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Lap Band Removal



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After much trying to make my lap band continue to work for me my surgeon has said enough is enough and he wants to remove it. I was banded in Apr 07 and did fantastic (lost 102 pounds) for the first 18 months when I started to experience a lot of nausea/vomitting and the most awful pain in my left side near the port. It felt as if someone had their hand inside just twisting as hard as they could. They did an upper GI and after 1 sip of the barium the radiologist took it from me saying it wasnt going anywhere. They said it looked like my esophagus was very swollen and needed a rest so they removed all the saline. They had me come to the office in 2 weeks and they put the same amount back in. Immediately I started with the same problems. The next day they removed it again and said it needed to rest longer to come back in six weeks. At that visit they put 1/2 the amount I had previously had back into the band. I seemed to be doing of for a couple of weeks and then it started again. This time they removed it and did a CT but didnt see anything causing it so decided they needed to fill slower as was originally done after my surgery they put 1 cc. But again within a couple weeks it was the same. This has been my lifestyle now for 2 years-put it and take it out. I have done everything to try and determine if it was me. I would sit with a timer when I ate and chewed for 60 seconds and waited 60 seconds between bites. It got to where I knew I couldn't tolerate solid food so if I didn't want to throw up I would eat puddings and ice cream and cream Soups. I thought if I could stand it and was throwing up several times a day I would loose weight again but here I am with 70 pounds of the 102 back on and an emotional wreck. I asked my surgeon if he was considered putting in another one or another form of wls but he said he wouldn't even consider it for 1 yr. So now I am back from a size 12 to a size 20 and waiting for them to schedule my surgery.

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After much trying to make my lap band continue to work for me my surgeon has said enough is enough and he wants to remove it. I was banded in Apr 07 and did fantastic (lost 102 pounds) for the first 18 months when I started to experience a lot of nausea/vomitting and the most awful pain in my left side near the port. It felt as if someone had their hand inside just twisting as hard as they could. They did an upper GI and after 1 sip of the barium the radiologist took it from me saying it wasnt going anywhere. They said it looked like my esophagus was very swollen and needed a rest so they removed all the saline. They had me come to the office in 2 weeks and they put the same amount back in. Immediately I started with the same problems. The next day they removed it again and said it needed to rest longer to come back in six weeks. At that visit they put 1/2 the amount I had previously had back into the band. I seemed to be doing of for a couple of weeks and then it started again. This time they removed it and did a CT but didnt see anything causing it so decided they needed to fill slower as was originally done after my surgery they put 1 cc. But again within a couple weeks it was the same. This has been my lifestyle now for 2 years-put it and take it out. I have done everything to try and determine if it was me. I would sit with a timer when I ate and chewed for 60 seconds and waited 60 seconds between bites. It got to where I knew I couldn't tolerate solid food so if I didn't want to throw up I would eat puddings and ice cream and cream Soups. I thought if I could stand it and was throwing up several times a day I would loose weight again but here I am with 70 pounds of the 102 back on and an emotional wreck. I asked my surgeon if he was considered putting in another one or another form of wls but he said he wouldn't even consider it for 1 yr. So now I am back from a size 12 to a size 20 and waiting for them to schedule my surgery.

So sorry to hear that. I pray everything will work out for you. Just hang in there.

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I am so sorry to hear about this. I get so caught up in all the success stories, I have to remember that it is not always good and that bad things can happen. I hope you can get back to where you want to be.

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I am so sorry to hear about this. I get so caught up in all the success stories, I have to remember that it is not always good and that bad things can happen. I hope you can get back to where you want to be.

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So sorry for your expierence. Best of luck to you.

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Mary,

I'm just curious but you said you did well for 18 months. Do they know why you started developing problems with the band?

During that 18 months did you get stuck frequently?

.

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I hope everything works out for you. I recently had my band removed due to infection. I only had it 7 short weeks. I am trying to get over it all and continue on but it is very hard.

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