WASaBubbleButt

For 8.5 months now my band is sitting in an OR baggie on my dresser while I think up a way to kill it before it spreads its evil to others. Wanna know the truth? For a long time I thought I was the only person with such severe band problems. I told a few people I wanted to revise to a sleeve but I was afraid to announce it here because I would be the band loser that I am. There was only one person that I found in the beginning that had sooo many problems with that piece of crap. I went on saying the band was great because I really thought I was in the minority with the kind of band problems I was having. The one person that had the SAME problems as me was Julissa, another poster here who went on to revise to bypass just a few weeks ago. I didn't lie, I honestly thought the band was a great thing for most people. I didn't want my weird ass band problems to discourage someone else from getting banded. What was I supposed to say? I did not slip, I did not erode, I did not have pouch dilation, no esophageal dilation, just band intolerance. What is that? A nut diagnosis? I've learned a LOT since I had my band removed. I am not in the minority, I am in the MAJORITY. The band sucks. Every newbie loves their band, they see the scale moving. To hell with the puking and various forms of stoma spewing, so what that you can't eat in public for fear of hurling up some slimed piece of restaurant food. The scale is moving. What else in life matters? Heck, I put my marriage on the line over the band. I wanted weight loss like I wanted nothing else in life. I was determined to make this work. I exercised every single day, hard cardio for 1-2 hours daily minimum. That's why I don't have any sympathy at all for people who whine that they don't like exercise, they don't want to, they don't have time. Total crap, if you had time to research the band, have surgery, and go through all that you have time to exercise. I hated exercise too, still do. But it's like cleaning the toilet. It's something you have to do. My symptoms... everything except slips, erosion, and dilation. I may not have had those but I had everything else. You know what I have come to realize? I know exactly what band intolerance is now. It is not a psych diagnosis, it is a physical problem. You know how everything affects restriction? Time of day, time of month, weather, temp, temp of food (hot, room temp, cold), stress, emotions, bloody everything. What will make another person a little tight would make me obstruct. If my food was hot or cold, my stoma would clamp shut. EVERYTHING had to be room temp including protein shakes. If I was the least bit on edge, it would clamp shut. If I was just a little annoyed with a phone call ... that meant I couldn't get water down. I would slime on water with an unfilled band. If everything was going perfectly, I was not rushed, stressed, moody, etc., I could guzzle water. If someone called and said they'd be 10 minutes late I might be just a little bit annoyed and that's all it took. My band was shut tighter than a virgin on prom night (phrase stolen from a great x-poster here). I could eat steak without hardly chewing when things were good. If the setting was anything but perfect I'd slime on water. Then Mr. Bubblebutt and I decided to split and with all his game playing and usual couples "stuff" I couldn't get any solids down for 4 months. Now, I had been asking my doc for a revision for a few months and he declined, he didn't feel the risk outweighed the benefits. He felt I had learned to work around the problems, I was at goal, I was doing well. He just felt it was an unnecessary surgery. Then when I couldn't get anything but liquids down for months then he started pushing for a revision. He'd email reminding me that he was looking at his OR schedule and my name wasn't on it. I was going through my 2nd guessing, wondering if all this was in my head, I just didn't know what to do. Finally I was losing a lot more weight than I wanted to or intended to. So I finally scheduled the revision. I had esophageal spasms (verrry painful), esophageal damage resulted in the end, stoma spasms, reflux, an inability to eat solids, I never wanted to eat in public unless it was with another banded person. I'd go to lunch with Denise but never someone that didn't have a band because they wouldn't "get it". My voice was starting to sound like a cross between a frog and a boy in puberty... esophageal damage. My teeth were suffering from barfing. It was a non stop battle between me and my band. I hated it, I resented my band and there were days if I would have known how I would have ripped it out myself. