My surgery is scheduled for 8/8/08 with Dr Chau at Princeton Hospital in NJ. I'm 68, F, 5' 6.5" with a BMI of 38. Borderline I know, but I need to lose 100 lbs to get down to 140. Dr says I'll be lucky to get to 160 in 2 years.

I'm walking with a decided limp now from bone-on-bone in my left knee and have both PAD and vascular insufficiency as co-morbiditys (hate that expression), though both are mild.

I'm wearing compression knee-high's (open toe) 4 days out of 7 -- yes even in this heat, and am still working and am very active, although I can't excercise much any more -- can't get down on the floor easily. I take that back -- I can get down, but getting back up is pretty ugly. Hoping taking all that weight off will help the arthritis pain and I can get back to walking on my Gazelle.

What about doing crunches? How soon after surgery can I get back to doing that -- it is the only excercise I've been doing lately and I make sure no-one can see me getting up.

I am assured that Medicare will take care of most of my costs and out-of-pocket should be no more than $300-$400.

Judiostudio

Hi: The band surgery was very simple for me. I flew to Toronto had the surgery, rested one day and flew back to British Columbia. There were no complications. You have to take it easy with the exercise for awile (your doctor will tell you how long) then you can do anything. From what you describe, I wonder why you aren't taking a water exercise plan. I go to aquasize (even when I was 303 lbs) and I thoroughly enjoy it. People with joint issues usually are referred to this type of program. Perhaps you should look into it. As for worrying about what you look like in a bathing suit, LOL, don't. Everyone else is too busy worrying about how they look. I hae met wonderful people in these classes all pain free when exercising due to the buoyance of the water.