lapband plication

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life.

All surgeons are gods who develop faultless plans and, patients are responsible for the competence/incompetence of the surgeon.

Like a person acting as their own lawyer (who has a fool for a client), people who follow pat advice on the internet are fools.

I suggest you weight the risks and benefits of giving out advice on the internet.


You'll need god's blessing if you are responsible for someone taking your advice to heart.

BS

The BAND DOES fail people, not all but MANY by NO fault of the patient.

I've NEVER seen so many kool-aid drinkers in my life.  I do wish those that are STILL having success continued success.  Anyone researching (ha) WLS in today's world is NOT researching.  There is so much information out there that should make people RUN from the crap band.

On August 4, 2011 at 7:27 AM Pacific Time, monymony wrote:

The reason people fail is because of bad food choices and not following their surgeons program.

Thank you for proving my point!

To the OP.... the band is a MECHANICAL device and mechanical devices fail, wear out, or just never work quite the way they were supposed to (i.e., are lemons).

Slips can happen if the band is kept too tight but sometimes they happen "just because". The best band surgeons still have patients with slips 2% of the time or more. I have 5 friends in RL who did great with the band at first. Lost a lot of weight, were able to eat most foods because their band wasn't too tight. Then 2-3 years out, they started getting horrible acid reflux, pain when they ate, etc. Their bands had slipped and eventually they had to be removed.

Erosions can happen due to poor technique of the surgeon but the vast majority of erosions just happen.

Esophogal spasms just happen. Some people's bodies just don't like having a piece of plastic wrapped around the stomach and they rebel.

Sometimes the port flips. I have 2 friends who had their ports constantly flip. They'd go in to have them flixed, they'd be okay for a few months and the BOOM the port would flip again. If the port flips, it can be painful and it's hard to get fills.

Sometimes the band developes a leak. Or the tubing developes a leak. Then the band won't stay full and you lose restriction and now you are hungry all the time just like pre-op. The only way to fix that is have the band replaced -- another surgery and this time your risk of complications is much higher because of the scar tissue from the first band.

How often do these things happen? In clinical studies, the band's mechanical failure rate that required another surgery to fix was anywhere from 25-40% over a 2-5 year period.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the band is only guaranteed by its manufacturer to last 10 years. Sure, they sometimes last longer, but a large long-term study of bands started out with slight over a thousand subjects and by year 10 had 12. Now, you have to figure some people moved away or got tired of being in the study but even if there are 3 bandsters who still have their bands but just weren't in the study for every 1 who made it to the 10 year mark, that's still less than 5 percent who had their bands at 10 years out.

Finally, the band has the lowest average EWL of any of the recognized surgery types. It's not a good choice for anyone who is SMO even assuming none of these things happen to you.

 Really? I followed all the rules, did what I was supposed to, ate what I was supposed to and lost 100 lbs. Great, right? yeah, it was, until the band almost killed me! *I* did nothing wrong, *I* followed the rules and the BAND failed me (and almost took my life).  

did I miss this? did you already have your VSG? How are you feeling?

 Yep, I had my VSG on Monday! I am feeling pretty good, still very sore and moving around can be a bit difficult, but I am flying solo with all the kids today so it's obviously not that bad LOL The one thing that is grossing me out is the drain they left in, but of course my boys are fascinated by it and want to watch me empty it, change the tape etc. Boys are gross LOL

It all went as well as can be expected as a revision, and the doctor was pleased at how smoothly everything went!

you are superwoman! I'm so glad it went well and that you must not have had permanent damage from your band!

How nice of you to entertain your gross boys that is funny!

Don't go too nuts, make sure you rest and congratulations!!!

congratulations!  hope you get your drain out soon and continue to do well. liquids!!!!!!

 Thanks! My drain should come out at my one week appointment, he wanted it left in b/c I am a revision, so I don't REALLY mind it b/c I know it would alert me if there was any kind of problem. I am doing my clear liquids now, and it's been pretty easy to keep up on them. My problem is remembering them, I have no feeling of want/need to ingest anything b/c my stomach is still so swollen, by my kids keep yelling at me and bringing me stuff to drink so I am keeping on top of it LOL 

 my first wee****pt the glass in my hand and was sipping all day long and still didn't get up to 64 oz until the 7th day (and then I rested LOL)

my drain was pulled before I left the hospital and it wasn't painful or anything.  it's nice to know if there were any problems you'd see it in the drain. 

keep sipping!!