OMG Pam. You made me cry just thinking of the pain you have been in. I hope your recovery is going well and you will feel better soon. God Bless you. Hugs, Shelley

Hello Junebugs, I will be 3 years June 22, 2008, I was 268 pounds and a size 24 prior to my surgery. Now I am 132 pounds and a size 4. I am feeling fairly good except suffering from depression, under a doctors care for this. For the first year after my surgery I was so seriously sick I almost died several times, I was hospitalized for 6 to 8 months, and I thought I had made a major mistake by having this surgery, however now being able to walk and play with my grandchildren makes up for all of the problems I went through. My husband is 330 and he is considering the lap band has anyone out there had this procedure done, and how did you feel after the surgery, how much weight did you lose and was it a slow process???? Can anyone advise. I don't want him to go through anything I had to experience..... Good luck to all who are having a problem keeping the weight off, try to stay on your doctors program, you don't want to go back up that dangerous hill. It causes to may problems. Thanks for the opportunity to write Tamey

ok, I have not been checking in for a while but I feel exactly what you two have felt...I also feel so ashamed to contact the doctor and get back to scales... I am sure I back close to 300, I can feel it in my bones. My lowest was about 256 at size 16, I had not seen a size 16 since I was 16 years old. it felt wonderful... now I am back up to size 24 and some are getting tight again. so I am sure that the 26s are soon to follow. I joined a local support group but it is the portion control and lack of dumbing sugar that has really harmed me in the last year... What is our alternatives??? I want to be informed when I go to se ethe doc...(I just emailed him for an appt).. having a hard time...Silly.

It has been a long, long time since I have posted on here and so much has happened since I have. One year ago, I had emergency surgery for an internal hernia, adhesions, and appendicitis. *whew* made it through that one..... But wait, all of my pain didn't go away! I have spent the past year on pain killers and having test after test that showed nothing abnormal. Over the past month or so, I have been really pushing the doctors to find out what has been causing my pain - and oh yeah - sudden onset seizures. So, I just completed another round of testing and checking EVERYTHING. Before I could get all of the results back or get to my doctor appts to follow up on all the testing, I woke up unable to breathe - I had horrible pain in my abdomin and excrutiating pain in my left shoulder. I thought I was having a heart attack. I sent my daughter a text to come help me out of bed (my husband had already left for work). She helped me up and everything got worse. I was doubled over and couldn't breathe - in pain and now nearly screaming... I asked my daughter to call my husband home to get me. When she had him on the phone - she put the phone to my ear and he said he was calling an ambulance but I begged him not to - just come get me. He came home and took me straight to the ER. I have to give them credit, they took me right back and didn't waste anytim - very RARE in these parts. The pain was getting more and more intense and I couldn't stop screaming and blacking out. Somewhere during this, I had a CT of my chest/abdomin. The ER doctor came to me and informed me that they weren't looking for this - but this is what they found: Air in my peritoneal cavity - around my organs - stomach, liver, etc. There is not suppose to be air in that cavity and most likely, it was coming from an open ulcer. I would need immediate surgery, as my condition was becoming more and more critical. Somewhere between the CT and the Doctor talking to me - I took 3 sips of tea trying to find a way to ease the pain. (Dumb, I know - but i was out of my mind by this time) After the liquid went down my throat, I felt it explode all over the inside of my abdomin, buring everything I have inside of me. That was the end of all my sanity and conciousness. All I could do was scream and pass out. I was now on morphene, douladid and something else for pain and NONE of it was working. I am thankful that this doctor and this hospital was honest enough to say that they could not handle this surgery. So they flew me out to the hospital where I had my RNY. (flying me to the wrong hospital - then I had to go by ambulance to the right hospital) Once I was finally in the care of my bariatric center of excellence hospital, I felt more relaxed. I didn't even care that I was about to be wheeled in for emergency surgery at 9p.m. (this all began at 6 a.m.) I trusted them. I woke up breifly around midnight after coming out of my surgery. I had a bleeding perforated ulcer - on the side of the stomach facing the liver - my stomach contents had contaminated my insides. I now had a patch on the ulcer. Now he hard part: Recovery. The recovery from this one is tricky. I have to worry about the damage from the stomach contents on the rest of my body. I have to worry about this patch holding that hole closed. I am terrified of waking up to that pain again. I am thankful for the two blood transfusions, even though it seems like I gave half of it back the very next day in vials for testing. And then there's the regular post-op worries of embolism, pneumonia, etc. I'm still on liquids....I don't know how long that will be - I can barely eat anyway. Has anyone else been through this? I would really like to talk. God bless, Pam

Hi Chip~ So many of us are going through this same issue. I got down to a low of 164. Now, I'm about 185, having reached 189 a few weeks ago. I'm trying to up my exercise again and go low/no sugar. I know that that is my big downfall. On the positive side, I still take my protein drinks daily, get my viamins/calcium in, and m bloodwork is fine. I walked 6 miles yesterday and did an hour of DDR (I'm embarrased to admit that, at age almost 40, I do Dance, Dance Revolution on Play Station! ) Hope your journey back is going well. We're coming up on 3 years~ what a ride, huh? Take care, Kerri