Introduction
Hello everyone, my name is Scott and I had my surgery on January 29, 2009. Being a new member here I thought I would go ahead and post my experience with the surgery. I'm sure my story is just like many others.
I have been overwieght for most of my life. I would gain weight in a big spurt and then stay at that weight for years, until another spurt occured. I smoked for over twenty years and was a heavy drinker mostly due to depression and loneliness. To top everything off I hated my job.
My eating habits were completely out of control. I would binge, eating massive amounts of food in a single sitting, often eating until I thought I would be sick. I lived at McDonalds and other restuarants. I almost never cooked or prepared a meal at home. I have been on many different diets and have tried Weigh****chers and Nurtisystem.
My sister had gastric bypass surgery and had incredible results with it. She lived in another state and I hadn't seen her for years. She came into town and when she arrived on my door step I didn't recognize her, she was so thin. This was several years ago. I was impressed but still didn't seriously consider having weight loss surgery. A little over two years ago I went to my first siminar about banding surgery. At the time I thought I really wanted to have the surgery but my insurance wouldn't cover it. I used that as an excuse not to have the surgery. Looking back on it I now relaize that the real reason I didn't have the surgey is I simply wasn't ready. I didn't want to quit smoking and and I was affraid to stop drinking.
In the following year I had one of my weight gain spurts and ended up at 360 pounds. My blood pressure was extreemly high sometime****ting 180/120. I had to leave work several times because I became very sick from my high BP. I finally became scared enough, that I was going to die, to decide I needed to make real changes in my life. I changed jobs, quit smoking and quit drinking. I still struggled with controlling my food intake. I ate constantly and I ate bad food.
About a year ago I went to another gastric banding siminar but still couldn't make the commitment to get the surgery. After working at home for several months I gained another 20 pounds putting me at my maximum wieght of 380 pounds. At this point it became difficult for me to do my job because I couldn't sit up for 8 hours in a row without being in incredible pain. I finally realized I HAD to do something about my wieght. I started to save the money to pay for the surgery and began the process leading to the surgery.
Once I made the commitment to have the surgery I couldn't wait to get going. The first surgeon I wanted to use wouldn't even be able to evaluate me for three months. I wasn't willing to wait that long but I wanted someone that was in a bariatric "center of excellence". As it turned out my aunt is a nurse practitioner working in oneof these centers. I caller her and we talked about the program where she worked. I set an appointment and entered their program.
It seemed like it took forever to get through all of the hoops I had to jump through in order to get my surgery date. However it was actually a very fast process. I had to loose 20 pounds before the surgery. They wanted 10% of my extra body weight to be lost, to give them room to work inside of me during the surgery. Oddly loosing the weight was no where near as painful as having to do all of the other things required. Blood tests, cardiac clearance, surgery classes, etc. Everything seemed to be a total pain in the butt, and almost designed to make you give up. Before I knew it it was time for my surgery.
The day of surgery was a very scary day. I don't think anyone can go into surgery and not be scared. I spent about an hour in the pre-op area waiting to go into the O.R.. This was a very nervous time for me. They finally came in and gave me a shot of something to calm me down. Then right before they took me into the O.R. they gave me another shot of something that made me totally loopy, kind of like being extreemly stoned. At that point I didn't care about anything, the last thing I remember thinking was how pretty the ceiling of the O.R. was. The next thing I knew I woke up in my hospital room in a lot of pain. I went home the next day and was back at work in 5 days, I was working at home so this made it easier. I could lay down if things became to painful.
I had quite a bit of pain in the week after the surgery and even the week after that. Be ready for this and be ready to very tired for several weeks.
So I had my surgery on January 29th after having lost 20 pounds on my own. while on the various liquid diets in the couple of weeks after the surgery I lost another 12 pounds. My first adjustment was 3 CCs. I felt no restriction at all. I had two more adjustments each of 1/2 CC. I still felt no restriction and I was getting VERY frustrated. I made sure the people doing my adjustments understood how frustrated I was getting and the next adjustment I was given a full 1 CC. This time I really felt the difference and started to loose weight again. The last adjustment I had was again only 1/2 CC, I'm now at 5 1/2 CCs in the band and think I'm very close to my sweet spot.
I've lost a total of 30 pounds in the 3 months since the surgery making a total of 50 poundss lost from the time I started the process. I have had a lot of frustration and have felt like I should be loosing more and faster. I know this isn't realistic. I've really struggled to keep my expectations realistic. The thing I've had the hardest time with so far has been learning how to prepare meals for myself that are in the correct proportions. They say you sould be eating 1/2 cup of food 5 times a day. I eat more than that, 1/2 cup simply isn't enough for me. I suspect everyone is a little different.
