When it comes to weight loss surgery, thousands of patients like Stephanie Gaida are complaining about the popular lap band procedure. "I vomited nearly every day for two years." Insisting for them ... it just doesn't work." "Two years later, I had never lost any weight."
Not even a single pound and her lap band was supposed to change her life. "I felt like a failure. Everybody I know was looking at me -- there she is, another diet she tried and it didn't work. I even had a physician say the band didn't fail you, you failed the band."
Doctor Wade Barker is a weight loss surgeon. He often performs the lap band procedure. "There is a group of patients that do not respond to the band initially." Because of that, he believes there is a better alternative. "My personal preference is the bypass." Over the long term he says, the gastric bypass surgery is much more successful then the lap band. "With the bypass you go from a football size stomach to a stomach about the size of your thumb."
Stephanie Gaida, weight loss surgery patient. "I went from a size 24 to a 10 in about 8 months." She opted for a gastric bypass following her lap band failure. "It was wonderful. The surgery was not a big deal. They did it laproscopically. I had five little bitty incisions." Stephanie lost over 100 pounds.
Dr. Lori Golden, Psychologist. "You can't rely on surgery alone to fix the problems." "It's true. Weight loss professionals all agree, even after weight loss surgery, psychological counseling is a must." "Until you address the underlying aspects of the overeating, the weight can come on over and over again." Stephanie says her involvement with weight loss support groups that meet daily, is the key to controlling her food addiction and keeping the weight off. "You have to get a handle on that. because there is no doubt in my mind that I am a food addict, always have been." Now she says she's conquered those food addictions, thanks to counseling and of course her gastric bypass surgery.
