Last evening, I attended the seminar on the LapBand system by a local surgeon. He presented a video of testimonials of patients who had undergone the procedure, he showed a bit of what the surgery actually looks like inside the abdomen, and then most impressive before and after pictures. One gal lost 100% of her excess weight, going from 275 pounds down to 123 pounds. Wow!
The average results of excess weight lost using the LapBand system is between 58% - 60%, give or take a few points. So if a person has 100 pounds to lose, then on average, they'll lose around 60 pounds. And sustain it. That is one thing with this system that you normally don't have when you try to lose the weight on your own - sustainability.
I had so many questions-slash-fears about the restrictions going into this seminars. I have always been ~ since I was a kid and my folks forced me to eat that damned canned spinach and I would take the tiniest bites and wash it down with iced tea ~ a drinker during meals. I can drink two, sometimes three, glasses of iced tea when I eat, or a large diet pepsi. With this system, you can't do that, because the liquid would just was the food right through the small opening, which negates the system's intent of making you feel full, therefore eating less. So I will have to modify this behavior.
I was also concerned about being able to drink soda. I will have to give this up. Because soda is carbonated, it could cause my stomach pouch to expand, causing pain and problems. So I will be waiving farewell to my diet pepsi and the occasional root beer or grape soda. As well as the sparkling cider we have each New Year's Eve.
Loose skin was a concern by several of us who attended. The surgeon said that while some people do go and have this removed once they've lost all their excess weight, many others don't, they just deal with it. And, since you lose the weight slower with the LapBand system than you do with traditional gastric bypass surgery, your body has a longer time to let the skin shrink back to close to its normal size. Now, for me, this may not be the case since I have always suffered from stretch marks. So if I do get down near my goal weight, I may very well be going to see a plastic surgeon to remove excess skin around my lower abdomen, as well as getting a breast lift ('cause let's face it, if these things shrink, they are going to be like tube socks with tennis balls in them hanging low and swinging). But, we'll definitely wait on the plastic surgery until we try IVF again using donor eggs or donor embryos. No sense getting a nice flat tummy if it's going to be stretched out by pregnancy (like the way I'm being positive here??).
The thing I really like about this surgeon is that he just doesn't cut you up then forget about you. He provides one year of free appointments following the surgery, including adjustments to the band, as well as just "how are you doing" appointments. He doesn't want his patients to feel neglected, plus he thinks that when you stay in touch with the surgeon, you have better long term results than if you're left on your own.
He has also provided us with financing options. I am debating whether I want to do that, which would be like buying a small car, or take from my IRA. That's something I've really got to think about because one way or the other, I'm doing this.
Hubby and I were talking about everything we heard and saw after the seminar. He was asking if I could really change my lifestyle, give up eating whatever I want, give up my diet pepsis, pay a small chunk of change in order to lose weight. I told him that I do not want to get new knees within the next few years. That I want to be able to have a baby. That I want to be able to live life with energy and a new outlook. So yes, I am willing to make the needed sacrifices and lifestyle changes required to do this. My quality of life now is around a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. To me, that is way too low. I have a good life, don't get me wrong, but there are just so many things that I can't do that others of normal weight can do that I want to do. I want to be able to take walks with my dogs that aren't going to hurt my back and knees. I want to go to an amusement park and ride roller coasters and such that I can't fit into now. I want to be able to take the stairs when I go to clients' offices, rather than take the elevator because I get winded so easily and start sweating at the drop of a hat. I want to be able to buy clothes that I don't have to order online from the fat department, rather than go into the mall and pick up something cute there. I don't want to develop diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, and a host of other diseases that are just waiting for me around the corner if my weight stays at the level it is now.
In addition to determining the financing piece of it, I also need to determine the timing of it. We are coming into a very busy season at work as well as some mandatory training that won't allow me to take off any time during October and the first half of November. So I'm thinking that if I go ahead and do this, I may either do it in December or January. That should give me time to do the consult with the nutritionist and psychologist that the surgeon requires. And since I won't be going through my insurance (since they don't cover it), I don't have to worry about any hoops to jump through.
I originally didn't want to tell any of our family about doing this, and I am still reluctant. However, Hubby went and told his mom about it, because he was trying to get her to go to the seminar with me instead of him going. So now his mom and dad know, which I really didn't want them to know, because she is so freaking judgemental. Plus it isn't for him to tell anyone about a medical procedure that I am going to undertake. That's my decision to make so I am a bit upset about that, which I told him, so this won't come as a surprise to him when he reads this. The reason I don't want to tell anyone, at this point, is that if I either decide not to do it, or if after I actually have the consult, the surgeon decides that it isn't in my best interest to do it (for whatever reason that may be), then I don't want to have to go back and tell people that it isn't happening. Also I just wanted a bit of privacy because our experience with the IF treatment was so out in the open with the family.
I've written a small book here! Thanks for reading this far through. I'm sure I'll have more to say about it as time goes by.
P.S. Happy 300th post to me!
