Caribear

Congratulations Allison, that's awesome! It's great to hear that you are doing so well. Isn't it frustrating when one of your main support people isn't "supporting" your decision? I know my mom will stand behind me with whatever I choose, but right now she just really doesn't want me to do this. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is being super supportive. I think it got through to him when I looked him in the eye and told him that I wanted to do this because I don't want to die slowly like my dad did, and that I didn't want to do that to him or to our son. If you know there is a procedure out there that can prevent something like that, you do it. I wish you good luck and continued success!

Congratulations! It is very inspiring to read about people like yourself who have had real success with the band. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for the replies. That's the thing - I'm able to lose some weight on my own, but not all that I need to, and I'm not able to keep it off long term. 30 pounds over the course of nine months wouldn't be unheard of for me, but if I were to try on my own to keep it off I would put it back on within a year.

I have had my gallbladder removed, which is somewhat similar to the lapband surgery from what I hear, and I can tell you the worst part is the waiting. On your actual surgery day, everything goes so fast that you don't really have time to be that scared, and before you know it you're waking up in recovery. One minute the anesthesiologist is putting the mask over your face, the next thing you know you're done. You'll be fine.

I'm quite a ways north of Dayton, about halfway between Dayton and Lima, but going to Premier Bariatrics (Good Sam/Miami Valley) for my surgery. I saw a thread from a while ago by some Dayton people, but it doesn't look like any of them are still active on here... I would love some local folks to talk to!

I haven't been banded yet, but the thing that calms my nerves is thinking that, like shay said, I can either take the slight risk of dying in surgery (something like .65%) or keep on like I am and know that I will die early like my dad did (100%). Plus it helps knowing that this is the safest of all the bariatric surgeries. I'm sure you will be fine. Your surgeon looks very capable, and I'm sure he and his team will take good care of you. Again, like shay said, you can do it.

Ok, I've read a lot of threads about the supervised diet, but I'm still a little worried. I go to my family doctor Monday for my first of my nine months, and I am concerned that if I do too well I'll be denied by my insurance company. Has anybody had this happen or know of anyone who has? I'm not worried about getting under the BMI limit since it is so high right now, but I'm concerned that if I do happen to lose, say, 25-30 pounds, my insurance company will say "See, you don't need surgery, you've done so well with this supervised diet!" I would have liked to have done the diet with the bariatric office, but my insurance won't let me because that particular division of the office is not on my provider list. Thanks in advance!

Awesome job! And I have to agree, you are lovely!

Thanks for the advice! I love your blog, BTW. You're doing awesome, keep it up!

I had my informational seminar on Wednesday. My mom and boyfriend came along with me, which was awesome. The seminar was really interesting. One of the surgeons did the presentation, and he talked about some of the history of obesity and the reasons why it's so hard for us to lose weight. I did not know that eating only an extra 200 calories per day can add up to gaining 100 pounds in five years ( !!!). It was really eye-opening. After he went through all of that, he started discussing all of the surgery options they offer at their practice. The four he talked about were lap-band, gastric sleeve, traditional bypass, and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch (BPD/DS). He was very thorough and did not seem to be favoring any one procedure over another; he discussed both the advantages and disadvantages of each type. At the end he had some of his existing patients come in and share their success stories. It was very inspiring. When the seminar was over, the surgeon stuck around to answer any private questions. I came up and asked him about my fibromyalgia and if it would cause any specific complications. He said that it would not be a problem and that I would be ok to go ahead and proceed with any surgery I chose. I then mentioned that I was interested in the lap band. He told me that in general, they tend to discourage people with a higher BMI from choosing the band because it has "limited average loss of excess weight." He had mentioned earlier that most of the higher BMI patients choose the BPD/DS because you can lose up to 80% of your excess weight vs. 60% with the band (average). But he also told me that it would be something we could discuss at my first consultation. Personally, I still know that the band is the right decision for me. It is the safest of all the procedures they discussed, with the lowest mortality and short term complication rate. Plus there is hardly any risk for malnutrition because the stomach is not removed, just restricted. I know from previous surgeries that it takes me a long time to recover, so I can not imagine choosing to have the BPD/DS. It is an open procedure, not laparoscopic, and there is a lot of cutting and rearranging involved. Neither can I imagine doing the bypass. I would consider the sleeve, but since it is a fairly new procedure, my insurance will not cover it. Plus my boyfriend quit his driving job yesterday, so there's no way I can do self-pay either...so that only leaves the lap-band. Yesterday I called my mom to discuss the seminar with her and see if it changed her mind at all. She first said that it had encouraged her to decide to lose some weight this year, and that we could do it together. Then she said that she still didn't want me to do it. She really feels that God will heal my fibromyalgia, and then I can work out more and lose the weight on my own. But she is forgetting something. The fibromyalgia is not the problem. I have been obese for most of my life. I have lost considerable amounts of weight in the past, but it has ALWAYS come back. I have never been able to lose any large amount of weight and keep it off for any reasonable amount of time. I'm not bad at losing the weight, I'm bad at keeping it off. That's why I feel I should go ahead with the band. It will help me keep my portions small and remind me to keep my choices healthy. Acting on an idea I got from another brilliant member of this site, I went out and bought a cookbook for weight loss surgery patients and have been eating from it for almost a week now. The food is yummy, easy to fix, and my family likes it too. Plus, I have lost another five pounds! I told my mom about this and she said "See? You don't need the surgery! You're doing great on your own!" *sigh* But at least I know I will actually be able to cook something after the surgery that will taste good and that my son will actually eat. Monday morning I will head to my family doctor to start my nine-month supervised diet, and hopefully he will let me stay with this since I have had some success with it already. And hopefully my insurance company won't deny my surgery because I've lost weight. All in all, I'm pretty excited and cautiously optimistic.

