:frown:Hi all out there!

I'm just hoping some of you might have some words of hope for me. I was banded in Mexico on June 5, 2009 by Dr. Huacuz. I almost shied out of it the night before I flew down there, but a friend coaxed me to go. My experience at Dr. Huacuz's clinic was good, but when I got home and off the morphine which made me almost giddy, and finally removed my bandages, I saw the road map of horrible scars all over my once smooth abdomen. I wanted to fall to the floor and ball. It's been a month and even though I've been relentless about applying polysporen and scar creams, I'm positive these scars will show loudly for the rest of my life. I'm SO depressed about this. But that is not all. I have had really bad shoulder pain since the surgery. It's slowing up a bit, but usually comes if I eat too much or too fast. On top of all this, I have not lost any weight (other than what I lost before the surgery on the liquids - which I'm starting to gain back).

I am SO depressed. I know I should go for a fill, but if I do, I'm afraid the shoulder pain will come back in full along with more vomitting. I've only vomitted a couple times when something got caught in my band opening, but I know I wouldn't want that to increase.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom or hope for me??

Hey! I havent been banded yet, but am scheduled for the 24th. First, dang you got the rotten end of the stick, huh? I have had 3 abdominal surgeries and thought maybe I could help.

1)walk walk walk and eat Gas X. The combo really helped me with my hysterectomy. Also, rubbing my tummy gently in a circle with slight pressure really helped chase those darn air bubbles around and out. I was a great source of amusement to DH for all the wriggling and squirimin around to pass such a little amount but get such HUGE relief.. MEN!:smile2:

2) I used cocoa butter creme on my tummy during my pregnancy and every surgery since. While my scars are not invisable, they healed with no scar tissue bumps on the incision, they just look like a light red line. Plus my skin is nice and soft. I lost 70 lbs bout 3 years ago and had no hanging skin and am apple shaped.

3) I eat big huge bites of food and gulp not only liquids but food. I got myself some toddler silverware and a cute little salad plate to eat off of. Might look crazy when I start eating off of it, but darn it, I will learn to eat smaller bites.. And I am positive I will look crazier running to the bathroom gagging :biggrin:

I hope something, anything I said helps you. Tis a miserable time right now, but it will get better.... :thumbup:

As for scarring info, all the articles, websites, doctors, and doctor's assistants I researched and spoke to PRIOR to even deciding on the surgery, talked about only THREE incision sites, with the main port incision tucked neetly away in/near your belly button. I assumed that since this prodedure had been around for over a decade that the technique had been pretty much perfected and standardized. It never occured to me that a practicing surgeon would just go ahead an cut you right smack in the middle of your abdomen.

Hey I also got my surgery done in Mexico but fortunately for me I had a more positive experience. I am really sorry that it isnt turning out the way you imagined. I also have 5 incisions. I havve one about an inch under my sternum, two tiny ones on each side of my abdomin, one 1 inch under my left breast and then the big one about 1 1/2 -2 inches about 3 inches ubove my belly button and to the left. I am pretty sure that the surgens in mexico dont really care about the incisions they just care about how the surgery went, I am just happy everything went so smoothly cuz when ur in another country things could go very badly! Good luck with the scars if u want a pic of mine let me know:thumbup:

hi tinytina

re: your scars

i just had plastic surgery and based on my lapband surgery...i had a pretty dark pigment on my scars.

my plastic surgeon gave me a product called "Scar-guard". he said it is better then mederma, etc.

i'm not an expert on scars but mine are coming along really well. i put it on 2X a day. my scars originally were pretty big and they are really fading. i'm only 7-8 weeks out of surgery.

i'm sure you can buy it online or at pharmacy.

hope this helps

josie

The scars worried me more than anything. Why I cared that my skin remain pristine when my gut was too fat to show anyway, I'll never know, but I did. And I was really upset when I saw them too.

But four years later, they're barely there. Well, you can see the port one, because my stomach is skinny enough that my port sticks out, sigh. But that's what you get - remain fat or decide you want some scars and a visible port.

The scars WILL fade with time, I have five and the only one you can even see is the larger port scar. Having five is quite normal. Even if they were badly done, they will lose their colour and fade lots with time.

I could be wrong but I don't think that there are too many people that only have 3 incisions. It seems that the majority of people have 5 - no matter how experienced their surgeon is. I also don't think that most people have one hidden in their belly button, for most the port scar which is the big one is higher up.