btrieger

Greetings from snowy North Texas. I'm about 2 and a half weeks from having surgery and the best advice I can give is read, read, read. Do as much research as you possibly can in those 3 months and make sure you know what you are getting yourself into. Good luck!

Good luck and a speedy recovery!

The $25,000 question is,"are you ready?" We all have our reasons for wanting to lose weight but you have to be sure you are ready to modify your eating habits for the rest of your life or the band isn't going to help. Go ahead and sign yourself up for surgery and if you are lucky, you will have a 3 month waiting period to do soul searching. It's not too late to turn back until the hunk of plastic is in you.

Ewww! Sushi!! I don't think that counts as cheating. It would be more torture to make me eat sushi than starve me. :frown: Why'd you buy pajamas? They won't even fit you in a couple of weeks!

The head honchos were coming down from Boston and my management took it upon themselves to put all of my toys in my drawers while I was on vacation because they weren't professional. :frown: There were a couple of 2 foot Sponge Bob pillows on my desk too . Here's my cube in Boston where said head honchos' offices were a couple hundred yards away: Picture is 2004ish as I started putting weight back on from last big loss.

I am not even banded yet and it was one of the first questions I asked me surgeon. Give his office a call and ask, "will I be numbed before my fill?" It will only take you a minute and will relieve some of your anxiety.

Sodium is another thing that has to be taken into account. It causes fat cells to hold Water and sugars as well as raising your blood pressure. I think the Smart Ones and Healthy Choice dinners average about 600mgs each.

I've been living on these Optifast protein shakes for 4 days now and I love them. It is like having desert 5 times a day and I have not been hungry...yet. Better yet, I have dropped 5 pounds in the past 3 days. I'm down 81 pounds since I started and I am showing no signs of slowing down. I'm feeling better than I have in years and should be close to 100 pounds down by surgery. I finished cardiac rehab yesterday. I started on October 12th weighing 346 pounds with a body fat percentage over 61%. My final weight was 285 with a body fat percentage of 46%. I haven't been approved by insurance yet but have a surgery date. If they deny me, I won't mind but I'd like to get this over with before I slip and start gaining the weight back as I have in the past. I can put wight on in record time. It only takes a diet of pizza and Guinness. The first picture is 2 years old and the second taken yesterday. It is starting to show a little. For instance, that is the same shirt and there is no more fear of popping a button and putting someone's eye out. Also, I don't have to wedge myself into the chair. PS. My secret is out, my profile pic is 10 years old :tongue_smilie: PPS. I am tilting my head in the second pic to try and assimilate the same position as the first. It is not because my brain is so big and heavy as many of you would assume.

I've been living on these Optifast protein shakes for 4 days now and I love them. It is like having desert 5 times a day and I have not been hungry...yet. Better yet, I have dropped 5 pounds in the past 3 days. I'm down 81 pounds since I started and I am showing no signs of slowing down. I'm feeling better than I have in years and should be close to 100 pounds down by surgery. I finished cardiac rehab yesterday. I started on October 12th weighing 346 pounds with a body fat percentage over 61%. My final weight was 285 with a body fat percentage of 46%. I haven't been approved by insurance yet but have a surgery date. If they deny me, I won't mind but I'd like to get this over with before I slip and start gaining the weight back as I have in the past. I can put wight on in record time. It only takes a diet of pizza and Guinness. The first picture is 2 years old and the second taken yesterday. It is starting to show a little. For instance, that is the same shirt and there is no more fear of popping a button and putting someone's eye out. Also, I don't have to wedge myself into the chair. PS. My secret is out, my profile pic is 10 years old :frown: PPS. I am tilting my head in the second pic to try and assimilate the same position as the first. It is not because my brain is so big and heavy as many of you would assume.

I'm doing great. Thanks for asking! I guess it's about time I added another entry.

Anyone that hasn't asked themselves those questions or been scared over getting surgery is a damn fool. I have no problem losing lots of weight. I've lost over 100 pounds multiple times only to gain it back. I will have lost around 100 pounds by the time I get banded and the lapband is my best alternative to stop or slow the weight gain once I stop losing. I've researched plenty. I am not going into this without knowing every detail and doing plenty of soul searching. Take your time, the lapband isn't going anywhere and will be around if you make the decision to be cut open and have a foreign object wrapped around one of your internal organs. It is NOT a decision to be made lightly.

There is no better option for a lot of us. It is a much safer choice than the alternative of letting our weight kill us. I've had a heart attack, it is not fun. You are right in a way about common sense though. If I had common sense I would not have let myself go so far as to require surgery. I, like most of you did this to myself by sitting on the couch or a bar stool filling my face with crap.

45% stills seems kind of high but I am guessing that includes the old-fashioned bands being replaced with the newer, permanent ones. If so, the number will drop drastically in the next few years once most have been replaced. The failure rate is more than 50% and this concerned me. When I questioned my surgeon he kind of played it down a little but also said the majority of failures is due to patients not modifying their lifestyle as recommended. After reading these boards for 6 months, I cannot argue with that logic.

There's never any harm in asking but always be prepared for answers you may not expect of agree with.

25 + 45 = 70. Are you trying to say that 70% of lapbands are removed or did I miss something?

Happy birthday!!!

Congratulations on your decision and make sure to do as much research as possible during your waiting period. There are far too many people that have had the surgery and still have absolutely no clue what they need to do to make it successful. Good luck!!

It's not as bad as it sounds. I am on day 4 of a 3 week, protein shake only pre-op diet and I have not been suffering yet. On top of that, I have dropped 5 pounds in the past 3 days. So, there are definite advantages. Good luck!!

It's a 9 week program to get us couch potatoes off of our butts and exercising. Mostly running. I've been on week 3 for 17 months and making progress slowly. Couch to 5k - C25K Running Program

I quit smoking during the last time I lost over a hundred pounds. Both can be done simultaneously. Weston, some surgeons are nicotine nazis and will not conduct surgery on you if you have nicotine in your system a week prior to surgery. I made damn sure that mine wasn't when I first met him.

I wish you could tape the conversation. I'd love to hear his response verbatim. Good luck and make sure to let us know how it goes.

Congrats to all of you!! Looks like you have a tight support network set up to support each other.

There is absolutely no reason for this show to run for more than an hour. They are making it boring by stretching it out. I was happy to see the red chick go and am a little frustrated with this "to be continued" crap. Two hours wasn't enough? I want to give Daris a haircut with a blow torch. I hate his hair!

That's just a hint of how things will work if the government takes over health care. :rolleyes2: I have no clue but if it were me, I'd have to start all over. Murphy's law ain't got nothin' on me.

If you manage to quit for a month or more, do NOT start again after surgery!!!! The craving never goes away but it is easier to fight it once you've got 3 weeks clean under your belt.