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Kelley Howard: Getting My Second Lap Band Thursday in Mexico - PART 5

I had my lap band surgery July 24, and I'm happy to report the surgery went extremely well. I ended up not needing an endoscopy after all since it had been a year and half when I had my first lap band removed.

Although it's the same doctor who put my first lap band in, I'm amazed at how much better this surgery went vs. my first band. I credit this to being in much better shape physically and that I followed the doctor’s instructions to the letter this time. In addition I’m pleased that Dr. Ortiz’s staff has gotten even better in every thing they do over when I had it done the first time 4 years ago.

Here is a quick recap and time line of my second lap band experience:

July 16th
- Started reduced pre-operative daily diet of 2 protein diet shakes, 1 Lean Cuisine meal plus fruits and vegetables, about 600 calories a day;
- Continued walking 45 minutes 5 days a week;
- Stopped drinking alcohol;
- Lost roughly 8 pounds over this week.

July 24th -Surgery Day
- Arrived at the Obesity Control Clinic (Dr. Ortiz’s clinic) at 9:15 a.m met with the Nutrition (a doctor) who ran through all of the facets of the 21 post operative liquid diet, got weighted and measured, discussed weight loss expectations, and all facets of the how to eat with the band after the 21 day liquid diet;
- Met with their Cardiologist; answered health questionnaire, got an EKG;
- Met with the Post Operative doctor to go over more details of care after the surgery;
- Got prepped for surgery;
- Rolled me into surgery around 11:30 a.m., and was done around noon;
- Woke up in recovery an hour later, feeling pretty good and was moved to a private room where I was given some pain medicine and anti-nausea medicine in my IV;
- Around 9 p.m. that evening they removed my IV;
- Spent that evening in the clinic.

July 25th Friday
- Checked out of the clinic by 8 a.m. -- went back to our Hotel room;
- Had some clear chicken broth (Hotel Lucerna has the best);
- Felt so good we booked an earlier flight back to Phoenix to leave at 2:10pm from San Diego Airport (1 day earlier than planned);
- Took shuttle bus at 11:30 a.m. back to San Diego airport. At the TJ border they had closed the bus line down for a while so we had to walk through customs and show our ID and caught another shuttle bus outside the gate which took us the rest of the way to make our 2:10 p.m. flight back to Phoenix;
- Arrived back in Phoenix around 3:10 p.m;
- It was great to be back home in my own comfortable bed;
- Still feeling very good just sore.

July 26th Saturday
- Just took it easy around the house;
- Drank Broth, Coffee, Gatorade, ate popsicles, drank herbal tea;
- Surprisingly, I was not really hungry
- Took some Tylenol for the soreness but felt pretty good, just sore when I got up and moved around a bit.

July 27th Sunday
- Got up and took a 1 mile slow walk around the neighborhood;
- Still drinking clear liquids;
- Feeling really good, not hungry, just a bit sore;
- Planning a trip out to get pedicure today;

July 28th-Monday
- Back to work

When I was in the waiting room of the Obesity Control Center waiting to be checked in I met a woman from Texas who has just had a second band put in.

Dr. Ortiz did not do her first band but instead a doctor in the US put it in. She told me that she had her band over filled so that is was really restricted. This allowed her to eat very little but also caused her to PB a lot. She went for a long time with this over restricted band and one day the band slipped which did not allow her to get any thing down. She told her doctor she thought the band had slipped but her doctor did not believe her so she flew down to Obesity Control Clinic and sure enough it had slipped.

She had to be hospitalized for several days because her band was impacted in her esophagus. After many months her esophagus had heeled and she had Obesity Control Clinic put a second band in. To this woman, I wish her much success with her 2nd lap band. I have not doubt she will make this one work.

I will file another blog about mid week on how I am feeling and doing.