What Activity can I do?

Once out of the hospital and at home or your hotel room, remove the dressings over your small cuts if the nurse has not already done so. Leave the wounds exposed to the air, unless there is a lot of liquid drainage. In that case, apply a clean dressing (which you can obtain from any pharmacy) and call the nurse-clinician's office at 934-1934 ext.: 36887. You may take showers when you go home and allow soap and water to run over your cuts. Do not rub the face cloth over them as this can dislodge the clips and start bleeding. Let the wounds dry and keep them uncovered.

You can walk as much as possible, and you can do all exercises that do not involve severe contact (e.g. play contact hockey or football) including stationary bike, walking or jogging on a treadmill etc. as long as there is no pain. You can drive your car if it feels comfortable. You can have sex if there is no pain. You can sleep on your belly if that is your preference.

You can lift your children without worrying about wound hernia since we do not make a cut up and down your belly with the laparoscopic approach we use for both laparoscopic banding and laparoscopic gastric bypass.

What will I eat?

Once you have left the hospital, you will need to make sure you follow the dietary guidelines for each stage of your recovery. You will be eating 6 small, liquid and pureed meals and snacks per day (each meal should not exceed 1/2 cup total for the first 14 days). Remember that your new stomach pouch is very small and will not be completely healed. You will not be able to take in enough protein from this limited diet, so you will have to add a protein shake every day.

Follow these instructions to minimize problems:

1. Sip on fluids continuously to help prevent dehydration.
2. Take no more than 2 tablespoons over 10-15 minutes. Use a teaspoon to avoid taking too much food at one time.
3. Add ½ cup of protein shake twice a day. You can take 1/2 scoop of WHEY protein isolate (24-28 gr. of protein per scoop) in 1 cup of 1% milk or water. Glucerna or Resource-Diabetic in ready-to-take 250 ml can be a good choice (see also list of protein shake recipes).
4. Stop eating as soon as you feel full.
5. Coffee and tea are not recommended because they have almost no nutritional value and reduce iron absorption if taken with food.
6. It is important to crush your pills before taking them. If they are long acting pills (LA or XL) they must not be crushed. Talk to your pharmacist.

• severe abdominal pain not relieved by Tylenol
• have a temperature of more than 38.5° C
• vomit blood
• become short of breath with minimal activity
• general feel of malaise (i.e. not feeling well and can’t walk with easy)