POSTED UNDER Lap Band Reviews
Two Thumbs Up After Ten Years and 120 Lbs
ORIGINAL POST
Two Thumbs Up After Ten Years and 120 Lbs
$20,000
Wow! Sep 7 will be 10 years since I was banded. I was 47 5'11 and weighed in at 308.
Being tall I was able to spread it around at least in my head anyway. Lol! I had a 10 centimeters ulcer on my right ankle that we had been trying every drug combination on the planet to cure the MRS and get it to heal for 3 years! Yes 3 years of visiting wound care every other day . ( either every other day or she was putting me in patient and a girl gotta work so that wasnt an option)
I even did a round of maggots to eat the necrotized tissue. Try working with maggots chomping on your ankle!
I won't gross you out with anymore details but we could not get the MRS under control and get the would to shrink. The circulation in my legs was not getting enough oxygen to the wound. Even though I had oxygen I wore every moment I was not in public.
Lap and was mentioned. They had a new bariatric center associated with the same hospital as wound care.
They required you to be a non smoker for a year to even start the program. I had smoked a pack a day since I was 16 and feared I would not get past even the first hurdle. And then along comes Chantix!
I had never tried to quit before but I stashed cigarettes in random places preparing for my impending failure. To my surprise it worked. 2 months on Chantix and I was a non smoker. Over the year I confined visits to wound care and no changes, I saw my primary monthly while we worked on losing the weight required for insurance to pay. I had a checklist of specialists that had to sign off that I was healthy enough to survive the surgery. Even after completing all the steps I just knew they would be wheeling me into surgery and someone would rush in and stop it like when the govener calls the gas chamber at the last moment!
But to my surprise I woke up a few hours later a little groggy but no discomfort to report.
I just wanted to go home but they make you stay overnight and keep liquids down before they let you get crazy and thin right away. I felt so goid I was cleaning house and entertaining uninvited guests in my p.j.s from the hospital.
Flash ahead 12 hours and a trip back to the doc who sent me directly to the re to make sure I just over did it and wasn't stroking out because of a clot..ah yes.,I almost forgot the anti cat shots I had to give myself in the stomach for 7 days! Don't worry. It's preloaded in a syringe with a extra fine needle and barely felt it.
Then I got hungry!! Really hungry! But we were still working the baby steps to solid food. I was still at the clear liquids stage and had vision of meatball subs dancing in my head! Clear broth was not cutting it. So I added a little substance which is not advised..i didn't jump on a rib eye or anything but I did slip some thinned down mashed potatoes and gravy. That helped settle the knawing feeling in my stomach.
I don't advise anyone to skip ahead on the food scale it was just what worked for me.
So I'm gonna try to give you the readers digest version because I sometimes get lost in the details. I am going to be brutally honest with you. I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life. But it wasn't the bands felt it was my fault for not eating sooner and waiting until I was starving and not chewing those extra times and the food getting caught in the band and causing great discomfort. Then I would drink a beverage right away to try and push it through the band quicker and end up gull of liquid instead of real food.
Things that caused me issues, rice. Odd but I would go to of Chang's and order the fried rice and every single time without fail I would rush to the restroom and try to quietly throw up. And meat. Rice and meat. I was already on my way to ending my love affair with animal flesh since I moved to Colorado and didn't just buy my meet at Safeway and never gave the process any thought. Then when I drove past the little igloo doing houses all In a row with the baby cows on 3 ft chains and realized these were veal cows that would never get to move more than that 3 foot chain. I was done with veal parmesan from that moment on. Don't get me wrong I love a greasy cheese burger occasionally and roast beast and smashed potatoes would be my choice for a last meal hands down. But no matter how much i chewed the beef would get stuck in some painful part if the band and it just wasnt worth it any more
So I still make the roast for the flavor and might nibble a couple of tiny pieces. But remember not only was I adjusting to the lap and ii had recently began tasting and smelling good for the first time in 30 years. So my senses were on overload. I good throw down some bbg pork ribs before lap and quitting smoking but it no longer tasted as good and I rarely eat pork anymore. I buy it all the time remembering but I usually will end up tossing it with my biannual freezer purdge.
So glad ahead ten years and I have lost 120 pounds and kept it off. I was at 20 pounds lighter nut this Wight has stayed the same for the last 7 years so I guess it's where I should be. I have not felt the need to check my bmi in years. About 2 years after the surgery and with no change in treatment all of a sudden my wound started getting smaller and smaller and just healed up over about a two month period. And I have not ad a reoccurance.
All and all. .I would give my lap and 2 thumbs up once I adjusted my eating habits and besides meat which was on its way out anyway I have really no limitations on what I eat or drink. Although I do still drink a is a now and then but even that I switched to the flavoured carbonated waters and zero calories just a little artificial flavors and carbonation.
My only issue ten years down the road is the extra skin. To me it is unattractive and I'm really working on finding the money to get it removed. It not just vanity either rashes etc can be a little annoying. But that's nothing compared to having both legs and no health problems and being able to walk in the store and buy off the normal size racks instead of the pulse size..i admit I do have a clothes shopping addiction these days. That's ok. Better to spend my money on clothes than doctor bills.
