Acadia

If you don't like 'milkshake' type protein drinks try IsoPure Zero Carb - it's like crystal light, pure crystal clear protein. Vitamin Shoppe online is a good place to order it by the case. Any Gold's Gym should have it in their cooler though so you can go buy some to try the flavors.

She's actually out of line and potentially going against hospital policy to go off on you like that. You really should consider filing a formal complaint about it. It's that kind of bullying that causes people to second guess themselves and make poor decisions.

Black is also for blueberries, bile, medications, give it a day. If you had internal bleeding you would have some fresh blood in your stool.

Take the capsule whole. I take a handful (literally more than 12 pills at a time at night - Vitamins and such) including four gel caps with powder and a large Omega 3 Fluid filled gel cap with no issues. Gel caps slide through the stoma with Water and dissolve within 15 minutes. I'm in my green zone and cannot eat things like bread or Pasta to give you an idea of my status. Try one, if that works try two, of that works try three. And try them with a swig of warm water (room temp) and if you feel stuck drink some hot tea to dissolve the cap immediately.

I was told 25 lbs was fine after a week and I was moving 50 lbs items by two weeks. It all depends how you heal.

That could also be your full sign. Mine is a hiccough (hiccup).

I have a very high pain tolerance due to nerve damage from an accident when younger and my surgery was out patient. I was around a 4 of dull ache after I woke up. They gave me one dose of pain meds and since opiates do nothing for me I didn't get pain medication for recovery. I took acetaminophen with caffiene and codeine for two days after just to dull the dull pain. The gas pain was dull and never ending, lasted four weeks, walking and a moist hot pack helps that (read my gallbladder post for more info on why and what you can ask your surgeon to do to limit gas pain). Nausea was bad, they gave me a patch before surgery that was good for 48 hours. By day four I was almost normal. Now, after gallbladder surgery - and gallbladder attack pain was a 10 for me and had me at the ER - the pain was around a 7-9 due to nerve damage and gas pain. Hydrocodone made me tired did nothing for pain. Breathing was hard. Back pain, shoulder, lower abdomen, upper abdomen (and it was done via lap like lap band), and now at day five I'm having nerve regeneration pains that feel like a white hit poker stabbing me around two inches from my main navel incision. Pain goes from 0-10 in a split second. So it differs depending on the pain type. The best thing you can do for your body is to sleep the first 48 hours and let your body heal. There's a reason they use coma for healing. Your body doesn't heal well when you're awake and using it.

Removing fill can help you lose weight. You can eat healthy foods. Being too tight will cause weight gain because you resort to sliders and on the odd day you can eat you over eat. The band isn't about restriction. It's about making it so you eat until satiated (not full) and that you don't eat again until hungry. If you're eating more than 1-2 cups per meal ask yourself why. Are you doing it because you can or because you're actually hungry. If you're doing it because you can then no surgery will help you. Write down everything you eat, everything you feel before you eat, how long it takes you to eat a meal (30 mins minimum), did you eat more because it tasted good? Are you eating white carbs? Sugars? Drinking fruit juice? How active are you really? Get a FitBit $99 to see how much you really move. Take a photo of every meal before you start and when done. Remind yourself about what you're doing. We often overestimate our calorie burn and underestimate our intake. It sounds more like it's you that is not working -- not the band. It's doing its job sitting there. You have to make the conscious decision to stop eating when you are no longer hungry, to slow down, to drink 8 oz of Water 15 before a meal to help fill you up and hydrate you, to make the right food choices, and to use your band as it is intended -- to make you mindful of hunger.

