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Well dont be like me and ready e v e r y post of surgery complications. i have freaked myself out!!

Hi: I think that having your mind in the LAP-BAND® mode is what makes people the most successful with their bands. You really have to be ready for the changes that will make your weight loss successful with the band. I didn't have any complications (except gallbladder removal after 9 months) with my band and I lost most of my weight in 15 months. People can make poor food choices and graze with the band. I was grazing for about nine months and gained 20 pounds back. Once I made up my mind to get back on track I lost ten pounds in a month. So, it's great to know that my band was there to help me to get back on track once my mind was made up. I only have one regret with the band. I regret that I didn't get it done alot sooner. Best wishes to you. I love my band and my new flat tummy! Sue

I know that OSU has taken someone from up Findley...but she had complications with her original band. But check them out for fills. I'm sure each group has a different policy.

Hi, I just wanted to say that you posted what I have been thinking to a Tee. I am even more complicated by the fact, I have lost 110 lbs before & kept it off for 5 years to have it come back on...So, I have really been struggling with needing a surgical option to help me. I am really feeling as though, I am a great weight loser! I just can't keep it off. This is that tool, I have been looking for my whole life... This is right for us. It is safe & there are tons of people on these boards that are a living testament to its success... Hang in there! I set my surgery date tomorrow so the countdown is on! Tiffany

Welcome...what kind of complications have you experienced? I have had my band for a little over seven months and have experienced nothing but glory. I would love to hear about you. Are you doing alright now?

hi, i just found out last week about the diet requirements..........i have had all the other testing, everything fine....then i gain 10 pounds over the 6 months now i might have to wait 3 more months until i lose, so upset, no one told me i had to lose weight before surgery......heck that is why i am having the surgery!!!!! it is all insurance, not the doctor. gosh i hated insurance company's they make everything so darn complicated. anyway was hoping for surgery in april, looks like june now! what insurance does everyone have...........i have highmark security blue. thanks and good luck

I feel like I have been doing terribly lately but I don't know how to get out of my old ways. I am just over three months out and I am only down 40lbs. I talked to someone I know who is down 100lbs and they are only 7 months out. I am just afraid I am never going to hit that point and that the lack of motivation and terrible diet I have been eating will stick. I had complications twice and had to have a second surgery at one point but I don't think these things have affected it. Any tips/help/advice??

I love sandwiches, from what Im reading, it seems that thats over for me now. How long did it take before you could eat regular food without any complications? Now that you can, what is your favorite food or snack?

I am getting sleeved on the 21st of April. I am self pay in mexico. I have kaiser insurance but don't qualify for the sleeve. Does anyone know if I get home and have complications are they likely to cover it? What about follow up visits with my regular US doc. I am afraid to call and ask because I don't want them to know if they don't have too. thanks stacey

Ok...first, be glad for the posts that talk about the negatives. When I was doing my research, nobody was talking about these things so I went into surgery with a whole different perspective. Knowing then what I know now...I might (stressing might) have made a different decision but at least I would have had the full story. I read an article (I swear I need to print these off or bookmark them) that said only 4 out of 10 banders are successful...success being determined as only losing 50% of their excess weight and that's only of the percentage who don't end up losing their band from erosion or other medical complications and I can't remember whether these problems were 60% or 40%...sorry. I had my band out two weeks ago due to chronic phrenic nerve pain. My insurance did not have to give prior approval since it wasn't elective...it was due to a 'complication'. I'd guess most insurance companies work that way. My surgeon wanted to do a revision to the sleeve. I would have had to go through the whole approval process (psych eval mainly) again for that one. My insurance company had no problem in approving the sleeve (I didn't get it by the way) because the band was being removed because of a complication...not because it didn't work. Even then, the surgeon said they know how to word the paperwork so insurance companies will approve. Oh, and according to my surgeon, the band is not considered 'restrictive' but the sleeve is so again perhaps it's just in the wording? You can read about the experiences of others...good and bad...but it still won't tell you how you'll do. Ask yourself this...if you don't get the band, then what will you do? Yes, there's a risk you'll be one of those who fail at the band *or* are failed by the band (and it happens more than the manufacturers would like to admit)...but you could also be one of those who are successful. Personally, I wouldn't give up without trying. .

