After Lapband

Can anyone tell me what to expect after the Band placement? Is there a lot of swelling? How long was you off work? how long were you at the hospital? I will be having mine done on June 15th at Georgetown I will be taking a week off work. Thanks everyone this is a great site and all of you are great.

Tammy there will be swelling more than likely afterwards around the sights.   Usually depends on the surgeon how long you will be off work, as for the hospital stay if no complications and your a healthy person going into surgery 24 to 48 hours usually. 

Good luck on your journey on June 15th I will be in Florida so I will tell you now since I will not be blogging much during my vacation  lol

Vicki

Thanks Vicki for the info and Enjoy your vacation.

Hi, Tammy.

I had my surgery on a Wednesday morning and went home that afternoon. My major discomfort was from the surgical gas, but walking helped that dissipate after 7-10 days. And, of course, the little incisions hurt. I was most uncomfortable getting in and out of bed, and I slept with a pillow over my abdomen to protect it from getting bumped. I had planned to go to a meeting at work on Friday (2 days after surgery), and I had felt pretty good on Thursday evening (and went walking through Walmart!), but Friday morning I felt pretty rough and wasn't able to go out. I did, however, go to church and lead the music on Sunday, and I went back to work on Monday.

I used liquid Tylenol for my pain and got enough relief from that. I didn't even fill my prescription for the heavy-duty pain medication.

You can read my profile if you want a feel for how things went for me. I've had a great experience with my band and am very happy with my decision. I wish you the very best with your surgery and with your weight loss afterward.

Kathy

I had my lapband done on August 28, 2008, and I was off work for 2 weeks, but its only because they made me, I was ready to go back after 4 days, I felt great. I really think that its up to the individual. The one thing I can say about taking the entire 2 weeks off was it let me get adjusted to the band without interference from people I worked with trying to tell me what to do. Everybody is different listen to your body.

Goodluck with your surgery!
RhondaH
Florence, Kentucky

Hi Tammy, I had my band 6 moths ago.  I had my procedure on Wednesday, was home by Thur morning.  That gave me a few days to learn to eat, make some changes and adapt.  I never took the pain meds, used liquid advil/Tylenol.  I was out walking by Thur evening and I think that was the BEST thing I could have done.  I was back to work on Monday.  The hardest thing for me was throwing off the blahs of anesthesia and getting rid of the CO2 gas pockets under my shoulders from the laparoscopic inflation.  Swelling wasn't bad; but the port site under your sternum hurts like a bandshee....I think that site and the one over my stomach was the worst (the 2 largest and the ones where he does the most work).
Everyone is different and everyone struggles with different things....but gas and port site pain seem to be pretty consistent.  Listen to your body and take it slow.....good luck!
Sonja

Hey Tammy

I think this was one of the easiest surgeries of the 5 I've had so far in life. Left side is usually sorest the doc usually works the most there. I used a pillow and held it as a brace over the big belly during laughing, coughin, getting in and out of bed. Remeber sip water, walke sip water, walk walking was by far the best thinkg for surgical gas pain. The only issue I had and it really wasn't surgery related per say I worked at a teenage drug rehab facility and when I went back to work about2 weeks afterwards I caught this awesome stomache bug from the kids and puked etc so much I think I wanted to die

My husband had the band done just as I did and you will be he had it done on a Weds. One week and a day later he played 18 holes of golf and then 2 days agter that played softball so it's clearly not to bad of a surgery

Goood luck you will be in my thoughts Dr S. is pretty awesome

Hi Tammy,
Dr. Sonnanstine requires all of his band patients spend at least one night,...Not so bad considering how nice Gtown hospital is.
I agree the gas pain is probably the worst of all.  However, Dr. Sonnanstine uses the ON Q pain pump--this is a small ball set just inside the largest site (where most work is done)..small amounts of meds is released to the site keeping it numb for a couple of days anyway.  (it worked great when I had plastics)
As for restrictions..Dr. Sonnanstine puts his patients on very little restrictions..talk to him about your job he will give you a very straight forward answer...but he does agree that you need time to adjust to the new way of eating and drinking before going back to work..so don't ru****  It's not a pretty sight when you take that drink instead of a sip the first time.  or a little bite of something before you think..then uh oh..
I had RNY but my husband was banded by Dr. Sonnanstine last year.  I have learned a great deal watching him adjust.
Take advantage of what time you can get.  I believe the worst part is the after anesthesia thing..I feel so tired and drugged after.
hope this helps!

I had surgery on a Wednesday and went back to work on Monday. First day back to work was a little rough but did fine. I had my surgery around 8am and was home by noon, was an outpatient procedure. The worst part for me was the pain from the GAS. Take lots of Gas X it helped.  Good Luck!!

Thanks everyone for the great advice. Everyone here is awsome.