Hi all. I had my surgery with Dr Zarif April 16 2009. I think he is a great surgeon.

Well I see lots of people are reading the board, but no one is posting. If anyone out there had been banded by Dr Zarif please give a shout out. Or if you are thinking of being banded by Dr Zarif and have any questions feel free to ask.

As I said in my previous post I think he is a great surgeon. He is always great with answering any questions you may have.

Hi, I was banded by Dr. Zarif on July 2, 2009 and I think he is a great doctor also. I am looking forward to my new life. hope to hear back from ya.

Edited July 4, 200917 yr by Steph36

It has been a rough first few days

Wow glad someone else finally posted here...LOL

Congratulations on being banded. I know it is a big step and I absolutely do not regret it and still think it is the best thing I could have done for myself.

Dont worry it will get better. I think it took me 4 days to finally really start feeling better. I had the horrible gas pressure and i was very sleepy yet it was hard to go to sleep because of the gas.

Have you been to any of the support group meetings? I try very hard to go every month. I think it is great to just talk to other people and to have a forum for open discussion for just about anything whether it is band related or not. The next meeting is July 14th I think (usually the 2nd tuesday of every month) but I have not gotten my mutiple reminder postcards yet. And it is usually from 6-8 PM in conference room 2 at AGH.

Keep in touch.

Thank..I am looking forward to getting the weight off..I am 36 and have too many health problems. I have sleep apnea,diabetes,high blood pressure,etc. I have begun to lose weight already...yeah! I am glad I found someone to talk to who has been through this before me. Today is the 4th day after surgery and I am feeling better. Still have a lot of gas and haven't had a bowel movement yet..lol. Don't know if that is normal or not. I went to last month's support meeting..it was great.

I was at last months meeting too...LOL. See we have already met and did not know it. I work at AGH and there are a couple of us that have already had the surgery and still more that are planning to get it. If you just keep working at it the weight will keep coming off. Sometimes it can be frustrating because it is not always as fast as we want it to be, but it does happen. I too am pretty young (33) with multiple health problems. That is one of the major reasons I decided to have the surgery. I was on the low end of the BMI scale to get it and I kept getting soooo tired of everyone saying either "you are not fat" or "you are not big enough to get surgery". Well obviously I was or I would not have qualified for it to begin with. I felt this was the only way I was going to be able to get it off and KEEP it off. And I wanted to conquer this while I am still young and before it got even further out of hand and I just got bigger and bigger... Know what I mean?

Just can't wait to get through this durn clear liquid stage..had some broth from a can of Progress beef and potato soup that I drained last night. it wasn't fat free and it was a little thicker than regular broth but I am having trouble stomaching those protein drinks and I felt the broth might have a little protein in it. It did fine and stopped the severe gurgling and nausea I had. I can't wait to have some tomato soup with milk..lol..that will feel good! I wonder if my incisions are ok enough to go to the beach this sat. My port site is really the only sore area and the incisions look good. The glue or sticky stuff on me is itching like the devil though. Did you have stitches..I can't tell? or is it glue? Wonder is alcohol will take off that glue? What do you usually eat in a day? I need to start getting some ideas of what I am going to eat once I can. I wanna make some meal plans up. Do you have any intollerances? Did it hurt when you got fills? did they numb you first? I know I am all questions..sorry. I know your a pro now so I thought I could ask you.

Ha Ha I am far from a pro...LOL. But sure you can ask me questions. I will say up fron that I have not been a model patient though.

As for the beach this weekend. I know that we are not supposed to go swimming until he clears you after your first follow up. Now me on the other hand, did I listen to that...NO. I went to an indoor water part 8 days after surgery. I climbed all the stairs and rode all the waterslides. I did not get in a pool of water though because I did not want to push my luck too far. I also covered all my incision sites with waterproof bandaides. Well lo and behold I had a really bad reaction to the adhesives and had these HUGE red itchy welts on my stomach for about 2-3 weeks after that. I guess I got what I deserved for not following orders.

I was also not very good at making my protein shakes with water. I did a lot of soup broths and then just said the heck with it and made my shakes with lactaid milk. I guess that is why I did not see a huge drop while on the liquid phase.

I think all the stitches we had are internal and they should dissolve on their own. I say this because I had 2 incision sites that had stitches poking out of them. Dr Zarif said my body was rejecting them, but they just fell off with the scabs eventually.

