Lap Band Surgery Day Stories

[Dawn5115 0]

Go, Amber! *my boys are teenagers.... they acted like surgery is nothing.... just mom being "mom" again. But I understand! So glad you got liquid Loritab.... I skipped the pain meds because of the huge pills. Be sure to walk with the gas.... and get used to being happy when you pass gas. *something I would NOT have thought two weeks ago!

[vbaldwin 0]

I was banded July 30th; tomorrow will be 1 week. Surgery was over with before I knew it, after it actually began. I was to be at the hospital at 10 and surgery would begin at high noon. At this point, I was going through the motions, as just a few days before I was ready to bolt. Shortly after 10 I was called, and when we got to my room in the day surgery area, I was instructed to don the lovely gown. The nurse also brought cute socks and warm blankets.:eek: A little later my IV was started. Then I was told the doctor would be late due to an emergency. I didn't need to hear that! After an hour or so the doctor popped in to tell me we were about to get started AND the emergency wasn't his patient; he just helped another doc.:redface: Then just as my soap opera came on the anesthesiologist came in and gave me a shot in my stomach and happy meds in my IV. The nurse then put the leg massagers on. I thought I needed a pair of those at home! Next thing I knew we were headed to the OR. I briefly remember being rolled in and that's it. Lights out! :sleep: Some time later I woke up back in my room. I was fed ice chips that tasted wonderful and just laid there very still. I was afraid to look at my wounds. After checking on me a few times, they were ready to get me up to leave. I finally managed to dress and crawl into the wheel chair to be wheeled to the pickup area. I really didn't feel too bad at all. Hubby helped me in the car and we drove home. I went to bed upon arrival. I've taken some pain medicine since, but not much, and I'm drinking my Protein. It's day 6 and I'm graduating to pureed, "baby" food. The gas pain is a little irritating and breathing deeply is a little uncomfortable, but overall it's okay. I look at the picture of my band to remember it's in there, and I'm also rereading all the rules, etc. to stay on track. Good luck as you begin your journey. . .

Edited August 6, 2010 by vbaldwin

[dreamskin 0]

Well I had my surgery and it really was awful. I dont think it was anything to do with the actual surgery though. The pre op nurses and theatre nurses, doctor and anethestic guy were all great, marvellous in fact. I was experiencing some chest pains before the surgery and told them and they told me I had shown no problems on my ECG. I came to after the surgery and the pain was horrendous! My heart felt like it was going to... I dont know what, Just hurting so so much. The theatre nurse was great, she gave me 2 big shots of pethedine, which is what we call demerol over here in Australia. They didnt do another ecg though, and I felt like, well I felt like I was having a heart attack. The pethedine made me sleep but every time I woke the pain was there. They took me up onto the ward and there is where it really got bad. The nurses were telling me it was in my head and giving me what felt like Junior asprin but I think was just paracetomol. No good whatsover. I had 2 nurses standing at the end of my bed telling me very nastily I didnt look like I was in any pain, I was basically making it up. My blood pressure was 170 over 100 and was not going down. They finally gave me a shot, and then completely ignored me. The night nurse came on and she was worse, I couldnt lay down and she pushed me down and snapped " Lay down!" I told her not to push me and I couldnt, when I lay down the pain was worse. She told me to stop whining and I said telling you I am in pain is not whining. She finally gave me the shot.The woman opposite me had had her varicous veins stripped and they were even worse to her, telling her she knew it would be bad and why did she get it done then. To stop whinning and to shutup. She was in agony, a huge abcess had formed under her bandage. It was awful. My doctor is sending me for some cardiac tests after everything settles down.

[vbaldwin 0]

