I have had the lapband since October and have not had any issues so far. I believe that if you educate yourself properly and through the right sources, you will have much less problems. My surgery was mostly uneventful, with one bout of nausea directly after waking up. My Dr. only does fills every 8 weeks, so I have had only one fill, which was pretty uneventful as well. I had read that in order to get the best from your fills it is good to have not eaten anything for the previous 6 hrs. I went in hungry and went out not hungry, that was pretty cool. After the swelling subsided in my stomach following the first fill, which was about one week out for me, I was able to eat large portions and realized that I was feeling hungrier than I probably should. That prompted me to do a little bit more research and finally realized how this band works. I was under the impression that I was supposed to have physical restriction that would force me to eat smaller portions. But, its not that simple, restriction is supposed to be just enough to trigger the vagus nerve and help you to feel satiated after smaller portions and this satiation should last 4-5 hours. I realized that I may have stretched my pouch a bit and could do a liquid diet that might remedy that. After doing a 5 day full liquid diet last week, I am feeling less hungry again. A lot of people get a little freaked out when they start to feel hungrier, but I realize that doing an occasional liquid diet can assist with that and I can get my restricted feeling back. It's a learning process and you have to be able to be flexible enough to try out different things to "work with the band". I haven't had any PB episodes, reflux or sliming like a lot of people complain of. I have been losing weight slowly, but steadily. I will probably start losing more when I incorporate more consistent workouts. So far I have had a very positive experience and hope for the same for you!
Good luck!
Lisa