March 31st, Anyone else?

[Amy Elizabeth 1]

My Surgery date is Tuesday, March 31st. I'm excited!!! Anyone else going on that day?

[Hunzi 0]

You're not alone! I'm now scheduled for March 31st. I was supposed to have surgery March 4th, but the surgeon had a family emergency, and then on March 25th, but I caught a norovirus (ick!), so now it's the 31st. Third time (or 4th since this is my 2nd try) is gonna be a charm!

Always

Hunzi

[Amy Elizabeth 1]

Oh yay!!!!! I have a band buddy!!!! Lol. I'm getting a little nervous but I really just want it to be over with already!!! I'm so tired of this pre-op diet!!!! Hope everything goes well for you this time!!!

[Hunzi 0]

The being nervous is the worst part. The good news is, it really wasn't that bad. Last time, I was mostly just sore, along the lines of too many sit-ups. I'm not expecting more than that this time.

I can't really judge the pain when you swallow because I had a lot of that but had a leak and didn't know it. I just thought it was normal. (eek!) Moral of this story is if you have so much pain that you can't drink or can't breathe normally call your doctor! I'm expecting a lot less this time.

Good luck with the pre-op diet. I dropped 6 lbs since Monday thanks to my vicious little virus. Now I'm going to be mostly on liquids (but I can have a "sensible meal" if I need it). Today I had cream of chicken Soup with toast for lunch and cream of carrot Soup for dinner. By Sunday I'll drop to Clear Liquids.

Always

Hunzi

[rapunzle 0]

Add me to the list. I was originally scheduled for April 20th, but got a call on Thursday that there was a cancellation. So. . . here I go. Fortunately I had started the liquid diet early due to gall bladder problems. Eating just makes me nauseated. Take care girls! I'll see you on the other side.

[Beza 0]

Hi--can I join your group?--my date is tomorrow morning , the 30th at 8 AM. It is nine PM now and I am looking at the clock every 10 minutes. I am excitied mostly and looking forward to FINALLY getting on with it.

Good Luck to all the 31st bandsters--see you on the other side. :thumbup:

[Amy Elizabeth 1]

Good luck everyone!!!! I'm ready for the 31st to hurry up and get here!! I really wish my surgery was tomorrow!! I'm ready to be not hungry!!! (Clear liquid diets stink!!!)

[Hunzi 0]

How is everyone doing?

I'm banded! Yeah!!!

Everything went great. I feel really good.

I told my surgeon if I had known I was supposed to feel this good, I would have rated my pain a lot higher the first time, and would have never left the hospital without insisting something was wrong that first day.

I stayed in the hospital overnight, and my surgeon wouldn't let me have anything but swabs for my mouth until I had an upper GI the next morning to be sure everything was ok.

She came down and supervised the upper GI, and it all looked great.

I feel great overall. I do have some nasty heartburn. I'm taking Pepcid Complete, hopefully it will resolve soon. Other than that, I'm not having much pain, I'm not even taking any medication during the day today. Although I'm starting to rethink that for now.

Lortab is our friend.

Always

Hunzi

[Amy Elizabeth 1]

Glad it's going so well for you Hunzi!!! I'm doing pretty good as well!!! Just generally sore and exhausted!! I don't really have too much gas pain so I'm thankful for that!! I'm so excited the worst part is over!!!

[Beza 0]

Hunzi--Sounds like you band ecxperience is going great. My is going much slower because I also had a hernia repair at the same time. Lots of pain and I only seen to be albe to sleep a couple of hours at a time and the worst thing is I actually ahve gained weight:confused:-12 punds. But I know that will all go away. I am looking forward to hearing how the rest are doing.

[Hunzi 0]

Hi Amy & Beza,

Hang in there! Ignore the weight gain, that's just from the IV fluids. Just be sure to take your pain meds on schedule, staying on top of the pain really helps you heal faster.

