Love my band :)

[Baba Wawa 543]

Deleted

[sherrypep 91]

Thanks for the info, I have been having many problems with my band since having it on 12/21. A possible slow leak, no restriction, etc... My surgeon said my insurance would probably cover the rivision if my band is faulty even though I only weigh 163 now. I am just a bit nervous about starting from scratch again. Thanks again.

[Baba Wawa 543]

Thanks for the info, I have been having many problems with my band since having it on 12/21. A possible slow leak, no restriction, etc... My surgeon said my insurance would probably cover the rivision if my band is faulty even though I only weigh 163 now. I am just a bit nervous about starting from scratch again. Thanks again.

It's scary to think of starting over. The good news is you weigh 163 this time...your revision will keep you there or lower. VSG is a longer, more difficult recovery than band, especially revision VSG, due to scar tissue, adhesions etc. Many of the people I've talked to had their band adhere to the liver, pancreas, spleen etc, which makes removal more difficult. They all report feeling much better getting it out whether they revised or not. Good luck to you!

[general_antiope 189]

food tolerance and GI quality have nothing to do with weight loss or complication rates. Of course the band scores low in food tolerance. Restriction is the point! I personally would never choose permanent digestive surgery unless my life depended on it. Thankfully right now it does not. I have a food addiction not a physical disease.

I've had nothing but malfunctions in my band for 8 years. Even when it had a slow leak or a fast leak I still fought to contain my weight gain. I committed to the band and it has proven to me over and over that it works for me.

That being said, the band isn't for everyone. I just get so irritated with people constantly trying to prove its bad. You know what's bad? Irreversibly disfiguring your god given perfectly healthy digestive track for a psychological addiction. All my personal opinion.

[Baba Wawa 543]

food tolerance and GI quality have nothing to do with weight loss or complication rates. Of course the band scores low in food tolerance. Restriction is the point! I personally would never choose permanent digestive surgery unless my life depended on it. Thankfully right now it does not. I have a food addiction not a physical disease.

I've had nothing but malfunctions in my band for 8 years. Even when it had a slow leak or a fast leak I still fought to contain my weight gain. I committed to the band and it has proven to me over and over that it works for me.

That being said, the band isn't for everyone. I just get so irritated with people constantly trying to prove its bad. You know what's bad? Irreversibly disfiguring your god given perfectly healthy digestive track for a psychological addiction. All my personal opinion.

I get your point, but what is the difference between keeping your band in to the point it damages your god-given anatomy, requiring parts of the stomach and other organs to be removed, and removing 80% of your stomach initially? When I first started hearing an increasing # of banded people having major complications, I started paying attention.

I'm not trying to prove that the band is bad, just sharing facts. If you have read my posts, I have been successful in losing with my band, but have unfortunately dealt with some pretty miserable side effects. I'm trying desperately to keep my band...I don't think that will be an option much longer. Poor "quality of GI life" is indeed a "complication". Getting food stuck in an empty band, GI dismotility and Constipation as a result are complications and negatively affect my life daily, not to mention the $90 copay for ONE of my medications.

If you have a problem with me posting, perhaps you need to use the ignore feature in your settings.

[general_antiope 189]

Oh, I don't have a personal problem with you at all! And I do agree, if the band is doing more harm than good, yes, it's not a good option. but those complications are few and far between.

[Baba Wawa 543]

Oh, I don't have a personal problem with you at all! And I do agree, if the band is doing more harm than good, yes, it's not a good option. but those complications are few and far between.

If you belonged to some of the "Failed Bands" groups I belong to you would think otherwise...complications are NOT few and far between. I thought the same thing as recently as a year ago...when I started having severe symptoms and asking for help from the "negative" band bashers, I was Enlightened. When my PPI wasn''t helping my night time reflux and I was waking several times per night choking on acid, this is where I went for help. Guess what, those who have been there are good resources for us, good or bad experience, it's all experience and valuable. This site is so hard on those of us who post of problems...it is discouraging enough to be suffering with a band induced side effect or out and out complication without people who haven't experienced it telling you to stop posting or worse...there was someone who posted the other day about problems and she was outright bullied....not ok!

I'm sorry you have experienced problems with your band, but don't understand that you have suffered for 8 years and won't acknowledge that the band is the problem??? I don't get it.

[general_antiope 189]

Hm. Well I'm not here to defend my decision to you (unless you want to know because you care, not because you want to convince me I'm making a mistake and want to convert me), and more importantly, this topic is about the information you posted. So I'd rather focus on that, if you don't mind.

What irked me about the post is that the whole tone is very misleading. If you are here to offer your experience and insight and possibly help others, then great. But you just posted a study summary that, after reading it, didn't pass my sniff test.

