livtobeblessed
My Weight Loss Journey with the Lap Band
Jun 25, 2009
Ok, here it is. I did it and I am banded as of 6-24-09. I had an overnight stay at the hospital, had to use my C-Pap machine which was fine. They treated me very well at the hospital and made sure that they gave me scheduled pain medication and additional pain medication in between the scheduled one. I was given ice chips for a full day of the surgery until late morning the next day, after I had my upper GI. Once the UGI was cleared, I was able to start my liquids. They let me choose from a menu of liquids so I just chose the 4oz veggie broth, 4oz cream of chicken soup, 4oz plain yogert, and one cup of orange jello. Well after sipping on the soup and broth, I was pretty full so I didn't eat the yogert, but I took in two small bits of jello.
When they told me to order lunch I was not hungry but I ordered the broth and creamy chicken soup again and sipped that down. A few hours later I was released from the hospital. I felt pretty good, but very sore.
One thing I noticed is after having the first round of liquids and lying down a little while later, I felt like something was trying to come up through my chest, so I sat up. It didn't necessarily feel like I was gonna vomit, but just like something was in between my throat and chest. I did tell the doctor who came in to release me, but he said it was spasms. But I'm not too sure.
Anyway, my sis brought me home after we went to fill my prescriptions. The protein I ordered online was delivered the same day I arrived home and the protein a fellow OBH member shipped me, so I am all set. I decided I'd better try to get some more liquid in, so I started with making a banana and strawberry smoothie with one of the Banana Vitalady proteins. Just a side bar...her proteins have quite a bit of grams of protein and so far the banana was very good in the smoothie. HOWEVER, most of my smoothie spilled all out of the Magic Bullet when I tried to pull the cup off of the machine. I must not have had the cup on there tight enough, so I was only able to salvage 8 oz of the smoothie and I drank that, I assume I got about 4.5grams of protein out of that since the rest was wasted when it spilled out. Anyway the smoothie was really good!! The protein was so far not as horrible as I've heard.
Later on, I tried to get more liquids in so I warmed up a can of cream of asparagus soup and added a scoop of Jarrow Unflavored Whey protein in it and that is a good protein as well as it doensn't have a bad taste to it either. The protein did kind of curdle in the soup but I strained the soup and it was good. I ate a full 10oz and it took me a while to finish it but I was trying to get in as much liquid as I could for the day, as my dietician said strive for 64fl oz a day!! Whew that's a lot. In the end I only got in about 34 oz for the day. Good enough I told myself. I think I got about 25 grams of protein in as well for the day. Half of the required amount but I think I will catch up within the next day or so.
Late in the evening, I started to feel the chest/throat discomfort again and it's kind of scary. I feel it when I swallow and if I am lying down. It actually woke me from my sleep about 5am this morning, 6-26-09. My eyes were still closed, but I remember sitting up in my bed because I felt like something was crawling up my chest to my throat. Then I got out of the bed and sleep walked into the living room to sit down...I was still very sleepy and on the meds. LOL! I remember walking back and forth through my apartment to see if walking would ease this problem and so far it kind of did. Then I remember flopping down on the couch sitting on it and nodding off. I felt my head bobbing up and down and finally I must have fallen back to sleep. Then I felt that weird feeling in my throat again that woke me up. I guess I was sliding down in the seat which makes a difference. It seems that I need to be upright. So I opened my eyes, looked at the clock and it was just about 8am. I got up walked around and decided to try to drink something to see if it would help. I bought some of those protein shots and they have 26grams of protein and are pretty good so I poured that in 80z of Crystal Light and it tastes pretty good. The protein shot flavor is Fruit Punch and they have them at Walmart for about $2.00 each, much cheaper than getting them at GNC. Drinking seems to settle that feeling I'm getting in my chest and throat area. It could be gas or something but it is kind of scary.
Well in addition to blogging about my first few days post op, I wanted to also point out that I am a smaller person, not one you'd normally see getting gastric surgery. Everyone who has come across me whether in a meeting, at my job or at the doctors office has said...you don't need surgery, you're a good size. You're not even big. Well, what allowed me to be approved for the surgery is the fact that my BMI was 38 and I have qualified medical problems. So you don't have to be super obese to have the surgery, you just need to qualify for it.
I hope this surgery does me good and I do my band justice. I have been soo sick over the past few years, loosing a lot of time from work and I felt this was my last hope so I hope to get better very soon and I hope not to have complications with this band. I also had a Hiatal Hernia that the doc was supposed to fix during the surgery and I'm sure he did because while I the nurses were trying to wake me from the anesthesia, I overheard them talking while standing over me about how hard a Hiatal Hernia is...I supposed they were discussing how hard it is to fix it while banding a person or something, so I assume the doctor did remove it before banding me. I almost think they would have to.
