My friend, PaulaM and I are scheduled to have surgery with Dr. Ortiz on May 25th. Paula is on the road today but asked that I post this thread to ask if any of you regret having the band. I think Paula is 99% prepared to go forward with the surgery, but continues to have lingering worries/doubts. If any of you are uncomfortable with posting any regrets, please PM me and I will share with Paula when we speak later today.

By the way, Paula is nearly a pack-a-day smoker and she is having to quit smoking for the surgery. This is extremely hard on her. Did any of you have to quit before surgery? How did you manage? Any tips? Did most of you go back to smoking after the surgery? Dr. Ortiz says that about 30% of his patients continue to abstain from smoking after being banded. We are wondering what all your experiences have been.

My only regret is that I didn't do this sooner.

I told Paula that I was pretty sure the responses would be overwhelmingly in the positive -- no regrets. But didn't figure that response would be so small. I will chalk it up to the fact that it is obvious from this board that nearly everyone is happy with their band and grateful to have it. In fact, I told Paula that. But she still wanted me to ask.

So keep the responses coming, please!

I am very happy with my band... I have only had 3 weeks and still letting it heal but me and my band are now best firends LOL (picture image of me and my band running in a field of flowers) Gosh I think Im been online to long LOL

You might check this link out, and try searching on "regret" http://lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=6811&highlight=regret

I'm sure by this evening you will have a dozen answers to this post.

My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. My doctor mentioned it to me, but I fought it for a year before I gave in. Now I wish I had done it back when he mentioned it to me.

Have you checked this?? I'm am still researching and I have found this very useful.

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/amosforums/any_wls_regrets

Thank you to everyone who has replied. Vinesqueen, thank you for the link to the prior thread -- the posts there were overall very encouraging. And Lasonyadj, thank you for the link to the thread on the other board. The posts there are very sobering and I kind of hate for Paula to see them, but she wanted to know! She will just have to keep in mind that the thread is on a board for all WLS and not just lapbands.

Doing the countdown -- just 5 more days 'til surgery!!!

Hey KellyK,

Yes it is very sobering, however I did notice that the people who had the biggest regrets were those who had other surgeries beyond the GR.

I have not regretted my band for one minute! I honestly wish that I did this two years ago when I started looking into it!

Dr. Ortiz is my Dr. & he's banding my daughter on May 27th. Maybe we'll run into Kelly. I have not one single regret. Best thing I ever did, and I love Drs. Ortiz & Martinez.

I noticed that noone replied about the smoking part??? heheh, I was doing pretty good till today I got stressed out at work and I went straight for the smokes...

I asked my DH if he had any regrets over being banded. He said he regrets it almost everyday. He will see something and really want to have a good old fashioned binge, and binge for hours on that food. But he is so thankful for the band so that he cannot binge.

His desire to binge is aperently still very great, but without the band, he'd be dead.