six years today (reporting my experience - your mileage may vary)

I haven't posted here in quite a while...I guess once surgery does it's magic, it's time to get on with life.  

I received a congrats from the administrators and a note asking me to consider posting and giving my spin on how it's been for me.  So here it is:

I'm happy to say I'm good.  I've reached an plateau I can live with although I'm presently trying to whittle away at my weight again.  I'm where I was: down 100 lbs (to 230), still could lose another 50 or 60 lbs, although I'd be happy with another 40.  My prime weightloss was the first year before and after surgery.  That's exactly what my surgeon said and he was correct about that.  Dr. Aranow is the best!

I knew this before I went into it but I was desperate.  I was nearly 60 and unless I opted for gastric bypass surgery, I knew weightloss was going to be far more moderate but I thought I could do it anyway. And I've done it and I'm still doing it.    

Now I'm 65 and losing weight is more of a challenge every day, nomatter what I do or don't do.  My metabolism is so slow, I have to take modafinil for the energy to move around.  Thank goodness for science! 

My exercise regimen is good, I walk my treadmill every day on a heartrate program that is killer (UGH), I do an elliptical,  daily situps and other stretch and core exercises because I believe in keeping my core solid and my back and joints fluid.  I ride horses, I do what I do which is live, shop, work around the house, garden, etc.

My size is a healthy 1X.  From 4X/5X, I feel like a princess.  :)

How do I eat?  Breakfast, nothing.  I can't eat in the morning, so I don't argue with my pouch.  I always lose that one.  I have to take a lot of pills (thyroid + meds + aspirins + a gazillion vitamins) so that along wiith my coffee suffices until around 1 or 2pm when I have my shake.

I must have a shake.  I went through a period at about 2 - 3 years post op when I gradually stopped making shakes.  Then one winter, I became ill, arthritis flared up, I had my first experience with vertigo, and then a couple of bouts of mild pneumonia.  During a particularly sedentary period I gained about five or ten pounds.  So I thought I should schedule a fill but had to have the routine massive bloodwork done first.   The bloodwork showed my thyroid meds needed to be increased, my protein levels were so low I was like a chemo patient, my Vit D was nonexistant and my iron was low as well. 

My GP fixed my thyroid meds, put me on Vit D supplements, told me to get back to protein shakes, add an egg yolk to them, take some soluable iron and most importantly: to get back to being conscious about nutrition.  So I have.  I lost the weight I gained, and I'm working on losing more by increasing my exercise and reducing bad foods like cookies/chips, which are my nemesis.   I never got that fill.  Don't really need it.  I needed to get my head back on straight.  That's one of the struggles: the head and keeping it focused for the long haul. 

My old habits have been modified, but I'm not another person.  Sadly, there are many healthy foods I cannot eat because of the band, which drives me a little nuts, but it's a tradeoff and that's the deal I made with the devil.

I cannot eat brocolli and other vegetables easily anymore.  Once in a whle they will go down but mostly not.  I can eat salad half the time and half the time, I slime or out and out puke.    I have to be VERY careful with the very foods that mean the most to weightloss and health like proteins and veggies.  What's so frustrating is I LOVE them.  And also that the EASIEST foods for me are the worst, the easy carbs like cookies or chips.    I NEVER ate a chip in my life for snack before the band (my downfall was volume and baked goods) but now salty crispy chips can be lifesavers for me when I can't keep anything down.  And there are days like that.  The band is the band is the band.  It's a lifesaver.  It's a PITA.  

I had dreamed I would get to weight easily and have the band removed.  Now I see it's benefits and it's limitations.  It's a tool I can't throw away because it lmits my intake and intake was my downfall.   As it is now, my "pouch" is more flexible and more variable than I ever could have imagined.  You want to believe you're getting this miraculous little pocket tha'ts going to consistently make you thinner, but it's a living portion of stomach that stretches and contracts for no reason whatsover.  So some days I am amazed at how much food I can injest, no problem and some days, not much will get in or stay in.  

I didn't have plastic surgery.  It would be lovely but nope.  Not happening. The flesh stayed okay until the last couple of years: aging combined with weightloss for me meant slack skin.  I can live with it unless it becomes a problem.  Then I'll deal with it if I must, but I'm wary of more surgeries.  I'm not old old, but I'm not young and I don't want to be in a hospital unless I have to be in one.  

In summary: my health and my life are infinity better thanks to the band.  There have been no complications other than nutrition related..  My weight isn't perfect, but life isn't perfect.  I look good.   If I HAD to, I could lose more because there is a certain control that comes with the lapband.  You really do not need much food to get by.  You learn that.  The trick is to not let yourself get bored and to use the limitation and work in more exercise.    I know if I had to lose more weight very quickly, I could go Rogue Band Woman and do two shakes a day and a salad and step up the exercise.  THAT"S the benefit of the band - that tiny portions will suffice if you want them to suffice.  At my age, that kind of possibility is a miracle.  

