New to the Lap Band World... a few questions

[John_Yeti 0]

I am looking into the Lap band surgery, and was just wondering if anyone can give me a heads up on what the doctors are looking for when figuring out if one is right for this type of surgery?

A little background. I am 6'3 and about 430 lbs. lol figure that is good enough for it, but wanted to know. Thanks.

[Maitai 0]

Hello John and welcome.

To qualify for WLS you have to be morbidly obese with a BMI of over 40 or with a BMI of 35 and comorbidities such as high blood pressure,diabetes, sleep apnea or any other health issues you might have that are weight related. As far as which one you get depends on which one you prefer.

[ann71 0]

all dr r diffrent my dr ran a bunch of test i was 340 told me i had to drop 30 pds before surgury. to help my liver go down in size. i know there people about 400 pds he made lose 40 pds i think he to see if how willing we were!

[orea15 0]

Because of your high BMI (and mine!) you may find your surgeon recommends a bypass instead. Just a heads up on this. When I told my surgeon that I wasn't comfortable doing a bypass and it was band or nothing, and asked if he was willing to band me, he was fine with it. He said the reason he has that recommendation is that it takes longer and people get impatient when they have more to lose. I told him I was fine with taking 2 or 3 years to get there.

This said, my surgeon never said I had to lose X amount of weight to qualify. (When I was with Kaiser Permanente, they did. I was told 3% which was like 11 pounds, west coast KP members have reported they have to lose 10%.) I lost weight anyhow because it'll make my goal that much closer and I badly needed to get some of the pounds off because I was physically miserable.

Besides you BMI and possible comorbidities (have you been tested for sleep apnea yet?), they may want to know that you have tried dieting repeatedly, that you are of sound mind and able to follow directions (psych evaluation), things like that.

Take your time, do your research and make sure you are comfortable with your choice. I highly recommend SmartBandsters at Yahoogroups. I have learned a bundle from them and it has been most valuable to see others doing what I hoped to do, their ups and downs, triumphs and mistakes. They know their stuff and are great about answering questions.

Good luck!

Orea