sriedeman
I have always struggled with my weight. I was the fat kid in school. I lost some weight by the time I hit highschool. I had the lap band in 1993(18yrs old) I was one of the very first people to get the crapband when it was in the research phase. I lost a total of 80 lbs with it. I did end up getting married and pregnant and gain all my weight back and then some. I kept the crap band in until I had unexplainable health problems for YEARS! After having the crapband in for 16yrs my body was turning against itself. The Dr told me that my body was looking at the crapband as a foriegn body in my body and was trying to get rid of it. I had horrible headaches for years, severe joint pains and muscle pains, whenever I ate I got a "block" and ended up throwing up everything that I would try to eat. I have lost teeth due to my body racking havic on itself. All this was happening and no one even thought it was the band. Finally one night about 2 yrs ago I went into the ER with severe pain and vomiting. They finally figured out it was the band and I was rushed by ambulance to the University of MN. Where Dr Ikramuddin took out the band. THANK GOD!! He found that the band had slipped and was eroded part way thru my stomach and there was soooo much scar tissue. I had a couple of complications after surgery and had to be taking back into surgery a couple of days later. After that I decided that I didn't want to have any weight loss surgery and I was determined to loss this weight on my own. HAHAHA yeah right before I knew it I was up to 300lbs (my highest weight ever). I then decided to talk to Dr Ikramuddin about having surgery again. He was not sure if surgery could be done due to the band and what had happened with that. He did a few tests, an endoscopy and upper GI. He said he would be able to help me but it would have to be an open surgery. So I did my research and jumped thru all the hoops and decided that I wanted the DS. So here I am today.
