NickM

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"Don't settle for less, when you can have it all !"

 Well I don't have much new to report. I haven't been sticking to a diet or exercise program in the longest time.....and I am disappointed in myself about this. But with all the stress and other issues in my personal life I've been dealing with, I just haven't have the motivation, drive or desire to get back on track and out of this rut. Honestly, I'm probably suffering from a bit of depression. But hey, how doesn't these days?  I don't like sitting her complaining, because I know a LOT of folks have it WAY worse than I do.
 But anyway, currently I don't have any Health Insurance (still), and I really need to see my Surgeon for another band fill....because I've only had  2 fills surgery and should have had 4 or 5 by now.

 I guess if there is any good news to report, it's that I've managed to maintain the initial loss after surgery....within 4 or 5 pounds. So I'm happy about that.
I know I am to blame for not doing well so far, and I don't blame this on the Lap Band. It is a useful tool and does work....IF, you do your part.
Anyway, that's all for now...hopefully after I get insurance again, I can bet back on track and on my way to a new and improved future.....in ALL aspects of my life.  Hope all is well with everyone else.

 Well it's been a while, so figured I'd do a quick update.
I've only lost 5 pounds since the last update on March 29th.
I guess the good part is that I haven't gained anymore.
I had a fill done about a month ago, 4.5 cc . It has helped a little, but not nearly enough. I am suppose to go back on 5/16/08 for another one, but I no longer have Health Insurance, so I'm not sure if that is going to happen.
I've decided to get divorced, and filed about 3 weeks ago. So that is in the works. It's kinda hard after being married for almost 10 years, but I think everything will work out in the end. Just worried about my kids the most at this point. Thats about all folks. Keep in touch :)
Nick

  Well  not much new here to report. I'm feeling much better and  my incisons are healing good. 
So far I'm down to 335.....I was 365 when I went home from the hospital after surgery....and 405 at my highest about 6 months ago. The progress is slow...a lot slower than if I had gone with RNY surgery instead. 
 I should be exercising more and need to make the time for it.....without making excuses. I do okay with my diet, but still eat stuff that I shouldn't once in a while. I'm okay with that though...if I put too many rules on myself and never cheat then I will not stick with the program for long. 
Going into this surgery,  I knew the progress would be slow...but I still wish it was faster. Anyway, If I can lose around 10 pounds per month for the next 12 months, then I will be happy. I am going to get my first Band fill on 04/02/08. That will give me more restriction and I will eat even less food I'm sure....hope it helps. I will try to post some more pics soon. 
Hope all is well with everyone else. 
Nick 

 So today I went for my first follow-up visit since surgery. Of course my Surgeon wasn't avaliable to see. So I saw some othe dude in the office.
  First I waited about 45 minutes past my appointment time to be seen. Finally the nurse brings me in and doesn't even weigh me or take my blood pressure (I have Moderately high BP, but its under control with meds). 
   So I'm like,.."Ummmm shouldn't you weigh me?"... She like "Ohhhhh your hear for a post-op visit, okay then I should weigh you". 
Anyway, I lost like 22 pounds in 25 days (even though she didn't tell me, I had to look for myself), so I'm happy with that. 
  Then I wait in the room for another 10 minutes. The covering Doc comes in. I don't even know his name and he barely introduced himself. 
He asks me if I can swallow okay??....I coulda been a wiseass and said, NO, I'm not gay....but I behaved. LOL. 
Then he checks my incisions. He said they look fine and are healing great. That was it !!!!!  No other exam. No asking me about my diet. No asking if I had any questions or anything. So he checked with my Surgeons secretary and said I can get a fill in my band in 3 weeks. I scheduled it for April 2nd. I'm not too thrilled with this office anymore. I mean I think the quality of Dr. Aranow's surgery itself if top notch and amoung the best in Connecticut.  I trust him 100% with that and he is very skilled at surgery. But Pre and Post Op service from his office just sucks !!  The guy is never available and way too busy. I don't like the dieticians in the office, but I am suppose to see a different one on Thursday....if I don't cancel, LOL. But I will be good and go. At least this time. I am going to consider switching to a different Doctor once I have my first fill next month. Thats all for now folks. hope everyone else is doing Okay. 
Live well & prosper

  Well I got my ass kicked by my Surgeon a little bit today.
I called his office to schedule a follow-up visit because the previous TWO appointments got cancelled (by them).
  So I complained a little to his assistant about how he always seems to be on vacation and never available for me... and how nobody else there seems to be able to answer my questions. She she gave me an earful...said he  was NOT on vacation, but hurt his back and then had the flu etc. 

