I was banded on March 7, 2006...I have nothing but good things to say.....My recovery was easy....I was back at work in less than a week.....I have lost 37 pounds since surgery......I was in a stall after my initial weight loss I was in a stall for a few weeks, while my body adjusted, but now I am losing between 1-2 pounds a week.....on my 2nd fill and am doing well, I am not too tight, and can eat most anything in small amounts if I chew it very well....I eat about a baby spoon of food at a time. It is worth it all....I was wearing 22-24 bottoms and 2x tops....I now wear 16-18 bottoms and medium-large top......I am very satisfied...I do not having any sag at this moment....It may be due to me losing 1-2 pounds a week....I eat about 1000-1200 calories a day and feel healthier than I have in many years. I am off my insulin, metformin and lipitor.......I have had no problems whatsoever, no sliming, no PB's etc.....I guess I am just lucky....I don't want to be so tight that everything I eat is a chore.....I can eat, it is just smaller amounts, healthier food, no snacking between meals, but I feel satisfied not hungry all the time......in fact sometimes, my stomach starts growling just to tell me it is lunchtime........if you have any questions......I would be glad to answer any that I can....I LOVE MY BAND!

Hi Mommaduck and

Congrats on the WL whooooohoo thats awesome !!!!

Hey Everyone,
It's been awhile, I've had a lot going on. Selling my house, packing up my things, getting ready to start a new job... Lots of stress. BUT the good news is I have a surgery date w/ Dr. Ortiz on June 4th! I'm a little nervous, but mostly just excited and ready for this. They had no problem with the fact that I have a relatively low BMI. I'll likely take off weight a bit slower, but at this rate, I'm just packing it on, so anything's an improvement. Right now my BMI is officially 31, down from 32 about a year ago but slowly eaking my way back up (again). Anyone out there have lower BMI's? I'm curious to know how much weight loss I can look forward to.

Angela (CJ's Princess), I've been wondering about you and how you're doing with your band. Sounds like you're doing great!

I'm a little freaked out because the nutritionist in Dr. Ortiz's group told me she wants me to lose 10 pounds before surgery. I laughed out loud... right over the phone. I wanted to say, "Lady, if I could lose 10 pounds in 10 days, I wouldn't need to do this." Then there is some clause in the paperwork that says if you fail to do what they ask of you they can deny your surgery... They're stressing me out.

Anyway, I'm going on with life, drinking protien drinks and of course, NOT losing the pound a day Dr. Miranda wants me to lose.... pahlease... Anyway, will continue to look forward to hearing from all of you.

Welcome to Mommaduck!

Have a great week eveyone,
Shary

Pmark, sounds like you need your band adjusted! Make an appointment with the surgeon.

Lauderdale chick, keep up the good work!

mommaduck, you give me hope. I am scheduled for the 24th of July, but am still waiting for the insurance to respond.. I'm a bmi of 38 and have kidney disease and hypertension. We'll see what happens.

Shary, That's too funny about 10 lbs in 10 days. I know what you mean. But maybe she is giving you a large number just so you lose as much as you can before surgery. The surgeon told me they want you to eat healthy as possible because it decreases liver size and makes surgery less risky. Good luck to you and let us know how you do.

Leenie, Hope all is well with you!

Hey Bean!

I lost 3, count 'em 3 pounds before surgery. If you have the cashier's check in your hand, I bet they'll take you in for surgery. She's ambitious, but she's much nicer in person!

Cjprincess
I just looked at your weight and see that you lost 15 lbs since the 12th I think that's wonderful! Keep up the good work!

I was banded for 3 years and I found it to be a difficult and unpleasant experience. Having restriction felt like wearing a choke chain. I developed severe acid reflux and finally in April my surgeon discovered my band had slipped. I had it removed on the 19th of April. I wouldn't recommend this surgery to anyone. Some folks do lose weight, some even lose a lot, but many many people do not.
The slippage and erosion rates are supposed to be VERY LOW, but 2 and 3 years out I read of more and more people developing complications.
If you have binge eating disorder or compulsion towards food you are much less likely to be successful with the band. There are studies that have been done on this that you can google. If you've been successful at losing weight in the past you are much more likely to be successful with the band. It is NOT easy. Dieting is required. Many people lose weight because they are eating 1000 calories or less per day.
I urge you to do a lot of research before making up your mind.
I believe some people CAN be successful with the lapband, but it's because they are putting in a lot of hard work and making drastic changes to their lifestyle.

I wish you success in whatever you decide to pursue.

-Ana Maria

Ana Maria - welcome to 3fc! as you can see, i edited your post to remove the other website that you referred to. It's against 3fc policy to direct members to a competitor forum.

