would you or would you not do it again?

[Band-aided 0]

I'd be really interested to know how many of you, knowing what you know now , would have the band fitted again or how many of you wouldn't :faint:!

JX

[conniesueb 1]

I would do it again in a heartbeat! It has been a life-changing experience for me. I am not at my goal yet, but I am well on my way, and I feel so much better. I have been taken off my daibetes meds, and high blood pressure meds, and am more active than I have been in years, despite my severe arthritis. I don't have one negative thing to say about my experience.

[babygrl1234 6]

In a heart beat. These last 4 months I have become so active and not exhausted all the time and it is just leaking into every aspect of my life. It is the single best life changing decision I have ever made in my life.

[TracyinKS 7]

In a new york second! My only regret is that I didn't do it two years ago, when I first started researching it.

[Alexandra 55]

My worst fears came true and my band was removed on April 9 due to slippage. That was preceded by about a month of very uncomfortable refllux, an inability to eat, an overall unhealthy feeling and fear. So I'm a good person to ask if I'd do it again.

The answer is YES, and I'm tentatively scheduled to be rebanded on August 13 (insurance gods willing). Even with the negative experiences, and there were some, there is no other tool I've ever come across that made it POSSIBLE for me to lose the weight I needed to lose. And though my weight loss stopped before I got to anyone's idea of a goal weight (my lowest was around 210, giving me a BMI of just under 30), it was the very first time in my LIFE that I had any hope of staying at anything close to a normal weight.

It was a lifesaver for me, and I am eagerly anticipating the day I get a new little silicone buddy to keep me from falling prey once again to morbid obesity.

[chiefsfankatie 0]

Alexandra,

I think you might be like my lap band angel. The day your lapband was taken out, I got mine put in. I have only lost 15 lbs so far and haven't had a good last couple of weeks. Vacation- I lost my mind! Ate like I had never had surgery. I am feeling guilt and disgust with myself. I read that you would do it again and I think to myself, she would put herself through all of it again, that's how much she believes in it. That gives me the strength to go back into my good habits one day at a time. I get my 2nd fill on Wednesday this coming week. Hopefully it will give me much more restriction. I need to get jump started after this bad bump. Anyway, wanted to say thanks. Thanks.

[JJB 2]

YES! YES! YES! I love my band. Ans I can not imagine having to lose it. I think I would also be just counting the days until it could be replaced.

[She Smiles 2]

Yeah I'm with the majority of these guys. The only down side - the more weight I lose the more I realise that if I want to resemble some one "normal looking" naked in the mirror its going to cost me $$$ to get more surgery (plastic obviously). But hey, if I 've got extra skin and not 80 pounds of extra weight on me, thats a good thing, right? I love my band.

[Alexandra 55]

Alexandra,

I think you might be like my lap band angel. The day your lapband was taken out, I got mine put in. I have only lost 15 lbs so far and haven't had a good last couple of weeks. Vacation- I lost my mind! Ate like I had never had surgery. I am feeling guilt and disgust with myself. I read that you would do it again and I think to myself, she would put herself through all of it again, that's how much she believes in it. That gives me the strength to go back into my good habits one day at a time. I get my 2nd fill on Wednesday this coming week. Hopefully it will give me much more restriction. I need to get jump started after this bad bump. Anyway, wanted to say thanks. Thanks.

Awwww, thanks, Katie! I think these surveys are always skewed when they're posted at places like this, because the responders are those who are in the midst of the best part of banding--the losing phase. Of COURSE people are going to be enthusiastic about a procedure they voluntarily undertook to help them lose large amounts of weight when they are either fresh out of surgery or in the process of watching their bodies shrink. It's the very rare person who's going to say they made a mistake this early out.

Taking a long view is harder--but to me it was more important. How do people feel years afterward? Did it do the job AND leave them healthy and happier? Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) there aren't a lot of long-term bandsters online to talk about their experiences--but I see that as an indication that they've moved on and are out living their new, healthier lives.

Anyway, this is just a long way of saying that if I knew then what I know now, I'd DEFINITELY still have chosen the band. It did what I was told it would do, nothing more, nothing less. And it left me healthier and still whole.

[thebionicbroad 0]

I used to eat before I went out to eat so that I didn't eat too much in front of other people. I can wear clothing off the rack in a regular store. I can wear high heels again. I can keep myself clean. I don't feel like a freak at the gym. My mother-in-law calls ms "little." The band has helped me fit back into the human race. Dear God, please don't let this thing slip or erode.

[ladyvase 0]

My band is my best friend, I can count on it to let me know when I had enough. We work side by side me and my band. Best thing I have done for myself in a long time. My life as change on March 1 2007 all for best.

[michelll 0]

AB-SO-LUTE-LY! WITHOUT Hesitation! All the above! My worst fear is that something happens and I lose it -- but if I did, I'd go to my grave trying to get it put back in! My only regret is not doing it 10 years ago, or 5 years ago... but 2 years ago I DID DO IT! and I am SO HAPPY!

[chickatee 0]

I have only had my band for 5 weeks. So it's really to soon for me to be answering this. But I'm going to anyway. Yes I would do it again!

[vbaum 0]

Yes yes yes a million times yes. I feel so much better, and continue to change and like what I see daily! I wish everyone could feel this great!

[belle75067 0]

That is a good question. I get asked that all the time. The answer is yes. I really didn't know about the surgery or what was really going to happen before I had the surgery, not really until a day before the surgery. By then I figured I had gone through everything else I might as well go through the surgery and see if it could help me lose weight. I would however change my eating habits a few months before the surgery if I had known what a major difference I would have to adjust to after having the surgery. The pain I don't much remember but about 2 weeks after the surgery feeling so hungry and the Protein Shakes just barely satisfieng me. But overall yes, I would do it again, in a heartbeat. My alien baby has changed my life so dramatically. I am so grateful for it.