I am from Cincinnati and am in the finding-out-information stage. Our insurance doesn't cover any weight loss procedure so we are working to save up the money. Here are my questions:

How long pre and post op are you on the liquid diet? During that time can you work out? Are you super weak? I ask because I have three small children, one of whom has special needs, and I am a little apprehensive about how doing banding will affect motherhood.

I seem to have a lot of hormonal and thyroid issues and my husband is concerned that the surgery may not work and if it doesn't how am I going to be emotionally. Does anyone else suffer from hormonal issues and have insights to this?

I have a comment on the motherhood part. i am not sure how small your child or children are but I have a 1.5 year old and a 3 year old. Recovery has been difficult for me because I have not family here to help me and my husband works long long hours. You're not suppose to lift anything heavier than 20lbs for about 4weeks. Tell my babies that. My stomach is sore and I am in fear of flipping my port or having flipped it already. My first appt is next Friday. We shall see. My only thing is I am thinking I should have maybe waited until my little ones didn't need to be picked up before having it. Didn't consider that at all.

On the working out, I am 3 weeks post op and can't imagine wanting to work out. Unless it's walking. Anytime I use my abs it is not comfortable. I am not weak though. I am getting plenty of Protein and my Vitamins etc. Feel pretty energetic actually. I think the diet questions are more depending on your surgeon. I've read different things from different people on here. My surgeon did a 2 week pre-op diet that consisted of 2 Protein shakes (low carb, low sugar, high protein at least 20g) and one small meal daily. Then 1 week of Clear liquids, one week of thicker liquids (creamy stuff), and then one week of mushy foods. I just started regular foods again today. Good luck on your decision whatever it may be!

Thanks for the insight. My children are 4,5,7 so I don't have to pick them up per-se, but my special needs child still requires me to be able to fairly mobile. Thankfully my mom would be happy to come and stay a few days post-op and then I have a wonderful group of friends if I needed a break from kids otherwise. I currently do jazzercise 3-4 times per week and it is a high intensity workout so I don't want to lose my momentum with that but I know that resting and healing are vital to long-term success.