lingling

Yeeeaeaaaahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got my phone call today - Locked stocked and ready to rock on the 2nd of April. AGGGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited and scared all at once!!!

So cool that we can all chat about this on here! No one else quite gets how freaking exciting this is!!

Hang on - so you can SEE the port??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

It just shocks me beyond belief to look at your tickers and see - BMI 42 in Aug 08 and now beginning of March 09 - basically six months later, you have gone from a BMI which is morbidly obese to a BMI which is pretty near healthy. Gives me SO MUCH HOPE

I got a phone call today saying I have been approved by my insurance company for a $4500 grant towards my self pay! So happy! It means that after my psych test today, and my dietitian and doc visit last week they have obviously put me forward to the insurance company for the all go 2nd April!!

SO freaking excited!!

Five days? Wow! thats not long at all!!!

I was told I might need TWO weeks!>??

Im gutted that I didnt "man up" and go for it 10 years ago - god if only! It would have changed my twenties like you wouldnt believe! Now I am feeling anxious that I will probably be 31 before I am looking thin and hot!!

Do some more research but dont be scared!

I was going to post this - so thank you.

I think I'll end up with lots of sag, when I have yo-yo'd in the past I have ended up with sag. From what I have read generally the most common saggy place is gut, tits and arms. All of which you want to look great when you are 29 and finally skinny for the first time in your life....

Might have to go under the knife again....

Hey Guys

I'm getting nervous about my pre-op diet. Unfortunately it falls on my birthday - so am trying to think of other things that are non food and alcohol related to lavish upon myself! Have come up with spending the day at a spa and having 100 different types of massages -will be great!

Anyway, there seems to be a difference in pre-op diet approaches. My Doc has me on Optifast from the 19th March to the 2nd which is potentially my operation date.

4 sachets a day, plus 1 cup of veges at night. Nothing else, for two weeks. I am a little scared!!

He says that the liquid Optifast sucks all the fat from the liver the best - and there is a risk of the liver rupturing when they lift it if it is still infiltrated with fat - so I am really worried about messing it up and then either having complications or them not being able to do the surgery cos I am useless!!

What is happening with all of you guys?

Hey Bunnies! (cute name!)

I have told my best friends and some other friends who I wouldn't call best friends but who have been very supportive of all my efforts to lose weight and who have really encouraged this. Haven't told any family (Don't get along with them well) and I dont want to tell my boss or anyone at work.... Any suggestions on what operation to say I am having instead to get the time off? The nurse at the Doc's office suggested Gallbladder removal... thoughts?

You wouldnt have a hysterectomy for PCOS. They used to do a thing called a wedge resection

Ovarian wedge resection - Fertility Journey

but it is really not common any more. Removing your uterus wouldn't do anything at all - perhaps you had endometriosis - which is probably the most common reason for hysterectomy.

I was Dx with PCOS in my late teens - I hadn't had periods for five years and had PACKED on the beef big time.:frown: My skin was bad, but that's all I had, no hirsuitism (extra hair) thank god as would have spent a fortune on lazer removal!!

For me, Metformin didn't do anything. It made my skin 10000 times worse - as I had come off the OCP and my skin just broke out with Metformin. I had to stop taking it, but it didn't make me lose anyweight either - so big deal. Because I couldn't tolerate the metformin, but I couldnt go back on the pill due to my weight and family history - they had to do something about the fact that I wasn't having periods - as it apparently increases your endometrial cancer risk - so they gave me a Mirena:scared2: - best thing ever! I am not trying to get pregnant at the moment, so I don't mind - and it means I get to still not have periods which I personally think is awesome! ha ha.:biggrin:

The single biggest thing with PCOS is exercise exercise exercise - as exercising makes your body less insulin resistant, and therefore you process you food more like a non PCOS person! :crying:

are you sure you're not too full?

Waa me too!

I went to the surgeon for the second time today. First time was 2 yrs ago. Have put on 15kg. hate. Anyway, was very informative. They told me it would take me 4-6 weeks till surgery date from when I sign up, depending on availablity. They are so good with intensive counselling and advice before and after and suggested I go every month for a free checkup and fill if I need it. He said that he has done 1400 operations and has only had 4 complications. One guy had weird brain cancer that was undiagnosed, and the other three were smokers that said they were non smokers. So that is reassuring! He even said he'd take me to meet the anesthetist, I could look around the operating theatre, meet the nurses and everything! So lovely! I even found a clause in my health insurance which said that they would pay for half it on special conditions!!! So excited....

So... I think I might do it!!!??!??!?!?!??

YOU LOOK PHENOMENAL!!!! Congrats and good work!!! You're gorgeous!

I soooooooooo get this!

I constantly complain about how there are no good men out there - and I realised that the only men I am meeting are the ones who like fat chicks (or who like me despite the fact I am fat) and I have deliberated over settling for them.... although I realised when I was talkiing about the banding the other night with a friend of mine and I was also talking about this guy who i am not sure if he's keen/or really if I am keen - and she was saying imagine how good you would feel if you could finally get thinner, and all the guys that would be keen etc. and I said it all when I said "god yes, I would so not be interested in Blah blah if I was thin" and I thought oh jeez, I am totally settling as I don't think I can do better because I am fat.

