Today is day 4 after my banding surgery and while the pneumonia is making me feel lousy, the actual gastric banding feels great!

The first 2 days I felt like I had a big balloon in my stomach and I found it difficult to bend at the waist even slightly. I also found it hard to sleep in my bed as it was too soft and I needed to be slightly elevated. So I spent the first night on the couch and the next night in the hospital.

Last night was much easier! Yesterday I woke up and felt so much better in my abdomen. I can bend a little and also I can now sleep in my bed. I also find getting up not as hard as I did. It was really painful and awkward the first few days trying to get up. But now it is pretty much normal, however I am still being careful! I am so paranoid about the band slipping that I am trying to take it nice and easy.

I was weighed the night I was admitted into hospital and I had lost 4kg! So I guess that is a positive! I will weigh myself on day 7 and measure.

As for eating there hasn’t been much! I am really not hungry. I read the diet sheet wrong! I thought I was on clear fluids for 2 weeks, but the clear fluid portion is only for the first 24 hours. So now I can have pretty much anything I can suck through a straw. Mostly I am having shakes, chicken soup broth, juice, water and tea. I am finding 1 shake a day is enough, I can’t stomach anymore.

The wounds are getting a little itchy which means they are healing … it also means the sticky stuff is irritating my skin! I have big red welts on my body from all the sticky stuff they have put on me, even though I tell them I have an allergy! But I guess there is nothing else they can do.

Can’t wait till the next stage! Pureed food! LOL YAY

The past few days have been pretty eventful! On Saturday (5/7/09) night I had pains and a weird feeling in the left side of my chest, I went to emergency where they put me on a heart monitor and did some blood tests. We waited about 5 hours for all the test results to come back and they were sure I had developed a clot in my lung. Because I have had 3 anesthetics in the past 4 weeks I am at a high risk of clotting.

I was admitted at 2am on Sunday (6/07/09) morning and was given an injection of heparin to thin my blood and was told I would need a CT scan in the morning to see if their was a clot present. In the morning I was finding it a little hard to breath and found having the oxygen on helped. At 12pm I was taken to have the scan. They had to inject dye into my system, which was a very weird sensation! It felt really warm and then all of a sudden I felt like I was going to wet myself!

A few hours after the scan the doctor came to see me. He said their wasn’t a clot present but I did have pneumonia and both my lungs had collapsed a little. He said I could stay if I wanted, but was happy for me to go home on antibiotics.

It was a pretty scary thing, I know pulmonary embolisims are really serious and can be life threatening. So I was panicking a little and so glad when the test came back negative.

Today is day day 4 after my surgery, I will right another blog about how the actual lap band is going. I am feeling really lousy today but trying to walk around as much as I can to help me breath better.

So lets hope this is the last bump in the road! I have had enough problems in the last month!

Day one has been ok. I have been in a little more pain then I expected. It hasn’t been overly bad just a bit debilitating, I have to move slowly when I stand up and walk. Laying flat on my back is also a little uncomfortable.

When it comes to eating I have not been hungry at all. I have had to force myself to drink. I am on a clear fluid diet for 2 weeks and can also have shakes. I am not too worried about it, having no appetite definitely helps!

I got to see the cuts today when the nurse changed my dressings, they are not too bad. The main one where my port was placed is about 5cm long and the other 3 are small at about 1cm each. Not that it worries me, I would rather be thin with scars than fat! LOL so between my gallbladder, banding and c-section scars I doubt I will be wearing a bikini in the future!

So day one has actually been ok, I am feeling really positive about it. Now off to bed for a goodnight sleep.

The day started very early, I could hardly sleep the night before I wasn’t feeling nervous but I knew my subconcious was. I was convinced I was fine.

I finished packing my bag and got Cooper’s bag ready because mum was planning to spend the day at the hospital with him until I got out of surgery.

We went to the hospital and picked Marc up on the way.

I got to the hospital at 12:10pm and completed the paperwork. I then had to go to the pre-admission clinic where the nurse checked my blood pressure, discussed my allergies to sticky plasters and did an ECG. She tagged me and I waited for my name to be called!

I was taken to a special waiting area where I changed into a very sexy hospital gown and even sexier paper underwear! LOL I also had to put on TED compression stockings and a robe and sat in the waiting room anticipating the arrival of my chariot to take me to surgery. While I was waiting I was talking to the lady next to me, she told me she had a gastric band 4 years before and lost 40kg. She was really interesting to talk to and made me really excited.

Finally at 2:50pm the nurse arrived and took me to the operating rooms. I waited in a bed in another waiting room until 3:20pm and then I was taken to the anaesthetic bay. The anaesthetist was nice, although I asked him to use a local he didn’t and it took him quiet a few minutes to find a vein which left me a little upset.

I then walked into the operating room and laid on the bed they attached all of their gadgets including a thing on my forehead that tells them how awake or asleep I am. They gave me some oxygen and said goodnight! The next thing I know I am in recovery in a bit of pain with the best recovery nurse I could have asked for. She was so comforting and gentle, she made the whole process really easy she was just fantastic. I was then transfered to my room where Marc, Mum and Cooper were. I had my own room which was great, it made it so much easier to rest.

