Hello everyone! Well this page is all about me!! I currently live in a small town in Texas. I have lived here since 1997. Originally I am from Southern California. I am 36 yrs old currently. Currently I live in "Small Town Texas" with my two boys, ages 13 and 15. My youngest son Zachary, has autism. Sometimes he can be quite a challenge, but for the most part he is a joy. I have high hopes that one day he will go to college, with a little assistance. I am very lucky that he is high functioning. He does not speak as you or I do, but he talks and can communicate. If you would like to learn more about autism, please visit http://www.cureautismnow.org/

My oldest is 15, his name is JJ (Josh Jr. but we call him JJ for short). You can go take a look at his web page as well. Click here.

A brief history about my weight: I was chubby as a child, and starved myself as a teen. I kept the weight off for the most part, and only gained what I have now after having 2 children. (That'll do it!)

To really understand who I am, you would have to know that I spent some time in the Navy! Yep, I was a hospital corpsman for 4 years. (To the civilian, that means nurse!). I got out of the Navy and went into home health. I did home health (Along with other odd jobs) for 10 years until 2003. After the birth of my second son was when I got up to my highest weight of 300lbs. I went on a liquid diet and lost 50 lbs and that is where I stopped. I have been tossing the same 75lbs or so back and forth since 1994.

 In 1999 I got a divorce from my first husband and decided that I wanted to go back to school. I went back to school when I was 29 years old and took 18 months to get a two year degree in Computer Information Systems. Yeah, I worked my booty off while working home health jobs. I needed to, I had to get some kind of income coming in!!

Right out of college I quit my home health job, and I landed a fabulous job in the town near by where I became a computer repair technician and also part of a small ISP's  internet tech support team. I had already been repairing other peoples computers since around 1997 ( hey, when I say I have a hobby, I have a hobby!). Now I do it for a living.

About my lapband (hence the name of this web page!). I started researching the Lapband in 2002 pretty heavily for a friend of mine who weighed over 600 lbs. (Click here to see pics of Mike!)I had heard about the lapband being in clinical trials before then. So I added myself to a bunch of email lists found at yahoogroups.com. And I sat back and learned.

My friend eventually did get the lapband and I was happy for him. He had Medicaid cover the procedure. By this time I was seriously considering the lapband for myself but I didn't have insurance and I sure as heck didn't have the $16,000-$20,000 it cost to have surgery in the US! So I kept putting it on the back burner. I went on the Atkins diet when I weighed 257lbs. I lost 40 lbs and kept it off for 2 years. Then my doctor changed my thyroid pill because he had heard of some new fandangled approach to "doctoring" the thyroid. THAT was a mistake! I gained all my weight back plus more!! (and changed doctors!)

In January 05 I found myself weighing 274lbs. On my 5ft 6" frame, you can imagine how I felt! So once again I joined back on the email lists and I kept applying for loans, tried to refinance my house, ANYTHING I could to get the money I needed. By this point I already knew I would be having the surgery in Mexico. ($8200 vs $16,000....it was a no brainer!). So I thought long and hard about how I would be able to come up with the money to do it. Finally it hit me! A couple months back one of my current loan companies had offered to "re-up" my loan for a total amount of $4500. At the time they offered I was like, "Yeah right! So I can pay you guys for another 10 years? I don't think so!" and it wasn't even enough money so I sort of forgot about it. That was until I started thinking about my income tax return. Then it hit me! I was going to get back $4500 from my taxes!! I had already known that from the previous year, and nothing had changed so why not? So there I had the way! $9000. $8200 for the surgery and the other $800 in travel and hotel expenses.

So I was finally able to book my surgery for March 1st 2005. I am continuing on this long journey. No , it has not been easy by any means. But I will push forward, I WILL lose this weight!! I know I could not have done it without my lapband....or so I like to call him..."Antonio BANDeros" lol.

Seriously though, I love helping people, and I know how nervous I was before surgery, and I know all about culture shock. But I also know that I wouldn't trade my experience OR my surgeon for anything in the world. So if you are still considering, doing the research, or even ready to schedule surgery, drop me a line! I would be happy to talk with you about the Lapband. Not considering surgery in Mexico? I would still be happy to talk with you! You can email me anytime at tracy@tracyslapband.com

If you would like to be contacted by patient coordinator who works with Dr. Aceves, please click here.