MY FIRST TIME POSTING/ LAP BAND IS A SUCCESS

Hey everyone my name is kari and i am a LAP BAND success i went into surgery on november 16th of 2004 weighing 265 lbs at 5'6" size 22 if i squeezed into my jeans and now i am still 5'6" and 180 lbs for a weight loss of 85 lbs so far and still loosing little by little everyday wearing a comfortable size 13 i feel great!!! My friend angie reffered me to this web site as she uses it as her bible to having her gastric bypass surgery done (hopefully soon, im still praying for you girl!) I will be posting up pictures later on so that you all can see me before and after. Everyone says i look like a completly different person. It is a awesome feeling when people that i knew in Highschool which mind you i graduated in 2003 (im 21) dont even recognise me. It has been a long rocky journey , I was approved for surgery right away but my original surgery date was 8/4/04 and didnt have surgery 11/16/04 because of all the time that it took to process my paperwork and all of the evaluations that you have to go through. Once i finally got to go in for surgery i freaked out... i was so nurvous and honestly all i remember from the day of surgery is laying down on the table and looking at the white celing and hoping that everything would go as planned. Once i was released to go home the next day I was so bloated and swollen that i couldnt even get into my pajama bottoms, the swelling took about 2 weeks to go down and then everything went down hill from there... i plateaued out a few times because the LAP BAND is completly different from the GASTRIC BYPASS i have had 4 fills now and think that i might be due for another only time will tell .... I am happy with my results so far and hope that everything will continue as i still have a long journey ahead I will keep posting

Kari, Nice to hear from you. Glad you are doing so well. I to have the lap band. I had my surgery last March. Unlike you my surgery and recovery was a breeze. I don't recall any swelling at all. Other then a little discomfort at my port site I didn't have much pain. So far I have only needed one fill. I have good restriction but don't always follow the band rules so that is why my loss is not as good as I would like it to be. (56 lbs). I'm trying really hard to stay on track with my eating and exercise. My one-year anniversary is coming up and I would like my total loss to be about 65 lbs. Who did your surgery? I had mine done at Henry Ford Detroit. They have a great facility and the Doctors are great. Unfortunately their after care and support is geared more toward the RNY patient. Not that the Henry Ford's RNY's aren't great cause they are but we don't always understand each other's issues. Do you belong to a lap band support group? It was nice hearing from you. I wish you continued success on your weight loss journey. Mary

HEY THERE MARY, It is awesome to hear that someone has the same issues as i had.. you just need another fill not that 56 lbs isnt great because it truely is pick up a 50 lb bag of dog food and carry it around with you everywhere you go you arent going to be very comfortable now are you? I am actually through Port Huron Hospital and they do not do the RNY there they only do the Band there so you get the best service there and the nurses are always so nice i would recommend them but i dont know if they would take on a patient that wasnt originally theirs? something to look into i suppose. I think that i want/need another fill because i am totally restricted as is but i think that one more would do the trick to put me back where i want to be... so do you feel sick at all when you eat or do you get sick... sometimes when i go back to old eating habbits and i eat fast or the food just wasnt chewed enough i get sick... i hate doing it but it is a part of the dumping syndrome that people get with the RNY just from a different surgery and i feel that it is normal and my doctor doesnt like that i do it but like i said it is only because i go back to old habbits even though it was like a year ago. ooo are you starting to get loose skin because i am and no matter how much i seem to be working out it just isnt going away lol... hope to hear back from you or even email me at [email protected] kari

Kari, My best friend whats up girl !!! I am so glad you checked this web site out it is so wonderful and the people are sent from god. I have learned so much from this web site the people on here can usually answer any questions under the sun and moon! I am so happy you are doing so well with your weight loss! And I cant wait til after my surgery and we can go shopping for my skinny clothes for my new life!!!! I am so glad I switched to Liv Lite the support group was great and the speaker Big Will was such a wonderful human being he made tears come to my eyes. He is such a sucsessful man he lost 333 lbs with Liv Lite and a determined life style changes. I am so excited to have surgery with them and hopefully Dr. Pesta. I love ya Kari you are my bestest friend and thank you for helping me to get the drive to fight for the surgery again after all the denials. I hope you can help me get my pics on here too I have tried with no success and even emailed oh .com and still no pics on profile. You rock and I am so proud of you. Lets loose weight together and go to vegas and wear hot bikinis or hawii lol love ya thanks for being such a good friend!!!!!! Angie Party on when we going to tonic again lol Again congrats on the weight loss and hard work

Kari Thanks but there's no way I would switch Dr's - I love Dr. Genaw and the team at Henry Ford -just wish there was a formal support group for banders. No I definitely don't need another fill. I'm as restricted as I need to be and at certain times of the month maybe too much so. What I need to do is be more consistent about following the band rules. Stop eating high calorie and high fat foods and increase my exercise. When you get too tight that is when complications begin to develop. The getting sick you are referring to is called PBing. Productive Burp or more like Projectile Burp at times. It happens when you eat to fast, too much or don't chew enough. Yes I have experienced it. Be careful with this because it can lead to band slippage or other complications. There is a message board on here for Lab Banders. http://obesityhelp.com/forums/LapBand/posts.html I learned a lot there. You may find it helpful too. Mary C