maxi2010

Hi Brian and everyone else from the Sept. 2010 Bandsters! We all made it! Yeah! Thanks Brian for pushing us to cross over from pre op to post op and for keeping this great group together. I was banded on 9/17/10 and I'm now in the mushy stage, which is so much better than the liquid stage. The only thing good I can say about the liquid stage is it makes you lose a ton of weight. I had my first post op visit last Monday (9/27) and I'm down 18 lbs! :smile2: While 3 lbs. came off after my surgery (in 10 days, which is not too bad), most of the weight (15 lbs!) came off prior to my surgery. I feel like I made good progress! I'm learning to eat differently - eating slowly and making better choices. Congratulations to us all! We are on our way! Maxi

Good luck with whichever one you choose - sleeve or lapband.

Hello BobbigBoy. You really need to do more serious investigating about the different options. My brother had the Roux-En-Y (RNY) a few years ago. While he looks great because he lost a lot of weight, he has had multiple problems with this procedure. My brother has had severe anemia due to malabsorbtion of Iron where he needed to get a blood transfusion. He also has malabsortion of a number of nutrients and requires to give himself daily injections. While the sleeve does not have the same issues because your intestines are usually not rerouted, your pouch cannot be adjusted and it stretches over time, which could cause you to gain weight. Some surgeons look at the sleeve as an intermediate procedure for this reason and perform RNY on that patient later on. The LAP-BAND®®®® can be adjusted up or down, even years down the road. While my brother lost a lot of weight with his RNY procedure, I see many people in this LBT forum who have lost just as much weight as my brother and have kept it off for years. However, with the LAP-BAND®®®®®®, more than the other two procedures, you need to be committed to keep with the program and to not cheat. By this I mean, you cannot eat high calorie foods that go down easily even with a band (like chocolate, ice cream, milk shakes) and still expect to lose or keep it off. You have to be committed to eat slow, chew your food well and wait 20 minutes to drink after eating. If you do these steps, you WILL lose weight and keep it off for the rest of your life. I really do believe that if you do the LAP-BAND®®®®® and are committed you will be able to lose just as much weight as the other 2 methods and you'll keep it off. I can say that the band does work but know I am still new to this process. I had surgery on 9/17/10 but I now feel full for the first time in my life with small portions. I already lost 18 lbs. I just saw my doctor and she just cut my blood pressure dose in half. It's been less than 2 weeks since my surgery! People are already starting to notice my weight loss. However, while you lose a decent amount of weight at the start, you begin to slow down after a few weeks. You should know that with LAP-BAND®®®®®® surgery, it will generally will take longer to lose the weight because you lose the weight slower than with RNY or the sleeve. You lose, on average, about 1 - 2 lbs per week with the LAP-BAND®® while the RNY and sleeve you lose somewhat faster. However, if you look at patients who have the LAP-BAND®®®®®® vs sleeve vs RNY a few years out (like 2 years out), you will see they all have reached their goal weight and have lost the same amount of weight. There does not appear to be a significant difference in total weight loss for patients between these 3 bariatric procedures. I choose the LAP-BAND®®®®®® because, 1) two years out you lose the same amount of weight with either the sleeve, LAP-BAND®®®®®® or RNY, 2) it is the least invasive procedure of the three, 3) LAP-BAND®®®®®® is a fully reversible procedure if you ever needed that option and the other two are not reversible or very hard to do it, 4) there is no rerouting of your digestive system, bypassing where your body absorbs your nutrients with the LAP-BAND®®®®®® making malnutrition, dumping and other side effects no longer a problem and 5) I am committed to following the LAP-BAND®®®®® program to keep my weight at an acceptable level. All these reasons and watching my brother get really sick at times made me choose the LAP-BAND®®®®®®. Do your own research. Find a doctor who does perform lapbands as well as the other bariatric options. Make an informed decision. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Hi Getitgirl. I agree with all the posts (BetsyB, Kittykat56, & crecia1975). Your surgeon's office already verbally got a denial so they knew not to submit the paperwork. I have one thing to add. After you find out what are the exact requirements for approval, see if you can make it happen. What do I mean by that? I was denied by my insurance who originally said I needed to have 2 comorbid conditions. They came back and said that I needed a third comorbid condition and showed me that they just changed their policy. I put down that I have symptoms of sleep apnea, (such as loud snoring, waking up my husband, feel tired all the time, etc) but told them that I had never been tested. My insurance came back and said they would cover me if I was tested and proved I had sleep apnea (my insurance had phoned me to tell me that I was denied unless I get this test performed). I got tested, it showed I had a third comorbid disease and my insurance (Empire) turned around and approved me. My advice to you is to look closely at your medical policy for bariatric surgery. See what diseases they feel count as caused by obesity and see whether or not you have or could have any of these other diseases. Once you exhaust all insurance options and receive a final denial, then decide if you want to wait until you get sick enough to qualify. If your answer is that you would rather have the LAP-BAND®®®®®® surgery now while you are still healthy, you will have to pay out of pocket. There are a few options for self-pay patients (you can either have your surgery in the US by a US surgeon or have your surgery in Mexico by a Mexican doctor). The difference in price between these two options is significant. If you choose an American doctor, most US doctors will work with you and let you pay off your surgery over time. Some will do this at no or low interest rates. If you decide to go to Mexico, get opinions from some of the LBT members who went that route and appear to be happy with the results. If you search this forum you will see that most banders think they waited too long to have the LAP-BAND®®®®®®®®® surgery. I'm one who agrees wholehearted with this - I think I should have done this LAP-BAND®®®®®® surgery years ago. Although I am a new bander (I only got the band on 9/17/10), I can say that the band is changing my life for the better. I have lost 18 lbs already. I started off with a BMI of 36.6 and now have a BMI of 33.6. No big deal? Well, my blood pressure is now on the low side of normal and my usual hypertensive drug (Cozaar) dose was just reduced in half (from 50mg to 25 mg OD) by my doctor. She thinks I will be off cozaar altogether within 6 -12 months. Thus, I'm already feeling the positive affects of the band. She is hopeful that I will be off my cholesterol reducing drug (simvastin) within 1 -2 years. I'm starting to feel much healthier and can walk further without getting out of breath. What I notice is that I now feel full eating small amounts of food. I have no desire to eat more. I'm also more mindful of what I put in my mouth. The band really does work. Good luck with your insurance approval. Think seriously about having the band either way. Your health depends on it.

