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Went to the seminar today to get much needed info. The group we are going with has three surgeons who do these surgeries. I was interested in the sleeve but the doc leading the group today said he is not keen on the VSG only because of the track record of restrictive procedures. He made sure to point out that whatever the patient wants the patient gets but I think they push for the RNY. One of the other docs really likes the VSG so maybe he gets all those patients. Our appointment is Oct. 10. We have to get letters of approval from our primary doc and show past weigh-ins from office visits. Has anyone out there had trouble showing a history? I especially am concerned about showing my son's past weight issues. He goes to the docs far less than I. Any input will be appreciated.

As B52 noted, the scars heal and I only have two that show after two years. If anyone asks about the two small ones that remain, I'd tell them the other guy looks worse... LOL! I told very few people about my surgery. Besides gossip, I didn't want to be judged as a failure if the surgery failed, or if I had lost weight having folks think that I should have "done it on my own." If you don't feel comfortable sharing your story, you shouldn't feel obligated to do so. Just as a comparison, my surgery ran close to $37,000 when all of the dust settled. That was for the presurgery visits, evaluations, hospital charges, and the first three fills. Connecticut is a very expensive state for WLS. Fortunately, my insurance covered 95% of the charges.

interesting read. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57535156/weight-loss-surgery-may-lead-to-a-healthier-heart/

I am nervous. I have pre testing on the 10th this month. My nutritionist said I had to weigh the most 215 at the day. My surgery is the 17th of March. I am nervous because right now I weigh 218-221. The scale keeps bouncing around. I am looking for advice to lose the weight so I can be cleared for surgery !!! I have been drinking lots of wter, eating Protein first, working out. I just need something extra to get over this hump. Thanks!

I have been on my pre op diet for about six weeks and managed to lose about 20 lbs. But my scales have not moved hardly at all in the last 2 weeks...I mean maybe an ounce here or there but that's it. My pre op consists of 2 high Protein shakes and one meal of salad and lean meat. My thyroid tested within range so it can't be that. It's weird because I can see weight loss in my face and body and feel it in my clothes too. I'm due to have my bypass next week on the 29th and I'm hoping I'm still won't continue this stall. I expect I'll probably gain some weight due to anesthesia and Fluid retention. But I hope it won't continue too far out. It's probably just the affects of a VLCD.....agh! Did any of you guys have this problem? Xxx

im sitting here at work with just 3 nights to go before my banding. and i have to say i am SCARED to death. ive never had any form of surgery or anesthesia before. and aside from being nervous im feeling like an idiot for eating myself to a point that im having surgery to help me lose weight. i have a million random thoughts. do i really wanna do this? what happens if i do? what if i dont? im sick of not wanting to see myself naked in the mirror. tired of the constant guilt over every bite i put in my mouth. tired of felling like a failure for not being able diet successfully on my own. my mom died almost 10yrs ago at the age of 52. after years of suffering severe depression and being morbidly obese most of her life she committed suicide. my deepest fear since my mother's death is ending up as miserable and depressed as she was. i dont expect this surgery to be a magic cure. i know it wont solve all my problems overnight. i just hope its worth. that its really a tool that i can implement to make a positive change in my life. im a nurse and worked in a rehab center for a time. lately ive come to realize that food is truly an addiction just like cocaine or heroine. but its an addiction to a substance that you cant remove from your life completely.thin people tell me all the time to just stop eating so much and ill lose weight. would i have been able to tell one of my heroine addicts to just cut back a bit? to have 3 bags a day instead of 5? as afraid as i am right now i really think this surgery is the right step for me. to be able to utilize a tool that will help me be truly successful.

im sitting here at work with just 3 nights to go before my banding. and i have to say i am SCARED to death. ive never had any form of surgery or anesthesia before. and aside from being nervous im feeling like an idiot for eating myself to a point that im having surgery to help me lose weight. i have a million random thoughts. do i really wanna do this? what happens if i do? what if i dont? im sick of not wanting to see myself naked in the mirror. tired of the constant guilt over every bite i put in my mouth. tired of felling like a failure for not being able diet successfully on my own. my mom died almost 10yrs ago at the age of 52. after years of suffering severe depression and being morbidly obese most of her life she committed suicide. my deepest fear since my mother's death is ending up as miserable and depressed as she was. i dont expect this surgery to be a magic cure. i know it wont solve all my problems overnight. i just hope its worth. that its really a tool that i can implement to make a positive change in my life. im a nurse and worked in a rehab center for a time. lately ive come to realize that food is truly an addiction just like cocaine or heroine. but its an addiction to a substance that you cant remove from your life completely.thin people tell me all the time to just stop eating so much and ill lose weight. would i have been able to tell one of my heroine addicts to just cut back a bit? to have 3 bags a day instead of 5? as afraid as i am right now i really think this surgery is the right step for me. to be able to utilize a tool that will help me be truly successful.