 Then she asked if I am still on my liquid diet and I told her NO !!
I did it for 10 days  post-op and don't intend to do it for 4 - 6 weeks like they want me to.  I told her since nobody seemed to be available to answer my questions,  I decided to do things my way.
 Well that didn't go over well, lol...she said they are concerned about that and she also reminded me that I need to see the dietician ASAP and stick to the post-op diet they gave me no matter what.
 I told her I don't like their dietician and I will NOT see her again....she is stuck up (in my opinion) and I just don't like her skinny little ass !! 
   She has never been overweight a day in her life and just sits there behind her desk  like a bobble-head doll totally pretending  to understand and acknowledge my problems and concerns...telling me what to do and not do .. when she really has no fucking clue how it is to live like this !!    I 'm sorry but I can see right through her. She is a nice lady, but just not helpful to me. I don't feel comfortable tking her advice.
I pay out of pocket to see her....so I'm not wasting my money anymore.
Luckily they do have another dietician in the office and I  set up an appointment to see her.  If that doesn't work out, then I will have to see another surgeon for my band fills or something. Oh anyway, so after I complained ,the assistant talked to me a little and I agreed to make yet another follow-up appointment with the surgeon. 
 
 So she asked me to hold.....five minutes later they come back on the line and it is Dr. Aranow.  About time !!!!   He didn't sound very happy with me. He was kinda pissed  that I am not on my liquid diet anymore. He said my pouch will get stretched out and I can cause myself some major issues if I don't do what he said to do. I still don't believe that  100%because so many other people on this website only had to be on liquids for a week or two after surgery.....but whatever.  I told him I will go back on liquids starting today and stay on them until I see him next week.
So thats about it. I lost about 20 pounds since surgery.....not much else to report. Hope everything is going well for everyone else :)
 Until later
 

Sooo...today I had the lovely pleasure of experiencing my first PB and "Stuck"
incident.  Not something I am going to forget anytime soon, I'll tell ya that much!!
I was eating some steamed broccoli and chicken breast. I'm still suppose to be on liquids, but I have been eating soft foods for a few days now. So I figured the chicken and broccoli was pretty soft and I made sure to take small bites and chew super good. Well about 6 or 7 bites into I got a stuck feeling in my chest. I tried drinking water....but it didn't help. I got up and walked around but ended up spiting up a little and kinda sliming. So I though it was better but it wasn't. So I just puked it up and it looks like the broccoli stems are what got caught and stuck.  The puke session was really weird, it just came from the top pouch portion of my stomach, not from deep down. In a sick way it was kinda cool....okay maybe thats just a guy thing, lol.  
 
 I'm really surprised at the tightness of my band already. I didn't think i'd have any restriction until I get a fill or two, but I already do. I feel full fairly quick and only eat small amounts. 
My surgeon told my wife that he had trouble getting the band on because it was really tight, so I hope it turns out to be a good thing and not cause me any problems. I had some pureed turkey chili for lunch later and that went down just fine. So, lesson learned I guess. Stick with puree food for a while longer and no broccoli !!!  I think chicken willbe okay, I had a tiny piece yesterday and it went down fine. Anyway, thats my story for the day.
Time to go watch the snow storm and relax

  Okay so I am 6 days post-op and I guess everything is going well.
I am still kinda sore, especially in the middle of my abdomen. But I am taking it easy, not lifting anything heavy , etc.

    I was 354 when I went to the hospital on the 15th. When I came home on the 17th I was 362 !!!  ...due to all the IV fluids and stuff. 
This morning I checked my weight and I am 348.5 ....so I am pretty happy with that.
I guess not shoving my mouth full of food every 5 minutes really does work, lol.

