HamuChan

My hernia is how I "sidestepped" insurance completely. I had a bad hernia so it was submitted to the insurance as a hietal hernia repair. He placed the lap-band during the hernia repair, the suregery center was covered for the hietal hernia repair!! Voila! NO insurance hassle. My lapband Dr is friends with my mom (he gave her her lapband for free!) and once told her that, "If my patients just asked me for hernia repair I could find a way to do their surgery and get it covered by insurance!" And my surgeon is a well known experienced surgeon! I hope you have all the luck I did with your hernia repair. PS. I apprently had a really servere hernia that was repaired during surgery. My doc said it was the worst he has ever seen. My recovery was much tougher than the usual. I hope yours isn't so bad!

Ok ok, I know I am on this thread too much with updates but I am proud of myself!! I am now down....ahem, drumroll please?.....7 pounds in two weeks!! :huggie: Woooooo!! I am working out so hard and it feels great!! I am even lifting weights!!! Thank you band!!!! Thanks to the treadmill too!! :biggrin1:

I'm kind of an "oldie." I have been a member of LBT for almost 2 years. I do not though have as many posts as many of the other oldies. Welcome back! Good to see members return and say hello!

Hmmm, 500-800 cals a day???!! That seems like starving level. I have done the 1000 calories a day thing back when I was thin (before my band). That was SOOOOO hard!! When I first got my band it was SOOOO easy to lose weight. It just fell off with no effort. Now I have to really work for it!! Ugh, I thought I was done with calorie counting!!!! Gahhhhh!!!

I had mine out after I got my band. I think my problems were caused by weight loss. That surgery was so painful for me!!! I was miserable!

I am 28 also! I saw like 2 other people with the same age. My birthday was Friday so I am still getting used to 28. I am worried a little because I'm so young so therefore I will have my lapband for another like 50 years (hopefully). I hope they last that long!!

:update: To anyone who has read or respsonded to this thread I wanted to update you on my progress. In the past week I have lost 4 lbs and continue to lose. I will hopefully lose another 4 lbs in the next week. Still working out everyday! My attitude has changed so much in the last week! I am going to lose all this weight now! I KNOW it!!! My band helps me everyday and I am so thankful for it! I still need to work hard though. P.S. Happy Birthday to me!! 1/19/1979 :happybday:

I didn't see it or hear of it. How are hoarding and M.O. related?

I'm so sorry sweetie! Is there another bank you can try? Can your hubby take out a credit card with enough credit available to charge a portion of the surgery? Can you sell your car and get a cheaper one? Just thinking out loud. I wish I had some better ideas! Good luck!

My mother is a recovery room nurse at the Surgery Center of Richardson so she works with Dr Benevidies everyday. He's very experienced and has a lot of success as a lapband doctor. My mom had a choice of free lapband surgery from all the Dr's in Dallas and chose another doctor. Dr Benevides is a safe and experienced choice but my mom does not like him personally. If you go with him, say hi to my mom in the recovery room!

No regrets, but I will agree that it's not as easy as people would think. You do have to make an effort but your band helps you feel full, making it easier. It was worth it. I damn well hope my lapband lasts my lifetime! That's what my Dr told me. I don't want to have to have to switched out every 10 years! I guess only time will tell!

My worst experience was the fault of my boyfriend at the time, he's now my husband. Needless to say he has changed completely. He loves me for who I am now... So at the time we had been together for 3 years (we've been together 9 years now) and I loved him dearly and as far as I knew he loved me as well. I had gained probably 60 lbs since we had gotten together, no excuses, I had just gotten lazy and eaten too much. Well I knew he didn't like it because he constantly commented on my portion sizes. He made comments like, "Aren't you full yet?" and "Haven't you had enough already?" Keep in mind that he has been about 80 lbs overweight since the day I met him, so he's kind of a hypocrite. So one day he told me, "Since you gained that weight, I am not attracted to you anymore." I cried for months after that. It's 6 years later and it still hurts. He felt like total crap after that but I still feel a little resentful. You may be wondering, why did you marry that guy? No worries, he regrets what he said and is SOOOO different now. Thank goodness!!

Never had that problem but wanted to reassure you that all will be well. If it's a minor surgery then your doc'll fix it and you'll be good as new. Congrats on your band! Keep us updated! :biggrin1:

I'm at 21 months with the band, no complications at all so far. I feel lucky and hope for no problems in the future.

So you've never had ANY restriction?? I'd be SO mad at my doctor after two years like this. Did they just put an really huge band on your stomach? My Dr allows me to come back within a week to add/subtract from my band if the fill did not work out, no extra cost. Find a new fill Dr, my advice. Good luck!

My advice on drinking while eating is, just don't do it. Two reasons: It makes food either slip right through your band band or it'll make it get stuck and come back up. I have acheived perfect retriction many times and have experimented with drinking while eating, it just doesn't work. I need to separate those activities by about 30 mins. Hope this helps! :welldone:

Well, after having prowled around a bunch of "complications" message boards for a few hours I have decided that I am hopeless and may one day lose my band. The only positive statements I read are from those that are like 3 months from having had the band. NONE for 3 or more years. Are there any success stories from someone who has had the band for more than 3 years?? I have had my band for 19 months and have not had a complication yet but am comvinced that I am going to have one. What if I gain back all my weight? THAT'S my biggest fear... One postitive thing, I do not think that I will ever slip. My band feels secure and I am always able to get proper restriction. But am I one in a million?? Or will I be the next to fail?? Where can I find the success rate on the band?? Percentages %%%%??

Paige, why did you put a link for an ad for an RNY surgeon on here? Of course she's going to criticize the lapband, it's her competition!! The lapband surgeons are going to have their little pages criticizing the RNY, that doesn't make it bad. I made my choice because my sister was on the verge of death after her RNY. Now 3 years later she has regained all her weight. I think that if I HAD to reverse my lapband I could. But I hope I never have to.

Chrissie, Hearing you say that had me feel 1 million times better. So that's why I never hear about long term success!!? Maybe I have a shot after all?? I will try to keep my hopes up!! I need to find some Australian or European lapband boards to see the long term success. I just want to hear from someone with success long term.

This past week as been one of the WORST ever. I ended up in the emergency room with SEVERE abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. I threw up all over the emergency room staff and was really scared something was wrong with my band. After being told it was only the "stomach flu" I finally got a decent dr who ran 3 or 4 more tests and viola! My gallbladder was infected and had to come out. I got my gallbladder out yesterday and am feeling like I got the band all over again. Ouch!! This explains why on a previous post I was complaining of constant nausea!! It hurts to breathe and the awful awful nausea! :sick So apprently after you lose a bunch of weight it's really commom to develop gallstones and possibly a gallbladder infection. So, if any of you guys end up in the ER with abdominal pain and vomiting insist on a gallbladder check bc weight loss can do that to you. If they tell you it's just the stomach flu don't buy it!!! After a few days I should be good as new! Can't wait to feel normal again! :phanvan

No more pain! I am feeling so much better. I didn't realize that gallbladder problems were so common! Hope everyone is doing well! :biggrin1:

had my hietal (sp?) hernia and lap-band done at the same time.

263 lbs, 12 months, 98%, 15 minutes, 4, no, white, 68 lbs

Welcome to bandland! You're going to love it here!! Congrats!!!!

I'm a little over a year out and have no regrets at all. I feel like I could not live without my band! Love it!