tchin4him

I have been heavy all my life. I have tried diet after diet, and even seen nutritionists to develop better eating patterns. Nothing helped. My husband and I actually saw an advertisment booth at the American Royal Rodeo. We went to the information seminar, and really liked what we heard. I reasearched the other optiions, and liked the fact that the band was not "permanent" though you would expect to keep it from now on. I did not like the idea of stomach stapleing. I did not like the mobidity rate asociated with the gastric bypass surgeries. We talked witht he band surgeon, and began the insurance process. We took all the steps, seeing the nutirtionist again, gathering paperwork from primary care doctors over a six month period of weight tracking and a recommendation for bariatric surgery. We were denied on the bases that the ban was experimental. They would approve the RNY or gastric bypass. We waited until our open window that year and changed insurances to one that we knew would likely approve the band, and they did. Within a month or two of having the new insurance and two years after first seeing the advertisment, we were ready for surgery, but now we were moving to another state. I immediately contacted a surgeon in Fort Worth, and explained my delima. The next available appointment was nearly two months out, but I took it. When I went in with paperwork in hand, he comented that "someone had pushed the easy button today" and we could set up surgery. Next obstacle, we now had to postpone surgery for a family medical issue that required us to take an extended trip out of state. We had no idea how long we would be gone. We returned home 6 weeks later, and scheduled surgery for July 2, 2007. My heaviest weight that I know of was 348 pounds. I went on the presurgery diet and lost some weight immediately. I weighed 319 pounds on the morning of surgery. I did not feel like I lost much after that for the month, but then I started loosing it a few pounds a month. Six months into it I started loosing about 10 pounds a montha dn could really see a diofference. I lost a little over 80 pounds during the first year of my lapband. I did hit a slow point and felt like I was loosing nothign at all. I even had to have a little fluid removed for a short time. Then I started losing again. I am currently at 195 soaking wet. I am very happy to have lost 153 pounds!!! I feel like a different person. I would like to loose another 30 pounds, but I am perfectly happy right where I am if I never loose another pound. I just never want to gain any of it back. I work very hard to stay away from the big 200!!