Hi Jason's mom. I had surgery on 9/17 so I am 8 days post op now. I am 50 years old and had 2 complications: First, I had a previous abdominal hernia repair. My surgeon would have given me 3 incisions with one through the belly button but could not do that, due to my prior hernia. So I have 5 incisions, most of them very small. Second, I had a hiatal hernia repair which my surgeon took care of during my surgery. I didn't even know this was a problem until after the surgery. I was as nervous as you were preop. My surgery was supposed to take place at 2:30pm and I was told to report to the hospital at 10am, which I did. However, I was not taken into the preop area until 1:30pm and into the OR until 4:30pm, 2 hours late. I was the 2nd to last case for the day on a Friday. Waiting around was the worst part of it. I woke up in the PACU (recovery room) and was taken to a hospital room where I stayed overnight because it was so late. I went home the next afternoon. It has been hard for me at first. I had a lot of swelling from surgery and had difficulty taking in liquids. They seem to go down VERY SLOW. I also had pain at one of the incision sites (at the point of the largest incision) and in my shoulder (from the dreaded gas). Walking was the best cure for the gas pain. I did try Gas X but I found walking was more effective. Time is the best cure for incisional pain, along with your pain meds whenever you need it. I still find my port site painful to touch. It is not as bad as I thought it would be, except the waiting around on surgery day. Everyday has been getting better. I am still on liquid diet. I start my puree diet on Wed. Stay the course and you will be fine. Good luck with your surgery today.

