Last night I went to my first lap-band support group. I am glad I went. I met some really nice people. There were six of us there, four men and two women. All at varying degrees of success in their journeys.
One man had been banded at 542 pounds. He had multiple complications during the surgery itself, ended up being under lots longer than he should have been, and ended up in the hospital for about a month (if I recall correctly). Just recently, his stomach slipped through the band and he put off calling the doctor for three weeks, and had to have surgery again to fix it. However, he has lost 190 pounds and has no regrets. The doctor said that he will never do surgery again on someone that heavy, and will require them to lose down to around 400 pounds before he will put a band in someone.
At least three of the men are diabetics, with two taking lots less medicine than they were, and one totally off. The lady there didn't speak too much. I asked a few questions, but I really wanted to be respectful of the fact that this was their time to give each other support, and I was there really to observe and learn.
They have quarterly weight loss challenges and give prizes out for who loses the most weight each quarter. The coordinator also gave out free certificates for a future adjustment (fill/unfill) to be used once the first free year of adjustments are up. I even got one for attending! And as a bonus, they don't expire! Shoot, if she gives those out each meeting, it's quite possible that I won't ever have to pay for fills if I attend at least four or five a year. We'll see.
I did ask about whether they have shared their lap-band surgeries with people and all of them did say yes. So for right now, I'm still not saying anything, but once I've had the surgery, I'll think about it again.
Two weeks from tomorrow. Will it fly by or crawl?