Well I had my surgery and it really was awful. I dont think it was anything to do with the actual surgery though. The pre op nurses and theatre nurses, doctor and anethestic guy were all great, marvellous in fact. I was experiencing some chest pains before the surgery and told them and they told me I had shown no problems on my ECG. I came to after the surgery and the pain was horrendous! My heart felt like it was going to... I dont know what, Just hurting so so much. The theatre nurse was great, she gave me 2 big shots of pethedine, which is what we call demerol over here in Australia. They didnt do another ecg though, and I felt like, well I felt like I was having a heart attack. The pethedine made me sleep but every time I woke the pain was there. They took me up onto the ward and there is where it really got bad. The nurses were telling me it was in my head and giving me what felt like Junior asprin but I think was just paracetomol. No good whatsover. I had 2 nurses standing at the end of my bed telling me very nastily I didnt look like I was in any pain, I was basically making it up. My blood pressure was 170 over 100 and was not going down. They finally gave me a shot, and then completely ignored me. The night nurse came on and she was worse, I couldnt lay down and she pushed me down and snapped " Lay down!" I told her not to push me and I couldnt, when I lay down the pain was worse. She told me to stop whining and I said telling you I am in pain is not whining. She finally gave me the shot.The woman opposite me had had her varicous veins stripped and they were even worse to her, telling her she knew it would be bad and why did she get it done then. To stop whinning and to shutup. She was in agony, a huge abcess had formed under her bandage. It was awful. My doctor is sending me for some cardiac tests after everything settles down.

OMG! I am so sorry this happened. I would definitely file a public complaint on the people that treated you this way! I hope all is well with you in the cardiac dept. (and everything else, too!)

[AmberK 5]

OMG that is just horrendous. You need to call the charge nurse, tell your doctor, and even if you have to call the head honcho at the hospital and tell them what happened to you. NOONE should be treated that way. Its absolutely unacceptable. Im so sorry you had to go through that.

Well I had my surgery and it really was awful. I dont think it was anything to do with the actual surgery though. The pre op nurses and theatre nurses, doctor and anethestic guy were all great, marvellous in fact. I was experiencing some chest pains before the surgery and told them and they told me I had shown no problems on my ECG. I came to after the surgery and the pain was horrendous! My heart felt like it was going to... I dont know what, Just hurting so so much. The theatre nurse was great, she gave me 2 big shots of pethedine, which is what we call demerol over here in Australia. They didnt do another ecg though, and I felt like, well I felt like I was having a heart attack. The pethedine made me sleep but every time I woke the pain was there. They took me up onto the ward and there is where it really got bad. The nurses were telling me it was in my head and giving me what felt like Junior asprin but I think was just paracetomol. No good whatsover. I had 2 nurses standing at the end of my bed telling me very nastily I didnt look like I was in any pain, I was basically making it up. My blood pressure was 170 over 100 and was not going down. They finally gave me a shot, and then completely ignored me. The night nurse came on and she was worse, I couldnt lay down and she pushed me down and snapped " Lay down!" I told her not to push me and I couldnt, when I lay down the pain was worse. She told me to stop whining and I said telling you I am in pain is not whining. She finally gave me the shot.The woman opposite me had had her varicous veins stripped and they were even worse to her, telling her she knew it would be bad and why did she get it done then. To stop whinning and to shutup. She was in agony, a huge abcess had formed under her bandage. It was awful. My doctor is sending me for some cardiac tests after everything settles down.

[zeniada 9]

Well I had my surgery and it really was awful. I dont think it was anything to do with the actual surgery though. The pre op nurses and theatre nurses, doctor and anethestic guy were all great, marvellous in fact. I was experiencing some chest pains before the surgery and told them and they told me I had shown no problems on my ECG. I came to after the surgery and the pain was horrendous! My heart felt like it was going to... I dont know what, Just hurting so so much. The theatre nurse was great, she gave me 2 big shots of pethedine, which is what we call demerol over here in Australia. They didnt do another ecg though, and I felt like, well I felt like I was having a heart attack. The pethedine made me sleep but every time I woke the pain was there. They took me up onto the ward and there is where it really got bad. The nurses were telling me it was in my head and giving me what felt like Junior asprin but I think was just paracetomol. No good whatsover. I had 2 nurses standing at the end of my bed telling me very nastily I didnt look like I was in any pain, I was basically making it up. My blood pressure was 170 over 100 and was not going down. They finally gave me a shot, and then completely ignored me. The night nurse came on and she was worse, I couldnt lay down and she pushed me down and snapped " Lay down!" I told her not to push me and I couldnt, when I lay down the pain was worse. She told me to stop whining and I said telling you I am in pain is not whining. She finally gave me the shot.The woman opposite me had had her varicous veins stripped and they were even worse to her, telling her she knew it would be bad and why did she get it done then. To stop whinning and to shutup. She was in agony, a huge abcess had formed under her bandage. It was awful. My doctor is sending me for some cardiac tests after everything settles down.

uuhhh i have NO WORDS t describe how messed up your situation was!! i'm a medical assisting student and the first thing they teach us is to RESPECT the patient!!! i sure hope that things get better for you, how are you feeling now? good luck to you.