As far as fills, I have only had 2. Firts of all I have a huge needle phobia. And yes for me the first one hurt like hell and I did not get numbed first. I think it hurt because of going thru scar tissue. The second fill was much better than the first, it did not hurt much at all. I asked to be numbed before the 2nd time but he said the lidocaine hurts more than the fill and did it without it.

Now for what I usually eat in a day...hmm. Since I have only had 2 fills I do not have much restriction yet. I have not come across anything that I cant eat yet. I try to eat protein the most but it does not always happen that way. Breakfast for me depends on if I am going to the gym in the morning or not. If I do go to the gym I try to eat something small before I go like turkey sausage or sometimes a little bit of cereal. Then after the gym and while I drive to work I usually eat a fruit, yogurt and granola mixed up. But if I dont go to the gym I uaually eat a bigger breakfast like scrambled eggs with turkey sausage and toast or sometimes a bowl of cereal and turkey sausage. For lunch I have been eating a turkey and mozzarella cheese sandwitch on arnold thin rounds I think the bread is called. It is a little denser and not quite as soft as regular bread. And I usually have some fruit and a yogurt with it. sometimes I have a salad or some chicken instead of the sandwitch . For dinner I usually eat chicken or some other type of meat if I have it and a veggie, usually green beans with almonds and sometimes a yogurt or some almonds. I tend to eat the same things a lot so I have been trying to find different things to eat so I dont get tired of the same old stuff.

I hope this helps...I feel like I have typed a book...LOL.

Have you gotten a post card yet for this months support group meeting? Oh and what type of protein shake are you using? I used to drink Nectar brand chocolate truffle and mix it with lactaid milk and a half a bannana. I absolutely loved it when I was pre and post op. but not after getting my fills I cant stand it...LOL. So for after my fills I have just been using a pre-packaged shake. I think it is adkins chocolate shake and it is not too bad.

sorry that I asked so much but you are really helping me..I feel somewhat clueless and you make me feel better by your experience. I haven't gotten a post card yet for the meeting. I have been trying to drink Nectar fuzzy naval fruit flavored but I can't stomach it..I have tried the Unjury brands(yuck) and a cookies and cream kind(I think it's called Whey)..all make me feel like I am gonna vomit just smelling it. The Nectar tasted like liquid antibiotics. I got to get something different tommorrow..lol..I don't know what it will be though. I didn't drink any today. Having a hard time getting enough liquids in..but trying. I feel full with 1 jello. Dr. Zarif told my mom that he tightened up my band real tight so I would lose weight fast...whatever that means..lol. I'll ask him on the 17th. thanks so much

Hey it is no problem with the questions. I am glad I can help. I know before I made my decision to go thru with this it helped me to talk to a couple of people that had already done it. I have been very open with people about my having surgery and if by doing that I can help someone else then I am very glad to do it.

Maybe what he meant by making your band real tight meant that he put some saline in when he put the band in. IF you read on here there are some people that have it in from the beginning. I know that with my band he did not put anything in when he did the surgery. But who knows you will get the correct answer if you ask him at your appointment I guess.

Yeah I tried that fuzzy navel stuff...YUCK...LOL Good luck with finding a shake you like though, but you will probably be off them soon anyway.

Thanks for all your input..today I feel more comfortable. last night I thought I was gonna die with gas pains. Felt like chest pains,neck pains,and stomach. Finally gas meds. made it ease up. I ate some tomato soup last night and went to the grocery store. Well I started the full proteins a few hours early...I felt like I needed something more. In Walmart..I started to feel like a fire was brewing in my stomach..it burnt like heck for over an hour. The doctor told me to stop taking my nexium and take pepcid ac chewables. Well I don't know how good they will do. I had a hiatal hernia repaired and I thought I didn't need to take the nexium anymore. Gonna ask the doc. bye

LOL, I am sure that you will be fine starting the full liquid protein a few hours early. I started a few days early and then started eating scrambled eggs early too. I am not promoting it though. IF you can stick to the liquid as long as possible it will really jump start your weight loss.

do you actually chew your food 20 times?..lol

I dont actually count how many times I chew my food. But I do chew it a lot. Especially if it is something that is kinda dry. But then again I was always a food chewer even before surgery. I would chew ice cream and applesauce even...LOL. My grandmother always said I was crazy to chew those things.

Hi:

Surgery scheduled for July 16th. So far so good. Dr. Zarif was highly recommended by other physicians. Very good office manner. My only concerns are privacy at such a small hospital and pain control after the surgery.