jenontheband

Well I will fess up an say that I just cheated last night. My brother came over with a couple bottles of wine and although I knew he was coming and had prepared dinner in such a way that it was completely low carb...I ended up sharing the wine with him. I have no self control, or at least that is how I feel. I'm a week away from surgery and here I am drinking wine with my brother because I haven't told him I'm having surgery and I feel pressured into the old habits, which technically are still my habits. So many of you have no preop diets or variations of preop diets and here I have two weeks before and I can't do that...partly I think because I see that others don't do preop diets at all. I don't know. I am going to have to be a hermit for a month if I am going to get through this without telling people. Ugh...disgusted with myself!

I knew it would go well for you! Congratulations! It begins!!!

Here is a quote of mine from one of the other forums: I fight with [the binging] urge every time something emotional happens...loneliness, anger, frustration...you name it I eat. I remember getting into a fight with my husband over something dumb many years ago and we were sitting in a car in front of a cafe and I told him that this fight was making me want to walk right over to the cafe and buy a pumpkin pie and eat the whole thing right there. It was at that moment that I realized what an emotional issue this was for me. So I am wondering from some of you more experienced post lap band surgery patients out there...what do you do now when you feel that urge to emotionally binge and you can't anymore?

Negativity is a good reason why so many of us don't tell to many people, at least not at first when the surgery hasn't happened. As for pigging out...I get it. I fight with that urge every time something emotional happens...loneliness, anger, frustration...you name it I eat. I remember getting into a fight with my husband over something dumb many years ago and we were sitting in a car in front of a cafe and I told him that this fight was making me want to walk right over to the cafe and buy a pumpkin pie and eat the whole thing right there. It was at that moment that I realized what an emotional issue this was for me. I am spending some of my pre-surgery time researching what I am going to do when I can no longer binge to feel better. I think this will be one of the hardest things for me to deal with.

I have Aetna POS and so I was told they had a clause in their contract where they wouldn't pay for my surgery. I had a feeling...I'm a lower BMI and no comorbidities so knowing my luck I was going to have to pay. It was $13000 total (7k to the hospital, 600 to the anesthesiologist and the rest to the surgeon). I was interested to hear that one of you said that any complications were covered through Aetna once it was installed. I have worried about that and thought of changing my insurance at the New Year just because I want to have the coverage, but maybe I won't have to after all. I was told that my money only paid for 3 fills after surgery so I am going to call them up and do a little bartering now that I have your info. Either way I will end up with this surgeon and this hospital because I am comfortable with their combined experience. It's funny when you are selfpay. I definitely feel like I am shopping...which is so weird when it comes to your health However, I like being in the control seat on this one and I am happy that I am almost to the banding part! ONE MORE WEEK! Hope this info helped...

Congrats Amber! By now you must be banded! I'm so jealous:) Let us know how you are doing!

I'm 7 down after the first week...my surgery is 8/11...what's your date?

Thanks for the responses...it is stressful to make such a life-altering decision and it is so nice to have this website where we can bounce it off of each other. Our August Rush group is a nice place to be!

Not to duplicate on purpose, but I think I posted this to the wrong thread so here it goes again: Congrats to those of you who have just been banded this week and are being banded throughout this week. It's exciting to hear all your news! My own surgery is now one week away. I'm getting nervous but it's an excited sort of nervous. I had two bad patches: one where I ate what I wasn't supposed to on this preop diet (reminds me why I am doing this since I need help losing this weight), and two, I started worrying about all the emotional stressors that one worries about right before a surgery like will I die? Am I being selfish? Why can't I do it on my own? However, I think I'm over that now. I'm feeling much stronger and I keep my eyes and head focused on what needs to be done. I refuse to be here ten years later asking myself why I didn't do this now. Been there, done that. Thanks for all the postings on the surgeries and your experiences. It all helps since the more information I get, the less scary it all seems. 7 more days!

Congrats to those of you who have just been banded this week and are being banded throughout this week. It's exciting to hear all your news! My own surgery is now one week away. I'm getting nervous but it's an excited sort of nervous. I had two bad patches: one where I ate what I wasn't supposed to on this preop diet (reminds me why I am doing this since I need help losing this weight), and two, I started worrying about all the emotional stressors that one worries about right before a surgery like will I die? Am I being selfish? Why can't I do it on my own? However, I think I'm over that now. I'm feeling much stronger and I keep my eyes and head focused on what needs to be done. I refuse to be here ten years later asking myself why I didn't do this now. Been there, done that. Thanks for all the postings on the surgeries and your experiences. It all helps since the more information I get, the less scary it all seems. 7 more days!

I cheated too. Thanks for being honest about it. Somehow that makes me feel better :blushing: I got back on the horse, so to speak, and have been fine since. I am 8 days out at this point and except for one day, I have been really good. I think it's fine based on everything I have read about everyone else. This is why we are getting the band right? Boy do I need it and this just reminded me once again why. Hang in there!

Congrats mmmakala and for being human too! You'll be fine! With the differences in docs I get the feeling that it's all a weird science. You will do fine and I am thinking good thoughts for you! congrats again! Let us know how it goes!

