Hi! Everyone! I am a male, 49 years old. I had the lapband on May 28th 2002. I weighed 458 lbs in Jan of 2002. I lost about 45 lbs before surgery in May and I have lost about 120 lbs since the surgery.

I had a broken port that was discovered in June. My weight loss had slowed in December and a couple of fills were attempted. I actually had my first fill this past January. But since the port was broken none of them have worked. My port is now fixed and I should be back on the losing path again. Even with the broken port I was able to keep the weight from coming back on.

The lapband has given me my life back. I am now capable of riding my bike and do the things I enjoy with no pain or diffuctilities.

Congrats on your success! Hope that your new port works better.

It is encouraging to hear about people like you who have had success at a higher starting BMI. I started out at 372 (2 months post-op now). When I was in the research phase, I felt discouraged by the way that most webpages seemed to be saying "Don't bother getting the band if you weigh over 300 because it won't work". Fortunately, I discovered the ExtraordinaryBandsters mailing list after that and realized we who are bigger CAN make the band work.

Wow Gerard well done on the weight loss. That is fantastic. Even with the hiccups I'm sure that you still feel fantastic. Good luck with it all and let's hope that this is it for you now and you get back to losing again.