Keith McEwen MD- hear from your lapband surgeon

BARIATRIC SUCCESS STORIES

Ed’s Lap Band Story

Surgeon:  Keith McEwen MD

I am a 56-year-old automotive executive who has a family history of obesity. All of my family (both sides) are overweight and have struggled with this issue. I have been on every diet in the alphabet, but with limited results. After gaining and losing for 45 of my 56 years, I finally reached the conclusion that I needed medical science to overcome my genetic shortcomings. I set out to study all of the procedures available, and after a month of exhaustive review, came to the realization that the LAP-BAND® System was the right choice for me. I signed up for a seminar in July of 2006 and was immediately sold on this being the right decision, both from a procedure and surgeon standpoint. On August 23rd 2006, I went in for the surgery weighing 282 pounds with a 48” waist. The procedure went well, as I was an “outpatient” at a fabulous surgery center, that felt more like a luxury hotel, not a hospital (exactly what I needed),and began the journey of long term weight loss. After nearly six years, I am now at 170 pounds and wear 32” waist slacks and have never felt better in my life. I have the energy of a 30 year old (at least that is what my employees say) and have kept the weight off. Now I feel as though I should have done this 10 years ago! Dr. McEwen and his staff have been wonderful with my follow-up visits and have really encouraged me to come to seminars and tell my story, and share that there can be hope, and most of all, results from the pain of obesity.

A Step in the Right direction- Lap Band Indiana completes 5K

OCT 20 AT 6PM FREE WEIGHT LOSS INFORMATION

The Live My C.H.O.I.C.E. (Choosing Health over Obesity Inspiring Change through Empowerment)Contest Programs aims to raise awareness of the challenges -physical, emotional and financial -those 100 pounds or more overweight face to highlight the critical need to ensure access to effective treatment like weight-loss surgery.

Through this program, individuals will be selected to receive a LAP-BAND System procedure , performed by a certified LAP-BAND surgeon Dr Keith E McEwen, Indianapolis IN and one year of follow-up care, compliments of Allergan.  Visit Twitter@lapbandindiana to learn more or email cconwell@ecommunity.com    website www.lapbandindiana.com

To Enter The Contest:

The Conest runs from September through December, and to qualify you must meet one of three criteria: have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of at least 40; have a BMI of at least 35 with one or more serious comorbid conditions; or at least be 100 punds over your ideal weight as determined by a physician.

To enter, submit a short survey or video about your struggle with weight and why you think LAP-BAND System may help you. A family omember or close friend may also enter the contest on your behalf. For more information about the contest, including details on eligibility and to enter your story, go to http://www.LapbandChoiceContest.com

Additional ways to get involved with choice is to sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to recognize obesity is a disease, NOT a choice, focus on prevention and treatments, including weight-loss surgery.

Join the Facebook Cause Page (www.mychoicecampaign.com/facebook) and follow us on Twitter @ CHOICEcampaign.

Dr Keith McEwen Indiana Lap Band Surgeon

Please Think Less of Me

There’s nothing duller than talking about personal health ailments. Forgive me if you have been following my weight loss exploits on Facebook and have heard most of this before, but lots of people asked about it at Grand Lodge this week. So I’ll repeat it all here. Then I’ll shut up about it.

The truth is, I’m a short little squirt.

Doesn’t bother me, really. I grew up with a “little” brother who wound up at 6’10”, so I never festered with a Napoleon complex. And for the first half of my life, I wasn’t a butterball. But over the last decade or so, my weight has ballooned. Much of it has to do with going from film production work to sitting in front of a computer all day and night, and eating literally all of the wrong things, in industrial portions. (They pack Pringles in a can, so you can drink them.) Until now, it has been far easier to answer a doctor’s demand that I get in shape with quips like, “Round is a shape. Yuk, yuk, yuk,” than to actually do something about it.

The result is that I swelled up like a tick on a coonhound, to well more than twice the size I should be, and along with that have come all the usual suspects: high blood pressure, congestive heart, diabetes, swollen cankles like Hillary Clinton’s, the inability to see my own feet, and invitations to play the “Underdog” balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. After several years of dieting and losing the same 25 pounds, only to watch them come piling back on again with 10 of their friends like a bunch of sugared-up third graders at a Chinese smorgasbord, I decided to take a different approach.

Besides, I was tired of being followed by 8 guys in a rowboat armed with harpoons.

On May 6th, I went in to the hospital for lap band surgery. Lap band is a kind of bariatric surgery that does NOT have anything to do with stapling your stomach or rearranging your internal plumbing. It is a laparoscopic procedure that wraps a plastic ring, sort of like a wide wire wrap, around the top portion of your stomach to make it look like the first twist in a party balloon poodle sculpture, creating a restriction that only allows about 4 ounces of room at the top to fill up. Sort of like a gastric version of an LA cop chokehold…to read more from Chris follow his blog on http://freemasonsfordummies.blogspot.com/2010/05/please-think-less-of-me.html