JaxBandster
It's definitely reality time!
Feb 06, 2008
Surgery Center just called. I need to be there at 5:45 a.m. and my surgery is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. Holy crap! This time tomorrow I will be banded!!!! 
I've done everything I'm supposed to do. I have everything I need. I have people praying for a successful surgery. It's all in God's (and the surgeon's) hands now.
Right now my gut feels like it might feel when getting on a roller coaster ride that hasn't started yet. You are sitting in your seat, strapped in and waiting for the ride to start moving.
I hope this is worth it. I hope I'm successful. I hope I don't regret it. I hope a year from now I can look back and say it was the best thing I ever did for myself like I hear so many others say.
Here I go!
I've done everything I'm supposed to do. I have everything I need. I have people praying for a successful surgery. It's all in God's (and the surgeon's) hands now.
Right now my gut feels like it might feel when getting on a roller coaster ride that hasn't started yet. You are sitting in your seat, strapped in and waiting for the ride to start moving.
I hope this is worth it. I hope I'm successful. I hope I don't regret it. I hope a year from now I can look back and say it was the best thing I ever did for myself like I hear so many others say.
Here I go!
Three days and counting!
Feb 04, 2008
Well I just had my "last meal" as it were. Steak and salad. It was quite good actually and probably will seem like a feast in six days. Tomorrow I start clear liquids. Today I also began showering with Hibiclens to get all the germies off me! 
Everything is still sort of surreal that I'm actually going to do this. I'm really hoping that I'm able to be a success story with the band. I always read so many stories about people who aren't losing weight or having all sorts of problems. I think as long as I treat my band nice and not try to abuse it that I'll be okay. I'm sure that if I'm pushing it my band will let me know.
Everything is still sort of surreal that I'm actually going to do this. I'm really hoping that I'm able to be a success story with the band. I always read so many stories about people who aren't losing weight or having all sorts of problems. I think as long as I treat my band nice and not try to abuse it that I'll be okay. I'm sure that if I'm pushing it my band will let me know.
Pre-op Appt
Jan 23, 2008
Just returned from my pre-op with Dr. Cywes. Wow!!!
First, I've lost another 4.5 lbs for a total of 12.5. Not bad considering we took a very impromptu trip up to NW Georgia this weekend to see snow and ended up staying overnight so I had to really improvise on the food choices.
We talked about a lot! There were two other women in the group with me. Hopefully I can rehash everything. We talked about the pre-op diet and why they require it (to shrink the liver). Dr. Cywes had pictures of a good liver and then a bad one. The difference was quite remarkable. The fatty liver was easily bruised and bled very easily. He said that one bad meal before surgery could cause the liver to swell again. He said that he has closed up three people because their liver was in such poor shape it would risk their life to operate.
Let's see what else. He uses steri-strips instead of sutures, staples or glue. The sutures are beneath the skin. He will repair my hiatal hernia which is going to cause me some additional discomfort especially in the shoulder region for about six to seven days after the surgery.
I will have to be on clear liquids two days before surgery and four days after before I begin transitioning to solids.
I also need to go to the pharmacy and pick up some surgical soap and lather my entire body up with it every day for three days prior to surgery in order to kill any bacteria on my skin. I also have to wash all our linens and use clean towels and also make sure all my clothes are clean. He is definitely serious about reducing the chances of infection.
He has only had one band erode into the stomach and that was his 13th surgery and an older type band. He has had three slips, one of which was the result of a motor vehicle accident. He has only had a few ports flip as well. He said if one does then they fix it right there in the office by making a small incision, going in and resuturing the port then closing you back up.
He uses liquid Lortab for post surgery pain and will give me phernergan for nausea. I was pleased to hear that they use a variety of medications during anesthesia to relieve nausea since I was extremely queazy after my gall bladder surgery.
I think that's about it. I am two weeks and two days from surgery. Next time I write will probably be the weekend before the surgery as I am sure I will be on an emotional rollercoaster especially consuming nothing but clear liquids for two days. The four days after surgery I will probably be fighting to get the liquids down as I'm not going to be very hungry from what I hear.
Right now I am just going to lose as much weight as I can before surgery so I get a good head start and so my liver is in the best shape possible. I sometimes still battle the urge to be bad and eat something that I shouldn't, but so far I have managed to fight that urge successfully. So far it has actually been pretty easy. I am very motivated right now and I have avoided putting myself in situations where I will be tempted easily. Dr. Cywes told us tonight that we will fail at times and I'm sure of that. The good thing is that the band won't let me fail too much. I feel very good about my chances of success with Dr. Cywes. He seems to know exactly what it takes to lose the weight and I have complete confidence in him.
Until next time!
First, I've lost another 4.5 lbs for a total of 12.5. Not bad considering we took a very impromptu trip up to NW Georgia this weekend to see snow and ended up staying overnight so I had to really improvise on the food choices.
