Anxiously Excited

I am meeting with a surgeon this week to discuss the LapBand surgery, as I want/need to drop 100 lbs.  I am reading everything I can find, and have two questions: I  wonder if anyone would share their experience with the change in diet. both pre- and post-op. Namely, the restriction of caffeine. I love coffee, and worry that the restriction may be too much.  Also, how many of you told family and friends you were having the procedure?  I have only discussed with my husband, as I don't want to deal with judgmental comments.  This is a personal decision, and a drastic one at that.  How did you all handle the questions/comments/etc.?  Thanks so much for your advice!

I actually had more than 150 pounds to lose when I got my lapband in 2011. I wasn't able to use that tool properly because I had to drink when I ate in order to relieve the uncomfortable pressure caused by the food getting stuck over the band (which is what it is supposed to do but I just couldn't tolerate that feeling). I recently had a gastric bypass and have lost more weight post-op than I did in total after my lapband. The lapband is a tool. The only way you are going to lose weight is if you diet and exercise. If you eat the wrong foods, even in small portions, you will not lose weight. I'm telling you because I wish someone would have explained it to me like this, then I would have opted for the gastric bypass initially instead of having to get a revision. So, just really think about your goal and what you expect from weight loss surgery so you will make the best choice that's right for you. As for handling questions and comments, I personally find it best when you tell only the people who absolutely have to know. I made the mistake of telling my co-workers when I had the lapband and it was as if I had been placed under a microscope. They were asking me all the time how much I had lost and when I stopped losing weight I felt as if everyone was judging me like I was a failure. I had even lied and told everyone I had the band removed due to malfunction, after I did that it was like a weight was lifted and noone cared about my weight or what I was or wasn't eating. I swore then that if I had another surgery, I would not tell the reason for my leave of absence. Frankly, it's no one else's business but yours. But again, this is a personal decision whether to tell or not. 

Please don't get lapband surgery.  Discuss other options with your surgeon.  I went for a lapband consultation and my surgeon told me to get gastric bypass instead.  I am so glad that I listened.

I really hope your surgeon will discuss ALL other options with you, personally.  I went to a conference about WLS and bipass, sleeve and lapband were discussed.  It was informative but because of my ignorance regarding the other options, I went in with a "I'M GETTING A LAPBAND!!!" mentality and my reasoning was I have IBS issues so I don't want my bowel messed with (no bipass) and LapBand isn't permenant (at the time I felt like that was so important!)  It will be 2 years this December when I went to get the LapBand....surgery was an EPIC FAIL!  I was supposed to wake up with my band in place about 70 minutes after I went under.  It was over 2 hours later when I came to and NO LAPBAND!  My liver was a mess, all soft and enlarged and fatty so he was unable to perform the surgery.  OH WELL! he says!  Did you CHEAT on your pre-op diet?  Uh...noooo.  I ask, did you take a biopsy of my liver?  Why was it so bad?  Do I need to see a liver specialist?  His answers were evasive and pretty much, no. I lost confidence in that surgeon.  

Ask yourself, are you ready to take on the fills including the copays?  Do you have the flexibility in your work schedule to make those fill appointments (because there are many to get it just right)?  Are you disciplined enought to stick to a very small portion, eat sloooooow and not drink with meals, before and after as well?  This is also what you will have to do with other WLS as well but it doesn't get rid of the gherlin hormone like the sleeve does.

Now, a year and a half later, I'm scheduled (July 24)  for the sleeve with another BariDoc and I have so much confidence in the whole practice.  Above all, hopefully you will feel confident in your surgeon and the support of the office professionals.

It would be interesting to know exactly how many revision surgeries people have had after having the (EPIC FAIL) LapBand.  In the end, you need to do what you think you can commit to and what you can handle at this point in your life.

BEST WISHES!! 

I'm so new at this process, sleeved July 8th, that I hesitated to post this. But I decided to anyways, for your benefit.....When I was in the pre op holding room, My mother asked my surgeon if the sleeve was better then the band and his response was. The sleeve is one surgery, the Band is three, one surgery to put in, one surgery to take out, and the third to sleeve, RNY or DS. Please research completely.