“I can’t thank Dr. Kuri and his great team enough. I plan not only to continue learning about my band and eating healthier but to be a support for others who are banded and those who are thinking about it.”
Let me start by telling y’all a little about myself and this wonderful journey I’ve been on for the past 3.4 years. My name is Sassy (S. Lavergne) I’m better known as the “Banded Bandit”. I’m a 53 year old married mother of 2 great sons. A bonafide, pasteurized, notified, homogenized, diva, queen. I am a true southern belle (in every sense of the word) from a very small town in Louisiana. I use to weigh over 400 lbs. I chose to become healthier and thinner with the help of the band, Dr. Pedro Kuri and his team. I’ve made that choice a reality. Three years ago I awakened in a strange room in a small hospital in Tijuana Mexico with an IV in my arm. I had finally gone ahead and done it, I’d had Dr. Pedro Kuri put a lap band in me! I went on my own without telling any body (not even my husband).
I was never a fat person until after marriage and children (I weighed 115 lbs. in high school and was trying to gain weight I did and finally I weighed 130 -35 when I got married and I’m 5’7. I was so thin they called me spaghetti). My weight was never something I worried about (that’s why I weighed over 400 lbs). I have 3 seamstresses who sew for me (without a pattern). I could always get good fitting and great looking clothes (I design a lot of my own clothes). I never had low self esteem or felt bad about being morbidly obese. I didn’t have the typical problems or anxieties people my size had. I was and still am very happy with the kind of person I am inside as well as outside. I knew I needed to lose weight and I’d tried just about everything on the market from diet pills, diet plans, cabbage soup diet, the water diet, fasting, slim fast, to mention only a few. I tried several instruments of torture they choose to call exercise machines. (Oh by the way Richard Simmons will pitch a hissy fit if you mention my name to him, Jenny Craig is not taking my calls, Weight watchers refuses to watch me, they said they were not even trying to see me let alone watch me do anything! The mail-a-meal people won’t take my address and Nutra System has threatened me with a restraining order if I bothered them again). Whatever little success I achieved from diets and weight loss programs I quickly gained back more. I was active but not active enough I ate everything in sight and the wrong foods to much fat, fast, fried, and carbo filled foods. I was a (5 x queen size) that is until I decided to get banded. I had just about given up and resigned to eat myself into oblivion and be the fat diva Queen size that I was until one day I was waiting for a download and saw this popup about weight loss. I decided to look into it but knew it was somebody with another (miracle pill) that again wouldn’t work instead it was about the gastric bypass and other weight loss surgery including the band. I had researched the band about 6 months earlier but I needed to speak with someone who had it and I didn’t know anyone. I knew I didn’t want the bypass (that was to scary for me) so I looked into the band and Dr. Kuri’s site came up I did my research on him and was very impressed with what I read so I called the # and lordy me I got to talk to a real person. (I bothered that woman like a sweaty hog on a hot July day in Louisiana that just found a new cool, wet, mud hole to wallar in). I must have called her 30 times that week at least 6 or 7 times that day. She answered all of my questions. I made up my mind this band thing was for me but I had a 4 or 5 weddings to attend (and the FOOD) at least 3 graduation parties coming up to perform at (and the FOOD), also my family reunion (and the FOOD) in July. Oh did I mention (the FOOD) and this was the first week of May 05.
I was coming up with every excuse not to have it done until after July. I must admit (I was kindda fishing on both sides of the creek wanting to lose the weight but not wanting to really commit myself to the responsibilities of what it would take). What did it for me was she said do you know that by July you could gain 40 more pounds? Let me tell y’all I got a mental picture of me 40 lbs heavier and it was not pretty that was all it took. (I jumped on it
Like two starving, skinny ticks that just found a fat dog that’s too lazy to scratch). I asked her when was the earliest I could get it done. Now she asked me some questions and told me I had to go on this Liver Shrinking diet (LSD). Oh No I thought not another diet). I told her diets didn’t work for me but she said this one was different, I had to do it for the surgery and I would only have to do it for 3 weeks. I reluctantly gave in and she emailed me a date and the diet. I sent in my down payment and made my flight reservation after doing the LSD for 3 weeks I lost about 26 lbs. got on a plane and was off to TJ. Mexico.