I did take a photo the day of the surgery while I was waiting for my ride so I'll post it and I did loose about 10lbs prior to the surgery as well. So for those who does see my pre-surgery photo, please remember that although I am not obese looking, I have several serious medical conditions that warranted me getting the surgery in the first place. If I could breathe like I used to be able to, I most likely would have opted to exercise instead.
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When they told me to order lunch I was not hungry but I ordered the broth and creamy chicken soup again and sipped that down. A few hours later I was released from the hospital. I felt pretty good, but very sore.
One thing I noticed is after having the first round of liquids and lying down a little while later, I felt like something was trying to come up through my chest, so I sat up. It didn't necessarily feel like I was gonna vomit, but just like something was in between my throat and chest. I did tell the doctor who came in to release me, but he said it was spasms. But I'm not too sure.
Anyway, my sis brought me home after we went to fill my prescriptions. The protein I ordered online was delivered the same day I arrived home and the protein a fellow OBH member shipped me, so I am all set. I decided I'd better try to get some more liquid in, so I started with making a banana and strawberry smoothie with one of the Banana Vitalady proteins. Just a side bar...her proteins have quite a bit of grams of protein and so far the banana was very good in the smoothie. HOWEVER, most of my smoothie spilled all out of the Magic Bullet when I tried to pull the cup off of the machine. I must not have had the cup on there tight enough, so I was only able to salvage 8 oz of the smoothie and I drank that, I assume I got about 4.5grams of protein out of that since the rest was wasted when it spilled out. Anyway the smoothie was really good!! The protein was so far not as horrible as I've heard.
Later on, I tried to get more liquids in so I warmed up a can of cream of asparagus soup and added a scoop of Jarrow Unflavored Whey protein in it and that is a good protein as well as it doensn't have a bad taste to it either. The protein did kind of curdle in the soup but I strained the soup and it was good. I ate a full 10oz and it took me a while to finish it but I was trying to get in as much liquid as I could for the day, as my dietician said strive for 64fl oz a day!! Whew that's a lot. In the end I only got in about 34 oz for the day. Good enough I told myself. I think I got about 25 grams of protein in as well for the day. Half of the required amount but I think I will catch up within the next day or so.
Late in the evening, I started to feel the chest/throat discomfort again and it's kind of scary. I feel it when I swallow and if I am lying down. It actually woke me from my sleep about 5am this morning, 6-26-09. My eyes were still closed, but I remember sitting up in my bed because I felt like something was crawling up my chest to my throat. Then I got out of the bed and sleep walked into the living room to sit down...I was still very sleepy and on the meds. LOL! I remember walking back and forth through my apartment to see if walking would ease this problem and so far it kind of did. Then I remember flopping down on the couch sitting on it and nodding off. I felt my head bobbing up and down and finally I must have fallen back to sleep. Then I felt that weird feeling in my throat again that woke me up. I guess I was sliding down in the seat which makes a difference. It seems that I need to be upright. So I opened my eyes, looked at the clock and it was just about 8am. I got up walked around and decided to try to drink something to see if it would help. I bought some of those protein shots and they have 26grams of protein and are pretty good so I poured that in 80z of Crystal Light and it tastes pretty good. The protein shot flavor is Fruit Punch and they have them at Walmart for about $2.00 each, much cheaper than getting them at GNC. Drinking seems to settle that feeling I'm getting in my chest and throat area. It could be gas or something but it is kind of scary.
Well in addition to blogging about my first few days post op, I wanted to also point out that I am a smaller person, not one you'd normally see getting gastric surgery. Everyone who has come across me whether in a meeting, at my job or at the doctors office has said...you don't need surgery, you're a good size. You're not even big. Well, what allowed me to be approved for the surgery is the fact that my BMI was 38 and I have qualified medical problems. So you don't have to be super obese to have the surgery, you just need to qualify for it.
I hope this surgery does me good and I do my band justice. I have been soo sick over the past few years, loosing a lot of time from work and I felt this was my last hope so I hope to get better very soon and I hope not to have complications with this band. I also had a Hiatal Hernia that the doc was supposed to fix during the surgery and I'm sure he did because while I the nurses were trying to wake me from the anesthesia, I overheard them talking while standing over me about how hard a Hiatal Hernia is...I supposed they were discussing how hard it is to fix it while banding a person or something, so I assume the doctor did remove it before banding me. I almost think they would have to.
I did take a photo the day of the surgery while I was waiting for my ride so I'll post it and I did loose about 10lbs prior to the surgery as well. So for those who does see my pre-surgery photo, please remember that although I am not obese looking, I have several serious medical conditions that warranted me getting the surgery in the first place. If I could breathe like I used to be able to, I most likely would have opted to exercise instead.
About Me
Location
35.0
BMI
Surgery
06/24/2009
Surgery Date
Surgeon
Nov 23, 2008
Member Since
