My Band To Sleeve Story

[coltonwade 27]

So let me start by saying this , I got the lap band to improve my quality of life. Because I have PCOS ( Poly Cystic ovarian syndrome ) and Migraines I am at greater risk of things like stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure as it is. Being over weight adds to that. So I wanted the band to reduce that risk BEFORE anything bad happened to me. I am a mother of 2 boys who need me . After I first got the band things were great, I could eat what i wanted, just smaller portions and occasionally threw up after eating too much , or so I thought .. I even changed the way I ate, what i ate , i felt better so I ate better. I was , as you can ask my doctor , the model patient, i did everything I was suppose to (with the expectation of working out and that lesson has been learned trust me ) Eventually what I ate seemed to come back up more often , But after losing 125 pounds I thought I was doing ok.

At a year out a slipped my band , that is where my stomach comes up through the band and can potentially be very serious. After it corrected it self I gained some weight ... It slipped again , more weight gain .

I was then told my band had scar tissue build up around it and I could no longer get the fills I needed to lose the weight the opening to my stomach would be closed off it was filled again . That was around 2-3 yrs ago .

As time has gone on I have slowly gotten worse. You see because of where the scar tissue is I still have " restriction" Meaning , I am still limited on what i eat , so things like steak, pork, chicken , solid Proteins wont go down . The food literally sits on top of my band until it gets either pushed through , which is very painful , or it comes back up . If I throw up too much, my stomach swells and eating any form of solid food is impossible for several days. So i have to go to liquids, milk shakes, Protein Shakes , mash potatoes things like that. Those type of things are high in calorie and cause me to gain weight , but what other choices do i have ? broth, Water ? Yeah those fill you up ?? NOT !

So my day goes like this ...

Breakfast: Protein shake cause eating in the morning is nearly impossible. That's if I can get it to go down if I cant and anything comes back up then its liquids for me the entire rest of the day

Lunch: I try to eat something semi solid but I usually end up eating Soup

Dinner: Some times a salad works but most evenings I throw up my dinner several times over and end up in pain from the swelling . By that time liquids hurt to go down ...

NOW that leads me to my "other issues"

Joint pain

Fatigue

body aches

head aches

My teeth are deteriorating because of how much I throw up

Cold feet

cold hands

numb feet

cysts on my feet

numb hands

You see they are finding out now that people who have had bands for several years are developing auto immune disorders like Fibromyalgia .. Problem ? Docs done believe it yet .. So no doc will help me out . With out insurance I cant get proper diagnoses . You can read more about that stuff here .

I am now 20 or so pounds away from my original start weight before surgery . That's right I have gained nearly ALL My weight back . And at the rate I am going by next month or so I will exceed the 250 pounds i was before my surgery .

I had my revision surgery on 11-14-2012 after surgery they told me the band removal went fine and they were able to repair a hiatal hernia , that was a surprise to them ( and me ) and sleeve me in one procedure. I was SO relieved to have had it done in once procedure. The day after surgery I started throwing up water and unable to keep it down . After a couple more tried they ordered an EGD for me . They told me if the scope went through easily then and showed no obstructions I should be fine and not need another surgery , but if it did not I could have excess scar tissue from the band and I could need another surgery . WHAT !! Yikes . So they did it and it showed no obstruction some swelling around the band area ( where the band was ) they told me to take liquids slow . For several days I was still throwing up just water, in fact it freaked me out because it looked like I was throwing up some blood as well. Finally around day 3 or so the water was staying down . So finally I was able to go home today . NOT an easy process that's for sure , but I am glad its over. The doc told me to progress my liquids slowly , as long as I was keeping liquids down I was fine , the minute i started if i did throwing up liquids I needed to come back . But to just take it slow . I have been home for about a week now and its still a back and forth issue with food.

I encourage ANYONE reading this to NOT get the lap band, do not ever tell anyone abou the band and Hope some day it falls off the face of the earth !

[havehope4all 1]

I had a similar story. I had the lap band for 4 miserable years and had it removed at my cost in 2007 as my old insurance no longer paid for any weight loss surgeries.. My insurance had changed and I finally got the sleeve 10/22. I feel great and am doing well. Nobody should get the lap band. I had many problems and lots of adhesion's from it. All my problems were either to be solved by getting a fill or taking out a fill. Endless. You will do great. Fortunately I have had no problems drinking or eating. maybe the 5 years of healing in between procedures was a blessing. Best to you on your journey.

[coltonwade 27]

thanks im suprised anyone read my novel haha . I had my sleeve about 6 yrs after my band. the issues just kept getting worse. Solid foods became painful and i just had to stop eating them . that was about a year before surgery i was basically on liquids for that long .. It was not fun .. Im still not convinced i wont need a second surgery to clean out my scar tissue but we will see.

Its just going slower than I thought.

[Divinediva 4]

I also had the lap band in August of 2007. I would never recommend it to anyone. I am going through 3 month clearances to get the band removed and revised to the VSG. I will complete my clearances on January 22nd and hope to have the surgery early February.

[Catherine Shinn Habhab 97]

Thanks for your story. I hope your difficulties can at least help some other people avoid these types of problems.

[coltonwade 27]

I hope so too . I did not post much on here until after i got the sleeve, It was hard for me to read and see people loosing and wondering if i could or would ever get there again .