Glendaaus

This is absolutely the reason for my revision to the VSG. I had gestational diabetes with my last baby (at 41) and it went (thanks to crazy amounts of exercise) until 3 years ago. I had blood tests every 6 months and I knew how it felt when it went up. I am unsure of the comparatives in the US but here in Canada I was 18 when I was diagnosed - way way too high. I started on 2 x Metformin - then went up to 4 a day - now I have added Victoza - a new injection (not insulin) and my numbers are still not great - and I walk at least 1 hour a day. I know its going to get worse - runs in the family (with the larger ones). I want to live and be healthy for my 9 year old - and I am excited to be getting my sleeve. Right now I have two options - waiting on finance for Dr Kelly OR an initial appointment through the Health Care System up here in September. Either way - I'm doin it!!! Thanks for this positive thread. Glenda PS Just to add that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes - so my ego doesn't require the sleeve - BUT my health definitely does!

Just for the record - in the UK and Australia - SOFT foods would be the equivalent of mushy.

Well like I posted before - we have to live our truths - and this is what you did. In trying to keep everyone else happy we often waste alot of time and compromise on something that just doesn't work. I feel sorry for her - but if you communicated that you wanted her to participate in a lifestyle change and she wasn't interested - there is nothing you can really do. Loving someone and being IN love are two different things. After 12 years with my new husband I am still IN love and we make all our decisions together - including how we live. In saying that - the recent decision to do this revision surgery was mine alone - he still thinks I am beautiful no matter what - but he is paying for the surgery and supporting me - and said last night - that he wanted to loose his little pot belly and would be able to do it - if I wasn't cooking all the good food. Good luck to you, don't make the ex's life a misery or rub it in - just make sure you really know what you doing the next time around - and love someone for the person they are - with the thoughts that things do change. Glenda

You did the smart thing by posting and getting the right encouragement from the girls on here. You have done so well - congratulations - I like beer myself - but even pre op - I have to only have it very very occasionally - makes us puffy and give us a beer belly Congratulations! Glenda

Hope your doing OK. It is so hard to be away from your babies - but it is only for a few days. Sometimes it does everyone good to realize how much they need you and appreciate what you do. Glenda

You are really doing well congratulations! I am 50 but I feel young - I have alot of living to do - with a 9 year old - I want to live to terrorize everyone until I am least 90!!!! Hopefully getting my revision within the next 4-6 weeks - BUT thankyou - you have inspired me again.

I don't really think anyone can tell you what is in your head. For me hunger takes shape in many forms - emotional, in my head, in my stomach - but for for the sheer process of eating ---- and the band is so unpredictable - some days I was nearly sick from hunger - some days I felt like the smallest amount of food would make me full - but not in a comfortable way. I feel the I don't want to go through all the surgery myself - but I need something to help me. After reading for a few months - it seems the sleeve has more positives than negatives - and so many people seem to be loosing and keeping it off. All you can do is try! Glenda

I am waiting to see when and where I will have my surgery for a revision to sleeve from lapband and will know this week. I cannot WAIT! I feel like I have an alien inside me - I just want it gone. Thanks to this thread it made me realize something very important about my lapband that I had missed all this time. I always still wanted a good quantity of food - and the way I could get it down was eating the most unhealthy things that seem to melt on the way down - things like cheese puffy things and milk shakes. Initially, I lost alot of weight, but since a year out had still needed to diet and exercise - I had my surgery in 2003 - what a waste of time trying to keep this weight off. I have learnt some good habits and still exercise every single day - I am fit - but that hasn't stopped the type 2 diabetes creeping in and high BP - I don't like having to take all the medication I still have to with these problems and I have a 9 year old - I have to keep alive and going here. Thankyou for making the penny drop - I felt that I was such a failure for allowing myself to "trick" the band - it is such a disease - I am looking forward to my VSG. Glenda

Dr Gagner in QB is brilliant and I have had phone conversations with him. You can email him for a quote and he will call you. He is one of the leaders in WLS and everyone just raves about him. Good luck.

This was a great and interesting topic. It is so good when we can speak our feelings. In saying that - speaking our feelings and LIVING OUR TRUTH is so different. I have been through so much in my life with my relationships. When I was a teenager I allowed myself to abused by men (including constant ridicule by my own brothers) until at 19 I met someone who seem a good pliable subject. In my young brain I thought I could make him be what I wanted. What a got was jealous, pot smoking, socially retarded - tightass. Lucky Glenda - had two beautiful children - stayed for 17 years - while being told everyday - YOUR FAT AND UGLY - noone else would want you. But he was obsessed with me and when I would loose any weight - he would bring me food (probably the only time he spent a few bucks on me) and would say "please don't be skinny - you will leave me". I ate, drank and smoked everything in site to deal with my pain. When I left I was 305lb - but someone else loved me - my first husband was so wrong - my now husband has loved me during my journey with my lapband - my excesses - my heartache with the death of one of my children - being 305 and all the way down to 199 - and back up again - the roller coaster of a fat chick. He has loved me - every single bit of me - he says "i'm juicy" haha - and he supports no matter what I do - even my upcoming revision - he really just wants whatever I want. My husband was a rock singer for 20 years and is pretty sexy still at 49 - he has a little belly - but is lean - and to be honest - the only fat man I ever loved was my dad - I like lean men (regardless of my lumps and bumps) - but whatever I get into - if I start walking - if I start a new way of eating - he is right there. He always says - we are in this together. I love him to pieces and moved from Sydney Australia to Canada to be with him - our sex life is a blast and our commitment is the same. I deserve this - but I feel for those of you that are going through a hard time in your marriage. Have been there - and come out on the other side - I can fully sympathize - I know the agony BUT I also know the rewards of living your truth. Glenda xx

