Hi! I'm sort of a newbie. This is my first thread. I've just been reading all threads to see how everyone else's experience has went. I'm 24 years old. 5ft 6in. 276lbs. Female. I'm scheduled to be banded on 3/26. In a way, I'm excited to start a new life- and to put something in my mouth other than a protein shake and water- but I'm also nervous. What if I fail and don't lose the weight I want to lose? What if I don't wake up from anesthesia? What if, what if. Anyone else feel this way??

I've seen dozens of studies and not one person failed to wake up from surgery. This surgery is more serious than most doctors portray but it's safe.

You don't know if WLS will work for you? No one does. And every one of us failed at so many diets before so the fear is normal and universal. I think I had similar fears but mostly it was my fear of giving up my security blanket(food). But, ya know, we don't have to do that with the band.

I only knew this, without the band, I had 0% chance of living a normal pain free life. With the band it was closer to 90%. I'll take 90% over 0% any day.

I haven't posted this story for a while. I copied this from another site and don't know who created the thread:

"In my case, the most fearful thing I had to do in order to succeed with my band wasn't switching to skim milk, surviving a liquid diet, or giving up bread. The most fearful thing was giving up my emotional attachment to food. In the nearly 5 years since I was banded, I've made a lot of progress with that, but the attachment is still there. It forms one of the innermost layers of my turtle shell. Working on that layer will probably be a lifetime job for me. At times I'm not even sure I truly want to get rid of it altogether. At times I'm afraid that if I shed my shell completely, I won't be able to survive. On the other hand, I seem to be doing fine without that thick old b***h layer. So I'm going to pay attention to my dreams rather than my fears and pray for a miracle. And why not? It can't hurt to try"

Edited March 25, 201412 yr by 2muchfun

Hi JFC

I would highly recommend you take one step at a time and be open to your new learning curve of understanding how to eat "normal healthy food" with the band. In my experience after counseling thousands of people with the band, I see three main reasons why the lap band would not work for an individual.

(1) If the lap band is not placed correctly

(2) A band not correctly adjusted to help control one's appetite

(3) Managing non-hungry eating better post lap band surgery.

If we follow the correct lifestyle, the majority of the time, your weight loss will likely be great. Time will show you.

Also feeling nervous, afraid and hesitant to any degree is normal prior to surgery. Otherwise I would be wondering if you were taking the surgery seriously enough.

Wishing you luck