would love to know what to expect from surgery

[Guest roro]

i have heard so many different storys about having this surgery about the pro's and con's.will someone who has had the surgery please let me know.

[New Hope 37]

Do you mean about the surgery procedure itself? Or what life style changes you need to make? Or what to gain in health benefits from having the lapband? Sorry, but your ?? are pretty broad and I was wanting to understand what you were looking for before I responded.

[La_madam 20]

RoRo

You can expect to:

1. Lose Weight

2. Add years to your life

3. Eat less

4. More energy

5. Do things you have not been able to do in years!

6. Feel good about yourself

Everyone here who has had the surgery has had success in their own way and I can almost guarantee they will tell you that the pro's out weigh the minimal cons this surgery has ( does it have any cons??) and that they would do it over again in a hearbeat!

Are you thinking of having this surgery?

[leatha_g 4]

Have you done any reading on the other sections on this board? There is lots and lots of information there for the taking.

It would be hard to give you everything, but I can tell you that I've lost 69lbs that I surely would not have lost without the band. It takes some getting used to, as far as making the right food choices and learning that it's okay to eat a minimal amount of food. (we all have plenty of storage on board already)

The lapband is the safest of all weight loss surgeries offered and leaves all of your organs intact. It is completely reversible if, for some reason, a person needed it taken out (although, it's meant for life). It is adjustable, so if I'm not losing weight according to the 'average' weight loss expected, I can go in and have my doc tighten it up to help me better lose weight. This goes hand in hand with my own efforts in making the right food choices.

The recovery time after surgery is minimal. The pain is very minimal. The complication rate of surgery itself is almost non-existent compared to many bypass patients requiring lengthy ICU stays and worse.

www.obesityhelp.com has a Memorial page for bypass patients. There isn't one in existence for Lapband patients. However, there have been deaths occuring around lapband surgery. Most of them were not related to the band itself, but due to the patients not contacting someone when a problem presented itself. There was also one man who had a heart attack on the OR table, but it had nothing to do with being banded. The deaths related are still miniscule comparatively. As with any surgery, there is always a certain amount of risk, involved. There is probably more risk involved in NOT having the surgery and becoming more and more obese, which brings with it many many health factors.

With bypass, you have about an 18 month window of opportunity to lose your excess weight, then your body begins to adjust and often you begin to regain your lost weight. On the other hand, in some situations with bypass, people have been known to be unable to stop their weightloss and finally waste away because the weight loss can't be stopped. This is more due to the inability to absorb nutrients, because of the part of the colon that has been removed. Which brings us to the very real aspect of nutrition. With the band, everything I eat, my body gets nourishment from. Hence, the reason for making good food choices, because with so little intake, everything must count. With the bypass, your nourishment is flushed right on through, leaving you having to take loads of supplements for the rest of your life. With the band, you get to take 2 Flintstones a day or some really good Multivitamin and your done.

There is no window of opportunity with the band. You can continue to have it adjusted and you can continue to make good food choices so that you continue to lose. Thankfully, it's a relatively slow weightloss, which allows your skin and your mind to keep up, resulting in less flab - depending on age and amount of weight lost.

Sorry, I know that's rambling all over, but those are some of the things that come to mind.. Good luck with whatever you choose! Most importantly, get yourself a good, experienced doctor. If you get a band, have your aftercare in place BEFORE you are banded. Read, read, read everything you can find, because it is you who is in charge of knowing how this thing works. There is lots and lots of info here and there are many other boards on the net also. Happy Reading!

[Guest roro]

thanks so much for the information..i have talked to a few family members and i get different stories each time..i am 43 yrs old and have been overweight all my life..i realize the risk of being overweight yet i seem to be unable to stop eating..two yrs ago i lost 103 pounds it changed my life and i for the first time in my life felt good about myself although i still wasnt skinny i felt a lot healthier....i have found so many times in my life i have settled for less in my life...even the relationships i have had in my life it seemed i was the fat girl and if i ever wanted a man i had to take the very first one who paid me any attention...i am angry at myself for gaining my weight back after over a yr...i remember telling myself i would die before i gained it back..you see i starved myself to death to lose the weight....now im back where i started before fat and not loving myself at all ..i wonder how many other women have felt as i do right now ????

