Rainydayz

I don't understand how the position of your diaphragm during a fill can affect how the fill feels after you let your breath out. Can you please expound on this? It's the same amount of fluid, so why would it matter after you start breathing again?

And yet, here you are!! Welcome to LapBand Jr. High!

I just came across it while searching for more info about the band. It's where the hypnotist tells you you're in surgery and getting the band etc. etc. and that now you will not be able to eat as much. I think it may very well work short term but I don't think I could kid myself for long! And it costs over $2k.

Oh wow Shirley, that is GREAT NEWS! I'm truly happy to hear that your band is probably in good condition and you are back on track. You must feel SO MUCH better! I'm glad also that you are strong enough not to let unfeeling people get you down. (Just goes to show that no amount of education can teach human compassion huh?)

I realize the pre-op diet is a good way to jump-start your new outlook on food, but since it is mainly to reduce the liver for safety reasons do doctors ever prescribe diet pills? I know they do not work long term, but I'm just curious since the pre-op diet is so important to the success of the surgery.

OK!

LOL! I like "weapon."

Seriously? People name their bands?! Anyway, I tend to agree with Cleo's Mom. Those posts about how successful the responder has been in spite of the OP's statements that it simply did not work for them do sound like the responder is simply saying, "I was so successful so you must have done something wrong." I'm not saying that is what is always intended, but that is how it reads TO ME. I appreciate all informative posts whether they be positive or negative pertaining to the band. If we just look for the positive then we are doing ourselves a disservice. I will not be a Pollyanna when it comes to something like surgery and having a foreign item inserted in my body.

I know there are rude people here. But hey, there's rude people everywhere! I came here to get information, not really to make friends. That being said I have seen some really great compassionate posts and it always surprises me when a stranger typing on a message board can make me feel better (or worse). The thing I can stand least of all is condescension. Hey Cancun did I spell that right? When a poster is upset or has a problem why do some responders feel a need to be rude to them? Is it because the poster is perceived to be bashing something that the responder feels the need to defend? I think so. I try to realize that mosts rudeness here is because the defenders don't want anything to remind them that they too may have problems or (dare I say it?) fail in the future. This is a fragile journey for all of us. If we were all without flaws we wouldn't be here. I'm just trying to learn all I can and if that means dealing with rudeness so be it. But along the way if I find a few friends, that would be a bonus.

Good luck in your appt. tomorrow. Be sure and let us know what they say. I'm very interested in things that could wrong with this device and how they get resolved. I'm really hoping yours is just a bad port and all it will take is replacing that. But I can't blame you for wanting the thing out.

Seriously? A spelling lesson for someone who is incredibly upset and seeking answers to very REAL problem? That's what I call rude.

Sorry, I don't have any help for you about doctors but I have read some of your posts and can say that your story scares me to death and I really, really hope you get this thing sorted out SOON! Do you know if your insurance will pay for the fix? Sorry I don't remember if you posted about whether you were ins. or self-pay. But in my ins. doc. it says they will cover repair or replacement for a device that is defective or that slips, erodes, etc. GOOD LUCK!! And please keep us updated.

Yes, I went to a seminar but I didn't know anything then. They talked about "restriction" and said you would feel full on less food. I hadn't done all this reading at that time and didn't know what to ask. Then why not just use willpower and not get the band? Sorry, but yeah I do. That's not a leap I'm willing to take. The more I read the more this is sounding like snake oil. I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars on something that is only going to provide a placebo effect to make me feel full longer and give me all kinds of bad side effects as well. The fact that many many people say they cannot eat meat and raw veggies is enough to give me considerable pause. I thought those were the things we are supposed to eat to be healthy. And when someone says they have no restriction and can eat anything they say they don't simply because of will power. Maybe I should save my money and just get hypnotized. I don't know. This is very early in my process. I haven't had my 1st real appt. yet. I'm sure going to bombard them at that 1st appt. and it will only be the nutritionist so I'm not sure how much she can actually tell me about how it works. She should be able to though I would think. I'm just hoping this is not something that is going to be real popular for a while then, after people have had it for 10 years plus down the road we will be seeing those lawyer commercials saying "Has someone you love been harmed or killed by the Lap Band? Call us and we will get you money."

I'm not sure it's so much semantics as a general misunderstanding of how it actually works. He's not talking about liquids when he says this: You can always -- always, always, always, -- eat more food, because, contrary to what we believed for a long time-- food passes by the band within a minute and then into your stomach. But the key to successful patients is not how much they can eat, but how little they can eat to suppress hunger. So, could that mean that hunger is suppressed by stretching those upper stomach fibers even if it's for just a minute after you get done eating? I do think it makes sense when he says that by stretching those fibers it causes the hypothalamus to release fat stores. I can see how that might work. Which would explain why some people who diet hit a plateau and never get out of it. They never stretch those fibers so fat is not released. That's what happens to me. I just didn't realize that hitting those fibers for such a short time might cause long-lasting hunger suppression. And by what a lot of people (here and everywhere else they discuss lap band) say, they believe that the food stays in the pouch for a long time, like hours, too. I just need to know how this works before I put it into my body. I refuse to go into this with just a hope and a prayer. If my questions are bothersome feel free to ignore me. But if anyone can help with true understanding that would be great.