The night went well I was woken a few times so they could check my BP and woken at 3am for a blood thinning injection. The nurse who looked after me all night was fantastic, very sweet and helpful.

I had a shower and was allowed to leave at 9:30am.

The pain is fine while I am laying down, but it hurts a bit to stand and walk around. It is a little more painful than my gallbladder operation, but I think it may be a combination on the pain from the last surgery and this one as the used the same entry points.

All in all it was not a bad experience at all. The nurses were lovely and I was very well looked after.

I am so excited about the next step!

Ok so now it’s done it’s time to come clean….. I didn’t do the shakes. After having my gallbladder surgery I just did not feel like shakes. I felt sick and needed real food. I ate healthy 60% of the time but must admit the last few days I pigged out on junk food.

My final meal was from Parso’s Pizza their yummy chicken pasta with cream, sundried tomatoes, macadamia nuts and avacado! It was so yummy, but I did feel very guilty.

All day yesterday I was worried my liver would be too fatty and he would get in there and not do it. I was very silly not doing them and given the time over again I would have done them. The stress and anxiety over it wasn’t worth it.

It’s been 7 hours since surgery and I’m feeling ok. A little sore but nothing too bad. The dressings look a little bloody, not like my gallbladder ones which had no blood.

I feel so happy. Up until 2 minutes before I wanted to chicken out, I wasn’t sure I was ready, but now I feel on top of the world. I have a new best friend and this is the start of our journey! I feel so positive about life, almost like I have been given a second chance.

I want to take a second to thank my wonderful friend Nicole. She arranged for me to have this surgery for free. She was in the right place at the right time and I was the first person she thought of. She has been my inspiration and motivation she lost over 50kg with a band and looks amazing. She really held my hand and supported me through this whole process and for all of that I will forever be thankful.

Time to go back to sleep. Bandit and I are pretty tired.

Goodnight dear friends in blog world.

I am sitting in the hospital waiting to be admitted. Feeling very nervous. Am I doing the right thing? Will it be everything I hope it will be? Only time will tell.

Tick tock not long to go, in about an hour I will be in surgery changing my life!

Goodbye old me with no self confidence and bad eating habits and hello to my new friend for life. I shall name him bandit.

WOW! After a little hiccup I am now only 1 sleep away from changing my life! Tomorrow is the day I get my gastric banding! How am I feeling you ask? A little … wait no a LOT nervous! I could hardly sleep last night so I am sure tonight will be worse.

I have been waiting a few months now for the banding and now I am wondering am I really ready for it? I know I am and I need to be but all the research and thinking and talking about it has made it seem surreal. Like I am talking about someone else and now it has just dawned on me that it is me that this is happening to. It is me who is going to be banded, me who is about to change my life and become thin again, me who will be able to walk into a regular store and not worry about the sales people giving me the “you know we don’t stock your size look” …. Amazingly all of that really hasn’t hit until now!

But through all the nerves I am feeling like a little kid on Christmas eve. I am getting the biggest gift anyone could ever give someone tomorrow! It’s Christmas in July!!

So tonight I will pack my bag and wait for them to call my name at 12:30pm tomorrow!

Wish me luck!

I bet you are all wondering how my surgery went? Well it didn’t. Monday night I ended up at the emergency department in extreme pain, only to be told I had gallstones and needed my gallbladder out!

I was admitted at 2am Tuesday morning and was operated on at 7pm Tuesday night. So I have had to put my banding surgery off for 2 weeks. The doctor said 2 to 4 weeks, but I just can’t wait any longer! I was so excited and so ready for it and now I am so disappointed that it didn’t happen.

So for the next 2 weeks I am not allowed to pick up anything heavy including my son and rest as much as I can so I am ready for the next surgery!

New date is set for 2nd July 2009 at 12:30pm …. unless my appendix goes before then! LOL

Last night one of my best friends Nicole and I hit the casino here on the Gold Coast for a girls night out! We had a buffet dinner which was so yummy and a cocktail and a few drinks! We played on the roulette tables, yes big spenders we spent about $20 and won nothing! We then put about $10 into the poker machines and I won about $50 all up which I was happy about!

We had a great night with lots of laughs and fun. But even through all of that I still felt like the fat girl. Nicole has had gastric banding and looks fantastic after losing around 60kg! (see her site here) I am always so concious of my weight in a large group of people especially at clubs or places where guys and girls are on the lookout! I have no interest in other men, I love my husband but to have a guy come and say hi would be all the flattery I need! I would walk away happy. But no such luck. Nicole on the other hand looks so fab and gets a lot of attention.

I guess I realised what life will be like after banding. Nicole has so much confidence and reminds me of what I was like before the weight. She was talking to people while I was a bit of a wall flower.

I can’t wait to get this weight off! I am so sick of being invisible to people and also when people do see me all they see is “the fat girl”.

Last night was both a lot of fun, but also pretty depressing. I now remember why I don’t go out a lot.