Totally Blind, Considering Lap Band

[serenity55 15]

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I knew I would love this site the minute I began lurking.

Green Chrysalis, you're right; I have a screenreader called JAWS (Job Access with Speech) which reads everything to me using a synthetic voice, which actually sounds pretty good. I also have a braille display, because I've been reading braille since I was a child.

Shortgirl (sorry if I spelled it wrong, I'm fat and my brain doesn't work, either!) :-) Thank you very much for what you said. I always think that it really does hurt when I have blood drawn, and I don't know if it's because I've always been afraid of needles--I had two eye surgeries when I was seven--but I'm going to try the things that have worked for you.

I thought I could lose weight with diet and exercise, but the problem for me is that I loooove cookies! Those are the hardest things for me to stop eating, but with the band as a tool I have a good chance of getting past that.

One more thing, which has nothing to do with anything: My primary care physician, whom I love, asked me if I'd consider bariatric surgery, and then stopped herself when she remembered how much I hate needles. But that tells me that she's willing to support me, and will do whatever she can to make sure I get the band. I work for an organization for the blind which has Pacificare as insurance, and I've had pretty good luck, so far. I have to have blood work done, tried last week and the lab tech couldn't get any, and so--you guessed it--I left without letting anyone else try. But I'm going back, and then I'll make an appointment with my doctor and get things started.

Again, thank you all for being here.

Debbie

[MacMadame 81]

I told her my intentions to get the Lap-Band since she was one of my few overweight friends, and thankfully, she told me that she supported me as long as I promised to take it out if anything goes wrong! She admitted that it's hard to lose weight and commended me that I'm trying anything at all.

She sounds like a great friend!

[Big As Life 0]

Debbie,

Welcome to LBT..this is a great place to get all kind of support...I understand your fear of needles, I have to say I was scared to have the surgery, but it was the best thing I have ever done...I would do it again tomorrow....I have lost 74 lbs since April of 2007...

[bigbaby 4]

Green--thanks for the info...

[ywilson 0]

Good analogy.