[belld 0]

I was banded 2 days ago. My story matches the others in terms of hospital sequence. I slept off and on that night. I find that I cannot burp and so everytime I felt like I had to, I had to get up and take off my mask (Cpap). This kept my husband awake, but he says he was kind of sleeping with one ear open anyway to make sure i was ok. Drinking every 15 minutes has become a pain. I have been a little hungry today. i am still experimenting with the Protein intake. I have to maximize the protein while minimizing the disgusting taste of the soy protein. Early in the preop I found I could not drink the whey protein. It made me very ill.

I went out today with my hubby. I had to get fitted with a knee brace from my June knee surgery.

I had a dilemma and somewhat of an anxiety attack last night due to a medication I thought I could not break apart. I finally called my family doc today and he said not to worry about it to go ahead and cut it up. Ok so I feel better now.

I think every day will get better.

[Libbyjane1976 1]

The morning of my surgery I woke up and a major snow storm hit the Detroit metro area. Needless to say we trekked it to the hospital downtown which is 30 minutes away. The hospital got me checked in right away. They hooked me up to my iv but my doctor was running late due to the messy roads so I had to wait a bit. I was so nervous about my surgery the doctor finally gave me some valium which relaxed me right away. Then they whisked me off to surgery. I woke up a couple hours later and my parents came back to the recovery room. I couldn't leave until I tinkled only I couldn't because they gave me medicine to dry up my urine so I lied about it because I just wanted to get out of there. I was home by 2 p.m. that afternoon and got into my bed thinking I would actually relax and snooze only my dog had other ideas as she jumped on me. Then my cat decided he couldn't be left out. I couldn't make any sudden movements because of my incisions so there I laid helpless in bed yelling for my mom to come get my animals. Later that evening my sister was kind enough to bring me some liquid Tylenol only I managed to spill it all over me and my pillow and blanket. I was quite accident prone that day but I wouldn't change a single minute of it!

[Ocnlvr 1]

Hello! My surgery was on Aug 5th: I arrived at the hospital at 6:45am, (I work at this hospital so in a way it was nice to see people that I know) I was quickly checked in and then waited until about 7:45 and was taken back to pre-op where they helped me into the lovely hospital gown and then put on some ted stockings and little footie slippers. I spoke with my surgeon and he asked if I had any last minute questions I said "no" and he said well let's get your new life started! I then met my anesthesiologist (I had selected him already) they brought my family back to see me for a brief minute and then he gave me some lovely Versed and we were off to the OR.

I am not sure when I arrived to my room I was pretty groggy. I would wake up and then doze off again, my family was there with me. My daughter in law is a nurse and she was so helpful, in making sure that I had pain meds every 2hrs; for some reason I did not get the PCA pump, but that was okay. Around 3:30 or 4pm I went for the Barium swallow that trip on the stretcher made me almost sick so I was given Zofran. Barium swallow done, everything looked great. I went back to my room and was placed on my right side with lots of pillows for comfort; being on your right side helps your stomach empty. After that I was up in the chair for a bit, then back to bed, more pain meds, since I was having such nausea they didn't want to give me anything to drink so I had the little swabs that you dip into Water, they were quite good. That night I was up and down to the potty, my IV came out and had to be restarted, but mostly rested pretty good thru the night.

Next morning, I was up in the chair and walked in my room and then down the hall. My surgeon came in and said everything looked great and I could go home after lunch, they wanted to be sure I could drink fluids well since I didn't have any the day before. For Breakfast I had some Jello, chicken broth and popscile ate some of each not much. But, felt okay, no pain or anything; Lunch I ate pretty much the same and felt pretty good. Let the hospital around 4:30pm. Came home and had some chicken broth and slim fast. Only had to take the liquid Lortab once, that evening and took a nap; have not taken it since then. I don't like the way it makes you feel and I really haven't needed it. I have had some issues with diarrhea, but if that helps get rid of the gas I guess it's okay.

I feel pretty good, this morning I felt that my blood sugar was a little low so I have been sipping on the slim fast and some juice.< /p>

I have lost 7 lbs since I got home! Including the pre-op diet I have lost 17lbs! I am so excited to be on my way to a healthier me. Will post updates later,

Have a great day everyone!

