hiho0807

After many years of struggling with my weight, including yo-yo dieting and diet pills, I decided to look at something more long term for weight loss.  Several of my friends have had the lapband and began telling me about it.  I went to an orientation class about it and knew that day that I wanted to do this. I did lots of research and considered all the pros and cons of doing the surgery.  It was hard to mentally think about giving up certain foods, because I love food!  But I was having health problems like high blood pressure, swelling, diabetes, sleep apnea, etc.  So I decided that the surgery was less of a risk than me developing more complications from my medical problems. I found out my insurance covered bariatric surgery and I met the criteria, so I looked at that as a sign to go forward with it.
Dr. Titus Duncan in Atlanta, GA was the surgeon that perfomed my procedure on May 23, 2011.  I had lapband placed as well as another procedure called plication (this is where they folded my stomach in half and sewed it with stitches). Plication is similar to gastric bypass results, but there is no cutting or rerouting anything. It just results in my whole stomach being smaller instead of just the part that is banded.  I have lost 18 lbs to date and pleased with that result so far.  I haven't lost 18 pounds in 6 years.  A lot of this is mental also. I was a big stress eater before, so now I have to turn my stress relief into another outlet. I'm thinking exercise! I still want a lot of junk food, but I have realized that I can't have it. It gets easier every day. 
I definitely think it is worth it so far!