I have a friend who is totally against me getting WLS, He is very big into the "Fat Positive" Community and thinks that surgery is a horrible idea. We got into a heated argument about it and he had a bunch of his friends who also have had WLS at some point and regretted it email me.

One girl wrote this: "I'll start this by saying, I'm not totally against it. I have seen it work for a few ppl. However, it is literally a lifestyle change. I thought I was ready to have the surgery when I was 19 (24 now). I weighed 427 pounds the day I went to surgery. I am currently down to 302 and have maintained this weight for most of the five years. I don't plan on losing anymore weight bc of the surgery. I am mentally still the person/eater I was before the surgery. Because of the surgery, I no longer can eat meat, carbs (breads, pastas, potatoes) or anything that is not basically a vegetable, fruit, liquid or junk food. I throw up daily because of this. I regurgitate food every time I eat. I get food blockages that can only be alleviated by purging. Basically, I'm a fat girl with an eating disorder. I have to explain to people why it takes me 1 1/2 hours to each lunch or why I have to constantly get up and go to the bathroom at restaurants. My whole life has been surrounded by this weight loss surgery. Because of my age at the time, I was only allowed to get the Lap-Band put in, instead of the actual gastric bypass. So I have a plastic tube around the opening of my stomach and a port in my stomach that gets injected every so often to make my band tighter. When it's tight, food doesn't pass through and then I get sick. After the surgery, I lost 75% of my hair, now deal with adult acne, and have lessened my chances of pregnancy (although it has happened, but I lost the baby). My suggestion would be, if you truly think this is something you want to do, please make sure that mentally you are ready. I thought I was and on day 2 I sat at my kitchen table crying while eating because my brain said I was hungry and my stomach said I wasn't. To this day, I still struggle with the fact that I have a fat person's appetite but the stomach of a 6 year old.

upon hearing this I questioned why she simply didn't have the thing removed...

Her response: "Because to have the surgery all over again just to have it removed is unheard of and doctors will only remove it if 1. You're getting a different weight loss procedure to replace it or 2. You have been completely successful with it for more than 10-12 years."

Is this True?...Can it only be removed if one is to choose another surgery to replace it, or have success with it for 10-12 years?..I'm not trusting one of his friends, This could possibly be a scare tactic to make me sway from getting WLS.. I asked her why not get a revision to band and she gave me some hoopla about not having time and not wanting to put herself through it all again.

So scary. Surgery is serious though. She is right that a person needs to be mentally prepared for the lifestyle change. I see it as an opportunity to make health corrections in my body and restore my self-confidence and appearance. I have diabetes, neuropathy, macular degeneration, my feet, knees and back hurt. Sometimes people make innuendo to me or say straightforward mean, weight related things. I'm doing it because I think it will help me. I don't see how weighing 400 or 300 lbs can be healthy even for a young girl like her. I feel sad for her. Do what you think is right for you even though things aren't great for her. Be true to yourself.

Either your friend's friend or her doc are whacked. She is obviously having problems with the band and can have it removed for that reason alone. Or she could have it removed just because she wants to. I have a good friend who's had a lap band for 5 years and she is free to get it out anytime she wants.

She is, BTW, the one that talked me out of getting the band. She had emergency surgery for a slippage and has had to have her port replaced twice. She has never lost all the weight she wanted and has a hard time trying to find her "Sweet spot" and has had lots of fills and unfills. But she's not quite ready to step over to the sleeved side yet.

Weight loss surgeries have come a long way in the past few years. My family was fearful at first too. I'm only three weeks out but this FEELS like one of the best decisions I've ever made. It took me several months of documentation (diet/medication/ exercise/support groups like weight watchers and Curves) before being submitted to my insurance. That is part of my insurance companies requirements. I used all of that time to really explore this (surgical) option. I started working out and eating healthy. Weight slowly, and I mean s l o w l y, came off. But I could lose a couple weeks progress at 1 potluck and gain everything back plus more. I do agree with the writer that this is ALL about if YOU are ready for the lifestyle/dietary changes. Without changing your lifestyle you can't expect your body to magically change. Trading in the cycles of hunger and overeating, anger at self and then more sadness when clothes shopping is a pretty simple trade off, in my humble opinion, for healthy food and exercise choices. WLS is just a tool. The work is up to you. It's super nice to have new and improved tools though!!

@@Kindle

Exactly...

She went on to say " It took me 6 months to fully recover from the surgery. I had a lot of complications with healing internally. I had internal bleeding and where the port was attached to my stomach muscle, it wasn't properly healing bc I have so much belly fat, it was causing it to shift constantly."

I think that would have been enough of a reason to have it removed no problem.

I had the band for 10 years...and could have had it removed no problem but I was scared of another surgery. She is misinformed.

