gMommy

Yes, it does! I can't believe tomorrow I will already be 2 weeks post op. I lost 8 pounds the first week. Then 4 days into the second week I found I was bouncing back and forth on one pound. I felt a little discouragement creep in, so I had to force myself not to get on the scale for a while. I know that I am going to hit plateaus. I just have to remind myself to grin and bear it. Becase I will come to the next drop before I know it.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm glad to hear that I am not the only one with the chest pain w/o a burp. Although I had talked to the surgery center about this one, it is nice to hear from others that it is normal.

Being dehydrated can lead to being sleepy? Hmm, that is a new one to me. I've had a hard time getting in as much Fluid as I normally drink. I used to just chug down Water. Now I have to do just a couple of sips at a time. I noticed in the past 4 days that I am able to take in bigger sips. But, I am so worried about stretching out my pouch, that I am still taking the sips one or two at a time. Has anybody stretched out their pouches from drinking too much, too fast?

I feel very lucky to have the insurance that I have. My doctor still requires patients to pay $3000 out of pocket for "follow up care." I'm not really sure what this care is or if it is really worth $3000. But, I really wanted this doctor because she is such an expert in her field. It was worth the peace of mind. I found out at my post-op appointment that I had a hiatal hernia. They found it during the operation. The fixed it while they were in there at no extra charge.

Yum! Thank you for all of the great suggestions. I have made strawberry shortcake with splenda and sugar free pound cake for my diabetic hubby. Maybe that is what I'll have too. Although, the banana "ice cream" sounds appealing.

Hi Everyone, I have been struggling all day to stay awake at work. I have a desk job so I am usually sittng most of the day. I am on my second cup of coffe. I haven't really had an any in 2 weeks. I know if I eat Snacks I will be able to stay awake for aleast an hour. But, I don't want to do that. Has anybody tired those 5 hour energy drinks? I haven't. Will it help me stay awake?

Thanks. I'll have to get some mylanta. I didn't know if anti-gas medicine would help since this is surgical gas. But, I'm willing to try anything.

I am 10 days post op and the gas pains are still there. The worse ones are in my chest. The air travels from my stomach, up my esophagus and then stops. It doesn't result in a burp. The air just goes away. The pain only lasts for about 3-5 seconds, although it feels like 5 minutes. It happens several times an hour and anytime I stand up or sit up from a laying down position. I also still get some occasional gas bubbles in my shoulder or neck. Ouch! These ones can hurt for hours. When these happen I take some of the Lortab and it helps within about 30 minutes. I am out walking 2-4 hours every day. I heard lots of walking can help. I'm not able to jog or run yet because my port incision is still very tender. The impact of jogging makes my tummy bounce which causes me lots of pain. I talked to the surgery center and to my doctor. They said the pain I was having is from the gas and will eventually go away. But when?

I have a birthday coming up in a few weeks. I am happy to report that I could care less about eating birthday cake or anything else for that matter. I am really enjoying just living life. My life no revolves around food. Yeah! But, my loved ones are having a hard time getting adjusted to my new life style. I have not had an "recreational sugar" since March and I feel great. I know that as soon as I have even one bite, I will want to eat a ton of it, even if it means eating around my band. I have no urges to do this. With my birthday coming up, my loved ones are feeling confused as to what to do. Traditionally, they give me a nice dinner (either out or homemade) and a birthday cake. My meals will still be a half a cup of something mushy and I chose not to have cake or ice cream (even though they can be mixed together to be mushy). I am perfectly happy with just going to a comedy club or a walk along the river. How have you dealt with loved ones and birthdays or other celebrations that were historically centered around food?

I can't wait to see the pictures. I am really interested in your outcome. How much did it cost, if you don't mind me asking? How do the tighten up the skin? The only way I knew about would leave a long scar the whole length of your arm on the inside. I wasn't too thrilled about that idea. If there is another way, I may want to try it out. Thank you SO much for sharing!

I think you have a unique opportunity to help other patients at your work. Do you attend a support group? Your story may be something that others have gone through. Everyone at one time or another has "life" happen to them. There are always rough times. We have to allow ourselves some flexibility during those times so we can process our emotions. It is perfectly OK and emotionally healthy to accept yourself during these rough spots without feelings of guilt or remorse. Love yourself for getting through this tough time. You will be in a much stonger position to pick up where you left off. Share your story with others when you can. You just may make a huge impact to someone's life. Lots of hugs to you!