[Tally23 0]

Hello All! I am not officialy a bander! I had my band done yesterday. I was in the hospital at 5:30am- back for surgery at 7:45am and then home in bed by 1:00pm. Surgery was not to bad at all. I think I freaked myself out the most. I was taken back to the O.R around 7:45. They placed the oxygen mask on me and put the good stuff in my IV. I was talking to all the nurses about stuff before I went to sleep. When I woke up they were moving me from the OR table back into my bed. I do not remember the trip to recovery. I do remember waking back up in recovery and asking to pee. Lovely bed pans:thumbdown:.. After that I kept asking the nurse if I had gotten the band and she said yes..then I cried and cried.. happy tears. At first I was in no pain at all. Then I coughed..LOL..I had absolutaly NO gas pains at all.:w00t: Nothing in my chest or shoulder. I was given Fentynal by IV for pain but it kept dropping my stats so they had me take liquid oxycodone which was better. It took the edge off but didnt take the pain away completly. I got up and walked around and then sat in the chair awhile. Before I knew it was time to go home. I came home and found in impossible to lay down. So I attempted to sleep sitting up..that was fun...anyway I am feeling ok today. Just some abdominal pain. I never realized how much you use your abdominal muscles till you cant use them anymore. It feels like I did 1,000 sit ups over and over and over again. I use a pillow for support when walking but my stomach still hurts. But it is all good.. I am soooooooo glad I did this. I am NOT at all hungry. It is amazing not to feel that feeling. I had so many doubts before I went back for surgery but it went great.

[jenontheband 0]

Today was my surgery day. I can't believe I am sitting up and writing this so forgive the spelling errors and the rambling (Vicodin is my friend right now:thumbup:).

My surgery day started with a call from the doc last night saying that my surgery time was changed from 7 am to 10 am. I was bummed because I then had to change all of my son's scheduling around AND without letting anyone know why. Everyone was great and no one pried although I am pretty sure they knew something was up. Doesn't matter now since I am now officially ON THE BAND:tt2:

This morning I got up super early and so made corned beef and cabbage for my husband and son (daughter is away at college) by putting it in the crockpot. It was somehow therapeutic to prepare, peel and place all the food inside and know that I would come home smelling the house like I had been cooking even though I hadn't. I don't know what it was but sitting here now I love it. Comforting or something. After that I had a shower and did all the usual stuff. MISSED my coffee but figured the Vicodin with mask the caffeine withdrawals and it did. We got to the hospital right at 8 and had to pay for the anesthesiologist and some last minute paperwork. I had to take a pregnancy test (YIKES if that had been POSITIVE!) However, all was good there and they said all my levels were positive.

I then went back to the surgery prep room and changed into gown, calf sleeves and booties. None of these warm fuzzy socks so what's up with that?:thumbup: Anyways, not a big deal. The prep room was small and there were only four other surgeries that day (2 by my doc and I was the first for him). It was quiet and I had two nurses assigned to me full-time. Joanne was the best (not that the other one wasn't - Lee -but Joanne was my main nurse). They were great with my husband which was good cause he gets really freaked around needles and hospitals. He really was so good and supportive and tried hard to hold my hand at all the right moments. I am very lucky to have him. The doc ran late cause he had an emergency so I didn't have surgery till 10:45 am.

I don't ever remember a Heparin shot. In all honesty they either forgot or I just didn't remember, which is very possible. I talked more with the anesthesiologist than I did with the surgeon. Everyone was pretty amazed that I had a lower BMI and absolutely no comorbidities, allergies, etc. I write this because I want anyone else who is like me to feel supported. I chose this because my ankles were just starting to swell up in the past year and my varicose veins are nasty and my knees were starting to hurt and I knew that for me, I wanted this done as a preventative measure against all the seconday risks associated with WLS.

Anyways, in went the numbing stuff for the IV which STUNG and then the IV. Happy juice followed after. My husband said I wasn't loopy at all and he was worried about that but i told him it just made me press back into the bed, like a heavy blanket was on me, and it took away the stress. Up till that point I was asking the question,, "what would happen if I took these iv things out and took off" and after the shot I was like "Hey let's do it and let's do it now!" No more worries! They wheeled me to the OR and had me slide to the other table and strapped my arms down. They asked me to think of a favorite vacation, my mind was blank and I couldn't do it, and then I was out. The OR was the scariest. It's so official looking with instruments out everywhere and everyone is more serious there.

