Can't decide how I feel!

In terms of numbers of bands inserted we are way behind the US, although, unlike what I am told by people on this board is happening in America,  the number of band ops is increasing. 

But so many people are getting it for so little weight! People who only want/need to lose about 45lbs. And I am not talking about people with co-morbidities or people who have struggled for 30 years.  This is people in their 20s. Some justify it by saying that they are being pre-emptive. If they are overweight now, they want to stop it before it becomes worse. Some just say they have tried for years (not many if they are in their 20s now). I just saw a post on a UK board from a 24 year old who is 5' 4", weighed 170lbs when she decided to be banded.

It's not my business! It's their body, their choice. But I feel uncomfortable. To me, wls is a last resort.  Is it just me? Maybe they are the sensible ones, why let themselves get to 200lbs, 300lbs in their 40s when they can do something about a lesser gain now?

Kate

Interesting topic. I did the band as a last resort. In fact, when a doctor suggested it to me in a social conversation, I was personally humiliated. At 270, I was exhausted, had constant heartburn, frequent backaches, and felt 100. Yet I didn't get my life could be different. I think some people get it sooner. If I had this surgery 10 years earlier, which of course is impossible, my life would have been better. 

Hi Kate!

I've ALWAYS had weight/body/food issues.  When I was little I didn't eat enough to be chubby but I was.  I NEVER felt comfortable in my skin and dieted on my own as soon as I could.

In my OA days I couldn't relate to anyone having excess pounds unless it was severe.  I love the meetings titled "100lb winners".  Only they could understand me because they experienced my pain.  When my sis lost 50lbs on WW I thought those star stickers and trinket rewards so "dumb" these after all were people who lost their baby weight or 15 or 25lbs, they did not understand me, my struggle was severe.

Now I get it, I get how the world treats you differently, I get how people carry weight differently and how at 5'4 and 170lbs one person can look super sexy and another can look like Sponge Bob.  I get how people can burn out at different times and how when one has a true saitey disorder it is difficult to not act on the compulsion to eat.  Dimming my hunger with the Band when I had restriction felt like magic (I felt free).  I was truly hungry and not eating was a battle from hell.  If something can help with that after you've tried everything, I say why suffer.

In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that everything in my life is how it should be besides, I have power to change my comfort levels, my successes etc.  I think though if I were not obese especially as an actor/singer different doors would have opened as I would have felt different about myself and people certainly would have had a different view and perception of me. In my 20's I would be cast as a "mother" sometimes to an adult and I didn't even know what it felt like to have a partner, to be sexual, to have a baby, to be a mother.  Externally I was soft, round, motherly but I was "child like" in development in that aspect.

So, I can't know what someone else's feelings feel like.  And there are always going to be the people who are shallow and jump on the wagon just because they can.  It is the way of the world dear Kate.  Have you ever seen "Plastic Wives"?  Dear God, it truly is a different world.  I am so glad that I've been given the chance twice to have WLS - it has been such a blessing even with the bumps.  I wouldn't trade it for a damned thing because I tried everything over, and over, and over again. 

All Best,

Layla

Yes, i agree. What is psychologically traumatic to one person is insignificant to another. You are right, Layla. We can't judge how something actually feels to another. 

I do feel very strongly that a person whether they need to lose 30 or 300lbs needs to be very well educated about their WLS and the lifetime commitment they will need to make to healthy living.  We should all have to take an extensive course and pass an extensive written and oral exam in order to qualify for WLS.  Well meaning people do this on their own.  I sucked up every single thing I could read or hear on the DS & Band pre-op.  I special ordered Jessie Ahroni's book at Barnes & Nobles.  I knew about nutrition.  This is serious business!

I love how Kaye Bailey (5 Day Pouch Test) phrases this "without exception we share the fundamental desire to use bariatric surgery for weight management and we want to feel normal and stay sane in this crazy world where it is much easier to be fat" this is how all people should feel - we will have to work, we will just have an awesome tool.  We will always find people to misuse every single thing in this world.  Wouldn't it be nice to regulate who could be a mother .

It is so complicated.  I do feel that some people even just 30lbs overweight deserve this opportunity to be healthy.  For some people 30lbs  can put their diabetes, Hypertension etc. in remission.  Most people can lose the weight but unfortunately it is almost a given that they will gain it back for a special bunch, they can "use bariatric surgery for weight management".