Good luck to you, Erick, whether your surgery is on 9/28 or 10/12. I think LAP-BAND® makes so much more sense than a bypass or sleeve. It is the LEAST invasive, can be reversible (but who would want that!), and gets as good results without nutrient and Vitamin malabsorption issues. I just had my surgery 5 days ago on 9/17. I should have made this decision years ago. I have not lost the weight yet, but I feel this will be my answer. Best of luck with your band surgery. Keep your spirits up. Maxi

Hi CSinTX. Thanks for the advice to drink more and not to worry so much about eating in the 1st few days after surgery. I started to drink more and eat less. It seems to be working. I feel better today.

Hi. I'm new to post op. I was banded on 9/17/10. I have had an issues that I would to share and get advice on. I'm still on my liquid diet. I don't think I could progress to anything more even if I was told it was okay because I'm having trouble getting my food to go down. I had an esophagram and it came back normal so there is no leakage, my band appears to be well placed and liquid is going through the band. My problem is it takes FOREVER to get food through the band. Let me give you an example. This morning, I had 4.5 oz of Carnation Instant Breakfast that I mixed with 4 oz of skim milk. I ate it slowly over 30 minutes. It took an additional 2 hours to go down. At 12noon I had 8 oz. egg drop Soup. For some reason, egg drop soup seems to go down the smoothest. It may have all gone down in 1 hour. I next had 11.5 oz (1 bottle) of V8 juice at 3pm. I drank it over 30 minutes. It is still sitting in my stomach 1 hour later. Probably by 5pm it will all be down. Is this amount I'm eating normal? Notice that I have not drank any H2O or other fluids today because I feel I will have no room for more nutritious liquids like Protein shakes, soup and V8 juice. How do you get more food and fluids in? Will this amount change once my swelling goes down or will a fill get you to the same point I'm in right now? I have no fill in my band right now and I still cannot get much down.:thumbup:

Hi Kristy29. I think you may be right. I don't have the same problem if I drink Vitamin Water as slow as I drink these thicker liquids. I'll try sticking with Vitamin water tomorrow and really thin liquids. I'll see about purchasing Protein powder so I get some protein in. Thanks so much. I appreciate your advice and I like to know I am not alone.

BillOh: Thanks for your reply. You are an inspiration to me! It is wonderful that you have stayed so consistently slim in over 2 years! That is my hope and my dream!

Pammyl and NeeNee717: Thanks for your reply. I feel so much better about not being alone. I thought I was the only one with this problem where food seems to go down so SLOW it seems it is not going down at all. Thanks also for the tip that Stop and Shop & Walmart have Protein powder that is good to eat and you can add it to CIB shakes and other food. I definitely did not get 50 g of protein today. Tomorrow is another day and I'll try again to get more nutrition. Have not been able to fully digest dinner yet (I added liquid pain meds 4 tsp. and a few small pills after I ate dinner).

Thank you so much Pammyl and neenee717. I will try to eat a smaller quantity each time and see if that solves my problem. I will look to buy Protein powder since I cannot consume the volume anymore. Any suggestions on what to buy and where to buy it? Tasting good or neutral (can't taste it in food) is important to me. Thanks.

I just got banded on 9/17/10. My BMI was 35.1 at time of surgery but was 36.6 at the time I got my insurance approval. I was lucky to get the approval. My insurance tried to deny me even with 2 co-morbidities. They finally agreed that a third condition I had would count as #3 and here I am - in bandland. I'm only 4 days post op so I have a way to go compared with all of you! I did lose weight on the 10 day liquid pre op diet so I sort of jumped started the process - down 9 lbs! I have not updated my weight since surgery although I have probably lost more weight. I'm not eating that much since surgery. Food seems to go down ever so SLOWLY. I truly hope I have the success of this group!

