New here...sort of!

Exactly where was the bullying and "disalowing positive band talk"? Everyone here was honest and caring about the op's future health. I no longer have a band, couldn't revise due to damage, but I feel morally compelled to share my experience. If it saves one person years of misery, diagnostics, anxiety and $$$$ then it's worths being called a "bully". IMHO using the word bully in this thread is just a passive aggressive way of being exactly that.

 

 

If you'd rather not know the truth about gastric banding, lap band talk is  a good site to visit. 

 

In all fairness, I have to give it to OH this time.  They are permitting truth now.  LBT does not.  If you have band issues you are banned for life.  Not banded.  heh....

Exactly. Lap band talk encourages people to bury their heads in the sand and only post HAPPY BANDING STORIES. So, if she's looking for HAPPY BANDING STORIES without actual truthfulness involved, that's the perfect site. 

Yes...that's a great place to go play happy bandster, be part of the 95%

That site is SCARY. If you have complications, they descend like The Children of the Corn and pick people apart. Some of those people are going to really learn the HARD way how wrong they were. The ones who say, "The band works IF you're 'compliant'." are going to have some fancy excuses when their bands crap out. I wonder how they justify it to themselves? 

If you don't want to hear the truth about any surgery, good bad or indifferent, why ask? I had the band for 3 years and I loved it until I had two slips and developed Barrett's Esophagus, a pre-cancerous condition due to vomiting daily from the band. I was at my dr office every week or two for either a fill or unfill and my band dr lived in another state. And before anyone suggests I kept my band too tight, that never happened.

I also thought the band was reversible until they removed half of my stomach when they removed the band because of all the scar tissue that forms when the band is sewn into the stomach.

You have to do what you feel is right for you and I wish you luck with whatever you decide. But to self pay for a band is just going to be taking your entire bank account and handing if over to your dr.

 

~~If you don't want to hear the truth about any surgery, good bad or indifferent, why ask?~~

Good point, Michelle!  Almost makes you go hmmm....

I'm going to jump in here to offer my two cents.. I am a Lap band vet - 7 years post- op. I completely understand not wanting to choose a surgery that isn't reversible. That same reasoning is what lead me to overrule my surgeon's advice for Bypass and go with the Band. It was a decision I made out of fear. I was afraid to admit that I needed so much help to overcome my obesity, I'd have to surgically, permanently alter my body in order to be healthy. I couldn't do it then. I was afraid of giving up control.

I could tell you my own story of living with the Band. How miserable I've been in the past few years ( not the first 5 or so) but I don't think it will bring anything to this thread. I will share that my surgeon, Dr. Guy-Bernard Cadiere was the first surgeon in the world to perform laproscopic Bariactric surgery in 1992. He is a recognised expert in his field. He personally has performed over 5,000 weightloss surgeries laproscopicly. He refuses to place Bands in his patients now due to excessive patient complications and less than optimal weightloss outcomes. He also believes that in the US, the Sleeve is performed frequently because it is a cheaper procedure that produces great shorterm EWL, but he says the RNY is still the gold standard for optimal weightloss in morbid obese patients and the DS for the super obese. When I expressed my concerns about living with the Potential complications of malabsorbtion, vitamin deficiencies, all the things that I was afraid of, he looked me in the eye and said, You!ll be lucky to have them because if you don't do anything and continue as you are you won't ever have to worry about any health problems because you most likely won't survive that long. Food for thought, huh?

He placed my band in 2006. He will be removing it in 2 days and revising to a bypass..

If we've made you think about your choices then that is a good thing. If all that's happened here is you feel attacked and defensive, then that sucks. Not for me but for you. I've been there and done that and am so so so glad I'm almost done..

Good luck. Ashley

When I decided that I was done being obese, I would have given up my arm to be able to lose the weight. If you're not ready to change your anatomy, you're not ready to change your lifestyle. You will without a doubt, pay for 3 surgeries: the band, the band removal, and the revision. It's your money and your body, but it's like being in an abusive relationship. You're free to go back to the SOB who beats you, but you're also going to reap the negative consequences of your choices.