 Okay,  so on Friday the 15th I had my Lap-Band surgery.
I never had any type of surgery before, so I was scared of "going under" and also of being intubated. Luckily neither of those were a problem for me. The anesthesiologist had me in the O.R. and gave me a shot in my IV. She said it well "help me relax a little". Well, next thing I recall is waking up in the recovery room.
I don't recall going out, the tube in my throat or anything....thank GOD.

 Apparently my surgery took about 2 hours. I was in recovery for another 2 hours and then finally put into a room. I heard my surgeon come in and talk to my wife briefly. He showed her some pics of the band and its placement. He also mention that he had a hard time fitting the band on  me and said at first it was too tight. So he had to reomove some fat from around my stomach and then it fit okay I guess??  He said because of the extra work he had to do, it was possible that swelling could occur. 
So he wanted me to stay in the hospital longer than usual to make sure my pouch didnt swell shut, apparently that happens, then they have to stick a tube down your throat so you can swallo your saliva...ummm yeah, just what I wanted to hear !!!.  I didnt get to talk with him and he was off all weekend. I called his office today and he is on vacation all week and the nurse didn't have any details for me. I'm kinda pissed that he just left me hanging like that. I mean nobody explained if I should change bandages, if I can sleep on my side.....nobody went over my post-op diet again, except to say "liquids only". Before surgery he told me my port would be on my side somewhere, but now it appears it is in the middle of my stomach below my breastbone. I haven't poked around too much, because it is sore and healing, but I would like to know.......ya know? 
 I have questions and nobody is around to answer them for me. Not very professional, but whatever. I'll survive. Also the doc that was covering for him in the hospital this weekend didnt even examine me !!  He walked in, said I look okay and could go home. I mean what kind of shit is that? Otherwise the hospital was really great !! The RN's and PTC's at Middlesex are very good. They took care of everything I needed and made sure I was comfortable.  I had a private room, small but nice.
The only thing that pissed me off there was that they had a phone system that rings everytime a patient pushes their nurse/help button. The phone rings and rings until someone goes to see the pateint and resets it. Well there is probably 40 bed on the floor I was on and you can imagine just how many times that damn phone was ringing. Sometimes for 5 minutes at a time. Non-stop from 7 am til 5 pm, then it got a little more quiet. It's really annoying and I couldn't sleep well because of it. But most of the nurses were nice enough to shut my room door for me and it helped cut down the noise a bit.

 So anyway, I'm home now.  Got out on Sunday around 3pm.
Still pretty sore.Feels like I've been kicked in the stomach 50 times....which is weird because I've read lots of sories of other lap-band patients not having hardly any pain. I guess everyone is different? 
I'm wearing an abdominal binder and it is working well and helping a lot.....especially when I get up and down. I can't lay on my side yet....have to stay on my back all night. I can't bend down to put on socks or shoes etc...but it seems to be getting a bit better. The incisions aren't too big, except the one in the middle is a litle larger than I thought it would be. When I get the pics off my cam I will post them.  I have 5 incisions all in a row....across my stomach. Like this:  __     __    _____    __    __
lol. 

  Not much else to update you on.  Oh, the liquid diet really fucking sucks to be honest !!!  I've been eating jello, pudding, tomato soup, cream of chicken soup, water, ice tea, tea, coffee, yogurt and thats about it. OK and I did sneak in a tiny bit of cottage cheese, a few crackers and I found that I can let a hershey kiss melt in my mouth and then swallow....but I only have one or two a day...PROMISE
I wish I could find something else to eat, but I guess thats as good as it gets for a few more weeks. Then I can have puree and soft foods. 
I havent been really hungry, but I do feel a major urge to eat !!!  I see my kids and wife eating and at the hospital the other patients were eating normal meals and I wanted one pretty bad. I gained 8 pounds in the hospital, mostly due to IV liquids i'd imagine. Today I am down 10 pounds since Friday, so I lost the 8 that I gained and an additional 2 pounds. Big whoop!!!...lol...but I guess some is better than none. 
 
My Wife has been a real sweetheart and has been taking care of me very well. My kids made me a big "Welcome Home Daddy !!" banner, lol....it was cute. And my Mom and Dad are awesome, I asked to borrow their recliner so I can sit more comfortable at home for a few weeks, well they went out an bought me a brand new one !!! I was really surprised
Well thats about it, I'll update again soon.