Appalled by misinformation

Is it just me? I know this board can be too pessimistic sometimes but I have looked in on another well known board whose initials are LBT. There is blatant misinformation stated as hard fact by posters. And talk about blame the person for ALL problems!! It is about as extreme in one direction as this board sometimes is in the other direction. 

But if the posters really are being told by their docs and nurses what they say they re being told, there is serious need for education of some professionals!! No wonder the US problem rate is higher than the UK and Australian if they are representative!

I know what you mean, Kate. I think the problem comes from a combination of things, including inadequate education by bariatric surgery clinics and misunderstandings by and between patients. I've discussed it with the founder of LBT and he agrees that one of the biggest contributors to poor outcomes for band patients in the USA is the lack of patient education, aftercare and support.

Another factor that adds to the confusion on LBT is that it has more Australian members than OH does, and the philosophy, beliefs, and patient education in Australia is very different from in the USA. One example is the "don't drink while eating" rule that most USA patients are told to follow. Australian surgeons don't preach that because of studies there that found no link between drinking with meals and weight loss.

Finally, there's the distortion process that seems unavoidable in a forum like this, and even more so at LBT where there are thousands of band patients instead of the handful that post or lurk on OH. When I was a child we used to play a game called Telephone. We'd sit in a circle and one person would whisper a sentence into the ear of the person beside her. That person would whisper what she had heard into the ear of the person beside her, and so on until the sentence came back to the original person. The sentence was always distorted by then, in ways that made everyone laugh and provided entertainment for us.A sentence that started out as "The sky is blue today" would end up as "Tina skipped biology Tuesday". Or something like that.

Jean, in the UK as well, the whole view of how bands work has changed. Studies have shown that food passes within a minute and so as long as we wait, drinking makes no difference, it is now accepted in Oz and the UK that we do not and should not hold food above the band and the diminution of hunger comes not from filling the pouch area but from the number of pushes made by the oesophageal walls. Oz and UK docs now teach that well chewed food reaches the band but only some goes through, a second or even third push is required.  The brain is aware of the number of pushes and thinks we have eaten more than we have.

I do know some US docs are now teaching this.

Kate

This is very interesting Kate.  And yes the very opposite of what we are told.  It is also the opposite of what the companies own advertisements and info states. 

Pineview, Yes! But somehow it is now becoming the accepted understanding here.  A lot of it came out of research carried out in Australia where a lot of band stuff has been pioneered.  I am told by UK docs that it is now taught to them when they join bariatric trams and is the subject of papers at Bariatric conferences. My own family doctor was unfamiliar with banding and so looked into it and was told th explanation I have just given.

I wonder if it is a part explanation for some pouch dilations. We are now taught not to wait for the band to tell us we are full as the food passes through in under a minute. So if it doesn't and we feel it building up, we have either eaten too fast or are too tight. So it is made clear that we eat a controlled portion and then walk away. So we can't get oesophageal dilation because no food is held there.

When I was banded in 2006, we were told we needed to fill the area above the band and keep food there for 20 minutes. The new view gained currency about four years ago but took time to percolate through. I do know some US docs are also teaching this, in fact I read about this for the very first time on the BandGrads board.. But, as you say, Allergan still have the old explanation on their site.

Kate

I personally feel that the most active posters there with the exception of one or two, have tunnel vision with respect to bands and possible complications.  They are so emotionally invested in their surgery choice that they cannot or will not accept that these things DO happen and it is more and more apparent that long term complications are more likely than unlikely.

After the unprovoked attack on me a couple of weeks ago, I've lost all respect for the management of that site.  It was amazing to me that the responsible party in that  sh*tstorm wa supported on the boards and the only support I received was thru private messages out of fear of retaliation.  

It was a really disappointing experience.

I know what you mean about misinformation.  I work with a girl that also has the Band.  She knows I have the Band too.  Well at the Christmas party she started talking to the Controller about our Bands (which annoyed me because I never would tell people she has the Band without her permission first) but she was saying how we avoid sweets because we will dump!!!  I was shocked that she thought that.  I avoid sweets because I won't lose weight if I eat them.  I didn't say anything to her about her slip then and haven't since.  Maybe I should but then I thought maybe this little bit of misinformation is what keeps her on track??? 

I just can't believe some of the things people think and they get surgery without being fully informed???   

I find that site to be full of people who think they know what they're talking about and truly don't.  One person posted it was "cheating" to eat standing up because it might be more comfortable???  There is one ignoramus over there I swear is related to yayad, Kate.  She is cray cray and thinks she's the queen of Lapband Land, lol.

The LBT plastic surgery forum is just as bad.  I had this one woman who was getting plastics in Mexico with this doctor, I have friends who have had really bad outcomes with.  She was talking about the wonderful price she was getting and how she was so excited.  I posted on there that I wouldn't send my dog to that surgeon.

She sent  me a PM asking me why I would say that.  I told her why and that if she insists on going to him,  she needs to make sure she pays the extra money for the aftercare since he usually puts his patients in a taxi and sends them alone to a hotel to care for themselves and then he refuses to answer his phone if they get into trouble.  His incision lines are also very bad asymmetrical and dog-earred.

Anyway, she told me I was insane and clearly I had no idea what I was talking about.  Well, a few weeks ago, she wrote me an apology telling me that her friend had surgery there and almost died of internal bleeding - and she, herself had a horrible result from her Tummy Tuck. 

I credit her for apologizing, but her initial attitude toward me was just out of control.  Especially since she is the one who contacted me for information.

Exactly what I thought.  I was going to post here about that place.  I was like OMG.  I vowed not to go back there as my impression was that they were green and ignorant.

Have a great day