BigBoned

Confusing title I know but – to make this long story short - the fact that I self-paid all that money to GET the band, and it didn’t work, plus I knew had to pay all that money to get it REMOVED made me so disgusted at myself that I lost the weight… The story begins in May of 2008. I was a borderline BMI person (BMI ~35) and was stagnant at about 35 -50 lbs over my target weight. Prior to having the surgery, I already had doubts about its effectiveness in my particular instance. I already felt I had been eating small portions and hadn't been losing any weight so I figured I must have been cheating more than I thought since I'm a male, 5'11", and weighed 255 lbs. I figured, with the band, I wouldn't be able to cheat and I'd lose all that weight and get back to my perfect size of 215-220 lbs. It didn't work out that way for me. I initially lost a few pounds due to the surgery and being on a liquid diet but I promptly proceeded to go right back to 255 and slowly, over the next few months, crept up to almost 270. I had my band filled as much as I could stand it and was periodically throwing up because I could literally feel when one of the openings in my stomach would get stopped up. Either because I wasn't chewing well enough or I was eating the wrong fibrous foods or I was just eating too fast - what ever the reason - I found myself in awkward positions where I would have to run off and "expectorate" (hurl) so that I could clear the opening to remove the pressure and feel better. I did this for a year. Finally, in May of 2009 (one year with the band), I had had enough. By increasing my exercise, I had worked my weight back down from 270 to 253 and I figured I could lose the rest without the band and periodic stoppages (which was more of a nuisance than anything to me at this point) so I had the band zero-filled. I wanted to have just the port removed (which is a much lower cost than full removal) and just leave the rest of the apparatus in place since it wasn't causing me any issues but my doctor talked me out of it. He didn’t recommend leaving the tubing inside for any length of time as it has the potential to work it’s way around and cause other types of issues such as punctures. I think that initially he was skeptical that I was losing weight despite – not because of – the band and he suggested that I go zero-filled for a few months and see how it went. Somehow his skepticism motivated me more! Now that I could eat normally again, my only issue still with the band was the protruding port. I would always find myself rubbing on it and looking at that “bump” in a mirror (it was even visible to me with certain shirts). To me, it looked like my stomach had a bulbous growth on the left side but it wasn’t too noticeable when I was 255 lbs. After I left my doctors, I decided I needed to really get with the program and I did what I call my 3-phased weight loss effort. 1. I increased my weight-lifting to improve muscle mass, 2. I bought a new expensive road bike and started riding long distances for cardio, and 3. I got an application for my iPhone that allowed me to track every single calorie I ate throughout the day to ensure I ended up with a calorie deficit and on track to lose 2-3 lbs every week. This combination of actions had quick results. I dropped 30 lbs and a whole lot of bellyfat over 5 months. Now my port was REALLY starting stick out and look like I had something wrong with my stomach. I was too self-conscious to go shirtless at the beach or when I sat at the pool on a recent cruise I took. Now I felt I had to get the whole thing removed. I just had my band removed 7 days ago and so far, my stomach has TWO lumps on it that look like they’re bigger than the port lump was. I’m hoping that after all the swelling goes down my stomach will look normal again (except for the scarring). I’d have to say the whole experience hasn’t been worth it for me. By the way, I should also caveat that my doctor did a good job and the band worked as designed but that it didn’t correct my problem. My problem wasn’t the “quantities” of food I was eating – it was “what” I was eating. I’ve made a major switch to eat a less beef, and less junk and eat a whole lot more salads and other veggies. Mines was a unique situation and after reading through this forum, I think the band appears to be a very good thing for most people. BUT…for a few folks, I’d think long and hard about going through this ordeal. It worked for me indirectly but it didn’t have anything to do with the physical device. This whole ordeal helped me to get mentally fired up and finally lose the weight I was supposed to. So banding worked for me (but not really).

Thanks for the update jclue... My incisions and lumps aren't completely gone but I am seeing a lot of progress so feedback like yours helps me feel that my results may be typical for this type of surgery and that it's just going to take time. I had my removal on 10/31/09 and 1-month later the lumps are less visible to the point where I can wear regular clothes again - it no longer looks like I'm hiding a golf-ball under my shirt.

I sent you an email...

The link to waist band doesn't work anymore. HERE'S a similar product on Amazon.com.