OK, so life was great pre-band..with the exception of being fat...and having bad health because of it..but now...oh now..i've got many other things that i need to add to the list: i was a self pay. financially we determined that we could afford it. we are middle class $70k/or more average a year...so we aren't rolling in it, but we are doing better than we could be. So, yeah, we thought of course we can afford the band, why couldn't we. well, let me tell you a $400 a month payment is rough to adjust to..especially at christmas time. and add to that the fact that i NOW WEIGHT 3 MORE LBS THAN I DID PRE-OP. everytime i make that stupid payment..i think in my head..what in the hell did i do..i just spent $15,000 to be reminded every day that i am a failure and i am fat, and now i am paying for it literally. ok, so that is the financial part. everyone has their problems right, so that is no big deal. well, dh and i are falling on hard times financially and i am blaming myself, and he is trying to work more. we used to have enough money in our "bill" account to cover the bills as they came in and to have a month's worth of reserves in case one of us got sick. that way, we didn't have to do the pay check to pay check thing. we have our own individual savings and spending accounts too. well...we've got zilch right now, and i've resorted to finishing up x-mas on cc's. add to that-yesterday i found out that my brother defaulted on a car loan that i signed for him. i have perfect credit...not bragging..but never been late..and i work in finance so..this is a particularly important thing to me. he didn't even bother to tell me, so i get a letter in the mail yesterday that he is almost 30 days late and a payment has to be made TODAY to keep it from being reported (note: previous mention of us being BROKE). OK..so all of that is i am sure circumstanstial..but it is band related. dh and i both missed a week of work without pay when i had surgery. i then have had some days that i have missed in addition due to pains &/or complications. so..that means even less pay. .......again due to the band...then add sick days for problems i had before the band with migraines and fibro. ok..so you get it..money is a problem and it causes extreme stress. well because of it dh and i are both barely on good speaking terms (we aren't admitting that is what the problem is, but i know it is). i'm sleeping on the couch, and i swear that if one more person yells at me or says something negative I'M GOING TO RUN AWAY!!!!!! so i'm stressed..my son is going through a bratty stage..dh and i are having problems, and i'm getting nothing but bitches and moans and complaints and cynical remarks every single direction that i turn. ok...so that is the family related band problems..now i'm taking it to a more personal level: 1. did i mention that i now weigh 3 more lbs than i did pre-op..and i can't button pants that i wore for 6 months prior to surgery 2. i look 6 months pregnant and i have this huge distended abdomen that will not recede 3. i pass more gass than i would ever care to admit. burps come out mid sentence sometimes, and i have these long grotesque 10 second burps that everyone around me can hear even though i am trying to do it under my breath. then..add to that the constant cloud of methane (is that what it is?) that is hovering behind everywhere that i walk. before the band dh had never ever heard me...you know..pass gass...now he hears it like 20 times a night...gross....and it makes me smell. 4. i have no restriction..i can eat what i want..and the tremendous amount of stress that i am under sends me straight to crap food...cheese dip..candy...cheese ball..you name it 5. everyone keeps asking me if i wasted money on surgery and why am i not losing weight 6. i missed my 2nd fill because i had a bowel obstruction, and they can't seem to find TIME to fit me in. 7. i'm having migraines like crazy..(due to stress i'm sure)..and i can't take anything for it because it doesn't work..or i can't swallow it. 8. my work is threatening to lay me off at the end of the year due to absences even though i filed FMLA. there are other things....but i've gone on enough. all of this is causing me to have serious issues with my band. if i could rip it out myself i would, and then i would beat the hell out of a wall or something with it. I HATE MY BAND.... (i hope this will pass, and i already feel better from venting....i had too...i don't feel like i can tell anyone face to face because i am whining..and besides...i don't know any other overweight people with similar issues that i can talk to). i'm sorry for rambling..thank you for reading...or listening. and if you went through something similar, and found success later..please share. i am in desperate need for inspiration.

