Myzz_Courtney

I am faced with making a very hard decision in a short period of time. I've had my band for 14 months now and I've loss a little over 50lbs, it probably could have been more if I worked harder on my poor eating habits. However I love my band but unfortunately for the past 7 months I've been having mild-serious complications with it. To make a very long story short...I've had surgery in May to reposition my port after that my band slipped pretty bad and had to remove ALL of my Fluid to relief the pain and in hopes for my band to go back in position and to avoid a 3rd surgery. Well my band slightly went back into position but not 100% but my doc didnt want to do surgery we just decided to leave it be, dont fill it and maybe it will go back to its place after a while. A month later I was very ill with gastritis and couldn't eat or hardly drink anything for 2 weeks and after that my band felt very tight although I didn't have any fluid in it. I did the barium swallow and everything showed up good. Now for the past month I've been having really bad pain in what seems to be deep in my band area of my stomach when I eat, breathe, sneeze, cough, sleep, or move a certain way. Went back to do a barium swallow and my band is still slipped and now that its giving me trouble he wants to do surgery to put it back in place!! First off I'm scared to have surgery again this will be my 5th surgery in 4 years, I'm getting older and my recovery time is longer now. Secondly I'm thinking maybe my body is rejecting the band for whatever reason. Thirdly I'm not even sure if I go thru with having it put into place will my band ever be the same, I mean will I still get the full benefits of having it in the first place especially if I can get any fills to keep me restricted thats the main reason I got it. And will I continue to have issues or will it slip again or will my port flip again??? That concerns me a great deal especially as of 1/1/2012 my healthy insurance will change 100% and I won't have the same benefits/coverage I have now and I can't afford to pay extensive hospital bills. And by my insurance changing in less than 3 months that only give me half of that time to decided if I want to just keep the band and endure the pain here and there, have the surgery to reposition my band and pray that it dont give me anymore problems, just have it removed altogether even though I don't want to or see if my current insurance will cover me switching from the band to the sleeve and have a permanent surgery that can't be reversible?? I just really don't know what to do and I don't have much time to think about it... I just really want to get you guys feedback and if your were/are in a similar situation let me know what you did or what your going to do!!! Thanks!! And by no means am I speaking bad about the band, I'm just one of the very very few that if something could happen it probably would happen lol so I'm not trying to discourage anyone from getting it. I think it is a great tool for weigh loss!!!

Thanks everyone for your encouragement and advice, only you guys can really relate to what I'm going through because you have experienced having the band like me. My family and friends can only see the surface. They all want me to get it removed that is why I didn't tell them that I'm going to keep it and I'm going to go through with the surgery to correct it. I'm not going to lie I am super nervous and scared to go through this whole process all over again from the beginning. I'm futhermore scared to have surgery again but because I am a praying person I'm going to trust in God and I know he will take care of me. So my surgery date is next Tuesday November 15th, 8am and yes it's bascially like having the lapband surgery for the first time, everything is the same as far as the precedure and post-op diets and restrictions. So no Thanksgiving dinner for me lol but honestly I haven't been following good eating habits like I should be, mainly to blame my lack of will power and stess. So maybe this will be a good thing for me to start over from the beginning and get it right this time. I really want to be successful with my band and not have to depend on it even when I don't have adequate restiction. This is only a tool to help me but I should be able to do the rest of the work and I believe this is my second chance. I mean I'm about to have surgery again so I must really want this. So I really need to put in the work to be successful in this journey.

I'm in the process of setting up an appointment to discuss my options, I just had my barium swallow last Friday. And yes I'm only 26 but the last surgery in May just took soo much out of me and it was an outpatient procedure but it took so long for my body to heal and with full time school, full time work and full time parenting it makes it a little more complicated and stressful. The insurance I have now is A-1 it covers everything at 100% but that ends 12/31/2011 and the insurance I have to pick up isn't that good especially when it comes to weight-loss. So I have to think long term and base it off of the insurance that starts next year, while proceeding with whatever it is I'm going to do this year.

