THE moment..

[~c~ 1]

Sometimes i get discouraged about how long this process is,how hard it can sometimes seem.Sometimes i forget WHY i wanted this so much.Then i think of the reasons why.

The thing that i think about is my moment,the moment i knew i had to change my habits and my weight.

For me it was in 1999 when my husband and I had a car accident.I was 8 weeks pregnant and we thought it better not to move me because of the pregnancy and i thought i had hurt my neck and back from the impact.It took 5 people to get me on the stretcher.I was totally humiliated and it really brought home the fact that i needed help!

When i get down i think of this and reinforce that thought with how good i feel already,how loose my clothes are,how much healthier i am and will be,how i have more enrgy to play with my kids,i can run...me doing all these things,imagine that!!!

What was your moment?

[Penni60 45]

THE MOMENT for me was when I was seeing my Cardiologist for a check up and stepped on those scales and it hit 298 lbs. I just started bawling right there. I stopped long enough to talk to my doctor about the check up and change some blood pressure meds and cholesterol meds.

Then I got home and collapsed and cried all day and all night. I just couldn't face the fact that I was nearly 300 lbs. It still shocks me to say that now.

I couldn't walk across the floor to the bathroom without getting out of breath. I couldn't climb stairs without stopping midway and getting my breath. SAD SAD.

I immediately got on the internet and researched this procedure and found what I was looking for. A close friend of mine told me about the clinic where I had the procedure done. I got on the phone and called them and set it up within about a month. THen I was banded. WHOO HOO!! I have never ever looked back and thought OH SHIT I made a mistake. This saved my life. I have energy now to get in the floor and play with Chloe at the Vegas Bash. I can play with my grandson when I come to visit. I can walk 3 miles and NOT get winded. FAN -- TAB -- ULOUS!!!!!

[Marimaru 7]

Maybe I'm wierd, but I'm not sure I have a "the moment". I've had weight problems since I was a kid, and I've been dieting on and off since then as well. When I was little I never saw my self as thin, even though there was one point where I was (and there's pictures to prove it, lol). But that said, I never really believed I was "THAT" big either. 8 months or so ago it just kind of clicked and I admitted to myself that I was FAT. There wasn't really any specific event that triggered it or anything, I think I just quit lying to myself. Then in May I was going on vacation with my Mom and we were talking about the various WLS's (because we work with someone who had the gastric bypass) and I brought up the band. She thought it was a great idea and said I should do it and she'd cover it for me. I cried in the airport. lol... so a month and 4 days from that day later I was on the table...

[paula 4]

Ive always been overweight -top weight was near 300lbs.

And MY moment came last February with my hairdresser (while cutting my hair)...

the beauty shop was in discussion about the Gastric bypass and how many people they knew that looked great from the surgery. My hairdresser looked at me (I wasnt even in the conversation) and said, "Gosh Paula, if I were YOU - I would have that done in a heartbeat."

So, here I am! But banded, not GB.

[kellymoos 4]

Mine was when I was diagnosed with Diabetes at 26 years old. I was taking Glucophage 2x a day. I figured I was 26 now and in 20 years I would only be 46. 20 years is a long time for my body to have Diabetes and 46 is very young. So, I did it!!! No longer on meds and diabetic free:-)

[Kelly Ann 0]

My moment ...... had really been one year after the other stuggling to try to lose and then regaining being depressed, isolating , and not going places. I have a thin family and a great athletic husband ---I did not fit in. I was the one who had the major weight issues always on a diet or visibly over eating. And yeah I had the never to be forgotten moment of being asked when I was due??????? on the elevator in Nordstroms with my 120 lb mother. I just went with it and mumbled something ---I thought I would die.... Another time was last December at the cardiologists office ---I needed a stress test done (stress and weight were causing irregular heartbeats) .The other patients having the testing done with me other women (a total of four ) were asking me what I was doing there?????They were so much older than me-----Clearly a young woman having heart problems very overweight. I was so embarressed. I have been getting catalogs everyday in the mail recently with new holiday outfits and lingerie....It dawned on me while reading them that I may actually be able to order and fit into those outfits. I had stopped thinking of those things long ago. It was never a consideration...now it is

[~c~ 1]

ooooohhh!

