Hey guys, I thought I would post a small update. I am now 12 days post op and have lost an awesome 22lbs it has been years since I have weighed this little. The two days after surgery were a bit unpleasant, I could not keep anything down, no Water, no juice. This was due to a small complication that left me with a lot of swelling around the band. As of day 3 (my final day in hospital) I was able to keep down liquids and could feel it pass through my band(very strange feeling but not uncomfortable). The first week was liquids only and that was fine, a few days ago I moved on to puree foods, loving the broccoli Soup. I am still on "purees" but of a thicker variety, so I am easily able to pass mashed sweet potato and mashed potato/cauliflower (trying to limit all the starches). Yogurt and soy milk. If I am very careful I can get ground chicken and beef down. I am a little wary of anything that would absolutely need to be chewed so I will wait another week or so before trying cheese. What I love about my band is that the choice has been taken out of the equation for me. I would consider myself a "foodie" in the sense that I love eating good healthy food, however the old me would always choose the more decadent food. If it was a choice between a big beautiful hamburger and fries I would always choose that over grilled chicken or fish. Now I don't have the option, I know that there is no way in hell a hamburger with bacon and cheese and bun and all the fixings would ever pass through my band. So I choose a better option, it has forced me to really sit and think about what I am eating, it all has to be planned. I am very excited about my diet now, because I get to be creative and really love the food I am putting into me. Getting this tool has been the best decision of my life, and I am grateful to live in a country that covers the surgery free of charge. I hope everyone is having a similar experience, if any of you pre-op bandsters have any questions feel free to ask!

Hi. Thank you for sharing your experience! It is interesting to read about others in the same boat.

I am 18 days postop and I'm having a slightly different experience than you. While I felt what I thought was restriction for the first couple weeks postop, or maybe it was just fear, I am not feeling much restriction at this point. I probably could eat a burger and fries if I wanted to as long as I chewed it up enough. In fact, I did try french fries last week and they sat in my stomach like a rock, so I will probably be avoiding those in the future for that reason.

However, I am not feeling yet like the band is forcing me to restrict my food choices in any way. All of my food restriction is by choice. I am hoping that changes with my first fill Which is scheduled for 11/13. When is your first fill?

I'm post op 9 days in and it's getting a little better day by day.. Uncomfortable the first few days, then had the post op 'Blues' for a few days.. Feeling much better but my body gets achy almost daily. Down almost 15 lbs on the bright side:)

I completely get what you are saying, I have a lot less restriction than a week ago, but at this point I would not chance any bread. I had a few veal meatballs (I'm Italian so my house is made of meatballs) and they went down after chewing even though they are pretty soft to begin with. I had a larger bite and it didn't get stuck but definitely was uncomfortable and had to wait for it to go down. That being said, I think in a couple weeks they would go down a lot easier so I will eventually need a fill, before I get to hamburger time. My fill is on Dec 2nd. Compared to what I would normally eat I think 3 small meatballs and half a cup of cooked veggies is pretty darn good. Keep up the good work guys!

Great posts -- congratulations all. It took me a little while to get cruising but this has been an amazing year. And not hard. I feel like the band has made it easy for me to make good choices -- something I wasn't able to do consistently before.

That's awesome