Can anyone tell me what is the medical reason for the weight restriction after banding? My doctor told me not to lift more than 5 lbs for 6 weeks. I have a 4 year old and 23 mo. old (30lbs). The little one still wants to be picked up sometimes. I"ve adhered to these rules and haven't been alone with them since my surgery, but I had to pick him up several times at church today. I didn't have any help like I thought I would. Otherwise, I would not have gone. Now I'm feeling quite sore on the right side of my stomach. I have my post-op appointment tomorrow (I was banded 3/25/10) but don't really want to bring it up b/c I could tell my doc was concerned about me not lifting my toddler before the surgery. I now know physically what it feels like to go against those orders :smile2:, but I was wondering what exactly might be going on inside my belly. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You've had major surgery!! Just because you have teeny tiny incisions on the outside, your insides were still probed, prodded, cut, sutured, etc. They still had to go through the same layers of tissue to do the banding as they would through an open incision, but just through a smaller cut lengthwise - depthwise, it went to the same place.

Let me re-phrase my question. I'm wondering if anyone knows what are the consequences (other than the outward pain I can feel) of not following the restrictions. Is it the risk of ripping, tearing, shifting, moving things including the port? I wasn't told specifically what might happen. I was just told don't do it.

You can rip the stitches which can interfer with placement of band and port, likely to cause long term problems rather than just a bit of pain right now. Be patient, take it easy - you can do it :-)

The concrete medical consequences may include:

1. Wound dehiscence (this means they pop open. In severe cases, evisceration can occur; this means that abdominal contents push out because of the pressure);

2. disruption of your band, which has not yet had the opportunity to heal in place;

3. disruption of your port; see #2.

Were you not aware, in advance, that abdominal surgery would impact your ability to care for small children?

Your port stitches need to heal totally before you can or should lift things. If they don't your port MAY come loose and could possibly(though not always)flip.