I am more comfortable with the least-invasive route possible. That was my primary reason for choosing the band. I think the sleeve is an interesting procedure, and will be interested in watching its long-term success/complication rate; it's still considered experimental. Which brings me to the second reason I chose the band: it's not experimental. And that leads directly to the third reason: my insurance won't cover experimental procedures! If, for some reason, I encounter difficulties down the road, I would consider revision to the sleeve if it turns out to be as promising as it seems. But I am confident in my decision to go with the band, at this point, and have no reason to think I will have problems.

Medicare is my primary insurance and my BMI must be 35 to be approved for them to pay. But I've got some money saved up and plan to pay myself if Medicare won't approve me. I've tried every diet under the sun and am way too sedentary, but I'm so big it is really hard for me to exercise to the extent that I can significantly lose and keep the weight off. I'm hoping that the Lap Band will let me lose enough so I can start exercising regularly again and not get so out of breath like I do now. My consultation is July 6th; I was here once before but had to reschedule my previous consultation due to life and bipolar complications. I told the receptionist that I plan to keep this appt. and will not be there only in the event of my death...I've gone up a size this summer too. From 18W to 20W...so I've got to do something. Anyone in my shoes? Blessings, Michelle

Wow it has been a life time since I was last on this forum! I would love some advice right now as I am pretty much over this whole thing! I was banded 10 years ago in Australia and have managed to lose (and keep off) over 150lbs. Now I am living in the US (since 2004) and am having major complications where I cannot sleep at night due to choking on stomach acid. The band has to come out or I am at risk of Aspiration Pneumonia, which can be VERY serious. All options have been tried, so I am not here to ask for advice on that. My surgeon has advised me that the only option is removal or eventually severe illness. I am already wheezing and am weak due to the foreign matter constantly entering my lungs at night and choking me. My good old band has done its job and for that, I am thankful.However, it is time to part ways. I am exhausted due to lack of sleep and completely miserable due to the discomfort it is now causing me. My surgeon says it has to be out by the end of this month. One slight issue........ my insurance won't cover the removal. Not one little bit. It's excluded, even complications. So I am desperate and don't have a spare $10K laying around to self-pay for this. I have explored the Mexico options, which look REALLY good but was wondering if there has been anyone else in this situation. I do not qualify for any loans due to past credit issues but am in the best financial position of my life and can easily pay back a loan if I actually did get one, which I won't. Any assistance would be wonderful. I am too tired to even know where to begin.

You weren't asking me, but I'll answer anyway...Variable restriction is extremely common, and can be one of the most frustrating things about the band. It's not necessarily due to a complication like a band slip or esophageal or stomach dilation. Your stomach is living tissue that expands and contracts to help you digest food and is affected by a variety of ordinary things like the time of day, time of month, stress, hydration, medications, illness (for me, seasonal allergies always played havoc with my band). But...if the variations in your restriction are so extreme that it interferes with your daily living, I would suggest that you bring it up to your surgeon again.

Hi there! Welcome and let me say that being 1 year out, I've not had a complication at all! I'm either very healthy or very blessed. . one of the two for sure. . . i've not been sick either, oh well maybe the odd sneeze here and there but that's it. . . no major problems at all. . . check out my ticker to see how i'm doing . . . cheers and welcome again!

Blue cross likely will not deny you. They are the easiest from what I hear. My surgeon told me that they actually take into consideration that u lost a few pounds through the process it shows them u are serious and will be a success--they won't be turning around to convert u later and they won't worry so much about u complicating things by not following the plan. Good luck

Wow I am so happy you are feeling better. For those that are afraid, don't be. Her situation was one out of 10k. Most people have a smooth process. I was sleeved August 7th and I had zero complications. I was home walking my dog the next day. Sounds like she had a responsible and awesome surgeon!! Good luck with everything I'm sure you will have an amazing journey from here on out.

