sticking my neck out - in praise of the band

Nancy,
Doing much better than I expected, not really sure what I expected , no complications ( so far) I have lost in 3 months about what I lost the first year with the band....but I still am loosing slow...it is all very weird. Surgery was a "breeze" my doc is taking out several bands a week so I am not alone , I was his 2ond smallest patient he has worked on and surgery was only 1-1/2 hours
I no longer have pain when I eat and that has made everyone in my family happy , not drinking , was planning on having a glass of wine over the 4th but nobody else wanted any , so why bother with opening a bottle , I miss it a little bit , especially when we are at the lake and socializing , but I just put a Fuse drink in my wine glass and that has been fine.
It is hard to believe it is almost 4 months since my surgery , time really flies I guess. I still have my doubts about this or any WLS working so I need to change my head , and need to eat more.
Vitamins have been a challenge for me but I HAVE to have them the rest of my life.
I will be having hip and double knee replacement sometime in the future , holding off as long as possible, mayyybeee won't need the knee replacement if my weight gets down further.
Hope YOU are doing well...miss you

Miss you too!!!! I wish we could have a weekend in Mexico again! Are you not drinking because of your surgery? My band doesn't do for me what it did in the beginning as far as controlling hunger, but it does restrict how much I can eat at one time, and it's not really bothering me...so I leave it alone. I did tweak it a little bit with a local band doctor that Kaiser pays for (yay!!!), over the last 6 or 8 months, had a fluoro and all is good. Any less and I"m too loose, any more and I'm too tight.

I went through that to loose , to tight, I think finally it was too tight but I just left it like that and gained about 40 and my esophagus burned all the time ( it was becoming part of my stomach ).
I am not drinking because I want to loose the weight and I am on pain killers for my knees and hip ...AND because I am a bit worried how it would affect me now that I have had bypass.
Fun times in MX with you and Deb , I don't see her at all now that I don't go down to Stanford, I can't tell you how happy I am to have a doc close to home and how much better I feel .
Hope you are well !!

 Thank you for this post. I am seriously considering the Band over Bypass. I never reached goal (RNY) and have gained 60 pounds. I do not want the DS. So your insight is great. Can you tell me are you LAP band or Realize Band?

Whit

 Hey Whit.  For my BOB, I had a LapBand not a realize band.  I got a large band (14cc) due to excess scar tissue. I currently have 9.7 cc in my band.  Dr. Kurian thinks the large band was needed due to the scar tissue and the amount of potential fils due to my RNY.

Heather, I don't mean to be intrusive but what is the cause of the scar tissue?

My concern is both for you personally and to understand how the BOB works with the situation.

No, I'm not a fan of BOB but, when I run across someone who is having such a terrific experience with it, I'd like to know more.  I clearly won't be having it but I want to be able to understand when it might be a viable alternative.

Lisa

The scar tissue is from the Open RNY which was done 10 years ago.  Plus a hernia repair.  Im not an MD so I trust my surgeon as I've known her for 10 yrs.  

I don't think I am an exception to the rule, everyone I've spoken to who has had the BOB seems happy with it.  

Why is it a viable alternative?  Bc we WERE successful RNy patients for 5+ yrs and we did what we were supposed to do and either our pouch stretched or the stoma enlarged and we know what it takes and we we don't want to fail twice.  We took the "easy" rn weight loss for granted, but, well, trust me, you DO NOTHING WITH THE RNY BUT BREATHE AND LOSE WEIGHT and now we are just grateful for restriction agaion and to NOT BE HUNGRY!  Im not hungry. I haven't been hungry since June 2011.  But, I was hungry from 2003-2011 even though I had my RNY in 2002.

Thank you for the explanation. 

I'm not sure why you aren't hungry, since neither the band nor RNY affects grehlin (spelling?), which is the root cause of hungry.  I wonder if it's related to the personal changes you made in life that might have brought more joy and peace.  But I have neither adequate knowledge or credentials to make that type of definitive call.

What I do know is that what you are doing seems to work for you.  You seem satisfied with your progress and you look beautiful.

 I am, and have always been, a volume eater.   I don't eat sweets nor do I graze. The band seems to be the perfect solution to my volume eating bc well, you cannot.  I have also embraced exercise, as I did after the RNY.  I walk home from Queens to Manhattan daily (5 miles) and I also walk my doggies a few miles a day. What I credit my success to is determination.  To be honest, anyone else in my situation, would have maybe failed. I lost my job RIGHT AFTER my BOB. I was laid off alomost a year and had SERIOUS depression. But, I chugged along, worked out, embraced the band and now I look DAMN GOOD!

Congratulations to you!  You kept hold of your life instead of letting it overwhelm you.  You are a determined lady, truly to be admired.