You're right I saw that in a post. Was it here? Anyway I went looking and came across this "doctor's" site that says the same thing: http://drsimpson.net/fills/Lap-band-eating/lap-band-not-restriction/lap-band-and-restriction.html So can you see why I'm really confused?

Did you get weighed at the appointment for your starting weight? Not sure what your BMI is or if you have comorbidities but if you are still considering the surgery then you will want to start the paperwork while you're still over the threshold that your insurance requires. I know I would hate to lose some weight on my own then decide I wanted the surgery and the insurance wouldn't pay because I wasn't heavy enough!

You sound an awful lot like me. I'm older than you but I also lost a lot of weight on my own but was ultimately not able to keep it off after pregnancy. I was a skinny child until puberty hit. Then I steadily started putting on a few lbs. a year until my 20's when I was between 150-170 for years. I would lose the same 20 lbs. over and over. Then I had a baby and never lost all the baby weight. In my late 20's I was up to 180-190. When I was 30 I decided I was going to do something about this. I started running (something I used to enjoy in high school) and started dieting. I used SlimFast a lot and just ate very little. Looking back I know I did it wrong because I simply was not eating enough calories. I lost about 55 lb. in about 7 months and actually kept it off for 3 years. I was "using" caffeine and energy/diet pills for hunger. Then i got pregnant again and stopped taking the caffeine and diet pills and gained it all back plus more. I tried Weight Watchers a couple of times and more diet pills and more exercising. But it was always a short-term success. I injured my back and had to stop running for a while. Everytime I lost some I would gain more back. So here I am at 288 in my 40's. Yes I know I could lose the weight. But I'm scared to death that I won't keep it off. And every time I've lost weight I've gained back more. I don't want to weigh over 300 lbs. so I've been afraid to try to lose it again. So that's why I'm considering the lap band. My thoughts are that I will use it to help me after the gung-ho motivation of losing is gone and I have to maintain after the thrill of losing is over. That's why I'm so interested in hearing from people who have had the band for more than a couple of years. From what I've read there is somewhere between a 30% and 50% chance of keeping the weight off after 10 yrs. But for me that's better than what I'm looking at without it, KWIM? And if things go sideways it is reversible/removable. That's the big thing that's keeping me looking at the band. So, good luck in your decision. I admire the way you are going about it. You will get people that bad-mouth it and you will get people that defend it like it's their child. But you are asking the right questions IMO!

This is a good informative post. I can certainly understand those who want to think that the band can work for everyone - I think they want to believe that so much that they get offended when someone points out that it doesn't. But I'm glad there are those who will tell it like it is. Also can anyone please expound on this: Then what does it do? Really not trying to be a smart-butt but I too thought that the food stayed in the pouch for longer than a minute. How does it make you feel full then? I'm really confused.

Interesting info but there's no source citation. Who is the writer? Where does their information come from? And most surprisingly, why is Laura Bush at the top of the page saying she got Lap Band surgery?!

