Janelle Hayes

I had a Vertical Gastric Banding in JanuaRy of 1985 (26 hrs. old) and went from 312 lbs. to a size 3. I had terrible pain from eating, and frequent vomiting and dehydration from the get-go, but tolerated these problems for many years as I felt the VGB had saved my life. The problems grew worse with every passing year until, as these occurrences became daily, I finally ended up in the hospital in January of 1997 for acedotic dehydration. A GI specialist scoped me for the first time in all those years, but in doing so, broke the band and proceeded not to tell me. Unaware, I gradually began eating better, but assumed my band was still intact. It took the next 7 years for me to gradually gain all the weight back, but being married with a daughter and working hard at high level positions as a psychologist, I didn't have the time or energy to deal with it. It took until I moved to California for me to find a surgeon versed in performing revisions of VGBs into the Roux-en-Y, and subsequently had my gastric bypass on August 13, 2012. As of today, September 30' 2012, I have lost 40 lbs., and I'm experiencing NO problems whatsoever.