Canada Julie

I am so glad you shared this. I am wondering if this is right for me and I am glad to hear your story. Julie

Dottie, I too am looking at the Gastric Sleeve after my band failed. I have gained back all of the 75 pounds I lost with my band (November 6, 2006). I am sure my band slipped and it was causing me extreme heartburn. I had a complete unfill, but now it is not in a place where I can get it filled again. The liquid diet for the weeks prior to the surgery is to make sure that there is no swelling in the stomach. For myself, I am thinking with the scar tissue from the slipped band and the really bad heartburn, I need the liquid diet to make sure the stomach is in its most natural state and then they will know exactly the right amount of stomach to take off. If there is still swelling or too much scar tissue from the band, sometimes they have to remove the band in one surgery and then do the gastric sleeve at another time usually a few months later. When I book my sleeve, I want to be able to follow the liquid diet before hand so that I don't have to make another trip. I live in Canada and it is not the easiest to make all the arrangements needed for one surgery, so I certainly don't want to do it for two. You can have any kind of liquid, so protein shakes would probably be something that would be necessary to keep up with the activity you do in your job. I am kind of nervous about getting this procedure done, but I am more nervous about staying in this condition for the rest of my life. Julie Banded Nov 6/06 Wanting revision to Gastric Sleeve

BSN, I can certainly understand not telling your husband when he is not supportive. I have to admit that once I made up my mind I wanted to have the procedure no matter what. My husband had a great many concerns, but I flat out said to him he had no idea what it was like to live in my body, being overweight. He had no idea the feeling of failure that comes when you diet, fall off the wagon, gain it all back - What it feels like to go to an amusement park with the kids and not fit on the rides they want to go on with you - What it feels like to not be able to fit into regular size public washrooms. He does not know what it feels like to always be hungry and never feel full and to need to satisfy the hunger with food constantly. All I can say is you will need to tell him at some point. This is a pretty big lie and I think the deeper you go and the more lies that are told the bigger the whole will get to try to get out of. Saying that he hasn't noticed the weight loss and you are now even is just making it worse as it is feeding your feelings of resentment that he did not support you in having the procedure and that he hasn't noticed the change in you either. I certainly would not just blurt it out now as I think you need to at least try to get him on side and understand some of the issues that you face. Although when I read that you had a low BMI, maybe you didn't have some of the issues I had above, but talk with him honestly about feelings and I am sure you will get a good response. Heck, you have been together for 19 years, so you must have weathered other storms in your life. Julie C Nov 6/06 Dr. Ortiz

From the first time I contacted the clinic to my surgery date was 34 days. I could have had a much earlier appointment, but I needed the time to get my things together. The clinic is really good about working with you for a date that works. I found once I decided I wanted the lap band, I just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. I am very glad I did it, though right afterwards I had some doubts. I think that everyone does when they get home, you still are not totally feeling normal, not eating any solid food, feeling some pains on and off and wonder if you are crazy. Now that I am two months out, I am thankful I have done this and look forward to getting closer to my goal. So far, I am 20% of the way to my goal. Julie C Nov 6/06

Diane, The pain really depends on many things. I had a giant hiatal hernia that was repaired at the same time (no extra cost ). Dr. Martinez said the lap band was placed in about 15 minutes and they spent more than 30 minutes repairing the hernia. I think if I had just had the band it would have been a very short procedure and the recovery very short. Just to give you an idea about the pain, the gal in the room beside me was sleeping on her stomach at the clinic less than 12 hours after surgery. She had very little pain. The pain that I mostly experienced was from the hernia repair because my diaphragm was very irritated and swollen. Dr. Martinez was great about giving me pain medication to take with me and following up with my concerns. If I had not had the hernia repair I would not have needed any pain medication. There is a kind of pulling feeling that you get at the port site. It is not a constant pain, it is just that the stitches pull if you move in a certain way. Over time, the stitches heal and the port is more stable and I am finding that it does not hurt as much when I move. I am only 2 months post op, so I am really still healing completely. At this point, my incisions are almost not noticable to touch. If you look they are still red. The larger incision where the port is still has a bit of a bump, but over time I am sure it will go away too. Good luck with your procedure. I am sure everything will go well. The clinic staff is wonderful and it is really like a nice hotel, just with a bit of a medical theme. Julie C Nov 6/06

Andy, How is it going? I was also banded with you on Nov 6. You looked so good when you left. Have you had any problems? Did you ever tell you family where you went? I broke down and phone my mom after my surgery and told her I was in Mexico. She seemed somewhat surprised. Oh well, surprises are nice sometimes. I am having a hard time on the post-op diet. I have the runs and am hungry a lot. Let me know how you are doing. Julie