[Jammin & Losin 1]

Roro I think every single person male or female has felt this same way and that is why we are all here looking for help ,answers, and most of all friends and support. I have lost so much weight in my life you could make 3 more people with it. and the sad thing is I'm still at my highest weight right now. I'm getting my band soon and I'm gonna be ready to fight back and my ammo is going to be waiting!!!!! Good luck and don't feel you are all alone in this i am here for you and together we can do this. GOOD LUCK!!!!

[leatha_g 4]

Unless your family members have experience with a certain surgery or have been researching them, I wouldn't think they'd have very reliable information. This is a journey best studied/researched on your own. The internet is full of information, message boards, even medical journal findings. All you have to do is a search in Google or Yahoo (any search engine) entering words like adjustable gastric band or gastric bypass. It's very time consuming, however, you are very lucky that there are many others who have gone before you and now have a lot of that information already looked up. There are many many websites with personal stories. all you have to do is search them out and read til your little heart is content, but without this valuable knowledge, your personal experience can be quite bewildering. Arm yourself with every piece of knowledge and understanding you can get. This is not really one of those things you can learn in one conversation or even in a matter of a couple of weeks. In order to learn everything there is to know, you must be willing to devote months to the effort, ie, locating the right doctor, finding out about selfpay vs insurance, jumping through the hoops (psychological eval/cardiac workup/dietician), getting approval, what to expect during surgery, after, liquid diets, hunger before your first fill, signs and symptoms of anything suspicious, what your band is trying to tell you, how to listen and know what to do next. I just posted several links on another prospective bandsters question moments ago..

http://www.inamed.com/products/obes...d/prodinfo.html

http://bigolalaskan.com/lapband/fills.htm

http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/Index.html

http://www.weighless4life.com/hub.cfm/gastric-band this one has videos

http://www.gisurgery.net/OverviewOb...tricSurgery.pdf

http://www.obesitylapbandsurgery.com/tectec.html

__________________

[whippledaddy 5]

RoRo:

What to expect? You can expect to hate yourself if you don't do something. You shouldn't hate yourself for losing weight and gaining it back. That's what happens. Very few people have a problem losing the weight. The problem is losing the behaviours, and emotions connected to the fat.

Morbidly obese (doesn't the word "fat" sound better?) people have such a small chance of keeping weight off that it is statistically impossible. Has it been done? Of course. Every rule has it's exception.

You can expect to lose and gain a few more times in your life, if you keep trying this way. Don't be so hard on yourself. Do you expect to be perfect all the time? Sorry, none of us are. Everyone here has lost and gained, and then looked in the mirror and saw a face they hated. Everyone.

It's a tough decision. Discussing it with family and friends will be educational, but not helpful. Especially if they're thin. You will encounter all sorts of reactions. Few will be helpful. Some might even be harmful. Listen to yourself, and your troubled heart first. Look at your feelings and you will know what you need to do. Then, come here. Because whatever you decide, the people here will understand. We've been there.

If you do decide on surgery you can expect more to happen. The unsolicited comments of family and friends will be your gift. They won't hesitate to tell you horror stories (mostly urban legend), or to seem to criticize.

You'll talk to your family doctor. Get him/her to write a note asking a WLS surgeon to see you. You'll see that surgeon. You'll be sent for a battery of tests. If you are trying to bill insurance they will be contacted. You may have to fight for your rights with the insurance company, or you may have to pay your own way in this journey.

If you are a good candidate, and if you are determined, you will move on. If you've decided that you are worth the effort, that you truly are a person who deserves a better life, the surgery will be scheduled. You will be mildly sedated then anesthetized. You'll wake up a very short time later and you'll have a new friend.

You won't have as much pain as you think. Some in the shoulder, neck or back from gas. You'll be encouraged to get up and walk, use the bathroom, sip ice chips. You'll recover. You'll have to watch what you eat for a few days or weeks, gradually working back to regular food.

