Dark Ranger

In April 2008 I had a lapband installed as my tool for weight loss. It worked well for a couple of months and then the restriction started to go away. For several more months the doctors and I tried to get it back to where I had restriction again, but after many months of making no improvement they gave me some tests and discovered that I had an erosion and the band was no longer around my stomach. They removed it within days, in April 2009, which was almost exactly a year from when it was put in. They suggested we let my stomach heal for 6 months before doing anything else. After that time was up I opted for anothe band as they did not do sleeves yet at that time. So, I had a second lapband installed in October, 2009. I had rather good success with the second band for over a year and then the access port flipped. This meant that they could no longer access the port and it also caused the tubing to push out against my skin. So, in November 2010 I had a port revision to fix that issue. After that surgery it was okay for a month or two and then I started getting really bad reflux. For the next two years I fought with that and trying to get the right adjustment that would have the right amount of restriction but not cause reflux. Unfortunately, it just kept getting worse and they decided to run some tests. It was discovered that the band had slipped down my stomach. That is what was causing the reflux. They informed me that the band would have to be removed again and that I could not have another. My only options were to have bypass, sleeve, or go without. Since the sleeve was now an option I happily chose that and am happy with my choice.