I hope this helps someone, it has helped me to just to take some time and think back through everything I've been through. I havn't had a smoke in 14 months, I no longer drink, I haven't been to a McDonalds in 4 or 5 months, my BP is now 126/74, my resting heart rate is 60 BPM and I've dropped 50 pounds. I turely believe haivng this surgery was the right thing to do. I'm also glad that I had it when I did and not earlier. I simply wasn't ready to have it any earlier than I did. I wasn't ready to make the commitment emotionally, physically, mentally and monetarily.
I have been overwieght for most of my life. I would gain weight in a big spurt and then stay at that weight for years, until another spurt occured. I smoked for over twenty years and was a heavy drinker mostly due to depression and loneliness. To top everything off I hated my job.
My eating habits were completely out of control. I would binge, eating massive amounts of food in a single sitting, often eating until I thought I would be sick. I lived at McDonalds and other restuarants. I almost never cooked or prepared a meal at home. I have been on many different diets and have tried Weigh****chers and Nurtisystem.
My sister had gastric bypass surgery and had incredible results with it. She lived in another state and I hadn't seen her for years. She came into town and when she arrived on my door step I didn't recognize her, she was so thin. This was several years ago. I was impressed but still didn't seriously consider having weight loss surgery. A little over two years ago I went to my first siminar about banding surgery. At the time I thought I really wanted to have the surgery but my insurance wouldn't cover it. I used that as an excuse not to have the surgery. Looking back on it I now relaize that the real reason I didn't have the surgey is I simply wasn't ready. I didn't want to quit smoking and and I was affraid to stop drinking.
In the following year I had one of my weight gain spurts and ended up at 360 pounds. My blood pressure was extreemly high sometime****ting 180/120. I had to leave work several times because I became very sick from my high BP. I finally became scared enough, that I was going to die, to decide I needed to make real changes in my life. I changed jobs, quit smoking and quit drinking. I still struggled with controlling my food intake. I ate constantly and I ate bad food.
About a year ago I went to another gastric banding siminar but still couldn't make the commitment to get the surgery. After working at home for several months I gained another 20 pounds putting me at my maximum wieght of 380 pounds. At this point it became difficult for me to do my job because I couldn't sit up for 8 hours in a row without being in incredible pain. I finally realized I HAD to do something about my wieght. I started to save the money to pay for the surgery and began the process leading to the surgery.
Once I made the commitment to have the surgery I couldn't wait to get going. The first surgeon I wanted to use wouldn't even be able to evaluate me for three months. I wasn't willing to wait that long but I wanted someone that was in a bariatric "center of excellence". As it turned out my aunt is a nurse practitioner working in oneof these centers. I caller her and we talked about the program where she worked. I set an appointment and entered their program.
It seemed like it took forever to get through all of the hoops I had to jump through in order to get my surgery date. However it was actually a very fast process. I had to loose 20 pounds before the surgery. They wanted 10% of my extra body weight to be lost, to give them room to work inside of me during the surgery. Oddly loosing the weight was no where near as painful as having to do all of the other things required. Blood tests, cardiac clearance, surgery classes, etc. Everything seemed to be a total pain in the butt, and almost designed to make you give up. Before I knew it it was time for my surgery.
The day of surgery was a very scary day. I don't think anyone can go into surgery and not be scared. I spent about an hour in the pre-op area waiting to go into the O.R.. This was a very nervous time for me. They finally came in and gave me a shot of something to calm me down. Then right before they took me into the O.R. they gave me another shot of something that made me totally loopy, kind of like being extreemly stoned. At that point I didn't care about anything, the last thing I remember thinking was how pretty the ceiling of the O.R. was. The next thing I knew I woke up in my hospital room in a lot of pain. I went home the next day and was back at work in 5 days, I was working at home so this made it easier. I could lay down if things became to painful.
I had quite a bit of pain in the week after the surgery and even the week after that. Be ready for this and be ready to very tired for several weeks.
So I had my surgery on January 29th after having lost 20 pounds on my own. while on the various liquid diets in the couple of weeks after the surgery I lost another 12 pounds. My first adjustment was 3 CCs. I felt no restriction at all. I had two more adjustments each of 1/2 CC. I still felt no restriction and I was getting VERY frustrated. I made sure the people doing my adjustments understood how frustrated I was getting and the next adjustment I was given a full 1 CC. This time I really felt the difference and started to loose weight again. The last adjustment I had was again only 1/2 CC, I'm now at 5 1/2 CCs in the band and think I'm very close to my sweet spot.
