SoCalDixieGal

ebay is great for lots of clothing - just takes a lot of digging through posts. Thrift & Goodwill good resources too. I have to dress professionally for work so I tend to buy what I call disposable brands - Loft and Old Navy. Seems like they're only made to last a season, and that's about all you need them for! I'm also pretty proficient at taking in slacks myself. Thank you to the days of taking Home Economics in school!

I currently have the band, and have had it for five years. I didn't have any of the slippage issues folks have had and overall not many severe complications. But if you've got a moment, here's my story. Self pay at 252. Height 5'8" and wanted to get down to probably 160 at the time. The initial 4 - 5 months is where I lost my initial 20 - 30 lbs. Most of that was in the recovery period. Over the next 2 years, I lost a total of 50 lbs so at the 3-year out period I was right about 200. And, it was work on my part. I never got good restriction with the band in that small amounts of food didn't fill me up. I got acid reflux. I got stuck frequently despite eating very small bites and chewing, chewing and chewing. Yeah, getting up from a business dinner to go throw up is so professional. And, even if I was stuck I was still hungry. I'd go back to get fills and unfills probably every 6 months. Fill because I couldn't get restriction. Unfill because if I did get some restriction I'd get horrible reflux and the things I'm supposed to eat (lean meats, etc) I couldn't but junk food - no problem. Yeah, two bites into a meal and bam - stuck and throwing up. Not able to eat afterwards and being HUNGRY. The band never eliminated hunger. It does for some, but didn't do so for me. My Dr told me to eat only 1/2 cup of food and then stop. Not because I was full, but to see if I wasn't hungry any more. What? That meant, that I was controlling my food intake with no assistance from the band? I've since regained 30 lbs. My experience with the band has been that basically I'm doing all the work. It might help a little but not much. I basically wasted a LOT of money. I know that no matter what WLS you have you and only you control what you put into your mouth. Learned that! But, I want a tool that will help me. The band wasn't that tool. I honestly don't think the band will be on the market that much longer. My doctor was a HUGE proponent of the band but these days, not so much. If you go down that path, good luck. I just wish I knew then what I've learned since. For me, this "tool" didn't work.

This thread should be required reading for anyone considering WLS! I'm a failed "bandster" revising to the sleeve. No matter how much research I did ahead of time or how smart I thought I was there was still some part of me that thought of that surgery as the ultimate solution! I fell for all the commercials and the marketing made it look like everything would be so easy! Magic. It would do 90% of the work and I'd only have to do 10%. Well, the band never worked for me like it has for so many people (restriction was rare). I had to do 90% of the work and made a lot of poor choices and a lot of excuses. There was no magic. It also did nothing to control what I put in my mouth. The majority of us here do not have a healthy relationship with food. Even those who think they do may just be kidding themselves. I remember watching a documentary years ago about a man who had bypass. His "healthy" Protein snack was fried chicken. Poached eggs for Breakfast - good choice, but there were about 6 of them! pizza boxes still littered his house. Information, honesty and self reflection. For me, I have to get past eating because I'm bored and making simply the wrong choice. I know I'm going to have to be one of those that journals everything they eat. Good luck everyone, and thanks so much for sharing. This post has been incredibly helpful and made me again do some self discovery.

Like folks above I did extensive research and chose Dr. Ariel Ortiz for the reasons listed above. He is more expensive but for my peace of mind I'm willing and able to pay more. Heck, I was going to spend $21k to have it done by my former band surgeon! I'm lucky in that I have money saved so I don't require a loan and as I live in Southern California it's just a 1 1/2 hour drive south for me. Do want to point out that there's more than one Ortiz in Tijuana. Dr. Ariel Ortiz is the one with all the certifications all over the place! Also, he recently conducted a surgical bariatric demonstration at a bariatric conference in NYC.

I was just thinking this morning that if some of the posters were so stupid to post the comment they did then they were just too much of an idiot to undertake major surgery. Basics such as how many calories it takes to actually gain/lose a pound of fat and the realization that if you're eating <1000 calories a day your 1 or 2 lb weight gain isn't fat. And, another of my favorite comment made prior to surgery "I know I can lose the weight with WLS because I don't make poor food choices today. It's just quantity." Yeah, right.

Exciting! I'm 2/11 so looks like a few of us are there are the same time. Let us know how it goes! One of the other threads got me thinking about the tipping situation. Who, what, when!