I decided after many years of being overweight, since retirement from the Coast Guard, to have Lap Band Surgery done after watching how suscessful my son's turned out a year ago. Since March 2009 my son has lost 175 lbs. It's funny how things change as you get older. My son is now my mentor and I'm the mentee. I will be having this surgery on May 13th at 10:30 AM and will be staying overnight in the hospital due to Medicare regulations. The doctor says the operation should only take about 1 hr. Please, if you can remember to keep me and my family in your thoughts and prayers, I would appreciate it. I'll keep you posted on my recovery and weight loss. Since I made the decision to have this surgery I have lost 22 lbs on my own as the doctor suggested I do. This is to help shrink the liver so there is less stress on it as it is moved around during the surgery. I started at 350 lbs the last week of March and weighed in at 328 lbs yesterday May 6th. I hope to shed another 5 lbs before the 13th.