So if you're still with me, thank you for reading this far.  And if you're just going on to this, good luck.  it's actually a fun journey and it will change your life.  But if I could do it again, I think knowing what I know that I'd opt for the duodinal surgery and elminate hunger all together.  But I suspect that's a fantasy too.  :)

 An EXCELLENT story that needs to be reposted frequently. 

Awesome post.......thanks for coming back, doing that and most of all congratulations on your success!!!!!

Michele

Thank you both. Its good to come back and offer my perspective. I had such notions about what the band could do and what it was going to do, vs the day to day reality of my living with this little bump on my belly that offers a very specific tool I can use or not - my call. It doesn't do it for me but it helped me to save my life. It needs to be said that without a doubt it's also a BIG challenge to live with.

And what's interesting is while I "accept" that when I get excited lets say, attending a family dinner, and when I do I'm likely to have a bout of going to the ladie's room to slime and/or worse, my family is somewhat alarmed that it's "still" happening.

But I know what's "still" happening is my life is "still" being saved from a voracious bottomless pit of an appetite I once had.   Don't know if I still have it and don't want to know, either.

With me and the lapband, it's a love hate relationship that will probably be ongoing for the rest of my life.   And I'll be the first to tell you, I'm grateful as all getout for it.  

Thank you, thank you for sharing your story. Please stop by and share it periodically, we all need it and newbies will get a good feel for what it is like to live with the band long term. Many hope they will have wls (of any type) and live happily ever after. It takes hard work to do what you have. I love your statement about making a deal with the devil because that is exactly what it feels like sometimes.

Congrats on your success and hope for the best in the future. You have done a great job and yes, you are out there living life.

Sue

 Sue thanks.  We're all doing our best...some of us are lucky enough to be able to follow this through.  I feel for anyone who goes through the surgery but for their own reasons cannot follow through themselves.  It's a struggle, weight.  It's definitely no different than contracting a disease you have to live with for the rest of your life.  You are always dealing with it, accommodating it, finessing it and trying always, still, to have some fun.  Life is too short NOT to have fun..  But for many people food is the only fun they have.  it's a sad thing.  

Thank you for your good wishes.  It's not that I don't want to post here, but there are only so many hours in the day.....but I'll try harder.  :D

I'm very happy for you that you're happy. I wish you continued success.

Not being able to eat vegetables and not knowing when I was going to spew across the table at my dinner companions sounds a lot like my version of hell, however.  

I agree with you about opting for the Duodenal Switch from the get-go. If I could do it over, I'd have chosen the VSG or DS and not even given the band a moment's consideration. My experience wasn't fun in any way, shape, or form. I'm not sure, however, that the Duodenal Switch eliminates hunger altogether. It just allows you to eat full fat foods and still lose weight.

I can eat vegetables, but only very very very carefully and always chew and chew and chew and chew, until the tiny bit I allow myself are total mush but most of the time the fiber in them is simply more than my pouch can handle.   I can eat salad half the time, no problem, but veggies not so much.  Rice never. Baked potato once in a while and then half the time I can't keep it down. Pasta is okay half the time, bread crust only. 

laughing here....OTOH, I hope you don't think I'm spewing across the table...oh goodness no.  But I get that look...the sudden gulping and swallowing and nose breathing and having to stop and concentrate on digesting, instead of talking and nibbling like everyone else.  And if the food doesn't pass, then I'm up and quickly into the nearest ladies room to "let it go" as I call it.  And they all know of course, having watched me nose breathe for a while.  :)

It's my understanding that one of the mysterious side benefits of VSG/DS is that in the course of the surgery, the part of the stomach that produces the hunger hormone (if I'm not mistaken) is eliminated.  This wasn't the intent of the surgery, but for some patients, it is an issue...which isn't necessarily a good thing...having to force one's self to eat when not hungry.  I suppose I COULD get used to it (laughing here), but again...these surgeries have all their own issues and unique problems, so I'm sure there's a lot to be said about the problems.

*I* spewed across the table when I had the band!   I mean, seriously, horribly. It was awful. I could never eat solid foods at all, under any cir****tances. I was on an all liquid diet. And even that sometimes came flying out of my nose. (My time banded was not pretty!) 

The DS and VSG do reduce Ghrelin production, for sure, but I think it's kind of temporary and hit or miss. I wish Science would help us out here and come up with something that is more absolute. Is that too much to ask?    I was saying the other day that if there was some "magic pill" that would cause me to lose weight, but I'd also go cross-eyed every time I spoke and burp the alphabet every 10 minutes, I might give it a shot... because I kinda do those things already.

 OMG!!  I've had that ALMOST happen, and there were times before I had my doctor remove some of the fill, that I had to have my husband stop the car and I'd be out before the car came to a full stop, on the side of the road with my hand down my throat forcing whatever was in there out immediately because it was KILLING ME.  That pain can be outrageous. That is rarely discussed...the pain of pressure, the awful slime building.  The feeling of helplessness until you learn how to deal with it, how to eat, how to make sure you're ready to go out.  

And yes, belching and burping are regulation around here.  It's embarassing.  But it's my life.  Thank heaven my husband is understanding.  I think.   (laughing)