I guess I'll be the first to post in the January 08 group! Welcome all January Bandsters! I am scheduled to have surgery January 9.

What a great way to start off the new year! A new year, a new beginning! Now that New Year's resolution to get healthy, lose weight and keep it off will actually be possible!

I don't know when my surgery is just that it will be in January. I am waiting for the OR schedule to open up. I am so excited. It seems like far away but with the golidays here it will fly by, you wait and see. The longest time will be from Jan 1- Jan 8.

New years Resolution: STICK WITH IT Don't give up.

Greetings Team! I am scheduled for January 7. Have been researching since June and I am ready to go! I have been eating entirely too much since deciding to go through with this. :hungry: Gotta stop that! Not looking forward to the pre-op diet. Keep in touch!

Jim

Hello all. I think I will be scheduled in January too. I just received my approval letter today! Looking forward to chatting with all of you future bandsters!!!

hi there, im getting banded either 23 or 28 jan 2008 !!

im scared excited and everthing else. im 40 years and have weighed 100kgs -106 kgs for years now....... im sooooooooooooooo frigin sick of it and people sayin oh your not that bad but if they could only see how hard it is to dress nicely and to live with being fat 24/7!

anyway im with dr watson at murdoch id love to hear from other people who are in the same boat. id love to meet up and be a banded club for support etc.

cheers and thanks for reading.

plz email me lackmin@hotmail.com:biggrin1:

Greetings Team! I am scheduled for January 7. Have been researching since June and I am ready to go! I have been eating entirely too much since deciding to go through with this. :hungry: Gotta stop that! Not looking forward to the pre-op diet. Keep in touch!

Jim

Jim, our surgery dates are 2 days apart. I starting researching in August and made my surgery date back then as well, so I've been itching to get to January for some time, 3 months to be exact. 3 months down, 2 to go.

I wrote about this in a post in response to someone having to wait until 08 for banding and my thoughts about having to wait. I'll try to briefly write them again. Again, these are just my thoughts about my situation.

It's so tempting to just eat whatever we want until Jan. because hey, the band will help us lose it! I had to snap my mind out of that kind of thinking for my own sanity. I thought, I can just eat whatever I want until then, or I can try to do something to start the process. I decided that whatever weight I lose now will NEVER come back once I get the band. So I decided to go low carb, which is something that works for me and I feel good doing it. I figured I should push off the "farewell to food tour", as they call it, until only a week or so before my surgery to lessen the damage.

Also, the band is only going to restrict our stomachs, not our heads. We are going to have to change the way we view food, why wait until the band to start trying to retrain ourselves. I feel like that will be one of the hardest parts of all after banding. I know that when I do what works for me that I am in control of what goes in my mouth. When I eat what I want, I'm not.

I guess it's a bit easier for me to say this because I know there is a diet that works for me. If you have some sort of plan that works for you and you don't hate it that much, why not try it? I try to remind myself that whatever I lose now, the sooner I will reach my goal, banded or not. And even if you don't do anything until January, it won't be the worst thing, but it sure ain't the best thing.

Maybe it's also easier for me to say because my doc did not give me a pre-op diet. No medifast, Optifast, liquids, nothing. I can eat whatever I want until 9pm(maybe even 12am) the night before my surgery. I think my story would be a lot different though if I had some sort of unpleasant pre-op diet to "look forward to". Jim, what kind of pre-op diet do you have?

Other Jan. 08 bandsters, is your doc requiring a pre-op diet? If so, what kind and for how long?

What other things have you done in preparation for surgery? Have you had you had your psych evaluation? Nutritionist consultation etc.? Are you required to do a sleep study? When I went for my consultation a sleep study was not required, but as of '08 my surgery center is making it a new protocol for all patients.

I'm calling this week to schedule my psych eval, pre-admission testing, and nutritionist consultation. Already scheduled my sleep study for the beginning of Dec.

January will soon be here! All in good time!

Hi Tulip-- great post. I have found that once I "detox" from sugar, the low carb diet works for me as well. The first few days are kind of rough and I just need to do it.

Looks like you've lost >50 pounds already. Great job!!! That's probably why you have no pre-op diet. Mine is 10 days of liquids. I think that's pretty typical. Which band are you getting?