Soundman, I did that whole lightheadedness thing along with sweats and shakes. You name it. My doc said I was hypoglycemic. In the end what I have come to find with all of that is that if I have protein throughout the day it never happens. It only happened if the only calories I was intaking were sugar calories. I could eat 800 calories a day with protein no problem, but give me 800 of sugar products (donuts, cookies, candy) then I got the shakes right away. Again, this is my experience but maybe it is the same for you?

I know some of you are asking what is being eaten for preop and post op diet. I am on Protein shakes only per my doc for two weeks before and 3-4 weeks after. At 3 weeks post op I go in for a little visit and meet with the nutritionist and the doc to help me transition through the mushies and then on to solids. I have only been doing this 3 days now but I experimented for a week before that so here's what I've been drinking: 3 Muscle Milks a day. They aren't cheap but they are a lot like choc milk and have all the protein (my son is drinking them for Breakfast now since he runs in the morning - too funny!). I also grabbed these things from Target. They are near the Protein shake section. They are 3 oz shots of whey protein that taste really sweet and are grape. They come in a plastic test tube looking thing but bigger than an actual test tube. They cost $2.50 a piece or something like that but I keep a couple in my car and if I get hungry or shaky I just have one of those and it literally kills the hunger. They are 100 calories and have as much protein as the muscle milks. So that's it for now. My husband is out of town this week which makes it easier to stick to the Liquid Protein. I can't believe I'm going to be drinking this way for 5-6 weeks! I won't way myself till Wednesday when I have done this a week. Then again on surgery day. After that I am going to try to stick to weekly weigh-ins. Hope this helps!

Good luck! We'll all be here waiting to hear how it went!

It's nice to be in a forum where we are all at the same place roughly. We are all being banded in August and most of us are in the preop diet phase right now. Glad to be here!

Are you coffee drinkers? It could be caffeine withdrawals. I am still drinking coffee along with my shakes. Maybe that's it?

I probably can't add much more to this than everyone else has but as I have posted before, I am not telling outside of my immediate family for the same reason. I did that ten years ago and had a lot of negative comments and no real support. I realize it was out of their own fear and concern for me but it was enough to scare me off for ten years. Now I am finally going ahead with it. Maybe I will tell in the future? Probably. But for now I am 100% confident that not telling is what works for me. I have a very supportive husband and my grown daughter is the best. My high school son is a little more fearful but basically reacts to my own take on it so as long as I am positive, so is he. I have a lower BMI too and was told by the nurse who did my EKG that I didn't look like I needed WLS. Once I expressed my own feelings about swollen ankles, knee pain and lack of energy she admitted to me she had had a RNY twenty years ago and had less than 100 pounds to lose. She gave me a big smile and told me that I was making a terrific decision and that for her it had changed her life and she knew it would for me too. I'm so ready for this, TEN YEARS READY, and I can hardly wait for 8/11! Hang in there and surround yourself with the positive support you know you have out there!

Looks like there are a lot of us 8/11 Bandsters here! Wednesday must be a good day for surgeons to get it done and then have a long weekend:) Happy it's finally coming! I finished the last of the paperwork and tests yesterday...counting down!

So get this...I go to this thing and it is a group discussion about what will happen before, during and after surgery. Also and little information about what to eat and so forth for two weeks prior (I start that tomorrow) and FOUR weeks after. Wow. So I have six weeks of liquids starting tomorrow. Then I was shuffled off for my labs and EKG which all came out great. Needless to say, I went out and found the best bottle of wine I could for tonight along with my favorite salsa, chips and assorted appetizer favorites and munched out. Top it off with chocolate honeycomb and I am on my way to drinking three shakes a day for the next SIX, count em, SIX weeks! Honestly though, I am so happy to be doing this! The lady who did my EKG at the end of today told me about her own WLS and she was as thin as a toothpick and seemed so happy to be working with me. She promised to come visit me on the 11th if she was on duty that day! Things are looking up!:cursing:

Congratulations on your banding! Big step!!! I haven't told anyone outside my immediate family for fear of what happened the last time....they freaked out and talked me out of it ten years ago. As for sisters, they will do that to you. Give her time and she'll see how great it has been for you. I plan on telling family once some serious weight loss happens. It will be obvious then and they can't talk me out of it at that point:) Good luck and journey on!

Your post is inspirational and eases my mind about the big day for myself! Thanks for the input!

This is a big question for me. I am a teacher too and the last thing I want is all the attention on me and not the programs and things that I am working on at work. I decided not to tell everyone, however, I have a very close group of three other friends there at work and how I will slip it past them...honestly they are going to know something is up. So then the big question is, "Once one person knows, is everyone going to know?" I don't want to come across as dishonest. I am stuck on this question too.

I told everyone ten years ago that I was going to do this surgery in Mexico. They all FREAKED out and...voila...here I am ten years later finally doing it. It took me that long to grow up a bit and to shake off all the negativity. My confidence definitely took a beating. However, here I am and doing it now and very excited to be doing so without a shred of ambiguity. It's your decision and your body. Not theirs. Good luck!

Thanks you guys...not so stressed about it now!