whats it like?

Whats it like to have lap band surgery? Is it extremly painful? I had my gallbladder out, how would it compare to that? Just wondering....

I had my gallbladder out a year before my Band surgery.  To me personally the gallbladder surgery was more painful.  I was more sick with the band surgery.  I kept having issues with dehydration. 

I think they were alot alike for me . I think my lapband was a little more painful b/c of the whole port incision but it is certainly all pretty managable pain. Some had very little pain others have moderate it just really depends on your body and pain tolerance and how your surgery goes. I felt like the night I came home and the next day ,day and a half it was pretty moderate pain that was controlled very well by pain meds. I would just know when it was time to take another dose of pain meds. After a few days I went to liq. tylenol . I was up , by choice , the next morning at 6:45 am helping the hubby get the kids ready for school .They are older 11 and 12 then so it was nothing to strenuous.LOL

 Always remember that pain is relative and subjective but, for me, any minor pain I experienced was off set my not having to stab myself with insulin injections several times a day and not having to stab my fingers to check my blood sugar. And the remission of my diabetes was just ONE of the big benefits. 

It depends if your dr goes thru your belly button or over it!!! I had my gallbladder removed thru my belly button and it was VERY PAINFUL!!! I had the lapband above my belly button and it truely was a breeze!!! I got back to my room and walked straight to the bathroom and then i walked 15 min out of every hour and I NEVER got the GAS that I hear everyone talking about!! I would do the lapband over  anytime if I needed to and I HIGHLY recommend the lapband to anyone struggling with their weight!!! Ive lost 51 pounds in 5 months!!! ILOVE MY BAND!!!!

 It reminded me of my c-section. Lots of gas and shuffling around a couple days. But my surgeon did a hernia repair while he was in there and he said that is a lot of the recovery.  I still feel bloated and tender and weaker than I was but it is not bad

I had my Lapband surgery in January of 2010 and had my gallbladder surgery in January of 2011.

The gb surgery was worse for me!

The LB surgery wasn't painful at all....just uncomfortable..........

Good luck,
Steph

I agree that it will vary greatly from person to person, and it also depends on what your individual pain tolerance is.

I would not say mine was "a breeze" but it was also not as bad as I had feared. Instead of pain, I would say that I was very uncomfortable for about 3 - 4 days. I didn't sleep well at all the first two nights. I had a little gas pain, but not too bad. The incisions didn't bother me at all, which I was pleased about.

The only thing that WAS truly awful was the feeling I had behind my breast bone...the only way I can describe ii is that I felt like I had swallowed a softball and it was just sitting there. Just a big lump with a lot of pressure, and it hurt to take a deep breath. It was awful. Some people/doctors say that was gas. Some say it could be just the swelling and/or "moving around" of organs during surgery. Whatever it was, it was not pleasant. And it lasted a good 2 weeks for me. 

It was not unbearable, just very uncomfortable. However, every moment was worth it to me.

I had my GB out 2 years prior to being banded.  The pain of having gallstones was one of the worst - no, make that THE worst - pain I've ever experienced.  The surgeries themselves seemed very similar to me (both done laprascopically with 3-4 incisions), although following the GB removal I had gas pain in my sternum & shoulder for several days, where I had none following WLS.  Took about the same time to be fully up and moving around - 2-3 days.

The biggest similarity between the two surgeries was this, though - having my GB out relieved me of the worst physical pain I'd ever had, and having WLS relieved me of the pain (both physically & psychologically) of being morbidly obese.  I'd do either one again in a heartbeat.

For me it was about the same except that I had a bit more gas with the band but Gas x resolved that issue.