Guest Thomas Casola Shares Personal Gastric Banding Story - Part 1
I recently ran across a few articles about a new type of gastric bypass surgery, called the Realize Band system. I was interested in learning about how the Realize Band is different from the Lap Band surgery. Mr. Casola shared his personal story with me about his surgery, and now he’s sharing it with you.
I was born and breed in Brooklyn NY. And like most Italians, I had a “nickname” growing up. Since there were two Tommy’s on my block (and in my family), I was tagged as either “fat Tommy” or “fatty-boy“. So it only goes to show you I have always been overweight. I fought the “battle of bulge” my entire life. Many times I’ve won the battle, but in the end I eventually lost the war.
About 5 years ago I started to think about weight loss surgery. In the past (we’re talking late 70’s-early 80’s), I knew people who had their “stomach stapled”, and some had disastrous (almost fatal) results. I knew that was definitely out. So I needed to do my homework before I choose anything. It took almost another two years before I really started to research all the different options out there.
In the meantime, I did an eating plan called Let’s Do Lunch. It was a wonderful plan, and I lost about 70 pounds. However, even with that success, last summer my doctor said that I really should think about doing something surgical. She stated I am young enough and healthy enough to do it NOW, but who knows what a year or two may bring. So that’s when I decided to seriously consider weight loss surgery.
After all the research, I decided that the lap-band was the best choice for me. While it is true people see faster result when having a Gastric Bypass however research shows that over a 3 - 5 year period, Bypass and Banding folks tend to loose the same amount of weight.
Here are the reasons I decided to do a Band instead of Gastric Bypass.
(1) I did about 5 years of research in regards to which operation I wanted. I noticed that more favorable medical articles concerning the band
(2) I’m a big sissy when it comes to pain. The folks who I knew who had the gastric bypass done - most had pain for about a week. The folks who I know who had the band done was back to work in a few days - and were (relatively) pain-free.
(3) I always had a dreaded fear that something may go wrong with the procedure. In the research that I did, I know the band is the easiest “reversible” procedure. Also, if need be - the band could be removed. It’s very difficult to reverse the gastric bypass.
(4) The benefits of the band outweighed those compared to other bariatric surgeries (i.e. quick recovery, lower mortality, fully reversible, no stomach cutting/stapling, no mal-absorption issues, etc.). This made banding more desirable.
(5) In all my research, I found that patients who had the Swedish Adjustable Gastric Band had better results then those who had the mid-band (not done in the United States) or lap-band procedure. When I went for my consultation, I asked the Doctor why the Swedish Adjustable Gastric Band (SAGB) was not done in the Unites States. He was astonished I even knew about this. Then I was even more FLABBERGASTED to learn it WAS RECENTLY approved in the United States. The best news was this Doctor was one the rare Doctors in NJ who was approved to do this procedure. That’s all I needed to hear.
(6) The biggest reason I decided to go with the lap-band was personal interaction. I know about 10 people who had the gastric bypass done. Of those 10 people, 7 look great and have kept off the weight. It was the other 3 that may be rethink gastric bypass. One person (a best friend) has the operation done 5 - 6 years ago. While she looks great, she is constantly dumping (puking) since the operation. There was scar tissue, and other complications, and she was in and out of the hospital almost weekly. It’s to the point now that she is now very sick, and the doctors don’t know how to fix her. Her sister had the operation done, and you could never tell. It doesn’t look as if she lost a pound. And the final person I know (knew) died 3 weeks after the operation. So I knew this wasn’t the way to go for me.
Part 2 to follow…
Tags: diet, diet blog, fatblog, fatblogging, gastric bypass, gastric bypass surgery, healthy weight loss, lap band, lose weight, realize band, weight, weight loss, weight loss blogRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Weight Loss Inspiration, Weight Loss Methods
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