Hi all -

My name is Shelly and in a few weeks, I will reach the 7 year mark since getting my lapband. My pre-op weight was 306 and my lowest weight was 165, which I reached about 5 years ago. About that time, I moved to another state and stopped having regular check-ins with my lapband doc. Naturally, I lost restriction and got lazy, which earned me about a 50 pound weight gain over the past 4-5 years.

I recently re-connected by finding a new bariatric doc here and had a recent fill. I'm working on getting back to where I want to be and returning to following the rules and using my band as the tool it should be. In the 2 weeks since the fill, I've lost 5 pounds, s I'm beginning to feel hopeful again. I'm hoping that by joining this group, I will be able to re-capture some of the enthusiasm and motivation I had in the beginning.

I've looked around the site and suppose I should feel fortunate that I have had no complications with my band whatsoever. I just learned over time how to defeat it and went back to old eating habits. Hopefully I can return to the successful behaviors I had before!

Shelly

Does anyone else have long term post-op stories good or bad? Would like to know more about long term use of the lap band.

My coworker has had the band for almost 11 years. I didn't recognize her before picture, it looks nothing like her at all now (starting 365, current 155, 5'9" tall) . For lack of a better description, she is a living, breathing Barbie doll now and my inspiration for getting the surgery. She looks absolutely incredible, no extra skin, looks like she's been model pretty her entire life. She has not had any complications what so ever and as far as I can tell she eats whatever she wants to.

Never give up Shelley, Never ever give up! You know what to do. Just focus and start losing those pounds. Best wishes.