GNC has a great return policy on their Protein powders. If you take it home and don't like it, you can bring it back for a full refund. I asked them to show me their top selling powders that had a low return rate. It was the AMP chocolate and vanilla flavors. I was advised that the fruit punch flavor was always returned. I really like both the chocolate and vanilla powders. They are pricey, but since I'm not really eating anything else, I could afford these. I signed up for their Gold card membership. I get 20% off during the first week of every month. For variety I add sugar free Toriani syrup. Recently I tried a sample of Mochachinno powder at costco. It was so yummy! It was only 100 calories for 2 tablespoons of the mix added to Water. I add 1 tablespoon to my chocolate Protein shake (only adds 50 calories). BIG YUM!!!!!

I am 6 days post-op. I have barely been eating anything since my surgery. My broth would get cold before I could finish even 2 oz of it. I haven't been too interested in food. I went out walking yesterday and finally started to want to eat. Unfortunately it took me a few hours to find some place "fast" where I could have soup. I really didn't want to go in a restaurant and pay $10+ for an ounce or two of soup. Safeway had soup. I skimmed off the broth of the chicken noodle soup into a small container for $2.99. It has been enough for 4+ meals. After about 5 half spoon fulls of soup I was full. But, it tasted so good! So, I made the BIG mistake of having two more half spoonfuls. Ouch! I hurt and felt lousy for a couple of hours. Lesson learned. I have lost 6 pounds since my surgery.

Hi Mavis, Thanks for the last couple of sentences. I try to relax and let go of the outside stresses. I'm learning I can't change other people or their fears. I totally agree with you. Everything works out exactly as it is supposed to. I had my surgery 6 days ago. I felt pretty good the first two days. The next 3 days I felt lousy. The gas pain has finally let up from my shoulder. But, gas keeps coming up from my tummy. Anytime I stand up, I have to brace myself for the bubble of pain that goes up the center of my chest. It is wierd, it doesn't result in a burp. It just suddenly goes away. I also found that I have a similar pain if I take more than 2 small sips in a row. I have to wait 3-5 minutes between sips. So, I am reminding myself that this is just the left over gas trying to get out. Instead of trying to avoid it, I need to be welcoming to it so it gets the heck out of my body! ha ha I read that a lot of people are done with the gas in about 2 weeks. So, I am half done. Yay! The Protein powder I like is GNC's AMP chocolate or vanilla. It is 20g whey protein per scoop. For variety I add sugar free Torani syrup. I mix it in a Magic Bullet. For the presurgery liquid diet, I tried one more variation...add 1 Tab Peanut Butter to the chocolate. It was pretty good. I am on Clear liquids right now, so the peanut butter will have to wait. I can mix the Protein Powder with nonfat milk. I also like the premade banana Muscle Milk. I go for my post-op appt. tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to move to full liquids. As for the sutures, one itches a little, 3 don't bother me, and the port incision hurts and makes getting comfortable difficult. I know eventually, it won't hurt, but I don't know how long. Bending over and sitting up really aggrevate the port site. Weight loss. In Jan I was 228. I started attending OA. In Feb I had my first appt with Dr. Machado. My weight was down to 222. A week before surgery I was 218 (thanks to OA, still). Liquid preop diet got me down to 214. Day 1 post op 214, day 2 215, day 3 215, day 4 213, day 5 210, day 6 208. Dr. Machado's office hosts a once a month support group. There was one last night, but I wasn't feeling up to the 1 hour drive. I don't know of any other lap-band specific support groups. I attend an OA meeting once per week. That really helps me with the mind hunger, emotional/stress eating, extra eating due to free food or social food, and how to start to love and appreciate myself for the effort I am putting forth, even if I am not perfect in what I eat. Good luck with your surgery. Keep me posted. gMommy

