Hi All,

My surgery is April 2nd and I'm getting pretty petrified. Wondering if I'm doing the right thing, scared it will fail, afraid of freaking my kids out when I tell them this week, scared of recovery, scared of not being able to eat food, just f**king scared, y'all!

I had Lap Band surgery in 2007 but I don't remember being this scared.

Someone help me remember why I'm doing this and tell me how you got through the scared part.

Ever so grateful in advance...

It's all normal. You're gonna be ok. Take it one day at a time and breathe. It's easy for me to say but I was plenty uptight leading up to surgery. It was soooo much unnecessary worry. It was seriously the easiest surgery and I've had the easiest time...

I could barely sleep two days prior to surgery because of the anxiety of not able to do the post-op diets.

In the surgery recovery room, I came to with a flight reaction, and they had to hold me down for 3 minutes. It's s common reaction, I watched the same thing in done other patient beside me.

For about an hour in the recovery room, I wondered what the hell I got myself into. It subsided. The liquid diet after surgery is about 85% less difficult the pre-op.

It'll pass. Once you are on the next stages, it should go better than pre-op

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Thank you. This anxiety is no joke, man.

You can do this! I was excited for mine because my body rejected the lapband. But it’s still a huge surgery which is always scary. Just focus on your goals and the bigger picture. You’re taking a step forward to a better future. best wishes to you!

This is such a minor surgery compared to lap band, nobody is rerouting any plumbing, just making your stomach smaller so you get full faster. Just curious when you say you had lap band surgery in 2007 does that mean this is a revision surgery or did you previously have the band removed?

28 minutes ago, aNYCdb said:

This is such a minor surgery compared to lap band, nobody is rerouting any plumbing, just making your stomach smaller so you get full faster. Just curious when you say you had lap band surgery in 2007 does that mean this is a revision surgery or did you previously have the band removed?

I think you mean the bypass. The lapband is laparoscopic and outpatient - removing part of the stomach is a bigger surgery.

I was nervous and on the verge of shaking being wheeled into the operating room last Monday. I know the anxiety is real. You are doing this for you. To feel better, to get better, to do things normally overweight people cannot do. It is a long and scary journey from what I read, but everywhere you look are support groups just like this one. Thing about how good you are going to feel after you shed some weight. That is what i do, and I am only one week out.

18 minutes ago, Defying Gravity said:

I think you mean the bypass. The lapband is laparoscopic and outpatient - removing part of the stomach is a bigger surgery.

No I mean the gastric sleeve vs. lap-band. Both are laparoscopic and the only reason that the sleeve isn't outpatient is because they have to make sure you are able to get enough liquids on your own before releasing you. That said I was speaking about it in terms of long term complications, which is the reason that you find fewer and fewer surgeons willing to perform the procedure.

All that said, obviously from a 30-day serious complication perspective lap band is going to be "safer" because as you said it's less invasive, but at this point I believe the serious complication rate for RNY, LapBand, and VSG are all under 1%.

My point to the OP was that she has already been through this and the VSG is going to be no big deal.

Edited March 25, 20188 yr by aNYCdb

18 minutes ago, aNYCdb said:

No I mean the gastric sleeve vs. lap-band. Both are laparoscopic and the only reason that the sleeve isn't outpatient is because they have to make sure you are able to get enough liquids on your own before releasing you. That said I was speaking about it in terms of long term complications, which is the reason that you find fewer and fewer surgeons willing to perform the procedure.

All that said, obviously from a 30-day serious complication perspective lap band is going to be "safer" because as you said it's less invasive, but at this point I believe the serious complication rate for RNY, LapBand, and VSG are all under 1%.

My point to the OP was that she has already been through this and the VSG is going to be no big deal.

Ah, yeah that makes sense. The lapband actually really messed me up but once I healed from my sleeve, I was fine.

Good luck, you will be fine. Everyone is nervous before taking this step. Just take deep breaths and visualize how you it will be on the other side.

3 hours ago, aNYCdb said:

This is such a minor surgery compared to lap band, nobody is rerouting any plumbing, just making your stomach smaller so you get full faster. Just curious when you say you had lap band surgery in 2007 does that mean this is a revision surgery or did you previously have the band removed?

Yes, this will be a revision. The lap band didn’t work well for me but it’s still in there.

Edited March 26, 20188 yr by LCroft

1 hour ago, Sosewsue61 said:

Good luck, you will be fine. Everyone is nervous before taking this step. Just take deep breaths and visualize how you it will be on the other side.

Thank you!

2 hours ago, aNYCdb said:

No I mean the gastric sleeve vs. lap-band. Both are laparoscopic and the only reason that the sleeve isn't outpatient is because they have to make sure you are able to get enough liquids on your own before releasing you. That said I was speaking about it in terms of long term complications, which is the reason that you find fewer and fewer surgeons willing to perform the procedure.

All that said, obviously from a 30-day serious complication perspective lap band is going to be "safer" because as you said it's less invasive, but at this point I believe the serious complication rate for RNY, LapBand, and VSG are all under 1%.

My point to the OP was that she has already been through this and the VSG is going to be no big deal.

Ah, yeah. Thank so much! It all gets real when you’re this close!

4 hours ago, FluffyChix said:

It's all normal. You're gonna be ok. Take it one day at a time and breathe. It's easy for me to say but I was plenty uptight leading up to surgery. It was soooo much unnecessary worry. It was seriously the easiest surgery and I've had the easiest time...

That is so good to hear! Thank you.

I'm another one who thought the surgery was fairly easy and ditto recovery. The worst issue I had was low energy for about the first month, not to mention kind of hating protein shakes and the liquid/pureed/slushy stages. Once I could eat tiny amounts of real food, though . . . it's all good. Just repeat after me: protein, protein, protein!

You'll be good and will love the weight loss (especially the first month).

The number one thing I learned from this site that really helped me was about stalls. No one at my doctor's office said anything about them, but if you know that they will happen AND they will pass, you'll be much better able to cope.

Good luck!