Often times surgeons will do what's called a passive fill. Bands come empty and in a vacuum (it's unsanitary to send them filled and did you know your dr can fill with air instead of saline?). A passive fill is when the band is in place and the surgeon simply inserts a needle into the port but does not plunge Fluid. They let the band take in what it needs to equalize. Like a fridge if you open it quickly after just closing it. Usually 0.5-2.5 cc is pulled in during this (depending on how tight the band is once installed) and a passive fill rarely causes problems, it actually helps the band settle more easily around the stomach. In your case it seems the surgeon did an active fill and actually intentionally plunged fluid in, likely more than 2.5 cc. Probably around 3.5-4 cc. Active fills do cause more pressure and more swelling on already tender tissue. You may also be very prone to swelling. Drink warm fluids to keep the band loose and don't move ahead with your phases at all. If anything, pull back and double them up (2 weeks liquids, 2 weeks mushies) to ensure your band and stomach can heal nicely together.

Sounds like gallbladder to me too, not band. Ask for an ultrasound for your gallbladder to see if you have stones.

What does the chest pain feel like and when does it happen?

A barium swallow under fluoroscopy will tell more than most other tests. Ask for that. It will show the band's position, your stomach's position, how fluid moves through, if it's getting caught on something, and more.

You could have food caught. Stick to warm liquids for 24 hours to soften things up. If you're still tight and can't consume mushies in 48 hours get a slight unfill.

The first 4-6 weeks are for healing you should not be trying to lose during that time. If you don't understand how much healing you need go watch a video of the surgery. After healing, around four weeks in you'll notice changes in how things fit, assuming you're losing around 2 lbs/week. Around three months post op you'll see your face changing. Around 4-5 months others will start to notice. This assumes you have over 125 lbs to lose and lose between 1-2 lbs per week. Which is ideal. More than that and you risk gallbladder issues, loose skin, and more.

Generally very fast within seconds. PBing is a productive burp. Like vomiting in slow motion.

I wasn't catheterized during my surgery, but mine was outpatient. You're only out for an hour or two then in recovery.

Clothes on, shoes and stockings off (for body fat percentage measurement). I actually wear nylons or tights so it's a bit of an ordeal.

Once your wounds are completely healed shut. For some people that could be two weeks, for others six weeks. You just don't want a venue for infection.

To help your scars heal alternate one day with extra virgin olive oil (reduces redness) and the next day with vitamin e (breaks down scar tissue). Mederma hasn't really been proven to work, it's actually the rubbing in of that product (scar tissue manipulation) that creates the healing (reduces keloiding or raised scars).

Single incision isn't really only one incision. It's often two or three. One main incision at the top of your navel - side to side around two inches - then a small incision around your liver about 1/4" and sometimes a dot in the center of your chest. The liver and dot are actually to hold your liver out of the way. The scars will fade eventually and won't really show up. They'll eventually look like scratches. And if you ever need your gallbladder out they can use the same navel incision but will make 1-2 new little 1/4" incisions in your upper abdomen. So you can always say they were all from that surgery. Though at that point you'll be so hot no one will even notice the little scratches

I drink the light myself, while you can do regular I wouldn't make it a habit. You're probably better to make a double portion of light than drink a single portion of regular. Simply because of the calories and additional sugars, etc. If you buy the mix yourself add 1/4-1 cup of light soy or almond milk (60 calories), it will add even more to the filling aspect than water with fewer calories and more protein than regular milk (and you won't taste the difference). Once you're on more solid liquids add in some silken tofu, makes it like a milk shake, thick and creamy, add some ice, perfect to fill you up and keep you on track. You won't taste the soy or tofu at all. The flavor of the protein powder will blend right in.

Wellbutrin (original or generic) can help ease depression, stop cravings, and help you lose weight so it's an ideal drug for someone struggling with those issues. I speak from experience saying it can and does work. But you can always eat around it. You need counseling at the same time to really get the most benefit. Even an over eaters anonymous group.

I hope you have a great recovery. Definitely ask your surgeon if s/he's willing to use dermal elevators instead of gas, it will cut down on the pain. I've found recovery was more painful for this surgery than for lap band, perhaps because the nerves were six months out from the previous surgery. Today I've had the joy of nerve regrowth zingers. Feels like being stabbed with a scalpel around 2.5" away from my navel incision. Horrible. You'll still need a relatively bland diet for a while after, and ready access to a bathroom, but according to friends who have had theirs out, that gets better.