I love your stories!!!

Keep 'em coming!~

It's amazing to me when i read your moment story and then scan down and look at your weight loss stats and think,woo-hoo she's on her way!! :banana

and me too!

I LOVE THIS PLACE!

[claraluz 2]

Great Question!

My moment was being told by my doctor that I had insulin resistance and that I needed to watch my diet, lose weight, and exercise or I would soon have diabetes. Suddenly at age 49 I realized that I was all out of tomorrows. As in I'll go on a diet tomorrow. From that moment it had to be TODAY or I would end up with a serious chronic illness. I gave myself 6 months to lose weight and get with the program and told myself that if I wasn't able to do so, I would have surgery. I gave it my best try. I lost weight, I exercised, and all symptoms of insulin resistance went away. But just as with so many times in the past, I found I couldn't maintain my new way of living permanently. So here I am. With normal blood sugars. And a renewed spirit.

Nancy

[Janie Jackson 0]

I just typed a long thread and then it did not go through so this is my test therad...Janie

[lapbander081004 7]

This is a great question. helps reminds us why we are doing this.

My son got married Oct 11, 2003. When we got home fom Indiana after the wedding were loaded the pictures into the computer. AS we went thru them everyone would say "Dad thats a good picture of you" and I'd think Christ have I gotten big. Then I got to thinking My knees are crapping out from the weight and Drs are talking knee surgery on both of them, I have to wear this mask whenever I lay down even for a nap as I had developed sleep Apnea so badly Dr actually believed, had my wife not tattled to him about me, I would have died within three months because I vertually wasn't sleeping.

My son got home from Honeymoon with videos and we watched then along with the wedding videos and I saw myself walking to my seat and got tears in eyes. So I got myself together and decied to check out my options. A chrurch member suddenly was losing weight so I asked him how he was doing it. He told me about the lap band and I checked into it. Sounded good as I went to the Pre Surgery mandatory confernece and after seeing the presentation I left looking for other options.

I know I'm rambling and am just getting to "THE MOMENT". Kids started talking about they wanted to start working on having a baby. I told my wife I don't think I'll live long enough to see that and If I do I won't be able to hold the grandchild on my lap as there was no room. So I went to see the lap band Dr and we talked and I went for it. So far I have made plenty of room for a grandchild to sit on my lap and I intend to make sure if they have twins (which runs in both sides of theire familes) I will be able to hold them both.

The Dr said I no longer will need to consider knee surgery because I amd walking three to four miles a day painfree, This coming Sunday Nite I will be in the sleep Center being retested for the Sleep Apnea. My Nuerologist believes I may have conquered this problem too. Nor=w instead of helping me sleep the C-PAP keeps waking me up. Dr said actually tis is a good sign.

I am a much happier person since and I intend to stay this way till the Day I become the happiest. And when I stand before him I will ask for forgiveness for almost destroying one of his beautiful creations. I know he'll let me in. If not I got back door key on my key chain here somehwere.... I think.

[Janie Jackson 0]

O.K. Here I go again. I had three daughters pregnant 8 months apart from each other. I was so embarrased looking at myself in the baby shower pictures. Also my knee hurt so bad I could hardly get up from the floor. I wanted to be in better shape to play and care for my babies. I was also having gallbladder attacks so bad that I thaught they were heart attacks. I was needing gallbladder surgery. I thaught maybe I could get the band or RNY at the same time. My daughter who is a doctor told me of a surgeon who does both surgeries at her hospital. I had heard of the lapband from my other daughters friend. The rest is history. On yeah, I look like Tyne Daleys twin. People have actually mistaken me for her before. But when I loose 30 or 40 more pounds I bet I wont resemble her so much. Strangers allways tell me You look like Judging Amys mother. Anyway my scales are reading 203 now almost a 50lb loss. And I can get on the floor and play with my babies and I had to buy a new outfit for my grandsons 1st birthday party. I got a x-tra large shirt and 18 pants. That was great. I ame grateful for the band and for my friends on this board...Janie

[La_madam 20]

Too many moments for me to even count!

