Gastric Band Success
With obesity becoming an increasing problem in the UK and other westernised countries, weight loss surgery is becoming a popular alternative to lose weight when more conventional forms of dieting have failed. Below are two success stories about people who have undergone laparoscopic adjustable gastric band surgery.
Heather
Heather Burgess is 57 and has had a weight problem all her life. She remembers her mother taking her to the doctors when she was seven because she weighed seven stone. Her teenage years were not much better and even though she managed to lose a couple of stone, she settled at eleven stone until she was married and became pregnant. After the birth of her third son, Heather tipped the scales at sixteen stones. For 35 years she tried every diet that she could find, however all proved unsuccessful. Five years ago she started to experience obesity related health problems and after seeing her GP realised that she needed to do something about her weight to avoid an early death.
Two years later she weighed 20 stones and was a size 30. Utterly depressed and miserable Heather decided to have gastric band surgery. A week later Heather had a private consultation with a different doctor who agreed that a gastric band would be a good option for her. After agreeing to all the criteria, she booked her operation. Nine months after the surgery, Heather has managed to lose seven stones and is down to just over thirteen stone. Her medical conditions have greatly improved and she is amazed by her achievement. Heather puts her success down to not thinking the gastric band is a miracle for weight loss but rather a powerful tool to help her along the way.
Rose-Marie
Rose-Marie Gilbert had been overweight all her life. She describes herself as “a fat child, a fat teenager and a fat adult”. She went on her first diet at the age of 20. Her first diet was a strict 1000 calorie a day diet and she says the weight began to fall off however the lowest she could get down to was 13 stone and a size 16. After ending the diet she began to regain the weight. Rose-Marie tried numerous diets over the years, but always ended up in the same cycle of losing weight only to put it back on once she had resumed her normal eating habits. Then one day she saw a television programme about a woman who had had gastric band surgery. As soon as the programme had finished she started to research the surgery online.
Five months later Rose-Marie was in Lyon waiting for her operation. At 5’3” and weighing 20 stone she had decided that this was the only option for her to take. Two hours after going to the operating room for surgery, Rose-Marie was awake on the ward and her husband was telling her how well the operation had gone. She was up and walking later that day and two days later she was back in England. Six weeks later Rose-Marie returned to Lyon for her first ‘fill’. Rose-Marie began to lose weight steadily at a rate of around 2.5 pounds a week. 18 months later, Rose-Marie is now down to 11 stone and her weight loss has evened out. She is really happy to be able to buy clothes from high-street stores and is delighted to finally be able to maintain her weight.
