How Do you feel about your choice to get banded ??? Please Vote !

Sorry i posted this by mistake in Intro section as well.

My Story

Hi, I'm new to the community and am scheduled to get banded on May the 13th !!! Soooo nervous and excited at the same time. Would really like to hear from some of you about your experiences. Does anyone here regret going through with the surgery ?

My biggest worries is that I may regret the surgery for the following reasons:

1) I may feel frustrated with having a foreign object telling me what I can and cannot eat (unable to eat foods like red meat, past and rice the rest of my life).

2) Feeling like an impostor in front of other people because I have something inside myself that I am hiding from other people. Like I will always be carrying around this embarrassing secret with me...

What do you think about my thoughts ?

BTW I am 23 years old and in college :biggrin2:

I wake up every morning THRILLED that I have my band. All the things I gave up pale in comparison to how I feel both physically and emotionally.

Does everyone have trouble with rice?

Does everyone have trouble with rice?

I don't have trouble with rice. I don't have it very often though, and when I do, it's almost always a very small amount of brown rice. Unless I'm at a restaurant.

I can eat rice and lots of other things but not everyday. What I mean is sometimes things go down very easy and the next day I can't eat the very same thing. But i am still learning how to deal with my band.

Overall I can say that i have no regrets but it is not easy to get used to either. I am so glad to not have the cravings I used to have and I no longer feel like food rules my life. That is such a relief to me.

I have found that I really don't care if there are things I can't eat anymore. I'm having trouble with chicken lately and my band is a bit tight I think. But I lost 4.4 lbs this week!

I am comfortable with my appetite for the first time in my life. And I could care less about eating Pasta or chicken if I have control over my eating.

That's my 2 cents!

Sadie

i have been thinking and praying about the band 2 things i can not help feel concern about is the slippage and i like to eat i was on a diet in 1989 lost 103 lbs kept it off for 8 years then i suffered from depression ,i could not eat had to force my self to eat so when i got my appatite back i just kept eating gained it all back plus any comments:confused2:

I don't think there's anyone on here that doesn't love to eat! :smile:

The great thing about the band is that you probably won't feel like eating for a while after the surgery. If your doctor is like mine, you'll be on liquids and then pureed foods for a while and, at least for me, it helped me adjust my appetite and eating habits. I still have to watch what I eat, but it's easier than before.

Knowing you can't eat some things without making yourself sick helps a lot too. I absolutely HATE being nauseated and throwing up so that's a great motivator. The size of your pouch will help you eat a lot less.

Don't worry so much, it's going to be the best thing you ever did for yourself!

I thought about having this "thing" in me but I am getting over that I am 5 days out of surgery and I am feeling really good about it. My weight was out of control no matter what I did....I was 320 pounds 3 weeks before surgery I am 291 today that is 29 pounds...I have not seen the day I could lose 29 pounds in four weeks. This procedure I believe will save me from myself. Go for it!

I dont regret it. Although my weight loss isn't incredible yet, I feel so much better about myself. I hate the scars on my stomach, but feel like this could be a very good way of not gaining back weight after dieting. Ive lost over 30 pounds so far and it i such a great feeling!

I don't think anyone should feel embarassed about getting the band. Having said that, the only person that knows I've had this surgery is my best friend. I can't fully explain why I didn't want my family to know, but I think it was that I didn't want any expectations from them. I also know that, in the end, its up to me to use the band to help me lose weight. I'm the one going to have to make the right food choices, control my portions and exercise. The band will help me keep myself in check, but in the end its all on me.

I've been banded for 17 months. The first 6 were awesome!!! I lost weight without even thinking about it. Being on every diet in the book and always regaining more, I think thank God for the band. I may not be at my goal weight but almost 50lbs down is a place I wouldn't have gotten to on my own.

The last 11 months have not been so great. But overall I would say I don't regret it. My advice is if you get a fill that's too tight don't let it go. Get some taken out. I lived too long with too tight of a fill and it caused some major problems that I have been dealing with for the last year.

After a year of basically maintaining, up about 5lbs, I am now finally thinking my body can handle a fill again and start the journey anew.

One thing that really surprised me is how much stress really affects my band. I have had a very stressful year with a business partnership gone bad and to this day even the mention of the situation and I get tight and can't eat. I have learned to not talk about stressful things before or during meals and I'll be alright.

Even if I don't lose another pound I'm in a better place than I was pre-band.

recently banded may 1, 2008. Right now I feel great about being banded. I just hope I dont regret it later.

I still am not sure if I regret my band or thankful for it. I have not had any problems with my band; however I have had a few PB's, but no bad ones. I am thankful that I do eat less, but I tend to over eat at lunch time because that is when my band is loose and I know I can eat more. I am learning how to have new relationship with food, how weird is that?

I am grateful for the band. As a self-pay I do feel a little guilty about having to spend all that money that could have been put to many other good uses. If only I had better self-control! My DW is totally supportive and I am so fortunate. I have lost 100+ pounds four times in my life only to gain it all back plus more every time. My failures out there for the entire world to see. Talk about demoralizing! Now, for the first time I feel some optimism, hope, even a little confidence that (with the help of my new band friend) I might be able to finally gain control over this area of my life that has always controlled me. Yep-- even though the first few weeks after surgery were rough, I'd do it all over again. Good luck!

It has certainly been the best decision of my life. I have gone from 287 2 215 pounds in 6 months. I have gone from a tight size 28 to a size 16 and I have actually bought size 14 jeans....YEAH! I feel better than I have in over 20 years, and I work out 6 days a week and I am sure that my energy is coming from those workouts. My stress level has gone from 90 to a 10 and that was worth every bit of it.

I feel more confident than I ever have in my life that I will be a healthy weight by my band anniversary.

I am thrilled beyond belief and I thank everyone here that has given me the encouragement to keep going when the scale is not moving as I want it too!!

I am grateful for the band. As a self-pay I do feel a little guilty about having to spend all that money that could have been put to many other good uses. If only I had better self-control! My DW is totally supportive and I am so fortunate. I have lost 100+ pounds four times in my life only to gain it all back plus more every time. My failures out there for the entire world to see. Talk about demoralizing! Now, for the first time I feel some optimism, hope, even a little confidence that (with the help of my new band friend) I might be able to finally gain control over this area of my life that has always controlled me. Yep-- even though the first few weeks after surgery were rough, I'd do it all over again. Good luck!

Jim- you're being too hard on yourself. I don't believe that the current problem in America with obesity is a matter of self control.

It is obvious to me as a scientist that there are other significant factors going on. A 98% failure rate is a statistical impossiblity if the operating factor is just self control.

I suspect that there are significant physiological changes in our bodies when we eat high fructose corn syrup or white flour or white sugar. Something happens to make losing weight so impossible.It is not just will power. If it was more people would be successful at losing and keeping weight off.

The recent discovery that cutting into an area of the small intestine cures diabetes immediately after surgery without weight loss tells us that a lot of the knowledge about obesity and the resulting problems are probably wrong.

Reminds me of the theory of ulcers- that stress caused ulcers and the dr's put you on milk etc when it was a bacteria all along. Oops. I think "diets" will be viewed the same way in the future.

So forgive yourself and wait for science to catch up to us. Be glad that you could afford to self pay (and I am thankful for that also in my case).

Love and success to all on our journey.

Sadie