Evilah

I would be wary of eating any large amount of food, you could make your pouch stretch. That is not a good situation. Maybe it happened already, ask your doctor evilah

I forgot to say, best wishes, good luck, you know, with finding a match!

Hey puddin, Wanted to tell you that when I was thin I had the hardest thing with sex/promiscuity. I didn't sleep around, but my values call for NO SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE! and I always felt guilty about any sort of physical contact. Especially after I got raped. It was terrible-- part of the reason I gained all of this weight was to keep men the HECK away from me because I was constantly being hit on and chased after. When I walked through the door of a dance club or party, men would turn and stare and I felt like fresh meat in a lion's cage. So getting fat helped! I'm married now, thank god, to a really good-looking guy who married me for my personality and brain while I was sort of fat (but 70 pounds lighter than now). I thank god everyday for him, because I never have to worry about violating my values again! FYI, I met him at school, and we had a strictly friends relationship for months before dating. You just sort of have to get out of the "date" mind frame and into the "friends" mindframe. Then one day you'll have this guy who is your best friend, and love hits you like a mack truck, and you know you're meant for each other and you get engaged then married! (OK that's how I did it. But that whole everyone's only friends thing was passed on to me from several different happily married women) You've got to figure out if they can be your best friend first, no physical contact. Then it will last, and you will feel good about yourself and keeping your boundaries. Happily married for several years, Evila

I'm 5'9.5'', and my doc thinks 145 is a good weight for me.

Just approved by insurance. Nervous about committing to this doctor and place. Cold feet? I really want this but know it seems like it's really happening; I guess that feeling increases until you wake up from surgery ... LOL! evilah

Deanna, I sleep terribly, I wake up often, have nightmares, go into these coma like states breathing hardly at all. Alternate between sleeping in a recliner and in a bed. I breathe better in the recliner, but it makes my body and especially my neck hurt. -Evilah

wow, gross. !! doesn't seem as bad as puking though. I hate that feeling of something rocketing out of you when you throwup.

I got approved today!! will schedule my surgery next week after endoscopy! yay! I will probably be a june bandster though!

Hey regence bc/bs approved it in other states because it turned out that lap band patients cost the insurance company less money (and gave them more) in the long run because they were less ill, and better employed. obesity is an illness.... evilah

that's scary, I know I have been exposed some nast chemicals. I don't think it will be bad, but I don't know.

<p>Wow, this is the nicest thread. *WHY* we're fat, I suppose, is just about the most important story most of us want to tell. and tell again and again. For me, it's like telling how someone died. How did a normal beautiful person turn into this? Despite all the politically correctness and niceities in the world, how did I end up getting looked at this way, treated this way, feeling this way? </p> <p> </p> <p>So the story could be much longer but this is the outline. </p> <p> </p> <p>Genetic predisposition, rape, depression, death of fiance, grief, excess</p> <p> </p> <p>stress, severe emotional stress, lack of support system from friends, </p> <p> </p> <p>medication, lack of parental support, pregnancy, and college. BAM! I'm fat. Really fat. <img src="http://www.LapBandTalk.com/images/smilies/clap2.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Clap2" smilieid="217" class="inlineimg" /></p> typo=political correctness

Hi Kristin, I'm getting banded at St. Francis in Federal way as soon as my insurance approval comes through (in the next week, insurance, surgery, june). Keep in touch about how yours goes? Evilah

thanks for the advice clynnc.

a bipafor is typo that should read "bipap" for.. A bipap is similar to a cpap but uses to different levels of pressure for inspiration and expiration. I know my heart is suffering damage from the sleep apnea, it scares the hell out of me, but I tried mask after mask. First cpap machine then bipap machine and I would rip it off at night unconsciously. I would wake up in a panic feeling like I couldn't breath and start tearing at the neck of my night shirt and yanking at the mask. I always felt like someone was choking me, I never fell into a deep sleep with the machine. I had it adjusted over and over and over and over. I was pregnant when I started using it but I haven't lost much of the 70 pounds I gained during pregnancy. I know I still have apnea and the only choice was to do another sleep study. What's that going to solve? I don't know. I try the machine for a few nights until I'm exhausted and can't sleep, then lose it, and try again ... it gets old. I explain to them that what happens is that my breathing gets really shallow (my husband watches this) after I fall asleep initially, then I gasp to take a big breath (which is what happens with sleep apnea) and when I gasp for breath I can't suck it out of the machine. I begged the doctor to crank my pressure up higher and higher and higher, but he wouldn't. He said it's already high. So, that's how it went with that. Everyone in my family has sleep apnea, and they told me my pressure is high. So I believe my doctor. I just don't understand why I still breathe shallow and gasp with the machine on (no leaks, nothing obviously wrong, etc.) When you have a baby, there's just not enough time or babysitters to be running off to the clinic for the 15th 16th 17th time to get readjusted, examined, pondered over. It makes me so hardcore angry. Anyway, I've always gained and lost weight my whole life, but since I started have sleep apnea I haven't lost any weight, and my pregnancy shoved me into the "fat enough to have sleep apnea" range. *sigh* evilah

Apparently I've shrunk over the years I've gained weight. Almost 2 inches. My doctor asked me what my goal weight was, and I lowballed him, telling him 145. He didn't flinch and said that's a good weight. Frankly, I've haven't weighed that little since third grade and I was 4 inches shorter then!!! Also, I weighed 167 forever, was an athlete and looked REALLY good. So I don't know about my goal, but goals change when you get closer to them, and I'm sure yours will.

what are pbs? I want to know what is too. I'm a pre-bander

how did you lose 20 before surgery?

How much experience do they have? What is a VG band?

I am fully expecting to be depressed after the surgery. I'm going through some pretty emotional stuff right now-- before the surgery. I know about the toxins and hormones in the fat cells, but also about the feeling of being lost. In the past I've fasted, and on my fasts I would feel lost because there wasn't even food there to eat and I didn't know what to do with myself because my whole life was about cooking for and others and planning dinners out, and everything was eating. (I have a family). It must be even harder to eat but only just a little. I could fast to lost weight, but it's made me sick in the past and I need to be able to eat a meal and then STOP regularly! What is shrinking violets? My surgery is tentatively in June. Insurance approval is pending, although I am over 60% over, have proved 5 years of that, and I have sleep apnea (co-morbidity) which I was not able to tolerate the breathing machine to treat. I'm getting my surgery done at a place about an hour from my house and there are no support groups in my area so I came here!

Well, if it wasn't implicit, I am most likely getting banded as soon as my insurance comes through, unless I find any more negative info, I'm okay with the information I have now. I think the surgery is about as dangerous as gall bladder removal surgery. I'm worried about management of the band and my diet afterwards, but fully committed to whatever is necessary to do it right.

I'm 27 and sooo fat. When I was in high school my best friend gained a bunch of weight (30lbs) one summer and then lost it all after school started. She weighed over 200 pounds and I remember thinking, OMG I will never weigh more than 200. I weighed 304 this morning. I'm scared about getting the lap band, and my insurance approval should come through this week. I have been over weight for 8 years. severely to morbidly obese for 5-6 years. I hate it. I feel like I lost my youth and I want to experience some of what's left of my pre-thirty years. Plus go back to work. evilah

did you try northwest weight loss surgery? St. Francis in Federal Way might do it. There are a few others but as far as experience: 1. st. francis 2. northwest weight loss surgery 3. stevens I think