MichelleSz

Thank you Jan for your honesty! It would be pretty devastating to have this procedure only to feel like it wasn't working and in essence was an expensive gimmick! When you say your weight loss is slow, how slow? Why don't fill the band up more, quicker to help facilitate that?

As I'm researching, I'm definitely realizing that they the lap band does "diet" for you. Which leads me to some new questions! If I were good at dieting and/or sticking to a diet, I wouldn't need the lap band to begin with! Dieting WOULD be easier, if I didn't feel hungry a lot (hoping the lap band will help with that), and it helped me to not need to count calories, or points, or diabetic exchanges, etc. It would be great if I could just live my life, eating based on real, reasonable hunger and then I could stop when I'm full. I think part of the reason I'm not bigger (not that I'm little by any means!) is I generally stop when I'm "full". This is why I thought this would work for me. I thought it'd help me feel "full" sooner, thereby reducing my caloric intake. I have NO will power when it comes to dieting when I'm hungry, and even less when I have dieted without losing weight. It just seems pointless to restrict myself if I'm not losing weight. Now, I'm not so sure. Apparently a lot of people don't lose much. I guess what I'm wondering is how much of the hunger does the lap band take care of? How hard is it to stick to a diet (which I'm clearly not good at) with the lap band? Michelle

Does anyone have any recommendations around the Atlanta area? Anyone know what it costs around the Atlanta area?

To my knowledge, I have no other medical issues than the prediabetes, and blood pressure issues (thank goodness!). My health is the main reason I want the surgery. I feel like I'm on a downward spiral and the more I diet, the more I gain. This is a preemptive step, in order to help me get control of my eating before I develop full-blown diabetes (if I don't have it already) and heart problems (runs in the family big-time). I just didn't know if this was something a doctor could or would do for someone without major medical problems.

I've just started thinking about the Lap Band in the past couple of days. I may be wasting my time pursuing this, so I thought I'd ask some big questions here. I'm 38 and my BMI is 34.1 (according to online calculators). I don't have a insurance, so I would be self-pay. I don't go to the doctor often, but the last time I had blood work I was told I have "prediabetes". That was like 5 years ago. My cholesterol was too high. And at one point I was put on medication for high blood pressure. I don't get this checked regularly in the office either (because they always say it's fine now) but according to the machines in the drug-store or Walmart, it's usually "borderline" or "high". What kind of requirements does a non-insured person have meet to qualify? TIA, MichelleSz