Reason it takes her 90 minutes to eat is she is eating way way too much and likely vomiting too? food abuser and the band does not fix that.

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about WLS and th is young woman hits the main point. .. There is no magic. YOU have to change. I really think that many of us hear the words. .lifestyles change. .blah blah...sure sounds good but really don't understand the meaning. It is a fundamental shift away from food as entertainment, recreation, comfort, stress reducer etc. It is a focus on moving the body more and eating to sustain that body.

i had my band removed because of complications 5 years ago and i didnt opt to have another surgery at the time. it was just removed!

I am wondering why this friend of yours is getting in your business like this?

Having strangers email you to try and pursuade you not to have the surgery seems very instrusive to me. Eek.

@woo woo He thinks he's GOD because he run's a very successful Tumblr page for the Body Positive/Fat Positive Community..That and he thinks I'm doing it for all the WRONG reasons and tells me "If You had more fat positive friends/family in you're life you wouldn't feel the need to go through with such a drastic surgery", Chances are if I had more "Fat Positive People" in my life I would exceed the 246lbs I am now and think it's ok when I know it is not.

It is alright to love yourself at any size, But I feel sometimes the people who follow this "Positive" culture truly take it to extremes.

I think it is GREAT and necessary to love thyself at any size, however, it is really strange to me to think that being morbidly obese is a "good thing" for any of us. I am an animal lover, believe in animal rescue, etc but alot of people in organizations like PETA are a bit over the top... so "into" the idea that they lose sight of a larger context. I think the FA movement is like that. To me, some of the people in the fat acceptance movement have taken acceptance to the next... illogical... level which is almost fat promotion.

@woo woo He thinks he's GOD because he run's a very successful Tumblr page for the Body Positive/Fat Positive Community..That and he thinks I'm doing it for all the WRONG reasons and tells me "If You had more fat positive friends/family in you're life you wouldn't feel the need to go through with such a drastic surgery", Chances are if I had more "Fat Positive People" in my life I would exceed the 246lbs I am now and think it's ok when I know it is not.

It is alright to love yourself at any size, But I feel sometimes the people who follow this "Positive" culture truly take it to extremes.

@@CowgirlJane

I couldn't agree more!

I have been part of the "FA" movement for the last 8 year's, I don't really mind the people who are "Happy" being fat that's their choice and I am supportive of what makes someone happy. But I have never whole heartedly jumped into it deep, I've been in "FA" chat rooms and have gotten kicked out for "Diet Talk", I have had people call me fake and a trader for caring about my weight and health which is crazy to me!

Re: FA I don't know too much about it, from what little I have seen there are some zealots involved... it almost strikes me as a type of denial of the truth about obesity. There was a wacky blog post shared on this site from another member's friend that was into FA (but to be fair also seemed to have some serious issues as well).

Obviously it (obesity/fat) doesn't make one a bad person, or necessarily unattractive, but to deny that obesity is unhealthy just seems a little bit crazy to me! :P

@woo woo He thinks he's GOD because he run's a very successful Tumblr page for the Body Positive/Fat Positive Community..That and he thinks I'm doing it for all the WRONG reasons and tells me "If You had more fat positive friends/family in you're life you wouldn't feel the need to go through with such a drastic surgery", Chances are if I had more "Fat Positive People" in my life I would exceed the 246lbs I am now and think it's ok when I know it is not.

It is alright to love yourself at any size, But I feel sometimes the people who follow this "Positive" culture truly take it to extremes.

It sounds like he might have some emotional maladjustment of his own. You know how they say losing weight can change a relationship (as well as your relationship with food)? Sounds like he has a unique bond with the extra weight, and it's something he's identified with. Maybe you losing this is feeling threatening to him in some way.

As for him saying, "Maybe you wouldn't feel the need to go through with this", embrace-the-fat attitude....well, just tell that to the high cholesterol/high fat/high blood pressure and sleep apnea co-morbidities that are marching an eventual death our way. That s***s not made up, and it's not something you can just blow off as mental; they are real problems that are really related to the excess lbs.

If it was a easy lifestyle change people would not gain it back when the change the lifestyle . Remember wls is a tool to help you achieve the ability to maintain the goal you want to get to ..I had the lap band. First it I lost the hundred pounds. in three months and then it slipped causing me not to be able to swallow, then I have them take it out and couple months later put it back in because they would not cover the gastric sleeve .

And then now the band was slipping again and my insurance covered the sleeve this time and May 30 I had to sleeve .

As of May 30 have lost 30+ pounds and I'm on soft foods hopefully losing more pounds. But I'm getting able to do more things as far as exercise . But the gastric effects every one dif it's not a walk in the park it's a lifestyle change that's hard to go back to your old ways .

Good luck and follow your own heart and mind . I was scared for many years before I did the band I always thought I would lose it on my own . Yea I lost it then it came back .