Hi all,

I'm at work, and I call the library to ask if there are any books in braille or on tape dealing with weight loss surgery, specifically, lap band. there is nothing. I called the reference librarian who wasn't in her office, to see if she could find one through interlibrary loan. she wasn't there. I am at lunch now, checking the web site of another organization for the blind and visually impaired, which was recommended by someone in our press department. they only have things about weight management for everybody, from the Mayo Clinic.

I have decided to ask my bandster family to please help. Has anyone read any books they think were really helpful? I'm going to try to have them brailled. Even the literature at my surgeon's office isn't accessible to me, and while I don't mind having someone read things to me it would be nice if I could do it myself. It's not going to be cheap, but it's important to me to get this done, so please send me anything that has helped you.

Thanks in advance.

The book that has helped me is "Weight Loss Surgery with the Adjustable Gastric Band Everything You Need to Know Before and After Surgery to Lose Weight Successfull" by Dr. Robert Sewell and Linda Rohrbough. I tried to find out if they have it in braille but was unable to find that information. Good luck with your journey!

Thank you. I finally talked to our reference librarian and from what she told me there is absolutely nothing in braille. I can't believe I'm the first blind person, well, I know I'm not, to have weight loss surgery. I know someone who has. But I guess it was meant for me to try to get things transcribed in to braille. I can do it!

Thanks again.

Debbi,

I have the book that Slim is talking about. People tell me I have a nice voice, if you could tell me the best way to do it, I wouldn't mind reading the book to tape and sending it to you.

Might be kinda weird for you to listen to but maybe not. I've never done "books on tape" so don't know what it's like to listen to a book like this. I'm sort of imagining it to be like having a person read to you.

Anyway, just a thought.

Michelle, that is so nice of you! Thank you!

Is it a very long book? If you let me know, I can figure out how many tapes to send to you, and we can work something out. If it's too long I could just buy it and have it brailled.

I still can't believe there is nothing in the entire national library service (NLS) but our reference librarian didn't find anything. There is also a "casual" recording department where I work, and I suppose they could do it, but I'm not sure how long that would take, or how good the readers are.

So thank you again for such a kind offer. Let me know how long the book is and maybe we can go from there.

It's not a long book. It's less than: 9 1/4 inches tall, 6 1/4 inches wide and 1/2 inch deep and the font is probably 10 or 12 and has 260 pages excluding the acknowledgments, glossary, resources and index. With those included it goes to 295 pages.

What kind of tape deck/player would I need? Regular sized tapes or mini's? I don't mind purchasing it and if this works out and there are other books you would like translated, I can do that.

Is translated the right word? Putting it into a different form other than the original?

Anyway.

Oh and I forgot, the preface and introduction add another 12 pages.

How would you want this? I've never listened to a book on tape so don't know "how it's done," so to speak. Do you want me to read the Contents, listed by chapter? Do you want page numbers or just chapters? Etc. Give me some specifics so I can best help you.

Too bad I don't have a braille machine. I could braille it for you. I'm pretty good with a keyboard too. Of course, I have NO idea what that all entails either! LOL!

Is there a need for someone to be doing this? Both on tape and in braille? Aren't there resources or are they just doing kind of what they have too and can't or won't keep up? Like I said, I have no idea.

Let me know how best to help you and we'll see if we can't figure this out.

I read your post but didn't respond...and it hit me this morning -

do it yourself!

Necessity is the mother of invention and you may be on to a great business idea.

Don't know how or even where to start...but you could take Inamed's manual and other books - or write your own!

We'll be seeing you on the morning news shows in no time, even Oprah!

Debbi,

I have the book that Slim is talking about. People tell me I have a nice voice, if you could tell me the best way to do it, I wouldn't mind reading the book to tape and sending it to you.

Might be kinda weird for you to listen to but maybe not. I've never done "books on tape" so don't know what it's like to listen to a book like this. I'm sort of imagining it to be like having a person read to you.

Anyway, just a thought.

If you need another book or help recording this one I would be more than happy to volunteer! I had a blind niece and I know how difficult it can be.

Thank you, Michelle and ColoradoChick. It's really touching for me to know that there are people who are willing to read books on tape for me. When I talked to our reference librarian and the coordinator at our braille press, I felt that both of them were thinking, "Well, of course, you're not doing this," or "Why would we even want to transcribe books like that?"

Interesting, I talked to an old friend of mine who had the duodenal switch in 1998, and another friend who had bypass surgery a few years ago, I'm not sure which, but both of them are blind--well, one is visually impaired, and definitely would have benefited frombooks on tape or in braille.

Lapbandtalker, I think you're absolutely right; I am going to have to do it myself, either have books read on tape, or put in braille.

Michelle, usually when books are recorded for the National Library Service (NLS) they read every page, but I'm not so sure I'd want that; it's a lot of reading. Also, if you don't have any means to record, I wouldn't want to have you buy something just for that, though it's a wonderful offer. I'm going to talk to our recording coordinator, because although I have some ideas of what needs to happen I want to find out just how much is involved. I'm afraid it might be too much.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have an answer on Monday, and if there's not too much involved, we can do this. I can't thank you enough.

You are very welcome. We'll figure this out. I was also thinking that later down the road, if there are other books that you have that you'd like on tape, you could send me tapes and the book and I could then send it all back to you once I've transcribed it.

It sounds like there is a need. If just for your personally.

Let me know.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hi all,

Heartfire, and Coloradochick, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, both for your kind offers to read the lap band book on tape for me. The person who was in charge of the recording department where I work was out of town last week, which I didn't know. He's back now, and has found a good reader to record the book that you, Michelle, and Slim-in-Tn both have.

I want to thank you for being willing to record for me, and should another book come along that anyone feels is good, I'd still love to have you read, if you're still interested. As I said in an earlier post, I know I'm not the only blind or visually impaired person who has or will be banded, so I guess I just need to make the powers that be, those with the ability to, put things in braille or on tape. That was a long convolluted sentence, but I'm sure you all understood it.

Anyway, thank you again, and I won't forget how to get in touch, should I need you! :-)