Seriously I was tired of waking up in the morning in pain, my feet hurt so bad. If I would sit down during the day it would take me 10 minutes to get up and get out all the kinks before I could start moving.I lived on Advil for the pain.. Since I have lost the 62 lbs I have not one ounce of pain or kinks in my body. I did not want my 3 boys to be embarrassed by their mothers presence at school functions, baseball games, in front of their friends etc..I wanted my life back I became a recluse not wanting to go out with friends, not wanting to entertain in my home etc..

I feel the best I have felt in years and it's only going to get better!!!

[Zoe 6]

Great thread, Chantal! I was walking in the Grand Canyon this June with an average-sized friend, just taking a leisurely stroll around the flat section -- and I was getting winded after just a few steps. I'm 47, but I felt ancient on that walk. If someone had offered me a wheelchair, I would have taken it! Then I got home and looked at the picture someone had taken of the two of us, and realized to my horror that I had turned into this absolutely huge person! That's what did it -- combined with a blood-pressure reading of 170/95.

I had researched the band before, but now that the FDA had approved it, I started devouring every article I could find. I won't bore you with the procedural details. . . but once I had decided on Dr. Rumbaut, I e-mailed and called his office, set up an appointment three weeks from my last call, got banded 8/26, and haven't looked back since. Every time I write a check to pay off the loan I have a smile on my face.

[DeLarla 22]

Wow, awesome thread. My moment was about 6 months long. My insurance sent me a card with an emergency crisis number on it. One night, I called the number crying and begged them to keep me from eating. They didn't keep me from eating, but they sent me to a therapist. During my first visit, she asked why I was there. I said, "what would you say if I told you I was going home and killing myself?' She jumped towards her phone and said she had to call the authorities and asked me what my intentions were. So I told her, "I'm going to do the same thing I do every night, which is eat myself to death." She took a big sign of relief and sank back into her chair, like "oh, is that all?" I was so disgusted that I started crying and told her that my life is in her hands, and it was up to her to find me some help - pronto. She was supposed to be an eating disorder specialist, yet she'd never heard the TRUTH about compulsive overeating till she met me. She used me to study, which makes me sick considering the copayment alone was $35.00 a session. So I gave up on her and laid in bed every night, hoping each night was the last night of suffering for me. I was also on a CPAP breathing machine because my sleep apnea was so bad, that during the studies my heart stopped 40 times an hour. I went to bed every night with so much food in my stomach that it would choke me in my sleep. Sleep apnea, added to so much food in my stomach that it had to come back up my esophogus would eventually kill me, I just knew it would, but what was taking so long? So I posted a personal ad in Yahoo personals, screaming out for anyone to help me. The actual moment was when Karen H. actually stumbled upon my ad and wrote back to me. She said she knew my entire pain, and she had been banded. Within a month or so, she was in my living room telling me and hubby about her band. Within a few more weeks I was in Tijuana getting my band. Funny how angels land right when we need them the most.

[Rebeccalee 2]

Gee, Lisa, you're making me cry again....

I think my first push was when my husband and I sat down to look at our wedding video. We "ran away" to get married with just one friend there. We watched the video and NEVER showed it to anyone else. We were both so sick that we were so big. I couldn't believe that he had married me! That was January of 2003.

I went back to college the next January (this year) -- at 49 years old. I couldn't put the fold-up desk down over my lap. One instructor even asked me if I was all right. The seats hurt. That along with the aches and pains of being too heavy, the fatty liver, my PCP wanting to put me on cholesterol lowering drugs that are bad for your liver, and heading toward diabetes.

I told my husband that if I ever reached 300 lbs. I was having a bypass, even though I think it is a drastic surgery. Then I found out about the lapband online. In 3 months I gathered up all the money I could get our hands on, dusted off the credit cards, reminded my husband of the Harley he had bought the year before, and headed into Bandland full steam ahead.