Willowsdoweep

Hi my screen name is Willowsdoweep. I'm 52 years old and have had the lap band since 2005. I started out weighing 322 pounds and lost 182 pounds total. Gradually, the band stopped working for me. Even though I was eating right and active in sports my hunger got out of control. I would go and get fills and then later be told that I was too tight and would need a unfill. This continued for some time until I realized that the band was just not working for me any more and that I need to take things into my own hands and look for alternative results. First however, I look to see if I could confirm that I wasn't the only one who was having this problem and make sure that it wasn't all in my head. Then through research I found other who where having the same issue plus some members of my WL clinic I belong to told me as much was true.

So I went on the internet and I heard about this surgery called Banded Plication. I did more research and then made an appointment with my doctor to see if I would be a candidate for this surgery. He informed me of various types of surgerys that could help me and he empowered me to pick the one that I felt most comfortable with. So once I decided I set up an appointment with him and the clinic to have the surgery done. This was back in October of 2011. My doctor had informed me that this was experimental and that long-term history was just not available. He prepared me for the various outcomes. He also knew about a Doctor's conference that was coming up in November and asked me to wait until after the conference before having the surgery. He wanted to provide me with the latest and greatest information on the surgery before performing another one. So I agreed to put the surgery off until December (otherwise I was ready to do the surgery in November). But I'm glad that he had me wait.

I've read so much about plication and the sleeve that now I'm just a little confused. But since we are going to do a Banded Plication I'm thinking I'm going to just go with the Banded Plication and I'll be very happy. At first we were going to leave my origininal band in place and just do the Plication whoever I've had a slip. Thus, since he has to go in and fix the slip he might as well put in the newest Lap Band and do the plication at the same time. So I'm set to have my surgery in just two days and I'm ready... excited... nervous.. and everything else you can imagine.

I'm really happy about finding this support group. I've been looking and reading so much about the proceedure that I realized I needed to find a support group as well. There aren't many of us out there and so this is the place to be.

This is just the beginning of my journey. I will continue to post my journey on this site; so stay tuned. And to all the pre-plication people good luck and I'll walk with you along the path. To the post-plication people congratulations on your successes.