Hey everyone, new to this site. Two words to describe me and my life.....Bridget Jones!! If you have ever seen the movie, I promise that is exactly my life to a tee. Always have the best of intentions but something always goes wrong!! Anyways, my name is Kerri, I'm 32, no kids, not married, 2 dogs. I am an RN and spend my days helping families and patients deal with terminal illnesses, go through the grieving process, and learn to not let it rule their lives. I was going to have the sleeve in Mexico, but chickened out on both Mexico and the sleeve and after some careful deliberation decided the lap band is more for me. Just looking for some great friends and lots of support. I recently moved to Houston, no family here and don't really know anyone. Can't wait to meet every one of you!! Thanks for reading! (and if you have any tips please send them my way!)

welcome and glad you are here - you will love this site!!!!!

Hi kerri, I think you made a wise choice. The band is the safest form of WLS, and as long as it's

Performed by a skilled, experienced surgeon, you should have it, trouble free, for life. There are

three Centers of Excellence in Houston that should guarantee a safe, trouble free surgery with

classes that assure that you know all you need to make your surgery a success. If you look up

BSCN on Google it'll give the names of the CoEs. Whatever you choose good luck, and come

back if there's anything we can help you with.

You have me thinking of spandex knickers! LOL. Welcome. And best of luck.

Hi Kerri,

Welcome to the board. You may want to look into having the iBand also referred to as banded plication. There is a doctor that preforms it in Austin and it might be worth the drive out there to have it done. This procedure is relatively new but there are a few members on this board who either have had it done or a planning to (I'm scheduled to have it done in January). This method combines the lap band with plication (a procedure where your stomach is folded in on itself and sutured to form a sleeve). The advantages are that there isn't the removal of 85% of your stomach, it is should be reversible, and the results to be similar to that of the vertical gastric sleeve. Also when done with the band you are less likely to experience some of the common band complications like erosion and slippage, you should require fill less often (some people have even gone without a fill) and it is harder to cheat the band because food goes into the smaller plicated stomach instead of a normal sized one.

Good Luck with your journey. It will be nice hearing from you

Michelle

Welcome Kerri! This is a great place to find out answers to questions, meet people who are going through exactly the same thing and are willing to help you out. I am getting my band next Tuesday nice to see you will soon be a fellow bandster

Well your title describes me to the T. In 6 days I am getting banded. I have been around here for a while ad you came to the right place. Lots of honesty and inspiration throughout this forum. Good luck!

I can relate to you as well. We are actually the same age, I am single with no kids as well and work in a cancer center. The only thing i'm missing are the two dogs. I am a newbie as well. I just finished the last insurance pre-op requirement (the Psychiatrist eval), and now get to "patiently" wait to hear a yes or no, but good luck to you.

Thank you so much for all the warm welcomes! Lapband guru, I actually have some of those spandex knickers!!! LOL, Michelle, thanks for the info, I will have to look into that, and backto me, I am so thankful to have someone to kind of go through the whole process with who is pretty much in the same place I am. I wish you all the best of luck and thanks again!