I'm not being critical but the deal with the band is that you HAVE to take small bites and chew well. You have to learn what foods will always get stuck. For me and a lot of others, anything stringy will get stuck, whether its meat or vegetables or cheese. Good luck with the sleeve tho.

I agree with you Donna and im not here to put anyone down i know that life with the band is hard. I know that i cant eat BBQ or stew meat or any kind of hard meat but I am the same i will not eat mushy food if i don't have to. mushy foods slip right through the band and you feel hungry again at least do. Its a learning thing and you have to learn how to do things all over again. If it hasn't worked in three years then yes i would be VERY pissed and want something different too. I cant blame you. I would find a new doctor and tell him your problems and see if he can help you out with the band and if not then i wish you the very best of luck with the sleeve.

Read your blog quickly, and the one thing that jumped out at me is your statement "I have done nothing but fight with this band"

One thing I learned, is that the band takes control of me. I cannot fight it. people call it a tool, which I do not like the term. A tool is something I use, I have control over.

The band has control over me. The sooner I learned that lesson, that I needed to change to the way the band works, the sooner things began to work for me.

There are a lot of success stories with the band. If you read them, though, one thing stands out loud and clear. The band works to the extent that you work the band. In other words, it's one method with rules, kind of like being a member of a committee that wrote its bylaws before you joined.

From what I've read, to be successful, one must learn the rules, read the bylaws and follow them. After 3 years, you gotta know that you can't eat a chunk of beef unless you can blast it into smithereens. The band doesn't work that way.

If we want to do what we've always done, we'll always get what we've always gotten. In this case, no weight loss. I know adjusting to the band's rules will be hard, but that is what I prefer to the danger of the other surgeries. The sleeve is the latest hot topic. But for me, removing a large portion of my stomach, with no reversal ever, seems a huge risk that I really prefer not to take.

However, not losing weight is dangerous as well. So I guess you do whatever will work for you. Best of luck to you, in any case.

Thanks for the responses. I did meet with a nutritionist recently for some tips, and I have an appointment next week with a new bariatric doctor. I need to read up on how to live with this band before making any drastic decisions. Does anyone recommend any good books for post-band living?