I am a banded woman!

I have been banded now for a week and so far so good.  I meant to start posting about everything before now but life happened and for some reason my computer kept deleting what I had written so like any good southern girl I threw a fit and refused to post for a couple of days.  I am going to break up my trip into several posts so that nothing is too long and it builds suspense.  Also, as soon as I get a chance I will upload pics of my body before and after surgery and you can see quite clearly why I needed this surgery.

Day one:

We got started at 4am to make our flight but I was so wired that I don’t think that the sleep was missed.  I was fasting by this point for my pre op tests but again….stress made it an easy fast.  I am amazed that I was able to squeeze my hips into the plane seats and was lucky enough to have my husband as my neighbor on all the flights.  I had packed books, music and movies in the hopes of a nice relaxing flight but nothing kept my interest long and I could only focus on what was coming up.  When we landed our driver was already waiting for us so I had no time to wait and be even more nervous because it was a short ride across the border and straight to the clinic.

The clinic was surprisingly nice, very comfortable, friendly and clean.  I signed in with the front desk and sat in the waiting room until they were ready to do my tests.  As I looked around I noticed several other patients and took advantage of the time by getting to know those that had the surgery earlier in the week.  It was great to be able to talk with others that were tired of riding the weight loss roller coaster and making the same choice that I was.  I didn’t have that long to chat since I was quickly called back to start testing.

If you recall I was more nervous about the pre op stuff than the actual surgery.  Was my liver too fat, is my heart strong enough…. Lots of things could go wrong and prevent me from getting the band.  I should not have worried.  Dr. Miranda, my nutritionist, besides being beautiful is also a caring and helpful person.  She was so excited about my 30+ lbs loss and said that my liver was going to be fine.  She also took the time to give me my goal weight (160lbs) and to go over my new eating style.  I was very sad to hear that I have to wait at least 6 months before I can have soda…..  I am going to miss my caffeine free diet coke!  They continued to stress that the band is not a magic cure to fat but it is a tool that as long as it is used properly will help me meet my goal.  Next was the blood work, Cardio test and breathing test and then I was cleared to be banded and sent on my way to the hotel.

First things first, the hotel was great.  It was beautiful, clean and well staffed.  We unpacked our stuff and decided to follow drs orders and have a last meal before I became a banded lady.  We went to the Fonde Argentine, (sp) which is an argentine steak house and it was so good.  I would fly back just to eat at this place it was that good.  The steaks were huge and seasoned perfectly and the atmosphere was great.  The only downside to my last meal was that I did not factor in that I have barely eaten for 2 months and so I had one roll, ¼ of my steak, some molletts (delish sweetbread meat) and about 6 french fries.  We took the rest back to the hotel and settled in for the night.  Since we were in Tijuana and things are pretty dicey there at the moment we did not want to be out after dark and that was fine because at  4 pm their time it was 6 pm our time and we had been up a long time.  I am sad to say that we were asleep before the sun had even set.  Before crashing we did order room service for some cake and had fun watching the Spanish tv, oh and the bed was great!