Well I wish I had started at the very beginning keeping an ongoing play by play of my surgery hijinks but now is as good a place to start as any.

Rewind to, oh, last summer sometime and I decided that I would never win this obesity war by myself. I always thought I could do it and rather felt sorry for those who thought surgery was the only option. I don't have any huge comorbidities - other than being huge - but my knees were killing me, any moderate activity brought with it the fear that a heart attack was imminent, and I just couldn't freakin' tie my shoes anymore.

I attended a seminar that was heavily slanted toward RNY with a little lap band thrown in for flavor. I had decided to go lap band before I entered the room and had changed my mind after the seminar. But my family doctor thought that the band was the best thing for me and I'm glad he did. For me this was the right choice.

So, my insurance required a six month doctor supervised diet during which I performed like a show pony! This began in November 2005 and went on through April 2006. I lost.....drumroll please....NOTHING! Heck, I gained weight! Truth be told, I didn't really try because it was just a jumping through hoops performance for my insurance.

In the early part of the year I went to a seminar for the lap band by my doctor. He has the lap band himself which made him very dear to me. I had my first appointment with him in March 2006 and did my psych and dietician eval on the same day. The minute my last hoop jumping diet visit was finished, I started putting all my paperwork together for my doc's insurance lady. Two weeks to the day my information was submitted, I got the approval phone call. Of course there were little errors on my pre-certification - they had me down with the wrong surgeon, they had me down for gastric bypass but it was all ironed out and my surgery was set.

On May 22nd, I started a pre-op diet of low fat, low carb, high protein. Got sick of it but reasoned I'd much rather chew than do the 7 day liquid diet which was my alternative. Weight today was 309.4.

June 1st was my hospital pre-op and a high diastolic BP bought me an EKG which came out abnormal. Yahoo! Just what I needed! I was told a cardiologist would review it and get back to me if there was an issue. I never heard anything and assume my ticker is doing fine. Thud. Haha, just kidding, I'm still here!

June 5th was my surgery day - mom and husband in tow. Weight this morning was 298.5. Everyone at the hospital was wonderful. Best part - relaxing medicine before the OR. Mmmmmmm. Next best part, "Take a deep breath, Laura" I felt myself fly away. Really cool. I woke up in the recovery room with a little pain and got some morphine which knocked it right out. Of course, the nurses kept yelling at me to "TAKE A DEEP BREATH!" I'm a nurse and was reading my oxygen saturation upside down on the machine so I knew pretty quick when to start inhaling. Had my swallow test in radiology and drank the most vile liquid known to man. But it was worth it because the radiologist told me the band was in perfect placement. Last stop, holding room where I got a piece of jello the size of a die, a tablespoon or so of broth and a tablespon or so of apple juice. MMMMMMMMMMMM! Quick trip to pee and I was on my way home! Whole time at the hospital 6 or 7 hours. I came home, sipped some water, walked a bit and slept a lot. Some dry heaves that resolved with Phenergan. Recovery has been uneventful - little temp spike brought down with Tylenol. I really didn't have to use much pain medicine at all. Well, except for that moment on post-op day two where I tried to fly off the recliner like Tinkerbell and pulled something. That required some chemical intervention.

Clear liquids for 48 hours was doable. Full liquids got boring REAL fast.

6/12/06 - Today at my postop visit I was told I could eat soft food. Oh Happy Day! Okay, one week out from surgery, incisions feel fine, have some pulling where my port it but is totally tolerable. Weight today was 293.5. I have lost a grand total of 15.9 pounds since the start of my pre-op diet.


7/14/06 - My goodness! A whole month gone by.....Let's see, in this month I have gotten my first fill on 7/8/06 - which was by far the freakiest feeling in the world. My doc got a new fluoro machine in his office and started doing his fills there. I also found out I got the big band to go with my big anatomy! 3 CCs went into my big Bertha. I can't say I feel lots more restriction but I know fills sometimes don't kick in for a couple of weeks. My portions are definitely smaller than what I used to eat. This morning I weighed in at 287.6 - not lightning speed weight loss but I will definitely take it! That makes a grand total of 21.8 pounds. Yay!! :) I've also started telling more people about my surgery. I didn't want to tell anybody going into it but now I'm more comfortable talking about it. Plus, people are starting to notice that I'm losing.

8/1/06 - Had my second fill yesterday and got another 2.5 CCs. Gosh I hate doing clears all day. Today I an do pureed foods so I'm plotting what I can stick in the blender! :) When I weighed at the doctor's office yesterday it showed me about 12 pounds lighter than my home scale. I refuse to accept that. I mean, really, I'd love to accept that but it just can't be right. My home scale has always been about 2 or 3 pounds less than the doctor's scale. I'm going to weigh myself on the sliding doctor's scale at my office and see what it says. Anyway, last fill didn't produce huge results. I am at 284.8 today for a grand total of 24.6 pounds. But who REALLY knows....which scale is accurate??? AAARGH! Well, as long as it keeps going down, right? :)

9/14/06 - I had to have my first unfill today! My last fill was on the 9th and hours after I started having some really major heartburn. I took some Tums and called my doc's office on Monday. Didn't hear back and thought the heartburn was getting better until Wednesday night - it was awful! Called the doc's office today and they had me come in and took out 0.5 cc. I felt better instantly and still feel good tonight. I'm not sure how much saline I have in my band - first fill was 3; second 2.5; third was 2; doc told me I had six in total! Lost 1.5 some place. But the nurse told me with a big band, saline can get caught in the pockets and it is hard to pull all the saline out. She said not to worry about a number but how I feel. With the heartburn gone I feel like a million bucks! Weight today was 275.7. Down a total of 33.7 pounds! YAY!

About Me
Midlothian, TX
Location
37.2
BMI
Surgery
06/05/2006
Surgery Date
Oct 24, 2005
Member Since

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