I was sleeved on August 5th, just now getting up the energy to get this written. Anyhow, my husband and I arrived at the hospital at 8am and I was feeling pretty good, not all that nervous, Just ready to get it done. I get admitted and set up in the pre-op room waiting for 10am to come around. My inlaws drove over that morning to be with me and with my husband while he waits and I can tell that my MIL is sooo nervous, she keeps rubbing my arm. When the nurses come in we all chit chat while they are taking vitals and hooking me up with this thing and that thing. Someone brought up the question on if I needed a blood type band, but the other nurse said no it wasn't necessary. My husband asked why and was told that my Surgeon "Never needs to do transfusions so we don't worry about it." Meh, sounds good to me, I have complete trust in my surgeon! Before i know it my surgeon is here and the anesthesiologist is here and we are headed down the hallway. I don't even remember making it to the OR. Fast forward a few hours and I'm in a small hospital room, my husband is there and he says everything went great! I remember my mouth being soooo super dry and the nurses let me swish some Water around and spit it out. I remember telling my husband to go out to lunch with my inlaws and get something to eat! Then darkness. I wake back up to several nurses in my room and my husband and lots of beeping going on, someone is trying to either get a vain to put something in me or take blood I'm not sure, I'm so tired I can hardly even keep my eyes open. Everyone is shaking me and telling me to open my eyes, wake up, stay wake but I'm so tired. I hear my husband tell me to open my eyes and now my surgeon is in the room and nurses are on both hands trying to get a vain, I don't feel anything anymore. I hear my husband say "Take Her!" and then I don't remember anything. Fast-forward to 8pm that night, I wake up in the ICU of the hospital with a very stressed out looking husband. I am hooked up to several machines at this point. My surgeon comes in to check on me and tells me what happened. My sleeve procedure went smoothly, but while organs were being moved around some blood vessels that go from between the stomach and the spleen had gotten pinched/torn but it was in a way that nothing was showing itself as a problem. I had my surgery and was in recovery for 2 hours and in my room for 1 hour without any issues at all, I was a star patient. Until, as my husband told me, the nurses came into the room to start getting me up to walk, as they lifted the head of the bed all of my vitals crashed. As they were trying to get me to get up those blood vessels that were pinched were shifted and I started bleeding out. My surgeon took me back into surgery and said it was like a mini geyser in there. He said he cauterized it 9 times to stop the bleeding. I lost a lot of blood and while I was in ICU, I received two units of blood. I was on a pain pump, morphine and I remember I kept asking the nurses for something stronger, I just couldn't breath, it felt like I had done a thousand ab crunches and I couldn't even take a breath. After giving me morphine and Vicodin through the IV they finally called in something stronger called HydroMorphin. That stuff was AMAZING! within 20 minutes I was able to take my first real breath. I had lab techs coming in every hour to take blood samples and check my platelet count, my veins were collapsing and they had to call in the big wigs, he said he was only called when no one else could get anything, and it still took in a try or two, I;m still foggy at that point. I think I fell asleep because I open my eyes and my husband is there the next day, he had to go home shortly after I arrived in ICU to feed and let out our dogs and get some sleep. I am still having labs drawn and by this point I'm still not really feeling the needles, at one point the poor tech only got out a few drops before it was over. That lab had to be redone since it was so small it had clotted. They successfully attempt to get blood out of the IV that they had been giving me blood through. It must of been ok because they didn't hook me up to anymore blood bags. Yay! It's time to start getting up! My ICU nurse starts to position the bed into a seat position and my heart goes from 98 to 160, she panics and lays me back down and starts on the phone with my surgeon who has told them to call him if I go over 110. At this point my respiration drops and more alarms are going off. the nurses come in and check my breathing and open up the air thingy behind me. Respiration goes back up, but I can still hear my heart beating in my ears. that slows down and they draw more labs! Over the course of the day and three shift changes, I was able to get up and out of bed, I walked a few short trips around the ICU and I was bubbly happy when I was cleared for my first sip of 1oz water! I over heard the ICU nurses talking about me and how crazy it was that they actually had a bariatric patient because "That NEVER happens!" My Surgeon came by and told me how i was a first for him as well, as in bleeding and having to go to the ICU. I was in his "less than 1% complication" I graduate to phase two and started on my Protein drinks, no problems at all, maybe a little gassy but not bad. At 11pm that night, (day 2 post-op) I get moved to the bariatric floor of the hospital. I text my husband the room and try to get some sleep. No luck, hourly checks have me awake most of the night. I scare the hospital staff when I try to getup to go to the bathroom, (they took the catheter out at the ICU), my heart rate jumps back up into the 160s and I suddenly have a couple of nurses in my room. Eventually they come to accept that if my heart alarm is going off then I'm out of bed. They slowly stop checking on me throughout the day. I've been up and walking the floor, I've peed tons! I've walked some more. I keep asking to have the IV lines taken out since I wasn't hooked up to them anymore. I keep getting told at 3pm. I am going to get checked out at 3pm. Thankfully 3pm shows up and I've meet with the head nurse, and the nutritionist and some other ppl and I am cleared to go. By 3:45 I am home and exhausted. I sleep on the couch and my husband tends to me sweetly. So now that I am 8 days post op here's what I have to say. I absolutely LOVE my surgeon, as my MIL said, other surgeons would have maybe tried to wait and see if my vitals leveled out but not my surgeon, he saw that there was a problem and took Immediate action! I would absolute do this surgery again even with time spent in the ICU, The staff there were amazing. Days 1-6 TOTALLY Completely SUCK Monkey Butt, but it gets better. I don't want to weigh myself until my two week check up, but I am as gitty as a school girl about it! So, pick your surgeon wisely and trust him/her completely! I did and still do!

