Thinking about Lap Band...hello

Momof3girls · July 26, 2008

Hi...I am thinking about having Lap Band and have been reading posts at this forum and another one (but that one has a lot more Gastric Bypass posts than Lap Band) to better educate myself.

A little about myself...I'm 5' 6" and 248. I just am in that 40 BMI and I have no comorbities but I am sure that continuing with this much weight I will most likely develop them. I am probably like most of you, Weight Watchers for what seems like forever, I was a pretty thin kid and I remember when I was around 17-18, I weighed 155 and I was pretty happy with the way I looked. Then came college, then I put on about 30-40lbs and right before marriage in 1989, I had joined WW and lost 57lbs and down to 175 (boy, I'd like to see that again). Up and down over the next 18 years, 49 lbs gone one time, 40 another and 37 another but I just seem to be stuck around 246-248lbs. because let's face it, I like food! Well, only certain foods, the ones that go to the hips (bread, cheese, etc). I'm what they call pear shape.... I am very active (at least for my size), I joined a fitness boot camp (1hr/day/5X a week for 8 weeks), halfway through it, and though I really tried to monitor my food this time (went last summer for 8 weeks, 3X a week and didn't lose one pound but lost a lot of inches) no weight loss really, probably some inches though. I bike, mow my lawn with a pushmower each week (~ 1 acre), moved like 25 yards of dirt mostly by hand (wheelbarrow) but STILL the weight is there. I'm tightening up my fat, I think. I just hate looking at myself from the waist down anymore, I know that there is a thin person inside of me waiting to pop out.

So, I've come to the conclusion that I need to do something with my eating. I've got the exercise down, I just need this tool (Lap Band) to help me along. I've been researching for about 3 weeks now, bought Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies (good book) and narrowed down my choice of a surgeon here in NJ (that takes my insurance and has done like 1000+ WLS), visited my Primary Care Physician and another visit next month...for my "Weight Mgmt" visit (what a laugh, right, all these years and they couldn't tell I had a weight problem? They never even brought it up to me but they probably put that dreaded "obese" on my chart!), Seminar at Surgeon next month, and the ball is rolling.

Thanks for letting me introduce, I will be surfing around this site hopefully answering my questions.