Made myself really worry

You need to go to all of the other forums and read about strictures, leaks,  vitamin deficiencies,  malabsorption, bathroom issues, major life threatening complications and very poor quality of life.  Also search out the memorials and OSSG GONE WRONG.  That's a real eye opener and it will bring you to tears.  Every surgery has its risks.  the lap band has the least and it is removable.  If you are real nervous and scared maybe you should postpone your surgery until you are 100% comfortable with your decision on which surgery best suits you.  Make sure you have a top surgeon.  After reading all of that you will feel real comfortable getting  the band.  You can research yourself out of any surgery.  Why are you doing this to yourself? Good luck.

I am comfortable with it. I had actually searched for presurgery diets, click on the link and came to that page instead of a presurgery diet. I do have a great doctor and it is a center of excellence. My MIL is a nurse and she helped me look into the doctors and the center. I think I just came across that site by accident and for a few minutes got really scared. I started to wonder if the risk was higher then I was lead to believe through my research. Thank you all for your advice. I am pretty healthy except for being so obese. I live an active life style and am always on the go. I know this is the right choice for me. I am sure over the next few months I will have moments of second thoughts.  I think that is normal. I am glad I found all of you to help me through those moments:)

 you have to research the surgeon and hospitals ....go with strong recommendations from other patients....there are risks and problems....but most of the time, the people I know are happy and healthy with their bands!

No surgery is without risk. However risk of death from banding is extremely low.

There was a center that was like a band mill, I dont remember the whole story but they had a few deaths. Lesson from that is RESEARCH your surgeon. Research their practice, stats, etc.

Good Luck.

I made sure I got a number of local references for the clinic I used, which was several hundred miles from my home.  Northwest Weightloss Surgery (NWWLS) has 3 surgeons who only do lapband, and between them they've done several thousand.  It was for those simple reasons that I felt I'd made the absolute best choice when it came to having my surgery.  I was self-pay and did not want some hack in Mexico doing a half-price surgery just to save money.  If you have a great surgeon & clinic, your chances of success are much better.  I have driven those several hundred miles to my clinic for each of the 4 fills I've received, and have never regretted the distance or time that that takes.  I am soooo worth it!

I belong to a WLS support group at our local hospital - about 25% are lapband, the rest are RNY.  I began going about a year before my own sugery.  At first I was considering RNY, but with very few exceptions the RNY patients always seemed to have more physical problems than the lap-banders.  Yes, most of the RNY-ers lost great amounts of weight more quickly, but they also had more hairloss and their skin always looked grey to me.  They also have to take supplements for the rest of their lives.  The lap-banders, however, always appeared healthier (and, oddly, happier) than the RNY-ers.  Now, this was just my personal observation and only within one group of approx. 50 people, but it was enough to make me begin to seriously investigate the lap-band as an alternative WLS.  Plus I was never keen on having half my stomach removed or insides re-routed.  It always seemed too drastic to me.

That all said, please know that you will have to make significant changes to your lifestyle  and maintain those changes FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE regardless of whatever WLS you choose.  I've often seen people writing that they got to goal and then regained, but it was admittedly because they went back to old habits.  While I have been successful thus far, I live every day knowing that should my old habits return, so would the 105 lbs that I've lost so far.  That in itself is now enough to keep me on track.  I do not eat sugar or any high-glycemic carbs, and never will again.  My taste for them has completely evaporated - don't know if it's mental or physiological (I suspect a bit of both), but I don't care - I'm just thankful I've reached this point.

My band works exactly the way I'd hoped it would - it prevents me from eating too much.  However, it's me and me alone who chooses WHAT I eat or don't eat, and it's me and me alone that walks 40km a week and drags my butt into the gym 3 days a week.  No weightloss tool will do that for you.

Yup, there are risks with any WLS, but the risks of staying morbidly obese are a heck of a lot scarier.