Ginger2120

Hi, my name is Janel, and I say kind-of new but not really because I've had a band since 2003. I had a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Deol in Troy, and the surgery was a huge success and I lost an amount of weight I was happy with and life was good :clap2: Then in January of 2005 I found out I was pregnant. I was thrilled!!! I had my band emptied and my pregnancy was a breeze!! In september of 2006 I had a beautiful baby girl!! Now Isabelle (my daughter) is 7 months old, and I still haven't had my bad filled because I have gall bladder problems and I need it taken out before I can have a fill. But it gets worse.....I no longer have health insurance so I can't have my gall bladder out!! I gained more weight than I wanted to with my pregnancy, so now I'm almost back to my starting weight before surgery and I'm starting to get depressed because I don't see a way out of this situation. I know that some day I will have health insurance again and get back on track, but sometimes it's hard to keep my spirits up.

I know that lots of people with the band have babies, but this is my first and I'm nervous! I go to see my surgeon tomorrow and I have a thousand questions for her. THe first worry I have is my port. Mine is placed in the muscle in my waist and I can already feel myself growing and I'm afraid it's going to stick out and cause me pain once I'm really pregnant!?!

Thank you all for your kind words! I honestly don't remember looking like the before picture which I suppose is a good thing! THe biggest thing I've noticed I can do now is keep up with my 7 year old niece. I spend last weekend with her and I couldn't believe that she got tired before me!

Hi Everyone, I've been banded for over a year, and I've been lurking on this website since before I was banded. Today is the day I can post my before and after pictures!?!! (Thanks to Penni)

Hi Stephanie, I am also a patient of Dr. Deol's. I lost about 80 lbs in my first year and I feel like a whole new person!

I finally have before and after pictures that I would like to post, but I can't figure out how. I tried to attach the files but it said they were invalid. Can anyone help me with this? Thanks, Janel

when I started eating "real" food I was so careful. I had read so much about different problems people had and I was so afraid to do anything that would hurt my band. But I haven't had any problems so far! My biggest problem in the beginning was getting all of my Water in, and my weight loss was slow because I wasn't doing it. But since I've been drinking my water everyday I've been losing like crazy! I hadn't been weighing myself because I was afraid I wasn't losing weight, but then my clothes started falling off me and I figured I better see how much I had lost!

Hi, I am also a Michigan bandster. Dr. Deol put my band in September 22nd of last year. I've lost about 80 lbs since surgery! She is a wonderful surgeon and the staff at Troy Beaumont is amazing. It was the easiest surgery I've ever had! :banana

Hi Baileymb Dr Deol operated on me, and my Mother is also a very worried mother. My surgery took about 2 hours because I had a lot of scar tissue for Dr. Deol to go through. I didn't have a cathader, they just kept having me go to the bathroom in pre-op. It was nerve wracking sitting in the pre-op area, but they let my parents sit with me, and as soon as the guy with the needle full of happy stuff came, I didn't care what they did with me! I remember going into the OR and Dr. Deol was talking to me and the next thing I knew Dr. Deol was telling me that my surgery was overwith and it went fabulous! Honestly the hardest part of this surgery is the waiting and worrying! At least for me it was. I think I was in such excellent hands during surgery and my hospital stay my whole experience was a breeze! I have faith that Dr. Deol and her staff will make your surgery just as easy. GOod Luck! Email me if you have any questions about surgery with Dr. Deol, I think I'm her biggest fan! Janel

Thanks Nancy for your kind words. I'm only 26, so some people think I'm still too young to get married! Being married and having a family is something I want very much, but right now I would settle for someone to talk to and laugh with. Right now if something funny happens at work or I hear something funny on tv or the radio the only person I have to share that with is my Mom! Don't get me wrong, I love her to death and don't know what I would do without her, but it's always nice to have that someone special to share trivial little things like that with. SOmeone who will give you a hug just because they like being close to you. These are things I need in my life and I don't have. I know it will all come in time and I have to be patient, but some times I just get tired of being patient.

I have a question for some of the single people. Did you get your band and start losing weight and feeling really good about yourself and then you start meeting people (men, jerks) and have enough self confidence to talk to them and get shot down? This seems to be a viscious cycle in my band journey. I feel so good about myself and start meeting people and eventually get up enough nerve to ask someone out and get the big rejection and it sends me into a huge depression. Unfortunatly this last depression I've gotten into won't seem to go away! There are days that I feel like I'm the only single person in the world and at least before my band I was depressed and could eat whatever I want.

