Bye-Bye Mr. Lap-band... Hello Mr. Sleeve, Revision Surgery is done!

Hi Everyone,

I had my surgery last Friday and I am now officially lap-band free but sleeved.

This time I took a very different approach, I completely ignored that I was about to have surgery, didn't read any blogs, forums or articles the weeks prior to surgery and just let it happen. And I am glad I did.

I was very brave. We arrived at the hospital at 8 AM and everything went pretty fast. Before I knew it all the pre-op stuff was in progress, they put in the IV, my surgeon arrived, he talked to me for a few minutes and I was pushed in the operating room. Surgery started at 10 AM. Inside the operating room was a whole lot of activity going on and I only remember saying "Wow, now I am really getting kind of nervous" and immediately the anesthesiologist put some liquid in the IV and said: "This will help you to relax" and gone I was.

The surgery was kind of long... It took almost 4 hours :-( When I woke up in the recovery area I felt really bad. My mouth was sooo dry and I had the worst nausea ever. They kept me there for some time and brought me to my room many hours later.

The first day/night was horrible. The nausea meds didn't help at all... and since I couldn't pee they ultrasound-ed my bladder throughout the night. This was actually the weirdest feeling ever. I wanted to pee but whatever you normally do to release pee didn't work. I had no control over it.

The daytime-shift nurse really helped me to resolve this on Tuesday. She was the sweetest and most caring nurse I have ever met in my life. Every time I peed she got all excited and gave me high-five. Luckily I didn't need a catheter!

There was no way that I could have gone home after only one night in the hospital. I ended up staying there for 3 nights. The entire nausea thing took some time to resolve and I was very weak for the first 2 days. I slept most of the time and didn't even have the energy to hold a conversation or to drink my protein shakes. I only felt utter gratefulness for these wonderful nurses that cared for me <3.

It got better every day and on Monday I felt really confident that I could handle all of it at home.

On a great note...up to today I never experienced any pain inside of me or at the incisions. It's more like discomfort and when I move a certain way I do feel sore, but no pain. In the hospital I took some painkillers because they seemed to help with the nausea, but very small doses.

My incisions look great. My surgeon used the same incisions that I had from the lap-band surgery and I do not even feel them. I remember that after lap-band surgery the port area was sore for weeks, not so with the sleeve surgery. I am totally amazed how neat the incisions look and how little pain I had through all of this.

I am really excited now... Unfortunately my scale hasn't been my friend prior to surgery. In the hospital I weighed in at 186.5 and that's 20 lbs more than my lowest lap-band weight :-(

Finally I am losing again and I totally missed that. I've lost 9.8 lbs within one week :-)))))

Honestly, I never expected to lose that much with my low starting weight (did I really just write that?)

Can't wait to update my ticker <3 It's really exciting!

I hope all of you are well and life treats you good in lap-band or sleeve land!

Love & Hugs,

S.

I am recovering very well from Lap-Band Surgery.... took the pain medications and nausea medications this morning and have not needed any more since then.

My husband takes me for little walks, I have almost no gas pain and my incisions do not hurt at all. I had a very pleasant night, I was able to sleep on the side (my preferred position) and could get in and out of bed much easier than the nights before.

I had an Atkins Vanilla Shake for Breakfast... drank a cup of tea and followed it up with some Isopure. I do not know about other bandsters, but I have no restrictions at all, I can drink and it goes down easily, I can drink as much as I want and as fast as I want. No pain and no discomfort of any kind. I hope this is not a bad sign because I read on Lapbandtalk.com that most bandsters feel restrictions after surgery and can take in only limited amounts of liquid.

For lunch I had a Tomato Soup and also took my liquid vitamins.

I have no hunger, have to force myself to drink and "eat" but have a strong urge to brush my teeth constantly.

The only thing that worries me a little is the fact that I have not had a bowel movement since 2 days prior to surgery. It would make me feel so much better if I had one because I would know that "everything" is still working.

Recovering from nausea and dry heaves

To my surprise surgery was not bad at all, the hospital and it's staff were great, they were all extremely friendly and professional. They cared and understood the worries a patient has before surgery. Most off all they really understood my phobia with needles that have to go into my veins. I thank them for that.

After I drank that apple juice in the hospital I started to get really nauseous. I have not felt that bad in a long time... It was a feeling of helplessness, it took over my entire body and I was unable to function. The anti-nausea medications did not work for me and I had to find ways to deal with it. My husband was even more worried than me, because I am normally a strong woman and I deal with things and do not whine about them. He wanted to help me so bad but I did not let him because I was unable to communicate with him. Talking made me even more nauseous so I kept it to a minimum. My husband is a wonderful man that truly loves me and for him just being there caressing my arm to relax me and help me fall asleep was more helpful than any medicine.

I had strong dry heaves. I could feel how my mouth filled up with saliva and my body gave me all the signs that vomiting was imminent.... but I could not vomit.... I was hoping I could... but I could not. I had the worst attack at 3 am... right after that I took more anti-nausea medications and also the pain medications and to my surprise they worked and I felt asleep and slept until 9 AM.

Since then I am feeling fine, I have very minor pain... a little gas pain in my left shoulder and do not have any hunger nor appetite. I take my anti-nausea and pain medications every 6 hours, read a lot, walk around in the backyard, watch tv, drink teas and nap a lot.

I would do this surgery again... it was not bad at all!

*giggle* *smilefromeartoear* I have a lap band *jump* *scream* *hugtheworld*



This is the bag they gave me right after surgery and it has been next to me ever since.