Hello all, I am getting ready to go to the seminar and in hopes of changing my life for ever. I have already got pre-certified from my insurance so hopefully the next 6 mo. will go by quickly. I am very nervous but excited. I am looking for new friends and experiences so talk to me and I also would like to know other peoples receipes and do's and don'ts regarding diet after the surgery. Beck:wink_smile:

Do you do protien too? I thought about doing for the 1200 cal diet a protien shake for breakfast to get used to the fact that I am going to have to have protien and Kar told me to buy this drink mix for the fiber I need. Now, I will buy vitamins too to get the nutrients also. The only thing I haven't taken in consideration is that I will be hungry. That will be hard to break and the old eating habits. :-( Lord please help me be strong!! How often do you go in for weight and body checks with your doctor?

Elizabeth - were you in much pain after the surgery? How long did it take before you returned to work?

Im hoping to be back to work within 2-3 days. I'd really love it if he did the surgeries on Friday...so I could return Monday, but im sure that is wishful thinking.

I'm not Elizabeth, but I'll answer. :crying: My pain wasn't too bad. He sends you home with Percocet and Phenergan. I was a zombie the first week on those! It really only hurt when getting up from the bed to a chair, etc. I only took the meds the first week and I still have left overs.

I took 2 weeks off work, but probably could have gotten by with 1 week. 3 days would have really been pushing it for me, but I've seen others on here do that. My husband was banded 8/25 and he took 1 week off and did ok.

I drink Atkins Advantage, if i buy it at Sams it costs approx $1.10-1.15 and thats usually my breakfast, so I'm not skipping that meal.. I have never been a breakfast eater unles I've been up a good while. I put in an earlier post my dr gave a list but stated if i went off list ti make sure they contained

* for every 10 calories at least 1 gram of protein

* sugar should be less than 10 grams

* sugar alcohol should be less than 5 grams

It seems to work for me, the first 2 weeks on the 1200 I did get a little hungry at night and where I usually wouldn't want to eat close to sleep I had to have a small snack a coulpe of hours before I crashed. Sometimes all I needed was a little bite of maybe shaved ham, nothing major just something to shut my tummy up. The hard part was thinking I should feel stuffed, which now i do, but not at first, and the bad habit of munching while we watched tv in the evenings, those were my hardest so far. I still do the 0 cal slurpee thing which was great after my endoscopy for the throat.

Correct me someone if I'm wrong but my understanding after banding is protein first, through meat or whatever and if theres any room left for veggies fine. I'd of been lost without the exchange list they gave me which gives me a more balanced diet for now, I guess after protein will always be #1 on the list and I'll have to see whats next. Right now I'm envisioning a life on baby food but I won't mind if it helps say good bye to half of me

Edited September 25, 200817 yr by Saundra

The pain wasnt too awfully bad. Which for the first about week I lived off the pain killers so I slept all day. Pain wise, I think you could go back to work in about 4 days BUT nutrition wise NO.. You wont be getting much nutrition at all so you will feel down right crappy and just tired all the time. I know of one person that went back to work after 1 week, but she had a sitting job and she is actually the biggest success so far. Everyone else has taken at least 2 weeks off.

Oh......I hope I can return early. I started a new job in July and I hate to use 1/2 my vacation up by taking a week off. :smile2: I really wanted to go on a vacation to the beach this summer. Maybe in a bathing suit......with some weight loss!

Is the pain from where they pumped gas into you to do the surgery?

What are Kaplans' support group meetings like? I will definetly plan on attending those.

You know, I had my surgery in July and I have yet to hear about any Support group meetings. I know they have them because I know of people that go to them, but I have yet to be told of a date to go to one.

The gas is a lot of the pain. Your stomach also swells after surgery causing pain. I had pain ni my left shoulder for 6 weeks after surgery. It would hurt so bad at times that it was hard to breath. They say that is a nerve getting pinched by the band and it just takes time to get used to it.

As if my belly isn't big enough already, its going to look worse after surgery? :smile2: Is the gas like the gas after a colonoscopy? Sorry just curious, I get embrassed kind of easy when it comes to that, I hate remembering way back when I was thin and heard other thin people make comments, like they expected fat people to smell, have gas, that sort of thing. My sister used to tease me years ago when I was trying to gain and make fun of me for being small chested, I'd tell her if I had to look like her to have boobs, NO WAY. No amount of boobs is worth the hell of being obese, and I'm never going to forget that I spent two thirds trying to gain weight and over 1.3 trying to loose half of me. I just want to get to a healty weight so I can feel and look better. Plus my sister needs the surgery as well and shes waiting for me even though hers will take at least 9 months. WVU, hopefully your a 3 dayer and can have surgery on Friday and go back on Monday, I would think the type of work everyone does would have something to do with return time as well. Fingers crossed for you, I know I'm wanting to be at the beach next summer as well, NOT wearing a tent!

Saundra

Jeannie runs the support group meetings. They are the 4th Monday of every month at 6pm in Jeannie's office. I went to the one in July and there were 3 people there, including myself. I missed the August one because that was the day of my husband's lapband but it was about psychological issues. I went to one this past Monday and it was a recipe exchange. There was only one other person there besides me and my husband. The next meeting is Oct 27th and is about plastic surgery. Dr. Tarrant will be there.

I'm not sure why more people aren't going? Jeannie said that she was gonig to try to call all those who have been banded for the next meeting. She also said that Dr. Kaplan is starting up his own website, so be on the lookout for that!

The gas is different. This gas settles up in your chest and you have to be sure to move to get it out. It does hurt, I wont lie that is most of the pain from your surgery. All I can say is KEEP MOVING.

KDLee, I would definitly go to the meetings if I knew about them, but for some reason, she has never told me about them. I need some support, Im struggling. :smile2:

Hi All, My surgery is MONDAY..whoo hoooooo...I do have a questions...on tuesday morning Jeannie said that I will have a test to make sure of band placement etc, can someone explain that procedure to me please..thanks

I would definetly attend the meetings as well!

Kdlee- Please post Dr. Kaplan's website once you hear what it is. Maybe it will have a message board. ? That'd be cool!

You will have what is called an upper GI. You stand in front of an xray machine and drink a little bit of contrast, then they lay you down and you drink some more. Its not too bad. The contrast is gross but its not bad. If youhave ever had a CT scan where you had to drink contrast it is like that just a little thicker. Just a little warning, that stuff will either move through you extremely fast you may think its gas, use caution if you know what I mean. :tongue2: or it could set up in you so make sure you get your liquids in.

Elizabeth- They're the 4th Monday of every month at 6pm. I would love to see you there! I was struggling for a little while, too. Dr. Kaplan is soooo conservative on the fills that it gets discouraging at times. Hang in there! It does get better. I had my 2nd fill this am under fluoro, because he couldn't access my port last week. I was so discouraged, but am feeling better now. It's been hard because up till now, I could eat anything I wanted and was hungry! Hopefully this fill will help!

WVnascarfan- Good luck!!! You're lucky that your upper GI will be standing. When I had mine done after surgery, they weren't sure what they were doing and tried to make me lay on my abdomen!!! I refused and so they made me lay completely up on my sides, which hurt like crazy. They didn't have me stand at all. I complained about it and Jeannie got it all worked out. When my husband had his done in August, they had him stand and it didn't bother him at all. The worst part he said was the contrast he had to drink.

WVU-fan - I will post it! I keep googling him everyday looking for it.