I thought I would start a thread to see how everyone is doing, whether you have had surgery yet or not. What are your feelings since you have been banded? Are you happy? Adjusting well? How are you healing? How is eating/drinking going at your current stage? Social events?

I'll start...

I am on the pre-op diet of mostly liquid Protein, but I can have some yogurt and cottage cheese, strawberries/blueberries in my shakes. Egg Drop Soup has helped too. I find if I keep myself satiated I do fine. When I get hungry I get REAL hungry and I have to have something or else I feel like falling off the wagon. Today is day 7.. 4 more days to go on the diet, surgery is on Wednesday. I am ready to go!! I have been reading everyone's experiences who have had surgery before me and appreciate all the information gained. I have lost 10 lbs in this past week a good jump start but I am sure it is a lot of Water. :sneaky:

Who is next? :biggrin:

I had my surgery on the 12th and am just now entering my third week post-op. I was in a lot of pain the first two days after surgery, but other than that I haven't experienced any problems. No gas pains, no infections, no nausea or vomiting. My only complaint is that I just started eating mushies and I hardly have any restriction. I'm not too worried because I've been losing about 2.5 pounds a week since my surgery, but it would be nice to feel the restriction now like so many others are feeling. I hope that when I start eating solids I'll start feeling more restricted, but in any case my first fill is scheduled for Sept. 21st. Besides a little pain around my incision from time to time and the fact that I can only eat certain foods, you can hardly tell that I just had surgery! So far it's been a good experience, but the sluggish weight loss and lack of restriction qualifies me as being in "Bandster Hell."

SO it's week 2 and I'm FINALLY back to normal !! YAY !! the gas is gone and so is the incision and back pain !!! I did PB today because I ate the soup and saltines to fast :tongue2: so I'm on liquids for the rest of today and tommorow ( man do I miss the mashed potatoes already !!!)

Hi!! I was banded on 17 August... and haven't had a lot of discomfort... when in hospital, i had allergic reactions to the pain med, so i think it was easy for me to get used to the pain... I am still on the liquid diet.. not dealing well with it at all.. im hungry.. and im finding myself extremely sad, irritable, and just not good company.. I am thinking about calling the surgeons office tomorrow. I don't want to do anything to damage the pouch, but i know that i am super hungry. I honestly didn't think I would feel this hungry! I don't know what i expected. I am eating jello, pudding, soup and bouillon, protein shakes, and juice.. i don't normally drink alot at once, but i have not felt full.. at all... this is like a last ditch to ask someone, if they felt this.. how did they deal with it.. the great thing? my insulin requirements are 50% less then preop!! wooT and i am thankful that i could have this surgery..

Hello all. I had my band revised 08/24/09 since it had slipped. I'm doing the full liquids. I was irritated that the hospital sent me home with little instruction. So here I am again starting over. This is actually the exciting phase because you lose weight and you know its not coming back. Follow the rules everybody and be successful.

My turn.. I had surgery on Aug 10th and doing great. I am on mushy foods at the moment. I feel great. All of my scrubs are getting really loose. I get full on a little jello or soup. I am so thankful to have had this done. I think my hubby is even saying I am doing good. I love to read everything that everyone is writing. I don't post much but always remeber that I am reading..

Allison

see.. im worried a bit... i dont get full from jello or liquids.. and today is finally my post op appt..

so...maybe ill get answers!!! i will update latah!

I had my surgery on the 14th, today I get to start mushies, tho for Breakfast I just had a 20g muscle milk light and am still full so I don't know what I'll eat later. I've been plenty full so far on just 2 meals a day, my doc said I could use Protein supplements from the start so I've been drinking a 45g protein bullet for lunch everyday. As of this morning I'm down 20 lbs. from surgery day, so that was exciting I didn't want to weigh myself until today so I held off, and it was pretty awesome to see that number. I started exercising 3 days ago, went on a 5 mile walk. Then the next day I did about 30 minutes of jogging with some short 100 yd interval sprints in between and felt pretty. But when I finally got home I was feeling pretty weak, so I had another muscle milk and felt better almost immediately, yesterday I did a 4 mile walk and decided to see what my abs could take and did a 20 min ab workout on the inversion table and man am I sore today(muscles, not incisions).

