Hi All:

I'm new to this. Just had my intro session last week and on Wednesday I have my first appointments (psych, nutritionist and surgeon's rep)! I am very excited about all this and it feels right and I am really glad I found this site for the support and the encouragement your stories offer. So I just wanted to say hello and see if my ticker is working! Have a great weekend.

Susan

Hi Susan and welcome to LBT. If you have any questions, let us know, we are glad to help.

Thanks so much Susan!

Hi Susan!

I'm curious to ask... How long was your timeline?When did you start considering lap band?

Today.. I began really looking into the lao band surgery. I'm am from Southern California (by LAX) and I hope my ins. covers it. I have an appt. for my primary doctor for Thursday and I don't really know where to go after that.

Help.

Hi Yummy:

I've been considering it for about 2 months. I went to another hospital's presentation a few weeks ago and was interested, but it really seemed like a meat market and a hard sale and I was uncomfortable with it. Also, a friend who is also overweight encouraged me to work with him on a healthier lifestyle and we put together a checklist for living right. Which of course failed after a couple weeks due to decreased interest by the members of the group. (Hard to report in when you are not doing well.)

When I went to the UCSD presentation it just felt better and seemed like a better fit. Plus the woman who gave her success story was very similar to me - needed to lose 100 pounds. my body type, etc. - and she looked fantastic. Plus I'm a big believer in anything UCSD.

I'm a self-pay so I don't have the insurance hoops to jump through and fortunately I have enough savings to cover it. I have my first meetings tomorrow with psych, nutritionist and surgeon's stand in. (Have a feeling the surgeon and I will not know each other well before the surgery.) I'm trying to get info on the UCSD program but may have to repost my message as no one has provided info yet. I will let you know more after tomorrow.

So what about you? What was your trigger for thinking about this? How much do you need to lose? Do you have a good support network?

Susan

Susan, thanks for your reply and info.

I need to lose 100 pounds. I'm at 227.4 at this moment. I'm also in Weight Watchers. Trying to get this weight off, but I have not been that successful. This weekend my husband and my 3 daughters were at a pool party and I really felt VERY UPSET at myself after listening to my best friends talking about their swimsuits. It's mu fault that I got so big. There is nobody to blame but myself. I have tried lots of other ways to lose the fat but I have not been happy. Atkins, South Beach and cutting all my carbs... :glare:Its just bad. I have been thinking about this for some time now, BUT now is the time. I really started yesterday looking into options that may be available to me. My questions are...

* Do I go to my primary doctor first? or Do I go to see a Lap Band doctor first?

* Should I go to a seminar first or do I wait?

* Any info will be helpful to me as I'm starting my search.

* What doctors are the best in my area? (LAX area)

* I have been suffering for my ankles hurting, acid reflux, and I hate to say it but I think I suffer from depression too. :w00t:

So there goes my story.

SDSusan (my fave US city, btw...)

welcome to LBT

Thanks Losingjusme!

And Yummy - I hope you find a lot of your answers here, there seems to be tons of information. I don't know what to tell you about PD vs. seminar first. I would probably start with finding the best doctor/hospital in your area and attending the seminar. Then you have people here to help you with lots of questions and people there to help you throught the process with insurance, etc. You might also want to check and see if your insurance will even cover it - I think there's an area that talks about it. Since I know my insurance won't I didn't even have to bother with that research.

I would really do some research on depression and the decreased effectiveness of this surgery because of it. You may have to deal with the depression first because studies seems to indicate you have a much smaller chance of success if you are depressed. (I'm talking clinical depression, not just "I hate my body" depression.) I will tell you that since I've decided to do this I am filled with hope and very excited about the future. I know this is going to work for me. And while I won't have the perfect body, at least I can start dating again!

Finally, be careful about being too hard on yourself. There's probably a few people here that have medical reason for being obese, but the vast majority of us did it to ourselves. And we have tried every diet only to gain more weight. Who cares? The past is over and fat people turned skinny are nicer to be around than always skinny people so rejoice in your ability to join this group soon. :blushing: Yes, I tend to be an annoyingly optimistic person, but heck you have an opportunity for great medical care which a lot of the world doesn't have. For many of us diets don't work, thank goodness it looks like something does!

SanDiegoSusan-THANK YOU!

Your feedback and advice really helped. I could get depressed at times and I really do think I suffer from it. I'll see what my doc tells me on Thursday.

In a seach for a doctor- Do you know of a website I could login to?

Good Luck tomorrow. Let us know how it went. It will all go well. Sending ((((( GOOD HAPPY VIBES))))) your way. :blushing:

Susan, once again. Thanks!

"In a seach for a doctor- Do you know of a website I could login to?"

I would start with the forum posts right here - go to the California section and see who people are recommending. When you get a couple of names of doctors who seem to be good do a search on them here and through Google and see if they have seminars you can attend or other info sessions. Also, strongly recommend you find a support group in your area. Again I don't know of any but if you research it you should be able to find one. Finally, spend some time learning about this. I am a very fast researcher and decision maker - gets me in trouble at times. One extra month isn't going to make much difference, find what YOU really need.