When you're healed enough you'll be given a fill, a painless procedure that causes "restriction" thereby reducing the amount of food you can consume. That fill may have to be adjusted over the next few weeks. Don't be in a hurry now, this is a life commitment to health and happiness you've made, not a moment's whim.

Your loss will mirror your gain. The pounds will drop as gradually as the sun rises. You'll find the beautiful core of you, hiding deep within your protective layer of tissue. There will come a time when you weep still, but you'll weep for joy, and for the lightness of being that comes when this burden is lifted from your spirit.

You'll slip up from time to time. Backslide. But thanks to your band you'll not slide as far down that slippery slope as before. Minimal damage. No strain.

You'll come here often, and read, and laugh, and maybe even cry a bit. You'll read someone's story and recognize their pain as your own. You will be in awe at how many beautiful spirits can gather together here.

Then, one day, you'll answer a question from someone new, someone full of fear and hope. Someone who's afraid to hope for a better way, a better life, a better shot at all that life offers the thin. And you'll realize it is you who is gaining from this, from telling others what to expect. So you will have come full circle, and paid it forward.

Good luck. There is a lot of info in this place, and you'll be able to research to your heart's content.

[New Hope 37]

Roro, please don't hate yourself! If we've learned anything, it's that diets just don't work. They may get the weight off, but it always comes back. Why, because we return to our old habits. With the band, you have a tool that reminds you (sometimes not too gently) to watch your portions and try to eat healthier (most of the time). But you're the instrumental one in whether your band works or not. You can eat "around" the band by eating soft, high calorie foods that don't fill your pouch and leave you feeling hungry. Please research and ask ?? This is a very personal decision that you alone have the final say in. But do this for YOU, to help you regain your health and energy...not for some guy that doesn't appreciate (or deserve) you for what you are.

[claraluz 2]

roro, welcome. As usual Whippledaddy has written what I would have written had I but the gift of expression he has.

I saw myself in what you wrote. I, too, lost 100 pounds and gained it all back and hated myself. I, too, settled for less because I didn't think I deserved more.

For me, the surgery itself was very simple. It was a day procedure, I went home that evening. I never had any pain. I took a week off work, but I could have gone back sooner if I needed to. But having a week off was probably a good idea.

Leatha is right. Research. Don't look to friends or family members for advice. If they have never been fat, they know nothing. And even if they have been fat, they may be at a different stage of fatness than you are. Meaning perhaps they have not hit bottom yet and realized they are powerless to fight this without help.

For me, being banded has been both a physical and a spiritual journey. The physical part involved learning to work with my band, rebelling against the bandster rules, but eventually realizing they are there for a reason. Losing a lot of weight, stalling, then losing quickly again. Learning that even with the band, I have to eat right and exercise, the difference being that with my band to help me, I will never regain the weight and all my effort will not be for naught.

The spiritual part of the journey has been much more interesting and rewarding. I am not yet near my goal weight, but my life and my relationships have changed dramatically. I no longer battle depression and self-loathing.

People treat me with the respect I deserve. I have never had to demand respect. There is just a subtle change in how I present myself and people respond to it. I no longer feel old and like I am just waiting for the end. I have hopes, dreams, goals. And a lot more physical and psychic energy with which to make them happen.

Honestly, I could go on and on, but I'll restrain myself. I researched for two years before I decided to have the surgery. Your research does not have to take that long, but please read until you understand how the band works, what changes you will have to make after the surgery, foods that you will no longer be able to eat. Learn the bandster rules. Research your surgeon. Etc.

I wish every obese person could have what I have with the band. But it is a very personal decision. Good luck with your research.

