Hellooo! I'm 2 hours away from getting banded! Given my natural state of paranoia, every imaginable thought has run through my mind already (what if my liver isn't small enough? what if i'm in massive pain? how will i survive 4-6 weeks on mushy food only? what if i have complications? when will i begin to lose weight? WHEN CAN I START TO EAT AGAIN, EVEN IF IT'S JUST COTTAGE cheese AND Jello???? I'M STARVING! #$^&&)$#(@#)

But, I'm still trucking along and would like to begin to share -- in as much detail as possible -- my journey from this moment on...

For starters, this morning when I showered, I also had to wash my stomach area with Hibiclens to kill the germs and prevent infections. Now I'm just letting it air dry.

What I'm wearing to the hospital: a slip-on dress and slippers so it's easy to put on when I'm discharged tomorrow. AND a firm pillow for the car ride home to hold over my stomach in case of any bumps in the road.

What I have stocked in the fridge: sugar free jello, sugar free pudding, low-fat plain cottage cheese, greek yogurt, turkey burger patties (will soak in chicken broth and puree a bit to make moist), Protein shakes, diet snapple, oatmeal, a bottle of egg whites, and ice pops.

As I mentioned, I am STARVING right now, so everything to me sounds delicious. I'm not sure how much of an appetite I will have in the next few days, or even week, but right now, I'm thinking about EVERY HEFTY MEAL I've had in the last YEAR and regretting not savoring it more.

Okay okay, I'm going to go start getting everything ready. I'm not sure I want to take my phone or laptop with me to the hospital, so I'll try to take mental note of everything I experience in the next 24 hours.

PRAYER CIRCLE FOR EVERYONE UNDERGOING SURGERY TODAY!

Gotcha covered friend! Try not to think about "what ifs", think about "the new healthier me". woohoo!

Good luck , I'll be right behind you next Tuesday

~~~Stephanie

Best of luck! You sound like you are definitely all set and ready!!!!

good luck.. looking forward to hearing your experiences. mine is next Thursday.

made me laugh, but you sound so ready you have this covered, hugs

Good luck blessing from above

Greetings from the other side! I have my phone with me (i couldn't resist) to kill the time away.

After I got to the recovery room, and the anesthesia began to wear off, I went from shivering to just plain ol' groggy. Even though I was fully responsive, i wasn't able to open my eyes for the life of me.

Once I got back to somewhat normal, i was expecting pain, especially a gas-induced ache, but NADA. I did a single pump of pain killers just in case, but I'm not feeling much pain, let alone discomfort. Only discomfort really is from laying on this bed. I feel totally restless and so tempted to roll on my side.

Anyways, my surgeon managed to make a single incision via the naval (to band me and repair my hiatal hernia, so i have a scar on both sides of my belly button. Really hope with time it fades (i'm very prone to permanent scarring because of my skin type - just to give you an example, my cat scratches me and it will leave a permanent mark).

I also have somewhat of a mental appetite (i could so eat something right now but I know that's impossible).

I know

Congrats and welcome to the journey

Woops, hit send too quick.

Wanted to end my post with this:

I know that everyone's recovery and pain threshold is different, but i hope the pain free and appetite is normal and I'm not the only one?

In any case, I hope all the others who got banded today or sometime this week are on to a speedy recovery! Please keep us posted

HelloGoodbye, congrats and wish you a speedy recovery. Please let us follow you in this journey. I'm scheduled to get banded on the 30th of this month and love reading all the posts. THey are all filled with tips and tricks and it's wonderful. I do have a question if you don't mind, you said you had to wash your stomach area with Hibiclens to kill the germs and prevent infections, was this doctor ordered? Where do you get such?

HelloGoodbye, congrats and wish you a speedy recovery. Please let us follow you in this journey. I'm scheduled to get banded on the 30th of this month and love reading all the posts. THey are all filled with tips and tricks and it's wonderful. I do have a question if you don't mind, you said you had to wash your stomach area with Hibiclens to kill the germs and prevent infections, was this doctor ordered? Where do you get such?

I had to buy Hibicleanse for a procedure last year - word of advice, buy the Walgreens brand, it's $5 less than the name brand and has the exact same active ingredient.

Good luck to you, hope you have a speedy recovery!

bernita3, I received the hibiclens from my surgeon at my preop visit.

@HelloGoodbye: how are you feeling?

After a pretty boring and uncomfortable night at the hospital, I'm finally home! The nurse pulled me out of bed every 2 hours to walk, which I was able to do painfree, but because of the constant walking, I barely got a wink of sleep... and the bed was just not allowing me to comfortably adjust. Oh well... it could've been much worse. The best thing was being able to chew on ice chips... Never thought i'd be so happy about ICE like that in my entire life!

This morning I was given 1/2 cup of cream of wheat, and unsweetened cranberry juice (and a 15 gram Protein boost). I got about 10 spoonfuls of the cream of wheat into my system before losing interest and appetite (which is funny because a few hours after my surgery, I had such a huge appetite. I couldn't stop thinking about TUNA FISH of all things). Everything sat well with me, save for some gas that I began to experience with the food in my system.

Before I got discharged, they brought me some lunch to take home with me... 1/2 cup of pureed tuna fish with low-fat mayo (YES! dreams do come true!). Unfortunately, I tried to have some, but it didn't sit well with me... Not to the point of nausea, just more gas pain. I might've been eating it too fast (I guess I got a little too excited to be eating tuna fish and didn't control how much I was practically inhaling.)

Excited to regain interest in food so I can start introducing mushy foods to my body... Scared about some of the foods not sitting well with my new stomach though.

I'm going to sleep propped up and completely elevated tonight. I feel like that's my most comfortable position for some reason. I do sense the tightness in my stomach, but too squeamish to touch around to see if I can actually feel anything - like the port. The only way I can describe this sensation is the feeling of being constipated for a week. It also hurts to get out of bed, but that's really as far as my pain goes.

Oh! There the gas growling in my stomach. I want to burp so bad. And on that note... HOW IS EVERYONE ELSE DOING?!

HelloGoodbye, congrats and wish you a speedy recovery. Please let us follow you in this journey. I'm scheduled to get banded on the 30th of this month and love reading all the posts. THey are all filled with tips and tricks and it's wonderful. I do have a question if you don't mind, you said you had to wash your stomach area with Hibiclens to kill the germs and prevent infections, was this doctor ordered? Where do you get such?

My doctor also gave me the Hibiclens (in 2 small packets). You should call your doctor and see if the have any to give you. You won't ever use it again, so it'd be a shame to spend money to buy a larger amount at the store.