As far as pain from surgery, I was in the hospital about 36 hours and was in a lot of pain most of the first 24 hours and the morphine(happy button) was my best friend. But the last 12 hours I was doing a lot better and didn't use the morphine at all and was walking around about every hour. I didn't have a BM for about 4 days. I never had any gas pain, or nausea, and very minimal incision pain, I think I took about 9cc of the liquid vicodin they gave me and that was it.

My biggest problem so far has been getting enough liquid in, the sipping was tough but I found about 4 days ago that I can drink pretty good size gulps with no problem so thats been going better for me. A drink that I found that has been wonderful because Water was getting old is vita rain from costco(i think it's their generic of Vitamin water), it's great tasting and no calories, no sugar, just some Vitamins.

I was banded 8-17-09 doing reallyGOOD. I'm on puree foods now, i had tuna today, and i love eggs whites they are great. I hardly eat though, i forget because im not hungry. Today i had:

B-Protein shake

l-eggs white

s-2 freeze pops

Water this is hard to do,

d-tuna puree it was o.k better than soup.

I get full so easy, and i hate because i cant eat and drink so i have to wait to drink if i eat.

222 down to 205 i go to the dr. On 9-17-09

Hey ya'll,

I was banded on thursday, 8/27 and feel pretty good. Doing what I can to stay hydrated, eating applesauce, yogurt and protein shakes. A little only, but enough that I'm not hungry. I'm feeling ok, no gas pain, no incision pain and just sleeping on and off when I feel like it. Looking forward to increasing my intake. I enjoy hearing from other bandsters about their journey.

Hi, All.

I was banded on 8/26 (3 days ago). The gas pain has started to diminish. I'm having terrible headaches that are probably due to caffeine withdrawal. I had nausea and reflux on days 2 that caused dry heaves (also a little yesterday morning). Walking around feels fine at first but it seems to trigger that feeling of things wanting to come back up. My challenge now is being able to get down and keep down enough liquid and Protein. This has been harder than I thought it would be... definitely more difficult than my c-sections. I'm really looking forward to the memory of it fading!

I was banded Aug 25th. It's exciting to read everyone else's posts. I'm definitely still on the liquids only. The docs/patient liaison explained that once the swelling around the band went down (natural from surgery) that I would start to feel really hungry again and when I hit that point I could do cream Soups if they were pureed to ensure there were no chunks of broccoli or potato etc. Their guidance was that the entire purpose of food during the first 6 weeks is to not throw up. So I have 3 weeks of liquids, and 3 weeks of pureed, then get to go for regular food. Should have my first fill at 6 weeks. Looking forward to it! Looking forward to getting through this phase and moving on to the next (the part where we get to see consistent weight loss) :-).

Can't wait to be at a weight in which I no longer feel fluffy or extra huge when sitting next to a small person.

When I was Banded on Monday the 24th i weighed 296 pounds.

Today (sunday the 30th) I weigh 277. I know that the weight wont come off as fast once i start solids in a few weeks. but boy does it feel good to watch it melt off! Im on mushies and having no problem with it. (i found an awesome recipe for a pumpkin pie flavored protein shake!!) and i find that after just a few bites of anything im full already. it really is great!

as far as pain goes...ive been better lol. gas was awful but is now mostly gone. The cuts are still majorly sore and one is badly bruise and i wish i could sleep on my side...but everyday it improves. all in all im am verry happy and know this is all worth it

Justin...

What is that Pumpkin pie protein shake recipe!

Justin...

What is that Pumpkin pie Protein shake recipe!

Thats what I'm thinkin!!

I agree! My doctor gave me print outs for gastric and lapband, not sure why both and didnt' figure it out for a while. I just wondered why I had so much conflicting info. It was also different than the bariatric lead at the hospital told me to do and different again from the nutritionist info from the pre op visits! Is skim milk okay on liquid stage? What? If it's liquid only then why is cream of wheat and pudding on the list????? I can't wait until I can eat normal foods and quit second guessing my every sip. Boy I feel better now! thanks!