Nancy

[Guest roro]

i just wanted to say good morning and thank you to all the responses .It is so nice to hear from others that are or have felt the same way about life as i do right now...i have had two family members that had surgery and one cousin well she lost over a hundred pounds but she aged at least twenty years and she was younger than i am..she has had to go back and have surgery several times to repair things..and i have talked to her several times about it she to said she was happy to have had the surgery but she did tell me she can no longer eat anything with sugar in it because it will make her throw up..and i have my sons best friends father i asked him about it he is a Emt..and he said he was tired of always being the fat boy..and he told me its your own decision but if he had the chance to do it again he would in a heartbeat..he did say the same things you all have told me to research it and find a good doctor..he told me a few things that scared me tho ..he said he had to have a piece of chicken removed because it wouldnt go down and got lodged..and also that some people have what they call."dumping" and that when he first had his he threw up a lot....and then i have a couple of women i know they are sisters and they both had the surgery and lost there weight again they seemed to have aged a lot...all i hear from other friends and family is are you sure you want to do this why dont you try and loose it the "right " way..my parents have always been concerned about my weight on the count of health problems that exist in my family on both sides..but my mother did tell me this she said you have battled this demon all your life and i cant tell you what to do and i cant tell you i know what its like ..see my mother was always a skinny woman all her life till she hit about 50 now she is a bit overweight and battling diabetes and she doesnt want to see this happen to me..btw she is still skinny to me considering she doesnt weigh but about 160 pounds unlike me i weigh 328 most people cannot believe im that heavy i guess im fortunate i have a bit of height on my side but i cant seem to motivate myself to want to change my life as i did before and im not sure why.i have asked myself a thousand times over and the only honest answer i can come up with is im scared to death of failing yet once again....i do appreciate all the replys and i hope i dont wear out my welcome ..I just want to LIVE and not with the darkness i feel in my life....God Bless you ....

[leatha_g 4]

((((Roro)))) it sounds as if you can use a hug.

The 'dumping' of which you speak is only associated with the gastric bypass. This is due to the resection of the colon. This does not happen with the adjustable gastric band. You CAN eat sugars with this surgery - (however, this does NOT mean you should).

It is also possible to get something stuck and have to have it removed but I believe this is a very rare occasion. More likely, with the band, you will do what we refer to as PB (productive burp). I call it throwing up. However, since the offending article has not yet been mixed with bile, it is not as offensive as true vomiting.

You hear of this 'roto rooter' problem much more often in gastric bypass. In the event of stuckage like this with the band, your doc would/should be able to simply Un-fill any Fluid that you may have in your band.

I can't tell you that weight loss in any form may not age you. Sometimes, when the fatty deposits become smaller in our faces, wrinkles and such do show up. I know I'm seeing mine much more. However, I'm 44 years old. You are not. All one has to do is to go back through some of these threads in this forum and check out the pictures to see that wrinkles or not, most everyone here who's posted before and after photos simply look as if they're younger than when they first began. Some look like totally different people. You be the judge.

In the case of gastric bypass patients this 'aging' also has much to do with the malabsorption associated with resecting the colon. Your body simply does not get all the nutrients it needs to maintain healthy skin and hair.

I applaud you for at least making a beginning by writing about your thoughts and your dispair related to your obesity. It's a very big step to take. Each and every one of us here has had to face the same demon.

If you go to www.inamed.com , there is a Surgeon locator on the left hand side of the page. This might be one place for you to begin. Most all docs who do the surgery have informational seminars/meetings that might be of help to you in choosing a local doctor.

I wish you peace in whatever you decide.

[Alexandra 55]

Roro, please go back to square one with your research. Don't rely on what other people tell you--we ALL can share stories of the bad reactions we got from people who don't realize there is a world of difference between banding and bypass surgery.

Banding is NOT like bypass. It does not give the drastic results, both good and bad, that people think of when they hear "weight-loss surgery." Banding is totally different: safer, slower, healthier.

[lapbander081004 7]

roro

You sound like so many of us...SO stay here with us, laugh with us, learn with us and have fun with us BUT most of all LOSE WEIGHT with us.

Membership to this family is only respect...for yourself and others here. Want to join????.. Oh yes thats a daily fee too.

[New Hope 37]

the only honest answer i can come up with is im scared to death of failing yet once again.... ..I just want to LIVE and not with the darkness i feel in my life....God Bless you ....

I'm sending you (((hugs))) also! We understand what you're saying. We've walked that same walk. Please research and try to get factual information, not "rumors" from others. Those have a way of getting more "colorful" every time they're retold. Best of luck to you on your journey to better health!!