La_madam

you have one of the best NSV's the band can ever give....a child I can relate to the emotions you are feeling . I was unbanded 1 week ago due to eorsion. Amen to that! My feelings exactly I wishh you the best, and please fell free to PM me anytime there are 3 of us who were unbanded last week here on LBT, we can all help eachother through this new challenge and journey.

Francesca, you know you are in my thoughts. You know I'm here for you my friend. I'm glad you are home. I will call you later in the week. Rest up

Good Luck tomorrow Penni, I wlll definately send good vibes your way. I hope the endo shows no signs of anything wrong with your band.

You are normal..not to worry

Jenna I have had thoughts like you, but I have come to realize that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. I'm loving my new life, I'm loving all the compliments and attention Iam getting. I'm loving the energy I have, the new mom and wife I have become. My husband and kids are benefiting so much from my weight loss. I have my life back! There is no way I want that to change. I have OCD in a bad way, so now my OCD has a new direction.. and that is keeping this weight off. I can not wait until next years Bash so I can show up and still be thin and bandless

This may sound strange but since I found out about my erosion it has gotten me thinking...... Almost all of the erosion cases I have heard about here and on other boards have all be from MX surgeons. There is something to be said about that. Could it be their technique in placing the band? Could it be the band itself? I know Inamed has a MX Inamed site with a MX distributor. Could they be made differently? Think about it ..all of the eroded bandsters here on LBt that I know of..Donali, Francesca, Karen, Catfanlover, myself and a few others I can not recall their names were all banded in Mexico. I even know of a few who are not on this board but were banded in MX and have had erosion. I can not recall one bandster that I know of who eroded and had surgery in the U.S. Are there any bandsters here who have eroded that had surgery in the U.S. ? If so please post

Well in my case this statement is totally flase. I was banded in TJ..I have seen my Dr. in Tj more in the last 19 mopnths then I have seen my regular Dr. here in California I have had impecable aftercare being banded in MX. In 19 months I have traveled to Tj atleast a dozen times, if not more and I still eroded.

Pati, do not be afraid. There are good and bad with every surgery. There are risks and complications with every surgery. We all know them going in. Some of us are less fortunate then others.I feel it is important to hear the good bad and the ugly, we all need to be aware .. yes I had erosion, yes I had bowel obstruction but I also have lost 106 lbs. Without my band it would of never happened. My band gave me my life back. Over the last 19 months I have learned many things and have changed my lifestyle in regards to how and what I eat. I hope and pray it stays with me now being bandless and I can manitain my weight loss. If I never lose another pound...I'm happy ....My band did it's job, no doubt about it!

Sue, so glad you are doing well. You have been on my mind for the last week. I wish you the very best with this new journey, I hope the DS and you have a long happy life together

Hey everyone, I wanted to check in with all of you to let you all know Iam home from TJ and bandless. I'm doing amazingly well emotionally...physically however I do have some pain. I found out what caused my erosion....we all know they stitch the band in place..well when I had bowel obstruction surgery Dr. Ortiz was concerned about a stitch he saw which is why he was so adamant of me coming back in 6 months for another endo, sure enough after reading my endo report and viewing the dvd the endo doctor gave him there is no doubt in his mind what so ever that the 1 single stitch caused the band to erode, the good thing coming out of this is Dr. Ortiz said and I qoute " you will be saving alot of peoples bands with this info, Iam going to a lap band conference in Feb and I'm going to take your reports and submit and share this info with Dr.'s all over the world and with Inamed" .( he did not even let me take my reports home, he wants them for this conference) So me losing my band is not such a bad thing if it will help others to not lose theirs. I'm taking one for the team here I'm in a good place with all of this, I truly am. I'm ready for the challenge of maintaining my weight loss. For those of you who have not had an endo, go and have one, just becuase there are no symptoms does not mean everything is good. Dr. Ortiz reccomends an endo between 18 months to 2 years out. Having it done at a year is useless in his opinion. Thanks to all of you for your awesome support and love, It isso greatly appreciated I will continue to be hear for support for myself as wel las offer it to others. P.S. Dr. Ortiz and Martinez oth told me it wil lfeel like I still have abvand due to the ring of scar tissus that was produced while I had the band..So I will pretend to still be a bandster, eat like a bandster and follow the rules like a bandster.