I'm definitely doing better this time. Last time I was swollen and so bruised I look like someone beat me with a baseball bat, and I was so tight I could barely swallow a teaspoon of Water at a time. My surgeon was even able to remove a few adhesions that had formed after the post-op infection (my stomach, liver and diaphram were stuck together.)

This time, no bruises, some swelling but not too bad, and I'm able to drink slowly, but nearly normally. This band is very loose.

I took some lortab last night at bedtime and woke up at 4:30 and took another dose, but I'm not taking any today because I need to be able to drive so I can pick up my DD from school. I do have a lot of gas rumbling around, but no real pain, just a growly stomach and the whole "liquids in, liquids out" thing.

I'm already dropping the IV Fluid gains, and am back to just under surgery weight. (But this time, I know I'm not just dehydrating because I was able to drink 50+ oz of Water yesterday.)

Pretty soon, we'll all be skinny chicks!

Always

Hunzi

[sexylips 1]

hi ladys glad to hear yall are doing good.....lol

[Beza 0]

So how active are you all? This is so much slower than I expected. So far have only been able to walk around house to get what I need. I have been up for an hour now at the computer which is the longest since surgery.

Anybody else gain weight after surgery like I did? Luckily I was on narcotics so my responce to the 12 pounds up was only "whatever", All but one pound of that has gone away and my feet no longer look like sausages.

Is everyone else on the full liquid diet as well?

[denise25 0]

i too was banded on the 31st. how are you guys doing?

[Hunzi 0]

I haven't been super active yet.

Right after surgery, I made myself get up and walk around a lot, first in the extended stay unit (for under 24hr stays), then when they decided to close that for the night they moved me back to the surgical care floor, which is where I spent 2 weeks last summer. I was joking with them that they heard I was in the hospital and kidnapped me from extended stay.

While I was down in extended stay, I did a lot of napping. I think I got there around 11am (surgery at 8am), and I snoozed on and off until around 5pm. DH came in and stayed for a short time, then headed off because there was no point in him just watching me sleep. Around 6pm I felt better, so I got up, washed my face and went potty, then got decent and walked around. I think I walked for about 30-45 minutes slowly, then headed back to my room for a little bit for a nap. I didn't get it though, because that's when they announced they were moving me to the surgical floor because there weren't enough patients in extended stay to justify keeping it open overnight. So I moved up there, got settled in, and a hour or so later started walking around up there. My roommate was a RNY patient, and her DH was visiting, so I wanted to let them have as much time alone as possible. I asked the nurses station if anyone knew how far it was around the unit. No one knew, so I looked down, noticed the tiles were 12x12, and counted them all the way around. (254!) So that meant 21 times around = 1 mile. I decided to make it a goal. It took me a little over an hour but I did it! By that time Roommate's DH was leaving so I got settled in for the night.

Next day I didn't really do much. I was a little tired because Roommate had a tough night, and I had to do my upper GI in the morning. Once I did that, got cleared by the surgeon, and had a tray of clears, I just bummed around until she discharged me around 6pm.

Thursday I mostly rested, but I had to not take any lortab because I needed to drive DD around and run a few errands. Same thing Friday and Saturday. Mostly rest, no meds during the day. Kind of wished I could have them! I was getting pretty uncomfortable, but needed to finish all my driving duties before I could take any.

I keep looking at my treadmill, but the will isn't quite there. I think part of it is I'm running out of steam with eating/drinking so few calories. I'm getting in all the Protein, liquids, and Vitamins, but on less than 500 calories. Yesterday I was getting hungry, so I made some SF Jello, and I worked on making my chicken broth a little more flavorful, so I actually ended up with around 650 calories for the day. I felt better.

I figure as long as I move enough to not worry about blood clots, up and down stairs, walk around my room etc, I won't worry about actually exercising until I'm on full liquids/mushies which is week 3 post op. I'm on a clear liquid diet until then.

Always

Hunzi