Hello everyone. I recently started researching optional WLS, as I have a failed lapband surgery from 2003. I was going to go for DS but felt that I only have 80lb to loose and the VSG was the best place to start. I am Australian, but have lived in Canada for 7.5 years. I have a quiet happy life but my weight and the other illnesses have now are causing bigger issues. I am 50 years old (in my head I'm about 1/2 of that) and now have type 2 diabetes, high bp, high cholesterol, depression (due to loosing a child 5 years ago) and am a stay home wife/mother with an active 9 year old. I have read alot of your posts and let me say that this information and your humour is fantastic and I look forward to getting to know you all better. Glenda

Thankyou everyone!

I knew you guys would see my point! I like that idea Rev - seems like the "plastic surgery" idea is a good one. Next time that might be my response. I would love to have been a natural beauty - no hair dye, no makeup, hair blowing in the breeze and a perfect body - but that never happened and ain't gonna happen now. I always tried to make up for my weight problem with being a nice person all the time - a people pleaser - there was extremes I wouldn't go to do for my friends and family - but the beauty of aging takes away our need for everyone to love us, as we accept ourselves - others approval seems less important. In making my decision for this revision surgery - it came from a deeper place than my when I had my lapband. I had the surgery in 2003 - I still thought I had a shot at being that wild natural beauty if I was skinny. I had a new husband - would he still love me? I had a one year old? Is that too much for a 41 year old to handle being so fat? In 2005 I my eldest daughter passed away at 23. That was the beginning of growing up for me - and not relying on the outside world to have an opinion of me - everyones view of me always burnt my sensitive self. Sometimes the worst and painful situations - open a new strand in your soul - it makes you tougher and nothing scares me - I don't ponder a minute thinking about "what if" - I now live for this minute while I am here typing - and I feel THAT is the meaning of life. Wow, deep - go Glenda! Anyhow, thanks for all your insightful and intelligent responses. It is nice to share with like minds. Glenda

People really make me laugh when you try to explain what you are doing. I don't know if I should even mention it at all to anyone. I said to my friend today when she pulled a face, "well if diet and exercise were easy - we would all look fantastic", she said "your right", but maybe still didn't quite get the picture. Since having the band in 2003, I have still been on tons of diets, counting calories, counting carbs, the gym, dvd's, tv show ideas, weight watchers - you name it - and none of it was great - most of it was boring - I have had nothing but a life of 'CAUTION" since I was 13 (I am now 50), so if I added all the pounds I've lost together since being a kid - I would have lost myself about 2 times over - and the gains equally - SO NO IT WASN'T EASY! I am positive that I am no different to anyone else on here, but I just realized peoples reaction today - it's like a unspoken bias towards WL surgery, so you have to keep your sense of humor about it! Glenda

I am wondering if anyone can tell me their wait times for having a lapband revision in Canada. I have been talking with a surgeon in QB but the cost may be prohibitive - Alberta Health Care covers part and so does my insurance - but the missing part could be too much for us right now. Any ideas would be appreciated and any personal experiences with how you went about getting your revision done here. Thanks Glenda

The band I have is the Inamed. I have not started the tests yet. I have a barium swallow on Wednesday (won't show much I imagine), then I am waiting on a date for the colonoscopy (I guess that's the one with the little camera). I have spoken with Alberta Health Care and my insurance company this morning - they will both cover parts of the surgery - so I have asked the doctor to provide a prebill so we can take a look at what is what. Right now I wish I could just do it today, I am just over everything already -I am usually a happy person - but today I feel down - waiting is hard for me - and usually I can try and forget about, but I feel like I have some type of alien in me - does that makes sense? With all of us in the "waiting" boat - we know how hard it is to think about other things. The sun is shining here - so maybe if I get out in it - I may perk up. Thanks for replies Glenda

Thanks guys. This site is a great source of information and support. I have joined other sites - but feel there can be some problems with all the different types of surgery competing with one another at times. My band is starting to corrode and has been for quite sometime. I causes me pain around the port and the last unfill I had the Fluid was rusty. He specialist said - it's not blood - I don't know what that is - good one!! I am in touch with Michel Gagner in Quebec and he felt that wasn't so fantastic. I have my medical records in Sydney Australia - I need to get them over here and I have a barium swallow on Wednesday and waiting to hear back from the local doc on a date for the camera swallow tests - these are what I need for Quebec. Additionally, my other other option is to self pay in Mexico - I will decide in the next few days which route I will take. Glenda

I think it will be August for me too. This is a revision for me from the lapband. I was going to wait for the province to pay - but it could take years - so I am off the Mexico myself, spoke to the Canadian lady this afternoon - and I have requested August - so finger and toes crossed! Glenda