It will be so worth it when you go down a pants size, I lost 22 pounds on my pre-op liquid diet. I was so miserable but now I'm glad I did it. From time to time, I go on a 3 day protein shake fast to jump start my weight loss.

my doctor allowed veggies too, but no yogurt or any of that. i could only use Protein shakes and 1 cup of veggies per day. so, it sounds like you have more options than I did. while you may lose weight on the pre-op, please try your best not to cheat on it again. you can make it 14 days and that is really the most difficult part (other than the 10 days of liquids only right after surgery, if your doctor makes you do that) if you are really having trouble sticking to the diet, you should contact your doctor and tell him. don't try to reason with yourself and give yourself permission to eat cheese or do anything that is not per the doctor. that is not a good way to go into this process. if you do that kind of reasoning now, believe me you will do that after you have healed and are ready to eat real food again. resolve now to do what you are supposed to do and stick to it as best as you can.

Hi, I was "Banded" on Oct 4, 2011. I admit it took a lot out of me energy wise & that gas pain was absolutely awful for approx 4 days. I started feeling stronger and back to my normal self by Sun Oct 9. Had my follow up with the surgeon this past Tues. I have this pain that comes and goes in my left shoulder. My surgeon says it will id how the body defers pain from one section to another.. He said its due to the repair of the "hiatal hernia" I had. The DR advised me to move on the next food intake I was happy about that.!!! Even though my scale weight is not accurate, today I put on a a pair of "scrubs" I use for just wearing around the home and they were so big & loose I laughed out lout !! I then proceeded to create a Video to sendt o my children to show them how weight I had lost. I hope this helps and remember i"Never accept 100% of others postings in this Forum, about pain, exercising..etc as each of our bodies will respond differently while healing Hoping your journey is a "successful one.. Cynthia

Hello all, I had my visit with my surgeon today Dr.Sherwinter very nice and reassuring visit. Before meeting him I was asked a few questions by the physician assistant weight,height,age ect....I told him I was 39 will be 40in January he said Wow!I thought you were 30....I just couldn't help to think after all this weight is gone I will look and feel 30...lol

Just checking to see where you are in your process, and how you feel about the process. I am 3 lbs short of my weight goal, and have my next appointment on January 22nd and I am so focused on this 3 lbs so I can have my paper work submitted by February. My plan has been to replace one meal a day with protien shake and eat lots of green lefty veggies! Danni

Hi, I was originally interested in the sleeve but thought better of it after my initial consultation and after looking around on the forums am glad I have changed my mind it seems a much better option. Did you have a band for long and did it work for you at all. I'm currently 273 pounds and 5' 3" and have tried every diet going I lost tons of weight a few years ago and gradually put it all back on again as usual. Good luck with your operation and let us know how you get on.

Thank you all for sharing Lots went on this week, so I'm sorry haven't responded til now. I was reading as you all posted. @PdxMan- Congratulations on your 3 year anniversary! Do you still feel like you have to think about it (the steps you've taken to loose the weight) all the time or do the new habits become a new normal? Whenever I get with the 'fitness program' it feels like a very deliberate effort and it kind of takes over my thinking. Does it still feel like a struggle to make the better choices with food and exercise? I don't think I could be in that struggle mode with the lifestyle indefinitely (aka for the rest of my life), so it would be a help to know if it eventually becomes kind of automatic. Does the sleeve help with that somehow? @my2bys9799- I hope everything went great with your surgery! I'd love to hear how it went. @Terribj- Thanks for all the suggestions! The youtube video was awesome! I hadn't heard about that before, but it makes sense. I've been steadily been starting to be more and more conscious about how much/little I chew and trying not to drink with my meals. How long after a meal would you wait before drinking again? I quit sodas a while back-which was tough, so I'm glad I had one check off the list before beginning this process I'm hoping that I won't feel hungry after surgery too. It would make it a lot easier to sort out the emotional "hunger" from the real thing and maybe help to clear up what those triggers are and find better ways to deal with them. @hrhlaurie- when I went in, I'd already talked to my insurance company and they never mentioned that I had to do a supervised diet or anything and I had asked them about weight history. I had it all planned out that I was going to get this done over my summer break (i'm a teacher) and I'd get all healthy over summer- get used to my sleeve and how to eat, etc. It was all planned out in my head. Then I went in and they said 6 months of supervised- UGH! That didn't work in with the plan at all. Now I'm actually happy about having the time. I'm going to hold off until Christmas break. It is a super extreme thing to do, so I'm glad I'll have some time to start practicing for my post-surgery lifestyle (and hopefully make it stick). I've done some more reading about how to deal with emotions by ways other than eating- and been trying some of them out. Are there any that any of you would suggest? Another question for anyone- my doctor was saying i'll feel great in 5 days and can go back to work, but I'm not so sure- I will have only been drinking liquids for 2 weeks preop and I'll still be on liquids for at least a week after surgery- how on earth will I have enough energy to teach? (I'm not a teach-from-your-seat kind of teacher, and it's far from a desk job anyway.) I'm nervous about that part of it. I'll have 2 weeks to recover over break, but it's still making me nervous.

