DAISY DAISY DAISY - this is a decision only you can make. Sounds to me as if they are afraid you will find out just how strong you are and how committed you can be. Please don't listen to them. They are holding you back.

My husband comes from a very strong Italian family, and everything is centered around food...no matter what we do it is food, food, food. And like the rest, I found myself stuffing my face all the time. I love good foods, whether it be the main course, salads, desserts. I grew from 120 pounds to 300 over the years just because they eat, eat, eat.

I was banded 8/19/2011 and have lost 50 pounds. All because I have stayed focused and used my band as the tool it is meant to be. I still cook all those wonderful foods and watch them stuff their faces, while I eat healthy and consume much smaller portions. I am even planning a traditional Thanksgiving dinner complete with pasta (after all Italians always have to have pasta). I do not want to deprive my family from the foods that they love. But just as much, I am not going to let myself get derailed. I will still be sticking to my convictions.

Daisy, I know you can do the same thing. Keep focused and keep positive. They obviously don't know how you feel inside with the added weight and do not realize that you are only keeping yourself from them by being overweight. Go for it girl. You can do it. I AM PULLING FOR YOU. If I lived by you, I'd even give you a ride home from the hospital.

Best of luck. Zil

I agree with everything zil has said in the above post. I'm sorry that you aren't finding support where you hoped you would.. but it's important that you keep searching for that support, because without it this journey will be much more difficult! Ask your surgery coordinators if there is a support group for lap banders in your area that you can attend!

I"m not going to lie to you.. you will miss eating the way you used to, but once those pounds start to melt away, you will have more resolve, more determination than ever to keep on going. I've been very pleasantly surprised at how I still find it very enjoyable to cook food for my family, and am completely satisfied to sit with them while they eat like normal people, and I eat what I can eat.

I've lost more than 95 pounds since April, and girl, I don't miss eating that way anymore!! I look and feel fabulous, and it was worth the difficult beginning when all I wanted to do was eat the way everyone else ate. Quite honestly, I love being the one at the table who eats fractions of food portions, and easily turns down dessert without a problem. It feels fantastic, and I hope you will find this out for yourself!

Hang in there Daisy!

Yesterday, I went to talk with mom, tried to explain a few things to her and she seemed more supportive. She said she wants me to do what I feel is right for me but she is terrfied of this surgery and the cons. Husband also yesterday was a little more understanding, he just asked that I wait till after Christmas, we don't do anything big or special for Christmas, small family just gets together and eat dinner. He asked me what am I going to say when family is used to seeing me eat plate after plate and then I am only eating soft foods and not much at all. I said I will tell them I am on a diet, they have all heard that before! Or we just won't go, he always gives me a hard time about going to these family dinners, so thought we could skip it and then he says oh, well I got to eat! I said there you go, just thinking of you! Mom and husband still didn't say if either one of them is going to hosptial with me or not. I really think I want my mom to go, I feel my husband is really scared of what may happen to me and has never seen me in pain or sick. I have only had a c-section and endometrios surgery through belly button and he wasn't with me on either time.

I like your comments and needed to hear them all.

I have been on diets, to where I have a support system or it was a contest and I wanted to win or a vacation I wanted to go on and loose 40 pounds, but then I would win the contest, go on vacation and then right back gaining weight, I feel the band will be my lifelong support in helping me to win daily. Does this make sense to any of you? I try to explain this to people that are not overweight and they don't get it.

Thanks for website !! But ain't going to lie, I am scared !! I really am hoping I can make the right choices and hope my surgery is easy like some of the post I have read.

Daisy, you will be fine. Just go in with a positive attitude. I was so looking forward to my banding, which I think helped me a lot. I only had 3 weeks from the day I decided to do it until surgery. I was excited each and every day. Had surgery on a Friday and believe it or not, went back to work the following Monday. The only issue I really had was gas in my shoulder, but that was not even all the time. The pain meds tasted yucky (and I mean really yucky) so I switched to tylenol caplets which worked so much better than the liquid stuff they gave me.

I remember going to the OR and when they woke me up in recovery, the nurse told me to drink (she had a cup of hot sweetened tea and room temp water) and about 20 minutes later I was handed my clothes and told to put them on and then I was escorted to the restroom to make sure there were no problems with my waterworks. The next think I knew I was being walked to the entrance and put in the vehicle for the trip home. Really never experienced any pain until Sunday when it just felt like I had done about 50 situps. But again, the tylenol helped with that. I had a hyatal (sp) hernia repair at the same time I was banded. My surgery was at 0900 hours and I was back in recovery by 0940, out the door by 1030 and home by 1130.

I only share because I want you to know that it really won't be that bad. This surgery is nothing like a c-section or natural childbirth. Think positive and take both your mom and Hubby with you. They will get a lot of questions answered if they just ask.

I wish you lots of luck.

Wow! That sounds ok to me. I want mine ot be a breeze too! I am scheduled to have surgery at 11am on 12/6,Tuesday. I am hoping to have surgery and return to my desk job the following Monday, sooner if I feel like it. Don't won't to waste my vacation time. How soon are you able to drive? Got kid at college I am supposed to pick up that weekend.

Thanks!

Husband made comment yesterday that he has 2 days left of time off at work and he was joking around, why couldn't I chose suregery on a Monday or Friday, now he wil work a day and be off. So, I am taking this as he is coming with me! That made me happy. But a little worried too, I have never been sick or in hosptial , so unsure how it will go.