is because people say it is bad for the band. PBing in itself is not that bad. When you "vomit," this comes from the stomach where all the digestive acid is and all that, and the material that comes out is forced out through strong convulsions of the stomach muscles, it tastes terrible, and you feel like crap afterwards. PBing is different. It is more like when you shake up a bottle of coke and then take of the cap, the coke comes bubbling up to the top by itself. You don't have to squeeze the bottle to force it out. And the material that comes out when you PB is not foul in particular. It's really just the stuff you ate without much change, before the food has come in contact with any digestive juices or other strange substances. I just didn't find it to be much of a big deal, except that people say it is bad for the band. So, since it's bad for the band you probably don't want to get into an recreational PBing, or anything like that, but I would not "dread" or "fear" the experience. It's not that bad. Think of it as a sort of christening of your bandster ship as you begin your maiden voyage. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I had the same thing. In fact, I'm 2 1/2 weeks post op and I'm still dealing with some seepage from my port incision. My steri-strips are long gone, of course. So, I'm just keeping the port incision clean, dressed with Neosporin, and covered with gauze. Since this has been going on a while with me I spent a good amount of time searching about it on this forum. My understanding is that this is within the range of normal, even for me at 2 1/2 weeks out. The main thing is, if you have any signs of infection (pain, odor, inflamation, pus that appears thick or creamy), then you need to get to the doctor asap. I have none of these signs of infection, I just continue to have a fairly minor seepage of a light pink, thin clear liquid. Anyway, that's my story (and I'm sticking to it). I'd also like to hear what others have to say about this. Thanks for bringing it up.