ItsGottaGo! wow, sounds like your ordeal has been very intense. Good luck with the upcoming surgery and subsequent weight loss. In my case it took more than just additional exercise. Not that I am now a certified expert or anything but the key for me was more than just exercise; I have to alter what I was eating. Once I really started to log my calories and ensure I went into a calorie deficit each day that's when I started to realize some success. greytz too bad I didn't get to hear you speak at a seminar before getting the surgery (it might have saved me a lot of money!). motherof3 sorry for the delayed response! Yes, I've seen quite a bit of improvement lately. I started feeling like I needed some "compression" to push on the bulges and possibly reduce the amounts of Fluid build up. I decided to purchase one of those neoprene waist-trimmer belts (strictly for the compression, not for weight loss). It actually worked great for me! I put on the belt and after a few hours of use the change was noticeable. The protrusions were getting smaller and my wife noticed it too so it wasn't a placebo effect. I've been using it periodically and I attribute a lot of the recent improvement to wearing the belt. Here's the ZIPPERED WAIST TRIMMER belt I've been using. Now I feel like what's remaining is just scar tissue and that it's just going to take a long time for that to go away. It's definitely not perfect but it's much smaller and I can wear normal clothes now without drawing extra attention to the huge bulge that was there before. I've been curious whether I was as swollen when I first got the LAP-BAND®®®® installed. Since I was quite a bit heavier, I may not have noticed because the bulges were probably hidden behind layers of fat(?).

As you stated; yes you can maintain. You know what you were doing right before your band was zero-filled so you'll have to maintain those good habits now unassisted. I love analogies (some people hate 'em so forgive me) but this reminds me of what it was like when you first learned to ride a bike with training wheels; you felt confident and trained yourself to balance and keep pedaling while the training wheels were on but fell down when you removed the extra wheels and lost sight of what worked... Keep working on sticking to your newly honed skillset and you'll be fine.:biggrin:

Sorry to hear your story! I'm dealing with a golf-ball sized lump myself at the moment. My band was removed 9-days ago but so far I haven't seen any signs of infection (fever, oozing, etc...) - just the unsightly lump. Not to sound too paranoid but as a side issue to what you're dealing with, be wary of getting a Tendon Tear . Two weeks after I had my band installed last year I was using doses of a fluoroquinolone antibiotic as prescribed by my surgeon and my achilles tendon just *exploded* in the middle of a basketball game (I'd already been playing for well over 45 minutes so it wasn't because the muscle hadn't had time to warm up and get stretched out). I had no warning signs at all prior to the injury. It was a complete rupture that required surgery to reattach so I was laid up in the house for a while, in a cast for several more weeks, and it's taken a full year to recover strength and flexibility. I do heavy weightlifting in the gym as well as being active in several other sports so I'm not a weekend-warrior and could only attribute the rupture to the recent use of antibiotics(?). So as you're taking that medication you might want to forgo any fast-twitch exercises such as basketball, tennis, etc. until the medicine leaves your system. Good luck!

Thank you for the responses and words of encouragement. LilMissDiva, Jachut, and Lana24... I wrote my story because I remember doing a search for guidance that related to my concerns and didn't really find a scenario like the one I experienced so I don't mind being someone else's guinea pig if it can help someone make an informed decision. I'm very concerned about this lump. I'm wearing overly loose clothing to help hide the disfiguration and I'm still hopeful it's not some kind of long-term bundle of scar tissue (or bad surgery?) but is instead just a temporary side effect and I'm just panicky for no reason. My only saving grace at the moment is the fact that the surgery was only 9 days ago so hopefully this is going to go away otherwise I'm MUCH worse than I was just leaving the port. This has been a cascade of bad decisions and I'm hoping this nightmare goes away soon...

It took everything for me to lose the weight but I attribute my weight loss to a simple program I got and loaded onto my iPhone. By honestly tracking all of my calories and being on a calorie budget I finally started to see results. I don't believe I would have done it using a paper journal or a website or anything else but the convenience of the program in my cell phone (which is always with me) helped me to stay up on my calorie-counting. There are several software programs that I'm sure work all alike but I picked a free one called "Lose It" and it did what I needed it to do. This TIME ARTICLE helped to point out many of the errors I was making. For instance, I often would go have a smoothie and a bran muffin after working out but my calorie tracker pointed out that 1/2 hour of vigorous weight-lifting only equated to 300 calories lost! I offset that with just the smoothie and the bran muffin put me over the top so in essence, I wasn't getting anywhere. I'd also find myself parking closer to my office since I had worked out I deserved to park next to the building and catch elevator versus parking a 1/2 mile away and taking the stairs. I made a lot of concessions when I worked out and I think that TIME article helped to point that out to me.

Thanks for the replies... Nancy, I'm curious, how long did it take for your surgeries to become less noticeable? My incision bumps are HUGE. It looks like I've got a golf ball sitting on top of my stomach muscle at one point and a marble-sized bulge under the skin under another incision! it's really pretty bothersome to look at and I'm hoping it's normal and will go down - SOON! I think I'm more depressed looking at the after-effects than I was just having the port sticking out! Hopefully someone can direct me as to whether this is normal for post-surgery or do I have a problem? The lumps don't feel like they're fluid-filled. They definitely feel like there's substance which is either swollen muscle tissue or ???

