Hi,

We are through the 1st week of June already, can you believe it??

Any how, I've been enjoying reading about everyone's surgery experience, but it's hard to find them, some start a new thread, some post in the June Line Up etc. I thought it would help to have a centralized place to post our stories.

My sugery was Thurs. June 5th, scheduled at 1pm. They wanted me there by 10 to get ready and sometimes the surgeon is ahead of schedule. I did get in early but only 30 min. early. I was not nervous at all the morning of surgery, the day before I was scared to death and wondered if I was doing the right thing. I arrived at the hospital at 10, and had to sit in the waiting room til about 1030, at which time they came and got me. I had to weigh on this huge scale in the hall, I was down 3 from the surgeons office the day before, not sure if that was a real loss or just different scales. My vitals were taken, and then I was to change into my lovely hospital gown. Mine had a big rip across the boobs, good thing it was so big I sortta wrapped it around. Then they came and got my IV going. My surgeon came in to see if I had any last minute questions and to sign off on my chart, he was on his way into the surgery before me and said he'd be sending for me shortly. Then the anestesiologist came and checked somethings over and signed off on something. Next thing you know the OR nurse is there to get me. At that point I sortta got emotional and started crying saying good bye to my husband and daughter. To calm me the nurse had me describe my most favorite place on earth, I picked Hawaii. I had to say what I was wearing, what the weather was like etc. As I entered the OR I said I was drinking a Lava Flow, Dr. S said it better be a low carb one. Then they scooted me onto the OR table, all sorts of folks were surrounding me. Dr. S asked how I was doing and I said okay but more importantly how are you doing? Always the jokester, he said fine but I'm a little shakey and hung over. That was the last thing I remembered until waking in recovery. My first thoughts upon awakening were: 1) should I be waking up or am I still in surgery and 2) it's done! They sure don't let you come out of the anestesia slowly, the nurse had me sitting up right away and walk with assistance to the bathroom. She then put me in a wheelchair to await transport to radiology for the swallow test. Well there was miscommunication there and Isat there for about 30 min. I got really whoozy and nauseaus. I called for a nurse and they promptly put me in a recliner where the rest of my recovery was going to be and rehooked up my IVs. She said it was from sitting there too long and with no IV. Finally they came from radiologoy, that wasn't real pleasant but not painful. I was still too much in zombie land. After that I go back to my recliner and my husband and daughter meet me there. I got the shivers/shakes real bad and they kept piling warm blankets on me and then put some demerol in my IV. She told me to remember that for next time I ever have surgery that I react that way. She said it was fairly common to get the shakes. Then my 1 oz every 15 min of liquids started and had to do that for 2 hours before being considered to go home. 1 oz every hour was Protein. After a short nap (probably from the Demerol) I felt much better and was heading for home about 630pm. Today is day 3 and I've not taken any pain pills and am feeling pretty good. Have a weird pressure type feeling by my port and a really growly tummy and a little bit of diarrhea. I am nervous for when I start having mushies. So far I can pretty much drink anything. I carry a Water bottle with me and try to get in 70 to 80oz water a day. I never needed the gas-x strips nor the toilet tongs! Never got the shoulder pain either, he said he tries to suck most of it out before closing up after surgery.

That's my experience, next???

You def need to be realistic about everything. That's how I knew there would be bad times and good times. But keeping positive and your goals in sight help!

So today as I posted before is my one week post op 'anniversary'. One of my main complaints the last few days is this lightheaded, dizzy, feeling like I am going to pass out feeling. It's happened the past 3 days and seems to be getting worse. Well today I was home when it happened and I took my blood pressure, it was 80/50!!! My pulse was 46. I promptly called my surgeons office and they referred me to my primary care to ask about dropping my blood pressure meds some. THEY TOOK ME OFF OF THEM!!!! ONE WEEK POST OP AND I AM ALREADY GOING OFF B/P MEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am thrilled with that. Of course, I have to monitor it closely at home to be sure it doesn't spike back up, but she said that was way way too low. And if it does go up, I may need a weaker RX!!! I was hoping to get off them eventually but never dreamt at one week!!!!!!!!!

Long2bThin: You be very careful! I hope your BP gets stable soon! Prayers to yu!:Banane42:

Trishadish: I am doing better now. I started using Campbells soup at hand, (Hope they are legal) :thumbup: I double checked my book and it seems that they are. When I have one of them a day, I am so much better.:frown: I have had Cream of Tomato, Creamy Potato and Creamy Chicken. I also have a protein bullet a day and one Slim Fast Protein shake. The rest is all water. :confused2:

GreytheHope: I will be honest, I have had 1/2 cup of coffee a day. :crying:Really watered down, but it helped.

Good luck to all of us!