My adventure with gallbladder issues started in March with chest pain right under my sternum. Chest pain so severe that, after 30 minutes of it, I drove myself to the ER. All the tests found nothing. Including two contrast CTs. The chest pain started like a dull pressure, like a c-clamp in my chest, then sweating, inability to take deep breaths, no positions were comfortable, felt like I needed to vomit and have a bowel movement (but neither actually happened), nausea, and it dissipated like it started. And I was left exhausted. I sat on my knees at the edge of my bed, with no pressure on my chest, rocking and counting through it. After the first I had several more, each varying from 10 minutes to 40 minutes of the most excruciating pain I have ever felt (I have an extraordinary and documented pain tolerance due to nerve damage so this scared me). All of my research said gallbladder so I knew what I was dealing with. Finally, when I went in for an unfill I mentioned it to my practitioner. She scheduled me for an ultrasound and HIDA test. If the US was positive no HIDA. The US was positive for stones and my surgeon said I needed to get in ASAP. If a gallbladder bursts it's like an appendix bursting, infection spreads and causes all sorts of issues. I couldn't schedule immediately without risking my job so I scheduled three weeks out. I was very careful to avoid fats, greasy food, dairy, sugars, etc. to not prompt another attack. I didn't eat much of those before this but the smallest amount could trigger an attack. Surgery was much like the Lap Band. They used the exact same navel incision and two small incisions in the upper abdomen. Surgery took about 90 minutes all done via lap. No unfill was necessary so I didn't start over with my band. Recovery had all the same issues, gas pain, abdominal pain, etc. With the addition of lower abdominal pain, extended gas issues (I'll explain those later), diarrhea (from extra bile in intestines), constipation (from pain meds), the need to go literally within minutes of eating, and lifestyle diet changes. GAS PAIN Note: gas pain comes because of two reasons 1) the gas they put in doesn't all come out and some will move around but more so, 2) the gas they put in goes in at room temp and dry, this acts much like a cold winter where you can burn your skin with a cold dry wind, the cells the gas comes in contact with actually die and send off nerve impulses and since your diaphragm (where a lot of cell death occurs) is connected to nerves that go through both your shoulders you get back and shoulder pain. How your Dr can prevent this is to use elevators instead of air, or if they insist on air, they can warm it up and humidify it in your body. This helps your body assimilate it without killing tissue. After the fact you can do this by using moist heat (a tube sock filled with 4-5 cups of dry rice, microwaved for 2 minutes will provide moist heat for around 1 hour). Gas x will not help. It helps air in your digestive system, it can't do anything for air in your tissues. DIET CHANGES While you could eat what you did before, you can still form gall stones in your liver and bile ducts so changing your eating is the best way to counteract that and prevent it. They can't take your liver out, at least not without a replacement. Avoid: dairy, fats, grease, liquor, alcohol, chocolate, sweets, any food that have fats or grease associated. Including cheese, some sweet breads, butter, Peanut Butter, etc. And if you eat something greasy or fatty, be near a bathroom. Food will literally go through you like you have never imagined. It's not a death sentence but will end any affair you have with fatty or greasy foods, even healthy fats. COMMON SURGERY Gallbladder removal is one of the most common surgeries currently. Likely due to the American diet. If you have pains you can't explain, and I'd you've had anything fatty or greasy that day, get checked out. An ultrasound can pick up the stones, a HIDA scan will show how Fluid is or isn't moving. For people with lap band your risk is increased. You're losing weight (caused gallstone formation), you're over weight, you likely had a gallstone forming diet prior to surgery, and you're mostly women (but men can suffer too). Overall, 20% of Lap Band patients need their gallbladder removed within 18 months of surgery. Know though, that 10% of people who have the surgery still have problems after the fact. So it's not always a cure all. Hopefully this helps someone get tested before they suffer like I did. And know that though the recovery sucks, it will help in the long run.

Hello Mattie