Hello everyone! I'm so happy to have found a place to learn more about gastric banding from patients who can give me real life experiences. This looks like a wonderful site.

I'm a 47 year old mom to 5 children, 4 of whom are adults now with one 15 year old still at home. My husband and I have been married for 27 years and I am fortunate to have such a good man who loves me no matter my size.

I've been considering weight loss surgery for a couple of years, but fear has kept me from jumping in. I have some other health problems that interfere with exercise, so no matter what I do, it seems that I just can't lose weight. My doctors have been talking to me about banding for a couple of years. In fact, about 20 months ago I first saw a surgeon about the LapBand procedure, but I chickened out.

So here I am, 15 pounds heavier than when I first saw Dr. Davis, and I'm finally ready to do it.

I have had serious complications to surgeries in the past, and so I am nervous about that. I had a cervical spine fusion surgery and ended up with damage to my spinal cord from the surgery. Way too complicated to go into the details right now, but the effects of that surgery have left me with leg issues and chronic pain everywhere. I can't do anything to change that, and it will be a problem for the rest of my life. I'm tired of being miserable and laying in bed all the time. I can't fix the spinal cord, but I can lose weight, which will help with some of my pain issues. So 2013 is the year I take charge of my future. I'm going to do everything I can to get healthier, and if LapBand is the way to help me get there, then I have to forge forward through my fears of surgery. I am also taking the steps to get a pain pump so that I can function better. Hopefully that will be in place some time in January.

I now weigh 270 pounds, which is my heaviest. I used to be a vibrant energetic woman who never stopped. Now I seldom do anything because of pain and being tired. My doctors tell me that losing weight will help me overall, which in turn will help with the pain. I am looking forward to living again!

I do have concerns about the adjustment to eating such a small amount. As a family we enjoy gatherings where it seems that food is always an important part. This will be a big lifestyle change. I need this support group to hear how others had adapted to these changes. I look forward to getting to know everyone here.

Welcome!! Welcome!!!

I am very excited for you!!! And wanted to let you know that I also come from a large family and food was also a very important thing in my house. I got banded on 12/14/12 and was very scared about the holiday. Everywhere I looked there was food!!! But I was mostly not tempted . I think that something that helped is that I talked myself down when I really wanted something. I asked myself if this food was worth all the money that I just paid to have this surgery and it isn't. And if I couldnt convince myself that it was not worth it I had A TASTE. Not a bite. My husband had some guacamolie that I wanted to have (its a personal fave) and i dipped the tip of my pinkie in it and it was glorious but that is all I need now.

Remember, you can do this because you are amazing!!!!

You can do this! I have had 8 surgeries, comorbidies and an autoimmune problem but banding has saved my life! I should have done this much sooner! 19 days post op and down 26 pounds!