I know it is getting stuck because the first day I started dry heaving (came really close to throwing up) about 1 1/2 hours after drinking 9 oz CIB shake and 6 oz coffee. I got nauseaus the rest of the day, which got me concerned. I called my doctor on call. The doctor said they think my esophagus was contracting due to too much food in the pouch (very little was flowing down into my stomach after all this time) and that the shake was too thick for me. I now dilute the shake with twice the normal amount of milk. It helps. I drink about 8 oz of the diluted shake and it goes down faster than before but still takes several hours. I just ate chewable pills (I liquified the pills) and I still feel them in the pit of my stomach. I had Fluid (V8 juice) at 3pm and it is still not all the way down yet. I hope this is just the swelling and that I am getting enough nutrition. I don't want to dry heave again. Putting too much in my pouch at a time seems to cause me to dry heave and vomit.

Good luck Lannah. You sound like you are doing great. This is a great site for banded people. There are members your age and members from Australia so you should seek them out. I had surgery on 9/17 but I am not doing as well as you. I'm not doing bad, it's just that I had minor complications and they couldn't do the keyhole surgery (my doctor usually does it). First, I had a hernia repair where they put in mesh during a cesarean I had when I gave birth to one of my kids. My Aussie surgeon (yes, my surgeon came from your area and has a good rep both in Australia and the US) couldn't get in through my belly button (Bummer!). Second, one of my incisions, the largest, is still oozing blood. Probably not a big problem but it means my bandage keeps getting saturated and I don't want it on my clothes (Yuke!). Third, it takes me forever to eat anything. My esophagram was normal so I guess I just have to get used to the new volume. The rest is normal. My shoulder pain is thankfully mostly gone. I still have some incisional pain in the longest incision area. It hurts if you press my port area and I try not to do it. My areas are still covered so I don't know what they look like. I have not lost as much as you. I have not kept track post op at all but I know I have not been eating that much so I have to have lost. I lost about 15 lbs pre op. I have about 60 lbs to go. I go back to see my doctor on Monday, 9/27 for my first post op visit. I hope everything goes well with you.:thumbup:

Hi everyone. I had surgery on 9/17 and have had a few issues. Can someone help me please? I have a lot of swelling post op and I'm having problems getting liquids down, particularly thicker liquids. I complained to my doctor and I had an esophagram 2 days post op. The esophogram came back great showing my band is placed well and food IS going down correctly without leakage. However, I am still concerned. It take me FOREVER to eat liquids and get it to go all the way down to my stomach. I find protein shakes too thick so I have been making them twice as thin by adding twice as much skim milk. This seemed to help but it still took 2 hours to get 8 oz of fluid all the way down. I'm afraid I won't get enough nutrition at this rate. My stomach is growling right now but I just finished a V8 juice (I drank 11.5 oz over 30 minutes time). It seems to be going down a little faster than the CIB shake but it will pobably be 1 hour or more until it is all down. I'm hungry but I feel I cannot take anything more. What's the trick I'm missing? Or is this the new amount I have to get used to eating? All I had today was 1/2 CIB shake (about 4.5 oz), 4 oz skim milk and 11.5 oz of V8 juice. I've been afraid to waste any room on water so I have not drank anything but what I told you.

I agree about the pain and the use of pain meds after surgery. There is pain which no one wants to talk about. However, the pain meds work to make the pain bearable. No reason for anyone to be superwoman and live with pain. The pain meds they give you really work so take them when needed. Don't wait for the pain to get overwhelming.

Thanks for your good wishes Puppybandit. I appreciate it! Surgery is now over. It is post op day 2 for me. I now have to adjust to eating a lot less and a lot more slowly! What I find is that it is hard to get in what I am expected to eat. I just ate what I was told to eat for breakfast - one CIB shake and 1 cup coffee. I ate it over the span of 1 hour which is really slow and I feel nauseous. I hope this passes. The nausea seems to come and go. It's making me concerned. I don't think I can eat as much as they say. Maxi

Hi kab1278. Getting the ticker into your signature is confusing at first. I also had trouble at the beginning. This is how I got the ticker in my signature. 1. After you have finished choosing your ticker, highlight the text in the bbCode box, leaving off the URL codes. 2. Go to LBT and click on the Quick Links button at the top of the web page, select Edit Signature. 3. Click in your signature box and type Ctrl+V to paste it in. 4. Save it The ticker should appear for all future posts you do. Good luck.