Thank you for your post. I loved reading it. It was honest and that's what I need to hear as I await my surgery date. I have accepted the fact that there can be complications but I have trust in my surgeon and cant wait until Sept 16th when I have my surgery. I am glad to hear you are doing good and kept a positive attitude, congrats!! Please keep us posted on your progress

I can only surmise that her stats on the occurrence of a complication are off. I say this because something similar happened to me, and I could have died. I give my surgeon no credit with saving my life, because as one poster above said the surgeon is the one who caused the problem. I don't know if I'll ever know what happened in surgery but something did that caused me to lose a lot of blood. When I woke up I felt worse than I ever have in my life. I really wanted to die and stop the suffering. I think the reason I felt so bad is because of blood loss, resulting rapid pulse and very low oxygen level (below 80). My nail beds were white, no color whatsoever. For some reason, unknown and unfathomable, my doctor waited nearly 2 days before giving me a blood transfusion. I guess he was expecting miracles that would cure me overnight. Only thing I can say with certainty is this: Pick a good doctor. I thought I did, but he was an egotist and a hothead. I had a strong gut feeling not to use him. I didn't listen to my gut and I'm glad I'm here to tell you I made it through. I had brought a friend with me to be my advocate if I needed it. I needed it, but she just assumed the doctor and nurses knew what they were going. I was completely helpless and at their mercy. I swear I will never let this happen again, even if I have to pay to hire a private nurse. We don't think about how major this surgery is and that we could have a complication. In both these cases, it sounds like surgeon ineptitude. Luckily, I'm ok now - no lingering bad effects. So even tho my surgeon nearly killed me, at least he did do a good job on the procedure. I haven't had any problems or pain at all, other than gas..

