Monday, August 20, 2007

When you just can't lose the weight...

Have you ever heard of lapband surgery? It's a medical procedure done to aid weight loss for obese people. The surgeon will wrap a silicone band around the upper part of your stomach to make a new smaller stomach, resulting in you feeling full with less food. I just recently heard about this myself when my husband's aunt was telling me she was looking into having this done.
A friend of mine -- actually, the one that just passed away this past week -- had her stomach stapled a number of years ago, and no, she didn't die because of that surgery -- she died from lung cancer. Anyway, I remember how scary it was when she had this surgery done to help her lose weight. She was cut wide open and of course left with a terrible scar on her belly, and she had to spend several days in ICU and then Step Down, then on to a regular hospital room for another few days. Yes, she lost weight, but to think that a procedure that will bring the same results of weight loss is so much easier done these days.

There's less trauma on the patient, as lapband is performed with laparoscopic surgery. So just a few tiny incisions instead of that big long scar to end up with, and no worry of popping a staple inside you should you end up overeating, which has been known to happen to people that had the stapling done. And a good thing about this type of surgery I think, is that the band can be adjusted to allow more or less food into your stomach, which in a sense customizes it to your specific situation.

I hope my husband's aunt goes for this surgery. Although she's a pretty active person, working a busy full time job as a homecare worker, she's a very large person, which I strongly believe has a lot to do with genetics. She suffers from sleep apnea and she's also a diabetic, and although she's just on pills and diet at this time, she's really only a short road from having to take insulin. So this kind of surgery would certainly help her overall health.

Olivia


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