You are so right about the mental health counselling. People do need to be aware of how WLS affects your life and reltionships you have with others. Thankfully, most WLS programs and insurance companies actually REQUIRE classes and counseling. Being prepared for WLS is much more than learning about the post op diet. Thank you for sharing your stories! Bonnie

Hi all i ran across this forum looking to find others who had surgery similar to mine one of the grandfathers of this the Intestinal bypass in 1974. and have been unable to locate anything, i suppose i may take it upon myself to develop one at some point as i make websites part time for a living. Anyway i had the bypass in 1974 and at the time was only 17 yrs old, and weighed 460 pounds, however they told me i most likely weighed more but the hospital laundry scales they weighed me on would only go to 460 pounds. I had mine done at Stalkers Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, by Dr.Green and Dr.Weiland now both deceased. Needless to say the surgery was a success and my world changed in a huge way, and most of it to my regret now. Being a fat child and teen, i of course had very little interest from girls, after the surgery when i reached my lowest weight of 194 pounds, ( i was almost Anorexic as i have a very large frame i was skin and bones at this weight) None the less the girl thing changed in a huge way and this is something any young person or person considering weight loss sugery be it male or female need to be aware of , all of a sudden out of the blue your getting a lot of attention from the opposite sex, this alone can cause a lot of problems and you may not realize it, but it does in all essence i became to put it bluntly a ***** and had a lot of one night stands i suppose to make up for what i felt like i had missed out on prior to the surgery. I also kind of just went crazy and as a result ended up doing some time in prison for theft related charges to support my growing habit of being Mr.Party, (which in time resulted in me being where i am today) all these problems continued on for quite some time i went from losing the being overweight problems to i suppose the best way to put it is some forum of mental problems related to becoming what in my mind at the time i conceived as normal. If your considering any weight loss surgery you need to have intense mental health counseling in order to deal with all the issues your going to face and trust me you will face issues. In 1992 i met a woman who became my wife, i had at that time grown tired at age 33 of the lifestyle i was living, she had two beautiful daughters who i later came to love as my own and who have produced for me and my wife 3 of the most beautiful grandchildren God could have given anyone. The amazing thing is when we met after a period of time i we came to a point to be upfront with each other early in the beginnings of the relationship and come to find out she too had had weight loss surgery, her surgery being the stomach stabling and my the intestinal bypass, she had been divorced and led a wild lifestyle after the weight loss, she was getting attention she had never received before like myself and it went to her head as it had to mine. We had so mu*****ommon it was amazing and could understand one another, in so many ways from my extreme frequent bowel movement odors to the fact she had lost her belly button, due to having problems after her initial surgery. Then all in all there are the post operative medical problems, hair loss etc.. you need to consider everything, before you make a decision on having surgery and if your a teen or parent of one i would really look at all the factors before moving ahead with it. now that being said i myself would have it done today knowing what i do now, however for one reason and one alone if i had not i would not be writing this now, i would have surely died from being so big and the doctor said i wouldn't live to be 30. All in all be careful and think about what your doing before moving ahead things will change oh yes in deed they surely will change perhaps more then you will ever know. I had my surgery on July 7, 1974 so its been 31 years of living with all the problems and the positives of weight loss surgery if you have any questions you might want to ask me or my wife feel free to drop us a email at [email protected] and well try to answer them best we can. Good luck in your new adventure if you decide to move on as it will be a new and life changing adventure to be sure. Claude and Denise Its very common for divorces to happen your changed and as a result he has to change

I fought for 9 months through 3 appeals to get the band and was denied. Three bariatric specialist on an external review board for the state of New York reviewed my case and the final decision was not to approve it because I had over 180 lbs to loose and statistically you only lose 50% (according to them) of your excess weight. If I lost 90 lbs I'd still be morbidly obese.....as well - the lap band is a reversible operation and if I thought I could do this on my own and keep it off....I wouldn't be having surgery in the first place. My surgeon (who also does lap) told me that RNY is the gold standard and the most proven of all weight loss surgeries bar none and has over 40 years of history. I'm very at peace with my RNY on 12/13. What type of surgery to have is such a personal choice and coming here and reading everything you can is so helpful. I wish everyone the best with their surgeries and support their personal choices.

A stricture is when the opening (stoma) from your new pouch to your intestines partially or fully closes. It happens in about 1 in 10 cases. We were talking about it at our support group meeting one nite and there were about 20 people who had surgery and sure enough 2 people had strictures. When you get a stricture, they have to go down with an endoscope and they use a balloon to open the stoma back open. I guess it's usually not a really big deal to perform, probably uncomfortable. How people know if they have a stricture is if they can't keep any food down and if it's fully closed, they can't even keep water down. It all comes back up. Usually, in most cases but not all, they generally happen within the first 6-8 months. Some have had them further out. You never know if you are going to be the one until it happens. I'm almost 7 months out and crossing my fingers!

That's why it's important to listen to that inner voice. I could tell you stories of the times I've had "warnings" and ignored it only to suffer because of it. But you know what? I've always gotten through my difficulties. Even when I had a bad feeling and ignored the feeling. Things will get better. You'll learn from this (hopefully you'll remember to listen to that little voice!), you'll gain strength and empathy. You'll be a better person for it and, remember, this too shall pass! Lynda D.