In the end, people will fail their WLS procedure in some way if they are just doing it because they can.  You have to want to learn lessons.  I see sleevers coming around saying "I've gained, can I resleeve"?  Umm, how about regulating your diet - umm you can't eat what you want when you want it and revising is serious business No thing even a tiny stomach can't stop a person from eating sleeves of Ritz & Oreos.  Some people learn that the hard way.

Sorry I go on and on. We can only take care of ourselves as best we can.  Just thinking my friend told me her co-worker has a band and she is so miserable because she pukes up every meal.  Horrified I say, that is not how the band is supposed to work she needs to get to her doc.  My friend says she does go to her doc.  This conversation goes on and on.  Bottom line, some people are stupid.  You and me would have demanded something be done immediately - right.  Ugh!!!

 So true! Everything you say. What actually sparked my thread was a post on a UK board. Wls over here has until recently been a really, really big deal. To get it done by the NHS, you had to have a BMI in the high 40s plus very serious co-morbidities. Some people have private health insurance but it is just to queue jump and get smarter facilities and would never cover wls. So you are either life-threateningly obese (actually as opposed to potentially) or you pay yourself. So very few people got it and it really was the very last resort.

But it is becoming more common and for some it is getting closer to cosmetic surgery.

The post I saw was from a girl in her early 20s who was about 45lbs over her preferred weight. NOT over a normal BMI but over a fashionably slim figure. From first hearing about the band, through her first consultation to the operation took three weeks! 

Now I am not against cosmetic surgery! But the thing is, you get your boobs enhanced and that is it, done! You get wls and you have to change your life. They do NOT equate!

Under-researched, ill-informed,  unprepared people are going to have one hell of a shock!

And I'm the opposite of Leyla (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, sorry) I've skinny and fat but either way I always had uber self confidence maybe because I come from a big family so it was normal for me. I mostly lost weight when younger because others wanted me to or bribed me to! I stayed pretty much that way till I had a child, gained and then lost again and maintained until I developed a lung disease. Now without being able to exercise I just maintain but not lose, but I still thik I'm all that and a bag of chips! I'm just the family size bag! I still do what I want, the lungs hold me back more than the weight.

Back to Kate's original post I think it's OK to get WLS at say 50 lbs overweight IF they have tried medically supervised diet and exercise. If they just say I've tried everything, well it may not have been the proper way to try. I'm constantly amazed at how nutritionally ignorant many people are. Of course I would never advise the band but that's my personal opinion. I think the sooner one an stop the gain the better chance of staying that way long term.

I think losing 50 pounds is not so much different than losing 150 pounds, at least psychologically.  I tried to lose those first fifty pounds over and over, but each loss lead to an even bigger gain.  If I could have stopped my weight gain when I was only 50 pounds overweight, even if I had never lost anything at all, just stopped it where it was, I would have had a much different life.  So I say go for it when its right for you, whatever the excess weight at the time.

Over the past 5 years and being in the Bariatric world, I have learned that many choose these procedures NOT because they have tried every diet and failed, but because they think it is the easy way out.  We who have had a procedure, know this is not the case.  We are forever altering our bodies - and for me that is serious business.  IF I were only 50lbs overweight, I would not have gotten the LapBand.  I know why I was Morbidly Obese.  I do not think a LapBand or a Sleeve or anything else would have stopped me - I was oblivious to my consumption and having my body altered wouldn't have made a difference.

I do feel unfortunately, too many have surgery, when they haven't exhausted all other options.  I know of several in my own life.  One has never been on a diet once.  She's living with the Band now and hates it.  She hates that she can't sit down and eat an entire burger and fries.  However, slowly she is working her way up to that!  She grazes all of the time and has found a way to cheat her Band.  Obviously, she was not ready.  Having never dieted, she had no idea what "eating right" meant.  She didn't know what a carb was - nor did she know what a protein was.  She just never cared.

I had my surgery at 18 and had been trying to get a band since 16. I weighed around 260lb and was morbidly obese with comorbidities. I've struggled with my weight my whole life and had tried for years to loose the weight, but it wasn't coming off. In hindsight I'm not sure I'd have still gotten the band as I haven't been successful with it, but I think it's a valid choice for young people IF they know how much time they have to put in to loose the weight. My dad also had the surgery and lost over 100lbs by diet change and working out. But the fact is, now that he doesn't have the time to work out for 4 hours a day, he's no longer loosing weight. I think a lot of young people don't know how much time they'd have to sacrifice from their schedule (ie- study time, socializing time) in order to be successful with the band and that's the main problem.