Have you been re-banded?

[LaLa28 0]

Hi Everyone

My name is Carla (aka LaLa). I was banded in 2002. After two years, I had major slippage and erosion and had to have the band removed in 2004. Here it is 2006. The band has been gone for 2 years and it has been a constant struggle to keep the weight off. When the band was removed i weighed 180 pounds. My weight stabilized at 200 for a while but then, due to a lot of emotional stress, I started yo-yoing. HEre it is two years later and I am back up to 235, the weight that I was when I had the lap band inserted originally!

I am thinking about having another band inserted, or, possibly having the gastric bypass. My concern about the band is that there could be scar tissue around my stomach from my previous two surgeries that could make the band hard to insert. I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with this.

The gastric bypass is still scary to me, which is why i never considered it originally. But I am so unhappy that I am seriously considering it if banding is not an option.

To anyone who would like to share their experiences with band removal and especially re-insertion - I would be so grateful....

Have a great day :Banane33:

[HeatherGurl 0]

What does your Dr. think you should do?

What does your Dr. say your options are?

Sorry to hear that you have had to go through this!!!

[LaLa28 0]

HI Heather

My doctor seems to think that any possible scar tissue will not be an issue. But if he goes in and thinks that it will pose a problem I need to decide if he should just stop right there, go ahead and try to position the band anyway, or perform the bypass instead.

I really want to try to speak with people who have experienced this because, although my doctor is very good, i always feel better when I do my own research as well...

Thanks for the encouragement!

[HeatherGurl 0]

WOW! That would be a hard decision for me to make. I wonder what my Dr. would suggest in that case.

Please keep us posted!

[Gwendolyn 0]

Hi Carla-

I'm not *quite* in the same boat, but some of the things I've experienced may be of help to you, so I thought I'd share...

I was banded in July of 2005. 4-5 days post-op we believe I slipped, and we did not find the slip until the 8th day post-op. By that time a portion of the stomach had been pinched off and necrosed. I had emergency surgery that afternoon, the band was removed, the necrosed tissue was removed and an NG tube was inserted to allow the repaired portion of my stomach to heal.

After 5 months, I went back to the surgeon to discuss options. He had *some* concern that I may have scar tissue around the stomach as a result of the trauma 5 months previous, but was 99% sure he could place the band again and be successful.

7 months after the original surgery, I was back to be re-banded. The surgeon said there was some degree of scarring, but it was minimal enough that he could work around it and place the band in the same position as before. He did say he chose to use the larger VG band specifically because of the scarring. I am now just over 10 weeks out and have had nothing but smooth sailing!

I'm on a sucky plateau right now, but I couldn't be happier with my decision to be re-banded

Gwen

[JanetC 2]

Wow, LaLa! I'm so sorry you had to go through all that! I don't have any advice, but I'm watching your story with interest! Let us know what you decide & how it goes!

One thing to note: bypass is not the only other option. I don't really know about any of them, but I've heard others talking about them. If you're researching, check out DS (duodenal switch -- sp) and/or the gastric sleeve.

At this point in my life, I'd still choose the band again, but if my surgeon HAD to do something else... um... yeah. I don't know what I'd do!

Good luck & let us know what happens! Oh, and welcome to LBT!