My surgery day was yesterday, April 28th. I had to check into the surgery center at 8am. They called me back at 8:05. The immediately gave me an anti-nausea pill to take. I changed into the gown, hair net and socks with the grippy bottoms. They had me pee. I didn't have to do a pregnancy test since I had my tubes tied last year. Then climbed into the prewarmed bed (ahhhh). Answered all of the basic questions again: name, birthday, type of surgery I was getting. They took my blood pressure, oxygen level and temperature. My IV was started. I had regular fluids and an antibiotic. I'm allergic to Penicillin, so they gave me something from a different class. I closed my eyes and rested for about 15 minutes. My surgeon came into to say good morning. I am so happy with her. I felt complete confidence with her skills. This is what she does 100% of the time. Dr. Laura Machado, Sacramento Bariatric Associates. Had the hubby come into to give me a kiss and wish me luck. The anastesiolgist (sp.) came in to introduce himself. He told me how things would work. He would give me the 1st drug through my IV, that would knock me out in 30 seconds. They would put the tube down my throat and give me oxygen. Throughout the surgery, which would take one hour, he would give me a couple of more drugs as needed. This would include morphine to help with pain. He said once I was knocked out, the Doctor would give me a little injection in my stomach of Heparin, a blood thinner. At 9:15 they rolled me into the operating room. I saw two instrument technicians, the anastesiolgist, a nurse and my physician's assistant that works with Dr. Machado. She welcomed me by name. It felt good to see someone I already knew. I scooted onto the operating table. Within 30 seconds I was knocked out. I woke up in the recovery room at 11:30 where they were trying to get me to drink a cup of Water. I was so thirsty. My hubby was there. They were telling me that it was time for me to get up, go to the bathroom, get dressed and go home. I was so out of it. They helped me to the bathroom. I had to go pee so bad, I dropped on the toilet and started peeing before they had the door closed. Obviously, I was out of it, because the recovery room had about 6 other patients there, right outside the bathroom. The nurse thought it was funny, so did I. I got dressed, she helped me get my shoes on. She asked if I could walk out, but I said no, I would need a wheelchair. I was so out of it. I really felt they were rushing me out before I was ready. I had a pillow between me and the seatbelt on the way home. The gas pain in my shoulders was excruicating! I couldn't get in a deep breath it hurt so bad. i had a cup of ice with me. I was so grateful for those ice chips. I can't remember the last time I chewed ice, but it was perfect in that moment. I moaned all the way home. I raised my arms up and down to try to get the gas out. We got home at 1:30 (1 hour car ride). I took the liquid Lortab. Ewww...it was so sweet, some kind of tropical flavor. I tried to lay down in bed, but the gas got worse and made breathing even harder. I went back out to the living room and sat in a recliner. Much better! I kept working on the ice chips. I was hurting so bad. I got up and walked (paced) my living room and raised my arms up and down. I would do this for 5 minutes at a time, rest a couple of minutes, and do it again. At 2:30 I settled into the recliner for a nap. I was in and out of sleep until 4pm. By 4pm the gas pain was only in my left shoulder and much better. I could take a regular breath without hurting. The deep breath hurt under my collar bone. I got to spend some time talking to my best friend on the phone. Another friend brought over dinner for the rest of my family (very nice surprise) and stayed with me for several hours. It was great having some girl time to talk. It helped get my mind off of how I felt. Laughing didn't hurt, luckily. I thought I was going to have to sleep in the recliner all night. I tried, but decided at 3:30am to go to bed. By then the gas pain was a lot less. I was able to sleep and even roll back and forth. Funny, the gas pain went to my gums. I was able to sleep for 4 hours before I needed to get up to escape the gum/gais pain. 2 minutes after sitting up, the gum pain went away. I'd say the gas pain is 95% gone. My post-op instructions said to weigh myself everyday. They want to make sure I do not gain 2 pounds within 24 hours, or more than 5 pounds in a week. I guess it indicates there is some internal problem. Luckily I lost 2 pounds. My highest weight (non-pregnant) was 228, preop 214, today 212. I am so happy. This turned out better than I expected.

I am voluntarily doing a one week liquid diet pre-op because someone posted that it would be easier for the post-op liquid period. The first 3 days were OK until about 6pm. Then it sucked big time! I was just having 3-4 shakes a day and sugar free flavored waters. This week I decided to try the Soup in my work's cafeteria, but I only had the broth. Wow! What a difference. It was still a clear liquid, but it made me feel full longer and made me feel like I had eaten a meal. Also, eating it with a spoon instead of drinking it out of a cup made my mind think I was getting a meal. The really hard part? Having to cook dinner for my family. Ug! Last night I got creative. I made a mexican chicken soup. I took out all of the solids for the rest of my family to use for chicken nachos. Then I got to enjoy the yummy broth. That really helped. I found that 2-3 shakes a day are plenty for the 60-80g Protein. Switching out soup broth for one of the extra shakes actually brought my calories down for the day. So, I was able to make it through the day without "cheating" (eating solids). 7 days into the liquid, only yesterday and today were 100% liquid. But, now that I figured out something that works for me, I feel like I have a better chance of compliance post-op.

