Post-Op Essentials

This last weekend I went shopping for some things I'll need after my surgery. Granted, not all of these are REQUIRED, but I've heard from various lap-banders that these really help.

A travel pillow: these are perfect size (for me anyway) to hold over my stomach to protect my post-op wounds from my seat belt in the car. For most people, the lap strap of their seat belt hits 2 of the incisions, so I was told this is a must for any car rides for at least a week after surgery.


A heating pad: In surgery, they pump your body full of gas to separate your internal organs making it easier to access your stomach. After surgery, that gas is trapped in your body and most people say it ends up in your upper left shoulder. Heating pads are #1 recommended to ease that discomfort.

Chewable Gas-X: Mostly for the same reason as above...they pump your body full of gas, it has to go somewhere.

A Pedometer: Walking is a HUGE part of recovery. A mere 4 hours after surgery the nurses will be pulling me out of bed every 2 hours until midnight making me walk for a while. While it's not expected immediately after surgery, the goal is to get to 10,000 steps per day. I would never be able to keep track myself.

Child size plates: This is more of a mental assist than anything. It can be really depressing looking at a normal sized dinner plate with a little blob of food on it. But looking at a small plate that is filled with food isn't so bad. I also got the kind that have compartments so that I can separate my proteins, veggies, fruits, etc into their correct portions. Protein goes in the biggest compartment.

Child size utensils: Well if I have the plates I may as well have the set. No, just kidding. This is to help with bite sizes. It's easy to take way too big of a bite of food on a normal size fork or spoon. This could cause problems if that food bite is too big that it can't fit through the opening of my stomach pouch. So naturally, the smaller the fork or spoon, the smaller the bite will be. Lap-band patients are only supposed to take bites the size of a dime.

Burt's Bees Res-Q ointment: For the incisions it is recommended to use vitamin E to help heal and sooth the wounds. I couldn't find any vitamin E oil so I found this. It's vitamin E and lavender. I'll post a follow up after surgery to let you know if/how well this works on the wounds.

Disney Princess Tattoo Band-aids: Because every girl wants to feel like a princess when she has owies. Enough said.

Magnesium Citrate: Ok well this one is required. The day before surgery I have to drink this to "clean out" my system. Eww...not looking forward to this at all.

Calcium Chews: Calcium is needed to prevent osteoporosis. It's also needed for nerve transmission and regulation of the heart muscle function. If you can't tell...that's copied from my surgeon's book, lol.

Chewable multi-vitamin: Due to the fact that lap-band patients eat less than the normal serving sizes, we also consume less of the important vitamins and minerals from our food. Multi-vitamins will be a life long addition to my diet. They also have to be chewable because most multi-vitamins are large and could easily get stuck in the pouch opening. They'd dissolve eventually, but I'd rather chew and be done than be in total agony for the hour it will take to dissolve. A key note when you're looking for your chewable multi-vitamin, it HAS to have at least 22 different vitamins and minerals. You can't get the gummy bear vitamins for kids because they only have like 15...trust me, I checked. Even the adult gummy vitamins only have 17 or 18. You need at least 22.

Snow Cone/Slushy maker: Yay! This is not at all required, this is just for my own personal enjoyment :) One thing I'll be allowed to have immediately post-op is sugar free Popsicles, but I don't really love those. So I figured I'd make my own sugar free snow cones! I bought some sugar free torani syrup flavors (am waiting on strawberry, grr!) to keep them sugar free. I will post a follow up blog to let you know how well this works and if I think it was worth the $30 I spent on it :)

Everything I bought was from Target, so it's not hard to find it all in one stop. I know a lot of other pre-op patients are confused at what all to get and where to find it. Let me know if you have any questions, I'll help :)