Hey everyone. I've been lurking a month or so, reading lots and learning even more. This is a wonderful resource, and my heartfelt thanks goes out to all of you for sharing your journeys!

I'm scheduled for surgery this Friday with Dr. Johnson of Carteret Surgical Center. I'm excited, and a tad nervous at the same time. It's all happened so fast, less than a month. From the time my doc said okay, to insurance approval was 4 days. Then surgery could have been 4 days after that, but I opted to move it to this week instead.

I had my gallbladder out in Feb, and I'm having the hardest time with this no carb/high Protein pre-op diet. The lack of gallbladder is making this much high-fat content really difficult on me.

I just wanted to say hi, and again give my thanks to all of you! :thumbdown:

Welcome. I live in the Raleigh area and had my surgery on May 1st with Dr. Enochs at Rex Hospital. The surgery went great. It seemed to be over in an instant. I remember going into the preop area and the nurses giving me an IV and then waking up in recovery. I have not had to use any pain medications. I only have mild discomfort which seems more blotting and gas related rather than from the surgical incisions. Good luck on your up coming surgery.

Thank you so much, Doug! That's a relief to hear. I think it's starting to hit home that it's really real, and really going to happen now! It's all gone so fast it's been sort of surreal until now.

I'm glad to hear yours went so well, and hope you continue to have a fabulous recovery. :smile:

Hello gonnaride! Good luck with your surgery, Mine is scheduled for thursday (5/7/09) and your lucky. My surgeon Dr. Piotr Gorecki here in Brooklyn N.Y seemed very optomistic with me this past friday, and got all excited that my cholesterol levels were up b/c that means I'm 100% qualified for the surgery, due to the really crappy insurence I have. I wish you all the best and good luck, and we are now on this path together

Welcome gonnaride.... I am right down the road from you in Jacksonville, I had my surgery on 3/16/09 with Dr. Pender in Greenville and love my band. I hope that all goes easy for you. I wish you the best of luck with everything.

I love this website, not only for the support, but also kinda hard to think about eating while you are reading about other's journeys with weight loss. If you find any support groups in our area, let me know, the only one I know of is in Greenville and it begins at 4:00.

Good luck to you, Friday will be the 1st day of the new you!

New Beginnings, there is a monthly Lap-band support group in Morehead City at the Crystal Coast Civic Center. I've got the dates written down through August if you're interested. The next one is May 18th, at 7pm. They do the lap-band seminar first where the docs talk at 6pm and then go right into the support group. If you want more specifics, shoot me a PM :smile:

I'd considered Greenville last summer, but we just couldn't make the 2 hour drive both ways that often. Especially with one car. I'm glad now that I waited. I'm much more mentally ready now, and it being so close to home has made a huge difference! I've heard great things about Greenville though, and sounds like yours went well, too!