Mojo214

Hello! My name is Mojo. I attended an introductory meeting at Visalia Medical Clinic with Dr. Manuele last week, and am considering having the lap band surgery. I have my nutritional counseling appt tomorrow, my psychological evaluation next week, and will see my primary physician the next week for referral. Things are moving really fast. Would be very interested in chatting with anyone in my area who has had the surgery, or considering having it.

So Dr. Manuele didn't do your surgery, is that correct? Could you expand on what you mean by "time consuming"? Is it the doctor visits for fills, etc, or something else? Right now I'm struggling big time with whether or not I'm going to proceed with the surgery. I don't think it's fear, though it could be. I just really would prefer to lose the weight w/o the surgery, yet if I could, I probably would have already done it. When you decided to have the surgery, did you have any reservations going into it, or were you sure from the start?

Hello! My name is Mojo. This is my first post. I went to an information meeting last week at a clinic, and things are moving really fast. My daughter and son in law had the gastric bypass surgery about five years ago and it took them about a year from initial contact to surgery date. My doctor is saying as short as two months. Wow! Not so fast! I have a psychological evaluation next week, and I see my primary doctor in two weeks for a referral. I'm waiting for a phone call to have my one and only nutritional counseling appt that my insurance requires. Once all that is done, I schedule to see my surgeon, and he submits request for authorization to my insurance. I didn't expect it to happen so fast. I'm been overweight the majority of my life - I'm 54. I became an exercise fanatic about 3-4 years ago, and starting going to the gym on a daily basis seven days a week. Didn't really diet, but started eating very healthy. Over a 15 month period, I lost 80 lbs and felt great! Then life got in the way, and I fell and injured myself and was no longer able to exercise at the level I had become accustomed to. Gradually regained almost all the weight I had worked so hard to lose. I'm not really sure I'm going to go thru with the surgery, but think I will. It's all so new and happening so fast, that I'm feeling somewhat fearful. Am learning a lot from the forum of what I've read so far today.

I will be having the lap band. Personally I'm not crazy about having someone cut and rearrange my insides. I also like the fact that the band can be removed if needed.