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and scheduled the sleeve. My biggest fear was that the sleeve would make my problems permanent and forever. THAT is why I was dragging my feet, I was scared to death that this was never going to end. I couldn't decide between banded life and fat. It really is a hard decision. Finally my doc just looked at me and asked me to trust him. I DO trust him, so I left it at that. Life has never been better since after the post op diet. I don't keep plastic bags in every room, my purse, my car, my desk, and everywhere else to barf in. I don't need them anymore. I have no food intolerances AT ALL. I eat four small meals a day. I don't struggle in the least to maintain. I don't exercise much because I don't need to. I have my life back AND I'm thin. There is no way to describe the difference between life with a band and life without. I did not know that I am not the minority, I am the majority. Maybe most don't experience things to the same degree that I did, but they experience it. No sweet spot,.. you know... when I was sleeved and started on solids I was in for the shock of my life! I had NO clue what REAL restriction was all about. Holy crap! what a concept! I realized how much I had been white knuckling it unless, of course, life was not ohhh sooo perfect and I couldn't drink water. THIS is easy, banding is HARD! In my heart I can never suggest banding to anyone. Stats show you are going to lose half your excess weight on a temporary basis. Sure, some beat the odds... I did. But I paid dearly for it. All this time I could have had a damn sleeve! A band IS a ticking time bomb. It may not mess up today, but you can bet it will tomorrow or the day after. I dare you to do something... out of the thousands and thousands of posters posting here, find five people that have had a band for 10 years or longer. Just five. Not 500, just five. Try it. Find them, introduce me to them. I want to see how well they like their band. I'll bet you can't find five people that are still banded and happy. Shoot, I'll bet you can't find five banded unhappy people. You know, I wasn't sure how or when I was going to tell everyone I got sleeved. Kira did it for me. Ooupss... she didn't realize I hadn't told anyone here or on my doc's board I was getting a revision. She was calling the hospital and when I was in recovery she announced it here, on OH, and my docs board I was in recovery. Heh... that was weird. I have a different ID for each board but all the regs know all my IDs. I've never hidden them. I don't even know why I have different IDs on various boards. Anyway, since I had my revision and I have been verrrry open about it I've had four docs contact me and tell me since Kira announced my revision and since I have been verrry open about it since that time they are slam dunked with revisions. None of us really wanted to talk about problems other than slips and erosion or dilation. Since I've been my usual vocal self people are realizing they are not alone and they are doing something about it. We ALL thought we were failures and we weren't. I was just lucky that I was determined enough to lose weight with the sucky band vs. falling into soft food syndrome and I grant you, that would have been easy but I didn't do it. I stuck to my guns, I wasn't going to go through all that and not lose, it wasn't going to happen. So if anything positive came out of the band in my case it is that I am very vocal and the reason that I am so vocal about how much the band sucks is because nobody else was speaking up about the "kind" of problems and the degree of problems I was having and I thought I was the only one. That's not even close to truth, now I realize it's COMMON and if my speaking up makes others realize they are not alone in band failure, all the better. I have not had a single day since 6/3/08, the day of my revision, that I haven't had a PM or email on here, OH, my doc's board, or someone giving out my name/email address where someone hasn't asked me about revision from band to anything else. Before my revision it was once in a blue moon someone would ask about a revision and what was necessary, who did them, how to get ins to cover, etc. Today it is DAILY. That's not us failing, that is the band failing. Again, the band is a great way to lose about 1/2 your excess weight on a temporary basis. Inamed doesn't even put their long term weight loss stats on their own website! They did for a short time and people were up in arms. Now they removed the numbers, the actual stats, and infer it's a LOT of weight loss. It's not a lot of weight, it's 55-60% of their excess weight. Big deal, if a 50+BMI person loses half their excess weight they are still obese in the end. That's not great. It's better than 50BMI but obese is not great. It's obese. Once in awhile I get PMs from people that have revised from band to sleeve and they mention that they feel sad when someone announces that they have a date, they are getting banded. For those of us that have been there we feel sorry for those folks because we know a majority of them are going to be in the same boat as us. I know the emotional turmoil, the feeling like a freak of a failure, the band problems, reflux, pain, etc. It's hard to be excited for someone when you know what their future is likely to hold. Re-ops for banding is between 30-50% depending on which study you look at and that's for those less than 5 years out! Check out OH boards. Just scan the topics under the band forum and compare it to the sleeve forum. Bands are all about they can't get restriction, they are stuck, they dilated their pouch and they are on liquids, they dilated their esophagus and they are on liquids, they are not losing well, etc. Then scan the sleeve boards. Most old timers don't post because they have no issues and problems. It's newbies posting to tell how great the weight loss is. I'll shout it from the damn rooftops! The band sucks! The sleeve rocks! No maintenance, no adjustments, no aftercare, no nothing. It's sew and go. Get surgery and go home. You are done. I gotta tell you, writing that felt damned fine!