I am so excited that I won't have this HUGE (pun intended) barrier between me and finding someone who I love and who can love me. Both by more men finding me attractive - and by me being more confident in talking to them - that I will get to meet more men, and finally meet someone I click with. I've been single now for a few years but was in a realtionship for 6 years before that and I although I have really enjoyed being single, I am starting to feel very scared I will not find anyone.

I am not really looking forward to rubbing anyones face in it - exes etc - well maybe one... but mainly looking forward to being able to go to school reunions and catching up wth old family friends from years ago - and not feeling like they will think i have failed in life because I am fat.

Ugh.. emotional purge over... heh.

I'm a kiwi - from New Zealand! Only one of two I see~!

You guys look awesome. Its so hard to fathom what I would look like thin..

Anyone tried this guy? :w00t:

These are all such awesome replies - so honest and open. Thank you. I was feeling really keen on it and excited when I was having a general read on here the other day and then I read the "having my band removed" forum and saw some old studies and I really started to freak out about if it doesnt work, or I have horrible problems, or it slips - and started to deliberate a bit more. I am seeing the surgeon for the second time (i went about 18mths ago) on the 2nd Feb, and will have heaps of questions to ask him. Any thing you wish you'd asked? I am definitely going to ask about what kind of fill he puts in to start with, how much it costs to get fills (didn't think it would cost but it looks like it costs you guys!) if I can still take medication, what the risks of surgery are (in terms of chance of death), how long I need off work etc...

Thanks guys x

I am trying do decide whether to get banded and there are mixed reviews (just been reading a thread re: failed bands) thought I'd do a poll!

So I am wondering if you had the chance to do it over and choose whether you would get a L/B what would you do? and why or why not?

:thumbup:

I cannot believe that you guys live in a country that will pay for this with insurance!!!! We have no show over here in NZ. I am considering trying to make a case in light of family history etc but its relatively unheard of.

Now, I reckon I exercise more than the average person - yet I am overweight..... I was talking to a thin friend of mine (male) on the phone tonight - who I have broached the subject of L/B with and he thinks I should "harden up" and put some effort in and just do Body For Life as thats what he's doing. Apparently (according to him) the portion of Protein in my meals and my laziness is responsible for the extra 60kg (150pd) I am carrying. (if only)

I am pre-band now, I have my second (and as yet, undecided) appointment with the Doc on the 2nd. I gym 3-4 times per week and play netball for 45 mins 1x per week. I don't really feel like I am being lazy - I mean I could definitely go every day - I could run in the morning, gym at lunch time and yoga at night... I feel like I am doing more than the average person, yet I am still fat, so I think to myself - maybe I AM lazy? Maybe the band is the easy way out because I embody everything bad everyone has ever said about me and I am a lazy slob and that's why I am overweight?

I have my ex personal trainer who is really lovely coming around next week to sort me out a programme. Which I will use band or no band. Part of me thinks that if I really GAVE it a shot, then perhaps I could beat the demon......? Maybe all that I have done so far is not what a dedicated person who really wanted it would have done?

Anyway, what I meant to write this post about was - is my level of exercise currently enough to enable me to lose post band? Or will I need to increase significantly? You all seem to say that its a HUGE lifestyle change and that the band gives you the impetus - - but what did you guys do before, and what do you do now?

Thanks x

Hi everyone

I'm 28 (nearly 29) and have been overweight my WHOLE life, from like 2 years old. I am debating the banding. I have tried weight watchers, dieting, personal trainers, I currently gym 3-4x per week. I am trying really hard to cut down on the wine as I am sure that doesn't help either! I am really starting to consider having a band done. I went to see a guy about it a year ago - and learned a bit. I read some forums and I was disheartened about the "quality of life" or what I perceived to be the "quality of life". Things like PBs, not drinking champagne or beer, and people knowing really put me off, and I decided to give weightwatchers another go for a year - convinced I hadn't tried hard enough. Well, my weight is creeping up - now at nearly 300pd. When I was 20 I was 220 and its yoyo'd and crept up since then.

What I want to know is the REAL Truth. Is it worth it? I am worried I am being lazy and that I really could do this if I hardened up and got off my ass and just stuck to weight watchers to the T. Although the surgeon told me 2% of people lose considerable weight without surgery and keep it off. I don't want to be 40 and single and wishing I'd got the band and enjoyed my life skinny because I wasn't gonna get there by myself. But I am scared that I will feel like crap every day and never be able to eat anything but mashed potatoes and keep doing PBs and that it wont be worth it?

Mainly, I am scared I will die in the surgery. I don't have any associated health problems (yet) but I am paronoid that I will die on the table - therefore this risk + ??? feeling like crap and eating only mashed potatoes - outweight the possiblity that I MAY BE ABLE TO DO IT WITHOUT HELP!!!???

Help!

:wink2: