BillOh

Happy birthday to me! My 64th and one year until retirement! The email from this forum reminded me I haven't been here in awhile. I was 275 when I had my lap band back in May of 2009. I got down to my goal weight of 195 by the end of that year. A few times I've slipped back and went close to 240. The band, which I guess they don't do anymore, has been a great tool, but diet and exercise sure played a big part. In 2011 I ran my first of 7 marathons, had to give that up after back surgery in 2014 and I've taken to cycling, which almost killed me in 2020. (But hey the lady that hit me ended up buying me a new camper to use in retirement :) ) I definitely learned I was a stress eater and just knowing that helped. In 2020 because of covid my work moved to home, and I've been in my basement most of the last 3 years. Not going out to lunch everyday helped and adding 1-2 hours back to my day I was able to get out more. Today on my 64th, 14 years after the surgery I'm still at my goal weight of 195, but over the winters I've snuck up to 205-210 a couple of times, but hoping in retirement (huge stress relief) I can get outside and do things to keep me away from food and snack more often. Just came back from a busy one week vacation where I lost 5 pounds because we were out doing things!

Never heard that before. Stopped working as in no restriction, or inability to change the restriction?

My doctor's office did tell me they do less bands than before. My sister had her band removed. I know she had hers pretty tight and didn't really try to watch her eating as I do. She had a lot of reflux and scarring around the band so hers was removed. She remains obese, which is unfortunate as after knee replacements, a 100 pound loss would make her life much better. I made a friend from Australia in 2013 when I was doing pretty well and he was 500 pounds at the time. He had the sleeve done. He went in as an aware adult, but had leakage about 30 days after and a serious infection, he was in an induced coma for about 10 days. I'm now down about 12 pounds since my cruise return May 7th.

I had my band in 2009, did great for a number of years, starting round 2 this May, I just came back to the forum and posted a similar message. Still familiarizing myself with this version of the forum Good luck.

Part of this message is me rejoining this community, part of it is seeing what's in my profile signature., I used to have a weigh loss results bar in there. I had my surgery in 2009, almost a year after my wife did. Having a built in support partner helps. I went from around 270 to 195 in well less than a year. A large part of it was this surgery and the nutritional information. Another part of of it was re-discovering my love of running. I still had running a marathon on my bucket list when I had the surgery and I ran it in 2011 in just over 4 hours. I ended up doing six more. Life was good, my wife and I were even used in commercials as sucess stories by the Bariatric Department of The Ohio State University I will mention my wife though I looked too thin at 195, so I did go to 210 during my marathons. But after 2013 my back began to fail and I had spinal fusion surgery. That slowed me down for a year or or more, but my weight crept up about 10 pounds a year until last May 7th, I got back from a 7 day Caribbean cruise. While I only gained 1 pound on that cruise it was a new post surgery high of 244. I imediately scheduled an appointment with my clinic/hospital. Backn in 2009 I had 3ccs put into a 10cc band and never had it changed. On my visit back I had .25cc added and have lost 13 pounds in about 2 weeks. Here we go again.

I am not sure if my profile is still active, I'll have to go back and check. I used to belong to lapbandtalk.com which I beleive ws rolled into here. My surgery was 2008 and it was hugely successful. I went from 270 down to my goal weight of 195 in a year. My wife with the full bypass went from 300 to 160 where she has been for about 8 years. We were featured as successful examples in a commercial for our local hospital. I was feeling so good I rekindled my love of running and finally finished the lifetime goal of a marathon in 2011. Shortly after that my back began to fail and my weight went up a little, but still way below that former high. I eventually needed spinal fusion surgery and I couldn't do much physically for a long time and my weight ended up as high as 240 again. I still have the band and it is set to a pretty good place, I have to be careful what I eat, but I did manage to gain weight again. Part of it was depression not being as physically capable. I don't think I waited long enough. 16 months after surgery I am finally feeling like I can do physical things again and have finally motivated myself to try again. Here we go round 2, this time I only need to lose 25-35 pounds.

Dr Mikami did my surgery in late 2008. Currently training for my 2nd marathon! Good luck, I'm sure it will go well.

It was mainly exhaustion, not much pain. Thanks.

The good thing was it was more exhaustion than pain. In the last 5 miles, I passed several younger people, I had trained with during the year. They started out faster, but didn't make it. The old, slow and steady philosophy.

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