I was banded exactly a year ago yesterday 8/12/2010 in May 2011 I had to have a reposition of my port and also a fill while I was under which brought my band to 7cc's in a 10cc band....everything seemed to go just fine they discharged me that same day and I was on liquids for 3 days and puree' for 2 days. I actually couldn't take in no more than a half cup of fluids if that so I was hardly getting in any Water or anything else for that matter. A few days later I couldn't eat or drink ANYTHING at all, I couldn't even tolerate a sip of water and then I started vomiting things that I have consumed days prior to...which made me think that my food never went down past my band. Once that food came up I couldn't even tolerate my own saliva and every 5-10 mins i would vomit the saliva that had gathered above my band. To make a long story short it was after hours and my doc told me to come in the next morning so he could take some Fluid out my band because he thought I had too much in. Well after about 6 straight hours of vomiting my saliva every 5 mins I was sore, weak, dehydrated and in sooo much pain I ended up in emergency. They did a x-ray and sure enough my band had slipped and right away I started crying because I knew I would have to have emergency surgery and that was the last thing I wanted. Lol this is only half of my story and it hard to make it short but I think it might help u in the end so I'm going to finish it lol...It was late at night and the on-call nurses couldn't find my port to take all my fluid out because its ALWAYS very difficult to find so I had to wait until 6am for my doctor to come in a un-fill me so it was a total of 12 hours of constant vomiting but it was instant relief when he removed the fluid...they did another x-ray and my band slightly went back in place so he said he would leave it like that with no surgery and just keep an eye on it and no fills for me anytime soon... After that was said and done, my restriction was out the door and I started gaining a little weight after that which I knew I would, it was like starting all over again almost a year later. Well I wish that was the end of my story but it isn't lol The end of June 2011, I experienced a bad case of Heartburn, refulx, and indegestion which brought my restriction level from no restriction to max restriction (still no fluid in my band) I couldn't eat anything, no appeitie at all, barely could drink anything. I wasn't vomiting but I was scared that I had a slip again. I had a very weird but very disturbing pain in my upper right abdomen. I was about to go on a 7 day vacation within the next few days so I wanted to make sure everything was ok so I went to ER again and everything was ok with my band but they said I had gastritis so eat a very bland diet which was ok because I didnt have an appeitie and could only eat about 1/4 cup of food anyway. From June 28th-July 12th I had lost about 20lbs thats how bad it was. I was still concerned so I had a swallow test done and my doc said my band was still good I just have EXCELLENT restriction with NO fluid and I'm ok with that I honestly wish it would stay just like this forever. The pain I was having in my upper right abdomen was from my gallbladder and I've had a ultrasound and a hidascan so I'm just waiting on my results but I'm sure I have gallstones so I may have to have that removed eventually. To sum it all up the last few months I've been trying to debate rather or not if I should get my band removed, EVERYONE wants me to get it removed and when I was in all that pain I wanted it removed but looking back throughout this last year my band has really helped me, not everyone has bad complications with their band like I did. I started off at 300.7lbs now I'm 245.6 and I still have 70lbs to lose before I reach my goal weight and I know despite all my misfortunes with the band its still gonna help me get to where I need to be. So I decided to keep it and just pray that the complications are long gone!! I hope my long story kinda helped you out and sorry I couldn't make it shorter!! lol Good Luck with whatever you decide to do!! A year & a day later...0cc's in my band and I'm at my Sweet Spot!!! :wub: :Banane40:

I just had surgery May 10th to reposition my port because it flipped It wasn't all that horrible it was the same procedure as the actual banding but only dealing with the port. And my neck was extremely SORE & STIFF for like 3 days!! It was probably from the breathing tube they put down your throat that's really all I can think of...well I hope u feel better soon!!

I'm 7.5 months post-op so I guess it's safe to say I'm pretty much healed. I've always been very active when it came to working out although working out my Abs are my least favorite and hardest workout, but I would still manage to get through it. Well recently I signed up for a Spring Bootcamp Exercise program and of course we have to work on ABS!! I've noticed that on the very FIRST rep I immediately start to feel the burn!! When usually it takes about 20 reps before it starts to burn. And it's not my typical "workout burn" its almost an unbearable burn and its kind of embarrassing to me. I'm very competitive and the fact that I could not finish these abs workouts (Not even the minimal or modified versions) kinda pissed me off, but the pain was so bad. I guess my question is have anyone else ever experienced this??? Could it be my band or port?? Or could it be just the area that was operated on, like scar tissue or something?? This happened a couple of times but I never paid too much attention to why it hurt so bad & so soon...and recovering after the ab workout is painful anyway but post-op it sometimes feel like I've strained something near the area where my band is....I really don't know what to do

Ok thanks guys I just wanted to make sure I wasn't over doing it my abdomen

It has been almost 7 months post-op for me and I must say that it has been a rough go. When I first got banded I lost 20Lbs in the first 2 weeks and maybe 15 since then...I've always struggled with my weight, my heaviest was 349 back in 2005 when I was only 19 yrs old. With a bad report from the doctor I immediately changed my lifestyle as far as eating and exercising. and within that year I lost 60lbs. These last 5 years I've really been struggling with my will power and determination. I've always been an emotional eater and it seems like the last few years has given me a lot of emotion. After having the LB surgery i felt confident and when I finally decided to go with the surgery no way was I gonna mess this up or fail. And it just seems like that's what I'm doing is failing EVERY single day. My plans were to start this new year off with a drive that I once had but once again LIFE happens and this time LIFE was taken away from me. I lost my only sibling, my older brother 29 yrs old only 4 years older than me, we were close than ever to a very TRAGIC HORRIFIC BRUTAL accident on December 30, 2010. Two months later I still can't grab a hold of myself. I can't focus on this Lap-Band, I'm working against it...I'm full and I still eat...the same stuff I struggled with pre-op...Counseling really isn't working for me because my emotions are worry-free in there but when I'm home they come back. I REALLY want to do this and be successful with this surgery....I don't want to be a failure anymore...I have ALL the tools I need and I know how to use them, I just don't know how to keep my willpower/motivation for a WHOLE 24 hours. If you guys have any kind of suggestions PLEASE feel free to respond. My 26th birthday is coming up April 12th and I really want to be 10 to 20lbs smaller, if there are any Michigan Bandsters please contact me...I know I have family support to try to deal with the loss of my brother but I don't have anyone who knows personally what I'm going through with this Lap-band...

Wow that link to How the Lapband works really just cleared up a lot of questions I had thanks!!:smile:

Wow I am going through the same thing. I got banded August 12th the first 2 weeks I lost 25 lbs but onlye 5 more since then. I got my first fill 5cc's in a 11cc band on Sept 23rd and thats when I lost 5lbs. At first I had great restriction but it seems like one day i will have great restriction and the next day i don't. I don't understand that. I was also thinking that I need to see a shrink about my eating behaviors because it seems like im making some of the same poor food decisions that i made before surgery. I know the surgery doesn't fix the way you think about food but i feel like im sabotaging myself as well :tt2::smile2::crying::mad2::frown::mad: