kat2442

I had the band done in 2007 and lost 80Lbs within the first year. But it didn't come easy, many visits to the doctor to have the band filled/unfilled. After a year i developed severe acid reflux and went through a year of pain and discomfort. I would throw up acid, not food, on a daily basis and would often wake up in the middle of the night choking on acid. They came to the conclusion my band had slipped. Even taking all the liquid out of the band didn't help any so they recommended i get the band removed. Which i did this past November and too my surprise when i went back for the post op they found out they left a piece of the band inside of me. So now i have to deal with that issue. The first year of the surgery i would've been on here ranting and raving about it's success so i don't want to bash the surgery by any means but i just encourage you to look at the big picture and really make sure this is something you want to do. I also paid for everything out of pocket so it's a bit tougher to swallow since i literaly wasted thousands and thousands of dolors. After the first year and the complications i started gaining weight back b/c the only thing my acid reflux would allow me to eat was Mashed Potatoes and Milk Shakes, both not good when you're trying to loose weight but it was the only thing that made my acid reflux somewhat bearable. Even water was painful to put in my body for fear i would throw it up 10 minutes later. So while the surgery did help me lose weight - i am now only 40Lbs lighter than pre surgery and am back to struggling with my weight and trying to lose the other 40Lbs. If you have issues with food and it's an emotional thing, my advice is to figure that issue out first, no surgery will solve that.

I had similar situation when i had the band in - very restricted in the morning, lunch and late, late evening. But could eat more at dinner. But then everything went bad and i could barely eat and was throwing up acid, not food, but pure acid. I had a hard time getting water down in the mornings and at night. I would wake up in the middle of the night choking on my own acid - scary. I am not telling you this to scare you from getting the surgery but i just want to make sure you are aware of all the risks. The doctors told me my band had probably slipped, which is a lot more common then your doctor probably wants to tell you. They said they could try to fix it but it wasn't a guarantee and if they did fix it i had a higher chance of it slipping again. I decided to have the band removed and the acid reflux dissappeared immediately. However, when i went back for my post op they discovered they left a piece of the band behind, which is still somewhere inside of me and no one can explain. The part that is inside of me is the piece that locks the device in place so they are not sure how this happened. One explanation was that it was a faulty band or it was not locked into place when they did the initial surgery. It's been a mess and a very stressful situation as their are known possible complications if i go back in to have this piece removed. But the other scary part in the unknown - if i leave this piece inside of me no one really knows what could happen since they have never heard of this happening before. I know mine is a rare case but make sure you look at all your options and you research your doctor and the facility that is doing it. Ask them every question you can think of, how many procedure have they done, how many have gone wrong, etc...