Life After Surgery
Our care doesn’t end when you leave the operating room. We’re there through recovery and beyond to help you make the most of your new life. Many aspects of your health will improve after surgery, but it doesn’t happen magically. It is important to be committed to following a new and improved post-operative lifestyle, including being proactive in dealing with potential risks and discomforts associated with surgery.
At Home: Get up and walk many times each day when you are home. It is suggested that you not stay in one place for more than 30 minutes at a time unless you are sleeping and that you keep your legs elevated when you are seated. Allowing your legs to dangle over the edge of a chair or the edge of a bed for more than a few minutes will cause your circulation to slow and allow clots to form.
Follow-up Visits: You will have multiple follow-up visits with the providers. Your first appointment will be one to two weeks after surgery.
Lifestyle Change: It’s your life - transformed. Success of your weight loss surgery requires a commitment to a significant lifestyle change, which includes diet, exercise and modified behavior at home, work and play. Your success will be determined by following a healthy lifestyle, including a nutrition plan and regular exercise, although exercise restrictions may be in place until you are healed.
Diet: A specific diet must be followed until your stomach is healed. It will be important to separate liquids from solids, take small bites, eat slowly and chew food completely. Food and drink that is high in fat and sugar should be avoided. Once healed, your stomach will continue to adapt to its new state.
Sleeve Gastrectomy and Gastric Bypass: Patients who undergo sleeve gastrectomy or gastric bypass follow a similar dietary plan. Approximately 12 weeks after surgery, regular, healthy foods may be introduced to the diet. Vitamin supplementation will be necessary, especially in patients who have undergone gastric bypass.
Work: Most patients find they can return to work soon after surgery. The ability to return to work varies from patient to patient, and it is a function of the demands of your job and the speed of your individual recovery.
Exercise: You will be expected to start back on a modified version of your pre-operative exercise program the day you get home from the hospital. Most patients resume a walking program. Exercise will become faster and easier after your surgery as you lose excess weight, build stamina and discover cardiovascular fitness.
Driving: Plan to resume driving a vehicle after you have discontinued taking pain medication.
Intercourse: Sexual activity may resume two weeks after surgery or as soon as you feel able.
Support Groups
Weight loss surgery is only the first step. Lifestyle changes are the next step and will be an ongoing effort in reaching your weight loss goals. To help you accomplish these goals, we offer ongoing support and encourage you to attend our free meetings. If you are thinking about having weight loss surgery and want to talk directly with other people that have already undergone bariatric surgery, please attend our monthly support group. This is a great way to meet other people and learn about their experiences firsthand.
Our support group meets on the dates below at 5 p.m. at the weight loss clinic. Everyone is welcome.
January 19, 2023
March 16, 2023
May 18, 2023
July 20, 2023
September 21, 2023
November 16, 2023
To learn more about and attend one of our support groups, call (601) 936-1170.
Band Adjustments
Placement of fluid in the band is purposely delayed until four to six weeks after surgery in order to allow the band to “settle in” and the patient to get used to the sensation of having the band in place. Despite the fact that no restriction is added to the band initially, patients may lose weight during the first three weeks. Most patients need a “fill” or band adjustment by the fourth to sixth week after surgery.
Band adjustments are made by having the patient lie down on the exam table in the office and “do a sit up” to enable the practitioner to feel the port under the skin and fat of the abdomen. Some patients will have their adjustments while seated in a chair. The port is located and marked, and the skin is prepared with alcohol. Then, a special non-coring needle attached to a syringe filled with a small amount of sterile saline (salt water) is passed through the skin into the port. Patients tell us that adjustments are nearly painless.
Patients must take liquids only for four hours immediately prior to a band adjustment. After band adjustments are made, patients drink liquids for the remainder of the day, pureed food for a day and then back to a soft/regular diet. The average patient loses one to two pounds per week. The first year after surgery, the average patient will get seven band adjustments to maintain weight loss. The second year, an average of one or two adjustments can be expected, and the third year, probably no adjustments will be necessary. Lifelong patients will need small adjustments to the band from time to time because there is a small amount of saline that will diffuse out of the band system over time.
As a patient, you will be given clear instructions about what constitutes readiness for the next adjustment including diminishing weight loss, ability to eat more at meals, increased hunger and difficulty following the eating guidelines. You will also be given instructions on what would occur should the band be too tight. Some symptoms include salivation, inability to eat solid food, coughing and regurgitation of food. Patients who wait too long before their next adjustment have slower weight loss over time because the band is too loose.
One major advantage of the adjustable gastric band is that it can be adjusted if patients become ill or pregnant. The band can be loosened to allow for better nutrition and then retightened when indicated. In the event of a catastrophic illness, the band can be removed.