I am new, scared and determined

Hello everyone, A friend of mine told me I was to pretty to be carrying all this weight.  She also told me that she wished her health would allow her to have the surgery.  She is 10 years older than me and she said her life is going downhill fast.  Actually, at 250 pounds I am tired.  The weight related illnesses are creeping up on me fast.  I tried everything...nothing.  Now I have made the decision to have surgical intervention.   I am new to all of this and I am learning quickly about the procedure I have chosen - lapband.  I am scared because this will be a foriegn object in my body.  But I am determined because I am sick and tired of carrying all this weight.  If anyone knows how I feel please give me some support.  I will be reading this message board daily as I go through the process.  I have contacted a doctor and my next step is to go to seminars.  I guess that is all I can say right now.  I am so sick of this weight and scared of what will happen to me if I do not do something about it fast.

Hello, I just have one piece of advice. DOCUMENT everything. My doctor was VERY lax in doing any kind of documentaion  - I had gone to him in 2004 and started weigh in ect. Due to his insuffient documentation I JUST had surgery this August 14th. I finally made my own charts and progress sheets and had them admitted into my chart at his office. I put monthly weigh in amount, medications needed that month due to being overweight including any phychotropic meds for depression ect, and how much I lost (very seldom) or had gained. (My insurance requires one year documentation). Good luck and best wishes! Tara

Hi Tara, Thank you for the advice.  I am so scared because I do not know what to expect.  My biggest fear is that I would have this invasive surgery and would not lose any weight.  Are you saying you had the lapband surgery and did not lose weight?  Please let me know what you are experiencing. Brenda

HELLO BRENDA...I AM A RECENT BANDER AND HAVE LOST ALMOST 40 LBS....I AM PLEASED WITH MY DECISION...THE BAND DOESN'T FEEL LIKE A FOREIGN OBJECT TO ME, IN FACT I DON'T NOTICE IT AT ALL UNTIL I EAT TOO FASTBY ALL MEANS DOCUMENT EVERYTHING AND KEEP COPIES OF ANY PAPERWORK IN CASE U CHANGE PHYSICIANS...I'LL KEEP UR SON IN MY PRAYERS RE: HIS DEPLOYMENT...TAKE CARE AND KEEP ME POSTED.......SHERYL

Hi Cheryl, Thank you for your response.  40 lbs!  If I lost 40 pounds I would be very proud of myself.  It would put me at 210!  I could wear a lot of my clothes.  I refure to buy anything else because I have enough clothes to open up a department store.  The only remore I will have is when I lose all of this weight, what will I do with the clothes?

I am having guilt trips right now kicking myself in the rear for not being able to do this by myself and having to result to surgery.  Did you go through that too?  IF so, I did you get over it.  Please stay in touch.  I was raised in Belleville! Brenda

Welcome Brenda!    I didn't have lapband, i had rny, but just wanted to offer my support.    I truely believe if you could have done this on your own you would have already done it.    There's no reason to beat yourself up.     There is also a lapband board, you might get more info there.   You should also read peoples profiles, you can learn a lot from that too.    Just stay determined. You live very close to me, let me know if you wanna talk. Linda