:biggrin:

Just a question to all of you on the couch like me.... I was banded 2 days ago on the 10th. I'm sitting here on the couch, suffering with gas pain, wanting to just get it all out. Suffering with hunger, cause nothing I eat seems to fill me up. And all the while watching tv and every freakin commercial has food on it!! How many times a day do they have to advertise the stinkin pizza special!?? OMG I'm dying!

reareal: The gas is awful. :biggrin: I just had to breathe and let it roll. It did turn into the trotts! Several times I didn't make it to the bathroom in time and had to shower. Awful! :Banane42:

That is better now and the only gas pain is between my shoulder blades, like I need to burp! :frown:

The hunger, I did feel, but that left also. I found that tomato soup made with water helped a lot! Another day I had chicken noodle soup, and gave the chicken and noodles to my grandson! I also found the V8 Splash Lite helped! I would drink the protein bullets from GNC. :thumbup:

Try watching movies with no commercials. I stay away from the kitchen as much as possible.

I did go out to eat with my BF today, (he really isn't too sensitive) I asked for soup and to drain off everyting and give me the broth! They did that at Cheddars and I had unsweet Rasberry Tea! I was so full I am about to pop! and I only had half the soup broth.

Stick with it . The hunger does pass and so does the GAS!

I had surgery today around noon, I've been home for about and hour and half, and I'm just a little sore. Everything's going great, but I need a nap so I'll post more later!

Trishadish: I am doing better now. I started using Campbells soup at hand, (Hope they are legal) I double checked my book and it seems that they are. When I have one of them a day, I am so much better.:rolleyes2: I have had Cream of Tomato, Creamy Potato and Creamy chicken.

Cathychatts: You may want to try Campbells Healthy Request Creamed Soups. They are low in sodium. Make them with skim milk, not Water, for the extra Protein, plus you can also add a scoop of non-fat dry milk too for even more protein, make sure you strain the soups to get the chunks out. I have found them very satisfying. Another good soup brand if you have a Trader Joes in your town, is their Trader Joes creamed soups. Non-Condensed, just strain and enjoy.

THanks for the soup info. The only problem is I have milk allergies, so I will have to add water or soy. Will will try the other soups though! Thanks!

Long2bThin: You be very careful! I hope your BP gets stable soon! Prayers to yu!

:rolleyes2:

Thanks Cathy. Tonight it has gone up a little bit, the top number is almost in the 100's now and my pulse has gone up to the 60s. I'm anxious to see what it does tomorrow my first day RX free! I just feel so relieved to have a reason as to why I would just hit a brick wall every afternoon and get so faint.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones as I never got much gas pain, just a little between my shoulder blades, and not often. My surgeon did say he tries to remove it all before closing up.

June 10th was my surgery date in TJ with Dr. Kuri and I am finally home. Everything went very smooth with the surgery. Dr. Kuri is wonderful as is his entire staff. I am very happy that I decided to go this route. As I said, the surgery was very smooth--no problems at all. However, for all of you that had out patient surgery, I don't know how you all did it! I hardly remember the entire day. I did get up and walk twice, but then I passed out again!

I have been hungry, but am filled up with very little clear liquids. Tomorrow I start on full liquids...at this point I don't care if I ever see a bowl of jello again!:rolleyes2:

does anyone else have to be on clear liquids for a week? My doc gave me a week of clear then a few days of full liquids then I can move on to a little thicker substance. I so far have been eating, chicken broth, sugar free popscicles, Jello and vegtable Soup without the vegtables. I'm afraid anything else would be too thick. Does anyone have any other suggestions for "clears"?

Cathychatts- thanks so much for the tips, I'm just afraid I can't start some of the Soups yet cause they might be too thick.

My surgery went well. First day was a little tough ,but thanks to very good meds it was tolerable. I was very sleepy and extremely drymouth as they did not let me have anything until day two. Yesterday started good. Got home around 1:00 and then started thinking --I have I done!

Today has been great. I feel good,but I have no stamina. I certainly have the rumblies in my tummy and pains in my shoulders. Tylenol and the gas strips seem to take to take care of it. I save the Lortab for night so that I sleep well. I have not been hungry. I have to drink my protein shakes/drinks (2fl.oz.) very 1/2 hour and 2 ozs of broth evry 2 hours. Kinda a slave to my food, but I feel good and it seems to work. I will have to be on liquids for another week. I see my dr. next Thurs., my guess is that he will advance me to mushies.

You who home the same day are real brave! I don't think that I could have done it.

Good luck to all newly banded and to be banded!

Well, it is done! I was very lucky to stay overnight, don't know what I would have done if I had to go home after the surgery. I had the best care!!!!! I was at Ocala Regional Medical and was banded by Dr. Jawad awesome!

I checked in at 6am, was in surgery a little after 8. Of course it was that time of the month for me, I was more worried about that but all went ok, it happens and they are used to it. They hooked up my IV and gave me lots of meds because I told them that I get sick from anesthesia, , I remember changing beds in the OR and having a mask of "oxygen" put on me....yeah right oxygen, next thing I remember I was in recovery with the shakes real bad.....then the nausea, it was so bad... I was put up in my room and just layed there all day dealing with the nausea...finally around 5 it left, I believe it was from the pain meds they gave me after surgery Demoral maybe..... anyway I decided at that point I would rather have the pain than the nausea so I opted for no pain meds. I had a good night, slept for a few hours then got up to walk....did ok, still had no pain meds....nausea for me is the worst, even more so knowing what kind of complications it could pose in having the band if I vomited.