I've lost a total of 30 pounds in the 3 months since the surgery making a total of 50 poundss lost from the time I started the process. I have had a lot of frustration and have felt like I should be loosing more and faster. I know this isn't realistic. I've really struggled to keep my expectations realistic. The thing I've had the hardest time with so far has been learning how to prepare meals for myself that are in the correct proportions. They say you sould be eating 1/2 cup of food 5 times a day. I eat more than that, 1/2 cup simply isn't enough for me. I suspect everyone is a little different.
I hope this helps someone, it has helped me to just to take some time and think back through everything I've been through. I havn't had a smoke in 14 months, I no longer drink, I haven't been to a McDonalds in 4 or 5 months, my BP is now 126/74, my resting heart rate is 60 BPM and I've dropped 50 pounds. I turely believe haivng this surgery was the right thing to do. I'm also glad that I had it when I did and not earlier. I simply wasn't ready to have it any earlier than I did. I wasn't ready to make the commitment emotionally, physically, mentally and monetarily.
I wish you success and hope you can skip some of the frustration I've had.
Hey Scott,
Good testamony and congrats on the quitting smoking and drinking, I smoked for 20 something years and stopped about 3 years ago, I know it isn't easy. And I haven't drank since then either because I am not sure I can have a beer and NOT want a smoke. You know?
I dont think any of us are going to be able to escape some frustration. It may be worse for some than others, but I guess we are all going to have to face some demons along the way. I am only a week out and am dealing with my head telling me I am not eating enough..crazy! But the thing about this band is that, hopefully in most cases, it will continue to be there for us even when we screw up.
Welcome to the site, I have found alot of helpful information here along with some that isn't so much, but you take the good with the bad and research to find what is the correct info for you. The inspiration you will find from some of these folks is amazing!
Good testamony and congrats on the quitting smoking and drinking, I smoked for 20 something years and stopped about 3 years ago, I know it isn't easy. And I haven't drank since then either because I am not sure I can have a beer and NOT want a smoke. You know?
I dont think any of us are going to be able to escape some frustration. It may be worse for some than others, but I guess we are all going to have to face some demons along the way. I am only a week out and am dealing with my head telling me I am not eating enough..crazy! But the thing about this band is that, hopefully in most cases, it will continue to be there for us even when we screw up.
Welcome to the site, I have found alot of helpful information here along with some that isn't so much, but you take the good with the bad and research to find what is the correct info for you. The inspiration you will find from some of these folks is amazing!
~~♥Teresa♥~~
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Phil 4:13
Hi Scott! I had my realize band surgery 09/12/08 I have lost 40 pounds and I don't think that's enough, but like you said, I think my expectations are quite high for myself. I think you have done very well. You should be very proud of everything you've accomplished, especially w/ the drinking and the smoking. I still have an issue w/ smoking but I never liked to drink. I wish you the best of luck w/ your band and losing weight and let me know if you want to talk. I love talking about my band and getting other people's ideas and stories :) Oh, and by the way, I also had a horrible week or two after surgery and was in tons of pain, and nobody told me about that part. Oh well... I'm feeling great now!
-Crystal
-Crystal
Thanks for the support Crystal. 
40 pounds is a lot you should feel good about that loss and about yourself. Just curious, do you think you have enough restriction? Have you found the sweet spot yet?
I have been walking 20 minutes, twice a day with my dog Blue. I've recently increase that to 30 minutes, twice a day. Hopefully that will help burn off a few more calories. I have another fill coming next Tuesday, think I'll have them add just a 1/2 CC. I don't tink I could do more than that right now. The restriction is pretty good as it is. That will put my at 6 CCs total.
The thing that frustrates me the most is that everyone kept saying "once you have the band you will feel full most of the time." Well the full feeling with the band is NOT the same as the full feeling without it, at least not for me. So that has been a struggle to get used to.
It was 80 degress here today, absolutely beautiful. I can't wait for my garden to start producing so I have fresh home grown veggies to eat.
Well enough of my babbling, have a good day.
-Scott
It was 80 here too, and I loved it!
I do not think I have enough restriction yet but I definitely think I'm getting closer. I felt nothing before and it took me 7 months just to get here, so I'm happy w/ where I am but very excited to get another fill. It may just let me be at my sweet spot :) I used to walk 20 minutes a day and then I decided going to the gym was much more fun so now I do that 3 times a week and I should be walking every day also, but I have been so busy. I KNOW, I shouldn't make excuses. :)
I do not think I have enough restriction yet but I definitely think I'm getting closer. I felt nothing before and it took me 7 months just to get here, so I'm happy w/ where I am but very excited to get another fill. It may just let me be at my sweet spot :) I used to walk 20 minutes a day and then I decided going to the gym was much more fun so now I do that 3 times a week and I should be walking every day also, but I have been so busy. I KNOW, I shouldn't make excuses. :)
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