Yep if it weren't for doctors appointments I'd have no social life at all!! Doctors make lousy friends!! Hope your apptmnts aren't too awful. Hugs friend!!!

I hear you Nic I wish these people could understand what it is like to live in daily pain and not just ouch that hurt but oh my god I can't move pain. I know that pain where you just double up and pray maybe you'll die today! The pain that is there when you go to sleep and is there to greet you every morning just in case you forgot about it when you dozed off for a few minutes. The pain that keeps you awake most nights and ruins every second of every day. Enjoy life??? Hell no I pray I don't live a long life, why would I want to stay here and suffer any longer than I have to? I won't take my life but I don't want my life either, there is little to enjoy in it.

I already have to wear a fentanyl patch and take oxycodone 4 times a day for my arthritis and yet I can still feel the horrid pain caused from the damage my lap band did thru the pain meds I am already on. I just want to warn people that not everyone turns out having a good outcome from the band in fact over half don't have good outcomes, yet we are the meanies!!! Yeah live our lives for a few weeks and then come tell me how great this life is!! They just don't even have the tiniest clue!!

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE FOR TODAY.......“There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.” ~George Shinn

Going on 6 1/2 years and nearly 200lbs lost and maintained.  And never a complication.  I consider myself doing well and lucky.

Saying that I would never say an unkind word to those that have less than favorable experiences or out right horror stories because those are the very people I would turn to and lean on if god forbid my fairy tale ends.  I am not arrogant enough to think that I am infallible.  I was also taught that what people need when they are sick or not doing well is compassion. 

You might hear a broken record but what I hear is people just trying to tell their story.  Just like I do when people ask about the band.  Only my story is a good one.    

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE FOR TODAY......When you get to a plateau, think of it as a landing on the stairway to your goal. And maintenance is a lifelong plateau, so a bit of "rehearsal" for maintenance isn't the worst thing in the world.