Why the band?

So....thought I would take today to talk about why I want the band, why I'm not banded yet and what I'm hoping to do about the situation.

I've always battled my weight...most people can relate to being the chubby kid on the playground. I was also always pretty active - a child of the 80's and growing up in South Carolina, most days I could be found on my bike or walking through the woods near my house challenging creepy killers (who always seem to reside in the backwoods of the south...lol) as well as bugs and snakes of all sizes to catch me if they could. I played softball through middle school and the first couple years of high school. Once I wasn't playing softball anymore, I became Miss Activity Queen and joined all kinds of clubs and stuff. I also worked at a grocery store, bagging groceries and stocking shelves so I moved around a lot. I went to Arizona State for four years and that's when the weight started piling on. I didn't think much about it while it was happening since I was pretty busy going to school, working and dating my now husband. I don't regret the way I look in wedding pics or anything but I had already started gaining at that point. I tried losing weight off and on throughout this time...weight watchers, South Beach, good ol' calorie counting, working out. Joined Curves...quit Curves. Joined a gym a couple times...quit the gym a couple times.

I had a couple kids and that's when it really hit me! I had my youngest in 2007 and within the year after her birth, I gained 30 pounds!! The rate at which I was gaining was what really worried me. I also had gestational diabetes with both girls and Heart Disease and Type II Diabetes run in my family so that's no good either. (Through all this, I should also mention that my husband is a really big guy - 6'2" and over 450 lbs).

So I started looking into LapBand and watched one of the seminars on video. Then I made an appointment with True Results in November of 2008. My husband (much more skeptical than me) came with and we got a lot of good information but just didn't like the vibe of it. It seemed they were more interested in selling you the band than making sure it was the right decision for you and they really pushed the self-pay thing. Also, I went through this idea that surely I could do this one my own (even though I had failed up to that point). Two or three weight loss adventures later (only losing about 15 at each and ultimately ending up 5 lbs heavier than where I started), here we are.

So why, you may ask, am I not banded yet? Well, there were those doubts in the beginning but now that I've decided beyond any doubt to get a band, I seem to be stalled. My husband has access to some great doctors through his job and one in particular said she would put together a packet for us with a couple surgeon's names (the best here in the valley) and people who have had surgery with these doctors that we can talk to in order to get their take on things. It's taken FOREVER to get this info (we still don't have it) and my husband isn't too keen on moving on without it. We've also had a change in insurance coverage (we didn't change insurances...they just changed coverage) so now we're back to square one to make sure it's covered and everything we have to do, etc. Again, insurance is through my husband so I was hoping he would take the reins and look into it. He hasn't. While I'm a researcher by nature (and trade for that matter), it seems he thinks I should do all of it but he's getting lapband too so it just seems a little unfair.

I'm finding this post is taking much too long so I'll end my story here for now and maybe post more tomorrow. Ugh...definitely feels like a Monday.