ginny echols

hey dawn my name is ginny.I live in granbury tx. im 57 years old and have not been banded yet it will be july for me. I have 217 lbs to loose. I must loose 20lbs before they will do the surgery required by my insurance.I am looking forward to this journey I have been fat most of my life even as a child.I have diabetes and osteo arthritis in legs knees and hips.I also have sleep apnea which i didnt know about till recently.anyway just thought id chat and let you know you arent alone here. good luck to you.

I think it is beneficial for all of us to be open and supportive of everyone, no matter where they are into the process or what they have had done. There are many people here that have different stories to tell.

Sorry chez but that response was uncalled for. If you don't like what she posted then don't read it, simple. This is a great site for all of us fatties to get info from and for all to post informative info.
Many of your replies to other threads have been helpful but this one not so.

Ty for sharing your journey, I appreciate reading everyone's story regardless if they had the band, bypass etc, in the end we all have one common goal.
You look absolutely amazing and well done on getting to goal. Keep posting I'm happy to read your posts.

Thanks for the sweet and helpful post! That is amazing weight loss and you look great! No matter what WLS you got we all have the one thing in common and always nice to have something to fall back on in case things don't go as we would hope. Good luck to you! Wish ya the best!

Still, that 40% doesn't really mean anything until we know what percentage of "normal" (not fat) people consider suicide. Plenty of people kill themselves who aren't fat. In fact, I betcha of the people who kill themselves--a lesser percentage are fat.
Many of us have found a more insidious way to deal with the pain of life by killing ourselves--slowly--with food. It's not a big leap to say that anyone who has died as a result of an obesity related illness has committed suicide.
It is all in the way one looks at it.

As your poll indicates, the fact that almost 40% of the obese (or perhaps formerly obese) participants in this forum indicate thoughts of suicide have occured to them in connection with their obesity-related experience shows just what a serious problem morbid obesity is.
This band is a wonderful gift that is changing so many lives. I wonder if the medical community or government were to study the increased likelihood of suicide and the resulting human and economic cost to our society, if more support would be made available to those struggling with this horrific condition.
I also wonder if those who have never struggled with this issue would perhaps have their hearts softened somewhat if they realized that the pain of this situation is so great, that people really do consider suicide as an alternative to staying in their present condition. Perhaps they would be less likely to call it a disease that can be cured by simply "keeping one's mouth shut and taking long walks", which is a quote I saw a few months ago and found patently offensive and juvenile.
Thanks for thinking to ask the question. I think it is more serious than anyone realizes.

Okay okay.
So many of you are concerned for me. Let me first start by saying that I am FINE! And I appreciate that you have been concerned. So many of you are wondering why I posted this then and what I expected to get from it. So here it is:
I guess I expected more people to have seriously thought about it.
My mother was about 360 lbs. I begged her to have WLS. I made the appointments, she wouldn't go, I made them again, I drove to her house to take her to a seminar, she finally went, she bitched and moaned about how happy she was and how scared she was of the surgery. I forced her to go to the pre op tests. It was quite the battle to get her to do all the pre op tests on time. I made an appt and she cancelled and rescheduled. She told me she is one of the happiest people ever even as a large woman. She said she was "jolly" and liked being that way and didn't want to change. She said she enjoyed food and didn't want to give it up. She cried, whined, moaned and complained. I stood my ground about she NEEDED this. But I was selfish, I was afraid that she would die soon if she did not force herself to lose the weight.
Finally, the surgery date was set. She didn't even allow me to take her to the hospital for the surgery. She was mad at me. And she was a very happy woman. Everyone loved being around her and she was the life of every party. I felt like a big jerk for pushing her into this and felt horrible for the entire 3 weeks of her recovery as she hurt and was in pain. I felt guilty. I doubted myself for pushing her into this.
2 weeks ago, and 180 lbs lighter from gastric bypass, out of the blue when I showed up at the house to drop off a piece of tupperware I borrowed, she hugged me so hard I couldn't breathe, when she stopped I felt the tears in my hair. She looked at me and with all seriousness said, "thank you for saving my life and letting me not put that gun in my mouth one more time and then having everything I have to talk myself out of it each and every time". A long talk followed.
I was floored. All I wanted to do was have her live longer, my reasons for pushing for the surgery were purely selfish. I had no idea she had a gun. I had no idea it was loaded. I had no idea that at least once a week for the past 5 years of being obese she would sit in her living room and put the gun in her mouth trying to get the nerve to pull the trigger. I had no idea that thoughts of death ran through her mind. I had no idea that she had planned details to how she would fall or what she would be wearing. I had no idea of the pain. Afterall... she was "jolly". I had no idea.
So it made me think.... how many of us had these thoughts? Now I wonder, how many of us had these thoughts and wouldn't even dream of admitting it online anonymously for fear that someone, anyone, would figure out who we are and our weakness. So I guess I was expecting to see more that shared the same emotions as my seemingly "jolly" family member had.
So I thought just maybe, there were others.... and just maybe by putting this post and poll there, they would know that others share their experiences and their pain. For just that one person to know that they are NOT alone. There ARE others. Even someone who just voted "yes, I have attempted it" anonymously and never posted but yet gained strength through others posting their feelings and experiences such as JohnQ or pam or chichi or anyone else that shared their stories. Then just maybe..... I could help one more.