I went to the library and did some research. Here is the abstract from a study done in the U.S from 2000-2008: The effectiveness of adjustable gastric banding: a retrospective 6-year U.S. follow-up study source: Surgical Endoscopy Feb. 2011, vol 25 issue 2, p397-403 abstract: Background: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) during a 6-year follow-up period. Methods: A retrospective database analysis of patients who underwent LAGB at New York University Medical Center between 1 January 2000 and 29 February 2008 was conducted. Patients were included for the efficacy analysis if they were 18 years old or older at the surgery date and had one or more visits with a recorded weight after surgery. Efficacy was assessed using percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL) at 1-year intervals after surgery. Missing weight values were interpolated using a cubic spline function. Linear regression models were used to assess the characteristics that affected the last available %EWL. All patients had implantation of the LAP-BAND system. Results: The inclusion criteria for the efficacy analysis were met by 2,909 patients. The majority of the patients were white (83.3%) and female (68.4%). The mean patient age was 44.6 years, and the mean baseline body mass index (BMI) was 45.3 kg/m. The %EWL 3 years after surgery was 52.9%, which was sustained thereafter. In multivariate models, increased number of office visits, younger age, female gender, and Caucasian race were significantly associated with a higher maximum %EWL. Conclusions: The LAP-BAND patients achieved a substantial and sustainable weight loss of approximately 50% at 6 years after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] I don't really understand how they can say that there was a weight loss of 50% at 6 years after surgery when some of the patients included in the surgery have only had their band for 3 years. But they lump them all together nevertheless. I also read an article that quoted a study saying the Swedish adjustable gastric band had more incidence of erosion than the LAP BAND. I don't know if they even use the Swedish one here anymore. Here's another one from Switzerland: A 10-year experience with laparoscopic gastric banding for morbid obesity: high long-term complication and failure rates. Suter M, Calmes JM, Paroz A, Giusti V. Department of Surgery, Hôpital du Chablais, Aigle-Monthey, Switzerland. Abstract BACKGROUND: Since its introduction about 10 years ago, and because of its encouraging early results regarding weight loss and morbidity, laparoscopic gastric banding (LGB) has been considered by many as the treatment of choice for morbid obesity. Few long-term studies have been published. We present our results after up to 8 years (mean 74 months) of follow-up. METHODS: Prospective data of patients who had LGB have been collected since 1995, with exclusion of the first 30 patients (learning curve). Major late complications are defined as those requiring band removal (major reoperation), with or without conversion to another procedure. Failure is defined as an excess weight loss (EWL) of <25%, or major reoperation. RESULTS: Between June 1997 and June 2003, LGB was performed in 317 patients, 43 men and 274 women. Mean age was 38 years (19-69), mean weight was 119 kg (79-179), and mean BMI was 43.5 kg/m(2) (34-78). 97.8% of the patients were available for follow-up after 3 years, 88.2% after 5 years, and 81.5% after 7 years. Overall, 105 (33.1%) of the patients developed late complications, including band erosion in 9.5%, pouch dilatation/slippage in 6.3%, and catheter- or port-related problems in 7.6%. Major reoperation was required in 21.7% of the patients. The mean EWL at 5 years was 58.5% in patients with the band still in place. The failure rate increased from 13.2% after 18 months to 23.8% at 3, 31.5% at 5, and 36.9% at 7 years. CONCLUSIONS: LGB appeared promising during the first few years after its introduction, but results worsen over time, despite improvements in the operative technique and material. Only about 60% of the patients without major complication maintain an acceptable EWL in the long term. Each year adds 3-4% to the major complication rate, which contributes to the total failure rate. With a nearly 40% 5-year failure rate, and a 43% 7-year success rate (EWL >50%), LGB should no longer be considered as the procedure of choice for obesity. Until reliable selection criteria for patients at low risk for long-term complications are developed, other longer lasting procedures should be used. This one has a pessimistic view of Lap Band overall but to me 60% with acceptable EWL is pretty darn good. I'm wondering if the authors of this study are investing in the sleeve or some other technique. There are more. For anyone who is also interested go to the library and ask for help accessing EBSCO Host or another periodical database and search for "long-term" and "LAGB". I really don't have the time or energy to sift through all the articles but just from what I skimmed the worst conclusion had something like a 33% success rate after 5 years. By success they can mean anything from 40% and up of excess weight loss. Here's what I'm thinking so far: Without the band I have probably more than a 33% chance of NOT losing the weight. I also have more than a 33% change of developing more weight-related health problems. If I lose 40% of my excess weight in the next 5 years I will be better off than if I did nothing. The mortality rate from having the band is no more than for any abdominal surgery. The complication rate may be somewhat high (but a lot lower than for bypass) but the band is reversible and removable. So I am going ahead with my plans for the band. If anyone can talk me out of it please try. I want to be sure I'm making a good decision.

It seems a lot of people here are recent or fairly recent bandees. And the ones that come back after years are probably the ones that are having problems and need new support. But I want to read about any studies or research that has been done on the long-term results of lap band. I would like to see statistics for people that have had it for 5 to 20 years. Does anyone know where I can find that data? Thanks!

I've read this dozens of times here and other places: "It's not magic, it's a tool." But I haven't seen anyone yet really spell that out. I mean what does this tool do for you? I know how it's supposed to work - I've read all the packet they gave at the seminar and watched the movie. But I guess what I'm looking for is specifics about what people feel this tool does for them - e.g. Does it make you feel full faster so you stop eating sooner than you normally would? Does it hurt when you eat "bad" things? Does it keep you feeling full longer so you won't snack between meals? How do you use your tool?

Sounds like you're doing a great job talking yourself out of this. If you really feel that way then you probably shouldn't do it. I feel like you really need to want this to make it work. JMHO. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Wow, with this kind of gung-ho attitude and amazing will-power I'm surprised anyone posting here was ever overweight to begin with! I'm still looking for clinical research on the long-term efficacy of the band so if anyone has that information please forward it to me.

I tried the chicken pizza. Great idea. But mine was definitely not done after 10 minutes. I guess I didn't flatten as much as the OP did. I've read other recipes that suggest cooking the flattened chicken a little before you put the toppings on then cooking it all some more. I will try that way next time.