Lap-Banding

For years now I have wanted to have baritric surgery, specifically, the lap-band. For those of you unfamiliar with the lap-band, it is essentially a hollow silicone tube that encircles the stomach, with a port coming off of it that is implanted in the patient's side. It works by physically restricting the upper portion of the stomach, acting like the old stomach stapling surgery but with some notable benefits. Stomach stapling worked well, but it was a permanent change to the digestive tract, and was not customizable in the event of too slow or too rapid a rate of weight loss. In contrast, the lap band is placed laprascopically rather than in open surgery, and the amount of restriction is easily adjusted by changing the amount of saline injected into the band through the port. It does not reroute your plumbing or create any permanent changes to your digestive tract, and can be removed if need be (not that I would ever want it removed.) There are risks, including infection, band slippage, band erosion into the stomach, and overconstriction leaving you unable to ingest anything, but new placement techniques help minimize these risks.

At any rate, I discovered the lap band years ago before it was FDA approved, and have been researching it and its success and complication rates ever since. I finally have decent health insurance (I certainly pay enough for it!), and my company actually covers bariatric surgery across the board, considering it preventative care, as it avoids very expensive care for chronic health problems caused by obesity. I spoke with my physician about having the lap band and he was open to giving me a referral, although he was minimally familiar with the lap band. To date he has had patients have gastric bypass surgery, but none having gastric banding.

My initial meeting with the bariatric surgery folks over at Dartmouth was last week and I came away with a long check list of things I'll need to have completed before I can have surgery. Next week I have the comprehensive physical and will have a full set of labs drawn. After that will come a gallbladder ultrasound, two psych evals, a diet history, and a slew of classes over at Dartmouth. Once all of that is completed I'll meet with the surgeon, and an operative date will be scheduled. The approximate time frame will depend upon how long it takes to complete all the tasks on the checklist, but could be anywhere from 7 months to a year away.

I'm pretty excited about finally being able to have this surgery--my problem has not been the types of food I eat, but more the quantity of food and feeling hungry often. The lap band will help by reducing the capacity of my stomach, allowing me to feel full on a very small amount of food. Exercise and proper nutrition are still going to be crucial in the weight loss process, but with the assistance of the band I should be able to get this weight off and maintain the loss. I could care less about what size I wear--I want the weight off so I can avoid diabetes, coronary artery disease, not require hip and knee replacements, improve my asthma...in short, have a healthy life and a good quality of life well into old age. I'm almost 40 now, and if I want to have another 60 years or so more, I need to get back into shape. Hitting 40 doesn't bother me, but dying early from preventable disease DOES bother me quite a bit.