The new journey in "our lives"

Since April I've been working with my PCP (primary care physician) on taking steps to improve my health and weight. After months of talking and going over the good and the bad list I've decided to take the next step, and get the Lapband done. I know only a few of you know that I've decided to do this, but I feel that it's good for everyone who cares about me to know. I will be blogging about my journey and all the ups and downs that we will be going through.


As hard as some of this will be for me to admit I feel it's something I need to do. So here it goes, my weight has gotten very out of control. I am now starting to physically feel the stress of it, starting with my knees, they are pretty much shot, and the longer I go with my weight being out of hand the worse it will get. Next are my ankles and feet, by the end of the day I can barely stand much less walk, because they hurt and sometimes are swollen so bad. I get out of breath very easily and sweat when I've barely even done any activity at all i.e. just getting the kids dressed wears me out sometimes.


Not only is it affecting me physically, it's also taking a toll, health wise and mentally. I've had to start anti-depressants(or as we call them my happy pills) and I have high blood pressure now. My overall body is that of a 50 year old and I'm only 25.


The process to get the lapband is not a short one, it's pretty lengthy and you do have to qualify, which I did with know problems. If all goes right I should be looking at surgery by the end of October, but I will keep y'all updated on that.


So if your wondering what will this do for me besides the obvious, "lose weight". Let me go a little more in depth about how my life will be after surgery. After surgery my stomach will be the size of two cups. The first 6 weeks after surgery I will be on an all liquid diet, after that I will slowly work my way up to solid foods, once I can handle solid foods I will only be able to eat roughly 1/3 cup at a time.


This will be my new life, I will be losing 66% of my body weight. That is roughly 135 pounds, to put it in a visual term, that's another adult person. So if you're wondering why I say the new journey in "our lives" when this post is really about me, it's because this is a decision that will affect not only me, but Clayton and the kids.


It's very important throughout this whole process that I have support, I do understand not everyone is going to support my decision to have this done, and I do respect that, but all I ask in return is that you respect my decision as well. I am very willing and open to hearing everyone's comments, questions, and advice on this, weather good or bad. I've chosen to share this so I can get more opinions and different perspectives on this.



Now how does it all work?

Below in fig.1 is the actual band, this is what the band that I will have looks like. In the center of the band you can see what looks like sections, they are called balloons, they can be inflated and deflated.

Figure 1

Now in fig. 2 is a picture of how the band is placed, it will be placed just like that in me as well.

Figure 2

What happens is I will have the band half ways on my esophagus and the other half will be on my stomach. The band forms a pouch, that is where the food is stored as I eat, and then it's slowly released into my stomach. I will have a port on my side, which you can also see in fig.2 this is how they will access my band for adjustments. They take a needle filled with saline, and insert it into the port and that will blow up the balloons on the band to make it tighter if need be or they can take some of the saline out if I feel like it's to tight(all of that can be done in the doctor's office).

As I continue though the process I will keep up with my blog as well. I hope this has answered some of y'alls questions and informed you just a little bit more concerning the lapband. Of course you can always ask us anything or give us your input.