Hi all

I'm Jo and I received my lapband on Monday 14th May - 5 days ago. I was operated on in Christchurch New Zealand where I live.

As a Type II diabetic for the past 5 years, the opportunity to have the surgery funded by our Public Health System was too good an opportunity to turn down. I started the Optifast Protein Meal Replacement diet back in October replacing 1-2 meals a day and lost about 12 kilos (26 pounds) over the course of 3 months but it plateaued and I got bored and it was still easy to cheat and eat whatever I liked. So in March I got the letter confirming my surgery would go ahead in May.

The 2 weeks on Optifast and vegetables only before surgery was tough and a good test of my determination to succeed. I lost 5.5kgs (12 pounds) over the 2 weeks and since the surgery, I have lost a further 3.6kgs (8 pounds) in the last 5 days. I had a bit of a tough start as my surgeon put 2 ml of saline into my band during surgery and the next day I struggled to get enough fluids down and ended up in hospital a second night on a drip after experiencing having the band emptied. That was excrutiating given the site was only 24 hours old but I coped ok and the relief in being able to drink more made it worthwhile.

So overall I have lost 48 pounds already with another 99 to go til I reach my goal of 165pounds (75kg),

I'm really pleased I found this site as I have a very gurgley tummy and have a lot of wind so being able to read on here that it's normal and others are the same, I feel a lot better. I'm also loving the recipe ideas.

Congrats on your great loss so far!

Welcome and the best of luck to you... You can do it.

I was may 14th too! You should come to the may bandsters group found under the pre op section. There is lots of great conversation there