bandpal

Hah! That's great! Sorry about the mixup. Charlie, and hello all over again! Your reasoning seems quite sound - even without the other issues you are facing, the sense of freedom I have at not constantly worrrying and being depressed about my weight is immensely freeing. I wish all that and more for you. Please keep in touch. - Bandpal

Congratulations, Brooklyn band! How'd you jump through all of those pre-op hoops so fast, huh? I also was on the fast track - first consult in October 2007 and surgery just a month later. You're right - this site is a terrific resource, and an endless source of support and encouragement. Wishing you a quick recovery and the best of luck! - Bandpal

Hi Chrystal, Welcome to LBT, you'll get plenty of what was missing at your surgeon's seminar here - lots of practical advice, people speaking from their own experience and encouraging each other. I couldn't have made the progress I did without the help of the people here. The best of luck to you - you can do it! -Bandpal

Hi Charlie, Welcome to LBT. While I am not familiar with the specifics of your health condition, the sentence "I do not think I can do this without help" really resonates with me. That's what I said nearly a year and a half ago at 286 pounds (see my details below). The lapband leveled the playing field for me - gave me some quick success, helped me limit my curb my appetite and change my behavior around food. It's not a magic pill, but it's a powerful tool. I wish you the best of luck, Charlie - you can do it. Please keep me in the loop. - Bandpal

Good luck, vlynn, and welcome to LBT. Anxiety, nervousness and excitement are all legitimate emotions to feel at the outset. Read, make friends, get yourself ready for surgery and prepare for a big change in your life! -Bandpal

Welcome to LBT - Hope that surgeon's appt. and surgery date comes up soon for you. Get ready for a life changing experience! - Bandpal

Hi Melissa, welcome to LBT and good luck on your upcoming surgery. What are the details of your pre-op diet? That would make it easier to give you suggestions. Regarding surgery, check out the site's FAQ (frequently asked questions) on Surgery. Here's the link: Lap-Band Surgery Frequently Asked Questions - Lap Band Surgery and Lap Band Discussion Forum Best of luck!

Yes it will, Kirsten! Welcome to LBT and congratulations on your surgery. Tell us more about yourself: where are you from? What caused you to get to the point that you decided to take this step? What was your pre-op process like? Have your friends and family been supportive? This site is full of wisdom, compassion and experience. It is been an essential part of my journey since being banded in November, 2007. Hang in there, and good luck!

Lola, I absolutely understand your reasons for approaching this issue the way you do, and by no means meant to imply that you were being lying or misleading. I prefaced my comment with "Just for me" exactly for that reason. If you my comment caused you any distress, then you have my most sincere apology. We are all in this together, and I wish you nothing but the best of luck and success on your journey.

Understood, and what you say makes sense. On the flip side, though, I think weight can be a harder issue on women that it is on men. That's the truth, Ruth! We still live in a society where women are expected to never age, never get fat, and never be "less than" in any way, while men are often given a free pass. If an overweight person asked me how I lost the weight, would I tell them? I dunno, maybe. I certainly would never walk up to an overweight person and say, "Hey, I got the band, you should look into it." And neither would I... However, I will share what a poster on this board says, and it says a lot (luluc): The band does not go shopping for good foods for me. The band does not put good foods in my mouth. The band does not make me exercise when I want to stay in bed. YOU have to do all of that. Amen to that. So with that in mind, she wasn't incorrect in what she said. She wasn't even untruthful or misleading. She IS exercising more and she IS eating better and less. Absolutely- for her. It's not my truth but it is hers. I by no means meant to imply that anyone else was lying. Our reasons for telling or not telling are as vast and different as we are. And amen to that as well - I said that this is an issue we all have to decide for ourselves. read below your scenarios about taking the easy way out and how you would never hear people say that chemo was the easy way out of cancer. That is true. However, many do NOT see obesity as a disease like cancer. Heck, I don't even see it that way and I'm fat. Most see it as an inability to control oneself. I doubt it will EVER be viewed by the vast majority as a disease, so yes, for many, we ARE taking the easy way out. Then the many are free to think that - but I won't buy in to that by hiding what I've done - that's what telling less than my truth would mean to me.

Hi D, Welcome to LBT. Where are you from? How long have you been waiting for your surgery? This is a good place- I hope you find as much support, friendship and information here as I have. Good luck, hope the wait isn't long!