Over the last several months, I have gained six pounds. You would not think that would be a big deal but my body can feel it. I wake up exhausted and I struggle through the day. This past week I have been thinking about why I can’t seem to continue my weight loss. I am happy that I have lost over 100 pounds, but I have another 50 to lose. By the early part of this year I stopped losing weight. That was a little frustrating but I kept it in perspective. I told myself that I have been very successful thus far and I should be proud of what I have accomplished. Reluctantly, I stopped trying to lose weight and have done a decent job of maintaining it. It’s been about nine months and I’ve been thinking that I need to get back to losing the last bit of weight. If I don’t, my fear is that I will let myself go and end up right back where I started. I know that losing the weight will be a dramatic change for me and will make me healthier and give me more energy. But there is a fear inside of me that is stopping me from moving forward. This is the same fear that took me up to 330 pounds and would not allow me to lose that weight for over 10 years. I lost the weight but I did not conquer the fear. The only way I was able to lose the weight was by getting surgery to have 85% of my stomach removed so that I would be physically unable to eat. When you think about it, it sounds rather barbaric. I’ve been trying to figure out what the fear is so that I can face it. It is a fear of success or is it a fear of losing pleasure or is it just an addiction? Before my surgery, I used to think I had a fear of success because I was emotionally comfortable being overweight and didn’t know how I would act or react to being “thin”. I think this is partly why I have been content at my new weight. I’ve lost a significant amount of weight; enough to make the surgery a “success”. I went from a Body Mass Index of 56% to 36.8%. While it is an impressive drop, a BMI of 36.8% is not thin. I have gone from super morbidly obese to just obese. I remain emotionally comfortable in my weight because I still consider myself fat. While a small part of me feels flattered, mostly it makes me feel self-conscious and uncomfortable when I am complimented on my weight loss or the way I look. A person giving me a compliment is a foreign concept and I often do not know how to process what they are saying. Outwardly, I smile and say “Thank you” but inside it feels as if I am holding a dead bird in my hand that I don’t know what to do with. Am I afraid of holding on to too many dead birds? The other part of the problem of course is more complicated; it is the food addiction. Food is pleasurable. The act of eating is pleasurable. I like pleasure and use it as an escape from myself and my stress. Lately, work has been very stressful and I have not been able to control myself when it comes to eating. The sad thing is, I know what I am doing and I continue to do it. The sad thing is, the food does not reduce the stress but I keep eating.

I have not had any surgery..so I don't know if I can even give my opinion, but I will anyway . I went to the seminars, read several books, and after much thought, I think the band is right for me. I do have a BMI of 44 and have over 100 lbs to lose to be at goal weight, but I hate taking pills everyday (reason why I get depo instead of the pill) so I know that I would bring about my own demise. My insurance does not cover DS, but either way DS or RNY, I feel like I'm only 26, I haven't had any kids yet and want to be around for as long as possible. No one could tell me what would happen to me after 50 or 60 and I didn't want to do anything that could potentially shortened my life (yes I know being fat that I already shorten my own life, but I don't want a surgery to reroute that). Now I know there are plenty of people who know plenty of people that have had the RNY surgery. Personally (people who were friends of mine), I knew or know 5 people who had it done, 2 are dead from complications, 1 is in/out of the hospital consistently and had gained most of her weight back, 1 lost her weight and has gained it back (but I always told her that she never had a full understanding of what she needed to do to maintain it, she was obsessed with knowing what if felt like to be skinny and couldn't handle it), and the last one is doing just fine. Even though these are only a few people, its MY world, as limited in scope as it may be, I think it would give anybody in my position a scare. So I will take my chances with this, work with it and hope for the best. If it doesn't hopefully by that time there will be another option for treatment, but only time will tell.

Most folks, on both sides, are happy with their decision and would "do it" again. Of course, each side has complications. Some are more serious complications than others. For me, it was personal. What was I willing to go through to lose weight? I look to the future and felt the worse thing that could happen, with the band, is for it to erode and have it removed. The worse thing, long term, with RNY, could be lack of nutrition and deficiencies that go with it. Afterall, did I want to trade weight loss for other health complications? Lapbanders seem to not have that problem. Of course, short term, the complication for bandsters is much less. I support all who battle to lose weight!!! Shawn

This is your decision, I am preop and have a date set for april 17, I was ready to have GB but some of my very close friends had this and after complications they passed away. I am not saying this happens to everybody but I to am one of those who did not want to have those type of issues. Again only you can make the choice I am glad I choose to wait for the band