We all have soft stops and hard stops. It takes time to learn what each person's is. For many it is a single hiccup. That is a soft stop. If you keep eating you get multiple hiccups. That is a hard stop. Some get a runny nose, some get left shoulder pain, some get back pain, some get a deep sigh. You learn your soft and hard stops. If you eat beyond your soft stop you are going to hurl, it's how it is. If you are indeed eating two pea size bites and getting a hiccup, you need a slight unfill.

I have a hunch it is BECAUSE it has been a week since the fires were fueled. There are good FillCentersUSA and bad ones. They are random health care providers throughout the country that contract with FillCentersUSA. Some are absolutely great, some aren't so hot. I do wish they'd tighten up the requirements to contract with them, at this point you don't even have to be an RN to do fills. That is something I fully disagree with. Some of their staff are MDs, some are NPs, some are RNs, some are LPNs, one is a non licensed paramedic. Me... I wanted an RN or more messing with my band. I ended up just going back to my surgeon, I felt better that way.

But... when someone fills up on crap food and small quantities of that crap food, it's a fantastic way to develop malnutrition, bone loss, loss of enamel on their teeth, low Vit D, low Vb12, low Calcium, low potassium, low sodium, low everything but fat and calories. At least when you are eating large quantities of crap food there is a little more chance of getting some amount of nutrition. It may take an entire pizza to get a day's worth of calcium but at least along with the fat, calories, and carbs they are getting something from it. Thing is, with these procedures you just HAVE to eat the quality food first or malnutrition WILL happen. For that reason I strongly disagree with this line of thinking. It can be potentially quite dangerous.

I have never worked in a hospital that included Protein Shakes, non broth soups, soy milk, evap milk, skim milk, or non fat milk as part of clears. Those are always part of fulls. It defeats the whole purpose of clears.

You know who the surgeon is that refers to it as stomach mutiliation, don't you? He's one that just happens to only do easy banding... nothing difficult for him! No sleeves, no bypass, only band revisions, and only those under a 50BMI. No wonder his stats are decent, he only does easy no risk surgery.

OMG, are you serious? Is this post for real? Regardless of what surgery type you have you won't have a choice. If you want to lose weight you are going to have to adjust your food habits. You can't eat junk and white carbs and expect to lose weight. You do not need: Bacon Eggs Cereal pancakes French toast Bread Muffins Biscuits Jelly Sausage Potatoes Corn Hamburger Helper Pasta Chicken fingers Fries Flap Jacks Pizza Garlic bread White rice Sausage balls Cake Mac & Chz Gravy Pudding Whole milk... don't you see butter chunks floating in there? Gahhh Fried rice Ice cream Hello? Why do you think you need WLS? 90+% of your diet is white carbs and fat. WLS is a tool to help YOU change YOUR eating habits. It's not a tool that you can eat garbage, lose weight, and maintain a healthy BMI. If you aren't willing to change your eating habits, you aren't going to lose weight. Period. You have to want weight loss badly enough to do what it takes and that means overhauling your eating habits.

Nuh uhh! Thinned full liquids are NOT like clears! Thinned fulls are just that, thinned fulls. Clears are broth, tea, Jello, cyrstal light, etc. Thinned fulls are a whole lot easier than clears! ;o)))))

I'd rather the conservative diet to be honest. With banding if you cheat on the post op diet you risk your band. With a sleeve or bypass if you cheat on the post op diet you risk your life. My doc (for sleeves and bands) is 10 days of clears, 10 days of full liquids, and 10 days of soft foods. He hasn't had a sleeve leak yet so I followed his instructions, I figure he knows what he's doing. It really isn't as hard as you think.

I know what you are describing but it really isn't dumping. You have a valve at the bottom of your stomach. That valve controls how fast your stomach empties. In Gastric bypass that valve is stapled off and food just pours into their intestine if their stoma dilates or if they consume high sugar liquids. THAT is dumping. In sleeved people our pylorus valve is still intact, it is not stapled off or bypassed and for that reason we don't dump. What can happen is that after ANY stomach surgery you can experience something where your colon basically goes into spasms. Somewhere I have a link that describes the two issues. While the symptoms of a spastic colon and dumping are very similar they are not the same at all as they have very different causes. Our will go away with a short amount of time, with bypass it may or may not go away.

A slip is when your stomach slides up through the band. It's not the band that moves, it's your stomach. Usually the back half of your stomach slides up your band and your pouch ends up much bigger.

