timetobefree

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I was banded in Nov 2009 at 374 lbs. I had a long road to restriction, but once I got it, I rocked my band. To be perfectly honest, I probably kept it a bit too tight, but I LOVED the lack of hunger when my band was on the tighter side. For the first time in my life, I did not think about food 24/7. It was awesome! I followed the rules to a "T", and the weight slipped off.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]From my banding until Dec 2011 (2 years), I lost 198 lbs. I was thrilled! Despite the occasional PB and inability to eat certain foods, I was still 99.9% happy with my band. Right after Christmas this year, however, I got a terrible upper respiratory infection. I coughed and coughed and coughed. I coughed until I puked. The cough lingered and turned into terrible reflux. After about two weeks of the coughing and reflux, I went to my primary care physician, because even drinking the tiniest bit of fluid caused me severe back pain. Long story short, I was diagnosed with a slip. While "they" claim it wasn't the coughing, I have no doubt that the severity of my cough caused it to slip.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I got a complete unfill in early January. After not eating or drinking for weeks, I'd lost 200 lbs total. I was looking awesome! But the unfill was heavenly - I could eat! And eat I did, unfortunately. Once the slip was fixed, I started getting fills again. By late May, I was back up to 8 cc in my 14 cc band. I had good restriction, but I needed a bit more. I went in for one more small fill, and when I walked out, I had ZERO restriction. I went back later that week, and my surgeon was only able to remove 4 cc of the nearly 9 cc that should have been in there. He put the 4 back in along with 5 more. I walked out with ZERO restriction once again. Despite his claims that "bands can't and don't leak", a little googling proved that bands leak quite often, so I found a new surgeon to discuss my options with.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I've gained back more weight than I care to admit.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]I found a new surgeon, Dr. Domkowski, who finally treated me without acting like I was crazy, as my last surgeon did. Based on his recommendations and test results, we decided to do the removal and sleeve in two separate surgeries.[/font][/color]


[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][color=#282828]Dr. D removed my band on August 3, 2012. Because of the extent of damage done by the band, including scarring and pulling the fundus through the diaphragm, I am waiting around four months to be sleeved, likely late November 2012.[/color][/font]