What I've found is that Weight Loss Surgery is a long and hard road... it's certainly not the easy way out.... I wish it were.... BUT, if used correctly, banding is a great tool to aid you in our weight loss goals.

Dont get me wrong, all weight loss surgeries have to be worked at. WE know that the band is a tool and not a magic pill. I wish it were ! So far, I am definately finding it easier and more successful than anything I have attempted before.

One thing that I love about the band opposed to dieting alone, is that it wont allow me to throw in the towel and undo all the good work that i've done. Previously on diets I could stay motivated for a few months then for whatever reason, I would break the diet and before I knew it, i'd gained all the weight back again!

ALL surgeries - no exception have to be worked at - they all take an aspect of "can't have this" "must do that" - some people in my family/work think it's a matter of getting this band in & then the weight falls off ! gawd I wish it were as easy as that !

The band seems to get bad press all over the place... It IS more challenging than RNY or DS - we DON'T have the luxury (if you can call it that) of malabsorbsion.. but the fact remains - that over a 2 year period the "stats" show that the average excess weight loss with all ops are very similar... and we as bandsters have the "luxury" of NOT having our plumbing re-routed!

ok off my soap box now lol.

It's just that I feel so defensive over my band - it's given my my life back - and allowed me to look forward to a future that's not as bleak & depressing as it was a year ago. It really bug's me when it's dismissed as a second rate surgery... or one that "that's all we could afford!" ARGH!

Hope you have a great festive season my banded friends !

Aud x

I don't know what kind of "bad press" you are talking about, but I would be interested in knowing. Here in the States, the band gets almost no press at all.

I had lunch today with a friend who had the bypass four months ago. In four months she's lost more than I had at four months, but not that much. Our eating guidelines are exactly the same. I don't think she is far enough out yet to have begun struggling again with the old food demons, but I sure have so I know all too well now that the band really is only a tool. If magic were available, I sure would opt for magic, but since it's not all I can say is that even though I still have to have willpower with the band and have to exercise and all that, at least I know my efforts won't be wasted! Without the band, I just kept regaining the weight over and over. And I did investigate bypass and the cost would have been exactly the same.

Nancy

The seminar I went to discussed Band vs. Bypass, and bypass patients shed weight much more rapidly than Band patients because a bypass is two weight loss surgeries in one. The are given a smaller "pouch" just like us, which helps them eat like a bandster. But the 2nd part of the surgery,where their intestines are wired to quickly eliminate everything they eat really speeds up the process. So bypass patients lose like crazy, while us bandsters have a slower yet steadier loss. I think it's much healtier to lose slower while still absorbing all the nutrition, which is the huge benefit of the band. My doctor drew me a diagram of the bypass, and the bottom part of the stomach that is cut off has very important digestive properties. Once it's cut off, you can't digest or absorb effectively.

As far as the bad press, my doctors haven't even heard of the band! The same doctor that drew the bypass diagram asked me for information. I sent her LapBand pamphlets and she is very impressed and has since suggested it to other patients. So we aren't getting any bad Band press in Vegas either, since nobody has even heard of the thing... though there are now 4 band doctors here, so I'm sure it will eventually become the latest local rage.

Nancy and Kelly, I third that! When I've told the select few, they say what is that, then I explain, it's the fat people surgery, then they gasp and say OMG! Then I have to explain the entire detail. Although, since I was the first Adj Band in my area, the day after my surgery, they did a full page article on my doctor, with pictures, (not of me). It was very specific, but, if you're not a heavy person, chances are you're not going to read it.

My doctor has done about 10 since mine. I went for my follow up yesterday, he was so excited, I'd lost 17 lbs, he said that was much higher than he expected for 9 days. I was a little excited too.

Personally, I think the open rny will become a thing of the past in a few years.

There is no comparason if you check the long term studies from Europe. In the U.S. the lap band is the new kid on the block and has gottan some bad press because so many of the U.S. Doctors are not qualified to do the surgeries, or haven't done very many of them. This procedure was only approved by the FDA in the last couple of years is my understanding.

When I went to two specialist in bariatric surgery and requested banding they were both condesending about why I would choose this over bypass surgery. There was a suggestion that I was not as serious about weight loss if I chose banding.

The new book on banding by Dr Ortiz "Lap Band For Life" should show banding in a more positive light. This book will answer alot of questions other Dr's have as well as the layman and seeker of help for life changes through weight loss surgery.

Hopeful Brenda

Banded September 24, 2004