to everyone who has already ben banded, i have a question....

is there anything that you wish someone would have told you before your surgery that you didnt already know? im just looking to see if there is any advice that i can get from people who have already gone thru the procedure to see if i can get any helpful hints or tools. advice is greatly appreciated!! thank you!

Hi, I was banded 12/08 and what I've come to realized that everybody is different with different experiences. But I will say stay positive, even if you feel like that you is not losing the weight as fast as others. Me and a friend had the procedure done at the same time, my weight loss is more noticeable than hers, but I she looks great, but she don't see it yet. So in a nut shell "DON'T COMPARE YOUR WEIGHT LOSS WITH OTHERS". It's been three months and I feel great, I have lost 51 pounds thus far. Remember that band is a tool and it do work but you got to work with it. Get familar with the band and know what your food portion side is. Remember stay positive and all is going to work out fine.

cee gave some great advice.

I would add, make sure you are giving yourself enough time to heal. I listened to people at the seminar and on this site that said they bounced back from surgery and were shopping the same day or the next day and back to full duty at work in a couple days. Having a high tolerance for pain I thought for sure that I would enjoy the same luck. It took me almost a full week to be able to go back to work and I still had to do two 1/2 days. It took me 1 1/2 week to be able to lie in bed.

Don't get me wrong, I can't begin to relay how very much it all was worth it. But I think that it would have helped if I had been better prepared and not overly confident about recovery. That is the only "unknown" there was for me.