You are more than welcome to hang out here, and to post the good, the bad, and the ugly as you see it. As most people around here can tell you, I'm not much into the 'happy happy happy' aspect of WLS. it's serious business, and many people don't have good results, and some people die.

around here, we urge - repeatedly - that people do their research, ask questions, and then ask more.

I don't get it....
competitor? huh? Aren't we all in this together...trying to lose weight? This isn't a for-profit site is it? The post below was from THIS thread and it wasn't removed. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
I was just trying to keep it real. The initial person who posted this question asked for the truth. Just trying to direct them somewhere where they can get it in spades. (lapbandtalk) i don't understand why that would be discouraged, but will refrain from mentioning "competitors" in the future even though the logic behind it eludes me.
adios,

Ana Maria

Ana Maria,
I absolutely appreciate your candor. You're the first person who has spoken up with the negatives and I very much appreciate it. Do feel free to email me directly. I think you can do that via my name link, or just email *******************

Ana I'm sorry the band did not work out for you and I think it is important that people know the good as well as the bad from experienced folks such as yourself.

I for one wanted to know it all before I had it done and if anyone thinks they are exempt from the band slipping or erosion, they are dead wrong. What works for one person obviously won't work for another but that shouldn't prevent people from trying. The percentage of slipped bands is very low considering the amount of people who have had the surgery. And don't forget, not everyone with a band posts on websites, weather it be good or bad. There are LOTS of successful people we just don't hear from.

We all know that surgery is not the cure, weather you get a band, sleeve, gbp.... its a tool and yes, you have to work your a$$ off to lose the weight.

Shary, she is the first person to speak up because none of us to date have had any problems.

I wish everyone much success in their WL journey, what ever they choose to do.

Leenie

Hi, welcome to 3FC

I wanted to step in and clarify this for you or anyone else that might not have understood. 'Competitor' is probably not the best word to use. We don't allow links to any other weight loss forums, and the reason is because we used to get spammed a lot by people that joined with no intention of becoming part of the community, but just wanted to advertise other forums. They think "hey, there's a forum with 50k members, let's get them to join us!" And trust me, it has happened a lot. So we found that it was best to make a strong link policy. We just want to make sure that everyone is here for the same reason Only a select few links are allowed. If someone posts a link, our mods may remove it at their discretion. If you'll notice, their is a notice in bright red letters next to the posting field that lets every member know about our linking policy. We aren't the only ones that have this policy. We decided to implement it after noticing most of the other forums we visited had similar policies. We don't believe that we can be everything to everyone, and there are plenty of resources available on the net. We do believe that if someone doesn't find what they need here, that they know how to use Google as the most valuable resource of all.

Thanks

Suzanne,

I understand your policy however I did not post a link. Several pages ahead of my post however someone DID post not one, but 2 very obvious links which I saw when I was reading the thread. I merely mentioned the other lap banding site as a place to find more complete information about that specific procedure. I am certainly not trying to advertise for them. Part of the reason I came here is that I like 3fatchicks better and want to become a part of this community. I think my mention of the other site was taken out because I suggested it as a good place to find more negative stories/experiences about the lap band. As you said, anyone can google any information they're looking for at any time. And members can PM other members if they want more information.
Since I no longer have a band I'm moving on to other forums on this site.
To reiterate my previous comments re: the band. There are many folks who are successful with the band and just as many who are not. In the great game of life it's a crap shoot like anything else. It has been my experience that far fewer people with negative experiences post than positive because they are flamed/shamed into silence. Now 3 years after I was banded many more people are speaking up. That's a good thing. It's just helpful if you know where to find them. When you're in the research phase it can be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

adios,

Ana Maria

I'm going to stick my nose in again I would also love to hear more people discuss the negative aspects of WLS. You may not know this, but Amy 3FC (one of the owners of this site) had WLS. She told me recently that she stopped going to her support group meetings because they were not allowed to talk about the negatives, and that was very disturbing to her. Several people in her group were having problems and had to resort to discussing it privately. No one should have to whisper about something so serious. From what I understand, many WLS forums have the same policy of just focusing on what good COULD come from WLS, without discussing what isn't so positive. Amy had her WLS in late 2003 and she is still discovering new things about her body, and it's constantly changing, and she's still having a variety of problems. She's also concerned because she doesn't know what the future holds for her. It's good to talk about the other side of the issue, and I hope more people will come forward.

Ana Maria - I thought long and hard about whether or not to remove the mentions of the other forum, and decided to err on the side of caution. It was your first post, and there was no way of knowing whether you were a perfectly nice, helpful person or the owner of the other site, or a spammer.

we have always - and will always - encourage people to tell the good, the bad, and the ugly about any form of WLS. it's not easy, and there is ALWAYS a risk of complications, both right after surgery and for YEARS afterwards.

i hope you will share your wisdom and your experience.

and i was concerned about your comments that there were other links in this thread. there is one - and it's a website for the member's surgeon. not another message forum.