I don't mean this to sound flippant, but I am more ashamed of committing suicide and having those who found me think my house was messy. Sooo...until I get around to really doing a deep clean, I guess I'll stay alive!

If you think really hard about it, we all took a gamble at suicide by getting banded. We all knew there's a small mortality rate during surgery (as with any anesthesia.) We all put our lives on the line, so isn't that just a little suicidal?

I wrote on this a couple of days ago, and the bars where just about even. NOW, I look back and I see that the NO's are way out in front. Not that this is a race, but who the heck is voting??? I wonder how honest you fatty's are being. Just to make a point.... If you are fat enough to get the LAP-BAN??? Then you where killing yourself a day at a time, suicide on the installment plan. If you are fat enough where it is a question of health and welfare, and you choose to keep eating...... that is not correct behavior or sane thinking and acting. To me is killing yourself with food.
Maybe it's just my simple way of looking at this, and there other ways, but I just don't see them.
Butch

These are all great!
I certifiably won't miss thinking "can that chair handle my weight!" or worse...that chair clearly could not handle my weight!
No more broken chairs.....

I won't miss.....
-having to stand in the back of group pics
-hoping i won't have to take the stairs when visiting clients
-having my fashion sense not match up with what I actually (have to) wear
-feeling HUGE
-looking at a chair with arms and wondering if I'm going to fit

Here is another one....having to use the handicap stall in the bathroom because i'm to wide to fit in a "normal" one!

Orville Redenbachers Smart POP Movie theater butter. 0 trans fat 20 cals a cup. Gooooooooooooood

I USED AN ICE PACK FOR TWO DAYS STRAIGHT AFTER SURGERY AND MY INCISIONS HEALED QUICK AND NO PAIN TO SPEAK OF.

Hello Everyone:
I was banded in February 2008. This makes me 4 years post op. (I still can't believe it!)
I think that I am doing pretty well. I am down more than 100lbs and have maintianed that. I still have about 30lbs that I am working on losing.
How are the rest of the 2008(and earlier) bandsters doing? I know that when we all initially were banded, we reported to this forum/website like it was our parole officer. Now that we have been banded for a while, I am seeing less and less of those who have been banded for a year or greater.
This site is still an excellent and frequently used resource for me. Hearing from you guys keeps me going.
So here is my roll call to see how the 2008 and earlier bansters are doing? Share your up, downs, advice given, or lessons learned.

I ALSO DRINK REGULAR coffee EVERY MORNING AND I PUT vanilla Protein Powder IN IT TO GET MY Protein START FOR THE DAY.