We talked about a lot! There were two other women in the group with me. Hopefully I can rehash everything. We talked about the pre-op diet and why they require it (to shrink the liver). Dr. Cywes had pictures of a good liver and then a bad one. The difference was quite remarkable. The fatty liver was easily bruised and bled very easily. He said that one bad meal before surgery could cause the liver to swell again. He said that he has closed up three people because their liver was in such poor shape it would risk their life to operate.
Let's see what else. He uses steri-strips instead of sutures, staples or glue. The sutures are beneath the skin. He will repair my hiatal hernia which is going to cause me some additional discomfort especially in the shoulder region for about six to seven days after the surgery.
I will have to be on clear liquids two days before surgery and four days after before I begin transitioning to solids.
I also need to go to the pharmacy and pick up some surgical soap and lather my entire body up with it every day for three days prior to surgery in order to kill any bacteria on my skin. I also have to wash all our linens and use clean towels and also make sure all my clothes are clean. He is definitely serious about reducing the chances of infection.
He has only had one band erode into the stomach and that was his 13th surgery and an older type band. He has had three slips, one of which was the result of a motor vehicle accident. He has only had a few ports flip as well. He said if one does then they fix it right there in the office by making a small incision, going in and resuturing the port then closing you back up.
He uses liquid Lortab for post surgery pain and will give me phernergan for nausea. I was pleased to hear that they use a variety of medications during anesthesia to relieve nausea since I was extremely queazy after my gall bladder surgery.
I think that's about it. I am two weeks and two days from surgery. Next time I write will probably be the weekend before the surgery as I am sure I will be on an emotional rollercoaster especially consuming nothing but clear liquids for two days. The four days after surgery I will probably be fighting to get the liquids down as I'm not going to be very hungry from what I hear.
Right now I am just going to lose as much weight as I can before surgery so I get a good head start and so my liver is in the best shape possible. I sometimes still battle the urge to be bad and eat something that I shouldn't, but so far I have managed to fight that urge successfully. So far it has actually been pretty easy. I am very motivated right now and I have avoided putting myself in situations where I will be tempted easily. Dr. Cywes told us tonight that we will fail at times and I'm sure of that. The good thing is that the band won't let me fail too much. I feel very good about my chances of success with Dr. Cywes. He seems to know exactly what it takes to lose the weight and I have complete confidence in him.
Until next time!
2nd appt with Dr
Jan 17, 2008
Unbelievable. I began my pre-op diet on Monday and I've already lost 8 lbs! That's pretty wild! The weight counselor was pretty impressed as well!
I met with weight counselor first. We talked about how I will eat after surgery, eating my protein and veggies first then anything else. How I need to be careful for hidden carbs. That I need to begin exercising ten minutes a day. About being careful to listen to my body so I don't eat to much and have things come back up on me. Basically, everything I had already researched and knew.
There was one interesting thing. She explained that if I eat something that gets stuck and the doctor has to unfill me to get it to pass through the stoma that I basically have to start all over again as they can't refill you to where you were because your pouch is irritated. She says it sometimes takes months to get back to your sweet spot if that is where you were when you had the food get stuck. Pretty good reason to make sure not to eat anything that will block the stoma.
I then met with Dr. Baptista who is very nice. He explained about the liver and how it becomes more enlarged the more we pound carbs. An enlarged liver can seriously impede getting to the stomach to place the band and make surgery more dangerous. They will literally close you back up if they get in and see that your liver is enlarged. This is why they have you begin a low carb diet before surgery. Fortunately, they say that it only takes a week to get the liver back to normal so between my pre-op diet and the liquid diet two days prior to surgery I will hopefully be in pretty good shape.
I also found out that as long as I'm not sore and not on pain medication that I can ride my Harley 3 or 4 days after surgery! Yeah! I thought for sure that it would be a month or so!
Next week is my pre-op appt. Will check in again then!
I met with weight counselor first. We talked about how I will eat after surgery, eating my protein and veggies first then anything else. How I need to be careful for hidden carbs. That I need to begin exercising ten minutes a day. About being careful to listen to my body so I don't eat to much and have things come back up on me. Basically, everything I had already researched and knew.
There was one interesting thing. She explained that if I eat something that gets stuck and the doctor has to unfill me to get it to pass through the stoma that I basically have to start all over again as they can't refill you to where you were because your pouch is irritated. She says it sometimes takes months to get back to your sweet spot if that is where you were when you had the food get stuck. Pretty good reason to make sure not to eat anything that will block the stoma.
I then met with Dr. Baptista who is very nice. He explained about the liver and how it becomes more enlarged the more we pound carbs. An enlarged liver can seriously impede getting to the stomach to place the band and make surgery more dangerous. They will literally close you back up if they get in and see that your liver is enlarged. This is why they have you begin a low carb diet before surgery. Fortunately, they say that it only takes a week to get the liver back to normal so between my pre-op diet and the liquid diet two days prior to surgery I will hopefully be in pretty good shape.
