I just got approved yesterday! I'm VERY excited!!! Is there any advice you can give me for preparing for surgery or for the first 6 weeks after surgery? Also, what's the weight loss like in the first couple of weeks?

thanks!

Congratulations on the first step for the rest of your life!

Pre-surgery: Follow your doctors pre-surgery orders (diet, etc.). It helps him during the actual operation.

Post-surgery: Remember that the liquid diet doesn't last forever (even though it feels like it!). That was the hardest part for me.

Weight-loss: Really good the first couple of weeks after surgery, of course. I personally stabilized to 1 - 1.5 pounds a week after the first month. It feels slow after the inital 'big bang', but it is the best for long term success.

Good luck!

First things first; congrats!! Before surgery you may want to go grocery shopping if your doctor has you on a certain pre-op or post-op diet. You will probably be put on liquids then soft foods before you can eat normal foods again. Look around the forum for some things to buy to get your through those phases. You may also want to look around for some post-op "band friendly" recipes. There are a lot out there; many of them are tasty!

Buy some Gas-X strips to use post-op. Otherwise I'd just spend time looking on the forums, especially the post-op forum, to see what to expect. Pre-op may be helpful as well. As for weight-loss, it varies per person, so there is no number to really give you. Some people lose early on post-op, some don't.

Keep in mind that the first 6 weeks are about healing; I can't stress that enough. It seems every day there is someone asking why they aren't losing when they are only 4 weeks post op, or 2 weeks post op. Your body needs to heal and for 6 weeks it will do so. During this time I'd advise staying off the scale and really focusing on allowing your body to heal.

Take some before pictures and take your measurements! You'll be surprised how many inches you lose.

Thank you SOOOO much for your responces!!! I'm VERY excited! I just got the date its May 12th :-)