I was discharged around 2 the next day and made the long hour and a half ride home....thanks for the pillow for the stomach suggestion awesome!!!!!

I had to be on clear liquids till today and have been dealing with the gas and shoulder pain but overall doing well....I do look about 6 months pregnant and have staples........not looking forward to having those taken out.

I never thought cream of rice Cereal with a little sugar could taste so good!!! If I can just get rid of the headache and weak feeling I will be good to go.

Thanks to everyone for the support and advice......loved the pillow!!

To you Jazzy Junes that have yet to be banded...I thought I'd give you my 2 cents about my experience. My surgery sounds a lot like everyone elses. Today it has been 10 days, and I'm really feeling a lot like myself again. The only thing that is sore is my port site, and it does have that yellow colored bruising around it like some others have talked about. I've lost around 10 pounds so far.

I have to tell you that on the 4th day after surgery, I made myself get up and start doing things like watering plants, light house cleaning, etc. Laying around a lot I think, can be a detriment. I felt a lot better when I started moving and getting around. I've taken a couple of walks that have just exhausted me...but that's ok;I know it's good for me. My appetite is coming back slowly, but it seems like it is a lot different than before.

The psycological part is something to deal with also. It is like saying goodbye to an old friend or hobby. Sometimes I think the food ads on tv look good, but then I think about if I would really want it, and I don't! I'm thinking that this is an opportune time to really change the way I see food. Not as a reward, hobby, project, or something to do when I'm bored...but as nutrition for my body. It is time to find some other things to do besides eat! The thought of this is difficult for me, but I will succeed!:smile:

If anyone tells you that this surgery isn't a big deal, they're wrong. It really is a life changing event. Good luck, Jazzy Junes...I'll be thinking of you!

Hey all! I was banded yesterday :smile:

Everything went really well for the surgery. We got there on time yesterday (6 AM) and everything went exactly as scheduled, no hold-ups at all. There was a little confusion with the anesthesiologist about whether or not I have a CPAP machine, but it didn't hold anything up. I wasn't nervous at all most of the morning while I was getting ready, but once they separated me and my fiance, Matt, and had him go wait while they took me to the holding area, THEN I got nervous. My anesthesiologist spoke a mile a minute and I could barely understand what he was saying, and I was praying none of it was important for me to know! My surgeon came and spoke to me for a very few minutes. They wheeled me in for surgery after hooking up my IV at 7:30 exactly, and after a few minutes of strapping me to the table and everyone running around, I just passed out, no warning at all. Hehe. When I woke up, it was after 9 AM and my stomach HURT. Not horribly, but enough that I kept asking when the pain meds would kick in. Morphine is so wonderful. I had to stay in the recovery room until about noon, and I kept fighting off sleepiness because I wanted them to move me up to my room ASAP so I could see Matt again. I slept most of the afternoon after they moved me and made sure everything was okay and sending Matt to go eat some lunch. He wasn't allowed to stay overnight with me since I had a roommate, and I was really lonely since I was only sleeping on and off during the night. The nurses kept forgetting about me when I needed things, like the IV bag changed or when I could have ice again. My mouth was soooo dry and they only let me have a medicine cup of ice every 4 hours.

They wouldn't weigh me before my surgery yesterday, so I have no idea how much weight I lost with the pre-op diet. They only weighed me today, and according to that, I gained 2 pounds, but they said that it was because of the 4 bags of fluids that they kept pumping into me and that nobody says they lost weight when they are weighed at that point. Pfft. I need to order a scale this week so I can keep track myself.

The sorest spot on my stomach is where I think my port is, and I think I was expecting it to be on my left side, but it's on my right? I dunno. My bandages are in a nice little row, 4 all next to each other, and then 1 is kind of under my breast. I went home around 1:30 today and they made me wean off of the morphine all this morning, so I'm very sore and the liquid Tylenol isn't helping. I tried to take a nap with Matt, but since I can't sleep well on my back and it hurts too much for my side or stomach, it didn't work very well. I might end up sleeping on the couch until the pain goes away so I can be propped up.

They had to take blood from my artery in the wrist for blood gas levels and for the two samples they needed, yesterday and today, they poked me a total of NINE times. If you've ever had this done, you know how painful it is since they didn't numb me for it and they had to keep poking around. Ouch!

I'm on my liquids today, and I thought I'd be hungry with only 2 oz. of liquid at a meal, but I just have more of a dry mouth than anything. I hope the soreness goes away before I have to go back to work Monday. I have to go see my surgeon again in 10 days for the check-up. So far, everything seems to be on track, though. My vitals have been really good everytime the nurse checked, they were impressed with my recovery, especially since they were expecting me not to be able to walk around very well because of my size. I don't have any problems walking and they were really surprised when I just got up, and the only problem I had was a little dizziness and nausea. They didn't make me do a swallow test, though, which seems strange when I read everyone else having to do it. Ah well. I don't really feel anything around my stomach area itself, is that normal? I only really feel the incisions and port.