marguerite

So much to say. As it is, will just say, bsmith thank you so much for your honesty. You are brave and you have guts and that will take you a long way. You too, Iggychic. I remember your story even if it has been removed. Think of us all here as little iClouds of storage. You can't remove my memories, doc! Well anyways I am an ex-banded person with my own damage. And I am angry but more importantly, much more aware about alternative pathways to being happy and at peace. There was so much "hard sell" going on around the band a few years ago. I got caught up in that. It's been said that in a few years no surgeons will be installing bands anymore. That's pretty fast for a medical cycle? Maybe it wasn't tested long enough?

Hi SwiftKate, I might be able to add something to the discussion. Four years ago I had the lap band inserted. After 2 years it slipped up towards the esophogus and big problems resulted. So all the fluid was removed. (lots more to say about the whole experience but that's for another post). So now I had the stupid band with minimal constriction. It took me another two years to work up the courage for more surgery (and a relatively unproductive one at that). I didn't go for revision for 2 reasons: 1) was going through the public system and they only do removal and implanting of lapbands, no sleeves. 2) I have a sneaky feeling that scar tissue from banding boosts the chance of complications far beyond what I am comfortable with. A few weeks after the band was removed, I spoke to the surgeon about getting a sleeve. He showed me the pictures of my scarred stomach, and strongly advised me to put off any weight-loss surgery for at least a year, maybe longer. Too dangerous, not necessary, only rich people are getting the sleeve because they need to look good, etc. etc. now that I think about it, the conversation was a bit strange. I went away not happy, but also kind of confused about why he was telling me these things. Basically he said if I was healthy in every other way then I would be crazy to have more weightloss surgery at this point. Something tells me he was thinking of our dear Lila S in Attention Aussie Sleevers forum. He would have definitely been one of the surgeons consulting on her case. And then he summed it up by saying if I put on weight over Christmas then by all means come back and talk about the sleeve. Which he thinks I will need. Eventually. Hmmm.

Worried about Lila. Anyone heard from her lately?