Jenna, since you are an Ortiz patient I will tell you what he told me. Ortiz & martinez like their patients to have an endoscopy at the 18 month to 2 year post op mark. If erosion occurs it will usualyy occur in this timeframe and Iam an example of that. I had an endo at 1 yr while under the knife for my bowel obstruction surgery and had no erosion. I had a fill in July and no erosion. My erosion happened between the 15th and 19th month post op . Everyone should have an endo after 18 months post opaccording to Dr. Ortiz . I had my 2nd endo 19 months post op ...Francesca also had her endo at the 17 month post op and she had erosion. Call Dr. Martinez he will tell you what he told me.

I'm amazed at how good I feel. I went back to work as a waitress on Thursday and worked all day as well as today. I'm on liquids for the next week but hunger is not even an isuue, so strange to say that but I'm sure it is due to all the bloatedness and swelling I still have from surgery. My incisions look great and are healing beautifully. According to Dr. Ortiz he stitches the same way on all of his patients, this does NOT mean all of his patients erode, it means my body just rejected the stitch, it festered there and caused the erosion.

The band was not designed to only live on liquids, if you PB again, get a small ammount removed. As little as .2 cc's will make the biggest difference in being able to eat solids but still give you enough restriction to lose weight. have him take you down to 2.1 or 2 cc's, You had a big jump from 1.6 to 2.3...Good Luck and keep us posted

I asked my Dr this exact question this past week while having my band removed and he told me it is very rare in lap band patients but more common in gastric bypass patients...bowel obsturction is usually caused my adhesions and since the lap band is done laproscopically adhesions are minimal unless of course you have had prior stomach surgeries like I have ( 3 c- sections) .My bowel obstruction was caused from the weight loss and the adhesions ( scar tissue from my 3 c-sections) the tubing got wrapped around my intestines since after my weight loss it had more room to move around in there. I hope this helps you some

It is usually humid this time of year atleast I know for sure in November it is..was there on Thanksgiving a few years back and I wore shorts in the day time

Linda, I wish you the best

Lisa, hopefully these results can put your mind at ease a bit atleast until you see a band doctor or have an endo. I'm happy for you your band looks good..if anyone desreves that, it is definately you for all that you have endured.

I can be rebanded in 5-6 moths if I so chose, he said erosion a second time is less likely since there is only 1 way to originally place the band but after erosion they use the scar tissue to adhere the 2nd band and he sees less cases of erosion. Yes he told me I will still have restriction from the scar tissue built up from where the band is and he left it in palce in the event I may want another band. I just took my antibiotics and trust me it still feel like I have a band. I asked him why he left the stitch, he said he was not 100% suree if would cause erosion but after seeing my endo results and seeing the DVD the endo Dr. gave him he now truly beleives this is what caused it. No doubt in his mind. Maybe removing that stich my band would of slipped? I should of asked that question, and Paula thanks for the hershey bar..you are a sweetie I hope you enjoyed it as much as I would of I'm just happy to know my erosion was nothing I did, I was a good bandster with just a case of bad luck but again the band did it's job,. No way could I have lost 106 lbs in 19 months without it. It gave me my life back!

Ortiz told me the mintue he cut the band the stitch popped right out just like he thought it would

I agree with this, when I had bowel obstruction I was at 2.5 cc's.. I was unfilled for 2 months and when I went to get filled again I could only go to 1.5 cc's ans was there for 4 months and lsoing and it was better restriction then I had at 2.5 cc's. I asked Dr. Martinez about this and he told me many bandsters who are unfilled do not go right back to their fill level due to things shifting , esophagus healing etc....he said he sees better restriction in patients who were unfilled and re filled to a lower ammount. It was definately true for me

Jen have faith, one of our LBT bandsters had slippage( jopnathan) and 1 week on liquids with no fill his band has positioned back into place. Lets hope the same happens for you too. Keeping my fingers crossed and wishing you the best Maybe send Jonathan a private message and get the scoop about his slipped band. Here is his thread you can read. http://www.lapbandtalk.com/showthread.php?t=12163

Jonathan this is such fantastic news! I am so happy for you

I know several people who have had this done since my Dr. in TJ has done several of them, I seem to meet a new patient who had bypass and now has the band.everytime I go to Tj You can go to his website and post a thread there and hopefully get answers from those who have had it done There is Linda and Gayle over at the other site he has a thread specifically set up for this topic www.lapbandforum.com

Penni, sorry ot hear you lost your fill, but better to be on the safe side...you will do just fine, you can do this and besides it wont be too long with NO fill. I'm proud of you for going in an having an endo, you are doing the right thing . Iwill be praying for you that all your tests come out negative