Hello. I'm about to have my surgery in 2 weeks and I'm quite naturally curious about several issues so hopefully I can find the answers here. First, for those of you that have lost the weight, is the port identifiable under your skin? I have a mental image of seeing a small circle protruding from some part of the body where the fill port is pushing from the inside out onto the skin. Hopefully this is just a crazy, paranoid question but I might as well ask. Second, I'm looking to get into a boxing class for conditioning and weight loss or getting back into Martial arts because I really need to improve my flexibility (I stick to exercising better if I'm in a regularly scheduled class environment of some type). The boxing class does not allow blows to the head but body-blows are acceptable. Same for the martial arts classes. Considering I'll have a port near/at the surface of my skin, should I rethink my exercise choices and take up Yoga instead? I'm not thinking of trying to do this in the next week or two after surgery - more like six months or so (or what ever the doctor recommends). I'm just wondering if anything changes as a result of having a port... Thanks, Mike

Wheetsin, Thank you for the detailed response... I kinda figured it would be a bad idea to do any contact sports but I had no idea how deep the port was placed instead the body (surmised that they might use an extra-long needle to fill it(?)). Thanks again...

Thanks for the feedback mmh498. Dr. Ortiz was 1 of the 2 doctors I've narrowed my search to. Since their prices and reputations are both on par, I only chose to go to Mexicali because: 1. I've never been there; 2. They'll send a car to pick me up in San Diego so I won't even have to drive my own car. I'm looking forward to seeing another part of Mexico that's so close to home. Plus, it will be a nice motorcycle ride through the back-roads and canyons of San Diego to get my fills when the time comes...:crying:

Thank you for taking the time to respond. It does appear that my costs are on par with others who feel that they've received top-notch service. I've read many of the posts both pro and con for medical care in Mexico but I'm comfortable with having the Lap Band done there since I've had another invasive procedure done in Tijuana - Laser Eye Surgery. If you think you're worried about a botched Lap Band surgery you'd be just as worried (or more so) about having your eyes operated on in a foreign country! I did my research and it turned into an excellent experience. My story is that I kept hearing of guys in my office who had or were planning to have their Lasik performed in Tijuana. One of those people was my boss so I volunteered to take him down for the procedure. I got a chance to see the clean offices and view the professionalism of the doctors and nurses, and I also saw that his procedure came off perfectly. I finally scheduled the surgery for me and my wife and she had hers done first. What truly got me to trust this doctor was when he recommended that my wife NOT have the procedure done on her left eye. At the time, the cost was about $800 per eye and going in I just assumed we were going to pay to have BOTH of her eyes done. It never occurred to me that she might have only needed to do one. The doctor told us that since the vision in her left eye was fairly close to normal she'd see minimal improvement by having the surgery so he recommended not doing it. For some reason I was just amazed by this! You mean to tell me that this guy is going to turn down $800?! I guess it was my ignorance showing but to this day I’m still thankful that this doctor was so truthful with us. A few weeks later, when it came to be my turn, I went and had the procedure (both eyes) and I’ve had absolutely PERFECT vision since then (~6 years ago). What I also found interesting during my visits and follow-up visit to this office were the customers that were in the waiting room with me - I'd say that 90% of them were American. There was a hollywood producer and his assistant, and several others who'd flown in for the procedure from around the US but the people that fascinated me the most were those that said they were in the medical profession. One mentioned that this particular doctor had been training THEIR doctor in Santa Barbara on some of the latest techniques/technologies. Apparently, the equipment that was being used in his Tijuana office was state-of-the-art and these guys were world-reknowned experts. The doctor who performed my surgery turned out to live very close to me in the US but had his office in Mexico. I've recommended a number of customers to this doctor and based on my own PERSONAL experience I’m convinced you can find dedicated, competent individuals regardless of location. I do sympathize with people who’ve had bad experiences with ANY doctor let alone ones in Mexico but I truly believe it depends on the “individuals” you deal with and not the country… I'm sure the ability to hold someone accountable if something goes wrong is important to many (I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a factor for me too) but when it came to the possibility of losing my eyesight, getting money for a botched surgery seemed insignificant. I wanted to be as sure as possible that I got the best treatment available and that I wouldn't lose my vision in the first place. I felt that I did that. So with all things considered, I'm comfortable with my decision to go with the Lap Band surgeon I've chosen - even if that person is in Mexico. :tongue_smilie:

I am also looking for a good value in Mexico. I've read lots of posts and feel that I've done a decent job of understanding the risks but I'm comfortable with the decision to have the procedure done in Mexico so what I'm asking for is a balanced recommendation. I'm not necessarily looking for the "cheapest" price but I am looking for experienced doctors available at the best price. The doctor's office I'm currently the most likely to use is in Mexicali and they quoted $7,900. Since there appears to be a lot of competition for these types of surgery (I understand that some of those bargain prices come from inexperienced doctors), I'm just asking if anyone else has paid considerably less but is just as happy with the whole experience as if they'd paid thousands more... If you're only a couple hundred less I'll probably still go with this well respected doc but in the off-chance that I haven't discovered the best value, I figure that I might as well pse the question. If you don't want to post the cost for your procedure on the open forum please PM me the info. Thanks in advance! By the way, I live in San Diego which is next-door to Tijuana so that would be my first choice to find a good alternative.