Good luck Melissa22 and welcome to LBT forum. I learned a lot from the members of this group, too - they have such great ideas and offer to share their experiences, which I have found to be so helpful. I was just banded on 9/17 so I'm still new to this experience. I'm currently in the post op liquid phase which I'll stay in for a total of 10 days (8 more to go). Then I'll move to the mushy phase for the next 10 days. It will be 3 weeks before I can eat and try regular food. Best of luck on your journey.:thumbup:

Congratulations Shauna34 and Donnasang on your 9/24 dates - right around the corner - Way to go! I'm back from surgery. I went to the hospital at 10am on 9/17 but was not operated on until 5pm - a really long, dry, boring wait. I stayed overnight in the hospital and did not get home until 3:30pm the next day on 9/18. No matter how people minimize it, the surgery IS painful for the first 1 to 1 1/2 days. However, it really was NOT that bad. The pain is manageable when you keep up with the pain meds and the RNs offer and give you what you need. As everyone has said - and I agree - the gas pain is the worst of it. Walking around helps as well as Gas-X strips. The experience was not as bad as I had imagined as far as the surgery went. On the other hand, my hospital experience was both good and bad. It was bad in that my room was either so noisy I couldn't sleep or some medical staff (RN, aide, etc) would wake you as soon as you drift off to give you something they say you need (sometimes it was a shot, yuck!). I hardly slept while at the hospital. The good thing about my experience was my roommate and her boyfriend, who were both banded and gave me great advice. Some good suggestions they made were going to restaurants to get some good soups during the liquid phase, such as getting egg drop soup (Chinese), miso soup (Japanese) and chicken soup (Jewish). I got the egg drop soup from a Chinese restaurant on our way home from the hospital. I ate the soup slowly and saved the small portion soup for 2 different meals (late lunch and dinner) and it was yummy and enough. My roommate raved about her experience with her band even though she was in due to slippage of the band, which meant she had to get a new band. She said only 4% of all banded people have slippage. On day 2 I'm still taking narc liquid pain killers but the pain is starting to lessen. I only took 3 doses total today. As my pain is lessening, tomorrow I may not need any narcs. I notice my pain is getting less and less. My gas pain is still a problem, however. Good luck to all who will be banded next week! I hope you all have an easy time and a good experience.:thumbup:

Hi all. I am currently getting ready to leave for the hospital for my band surgery. I can't believe the date is finally here! I actually was able to sleep about 4 or so hours last night. The rest of the time I was tossing and turning. Nerves I guess! Wish me luck! I'll speak to everyone when I get back to tell you my experience! I hope everyone else getting surgery on 9/17 does well and is back home form the hospital in no time! Good luck! :thumbup: Maxi

Hey NYSLegend78. I LOVE Greek yogurts. They are so much more yummy than the regular ones. Glad we can still eat them after our surgery!

Hi Brian-LA. I got most of the stuff for my post op period but I did not get any GAS-X yet. How important is the GAS-X right after I have surgery? It's raining out right now and I don't feel like going out. I just found out that I have to report to the hospital tomorrow at 10am. I'll probably leave my house around 8am because going to Manhattan during this time will put me into rush hour (nothing like NYC rush hour traffic to add time to your commute). The hospital I choose is NYU in NYC and I live 1 hour away in the burbs (during normal commuting time with normal traffic). They won't even tell me my surgery time - just said it is usually 1.5 hours after the time I am told to report. He said it depends how long the earlier case takes, so figure I'll be "under the knife" around 11:30am. Sounds like I'm the 2nd case. Yikes.:thumbup: