What To Do to Prepare for Lap Band Surgery

I'm a planner. I like to be prepared and I did a lot of research before the surgery. One thing I wished I had was a check list of tips... so now that I've been through it, I'll put one out there. First throw out anything you can't eat if you can.

Stock your shelves with:

-Chicken Broth
-Chicken Stock (it has more protein than broth)
-Slim Fast Low Carb Shakes
-EAS Advantage Carb Control Shakes
-Atkins Advantage Shakes
-EAS Myoplex Shakes
-Body Fortress Protein Powder or whatever brand you like.
-Sugar Free Popsicles - see my previous post on this
- 2 oz measuring cup, or a few extra 1/4 cup measuring cups (by the way 2oz =1/4 cup if only i knew that 2 days ago)

I love this measuring cup!

-Bottled Water or a good reusable bottle so you can measure your progress

-Dried milk (when you're sick of sweet protein powder you can add it to chicken broth to make a cream soup with protein)

- ice cube tray for freezing soups when you open them (only eating 2 ounces at a time will add up to a lot of waste, might as well freeze the rest in portion sized cubes for another day)

-Chewable Gas X or Gas X Strips
- Campbells V8 soup

-Tylenol


Non Kitchen Items:

Really take a minute to think about what you use on a daily basis. It's really hard to bend for the first few days after surgery so put those things where you can reach them. Unless of course you have someone who can get them for you ;)

- Thermometer

-Any Prescriptions you were given at the pre-op appointment

- A small stiff pillow. Our surgeon gave us stint pillows at the hospital to hold against our stomachs as needed. We used them while getting up and down from bed or from chairs. They really feel good the first few days after surgery

- Baby Wipes (no showering for 2 days)

-  A stack of comfortable pants and t-shirts that you don't have to bend over to get to. Changing into clean clothes every day really made me feel better.

- Something to do. I bought some craft supplies, borrowed a few dvd's. Cooking used to be my hobby, that's on hold for the next few months!

Banded!

We are both home and in our bed. I feel so glad that today is over. Onto the future slowly but surely!

We arrived at the hospital at 5:45 am and even though Duke was remodeling the wait area, they were incredibly efficient. There were already a lot of people there. They checked us both in together and gave my mother in law and brother in law a pamphlet with 2 unique ID numbers. They could use those numbers to track the progress of our surgery on a screen in the lobby. It just so happened that my unique number happened to end in the numbers that I use on all of my screen/usernames for everything I do! WINK! I knew it was going to be a good day.

We were also given a buzzer just like you would get at a restaurant. We got buzzed to go back and our family kept it. Every time there was an update for us, they received a buzz.

MS went back with me and a wonderful nurse named Sonya got me ready. Every nurse in the place made me feel so comfortable. Plus we're in the south so everyone called me sugar and baby which made me feel more like my mama was with me.

I spoke with our surgeon, Dr. Yoo and he was just great. He is very sincere and I felt so great that he is our dr.

I was knocked out quickly, and 30 mins later they were waking me back up. Surgery went very smooth. Apparently I had a hernia that they fixed as well.

In recovery Dr Yoo gave me great news about MS. He did fantastic and apparently had a hernia in the same place they fixed that too. Dr Yoo said that both of our livers were tiny! Great news I hope that shows him how serious we are about this whole process!

My mother in law went home with me and my brother in law brought MS home 2 hours later almost on the dot. I love efficiency.

The worst pain I had today was my throat from the scope, on a scale of 1 to 10 that was probably a 4. The 2nd worst was gas pain. I walked a ton of laps around my house today and it helped move that around a lot.

MS had a lot worse pain in his incisions today. Dr Yoo said men have a little more pain than women because of how we hold our weight differently.

We're both tucked into bed and I am feeling great. The pain I have is tolerable and I'm ready for a full night's sleep. Praying tonight that we both feel great in the morning.

1 More Sleep!

Well, this is it. Everything that could possibly need to be done in our house is done. We're just hanging out with family tonight and drinking lots of clear liquids.

We're both lucky enough to take the entire week off and have Monday off for Christmas. We'll need to walk quite a bit after the surgery but in between walks I plan on working on some paintings for my office. I'm a huge pinterest fan so I've pinned lots of inspiration on my boards.

I feel good. We are as prepared as we possibly can be and I really look forward to losing weight. I think the next few weeks are going to be tough but i can't explain how good it feels to think that I'll never be this weight again.

Bring It, Liquid Diet!

It's Liquid Diet Eve in our household!! The pantry is clean, the fridge is stocked with tons of clear liquids and protein shakes (i know the protein will be room temp at first. We have those too)

MS and I went out for our last meal tonight. It'll be about 3 weeks until we eat semi-solid food again, so we went out and had a nice low carb dinner. Sadly, we drank the last Diet Cokes we may ever drink. The carbonation is too much for the little pouch above the lap band so that's one thing we have to give up. But we'll get over it! In fact with all of the recent findings about Diet Coke - I wonder if drinking it my whole life played a part in my metabolic "issues".

For the past week we have been on the atkin's diet in order to lose a little weight before the surgery. For those of you who aren't familiar with Lap Band surgery, the doctor will be placing a band around the top of our stomachs. Our surgeon asked that we do anything we can to lose even the slightest amount of weight prior to the surgery because we lose weight in our liver first. If the liver is as small as it can be, the doctor will have an easier time conducting a faster, safer surgery. Here's a visual:



Tomorrow (day before surgery) we can only drink clear liquids. I stocked the fridge with propel, bottled water, iced tea, apple juice, sugar free fruit punch and lemonade. We have broth in the pantry and coffee as well. We're expecting my mother in law and brother in law tomorrow as well. They'll be taking care of us the day of and day after the surgery.
After the surgery, we'll sip on 64 ounces of decaf, non carbonated clear liquids and we'll have to get 50-70 grams of protein from nutritionally complete shakes. We bought a variety of shakes and additional protein powder. We found protein powders by Body Fortress that pack close to 30 grams of protein in 1 scoop. I thought all the flavors sounded great, cookies and cream, chocolate peanut butter, and regular chocolate. We're planning on adding a scoop of the powder to a pre-packaged Low Carb/High protein shake.  We bought Atkins Shakes because we love them and they are hands down the best tasting shakes out there. We also stocked up on EAS Myoplex and AdvantEdge Shakes as well as 1 4-pack of the Slim Fast Low Carb Pre-mixed shakes.

Our Nutritionist approved vitamins are Flintones Complete (chewable so it goes down) Cal-trate chocolate calcium and vitamin D chews, and I have a little extra liquid vitamin D. Must be my daily sunscreen ;) We read somewhere that Gas X helps with gas pains from the surgery. We added that to our list of questions for the doctor.

I know this liquid phase is going to be extemely hard, but the reward will be a double digit weight loss so I'll keep my eye on the prize. Bring it liquid diet! Bring it!

"Be Kind, for Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle"

In preparation for this surgery, there are so many things to think about. One of the biggest things for me is who to tell. I made up my mind pretty quickly that I would only tell a few friends and anyone else that asks will get a standard "weight loss program at Duke" response.  I purposely scheduled the surgery right around the holidays so I can slip this right into my vacation, have 7 days of recovery and go back to work feeling great. I just didn't want to have to explain myself to everyone I work with. I know I don't have to explain, but that's what I do. I'm an explain-er. If someone asks I know I'll go into detail about the fact that this is my battle. That this is the one thing i can't control.  I just didn't feel like putting my issue out there for the peanut gallery.

Well about a week ago I read a WLS forum that talked this same topic. One particular comment really resonated with me. I don't remember the exact words, but the person asked something like, "why would you lie? How can you keep that big of secret? You need support through this."

I couldn't seem to shake that one. Meanwhile, my husband's situation is much different. He works with more than a handful of people who have had all types of WLS. He literally has a support group at work. One of his co-workers even told him this week she was going to help keep him on top of drinking all of his protein. I thought that was the sweetest thing.

All week I've questioned myself. What if i decide in 2 months I want to tell people? Wouldn't that seem more embarrassing? Wouldn't it seem like more of a lie? I sat in my office yesterday and really started to have a little panic attack in my head about it. I summoned my b.f.f. and we talked it out. I made the decision to sleep on it and talk about it to my close friends at work in the morning.

First thing today, I barged into my friend's office and laid it out there.  For the first time through this process, I actually cried a little. My sweet friend cried right along with me. I'm not sure where my tears came from. Maybe it was fear of just laying it out there. Could have been tears of embarrassment. I'm not sure, but I got them out and I'm so glad I did. She gave me nothing but support and love. I made the right decision.

I told a few more people throughout the day and every time it got easier.  I have a team behind me now that will help me along the way. I don't have to worry about keeping secrets or adding stress to the situation and I love that.

I know some people will say bad things about WLS like it's an easy way out or a cop out. But I don't care. What those people don't understand is that we all have our own battles. I'm at peace with the fact that this is mine.

2 more days. It'll be here before we know it.

The Journey Starts Here.

On September 25th 2010, my husband and I exchanged wedding bands. On December 19, 2011 we'll be getting bands of a much different kind.  After over a year of preparations, we're scheduled for Lap Band Surgery at Duke Raleigh Hospital 3 days from now.

We were at the hospital last week for our pre-op testing and all of the nurses were a buzz. They thought it was so cool that we were taking on this new step together. One of them even told us we should write a book. Well, let's start with a blog and go from there ......

I met my husband (MS)on St. Patrick's Day in 2008. I was on the Atkin's Diet for the 5th or 6th time and at that point had lost over 40 lbs. Right now at this very moment, I'm 50 pounds heavier than I was that day. piss. In my adult life there has never been a time that I haven't been overweight. I gain, I lose, i gain it all back, the cycle repeats itself over and over and over. Weight is the only thing in my life that I feel like I can't control. Failed diet after diet has me feeling defeated and like a failure. Why can't I do this? What is wrong with me?

To add fuel to the fire, I was diagnosed with PCOS a few years back and until now have only had to deal with a few annoying symptoms that go with it. But when MS and I started talking about kids and trying to get pregnant, I knew I'd have a problem. We decided that we'd start trying right after the wedding, because it was definitely going to take some time.

I'm a very spiritual person. I pray a lot and keep my heart and mind open to signs and arrows that God places along my path. I like to call those winks.

One day, a week after we got married, I sat in the oral surgeon's office at Duke while MS had his wisdom teeth removed.  I was going to do work from the waiting room but I couldn't get on the wi-fi. How annoying. Wink. Thanks, God. So I picked up a magazine and flipped right to an article about the dangers of being obese while pregnant. It also talked about how much danger it actually puts the fetus in. Shit. The article mentioned PCOS and how lap band surgery has completely helped women lose weight and have healthy babies. Hmm.

Up until that point, I wouldn't have even considered weight loss surgery (WLS). I like food too much to mess around with that. I figured I was just going to have to struggle with myself for the rest of my life.

I thought about it for a month or so. Read about it, and started getting comfortable with the fact that this might be an option for me. Then one day I mustered up the courage to tell MS and we talked about it for quite a long time. In fact, before we met, he was already in the process of having the surgery himself.

We went to two informational meetings and the Duke meeting was hands down our choice. We both felt so comfortable with the surgeon and his presentation and we decided to move forward.
We went through all of our appointments between November and December of 2010 and planned for a spring surgery. The insurance company had other plans, so here we are today. Surgery is 3 days out. I have to say I'm more scared of the 3 week post op liquid diet than the actual surgery itself.
I'm confident and calm and I feel good about this decision. I have prayed my heart out and researched this procedure up and down. This is our path.  I feel obligated to start this blog because there are so many banded-bloggers out there that have inspired me and taught me a lot about this process, I want to pay it forward. Hopefully one day, someone who has gone through the same struggles will read this and find inspiration. So whoever you are, God brought you here,  here's your wink ;)

Over the next year I plan to post pictures, keep track of weight loss and reveal the good and the bad. I hope you'll pray for us, and cheer us on.