I also found out that as long as I'm not sore and not on pain medication that I can ride my Harley 3 or 4 days after surgery! Yeah! I thought for sure that it would be a month or so!
Next week is my pre-op appt. Will check in again then!
Getting things rolling
Jan 14, 2008
01/14/08
I had my first appointment with Dr. Cywes last week (1/9/08). He is very direct and matter of fact which I like. The first thing he told me that I needed to come to terms with was that I am a carb addict. I was sitting there thinking to myself, no, I'm a FOOD addict! LOL But then I got to thinking about how I had been feeling about giving up those foods and how I would almost panic when I did so. Sounded like an addict to me! The other thing that convinced me was that my husband and I cleaned out our pantry, fridge and freezer over the weekend and what I saw astonished me. Literally three quarters of the food in our house was high in carbs!!!! We went from having a very full pantry and freezer (including a freezer in the garage), to having bare cabinets. We then took the food list that I received from the nutritionist (more on that in a minute) and went to the store to stock up on high protein, low carb foods. I began the transition this weekend and beginning today have begun my low carb diet officially. What is really weird is that I stepped on the scale today and it read 263. Now I was at the doctor's office last week and weighed 270 on his scale so I figure I was about 268 on ours (without clothes and I have a doctor's scale). If that is the case then I have lost about 5 lbs since last week! I have another appointment on Thursday with Dr. Cywes and Jody, the weight counselor and I am going to try to wear something similar so I can see how accurate that is. If that is the case then he should be very happy with me!
I met with the nutritionist two days after my initial appt. She was extremely nice and had a lot of information for me! She explained that they want you to go on a low carb diet right away as your body will go through carb withdrawal and you will feel like crap for a couple of days. They don't want you to be going through carb withdrawal while you are trying to recover from surgery. That made a ton of sense to me! Of course, there is the added benefit of improved health to your liver prior to the surgery. I had a liver biopsy about five or six years ago and while everything was generally healthy, they did say I had a fatty liver. So I need to be very good these next few weeks to give myself the best chance of having a complication free surgery.
Right now I am waiting to see about getting a copy of an EKG I had done several months ago from a life insurance company. If they still have it then Dr. Cywes will be able to use that. If they have already purged it then I will have to go to my PCP and get one. No big deal but I'm trying to save as much money as I can since I am doing this self pay.
My next appt is on Thursday 1/17/08 with Dr. Cywes and Jody. I wonder if this is the appt where he shows you the liver pictures! Stay tumed!!!
I had my first appointment with Dr. Cywes last week (1/9/08). He is very direct and matter of fact which I like. The first thing he told me that I needed to come to terms with was that I am a carb addict. I was sitting there thinking to myself, no, I'm a FOOD addict! LOL But then I got to thinking about how I had been feeling about giving up those foods and how I would almost panic when I did so. Sounded like an addict to me! The other thing that convinced me was that my husband and I cleaned out our pantry, fridge and freezer over the weekend and what I saw astonished me. Literally three quarters of the food in our house was high in carbs!!!! We went from having a very full pantry and freezer (including a freezer in the garage), to having bare cabinets. We then took the food list that I received from the nutritionist (more on that in a minute) and went to the store to stock up on high protein, low carb foods. I began the transition this weekend and beginning today have begun my low carb diet officially. What is really weird is that I stepped on the scale today and it read 263. Now I was at the doctor's office last week and weighed 270 on his scale so I figure I was about 268 on ours (without clothes and I have a doctor's scale). If that is the case then I have lost about 5 lbs since last week! I have another appointment on Thursday with Dr. Cywes and Jody, the weight counselor and I am going to try to wear something similar so I can see how accurate that is. If that is the case then he should be very happy with me!
I met with the nutritionist two days after my initial appt. She was extremely nice and had a lot of information for me! She explained that they want you to go on a low carb diet right away as your body will go through carb withdrawal and you will feel like crap for a couple of days. They don't want you to be going through carb withdrawal while you are trying to recover from surgery. That made a ton of sense to me! Of course, there is the added benefit of improved health to your liver prior to the surgery. I had a liver biopsy about five or six years ago and while everything was generally healthy, they did say I had a fatty liver. So I need to be very good these next few weeks to give myself the best chance of having a complication free surgery.
Right now I am waiting to see about getting a copy of an EKG I had done several months ago from a life insurance company. If they still have it then Dr. Cywes will be able to use that. If they have already purged it then I will have to go to my PCP and get one. No big deal but I'm trying to save as much money as I can since I am doing this self pay.
My next appt is on Thursday 1/17/08 with Dr. Cywes and Jody. I wonder if this is the appt where he shows you the liver pictures! Stay tumed!!!