So then I woke up and I was in MAJOR PAIN. I don't want to scare anyone but I want to be true to the experience so there are no surprises for you. It was gas pain and it was in the area just below my sternum. It was in my left shoulder too but not as bad. I was moaning because I couldn't vocalize yet and I couldn't open my eyes at all. I tried but it was barely. The guy finally gave me a shot in the rear but even that barely touched the pain. It was bad. He kept rereminding me that I had begged to go home today and so he was reluctant to give me more. I listened but I think if I could have vocalized more at that point I would have said "F$%^ going home, give me the F$%#ing drugs." It's good I didn't cause I am so happy to be home now. But THEN? Wow.

finally he (the recovery nurse) said if I would walk the pain would go away so I told him I want to walk NOW and tried to get off the bed in recovery. He gently pushed me back on, packed up my stuff in a flash and then wheeled me into the surgery prep room again and dropped me off to Joanne. He was a nice guy and even came back to check on me before I went home. He teased me about how different I was by the time I could go home. Poor thing probably deals with that all the time!

I almost started crying when I saw my husband but I could see in his eyes that he was so worried and then I knew how bad I must look. I immediately went back to sleep for 1/2 hour. I guess I should throw the times in there. I went in for surg at 10:45. I was out of recovery by 1:15. I walked in the door at home at 4. While in the surg prep room I had to walk and try to eat/drink and do the breathing machine thingy to open up my lungs so no pneumonia. I did these things but very slowly. Oh and also had to pee. Finally I got everything ticked off the list and was ready to go. They wheeled me out and my husband drove me home. (The Jello was BAD for me. It hurt and felt solid going down. Terrible. My suggestion is to stick to broth and Water and that's it. It hurt!)

At home I immediately had two fat free/sugar free popsicles to wet my mouth and get a little sweet into me. I also felt good enough to drink more Water. Within minutes I took a nausea pill and a Vicodin (I had ALOT of nausea but no vomiting all day after the surgery). Once the Vicodin kicked in I was out like a light. My husband had stuck a heating pad on my back and I SLEPT. I felt better when I woke up which was 1 1/2 hours ago. Now I can feel my stomach again and the soreness so I am about to walk again and then maybe more Vicodin

I hope this helps with the journey for all of you. I am also on youtube with jenontheband and you can google me. I am going to do a video tomorrow which will be much of this same stuff but hey, you can see what I look like:w00t:

Thanks again for this community! Your support has been a blessing in my life!

[Llyra 3]

My March 3, 2010 surgery day story is a bit different from the others I've read here in that I recall almost nothing about it. I don't recall checking into the hospital. I don't recall the surgical prepping process. I don't recall waking up. I don't recall going home. I don't recall how I felt when I got there, though I have a half empty bottle of liquid pain killer to indicate it must've hurt enough at some point to take the medicine. All I recall is looking at a tray of hospital food at some point, none of which looked remotely edible: clear Soup made with beef boullion, orange Jello, some kind of awful Protein Drink. Might've known my single memory would be of food!:thumbup:

My husband says the anesthesia is probably accountable for the memory lapse which was so thorough that I didn't even realize I had a memory lapse until fairly recently.

[dreamskin 0]

Thanks for that guys, things are defineatly not as good hospital wise here as they are there. I lived in the U.S for 2 years and have been in hospital there, as well as visiting aunts cousins etc. There is a huge difference. I was so shocked at how bad it was for me here, I put in a complaint and asked them to call me right away, but what do you think....no call. The thing that upset me most was the woman across from me, it seemed the more she cried, the more they bullied. I got p****ed off with them and told her in no uncertain terms not to push me, and she backed off considerably. I just felt that I shouldn't have to fight for pain killers in hospital especially when the doctor had written them up for me. Oh well, I am still happy I got it done, I will never go back there again though. American hospitals are about 8 years ahead of ours and that is from the horses mouth, a specalist told me that.

[jenontheband 0]

Dreamskin, where are you?

[dreamskin 0]

Dreamskin, where are you?[/

I live in Perth, In Australia.