If you are hiccuping that is a hard stop, meaning you are over eating. Try pea size bites, chew 30 times, swallow. Wait a full minute before putting another bite of food in your mouth. If you still barf before you hiccup ONE time, you are too tight. Your body is telling you to stop with the hiccuping. One hiccup is a warning, stop eating. More than one hiccup and you ate too much food.

Not to mention that the part that is removed is designed to hold a large quantity of food and pump out ghrelin, the hunger causing hormone. Who needs it? If my appendix was harming my health I'd toss it in the garbage. Same thing with my excess stomach.

Ohhhh, I missed this when you first wrote it. Soooo, if someone slips, erodes, experiences band intolerance, needs fills and unfills for life, this is all part of the cost of surgery, you never charge the insurance company (or patient if self pay) another dime after banding? Your staff disagree with this stance.

What kind of protein are they? Whey? Soy? Colligen?

Removing the band is pretty easy, the scar tissue is a whole different ball game. I had a revision done at the same time. But my esophageal damage was caused by the band, not the surgery to remove the band. That is one big reason I had revision surgery. Lap bands are not easy on your esophagus. I do believe esopohageal damage is common with banded folks.

Your best bet is to get the diagnostics done and see what it shows. A port infection does not mean erosion, but it can potentially cause an erosion. Get the test done ASAP.

I had my band removed 6/3. I still have esophageal problems caused by the band but it is finally much better. I still have to be careful when I swallow or I choke. I think it's part of the game. :thumbup:(

Actually, I was referring only to the adjustable bands. I wasn't even considering the non adjustable band, it's a whole different type of band in my mind. The longest AGB patient I have met in real time or on the boards is on OH, she's had hers for 7 years.

You looking for an honest answer to that question? ;o) Theoretically the band is supposed to last forever. But in over 2 years of posting on various band boards, the longest I have ever seen anyone keep it so far is 7 years. It's been in the US for 8 years, Mexico for 18 years, and Europe for over 20 years. We hear about all these people from all over (Europe, Mexico, etc.) but have you ever met one of these people? You'd think just one would post. ( I had my band for 18 months before I finally had it removed.

Sounds like the OP is on clears and the protein products you list are not clear Proteins. The clear proteins are gross, no way around it.

You have to get really specific with yourself before you feel better about the sleeve. Just what is it that you think can go wrong with a sleeve where you would want it reversed assuming it could be reversed? With a band lots and lots of things can go wrong with it. If it happens you remove the band and start all over again. If something were to go wrong with your sleeve you fix it and continue on with your life. Long term a sleeve is MUCH safer than a band.

Not really. There is one person on OH that is having a really hard time with a lot of issues. She is mortified because the stink was coming out through her skin. When a DS person farts the stench hangs on their clothes. There is a girl (I believe it was on OH, can't swear to it) that said she actually received written reprimands from her supervisor because of the smell. They thought she wasn't bathing. They moved her back to a desk in the back of the room because her coworkers were complaining about her odor. They finally fired her. Other people have talked about how they build an extra bathroom on the house so the DS person can poop their little hearts out without bothering the rest of the family. People have discussed all kinds of issues regarding odor. Suggestions for people in social settings, employment settings, etc. Nope ... not me. No way do I want to take antibiotics for the rest of my life so I don't have to change my eating patterns yet still lose.

The DSers discovered a new anti-stink product. I'm surprised they are all posting about their stink issues considering how many times they claim bathroom odor isn't an issue. Interesting thread: Sharing the poo smell with the neighbors They discuss "Just A Drop," and a few other products. You know.. honestly I think I would prefer obese vs. stink.

Why are you PBing so much? Are you not chewing well? Eating too fast? Eating too much? For most people the "full" feeling is different with a band vs. preband. Some people try to continue eating until they feel overly full sensation but it isn't going to happen because that sensation drives. Could it be that you are looking for the "old" full feeling and you are overeating? Restriction... Absolutely everything can affect restriction. Time of day, time of month, hydration, food temp, weather, swelling from PBing, stress, etc. Everything affects restriction. It's not unusual to be able to eat anything and everything and then the next day you get stuck on foods that should go down well. Do you have major medical insurance? If so, talk to your doctor about having a fill on fluoro for a diagnosis of something like reflux. Something unrelated to the band. I doubt you have eroded, there are so few symptoms with erosion. Usually the #1 symptom is no restriction at all regardless of fill level. A slip is possible but so is a dilated pouch. I'd get the fluoro.