Hi Everyone,

I'm scheduled for Jan. 27. I'm very motivated - just battling nerves about life after banding. I'm new to LBT (as a registered user) but have been visiting and reading posts for more than a month. I'm impressed by member support and I'm looking forward to getting to know you.

Hi Carolina Mom,

I posted my experience under a new thread 'Thoughts less than 24 hours after surgery' so folks being banded the rest of the month could benefit. I hope you'll read it, it's got a lot of details.

The pain meds and the anti-nausea drugs are doing a number on my head and I forgot to mention two things in the earlier post:

1) the surgeon had to repair a hernia. Neither of knew I had one.

2) The anesthesiologist who was scheduled ran late so they substituted. Turns out he and I belong to the same church. Everything happens for a reason!

I hope that you're doing well and that today will you will experience healing and happiness. Overall, I'm fine (except for that nagging fear about the heaving when I got home.) Please say a prayer that I'll be fine.

Thanks.

You got my prayers coming your way now say one for me this is harder than I thought it would be. Move, Move.

Edited January 29, 200917 yr by Carolina Mom

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Hi everyone, the surgery went very smoothly -- yes, I 'll admit it now, I was quite nervous a couple days befoe -- but I'm glad I went through with it. My surgery got pushed back to 10:30 a.m. I woke up in recover around 11:30 and in my room by noon. I felt great -- walke a lot in the hopsital, but after my 2 hour car ride home, have some muscle aches, but not too bad. Have no feelings of hunger and broth and Jello are actually tasting fabulous and are satisfying me. Hope everyone is doing well too.

Linda

Hello everyone,

I'm glad everyone's doing well. I'm getting better day by day. Immediately after they woke me up in recovery I was nauseated. It was horrible. They kept giving me medicine for it but it didn't last long. I had to drink Propel water and alternate with the 3oz protein bullet which was way too sweet for me. I thought I was going to hurl all over the place, but I kept it down. The nausea continued when I got home that evening and finally around morning I burped and some water came up. Then I felt better. Carolina Mom I'm with you...this is harder than I thought it would be, but I'm glad I did it. I'm still having some pain, especially in the port area and the gas pains are awful. In the future if I'm tempted to eat anything I'm not supposed to, I will refer back to the past couple of days and remember what I had to go through. I hope everyone has a speedy recovery. We're on our way and there's nothing that can stop us!!

The gas pains actually starting today. I had bad shoulder pain when I got home from the hospital Tuesday night but a few Gas-X strips wiped that out. Then, by mid-morning today the pain started again. It's around the base of my throat (hard to explain) and I hear gurgling in my stomach. I'm burping too. Gas-X hasn't touched it.

I walked four blocks in my neighborhood this morning, which helped with the gas in the beginning. I'm shifting a lot in the recliner - trying to find a comfortable spot. Not too effective, though.

The only other pain is around the port. That's sore! I'm transitioning off the prescription pain meds to liquid Tylenol but since there's absolutely no other pain, I feel so lucky.

I hope that ya'll are doing really well.

You got my prayers coming your way now say one for me this is harder than I thought it would be. Move, Move.

How'ya doing today, Carolina Mom? I'm hoping that you're getting better every day.

I walked four blocks around my neighborhood yesterday and I'm getting dressed to do it again now. I think it helped break up the gas and just generally make me more comfortable.

Bless you and prayers your way.

How's everyone doing with Water? I'm really struggling. I alternate between sippy cups of no sugar added apple juice and water but I'm only getting two cups a day before I'm maxxed out.

Urine is clear so I'm not dehydrated probably because I am drinking clear broth and have had sugar-free popscicles too but there's only so much I can hold.

Hope you're feeling better. It's so exciting to think that we're on our way.

Hi everyone! I'm doing great, actually went back to work last night. I work at a call center and only had to work a few hours, and it went well. I only had really bad pain one day and that was Thursday -- other than that the only other problem I had was diahrrea -- started Thurs. and finally ended today. I called my surgeon's office as I never saw that listed anywhere as "normal" but they assured me it was a normal consequence. The nurse said, "first we make you drink the Magnesium citrate and then you had to drink the stuff (not her term lol) for the swallow test, so it's not unusual. She assured me it should quit by today and sure enough, it did. I took only a few gas strips, but they did seem to help. My port area is only sore if I lay on it, other than that, it's been fine. This was not nearly as bad as I expected it to me (thank goodness). Yesterday all I could hold down was a glass of Carnation instant breakfast and some chicken broth about 9:00 p.m., which then made me feel full again. I'm able to drink water with no problems -- it could be because I've been a water sipper for years and years -- just take it slow and easy Pen and you'll get it done. I go in Wednes. for my one week checkup. I've been keeping everyone in my prayers and hope you are all doing well. I feel very lucky too.