Hi Kath, big welcome to LBT. I agree with Susan: there's years of wisdom and experience here. Search the forums for relevent threads and go through them, looking for the information you want. While the band does indeed work properly with a fill, I found I was able to lose weight during the post op period. In fact, I lost 30 pounds during the first month - the restriction I had from the swelling, my fear of messing everything up by going too quickly, my desire to follow my doctor's instructions to the letter, and the realization that I had taken a drastic step (reinforced every time I looked down at my scarred and stapled belly) and needed to back it up with action - all these things combined and enabled me to lose weight from the get - go. There was a period of difficulty (commonly referred to here as "bandster hell") when the swelling does down and the band lies there inactive until you get your first fill. I also found that there was more hunger during this period, but by then my whole approach to food had begun to change and that, along with the momentum of the weight I had lost already, was enough to pull me through. “Life after banding, the good and the bad”, you say? Okay, first the good: The band is a powerful tool which has allow me to change my relationship to food. I eat much less than I used to,am hungry much less than I was, am able to set limits for myself much more successfully than ever before. I have lost 134 pounds in the last 16 months, my BMI is 24.9 down from 47, and all of my co-morbidities (sleep apnea, high blood pressure and cholesterol) have either disappeared or are in full retreat. I am much happier and more comfortable with my body than ever before, and buying and trying on clothing has gone from being the worst torture imagineable to a genuine pleasure. Now the bad news: there are periods of physical discomfort, such as the post operative period which Susan mentioned. It takes a few days to get used to each fill, and becoming comfortable with the new and smaller size of your stomach is a trial and error process, which may include regurgitory incidents which can rival the special effects used in “The Exorcist” (we call these unfortunate occurances "PB's", or productive burps) . More importantly, however, the operation is only on your stomach, not your head. The same thoughts and emotions which caused me to binge are still there,and they must be confronted without the ability to eat them into submission. This, for me has been the biggest challenge. Thank you for such a good question, and the best of luck to you - stay in touch!

I feel that those people don't have the slightest idea what they're talking about. Imagine: "Oh, so and so recovered from that nasty cancer but they took the easy way, chemotherapy"; "Oh, so and so beat that darn pneumonia, but they took the easy way, antibiotics." Isn't it ridiculous? People watch you struggle your whole life, and then when you finally win, they try to cheapen the victory. What mean-spiritedness, what narrow mindedness. But my hiding what I've done when I am asked about it only buys into this kind of thinking, and I won't do it.

Congratulations to you, too - we have come a long way together. I know we'll be celebrating reaching our goals together soon. I asked my wife your question and here's a direct quote: "I think he's amazing! I've never known him this thin".

Name........Start......Current......Goal......To Go CindyG...........190.............90.............175 ...............15 Momto1plus1...178...........163.............159..................4 Shortgal.........176...........175.............168..................7 Shalee04........178...........178.............168.................10 Skinny_Jill.......145...........145.............140..................5 Bandpal..........161...........152.24.........150.............. 2.24 Looks like my numbers got mixed up on that last post - here's the correct table, I hope.

I had my surgery done in Tel Aviv - it's not Istanbul but at least it's the Middle East. Welcome to LBT and Iyi sanslar!

Hi Kossde, Glad to hear things have been going well for you, sounds like you've been working hard and enjoying the ride. Regarding your fill question: although you mention your increase in calorie intake, you didn't say anything about your quality of restriction. Does your band feel looser than it did? Are you able to swallow foods which you weren't able to before, like bread? For me, that's the surest sign of lessened restriction, and the prime indication that I need a fill. No one outside of your own body can tell you. I understand your fear of becoming unhealthily thin, but, if I understand correctly, you still have 45-55 pounds to lose before you confront that issue. Since it takes a month to get an appointment anyway (I know the feeling - it takes two months for me to get an appointment), why not schedule one? What do they say: "a bird in the hand... " As far as maintainance goes, I'm just reaching that point myself - I'm 2.24 pounds from my goal of a 136 pound weight loss since having been banded in November of 2007. We'll find all the answers together. Good luck!

Name........Start......Current......Goal......To Go CindyG...........190.............90.............175 ...............15 Momto1plus1...178...........164.............159..................5 Shortgal.........176...........175.............168..................7 Shalee04........178...........178.............168.................10 Skinny_Jill.......145...........145.............140..................5 Bandpal..........161...........152.24 ........150..................2.24

