What barrier or obstacle have you had to overcome in order to get LAP-BAND?

[Alex Brecher 10,516]

What barrier or obstacle have you had to overcome in order to get LAP-BAND ?

[kll724 3,055]

Mind over madness! Getting myself in the right frame of mind to lose weight and permanently keep it off! Did I really want to lose weight?

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

The biggest obstacle was my own fear. Second is my husband. Although he did not actively obstruct the process, he has been anywhere from openly critical of WLS to indifferent. I am lucky that we have excellent insurance. I did have to prove my efforts to the psychiatrist by changing my snacking habits before he would sign off, costing me an extra three weeks. That was a wake up call that showed me I had to work at this. My mom and best friend and two daughters are 100 percent supportive, and nobody else knows.

[terrydumont46 1,954]

every specialist I was ordered to see was finding something wrong with me. it took from oct 2011 to surgery date of 5/29/2013. I would cry and cry after every test and appointment. the stress, and emotional distress was all worth it now that I am celebrating my year post op anniversary.

[depressed_bandster 72]

Like @@JustWatchMe , my husband was my biggest obstacle. He was absolutely against it. I was desperate for a lifestyle change & success at weight loss & the LapBand was my last hope. My 2 daughters were supportive, but we avoided conversation about it pre-op & anytime it was brought up, he was very oppositional. He didn't even drive to surgery, my (then) 16-year-old daughter drove me.

Part of his opposition was the risk, he was scared because of everything bad he had read and heard about the LapBand. The rest of his opposition was embarrassment. He truly did not see me as being obese at 250 pounds. He did not believe I needed something as drastic as the LapBand & if people knew I had a LapBand….well how embarrassing would that be??? For at least the first 6 months, he did not want anyone to know that we mutually knew & I told people he knew as time went by, only when it was absolutely necessary. I don't drink 30 minutes prior to or after eating, so this was another uncomfortable situation in restaurants when waiters/waitresses would comment about my lack of drinking.

​Thirdly, he was skeptical. He wasn't convinced it was going to work & kept saying "what if this doesn't work for you either & then you have a foreign object in you & will need another surgery to have it removed"?

​Well, I am ecstatic to report that I DID SUCCEED and he is so proud of me and my band!! If people ask him how I lost 100 pounds, he tells them! When I say at restaurants I don't want a drink, he tells them I have a LapBand & don't drink with my meals. He has watched me work HARD to lose 100 pounds & has seen it wasn't just the easy way out & I had to actually work for it, which gained his respect for the band…and ME! The first couple months he was still pretty unsupportive until he saw my hard work and he took the time to understand the band is a tool to HELP me, not magic, doing it for me or the "easy way out". I even did a commercial for my doctors with his full approval! It has been airing for 5 months now & he gets questioned at least once a week about his wife being in a commercial for bariatric surgery…and he confidently tells them I have a LapBand and have lost 100 pounds!

When we look back on before photos his mouth drops open and he just stares, barely able to mutter out "I can't believe you were that big. I never saw you that way." I am truly blessed to have a husband that loved me even when I was obese, but at the same time, it was a curse…he loved me, so as I gained and gained and gained, it comfortable to keep gaining, because he still told me I was beautiful and he still loved me, even at 250 pounds!

Now, he is happy I got the band & he is thrilled with my new body and he's happy I'm healthy! For the first time since we were teenagers, this weekend I felt as if he wanted to "show me off" at his company picnic. He wanted me to wear a slinky sundress I wouldn't have been able to wear since I was a teenager!! YAY for LapBand and for my desperation for change….so desperate I went against my husband's wishes and did what was best for ME and conquered my biggest obstacle.

Edited June 2, 2014 by gym_addict

[JustWatchMe 7,117]

@@gym_addict, your story is very inspirational. Congratulations on your success! I'm happy to hear that he supports you now. We do this for ourselves, but support of loved ones helps so much.

[Bandista 7,466]

Putting every one else's issues aside and choosing to focus on myself....ME, front and center.....this is my time. No one was stopping me before, but I didn't think enough of myself to focus in on my own needs. I thought I had to take care of every one else first. Now I choose myself first; getting the band was a big part of that and I am so happy now. Empowered.

My insurance company required a BMI of 40 and that was an obstacle for me. Not fat enough for WLS? Good grief, I was plenty heavy, but I was just under and had to gain some plus fudge a bit. In retrospect I wish I had slouched for height measuring.

[SIJoe 111]

The thought of surgery was my biggest and probably only obstacle. First of all, I had lost (and gained back) hundreds of pounds over the course of my mostly obese adulthood through diet and exercise. But that no longer worked for me. Secondly, I personally know several people that had WLS, lost lots of weight and then regained it. I never had surgery, and I was mortified knowing that I too could possibly regain all my weight if I had surgery. But, I was just too fat (pardon that word) and out of shape and that was making work even more miserable since my job involves lots of walking and climbing steps. So I had surgery last August and dropped about 75 pounds. I'm very grateful, but I still fear the addiction and possibility of weight gain.

[Lady VS 1,147]

Insurance approval. Luckily I had a hernia which assisted with me being able to have my surgery in a timely manner without the added evaluations and what not.