Hi Connie, Yes, all of those thoughts plagued me.  I went with Dr. Graham and about 20 months ago I had an RNY.  Unfortunately, I've found myself eating some of those foods you are bemoaning right now.  It is not a good thing.  I was careful who I told about th surgery beforehand, mainly for the reason you've experienced.  It is important to surround yourself with people who support you and understand your frustrating dieting yo-yo.   It is not the end of your food life - but hopefully, it will teach you the right way to eat.  I've lost about 160+ pounds; but more importantly, I've gained insight into myself and my eating habits.  Although I've slipped a bit, I am able to get back on track - and keep myself there.   This journey is well worth all of what you may be going through.  Good luck, I'm praying for you.  My thoughts will be with you on the 12th.   Cyndi

Well thank you so much for keeping me posted!!! So thoughtful! How exciting to hear that good news, I hope he does do Laparscopic then I wouldn't need to travel like 6-7hrs away from home and then have the surgery and travel back. I was on the BCBS website and they had done a statistics thing of how more complications arise from having open gastric bypass and that insurances are beginning to do thier own research and are beginning to approve laparscopic gastric bypass.... so who knows. I'm kind of in a dilemma because I'm under my parent's insurance because i'm in college right now and so I called the BCBS insurance provider we have and well the good news for some is that BCBS is approving laparscopic in some areas but not all. The lady told me thier are over 14,000 different Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plans available and the bad or unfortunate news for me is that my fathers insurance is more like a self pay where the company holds out so much per hour and BCBS more or less just handles thier paper work for them because the insurance plan my parents have is for the Montana Miners Insurance.... So kinda crazy, well it is crazy so I mean I have thought about just waiting til i'm done with school, I graduate in may 08, as a health unit coordinator so i thought maybe just wait and see what insurance i have then and so who knows.. sorry about my speel.. just felt comfortable chatting lol.... Again, thanks for everything! Its greatly appreciated!!! Megan

Dr. Graham is in the same office with Dr Glatt and he will be operating on me March 6th.  He also uses laproscopic if at all possible. The number there is 328-3840. Sheryl is Dr. Graham's nurse and she has been a wealth of information before I made a final decision and since. Good Luck!

I have also met Dr Sufficool and he really is a very caring and knowledgeable surgeon.  If you still are looking for someone to do laproscopic, you might check in Sioux Falls.  That is where some of us from western SD have gone.  I for one went to the Surgical Associates at Sioux Valley Hospital (Sanford now).  Dr Glatt did my surgery and I would highly recommend him.  As far as self pay, I'm not sure how they do that there, you would have to contact them to find that out. Good luck on your journey and we hope to hear from you again. Maryann

Hi, I am very new to this site... still learning how to manuever around here.. but I have made an appt. with Dr. Peter Obrien on March 12th for a consultation.  I pretty much made up my mind Lap Band surgery is for me... but I have to ask... Did any of you have this enormous fear of what you possibly "wouldn't" be able to eat???  I know that sound incredibly stupid but it does scare me!!   I've tried absolutely every other diet plan out there I think and I just DONT want to fail again esp. since my insurance will not cover any of this.. I also wondered if any of you came up against people who were very discouraging of you actually having surgery and how did you handle those people??   Thank you in advance... Connie