Name.........Lbs Lost....% of orig. wgt lost.....BMI Abbisgood.........53.............23%.............?? Aubrie............65.............%...............31 BandChick64.......104............34.67%..........31.6 Bandpal...........133.76.........46.7%...........24.9 BarbBee...........122............40%.............30.4 Cherlita..........60.............20%.............55 Cindyg............62.............24.5%...........34.5 Close.............50.............20%.............33.1 Firebolt..........67.............27%.............30.2 Foofy.............50.5...........18.5%...........35.5 gabeekeeper.......101............30% ............40.2 Hajohnson1........49.8...........18.2%...........39.8 Hollyberries......113............31%.............36.2 HoppingToIt.....69.............19.7%...........49.1 Huskerette........54.............22%.............30.5 kandiceb..........63.............26%.............27.6 linda.............52.............23%.............29.9 lindseyann2u......100............N/A.............N/A Maincat...........141............46.5%...........22 Mariegabrieleee...86.............40%.............36.9 Melanie1972.......80.............30%.............29.7 MollyBrown........36.............12.5%...........36.5 Momto1plus1.......105............39%.............25.7 NYGirl1...........102............33%.............32.6 plump_princess....57.............22%.............36 QatarPhil.........55.............19%.............32.2 Rachel............63.............%..............28.3 Robin_Bird........132.2.........43.3%...........26.3 Sades.............44.8...........19.5%...........33.7 scarecrow.........125............40%.............27.3 Shalee04..........70.............28%.............29.2 Shortgal..........44.5...........20.5%...........32.9 Skinny_Jill.......71.............32.4%...........28.5 Staysee...........70.............20%.............48.4 Stephanie.........64.............27%.............26.5 strangeratx.......63.............27%...........29.6 Teresajo..........93.............36%.............27.3 Tmusicmaker123....73.............19%.............48.7 TxArcher..........103............25.75%..........39.2 tyman311..........61.............31%.............28 want2lose.........91.8...........32%.............31 I still have another two pounds or so to go until goal weight, but I'm excited today because I have a normal BMI for the first time since they started calculating BMI's. As of today, I guess, I am no longer overweight! Thanks, guys - I couldn't have done it without you.

Again, just for me: to respond by telling people that I am watching what I eat and excercizing would be tantamount to lying. I tried to "watch what I eat and excercize" for my entire life and I failed miserably. I "watched what I ate and excercized" all the way up to 286 pounds. Then I finally decided to get the Lapband. True, it is just a tool. True, I now successfully watch what I eat and excercize. But I wouldn't have been able to do it without the boost the band gave me and the limits it gives me up until today. To say anything else would be misleading at best. In my community there is a woman who lost a great deal of weight in the period of a year. At this point I was near my high of 286 pounds, desperately depressed. One evening I approached her and said, " I'm just amazed that you were able to do what you did. I think I just don't have it in me". Her reply: "Look, not everyone can do it". Later I found out that she had been banded (by the same surgeon I ended up using). It was absolutely her right not to disclose what was obviously very personal information for her. But she sure didn't help me any - and if she had said, "oh, I watch what I eat and excercize", she wouldn't have done anything for me either. Every inquiry has the potential to help someone else, even if it's a matter of showing someone that we refuse to be shamed or embarrassed by the choice we have made. Again - we are all different people in different places and have to make this decision by ourselves. Meanwhile, though, I keep hoping to meet that woman in my surgeons waiting room while waiting for a fill.

YOU TELL 'EM, FIXIN2NOTBFAT!!! GOOD LUCK ON YOUR SURGERY!

Hi Moni, Congratulations on taking this big step! Rest up, get plenty of sleep, take some light walks out in the sunshine (hopefully there's plenty of that where you are) and get used to the new you. Follow your doctor's post-op plan to the "T" and use this site for support and lots of wisdom by way of experience. Where are you from? How did you reach the decision to be banded? What was your pre-op experience like? Take care, Bandpal

For me, as much as this discussion is about how to respond to a personal question (especially in sensitive environments like the workplace and extended family), it is also about learning the limits of our own control. I cannot control what other people think about me or say about me. My focus is on being true to myself, and for me that means "telling my story as long as someone wants to hear it". In addition to possibly helping someone who is suffering and educating the public about Lapband (the people who cared to be honest with me about their surgery were an essential part of my process in deciding to have it done) , I help myself because every time I speak up, I assert my own belief in the step I have taken to solve my problem. Of course, there will always be people looking to shame and degrade others. But (again, just for me), lying or sidestepping the truth is just playing into their game. At the end of the day, everyone has to make the decision of whom to tell for themselves.

Hey Silver, Let us know how your surgery went! You'd have to worry a little bit if you weren't jittery, wouldn't you? After all, surgery is surgery, and embarking on a major change of lifestyle is also a legitimate reason to feel a little nervous. Do you have people around you to support you? How are they responding to your decision? This site has a lot of information, both theoretical and a lot of good, tried common sense. Don't relate only to the recent posts; find the threads that are relevent to you and read through them at your leisure, gleaning what you need to hear along the way. You've gotten good advice here already - rest is essential, as is sticking to your doctor's post-op plan. Welcome to LBT and good luck!