I also am recently banded - Nov 6, 2006. As far as the pain goes, from the lap band surgery it was quite insignificant. I had pain near the port as they stitch it to your abdominal muscles and if I moved a certain way you could feel it kind of pulling. It is important to not let it pull too much so that the port can become secure. I did have a large hiatal hernia repair and I was in quite a bit of pain from it. I was on strong pain medication for five days after the surgery, but the pain is subsiding a lot now. Dr. Martinez was very good about explaining the extra surgery and giving me medication and advice to help with the extra pain. So far I have lost 16 pounds with the pre-op and post-op diet. It has been hard to stick to the liquid diet. I am starting soft foods soon, so I am hoping that won't be as bad. I did "cheat" on the post-op diet and found that it was not worth it because the pain of eating things not on the list is not worth it. The pain is just a pulling sensation in your tummy, but I paid for this surgery and I don't want anything to go wrong. I have not had an adjustment yet, but my opinion on the adjustments is that you need to have them always done under flouroscopy. OCC always does them that way and I think you get a better fill. Dr. Martinez told me that by having a more accurate fill, most patients only require one or two fills to get to goal. I met a lady in the office getting her second fill which was one year after her first fill. During that year, she lost 130 pounds, so I think the one fill was great for her, she just need a bit of an adjustment to lose the rest of her weight, which would be quite normal since the thickness of the stomach does also thin as you lose weight. At this point I keep telling myself I am glad I did the surgery, if not for the weight loss, I am glad to have the hiatal hernia fixed. I was never looking into gastric bypass as I had so many digestion problems the last thing I wanted to do was get it all chopped up and have even more. I am hoping that by getting the hernia fixed that many of my digestion whoas will be gone. I have 100 pounds to lose, so once I feel a little more healed, I am anxious to get to exercising and eating like a bandster. The recovery has not been tough and once the band is placed it is important that you do not vomit. They give you stuff at the clinic to help with that and if I have felt nauseated since being home I have taken Gravol. Vomiting can cause the band to slip, so it is important to avoid it if at all possible. I tried to go back to work at 8 days post-op, but found that a little soon because of the hernia repair. If it had been just the lap band, I am sure I could have gone back with no problems. My scars are not bad and I can not see the port. As far as saggy skin, I am trying to take EFA's to help with the elasticity of the skin and hopefully it will help. Dr. Miranda said though that if you are the kind of person who naturally does not have elasticity to your skin, that even taking the supplements will not help. Clothing can hide a lot of saggy skin. I would rather be thin than worry about that. If you decide to go ahead, I would highly recommend OCC. The doctors are very skilled and you are treated like a queen. My experience was very positive. Julie Nov 6/06 250/234/150

I am now 6 days post-op and just having questions about if I did the right thing. I had a large hiatal hernia fixed. Dr. Martinez said it was one of the biggest he has seen. I am in a lot of pain and feel like I will never be able to eat or breathe normally again. Everything hurts going down, I am nauseated most of the time, I have the runs really bad, it hurts to take a deep breath. I know I am still healing from sugery, but these are just the questions going through my mind. Is this a good thing to have done? Julie

I am just reading through posts and noticing that not all people that post had sugery with Drs. Ortiz and Martinez and they seem to be getting different instructions from their doctors than what we have been given. I think this is becoming very confusing and I was hoping that this forum would be just for OCC patients. I was particularly put out by the post about handbags. Is it possible to get control over the people who are joining and what they are posting. I had surgery Nov 6 and am still in a lot of pain, I think mostly from the large hernia repair they did. I was hoping to come here and find some help, but the first post I saw was about going to some website to buy handbags. I don't need handbags, I need support and encouragement. Julie

I don't know about lapbandtalk.com, I am part of the Yahoo group canadianlapbanders. On the Yahoo groups site there is a Canadian group, a Western Canada group, and a Calgary group. My surgery went very well and I was so glad I chose the clinic. I had a very large hiatal hernia that was fixed and I am still in a lot of pain from that and having some trouble breathing deeply. I am hoping it will settle down soon. I am so glad I did this. Don't have any worries. They treat you soooooo well at the clinic. The day of my surgery I can't even say that I had any nervousness at all. The medication they gave me prior to the surgery really made me not care and not worried in any way about what was to come. Because it took Dr. Martinez about 3 times as long to fix the hernia as to place the band, I was in surgery for some time, and gone from my room for about three hours. I don't think it is normally that long. Good luck to you. Julie

I look at all the other health issues I have and all the ones I am in line to get if I don't lose the weight, and loose skin has become one of the least of my worries. Heart attacks, strokes, diabetis, hight blood pressure, joint pain, etc. are all my greatest concerns. I figure clothes can hide a "multitude of skin." Julie

I am getting banded on the 6th, so I won't be there when you are, but I am also from Canada. I am coming from Calgary. What area are you from? Are you part of the canadianlapbanders on-line group? I also started one for calgarylapbanders if you are from the area. Let me know. Julie

I am booked for surgery on Nov. 6. My mother-in-law is meeting me there and going with me. I think she might want to talk me out of it, but I will not be convinced by her to not go ahead with it. Julie