To Band or Not to Band??

So I start school in a week and as a good little girl I decided to go get a physical (I'm due in October) as to not miss class... well needless to say I wasn't overly happy with myself. My blood pressure was up, and so was my weight- again.

I was so frustrated I almost cried. Right there on the spot, started to tear up.

Here's a bit of my family history- my dad and both of my grand fathers have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, my paternal uncle had a heart attack, my maternal uncle died just last July of either a heart attack or stroke (no autopsy but coroners best guess) and both of my grandfathers also have diabetes.

Now about my health, I've had high blood pressure since I was 16 (medicated at 18) and high-ish cholesterol (nothing medication worthy). I have hypothyroidism and had gestational diabetes with both of my pregnancies.

I have battled my weight my entire life. Early childhood I was moderately overweight, teens I became overweight by text book definition, late teens obese, post pregnancy morbidly obese.

And for four years I have actively tried to diet. I tried to go vegetarian, south beach, atkins, weight watchers, nutrisystem. None of it worked for me. Weight watchers was the closest as I did manage to lose 50 lbs and keep it off (but that was also a month after giving birth for the first time).

I'm at my wits end.

So standing there on the scale at my doctors office I decided enough is enough. And what a better place and time to discuss weight loss surgery.

After weighing some pros and cons my doctor full heartily told me that if I decide to go down this road she will support me 100%. Told me to call my insurance and find out if it would even cover surgery and then do some research on surgeons.

So that's what I've been doing for the past 48 hours... living and breathing blogs, youtube videos, and lapband communities. I've narrowed it down to a few doctors in the area that are covered by Tricare Prime insurance (which BTW covers the surgery at 100% cost if you're more than 100 lbs over weight and have a comorbidity like high blood pressure. And unlike most insurances they do not have a 6 month waiting period.)

Its a heavy decision and its weighing on me... no pun intended.