Just to clarify my last post, I drank the carnation breakfast for breakfast and then drank the Unjury protein Chicken soup at 9:00 p.m.

Linda

Hey, how is everyone doing? Let's not lose touch with each other, afterall, we are lapband sisters. I have had such horrendous gas since my surgery. I decided it must be the protein shakes because I also had terrible gas before surgery. I mean this is out of control and it was difficult to go to work. So, I switched to pureed foods on Friday and guess what? Most of the gas went away. So, I'm now trying to avoid protein drinks on the days I work. But have been experimenting with mushies. Today I finally had something that tasted good -- I made egg beaters southwest style -- they have some onions, peppers in them, they have a little spice and I added a little sprinkling of 2% velvetta cheese! God, I thought I died and went to heaven. I tried pureed refried beans the other day and they didn't taste great to me. I spent most of the weekend printing recipes off the recipe section here and stocked up on some ingredients today. I am making ham balls (and Iowa staple) and they are soft enough that I can have one pureed tonight and I'm really looking forward to that! Other than that, I've had some pureed soup and of course, sugar free jello, pudding and yogurts. I'm trying to stay low fat -- I want to continue to lose weight -- so I'm watching the fat content. Hope you are all doing fine and keep us posted on how your doing and how your feeling!

Linda

Hey Linda,

I was bothered by the gas too. It wasn't painful but I couldn't figure out why it just wouldn't stop. I didn't even think about the protein shakes but I bet you're right. I had one of the shakes around 3:30 today (at work) and the gas started not long after.

You might want to use a Gas-X strip before/right after you drink the shake. Those things really helped me when I felt gassy during the first two weeks of my recovery.

I find that I can eat more than I expected I'm glad I went back to work so I have other things to focus on. Otherwise, I'm totally happy with the band and feeling like I'll be able to achieve the weight loss that's been only a fantasy until now.

Good luck to you - and definitely, let's keep in touch.

Hi Pen, Glad to hear from you. I have been using the Gas X strips, but I'll try to remember to take them right before and right after. Like you said, it wasn't painful, just difficult to handle (especially at work). I am feeling restriction. I was totally full after I ate the eggs this afternoon and was satisfied until I had dinner around 6:00 tonight. I had my first carb -- I cooked a red potato and put some fat free butter on it and low fat sour cream and pureed it -- it was heaven. I also had one of my ham balls, and that filled me up. Either it's in my head or I really do feel restriction. So far, so good. I hope it continues.

Hope to hear from some of the other Jan. 27 people.

Linda

Hi,

The longer out I am from surgery, the more I think that gas and burping may be something we'll have to live with for awhile. I'm keeping Gas-X at work which controls some of it. The burping is a new thing and I seem to do that more no matter what I eat or drink.

My daily meal routine is a meal replacement shake for breakfast, a mug of bouillon for lunch, and I just graduated to tuna or diced chicken for dinner. I'm consistently eating less than 600 calories but no weight loss in the last week.

Is anyone else stuck?

I think you're right, Pen. I stopped protein drinks altogether and the gas has pretty much subsided. My doc doesn't really want us on protein shakes (prefers we eat real food), it isn't a problem. I'm doing well, have been exercising a lot -- Going three times a week, Mon., Wednes and Friday -- doing recumbant bike 30 mins., then circuit training and then doing a 45 mins. water aerobics class -- I'm tired out after that but it's worth it -- I've been losing about 2 pounds a week since I've been doing that. I struggled and didn't lose any weight one week and then only lost like a partial pound the next. That's when I decided I better get to exercising and it does help. Wish we'd hear from Carolina Mom and Ms Kelly -- come on you guys, let us know you're doing okay. I've been doing pretty good with the eating -- trying to limit my fat intake -- that's a diet that always works well for me. I decided I want to diet until I lose the majority of my weight and then after that, just try to use the band to limit my intake of food. I have a goal -- I'm not telling my family that I did the band and we are all meeting in Vegas for my sister's 50th birthday party on August 9, so I want to surprise them all with the "new me" -- won't they be surprised? It should be fun. Pen, I actually tried a piece of toast the other day and it was okay. I just put some jelly on it. Also, when I went to my support group meeting, I heard about PB2 -- it's a powdered peanut butter that you mix with water. 1 tablespoon only has 1.8 grams of fat and a lot less calories than regular peanut butter. It's a good source of protein -- I had it on a graham cracker with some jelly for breakfast and it was heaven. I stopped eating peanut butter a long time ago cause it was so fattening, so it was a nice treat. Hope to hear from you and some others soon.

Linda