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Diabetes and Lap Band Surgery



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I was type 2, BMI 47.5 and had been on HIGH dose insulin shots twice a day for 15 years. I was having all sorts of co-morbidity health catastrophes beginning to hit me. One drastic matter was "diabetic retinopathy". At one point vision in one eye was down to 20/400. That's legally blind. And that's what it finally took for the rational part of my brain to kick into action.

11 months postOp I took my last shot. Yes I have orals to take, but A1c went down down down to around 6.6 for quite some time.

I had sleep apnea and had been on CPAP for 10 long breezy years too. Good bye nose hose at 10 months post op.

Yes, make sure you coordinate your meds with new blood realities.

Along with other changes in my life and special retinal therapy, my vision has returned to 20/25 in the blind eye....so I ~CAN~ see my way to the postOp Bandster Way of Life.

And be prepared for something WONDERFUL!!!!!!

cheers on your journey....

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Thanks Jack:

Wow. I know about that diabetic retinopathy. My son is a type 1 diabetic who has had poor control since he was in his teens. He's 31 now and almost 4 years ago he lost his sight due to his diabetes. Diabetes is a really nasty disease that affects almost every organ in the body. It even affected his teeth and he has full dentures at his young age. So yea, I am awaiting the miracle as I do not want to have any of these types of problems the rest of my life.

Thanks so much for sharing with me.

Kay

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Thanks Jack:

Wow. I know about that diabetic retinopathy. My son is a type 1 diabetic who has had poor control since he was in his teens. He's 31 now and almost 4 years ago he lost his sight due to his diabetes. Diabetes is a really nasty disease that affects almost every organ in the body. It even affected his teeth and he has full dentures at his young age. So yea, I am awaiting the miracle as I do not want to have any of these types of problems the rest of my life.

Thanks so much for sharing with me.

Kay

hi karen,

i 2 am a type 2 diabetes diagnosed 6 years ago had the lap band 2 years ago.been off diabetic oral 2 years.prior to getting the lapband i cut my carbs. no bread, Pasta rice.by the time i went for surgeryi had already cut my b/p meds in half,diabetic from 1 tablets to 1 tablet that had been decreased twice.when diagnosed my bs was 792.i think my a1c was 10.2,6/1/2011 my a1c was5.6.my personal goal is an a1c @5.0 constantly.i haven't reached my goals yet,but GOD is not through with me yet.:rolleyes:

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hi karen,

i 2 am a type 2 diabetes diagnosed 6 years ago had the lap band 2 years ago.been off diabetic oral 2 years.prior to getting the lapband i cut my carbs. no bread, Pasta rice.by the time i went for surgeryi had already cut my b/p meds in half,diabetic from 1 tablets to 1 tablet that had been decreased twice.when diagnosed my bs was 792.i think my a1c was 10.2,6/1/2011 my a1c was5.6.my personal goal is an a1c @5.0 constantly.i haven't reached my goals yet,but GOD is not through with me yet.:rolleyes:

Thanks for the response. You have certainly come a long way. God is good all the time and He certainly is not through with you. If we keep the faith, I believe that, as the scripture says, "all things will work together for good..." Be blessed my friend.

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I have only had my band for a little over 4 weeks and have lost about 20 lbs. (No fill yet) and I can attest that it has already brought my blood sugars down quite a bit. Before surgery I would normally have numbers ranging from 240 to 320. Since surgery I am now between 90 and 120 regularly. I have not been over 150 since surgery. I am still on Metformin, Prandin and Byetta as I have yet to see my Endocrinologist to see if I can get off a few of these meds now, but I am hoping when I see him next month I will be a few more lbs lighter and even a bit lower on the blood sugars. So far the band has done what I wanted it to do regarding my diabetes. I feel a lot better and hope as the weight comes off that more health improvement occurs.

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Hi Jacob:

Thanks for responding. That sounds great. I hear the same thing time and again. Good luck to you and I only hope that I have similar results. I'm sure they will take you off some of those meds and probably all once you reach goal. Stay in touch. I go in on 7/12. Wish me well.

Ksmile.gif

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Hi Jacob:

Thanks for responding. That sounds great. I hear the same thing time and again. Good luck to you and I only hope that I have similar results. I'm sure they will take you off some of those meds and probably all once you reach goal. Stay in touch. I go in on 7/12. Wish me well.

Ksmile.gif

Thank you Karon. Good luck on your Journey and if I can help in any way, just let me know.

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Hey Thee-0 I will definitely keep in touch, you don't have to worry about that. wink.gif

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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