If you had no limitations in your life

If you had no limitations in your life, what would you do differently? Let me qualify that. Suppose you suddenly dropped any extra weight that prohibited you from pursuing a fuller life and you had no physical limitations, what would you do differently? Would you travel more? Explore hobbies...

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Alex

- LBT Founder
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Banded in NYU by Dr. Ren
7/17/03 256 Lbs
Currently 155 Lbs

YES! And let me tell you it was very interesting! He (surgeon) talked about the 3 types of surgeries available that he does, gastric bypass, LAP-BAND®®, and the sleeve. he talked about the pros and cons of each one, and at the very end he had hubbie convinced enough that hubbie told me that it would probably be more economical in the end to just go ahead and get the sleeve done. I nearly fell off my chair! But after listening to the surgeon talk about the band i started to be leary a bit and I don't want to discourage anyone from doing this cause we all do what we have to, but, he was telling us that the band is less invasive (good) however, food does get stuck (yes), the is more PBing (yes), and the % of slippage is pretty high. It can happen even with peristalsis of the stomach. He did say it can be reversed by doing an unfill, our surgeon includes fills in the price for the first year, but after that you pay out of pocket $80 - $100 per fill/unfill, and after several years the band could erode or start leaking which would require a new band ($$) . Also the statistics state that the patient only loses about 50 to 60% of their weight. so in all we thought about it and came to the conclusion that the sleeve would be the better choice for me. Yes, it is invasive, but not as invasive as gastric bypass, yes it is ALOT more expensive then the band $19,000 but you can eat your regular foods (not right away of course) and you still have to be very careful or you could gain instead of lose, you don't get stuck, but you may having dumping syndrome. Hubbie figured it would work out cheaper to get the sleeve then the band, so that is what we've decided on. I hope this helped, but please don't think I trying to change anyones mind, I'm just letting you know about the seminar and the changes I've made. . . wish me luck I go for inital dr visit, psych, and nutritionist appt on November 20th now. . . surgery for January. . (eek, I'm already nervous) I'll keep in touch, you've been a wonderful person and friend! Always in my thoughts!

I love my band. And I love the weight loss I've experienced, but if I had it to do all over again, I think I would seriously consider the sleeve. The cutting of the stomach does scare me, but being able to live the rest of my life without plastic inside my body is appealing. It's a toss up. I like that the band is adjustable, but I'm having a hard time finding the right restriction level to lose these last 20 pounds. It would be nice to have learned to deal with eating right out of surgery and not the ongoing trial/error process that the LAP-BAND® causes. There are pros and cons to each one, ofcourse, but I would have looked into the sleeve a little deeper if I could go back in time.

You know it's been a while since I wrote that. I ended up having bariatric surgery on Feb 17. It was such a hard decision for me to make but the doctor convinced me that I would be happier with the surgery. I am pretty happy. I don't have any hunger. I'm still eating very soft food but I'm still healing. Good luck with those last 20 lbs. You can do it!

It's been months since we last talked. The last time you had just seen the doctor for the surgery. How did it go for you. I had bariatric surgery on Feb 17 and am so glad I did. Would love to hear how you are doing.

I would run, I would climb, I would hike.