My first post! My story

 way too much energy to read....wish I had that much time to write a bunch of nonsense

"Do you think it's FAIR TO TELL OTHERS NOT TO GET A LAP BAND BECAUSE YOU HAVE A AUTOIMMUNE DISORDER, DON'T YOU THINK THAT IS RATHER SELFISH AND UNFAIR? AND RAINING ON OTHERS PARADE THAT THE BAND MIGHT WORK FOR?"

WELL IF THEY HAD SAID SOMETHING WHEN I FILLED OUT ALL THE PAPERWORK ON MY FAMILY HISTORY OF AUTOIMMUNE ISSUES THAT I COULD NOT GET THE LAPBAND THEN DON'T YOU THINK I WOULDN'T BE WHERE I AM NOW....SERIOUSLY HERE WE GO AGAIN BLAMING THE PERSON FOR THE LAPBANDS FAILURES,....WOW YOU ARE AT AN NEW LOW NANA!!! I DIDNT IGNORE THE RISKS THEY WERE JUST NEVER PRESENTED TO ME AND TO SUGGEST THAT IT IS MY FAULT FOR HAVING AN AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE WHICH WAS CAUSED BY MY LAPBAND WOW JUST WOW.

I guess you blocked me because you feel ashamed and rightfully so you should be.

I was banded on 11/25/09, in those 3 years I've gone from 297.5 lbs(what I weighed right before they knocked me out and rolled me into the OR), and I am currently around 187 lbs, that's 110 lbs in 3 years. My BMI has gone from 46.5 to 29.4 that's 17.1 point loss, my BMI was definitely Obese before and now I'm just Overweight, I'm 4.4 BMI points(=28 lbs) away from being "healthy/average" according to the BMI calculator. I would say I've been quite successful. 

But I should mention my mom's lap band journey though. She was banded in 2006, she was around 260-270 and lose about 60 lbs, but then she learned that b/c of her band she'd become severely anemic, and her options were either keep the liquid in her band and likely need a blood transfusion, or take all her fill out and gain some weight. So she took her fill out, once she got that decently under control she started getting fills again, but not through a surgeon, but through a nurse at the university she works for. She lost some weight at first but then she began gaining, but throwing up often, finally she went to a surgeon and discovered her band had slipped, she decided she had had enough w/ trying the band and had a revision to gastic bypass, but now she's stuck again at like 185-190 she does have some self defeating behaviors/eating habits, but she's working on them. So keep in mind "failure"(I don't think she failed though) does happen, but so does success. So you have to weigh your options and decide if the risk is worth it. 

I was 23 years old and had developed frequent heart palpitations, I could literally feel my heart deteriorating every single day. I knew I was going to die very very soon. I took the risk and had lap band and it's paid off.