Hi folks.

I have a BMI of 35 and hypertension plus high cholesterol. In order to avoid dropping dead and to lose the extra weight I've been carrying around for about 15 years, I've decided to get the Lap band.

I'm a self-pay, and I have little time to recover before driving my daughter to college and unpacking her stuff 7 days later.

I"m looking forward to hearing from all of you to find out if I am going to experience problems. I also would like to know how much other self-pay people actually have paid.

Thanks

WW - See I really did come over here to read up on you. LOL

At 7 days you're probably going to tire out easily. The driving is advised against unless you're off of your prescription pain meds. They're pretty good stuff. You won't be allowed to lift more than 20 pounds for about 4 weeks (I think that was the amount of time).

How far away is the college? Can you possibly take a family member or friend?

Make sure to keep your Protein levels up while you're on liquids. New-whey bullets taste like Kool-aide if you mix them with Water. They come in fruit flavors. They give you 48 grams of protein each and about 170 calories. Get the ones with no carbs or sugar. Don't drink a full one at one time. You can only process about 1/2 of that amount of protein at a setting. But if you keep up your protein it will give you more stamina.

I didn't do that and when I tried to go back to work a week later I felt like I was going to fall on my face. A friend of mine that had the gastric sleeve done realized what was happening and gave me one of the bullets to try. She then kicked my butt for not taking better care of myself.

Good luck and we'll see you on the other side.

Vicki J

This is not good news. I am a single parent, and I HAVE to take my kid to college. The date that's been chosen is the only date that the surgery can be done until November. I don't want to wait that long. I may ask my brother in law to help us move my daughter in. I certainly hope he can help.

The drive is a little over three hours.

I am very athletic and as tough as nails. I hope this will help me in the week after my surgery. Keep your fingers crossed!

I look forward to learning more from you in the future.

ww

Hi WW

I healed extremely fast and I think some do. I have always had lots of energy and never sit still so for being heavy im in fairly good shape.

I rested the first 2 days, The 3rd day I cleaned about 2k square feet of my house top to bottom (even used a toothbrush on baseboards lol), The 4th day I shampooed all the carpets downstairs, 5 day all the ones upstairs....

Nothing ever went wrong with my band from 'over doing' it like everyone told me would happen.

I made sure I drank ALL my liquids and max'ed out on the Proteins everyday. I think laying around makes you more miserable.

Good luck with your surgery.

Brandy

Now THAT is good news. I realize everyone is different. The only problem is that you never know where you lie on the continuum until the time comes. Then if you have commitments, it's too late. As always, I wish I weren't parenting alone. But there have been difficulties before and we have lived through them, and this time will be no different.

Thanks for letting me know that not all the predictions I read about are so dire.

I'm really going to enjoy this process.

ww

WW - The three hour drive should be ok. I assume that she knows how to drive and can share the driving on the way up. Just make sure that a day or so prior to the trip you go to liquid Tylenol instead of prescription pain meds. Some people do heal faster than others which gives them more stamina. However, the risk you take by lifting too much weight or in the instance of moving many boxes is that your port has to have scar tissue grown around it to adhere it to the muscle. If you don't let this happen, you take the risk of the small amount of sutures tearing and your port flipping. If your port flips, it's another surgery. Also, your port area more often than not is very sore for a while. Doing too much can make this worse. The one other thing to take into account is that you will have 5 incissions trying to heal and doing too much can cause them to take longer to heal or an infection.

You are the only one that can decide how far you want to chance it. No, you will probably not cause yourself any life threatening problems but you could cause yourself some significant problems. You're a self pay patient, how much more are you willing to gamble by doing too much too soon? It could lead to having to pay more for repairs.

This is not meant to be an a** chewing. Really, you're a big girl and I'm just trying to give you the information as to why they tell you to do things so you can make an informed decission.

I had a 3 hour trip home within 48 hours of surgery and made it fine. I wasn't driving and I wasn't trying to move anyone. I drove to work (short distance) and home within a week of surgery and felt like someone had pulled the plug on my energy reserves. This is something only you will be able to tell when the time comes. We are all different. If you feel up to driving, just make sure you have an out if you get to where you're exhausted. Take care of yourself.

'Nuff said.