For the last five years I have been going to an Ophthalmologist every six months because he wanted to keep a close eye on me because he saw what could become Glaucoma. Today was the day, he said “this is interesting,” my pressure went from 16 down to 11, which I now know is good. He told me there has been a discovery that this happens with people with Lap Bands. They don’t know why, “it’s a mystery.” He said that it happens as soon as six weeks after surgery before the patient even has time to loose much weight. Well, mystery or not, I’m happy it happened to me.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

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Did he tell you what he was looking for? My GUESS is that he was worried you were developing pseudotumor cerebri. I had it TWICE..once when I was 19 and then when I was 35 (I'm 45 now). It's unusual to get it twice, so of course, I got it! It's when you are fat the spinal fluid in your spinal column build pressure and keeps making more fluid. Your body, being frugal, wants to save it all. It builds up in your column and eventually moves into your brain. This fluid then puts pressure on your optic nerves...that's why he was looking for pressure...your innerocular vessels bulge. I actually had it so bad the first time that I had a spinal tap to removed fluid and had to be on steroids for about 6 months. It can cause blindness if you don't treat it and once the 6th optic nerve is pinched off, it cannot be fixed, even with surgery. This condition was about the only co-morbidity I had and it got my insurance to approve me! I'm SO glad yours is improving! Weight loss will do it!! YEAH!!!

Saw my primary care for the first time since being banded...yeah, a long time ago was my last appt.

Anyways, was told a study was just published showing people with diabetes even though they didn't meet ins. requirements for lapband...when they had the band their diabetes either got more manageable w/o all the heavy drugs, or stopped the progression, etc.

To me that was a no brainer.

Many of the illnesses an overweight person has can be cured w/ weight loss.

My vision has gotten worse over the years since I was about 8 (when I first got my glasses). In the last year or two it has actually started to get better. I went from a contact prescription of -5.25 to -4.25 in a year, and that's a lot faster than the rate at which it had gotten worse over the years. I'm convinced it has something to do with my weight, which is making me consider waiting until I'm at goal before I get lasik to fix them permanently.

Well that's good news, I suffer from a really weird rare eye disorder that causes painful corneal rips and tears. Its nothing to do with weight and laser surgery seems to have fixed it, but I know how it feels to think that you could lose your eyesight or similar.