I assume you downloaded (paid for) this entire study and didn't post just some vague conclusion about the lap band being inferior to the sleeve to explain why you made the choice to switch after a poor band experience. (which, by the way, is not everyone else's experience)

I approach scientific data with healthy skepticism, and I'm happy to keep an open mind. So here are my questions on the abstract and results:

What is gastrointestinal quality of life? What does it mean - how is it measured in this study? Are we talking good and bad bacteria, number of bowel movements, rate of intestinal distress?

What is food tolerance? What does it mean - are we talking what variety of foods are able to be eaten? Quantity of food? This is most interesting to me because the band's primary purpose is to keep food tolerance low. I'm not sure why, otherwise, it would be part of a study. That's like measuring the light and heat from the sun and declaring that it's hotter and brighter than a lamp. lol.

How significant is "significantly lower" did the AGB score?

What do the numbers mean? Does it mean that because of these parameters, AGB patients had less long term weight loss? Lower quality of life? Less complications, less revision rates? Worse overall health? These things would get my attention, and cause me to look into my options again.

Don't get me wrong, MsMaui, I wouldn't wish complications on anyone, I don't want the whole world to be banded. It's for specific people. And sometimes even good band candidates have a crappy surgical experience, like perhaps yourself. And maybe me, but I'm not convinced yet.

As for me...My band has failed, yes, but for logical reasons. There is no reason to think it won't work again once replaced with a newer model and the port located to a less stressful place. Also, I am opposed to permanent surgical alteration, and will do everything in my power to avoid it. The band is still good in my eyes, especially seeing the results personally.

[Baba Wawa 543]

Sorry, no I'm not here to convince you or anyone to do anything. I didn't pay for the information, it came from medscape.com, an online medical professional resource. I posted it as just that, a resource. Gastrointestinal Quality of Life is important. It does affect weight loss...esophogeal, gastric and intestinal spasms kept me on a soft, low Fiber diet (maladaptive eating). These foods aren't ideal for weight loss. food intolerance (inability to eat fresh veggies, fruit, lean dense protein) are also counterproductive to weight loss, so it is very relevant. I posted on this forum, in particular because many banded patients DO look to the sleeve, since it is the other purely restrictive surgery. Hope this helps you to understand. No one having to revise, ever expected to need it.

[RavenClaw779 2]

I was banded in March 2010, and had slow and not too steady success with my band - some other health issues got in the way. Things were moving along nicely combining my band with Weight Watchers. Like everyone else, I had those occasional PB's, those foods you learn are not going to go down, the occasional, "Oops - forgot and eat too much/too fast" and from the beginning, I usually could not eat wearing a bra.

In July 2012 things changed...now I couldn't eat while sitting down, and never before 10a. Every night I'd sit down to dinner with my tablespoon of whatever Protein or main dish, a tablespoon each of that evening's veggies, maybe a 1/4 cup salad and three thumb nail sizes bites in, I'd be in the bathroom throwing up. After expelling my three bites and a giant mucus ball, I might be able to get my portion of the main dish down...in about 45 minutes and only if I was standing up. I had to give up eating out after a mortifying "3 Bite" episode @ a business meeting. I started having that burning sensation in my throat. I was getting sick everyday.

What happened in July? The only thing I can think of was that I'd had carpal tunnel surgery. I have always had to be "patched" before surgery because of severe nausea. Before this procedure, though, the anesthesiologist told me I didn't need it since I'd only be under 15 minutes. It was day surgery so I was home that afternoon. Hadn't eaten and wasn't hungry. Took the dog out to do her business, and my world tilted - I began retching and couldn't stop.

My weight crept up from 216 to 227 - combination of not eating &/or just getting what I could get down. When you're beat, and you need a quick pick up before a meeting and you can't risk an incident, a chocolate bar goes down without returning. After a long day of keeping nothing "real" down, a pint of ice cream is soothing. Not making excuses, not saying it was the right thing to do, but it's what I did. Instead of homing in on the real physical reactions I was having (my husband, friends, oncologist all noticed and encouraged me to go see my WLS), I kept blaming myself for not trying hard enough.

Finally in December, I'd had it and made an appointment. They told me I should've come in six months ago. Since then, I've had an upper GI and will be having an endoscopy next week. I'm eating mostly soft foods the consistancy of yogurt. Couple of days ago, I attempted a single slice of deli ham chew 45 times(I counted) and made six trips to the bathroom. Had a piece of toast last night - no problem. Had a piece of toast this morning - not so good and really creepy in that at 11am in addition to being unable to keep toast down, I could taste what I'd had for dinner the night before!(TMI).

Like anything, the band has it's good points and it's not so good points. It's taught me a lot and if it needs to come out, so be it. Since my original surgery, I'm about 50 pounds thinner(hey only 81 pounds to go!) and I've learned what full feels like. I've also learned that most people with a gastric band will need to have it replaced by the 10 year mark and many much sooner. A some point though, the inconveniences and embarassments become a bit too much to deal with. Revision surgery - hadn't even thought about that yet!