Need Help from Band to VSG Revision People

My story almost exactly - band 2004, constant throwing up, max weight loss 30 lbs, constant reflux, pain at port site, removed 2007 - self pay sleeve 10 Weeks ago at highest weight ever - down 47 lbs this morning. No comparison - sleeve any day.

Paula

I haven't revised yet but plan to eventually. Well for starters it is the LEAST effective of the surgeries plus it is not designed for long term the manufacturer advises removal after 5-10 yrs., that's if it lasts that long, quite often it either slips or erodes into the stomach long before that. Even the government has served Allergan with a order questioning why 50% of patients either don't lose significant amounts of weight or require removal of the band. You have to be leary of the government is questioning the effectiveness of it. More and more surgeons including my own are refusing to even do bands because of the high risk for complications and low weight loss. I've had mine for over 5 yrs. and finally had to have it emptied because it would tighten even without a fill!  In all that time I lost all of 20 lbs while killing myself following all the rules, it just never worked! Alot of people have a very difficult time with vomitting or sliming(lots of mucus build up in your mouth when food gets stuck) which is pretty often for many of us. It is just about the worst choice she could make. She may as well just get the VSG now because sooner or later she'll probably have to revise to it anyway. It is just pure HELL on earth being stuck with a band. It causes permanent damage to the stomach by basically strangling it! Just say NO NO NO to the band! If she has questions I'd be more than happy to chat with her.

Not that my case was typical, but I got my band in 10/2003. I did really well with it for about a year and I lost about 100 pounds. Then I started having problems. Something would get "stuck" and I would have to vomit. Believe me, this is one of the worst feelings EVER! Your esophagus produces this slime that is really disgusting to try to clear the blockage. Normally all that does is back up in your esophagus.  Hence having to vomit eventually. This led to me not being able to eat or drink ANYTHING - not even my own saliva would go down! I had to have an emergency unfill about 5 times. No one would touch me here because I had my band done in Mexico. Anyway, the last time this happened, I went to Mexico and told them to take all the fill out. I needed a break!!! I spent quite a while with no fill and gained some weight back, but not too terrible. I went back to getting fills and the same thing started happening again....and I chewed my heart out to make the food mushy enough to go through! So that was the last straw. I had them unfill it again and left it that way. I gained more weight back but started losing on my own and lost about 30 lbs. for my wedding. December of 2011 I had a body life and a breast lift/reduction done. I had asked that they remove my band at that time but he said he didn't know how but he would remove the port because it was also causing me discomfort. WELL, I ended up with an infection in my abdomen about a week after surgery. I was severely anemic and needed 4 bags of blood. They immediately admitted me to the hospital and put me on antibiotics. By the next day the infection was so bad that it just poured out of me onto the floor when i stood up! As soon as the doc heard that, he took me to the ER to open me back up and clean it out. Not a pretty sight from what I heard. He left the wound open and thought he would close it in a few days but it had to be recleaned in surgery AGAIN. I finally sent home after almost 2 weeks in the hospital with a Wound Vac for the next 4 months and IV meds for a month. Once that was over, I had another surgery to close up the remaining wound. Soon after that I kept seeing a few pockets on my abdomen that didn't seem to be healing. I went to my PC several times as they were oozing. They just gave me more antibiotics that did not seem to help. I had my wedding June 4th so I had other things to deal with but the wounds were getting worse! I finally went to the bariatric surgeon that would eventually do my VSG and he saw the wounds and immediately admitted me into the hospital AGAIN! He said he needed to remove my band. When the other doctor had removed my port he left the tube just hanging out in my abdomen with no cap on it. So, when i got the infection, it got into the tube and was re-infecting me!  During this time with all the stress, the inability to exercise and no band anymore (good riddens) I gained all the way up to my original high weight ;-/

So, here I am a year and a half after all this BS and almost 5 weeks out from the VSG. I really find that this surgery is SOOOO much better than the band!! I really think it was the best choice for me and I am very happy with it! 

If she wants, she could talk to my mom. She is a patient consult for a Mexico doctor (Dr. Ortiz) and knows a lot. She did tell me that the band is "on the way out" and they really don't do them anymore nor do they do the RNY very often either. My mom had the plication surgery, but that is a whole other post. 

Let me know if you or your wife have any other questions. I will be happy to help!

Hello...

I could not sleep and I was browsing this forum so I decided to answer your post. You will probably not get any good reviews from Band to Sleeve revisions on this board, since there is probably going to be a lot of bitterness towards the band.  You or your wife may want to visit www.lapbandtalk.com where more lap banders hang out these days.

I will give you an honest non biased opinion of my banded journey going on 8 years with it. Not sure if your wife will be cash pay or if she is going through insurance. Those who have great aftercare and a great surgical team and a VERY SKILLED surgeon tend to do much better with the band than those who do not.

Aftercare is CRITICAL to the success of band patients, it's like the Sleeve it greatly depend on surgical skills of the surgeon who installs the band and she wants to seek a surgeon that has done over 500 bands and believes in the band, many surgeons who do not believe in the band do not spend the time on filling the band properly and this can result in poor results for many people.

Mexico is NOT a good idea for band placement unless she can get a surgeon close by that will agree to see her for aftercare and any complications that may arise. Also MANY US surgeons are bias about taking on patients that get the band out of country and will not take on Mexico band patients and this could put your wife at more risk of unnecessary complications if she can't find a surgeon to unfill her band in the event of an accidental overfill (this happens all the time).

