By 2000, April Hochstrasser had tried traditional ways of losing weight -— diet plans and exercise — with no success. At five-foot-eight, the Tacoma, Wash., communications consultant weighed 270 lbs. and, because of her size, suffered from chronic knee pain. April had looked into gastric bypass surgery but decided she didn’t want to make permanent changes to her stomach.

Then she read about a promising alternative: the reversible LAP-BAND procedure, during which a device is placed around the stomach to reduce its capacity. April had the LAP-BAND surgery five years ago, and since then, she has dropped about 75 lbs. Is she glad she did it? Yes and no.

Pros and Cons

Her knees, she says, feel much better. And it’s hard to argue with a weight loss this significant. But April wishes she’d been better informed about the consequences of her surgery. To help others who may be considering going under the knife to battle obesity, she wrote The Patient’s Guide to Weight Loss Surgery: Everything You Need to Know About Gastric Bypass & Bariatric Surgery.

“You have to be psychologically ready for any consequences,” she advises. In her case, she found she needs to eat her meals — many small ones — before the early evening or she suffers painful gastric reflux and, as a result, has trouble sleeping. Also, she says, “as a heavy eater, I was taking big bites and not chewing well, which is generally the way people eat.” Now if she eats too quickly, she throws up. She also discovered she still needs to diet to lose the 10 to 15 lbs. she wants to keep dropping every year. “Now I’m on Atkins!” she says. Her message to anyone considering a bypass procedure? “It’s not as easy as it sounds!”