Help Freaking Out

Ok freaking out I am three weeks away from my surgery. I went and saw the surgeon to day and I don’t know put every time I come out of his office I feel like I’m having a panic attack I don’t know why he does that to me. He wants to do the realize band but he has only done 25 of them since May 2008.He has done over a hundred of the lap bands. He said one had to completely taking out of a patient cause her body refused it. One patient had a leek and her stomach acids leek in her and she had to have hers remove along with part of her stomach and part of her liver and now she sueing him and after that statement I didn’t even hear what he said about patient the 3 patient. I don't no why he tells me this stuff.So now I’m really freaking out and am second-guessing my self if I should even have the surgery. I am really superstitious about things and in the last 3 month I haven’t heard any positive things about having this surgery. I have two small kids and I don’t what to do anything that’s going to upset there lives or disrupted there lives cause I didn’t have the will power on my own to loss weight. Am I crazy to be thinking this way. What do I do.

Hey Moon,

Never underestimate your feelings, if you arent comfortable with you surgeon let him know.  The worst thing that could happen is you will need to change surgeons.  That might delay things, but that is better in the long run. 

I had the Realize Band surgery on 8/26, I was at the hospital at 7am and was being prepped by about 730 or so (this was in the middle of thunderstorms and tornado warnings!) so naturally I was a bit anxious.  However, according to my research and some others I have talked to about it, the Realize surgery is a bit 'less intensive' than some of the other surgeries and I can tell you from personal experience its real forgiving as far as the diet.  I had my surgery on Tuesday and my daughters birthday was on Thursday, nothing would make her happy until I had a piece of her birthday cake.  I fully expected to have all those horror stories visited upon me, but instead I got a very uncomfortable feeling and went and disposed of it, without the 7 Demons of Dumping Hell.  The post op diet was not a lot of fun, mainly because its pretty boring, clear liquids for a couple of days then regular liquids for 4 or 5 days.

The main thing is be comfortable with your surgeon, talk to them, let them know how you feel.  See if they have some former patients that you can talk to.

If you are not comortable with the surgeon, find a new one.  There are plenty of them out there.

It is also possible that the situation your described was a freak accident.  There are risks with any medical procedure.

I agree.

Often - you should listen to your intuition.

Postpone you surgery if you continue your doubts and do more research.
There are several Internet sites where you can see feedback about doctors.
Each doctor has a rating based on patient submissions.

Here's one of many.

www.healthgrades.com/consumer/index.cfm

This obesityhelp.com site has reviews and patient feedback also.
If you haven't checked this out yet -
www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/professionals/find-profess ional.php