Slipped band while/after pregnancy

I posted this on the Realize band forum, but thought I'd post it here as well:

I was banded Sept 2008 with the  original Realize band. In between the preop phase & post op, I lost about 75 lbs from April 2008 to July 2009, which wasn't top notch, but I was okay with it. This was enough weight to enable us to get pregant in July 2009 after 4 years of infertility, so we were thrilled to say the least.

While I was pregnant, I had some acid reflux, which after I got my band unfilled, went away, so no major issues with being pregnant while banded. After I had my baby, I went back for a fill a couple months later, under fluro all looks good, no problems. I had some issues, so had some unfilled, was better. After a few more months I had more and more problems and the fluro identified my band had slipped. This took a few months process to finally determine that when my band was at  a good restrictive tight state, it would slip, when it wasn't and wasn't giving me restriction, it was fine. It happened a few times and my surgeon has now unfilled me completely. It seems the only option at this point is to remove the band and/or replace or revision surgery.

I hardly ever vomitted with my band, never had any other complications. Apparently they are seeing more of this with/after pregnancy from what I have heard. We hope to have at least one more child, so it is a very difficult decision to know what to do. With the band unfilled still in place, I am hopeful it will be safe enough to carryout a pregnancy with the band still in, but I do have concerns with keeping it in too. I am considering a revision surgery to possibly DS or VSG b/c of  the increased chance of slip reoccurence if I were to chose the band again. I don't necessarily want to have the band removed without pursing a new WLS in the same process b/c I was covered by my insurance. No guarantees they will cover a revision for sure, but I have heard it should be hopeful considering my insurance company.

Sorry for the long post. Just curious if anyone else has experienced this and I also wanted to pass the information along as well. Thanks for reading.

Amy

Amy, this exact thing happend to me. I had to have my band removed early last week and I am going to be revising to the VSG. You can click on my latest posts to read my story if you like. Feel free to PM me, or ask me any questions you might have, I would be more then happy to answer them.

I'm going through this now! I had my band in July 2008, but I only lost about 40 pounds. I got pregnant in summer 2009 and had my daughter in May 2010. I've had the exact same symptoms since I tried to fill the band again after my daughter was 6 months, and my doctor strongly suspects that it's slipped or that there is something wrong with the band. My surgeon has offered to reposition or replace it free of charge (I paid a LOT to have it put in), but I'm planning on having a revision to the VSG. I like the restriction (havent really had a problem maintaining my pre-pregnancy weight), but I'm hoping for better results from the sleeve.

My doc also said that they're seeing more and more issues with the band slipping during pregnancy. Wish i'd known before having the original surgery. I'm also planning on having the revision soon because I still want to have at least one more child.

That is nice of your surgeon to say that...mine just said it happens and talked about my options for removal, replacement, or revision. We tried the fill/unfill for over a year and eventually just had to take all the fluid out, so I have been without any restriction for a while now, and a very long time without good restriction. We have about the same timeline with the band, pregnancy, etc. I lost about 75 lbs before and have gained about half that back,about 20 lbs while pregnant, with additional 10-15 after pregnancy. I really wish my band would have been able to go back to work after I had my baby, it would have saved the 35 lbs I now have to lose to get back to where I was prior to pregnancy. But of course I wouldn't change having my baby for anything! 

Do you think back and forth about when you want to have another baby? In general and in reference to your revision? Part of me feels it would be best to try to lose as much as possible while my band is still in, try to get pregnant and have another child, and then do a revision...that way I don't have to worry about any malnurishment and/or losing the weight after pregnancy. But the other part of me wants to do the revision (thinking VSG too) now, lose the weight and then have another baby. It also crosses my mind about the safety of the band while I would be pregnant since it was slipped. I am currently trying to lose weight and go back to eating like I had the band working and trying to get some of this weight off and will decide something more definite in a couple months. If you want to talk more about this off board, you can friend me and we can chat or something. Good luck to you in what you decide.