I have started the process of getting a sleeve. I have 6 months of physician monitored weight loss, and since I'm a teacher, I'll probably wait until Christmas break to get this done- so I have a bit of time to go. I have a lot of questions, but they are questions my doctor at least treated quite superficially. (I'm going to meet other surgeons because of what seemed to be a very short-term mindset). Here are my big important questions. I'd love to hear what others who are further along in their journey and hopefully some people who are 2 or more years out from surgery. Big Important Question 1: I feel like surgery is the most extreme and kind of like a last chance at taking care of my weight problem. There really isn't anything else to try if I can't make a weight loss stick with surgery. I've lost weight before (sometimes a lot of weight) but it ALWAYS comes back with extra. I'm 28 and maintaining for life is a serious commitment- I've been lucky in the past if I can maintain a weight loss for more than 6 months. Can the sleeve help me when it comes to maintenance? For those of you who have had long-term success with any weight loss surgery, what was it that worked to help you stay healthy long-term? Big Important Question 2: I don't only eat when I'm hungry. I eat sometimes out of habit (when watching tv or because its 'dinner time'). I also eat when I get stressed out or emotional (especially when I'm disappointed or frustrated). With those kinds of triggers for eating, will having surgery still be able to help me? Is that something that I have to stop completely before I would be likely to have a good long-term outcome? Does the process leading up to surgery or the surgery itself help you to really change so that you will still have the weight off 2 or 5 or 10 years down the road? Please share what you felt like going into surgery and what you've learned along the way. Thank you!

I lost my 100+ lbs over the past 2 yrs, so very slowly. I have minimal sagging skin on my tummy, none on my arms, and very little on my thighs. I work out an hour, 3x a week. Mostly walking on the treadmill, but also weight exercises. If I had the money now, I'd probably have the skin taken care of, but I figure the only people who see it is me and my husband - and he doesn't care. So, the moral of the story? Lose it slowly, work out, and don't worry about it. If you're meant to have saggy skin, you will - and then you can take care of it if you want. Marci

Hi, I was originally interested in the sleeve but thought better of it after my initial consultation and after looking around on the forums am glad I have changed my mind it seems a much better option. Did you have a band for long and did it work for you at all. I'm currently 273 pounds and 5' 3" and have tried every diet going I lost tons of weight a few years ago and gradually put it all back on again as usual. Good luck with your operation and let us know how you get on.

Well congrats on the scale moving. I know it has to be frustrating to lose it then suddenly gain it back. I think it will look good on your pre-op journey to have some weight loss documented!

I'm kind of worried out this too. My arms and legs are my biggest concern as I have no hope to have some bangin bikini rockin body but it would be nice to feel comfortable in shorts and a tank top in the summer time. I am hoping that age is on my side with this one. I have been told that they key is to lose weight slowly, exercise plenty, and keep hydrated and moisturized. I am not sure how I feel about having surgery to remove excess skin but I guess after working so hard to get in shape it may be something I would consider, not until after babies though. : )

Yes. One of the former members, restless monkey had that happen to her. She lost weight prior to the op but did it her way not by following the diet she was told to. She went for the op , the Dr "opened" her up and found her liver was too big/fatty so he closed her back up without putting the band on. She then followed the diet she was prescribed and got the operation a couple of weeks later. It is not up to us to try to second guess our surgeons. We are trusting them with our lives so we should be able to trust them enough to follow their instructions. If we don't understand or disagree with what they have told us we should discuss it with them. If we are still not happy then we should change to a Dr that we do trust and who's instructions we are happy to follow.

That's wonderful! I hope my insurance is as quick as yours. Great job losing weight preop, that shows a commitment to the after band regimen.

1. Get healthier! Lose weight! 2.Be able to run and play with my children . 3.Be able to sit comfortably in a normal size seat . 4.put on clothes that is not plus size 5. actually be in family pictures and feel good about it. 6. Never drink sodas again I'm still thinking of more...... Do you have any I can borrow? Sent from my DROID RAZR using LapBandTalk

Can anyone tell me what the difference is with a liquid diet vs a diet. If you loose, how will they know which method you used? My doctor said they like you to loose about 10lbs before the surgery.

I just received the news that my insurance approved my surgery. I will be banded Jan 27th. Yeah!!! I was really worried because I gained weight over the holidays (7lbs). My dietician said that I could have jepordized everything but I guess it was okay.