The band requires seeing the surgeon more often than the Sleeve does, in the first year banded people have to follow up with their surgeon every 4-6 weeks for best results to make sure patients reach the "sweet spot" green zone is where the band is most effective. Sometimes the band requires tweaking, some people only need 2- 4 fills over a lifetime and some need many more. Depending on the skill of the surgeon and the band size used, many get the appropriate band size for the anatomy some don't, there are cases where people get a bigger band and never reach the sweet spot, but these cases are rare. 

Also fills adjustments can get expensive and they vary depending on where you live, they can range from $10 with insurance to over $700 with no insurance, but the average costs are about $150 dollars. Some people have complications or no weight loss because they can't afford the aftercare the band requires, so the band is not a good idea for people with limited incomes that can't afford the ongoing maintenance.

Again, if you really dig deep on why people have problems with the band most of the time it's poor aftercare due to financial reasons of not being able to afford the aftercare, the band can sometimes require diagnostic testing after a few years to check the status of the pouch and esophagus and these tests can get costly if someone does not have insurance, the band may require yearly Upper GI,s  or endoscopy if someone is having problems, and if problems are not identified in time and treated they can result in the unnecessary complications or removal of the band.

If your wife finds a very skilled band friendly surgical team, and she is motivated and willing to follow the band rules and follow up with the surgeon as needed and have a exercise plan and band diet in place she should do great,

Regarding getting food stuck, I never had this problem much, if I did not chew my food properly, or ate too quickly,  or ate food that I should not have eaten, such as a burger or Chinese food, that would get stuck and I would slime, but overall getting food stuck was very rare with me, I did not have problems vomiting,  I ate what I wanted and got full quickly, so my quality of life with my band was pretty good and normal, if it was not I would not have gotten a replacement band.

I got my band placed over 7 years ago and I had GERD before the band and there were not many band surgeons in my area at the time and the band was still pretty new in the US, and I think I was my surgeons 15th band patient, so we were both learning about the band, many surgeons did not have much clinical experience with the band at the time I got mine installed. As a result, I had a hiatal hernia that was not repaired during my surgery and from day one, I had burning with my band and had to be on a PPi and Prevacid  to keep the acid down.

I continued to suffer from mild burning with my band over the years and I did not know I had a hiatal hernia that was causing this problem, but the acid was controlled as long as I took a Prevacid daily. But  as my surgeon filled my band tighter I would get reflux and regurgitation at night when I got to the sweet spot and I always had to go back and remove saline, so I had many fills and unfills over the years due to an undiagnosed hiatal hernia. But I still lost over 130 pounds with my band even with all the unfills because I followed the rules and exercised daily.

About 3 months ago, at nearly 7 years post op with my band, I started to have shortness of breath, chest and back pain and I had several tests done and this is when we discovered that I had a hiatal hernia and my surgeon immediately removed the saline from my band. I ended up having to find a new band surgeon to help me with my complex issue. I had surgery about 1 month ago to repair my hernia and remove the old band and replace a new one. Also my first band type is no longer offered in the US due to it being more prone to slippage and erosion, so I was given the latest band model the standard AP band.

I could have revised to the Sleeve, but I did not revise to the Sleeve due to my previous history with GERD and my fear would be my GERD would get worse and if I needed my hiatal hernia repaired again in the future that would be a problem since there would not be enough stomach to repair my hernia and I do not want to live the rest of my live burning with acid.

I am very happy that I got a new band placed and all my symptoms of shortness of breath and burning and chest pains went away after surgeon repaired my hernia. I don't know how my future will be with my new band, but I am hopeful that I will have a successful journey and if things go bad again, I can just remove my band and resume back to normal life.

Just like everyone journey is different with their Sleeve everyone's journey is different with the band. The thing about the band is that it takes a few months before you reach a good restriction level, but with the Sleeve you have the tightest restriction after surgery and most Sleevers lose a little quicker than the band for this reason, but over time, the band can be tighten up much more tighter than the Sleeve.

Also if someone does not follow rules, the band diet/exercise or keep up with their fill adjustments with the band they will not lose 1 pound with it. So lifestyle change is more important with the band. At least for ME, when my band was tight, I did not want to eat and my appetite was suppressed and this helped me lose over 130 pounds with my band, the band works great for many people and for some it can be a nightmare especially if you are not prepared or have poor aftercare.

One thing I noticed about Sleevers on this board they sure look awesome after weight loss, similar to most band patients.

I loved my old band, even though my new surgeon told me that my old band never worked properly due to the hernia interfering with the effectiveness of the band placement, but I still lost weight with it,  and I hope my new journey with my new band will be a bit more peaceful especially after my hiatal hernia repair, the most important thing about the band for me is that if something goes wrong I can always get it removed, my band replacement surgery was 10x smoother than my first band surgery, and if I have to get another band replaced every 8 years and experience the same smooth recovery, with hardly no pain,  it is well worth it for me.

The lap-band is fickle. As in you do not have a consistent procedure you learn to live with for the rest of your life since its always changing (due to fills, unfills, change in restriction due to whether, time of month, time of day, laying down, standing up, etc). I did really well my first 18 months by getting my fills on time and following the rules closely. However without knowing it, I was only losing when my band was filled beyond capacity and ended up with an ulcer on the band line. That of course meant an unfill had to happen and 4 months of living completely unfilled. Of course I never reached restriction again as I now knew the size of my band and watched carefully not to over fill it. Mine is only one story of the many that can occur but my point would be that as soon as you start going through unfills, your tool is put on the shelf. Slips, dilation, ulcers, hernias, leaks in the tubing, and flipped ports happen. I wont say its common as I dont know the statistic but it these things dont seem to be rare. I cant compare it too the sleeve yet as I am still not even eating solids, but at least from what I know the sleeve has fewer possible complications and you know what to expect for the most part every day.