Yoyo Dieter - Seattle, WA

The one lesson I learned in this experience, is if you want to lose weight, it's something you need to fully commit to, there's no quick fix. Eating healthy, and exercise is really the only way to go. For me it was an expensive lesson to learn. My lowest weight was 142,thru the years my weight skyrocketed to 220. That's when I read about orbera. All the research I did was pretty much in the UK, it's fairly new to the US, ¬ too many people writing about it. The procedure itself wasn't very hard, if you've ever had an endoscopy then you already know what to expect. The only difference is, the major nausea &vomitting that hits you after the procedure. I work in the medical field and was told 5 days off would be ok. That was wrong, my nausea and projectile vomitting was so bad, I felt like death. I couldn't keep water down. I took all my medications and still didn't help. Day 5, I had to go back to my surgeon to get put on fluids, as well as day 8. By day 10 I was able to function and keep soup down but still felt nauseous. Good news is that I was down 12 pds in 10 days from the lack of eating. At this point I'm thinking I should of became a bulimic and saved myself 7k. (Ok, bad joke, but that's how I felt) Some people say they don't even feel the balloon, I feel it, It feels like I'm pregnant. And even @220pds, my stomach wasn't huge I carry my weight in my lower body. I was able to wear tight shirts and not have a big belly sticking out, but not with this balloon baby inside my belly. I literally look and feel 6 months pregnant. By the 4th week I lost another 4pds. So down 16, and besides the nasty belching & my pregnancy belly, I'm feeling back to myself. I can even eat like my old self. If I wanted to eat 4 pieces of pizza, I could, and I did. The only thing that happened was my belly would look 9 months pregnant, instead of 6. In my second month my food cravings and the urges to eat came back, and yes I cheated @times. Until I got on the scale and saw that I gained 4pds back. This was devastating to me. My point that I want to make is that your self control , and bad eating habits, can only be controlled by yourself, not the balloon. So I'm on a high protein diet, working out 3x a week. I'm in month 3, down 20pds with a protruding belly that is driving me crazy. If i just drink a bottle of water my belly gets huge. Scheduling the balloon to come out next month. Seven thousand dollar lesson learned.