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Happy 6th Month Anniversary to me :)
Hi All,
Six months ago I had the lap-band surgery done. I've lost a total of 62 lbs. since Feb. 24, 2009 when I started my pre-op diet. I'm feeling a lot better and I still have about 98 lbs to go to but I will get there soon :)
I've been having a lot of back pain due to Spondylolisthesis and degenerative disc disease in my spine and someday down the line they said I'll need surgery and I've spoken to a surgeon and the surgery scares me a bit. I've been seeing a chrio. dr. for a few months now and it's been helping but this time it really hurts but hopefully soon it will calm down and I'll be ok again :)
Anyway I've attached some pictures because I'm not sure if many of you even know what I look like and so the 2 pictures are of me at Ocean City, MD in July 08 (wearing the purple shirt, both times) and 2 pictures are recent pictures of me from Aug. 09.
Here are some of the post I did on my lap-band website profile incase anyone would like to read about how things where 6 months ago:
1 Week Post-OP on March 18, 2009 7:11 am
Published
Today I'm at work for the first day back and it's a tad uncomfortable to be sitting here.
I weighed myself yesterday and I've lost 9 lbs. since last Tuesday. Right now I trying to just eat my 3 meals of 1/4 cup of food. It's hard to remember to eat at times since I'm still not hungry. My surgery experience was ok. I'm not going to sugar coat it here, it hurt pretty bad for me but everyone is different.
My surgery was scheduled for 12:15 and it seemed like everything was running on schedule because they took me back to get my IV started at 11:45 and they started the IV in my left hand and it seemed to work. I was surprised the lady got it in so fast because normally they can't seem to fnd my veins at all.
It was finally around 12:30 and I asked them to give me some to relax and a nurse came in and adminstered some into my IV and that burned but I didn't feel relaxed at all. When we got to the OR which wasn't that far from the waiting room, they had me move over onto the table and everyone was very friendly and said hi to me and then of course it happened.
My IV wasn't working. They tried to knock me out but that didn't happen since my hand starting swelling and they realized that wasn't going to work. So they flipped my hand over and tried my wrist....those hurt like hell....so he tried the other hand and wrist and nothing happened. He tried my foot...man does that hurt as well.
Let me tell you by this point I was freakin out a bit and crying a tad. They wanted to try to the IV in my neck and said that this one would work.
Well it ididn't. They numbed me first before sticking me although the numbing stuff didn't help at all and they stuck me about 3 or 4 times their, let's just say that was very painful. After that the surgeon stepped in and said we are going to try your chest. That one hurt as well but as soon as they were in they said they were going to knock me out and they would see me in recovery.
I just remember smelling the gas or meds and then I woke up in a lot of pain in recovery. They adminstered morphine which helped but I was in and out the rest of night.
I remember getting up around midnight or so to go the bathroom and get my MP3 player and luckily I was in a room by myself which was soo nice.
I had to do an Upper GI before I could leave on Wednesday which the nurse made me stop drinking at 3:30 a.m. since she said they would do it first thing in the morning. Well that didn't happen. I think I waited around till 2:15 p.m. or so until they could get me in. I wasn't too happy with them only because I was really thrusty but not enough for the stuff they wanted me to drink, it was bitter and nasty.
Luckily, I didn't have to drink a whole ton. Then I had to wait 1/2 hour till the water went through and that sucked especially sitting up in a wheelchair the whole time. Finally though I was allowed to go back to my room and they gave me some meds and I was sent home around 5 p.m.
I went home and just crashed after taking my pain meds. Each day I seem to get better and better but I'm still not back 100% but I'm gettting there.
Melissa
Starting a New Life on March 4, 2009 8:41 am
Published
Well today is March 4, 2009 and I'm 5 days away from surgery right now.
I'm feeling a tad scared but I think I will get through this ok. I have my husband supporting me and my mom is showing her support and hopefully everything will go ok.
My husband and I meet with the anesthesiologist on Friday and I started my 2-week liver shrink diet on Tuesday Feb. 24th.
I keep thinking I wonder if my liver is shrinking enough or if I'm eating too much salad at night.
I'm actually allowed food on this pre-op diet which I'm very happy about because the other surgeon I was going to have doesn't allow food only liquids.
This is what I eat during a day.
B: Protein Bar
S: Sm. piece of fruit
L: Target Brand Protein Shake
S: Sm. piece of fruit
D: 3 oz. lean meat
Salad with light italian dressing
6 unsalted crackers
1/2 of fruit or sm. piece of fruit.
S: Sm. piece of fruit
It's actually alot compared to my after diet food but I'm sure I'll get used to a cup of food per meal.
Well that's all for now.
Melissa