I was banded in Mexico 6-3-05 by Dr. Pedro Kuri and his team. I was there for 5 days came home and followed the instructions they gave me for the next 10/11 weeks then I went back for my first fill. I stayed 3 days this trip (still no one knew). My journey has not been without the regular problems we bandsters have. I’ve also had other problems (not band related). Remember I weighed in at over 400 lbs before banding. Three months after banding (the week after my 1st fill) I had a heart attack and open heart surgery the day after hurricane Katrina hit us. When the Drs. told me they had to operate (I was as nervous as an old gator that was blind in one eye, couldn’t see out the other, with only one good ear and that one was infected, have arthritis in it’s good leg and it was broke also gator hunting season had just started). That’s when I gave in and told my husband, 2 sons and daughter- my oldest son wife. So no one knew until about 3 months after I was banded, that I was banded (That’s why I call my band the banded bandit). Dr. Kuri was so sweet he called several times while I was in the hospital and when I returned home. After the surgery the Drs. said I had to lose the weight or die I knew I would lose it because I was banded.( So far I’ve had 2 heart attacks, 1 heart surgery, a body lift and tummy tuck-in Mexico, a breast reduction in the states-removal of 8 lbs off my breast. I am now down from a 5 x to 18-20 and want to be at least size 14 W. My Drs. want me to lose 50-60 more lbs. and I will with the help of the band. The only regrets I have is that I didn’t do this years earlier. I thank GOD I found Dr. Pedro Kuri and his team. Getting banded was the best thing I could have done for myself, family, friends, and all the people whose life I’ve touched and also touched mine and been a part of. I must say Dr. Pedro Kuri and his team really did save my life and the band changed my life, or should I say helped me start a new healthier, thinner life. I have never regretted getting the band. I occasionally miss some foods and pigging out but as someone once said “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels”.
It has been interesting as I have learned to deal with food no longer being a great pleasure as well as a deadly enemy (morbid obesity anyone?) We have a saying in Louisiana “we live to eat” and I believed it, that was one of my biggest Problems. Since banding all that kind of thinking has changed. I’ve not only lost weight but have learned how to eat the right foods to continue to be healthier. I have tried some new stuff and had some successes as well as failures. I‘ve had seven or eight fills since I got my band; my last one was at bash. At that time I weighed about 245-47 pounds. Since then and after two weeks with a sinus attack I’ve went down to 232-35 pounds. It is very nice to be able to fit into clothes off the rack instead of having to have all my clothes made don’t get me wrong I still have clothes made but now they are a much, much smaller size and I look very, very good in them. It is very nice to be able to fit in a chair without fat hanging over the side and seeping out from under the space in the back, my waist is much smaller than my hips and not fighting for the extra space in my pants. It has been somewhat sad to ose some clothing and some people who I thought was “friends” (losing weight will do that) but I have been able to find replacements generally. I have gotten rid of almost all of my big girl clothes although so far I have kept a piece or two to show off where I once was. I enjoy being able to wear a size 16 and 18 again. When I run errands or go shopping I get strange looks from guys (the kind all us girls like to get). I figure at age 53 I can dress as I want as long as my hb isn’t unhappy with it. Would I do it again? You darn tooting I would — (I would be on it like popcorn I wouldn’t stop until the last one was popped). Now after 3.4 years banded, 191 #s down , healthier, (smaller than I was when I got HITCHED), and looking very good, fine, and sexy for an over 50 year old woman as y’all can tell I am very pleased, happy and elated about banding and the benefits it has brought to my life. I truly am living the banded life and loving it. I can’t thank Dr. Kuri and his great team enough. I plan not only to continue learning about my band and eating healthier but to be a support for others who are banded and those who are thinking about it. If you have a weight problem there’s only one thing I have to say IF YOU FIT THE PROFILE “CALL Dr. Pedro Kuri get yourself down to Mexico and get banded NOW!!” “DR KURI AND HIS TEAM IS THE BEST”
