Congrats! And best luck on your new life!! Katie lap band 11.19.07

Had open RNY Monday, Nov. 26 & got home this a.m. Feeling tired, but joyful, wonderous & excited to on my journey!!!

overall a good experience. dr ahmad and the anasthesiologist were very attentive and very cautious. drs borek, skopicki and the rest of the medical team were very good. there was one misunderstanding between the doctors and the staff in that i brought my own humidified cpap machine expecting to use it which the doctors said was fine, but the staff at mather said i couldnt and put me on a non humidified one, while the doctors said i could use my own. this is a problem because you are intubated during surgery and your throat is very sore, so for me to be on a non humidified cpap caused irritation. only after being very assertive did the situation get handled and i was allowed to use my machine. the staff were very apologetic about not being able to let me break hospital protocol which which i eventially did because it was for my own benefit and thats what counts. they wanted only their equipment but the equipment they had was not adequate and they expected me to put up with it. another issue for me was inability to urinate after the surgery because of extreme sensitivity from the foly catheter. they dont want to let you leave without urinating and that makes alot of sense but there was not much help in this area from anyone about how to get around this until i called my urologist who was not in but his on call doctor instructed me to take UROSTAT which is a urinary pain relief pill, and to soak in a hot bath or shower and try to urinate while in the bath or show before i became too distended. the heat of the shower or bath would relax the tightened muscles. it worked thank god. here again, assertiveness on the part of myself, the patient played a role in dealing with issues that were important to me. the surgery is still very new to me, and it takes some accomodation. this is my first major surgery and it is something you have to grow into, and also the body accomodates over time i think, i hope. regarding the surgery itself i can only hope and pray that everything was successful. dr ahmad said everything went very well and that is reassuring. i am looking toward getting involved witht he support group and perhaps group therapy which is apparently not yet in the offering but perhaps in the near future. the office staff of dr ahmad was very helpful. and his wife Sima was his right hand person at all times. There is a very very thorough process of screening with dr ahmad so you can be sure you will not have too many surprises if any real ones. i ahve complete confidence in him, but i am still learning what my new stomache can handle and what it cant. i just have to keep to the program and all will turn out well.

Hi Jeannie - You're going to do great! Good luck with everything and we can't wait to hear from you when you return. My advice for the hospital stay. WALK, walk, walk .... even when you don't feel like it and don't feel good. It'll make you feel better more quickly. And when they give you water to drink... drink it and drink it all. I almost had to stay in the hospital for an extra day because they didn't think I was drinking enough. So sip, sip, sip. See you on the losers' side! Pam

I had my seminar today (so GLAD). There is a form I have to fill out. On this form they want to know what types of programs that you have been on in the past to lose weight or pills you have taken for this. What happens if it is too few (I have been to Weigh****chers 3 times, Diet workshop, and took pills obviously with no luck). Will he not take me because I haven't tried "X" amount of things? I am really worried about this (yeah I know kind of dumb but this is haunting me). Thanks for your opinions and advice! Debbi