Hope that helps some of you ladies that are unsure. Just like everything we either cut out of our lives or add there is a period of readjustment. But it will be a faded memory soon enough as you're able to hang out with your grandkids and not have to worry about the patio chair not support your weight or hiding the fact that your airplane seat belt didn't quite make it all the way around.
Being tall I was able to spread it around at least in my head anyway. Lol! I had a 10 centimeters ulcer on my right ankle that we had been trying every drug combination on the planet to cure the MRS and get it to heal for 3 years! Yes 3 years of visiting wound care every other day . ( either every other day or she was putting me in patient and a girl gotta work so that wasnt an option)
I even did a round of maggots to eat the necrotized tissue. Try working with maggots chomping on your ankle!
I won't gross you out with anymore details but we could not get the MRS under control and get the would to shrink. The circulation in my legs was not getting enough oxygen to the wound. Even though I had oxygen I wore every moment I was not in public.
Lap and was mentioned. They had a new bariatric center associated with the same hospital as wound care.
They required you to be a non smoker for a year to even start the program. I had smoked a pack a day since I was 16 and feared I would not get past even the first hurdle. And then along comes Chantix!
I had never tried to quit before but I stashed cigarettes in random places preparing for my impending failure. To my surprise it worked. 2 months on Chantix and I was a non smoker. Over the year I confined visits to wound care and no changes, I saw my primary monthly while we worked on losing the weight required for insurance to pay. I had a checklist of specialists that had to sign off that I was healthy enough to survive the surgery. Even after completing all the steps I just knew they would be wheeling me into surgery and someone would rush in and stop it like when the govener calls the gas chamber at the last moment!
But to my surprise I woke up a few hours later a little groggy but no discomfort to report.
I just wanted to go home but they make you stay overnight and keep liquids down before they let you get crazy and thin right away. I felt so goid I was cleaning house and entertaining uninvited guests in my p.j.s from the hospital.
Flash ahead 12 hours and a trip back to the doc who sent me directly to the re to make sure I just over did it and wasn't stroking out because of a clot..ah yes.,I almost forgot the anti cat shots I had to give myself in the stomach for 7 days! Don't worry. It's preloaded in a syringe with a extra fine needle and barely felt it.
Then I got hungry!! Really hungry! But we were still working the baby steps to solid food. I was still at the clear liquids stage and had vision of meatball subs dancing in my head! Clear broth was not cutting it. So I added a little substance which is not advised..i didn't jump on a rib eye or anything but I did slip some thinned down mashed potatoes and gravy. That helped settle the knawing feeling in my stomach.
I don't advise anyone to skip ahead on the food scale it was just what worked for me.
So I'm gonna try to give you the readers digest version because I sometimes get lost in the details. I am going to be brutally honest with you. I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life. But it wasn't the bands felt it was my fault for not eating sooner and waiting until I was starving and not chewing those extra times and the food getting caught in the band and causing great discomfort. Then I would drink a beverage right away to try and push it through the band quicker and end up gull of liquid instead of real food.
Things that caused me issues, rice. Odd but I would go to of Chang's and order the fried rice and every single time without fail I would rush to the restroom and try to quietly throw up. And meat. Rice and meat. I was already on my way to ending my love affair with animal flesh since I moved to Colorado and didn't just buy my meet at Safeway and never gave the process any thought. Then when I drove past the little igloo doing houses all In a row with the baby cows on 3 ft chains and realized these were veal cows that would never get to move more than that 3 foot chain. I was done with veal parmesan from that moment on. Don't get me wrong I love a greasy cheese burger occasionally and roast beast and smashed potatoes would be my choice for a last meal hands down. But no matter how much i chewed the beef would get stuck in some painful part if the band and it just wasnt worth it any more
So I still make the roast for the flavor and might nibble a couple of tiny pieces. But remember not only was I adjusting to the lap and ii had recently began tasting and smelling good for the first time in 30 years. So my senses were on overload. I good throw down some bbg pork ribs before lap and quitting smoking but it no longer tasted as good and I rarely eat pork anymore. I buy it all the time remembering but I usually will end up tossing it with my biannual freezer purdge.
So glad ahead ten years and I have lost 120 pounds and kept it off. I was at 20 pounds lighter nut this Wight has stayed the same for the last 7 years so I guess it's where I should be. I have not felt the need to check my bmi in years. About 2 years after the surgery and with no change in treatment all of a sudden my wound started getting smaller and smaller and just healed up over about a two month period. And I have not ad a reoccurance.
All and all. .I would give my lap and 2 thumbs up once I adjusted my eating habits and besides meat which was on its way out anyway I have really no limitations on what I eat or drink. Although I do still drink a is a now and then but even that I switched to the flavoured carbonated waters and zero calories just a little artificial flavors and carbonation.
My only issue ten years down the road is the extra skin. To me it is unattractive and I'm really working on finding the money to get it removed. It not just vanity either rashes etc can be a little annoying. But that's nothing compared to having both legs and no health problems and being able to walk in the store and buy off the normal size racks instead of the pulse size..i admit I do have a clothes shopping addiction these days. That's ok. Better to spend my money on clothes than doctor bills.
Hope that helps some of you ladies that are unsure. Just like everything we either cut out of our lives or add there is a period of readjustment. But it will be a faded memory soon enough as you're able to hang out with your grandkids and not have to worry about the patio chair not support your weight or hiding the fact that your airplane seat belt didn't quite make it all the way around.
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