This definitely helps me, Zil. It really reconfirms everything I've seen and read so far. Thank you so much for the insight. : )

I know how you feel... my old scale made me want to tear my hair out because if I stepped on it three times in a row, it would give me three different weights, up to 30 pounds apart. And yes, it is on a hard floor, I've had lots of people ask me about that. But I recently got a new scale that was pretty good value for the money. It's nowhere near those high-end scales, but it gives me consistent weights within a pound of each other. It's an EatSmart scale, and it was less than $30 on Amazon. Here's the link if you want to check it out. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KXZ808/ref=oh_o03_s00_i00_details

Lol that is too funny. Well congratulations anyway!

There's nothing wrong with wanting support while going through such a major stressful life decision. And it does take a lot of strength to admit that we can't always do everything on our own. I don't know how you feel about God, but He is always there to hold your hand when you need it. And there are plenty of people here going through similar experiences as you who would be willing to hold your virtual hand, myself included. Don't hesitate to send me a message if you need someone to talk to, I'm on here a lot. I will help you in any way I can. You can do this. <3

I agree, there are many other people who go through the same thing. I haven't been banded yet but have spent quite a bit of time dealing with food issues. Maybe you can consider talking about it with a therapist. That's what I have been doing. I won't lie, it's not easy to deal with and I don't think it ever really goes away completely, but you can control it with the right tools. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the thing that helped me the most. It will help teach you that those feelings are normal, and that it's ok to have them, and that even though your brain may be telling you that you will die without ice cream, you really won't. I wish you good luck, whatever your decision, and I will pray for you. You can do this!

I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how hard that must be. I will be praying for you as well. I wish I could do or say something to lessen your pain. I have not personally had this happen to me, but if you need someone to talk to I will be glad to listen.

I'm so sorry you've had to go through this. I haven't been banded yet either, but I have to agree that it seems strange that any surgeon would want to risk doing the surgery again if you have already rejected one band. Unless the new band is made completely of different material than the first, it wouldn't be a good idea to risk having the same thing happen imo. Maybe you could even run this by your primary care doc and see if he/she thinks it's a good idea. I know a primary care doc is not a lap band specialist, but they should have enough of a grasp of foreign body rejection to at least give you an opinion as to whether you should try it again or not. I'm just concerned about your health and the safety of a second procedure.

Hi Maggie, it's great to see someone with such a great sense of humor about such a sensitive issue. I wish you the best of luck, and I will be praying for you to have a speedy recovery and lots of success.

@MrsBaxter, I'm sorry that you have had to go through this too, but it is nice to know that I'm not the only one who has struggled with this issue. You are so right, we can do all things through Him. @Zil, Thank you. I am trying to drive out that little nagging voice of doubt, because I know that it is the devil trying to bring me back down. But you are right, Christ lifts me up every time. @Pink Dahlia, You're very right. Isn't it funny though how we wouldn't hesitate to get treatment for any other health condition, but obesity is something we are supposed to handle on our own? Like we somehow asked for this in the first place? (I think I'll have to rant about this in a later blog post )

@Shelley, thank you for going to the trouble to find the article and post about it. I really do appreciate that. @Elcee, I have to agree that his show is not what it used to be. I like the fact that he brings attention to some things that need to be discussed, but it seems like lately it's a lot of hype and not a whole lot of content. I used to watch him every day, but then I realized that at the end of the show, he hadn't really said anything definitive. @Pink Dahlia, thank you for the support. My mom is coming around, and she is going with me to my seminar. I keep putting the facts in front of her, and she is starting to see that it's not as scary as she thought it was.

Thank you Zil, I really appreciate the kind words and support.

Specifically for those who had been overweight their whole lives... I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I just have to ask. Have you had any problems emotionally dealing with being "thin" for the first time? I've been obese or morbidly obese for my whole adult life and most of my childhood, and I just can't wrap my head around what it would feel like to be a normal weight. I'm ready to be healthy, but I've never known what it was like to not be the "fat girl"...

Congratulations!

I would suggest you go talk to your doctor about it. If it is bad enough to impact your everyday life and doesn't improve with rest, it's serious enough to go to the doctor. You may even want to see a rheumatologist if your primary doc thinks it's appropriate. I hope you find an answer soon, I know how debilitating hip pain can be.

I know how you feel, Lisha. I've got a little more than 200 pounds to go too. I've found that you can't look at it like "Oh, I have so much weight to lose, I'll never make it." That's just self-defeating. You have to make some short-term goals. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this and I've made some for myself, so I'll share. Right now I am at 375, and I am at the very beginning of my process. I have a nine-month physician documented diet before I can even think about being banded. So my first goal is to lose 25 lbs. in that nine months. I don't want to lose too much, in case the insurance company would say "well, then, you don't need surgery!" Then my next goal is to get down under 300. I'm not putting in a time frame because I don't know how it will go for me, since I have medical issues that may impact how fast I can lose and how much exercise I can do. When I get to 299, I will dance my ever-lovin' rear end off, then my next goal is 250. Breaking it up into smaller pieces makes it so much more doable. Then when you get to the 200-250 lost range, you can look back and say "Wow, I remember when I was so discouraged by this, but look at me now! I did it!" I know you can do it. I have faith in you. : )