Hello,

I am new here (obviously) and my surgery is set for May 14th.

I am a 38 year old married man living in Sherman, Texas

My insurance company ( GreatWest ) approved me in only 1 day!! I was fully expecting to wait 4 -6 months for this. It kind of took me by surprise.

I currently weigh 435 with a BMI of 54.5

My weight before meeting with with Dr. Aaron Cernero 3 weeks ago: 446lbs.

I am currently on day 4 of my liquid diet. I was really tested on Mother's Day. I stubbornly insisted on cooking my wife and her mother steaks! My wife tried to tell me that I didn't have to, but I insisted. I sat there, smelling those steaks cooking and then I had to sit at the table while they ate and I drank my low-sodium tomato Soup. I actually had a dream about biting into a juicy steak that night!! But I perservered.

I have two boys ages 2 and 7-months. I want to make sure that I live to see their post-adulthood accomplishments.

Anyways, nice to meet everyone here and thanks for joining me on this journey that I am begining in 2 days!

Keep the faith everyone.

Greetings and good luck from Mckinney, Texas!

Hi and welcome to LBT! Congratulations on your speedy approval. Post as soon as you feel up to it after surgery and let us knwo how you are doing. Good luck!

Welcome - I am almost 2 weeks out and belive me I know how you are feeling. It is tough - but in the end it will all be worth it. I am heading to the doctor on Wednesday for my 2 week post-op check and then on to mushy foods. I had a wedding yesterday - talk about tough - I know exacty how you felt sitting there watching them eat those steaks!!! Good Luck

Hi there and welcome to LBT! I am so proud of you and admire you for not caving on Mother's Day, that is awesome. Those two boys will make it all worth while.

Keep us posted on how things are going, we look forward to getting to know you.

Greetings from just down the road to the east. Is your doctor the new bariatric surgeon that just came to Denison? Would be nice to have someone so close! I have to go to Dallas for my fills.

Best wishes to you....you've got two great incentives going for you!

Thanks for the welcome folks. It is nice to find people who know exactly what I am going through, both physically and mentally.

GayleTX: The doctor is Aaron Cernero. His office is at the Wilson N Jones Medical building, just off of the main hospital. He has been very straightforward and easy to work with so far. He said he had done approximately 30 LB surgeries. That was 3 weeks ago, so I am sure that number is higher now.

Good luck! Let us know how you make out! I have two boys to and they make it all worth it along with your own good heath:)

Lewster, you should be so very proud of yourself!!! I just had it done on the 8th here in Austin and no matter what they tell you it will be different for everyone but this forum has REALLY helped me to figure out some of the weirdness they don't think to tell you will happen post op. Stay in touch and let us know how you do. Good Luck to you and congratulations.

Just wanted to update everyone on how it went.

Originally, my lap band wa scheduled for May 14th. I arrive at the hospital at 7:30 am for my surgery that was scheduled for 10:00 am. I am nervous, scared, and excited all at once.

Then the wait begins.

And continues....

and continues.

At 12:30 pm the nurses came in and tell me that the doctor is sick and that he barely made it through his first surgery of the morning. They said that he might not perform my surgery today.

Two hours later, the doctor came in and confirmed what the nurses had told me. He was sick and almost passed out a couple of times so he had me rescheduled for the following Friday.

Friday rolls around and I arrive at the hospital at 6:00 for my scheduled 7:30 am surgery. This time everything happened so fast. It seemed like I had just gotten comfortable in the room (as comfortable as you can get wearing a robe with no back and an IV stuck into your arm) when they were having me slide on the surgery table. Next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room feeling like someone had punched me in the stomach repeatedly.

They moved me back to my overnight room (Dr. Cernero keeps all of his patients for overnight observation). I was up and walking around about 2 hours after surgery. There was some discomfort from in my abdomen and in my left shoulder (from the gas). The worst pain I felt in the hospital was when they were tearing the tape (and most of my hair) from my arm to remove the IV when was ready to leave the next day.

The first 3 days I had absolutely no appetite whatsoever. I pretty much "ate" because I had to. On a side note: I do not reccomend using Isopure for you protein supplement. It provides 40 grams of protein but it comes in a 20oz bottle. I had some real trouble getting down the whole bottle down in one day. I switched to New Whey protein supplements and they are much better. They provide 46 grams of protein in only 3.1 oz bottles.

I am now in my "soft" food portion post-op food plan. I have lost 51lbs since the first time I saw my doctor (2 months ago) and I am loving it. I have already dropped a shirt size and 2 inches from my waist.

Every now and then, I catch myself staring longingly (and with a little too much drool coming from my mouth) at fast food commercials. And sometimes I honestly miss my ability to over-eat, as if the food were a long-time lover that I have lost and will never regain. But these times pass quickly as soon as one of my boys wants to play and I can get on the floor with them pain-free.

I plan on posting a list of my reasons why the Lap-Band WILL WORK FOR ME. It has to work for me.

Bye for now. Thanks for sharing in my story.

Glad things went so well with your surgery. Congratulations on your weight loss. You're doing great!

Thanks Kathy. Right now I am just amazed that my back doesn't hurt if I am standing for more than 5 minutes. I am also happy that my feet and ankles don't pound anymore when I lay down for bed in the evening.

I do have one correction to my previous post. New whey Protein bottles only have 25g of protein, not 46g like I said. But it is still only 3.1 oz as compared to 20 oz of Isopure.

Thanks to everyone on this board.

So glad you posted......I'd been wondering about you!

You are doing great~~men lose so much faster than women...just not fair...but I'm happy for you!

Remember that the Protein supps count as part of your liquid intake so every drop you can get is in your favor. Although you probably can't get it all down this early out, you need to get at least 1/2 gal. of liquids every day....that's your goal. And 80-100 grams/protein should be your goal.....you can't do it yet but you will soon.

Keep trying different protein supps....it's important you find several you really enjoy. Places like GNC are not the best place to find them.....they are used to providing for the jocks - needs 0f the bariatric patient are much different - they don't always understand that and will give you misinformation. And, unfortunately, many doctors don't know much about nutrition, either.

I really enjoy making my own Protein shakes with Protein powder.....lots of ways to get variety and it's much cheaper. The RTD's (canned ready to drink) average over $2 each....the powder is about 50 cents/serving. Whey Gourmet makes great powders, so does Lean Dessert....high protein, low carb, very tasty. If you haven't gotten a little blender yet (like a Hamilton Beach Personal Blender...WalMart...$15) you might want to....you can make great thick shakes that take the place of ice cream treats thru the summer.

The next few weeks are going to be hard for you.....no restriction til you get a fill or two or three. You're on your own til then, but you've got something even better.....those precious little kids that want their daddy around-no better motivation in the world.

Keep us posted on your progress~~~:thumbup:

Thanks Kathy. Right now I am just amazed that my back doesn't hurt if I am standing for more than 5 minutes. I am also happy that my feet and ankles don't pound anymore when I lay down for bed in the evening.

That's funny because I was just telling my husband today at my pre-op appointment that I thought that was one of the things I am most looking forward to.