Good news! I was able to get my son's previous doctor to order an emergency supply of his medicine to get him through another month. Yeah! Now I can reschedule. Whew! That is a relief! Thanks for the reminder about the pillow. I forgot about that. I'll have to make a little reminder list for surgery day. 2.5 days to go.....

Thanks Elizabeth. I am on track for this Thursday. I am waiting for the call from the surgery center with my arrival time.

I felt a ton of anxiety on my first day of the liquid diet too. I couldn't believe I was having a panic attack at only 30 minutes into the day! lol I had to remind myself to live in the moment, not think about how I couldn't have any solid food for X amount of time. That was too big, scary and depressing. But, to think I can have a yummy liquid drink within this hour, really helped. It was a whole bunch of making it through one hour at a time. When I get busy with something, I forget about thinking one hour at a time because my mind is on what I am doing. Next thing I know, 3 hours has past. Yeah! I made it through 3 hours. Each hour adds up to a day, two days, etc. The first two days I ended up nibbling on some food toward the end of the day. But, it wasn't much. It was just enough to make my stomach stop hurting. Instead of beating myself up and feeling like a failure, I patted myself on the back. I made so much progress from the day before. Progress, not perfection. Progress will help me lose weight. If I can still be proud of myself and lose the weight, than Woo Hoo!!! I like the Protein drinks I have: GNC AMP chocolate and vanilla. I use sugar free torani syrups for variety. For premade, I like the Muscle Milk banana. It finally occurred to me that I can make some Soup with lots of flavor. Make soup like you usually would, but only have the liquid part of it. I really like green lemon chicken soup. I just leave the chicken and the rice for the rest of my family. An pozole. Yum! I've always liked the broth of that soup. Being excited about the flavors I get to eat is really helping me. I focus on the yummies I get to eat instead of what I can't eat for now. Good luck everybody. I have less than 3 days to go till surgery.

I have a treadmill, but I really prefer to be outside. I found a website for local nature trails. I'm so excited. I'm going to take my kids with me this Saturday to go check out one that is about 5 miles from my house. It leads to a small waterfall. The website said it was 3 miles to the waterfall for a roundtrip total of 6 miles. Hmmmm...it might take a couple of trips to build up to a 6 mile walk. But, I just might surprise myself. We all love to explore. So it is easy to forget about the distance and time when you are chasing butterflies, playing in a waterfall and admiring all of the spring flowers. I just have to figure out something for the summer when it is 100+ degrees. Maybe morning walks?

The surgery center called me this mornig to talk about insurance again. My surgery is scheduled for 4/28. They told me today that I was responsible for 20% of the cost, payable on surgery day. Say What? I talked to the surgery center a month ago to verify I only had my $15 copay. My mind started spinning. I didn't even know how much the 20% would be. Maybe $4k? By next week? My first thought was "I'm going to have to reschedule my surgery....no!!!!!!" to "how can I scrape up the money?", then "I'll figure out some way, I am not rescheduling this!". I asked her to call my insurance company again, because I knew the 20% was a mistake. She called back 10 minutes later and confirmed I only have to pay my $15 copay. Whew! I think this was just a "brake check" to make sure this was what I really wanted and I was willing to do anything to make it happen. Anybody else have a "brake check" before surgery?

Congratulations on your surgery! I saw your recommendation for going on the liquid diet a week before surgery. Can you give more information on how this makes it easier afterward? My surgery is Thursday, next week 4/28. Thanks for your advice.

Does anyone know if there is a clothing exchange online?

Congratulations on the bright colored clothes! I'm looking forward to being excited daily about what I get to wear instead of dreading to get dressed. My surgeon, Dr. Machado with Sacramento Bariatric Associates, hosts a monthly support group. One of the things they have is a clothing exchange. The clothes that are too big for you now might fit someone else during their journey. I wonder if there is something like that online? That sure would be great! They also have a Protein exchange. Since everybody has different tastes, what doesn't work for you might work for someone else. Anyway, enjoy Spring in all of your pretty Spring colors! You have earned it!:welldone:

Good luck to both of you!