I am also stuck at just under 40 lbs at 5 months out. I just went on the Nalgene website and bought one of those Water bottles! I have a hard time forcing myself to drink water, so I'll try that and hopefully it will help. I need to get into a regular workout routine becuase right now my only exercise is going up and down the stairs at work and at school. I just had my second fill on Feb 6, and I feel like I have good restriction right now because I can't near as much as I used to, but I have to start making the right food choices since I eat so much less. I was good for lunch today, I had all protein! So now I won't be hungry again until late tonight and I won't end up eating again until morning. I'm hoping that once I do my part the band will do it's part and I'll be skinny in no time!

I had terrible pain in my shoulders from gas after my surgery, and it will eventually go away, it just takes a while. The biggest help for me was a heating pad, and walk whenever you get the chance, it helps get the gas out. Good luck to you :confused:

Billie, I was denied for the exact same reason, but I filed an appeal and insurance eventually covered it. Definetly talk to the insurance coordinator because surgeon's will often write letters and send information from Inamed that supports the fact that the Lap-Band is no longer experimental. Good luck to you, Janel

I'm very excited today because last night when I was trying to figure out what to wear to work I decided to try on all my size 24 jeans that haven't seen the light of day in at least a year and a half. To my surprise they all fit! So today at work I'm proudly sporting a pair of size 24 jeans! Hooray! :D

Has anyone gotten the flu this year that has there band? I got it last week and it was horrible! I threw up a couple of times and my surgeon had me come in and do an upper GI to make sure that nothing was wrong with my band because I had some pain in my chest where the band is. I'm still having some muscle soreness in the chest area too. Has anyone else had this?

I see that your from Michigan Where are you having your surgery done? When I was 2 weeks away I too was scared that I was going to be in the small percentage of people that failed with the band, but you'll be amazed at how much better you feel after the first 5 or 10 pounds come off and it will make you want to do whatever you can to succeed with the band. It's a great tool and I'm so thrilled that I have mine. Good luck to you! Janel

If you call Dr. Deol's office they will answer any questions you have. When she did her residency it was at Troy Beaumont, but she's not just completing her residency. She has set up bariatric programs in Chicago for a few years now. I think she's done well over a 100 bands in her carreer. She's just starting out in Troy because she just recently moved back to Michigan.

I am a patient of Dr. Deol's and she works throught Troy Beaumont hospital. I had my surgery in September and I am doing awesome! I highly recomend her if you are in the Troy area. Her website is www.michiganbariatrics.com. She's got a lot of experience with the band and her staff is great. I had my surgery on a monday and was back to work on Friday! I haven't had any problems with surgery or with my band. Good luck to you! Janel

Well, my reason for not having the bypass is a weird one. When I met with my surgeon he told me I wouldn't have no problem having the surgery done because I was only 25 and in excellent health. I didn't have to do any pre-op testing other than the normal blood tests and EKG, and when I went in the day of surgery they openend me up and found out that my intestines were backwards! Aparently it's something that happened when I was still in my mothers womb that they didn't rotate completley so there in the wrong place! All of my other organs are in the correct place accept for me appendix. Those kind of float freely wherever they want, so I certainly hope they never burst because they wouldn't know where to find it! It was a heartbreaking thing to wake up from surgery and find out I have a 12" incision but I was still going to be fat. So I went to therapy aand then found my band surgeon and a year and a month after the first surgery I had my band placed! If I would have known about the band first I never would have went through the bypass procedure, but then I also wouldn't know I was a freak on the inside!

I had an open gastric bypass attempt a year before my band was placed. I have a scar from my belly button all the way up to the bottom of my breast bone. My surgeon said there was quite a bit of scar tissue to work through, but other than that I was a textbook case for putting the band in.

I'm going to use the same strategy I used at Thanksgiving, one bite of everything I love! until the band tells me to stop. I figure that way I don't miss out on anything! My band and I get a long pretty good. Were good comunicators!

I too was lucky and was't hungry at all after surgery. After surgery I slept for a couple hours and then I walked, and I walked about every hour throughout the night. It did drive the nurses crazy, but I felt like a million bucks the next day! I had a 2 hour ride home and didn't have any problems. Walking is the key to not having as much gas pain. It really works!

I find that for me drinking lots of water helps. My body lets me know if I don't get the amount of water I need in a day.

I would kill to fit into my cute size 18 Tommy Jeans! I'm almost there thought. If your new found love has any single cute anesthesiologist friends tell them to give me a call! Will relocate for love!