I need to get blood work and an EKG done and then I'm ready.

Keep us posted!

Jim

I know exactly what you mean by detoxing from sugar. Those first few days are horrible....constantly craving sugar/carbs. But all you need is a little willpower to get you through those first days and your good. Of course I still miss my favorite foods, but the numbers on the scales going down give me all I need to keep going (and the compliments don't hurt either ). Last time I did low carb, I did it for almost a year. But you know how it is...you go back to eating the garbage, even though it's not good for you. But this time, since there is an end in sight (ie the surgery) and I am moving full steam ahead knowing that it's not permanent.

I am going to discuss the low carb eating with the band with the nutritionist and the doc. I have seen a range of different approaches to eating with the band here and I wonder what will work for me. After doing low carb, I see the positive effects that it had on my cholesterol, weight, sleep, energy and life overall. It's just that I don't know how to achieve success, except bu upping the protein/fat (Atkins) and cutting out all sugar and dropping my carbs really low. But I want to be able to eat that piece of bread once in a while and eat the potatoes once in a while. It will be interesting to see what happens come banding time.

Actually when I had my consult with the doc in August I was a little over 300lb and still the there wasn't going to be a pre-op diet. I haven't read a lot about pre-op diets here because they don't pertain to me, so I don't know if people with comparable BMIs have pre-op diets. I have no idea if my doc prescribes a pre-op diet for some of his larger patients or not.

10 days liquid seems pretty average from what I've read. I've seen as little as 2 days and upwards of 4 weeks. I had no idea that there would possibly even be a pre-op diet until I read about it here. The doc never mentioned anything about it at the consult. So I called his office to see what the deal was and they told me they don't require a pre-op diet and boy, was I happy!

I believe at the consult he said I would be getting the smaller band. When I met with him back then, I didn't know as much about the band options as I do now. I think he uses Inamed/Allergan so I'm presuming that he means the 4cc band. When I go for my appointment some time before the surgery I will be sure to be asking him about the band plus all the questions I have come up with after spending the last 3 months on this board being educated about the band.

Welcome to the Jan. 08 bandster club Min!! Congratulations on getting a band date!

Hey all. My doctor does require a 2 week optifast diet prior to surgery. I also have to technically lose 8 lbs before I can see the surgeon to set my date. :help: I had to lose 6 lbs in order for my dietician to ok me for surgery...this was what I needed for my paperwork to be submitted to insurance:faint:. It seems like I'm jumping through A LOT of hoops for this surgery...some more stressful than others :omg:. Wish me luck on losing these 8 lbs...the sooner, the better... Good luck to everyone else...band land here we come!

Woo Hoo! Surgery is set for Jan. 7th. And I'm just *thrilled* that my pre-op liquid diet is set to begin Dec. 24th.

Good Luck to all of you!!

Dec. 24, what a lousy day to start! So what you're saying is that the liquid diet is probably starting Dec. 26? Anyhow, congrats on your surgery date. CallMeJim is also having his surgery on Jan. 7th.

comepickmeup! thats awesome news. i was called this morning by the doctor's office to set up an appointment with the clinical physician and the dietitician. after that, i guess i'll be set up to meet the surgeon...then get my date!

Surgery bright and early on January 21. Have to start my liquid diet to "defat the liver" on January 7. Been seriously into this since June. Only passively prior to that.

hey all!!!!

i might be getting in january too! it would be sooner but due to the holidays and pre-planned events, i'm going to have to wait until after the holidays. I CANNOT wait for my 'new start!'

:wave: bye for now

Hi everyone. I finally got a date today and my surgery will be on the 10th January 08. I can't wait. It took so long to make my own decision and now I just wanna get it done and get on. I have to do two weeks on Optifast before the op so I hope that will get me started on the downward slope. When I went for my first appointment with the surgeon's assistant I weighed 248 lbs and had BMI of 39 and through exercising recently I have lost 4 lbs which I am happy with. I have 66lbs to lose to get to the goal weight my surgeon set but I would like to be allowed to go lower as at that weight (182 lb) I will still be overweight. I currently have a gastric reflux, and high cholesterol, fluid retention as well as irritable bowel syndrome which are all largely weight related. Look forward to sharing my journey with all you other January bandsters.

Hilary:clap2::whoo: