For those of you who have done this-

Would you do it this way again - now that you know what you were in for?

What pros & cons did you experience as a result of having surgery together?

Do you have young children - if so how did you manage with them? We have a 9yo DD.

Hubby and I are trying to decide if we should have the surgery on the same day. Our surgeon said he would do this if we wanted.

TIA for your input.

Hi

I didn't have surgery with my spouse...he is a skinny boy and doesn't need it. But, there is a couple in our local support group that both had surgery with our surgeon earlier this year; he had lap-band and she had RNY. They had them like 2 months apart because our surgeon thinks it is better to have only one patient recovering in the house...in other words, he wants your "support person" to actually be able to support you, both emotionally and physically. I appreciated my hubby being there to take care of me the week after surgery. So, I would recommend you do the surgeries at least 3-4 weeks apart unless there is some deadline you are trying to beat like a change in insurance. Even then, at least give the first person a week to recover before the 2nd one has surgery. Just my 2 cents.

Stacey

For those of you who have done this-

Would you do it this way again - now that you know what you were in for?

What pros & cons did you experience as a result of having surgery together?

Do you have young children - if so how did you manage with them? We have a 9yo DD.

Hubby and I are trying to decide if we should have the surgery on the same day. Our surgeon said he would do this if we wanted.

TIA for your input.

i did have surgery the same days as my husband, in fact his was an hr right after mine.

my husband's company provides a car service for him to/from airport, so we just contracted them out to drop us off - wait for us; take us home. our's was same day surgery.

kinda crazy taking a limo for a lapband, but we & our surgeon still laugh about it. since we kept this private from family & friends at first; we didn't want to solicit anyones help. odd i know - but that was DH's request.

i am SOOOOOO glad we did this together, not that a few wks apart wouldn't have been a bad idea - but we have no children...so one didn't have to be a caretaker for anyone other than themself. if i did have a kid, i would ask for help / babysitting assistance.....

the first 2 days we looked at each like "what did we just do to ourselves" - but over time; i couldn't imagine going through this w/out him!

word of advice - get your pain meds filled in advance. cause hubby was a bit of a baby the first wk, the morning after surgery i had to drive up and get our prescriptions filled. not a fun experience.

all the best!!!

I would think that the main consideration is transport to and from the hospital. So long as you have that sorted you should be OK. Plus with children you may need someone to help drive them around for the first couple of days.

I think it depends largely on your dynamic! If you are a good team, generally supportive of each other, etc, then it can work well (although having a little time in between seems smart because of your daughter. You don't want to both be recovering and her need you for example)

I did it, DH doesn't need it, but since we're childless and aren't usually each other's health police or food police we could've done it together. For some, support means "monitor" and that could be problematic.

My hubby & I have just had LBS one week apart.

Our initial reason was because we had to travel to have the surgery, and we have decided not to tell many people - especially immediate family. So doing it this way meant we could go one at a time and the other could stay home with the kids and no outside babysitting help was required. We haven't told our kids 10 & 6 either. When it was time for us to travel, we just told our kids we had work/business stuff to tend to in the city. This isn't unusual so they didn't question it.

Now that we have had the surgery - I am 3 days post op, I am so glad we did it with some time in between! I never expected to be this sore! I am just starting to get around without too much trouble on day 3. I flew home the day after surgery and that was tuff - just having to walk around and get myself where I had to be - OUCH! But my hubby says he wasn't as sore as me - maybe I'm just a wuss! He says he felt like he'd been kicked in the guts and I said I flet like I'd been run over by a truck!!

So, I think it's great to be able to do it with your spouse for the support and encouragement, but for physical reasons, especially with kids, I do not recommend it on the same day! The hard part will be flippin the coin to see who goes first! :thumbdown:

Cheers,

DDiva.

I am glad that my hubby doesn't need the lap band and therefore was able to take care of me. Even if he did need the surgery, I would not want him to have it the same day as me.....looking back on the fact that my surgery was more complicated and I had to stay in the hospital an extra 2 days! When I got home, I was still in a lot of pain for another week or more and would have been unable to take care of myself! He did a wonderful job as nurse, housekeeper, laundry guy, and general all around assistant!!

Having surgery on the same day would be great in perfect conditions.......but things sometimes cause unexpected hurdles to spring up......

Thank you all for your valuable input! Sounds like most of you would do it separately. I hope to hear from a few bandsters who have done it together and get their story.

-Dawn