Hi all, my name is Tom. By no means am I new to the Lap-Band, having had mine since November 2003, but I am new to this site.

I was banded by Dr. Jeff Allen in Louisville, Ky. and have lost 150 lbs. since my surgery. I've put on a bit of weight lately, but I've had my band deflated as I had major surgery. We just started the process of retightening, and the weight gained is coming back off once again. I'm back down 22 lbs. So we'll get that excess weight taken back off in short order!

Just wanted to say hi to everyone and compliment you on the site you have here. Keep up the good work!

Welcome to the site! Let us know how things progress and any of the struggles you have or overcame in the process!

Welcome!! Congrats on your getting back on the "band wagon"!!

Welcome to the site! Let us know how things progress and any of the struggles you have or overcame in the process!

No real difficulties with the band mechanics per se. My major surgery was 4 weeks ago due to a bowel obstruction, surgeons are mystified as to what caused that. I came to work one night feeling fine and 2 hours later I was doubled over in the floor. They did emergency surgery on me after determining there was an obstruction and ruling out a perforated appendix. The only thing they can offer was that they feel that I was attacked by some form of wicked intestinal virus which made me want to throw up. Of course with all of that being below the band, all I did was heave. That forced everything down lower, everything was swollen twice to three times its normal size, which they feel caused the obstruction.

This is the first time in the 5 years I've had the band that I've even remotely had any kind of intestinal virus which made me want to barf. Trust me, compared to a PB, you don't want to go there. At all.

They were going to wait about 12 weeks to start the process of tightening me back down again, but decided to go ahead and start now. My surgeon (also my band doc) said that what happened to me is extremely rare, and out of the hundreds of bands he has placed he has only had one other case like mine.

So, other than that my process of losing and life with the band has really been uneventful. It's all about keeping the Protein up, keeping the junk out, and getting moving. Once it begins to come off, you become naturally psyched to do more. Pretty cool process, if you ask me!

I've got one of the old bands, 4cc, and laid in the hospital for 6 days after getting it because I was "supertight". Not even Water would go down. But that gave me one heckuva jump start on the losing process, so I guess it was worth the headache of an extended hospital stay.