Bye Bye Bandaquita

Hi all. I got home about 3 hours ago. Band is out. I'm in pain, but mostly tired and my throat is dry and hurting from the intubation. I had stomach prolapse, although it was not severe. I did not have any scar tissue from the band and he was able to remove it without incident. We are keeping our fingers crossed that my reflux will now resolve on it's own.

I found out after surgery that I was the only surgery scheduled for today. It is normally their paperwork day at this center. I asked why me, why today and was then told that my surgery was classified as an emergency. Oh boy. That was scary to hear.

My EGD was performed at the same surgical center on July 30th. This morning, just two months later, I weighed in at 21 lbs less. Not the way you want to lose 21 lbs. Wow.

I am not regretful and I will not band bash. Bandaquita did her job. She helped me get off of statins for high cholesterol and high blood pressure meds too. I learned to take pleasure in smaller portions of good food, instead of large portions of just OK food. I learned to enjoy fruits & vegetables more. I learned that bread, rice and pasta are treats to be enjoyed in small amounts, not food groups. I need to make a concerted effort from here on out to not fall back on bad habits. I do not want this journey to ever be in vain.

There are so many choices out there for WLS. The band was the choice for me and although it ultimately had to come out, I feel like it was successful. I never expected to be bone thin and scrawny.....I was only ever that thin in college, when I was working 3 jobs and going to school full time and lived on Coca Cola and not much else. I just wanted to get myself back into good general health. At 250 lbs, I blew out a knee, I could barely drag myself around much less be motivated to exercise.I am still a lazy butt when it comes to exercise, but I do know and feel it's value, so I have made improvements there. Plus, I want to set a good example for my 7 year old daughter. I am not considering revision at this point, but since this has been such a whirlwind couple of weeks, I really have not had much time to think about it anyway.

My love to you all for the support, prayers and fellowship. Be kind to yourselves and each other. Above all, listen to your body. Only you live in that body and know it thoroughly. If something just feels wrong, than it probably is. I was second guessing myself for a year, not wanting to be alarmist or defeatist, but frankly, I knew a year ago that things were not right and I chose to override my instinct.

OK, that liquid Vicodin is the shizz and I am babbling. I will check in a bit later.

Judy

Remember you are still always welcome here, you are our friend banded or not. As long as you have made major life style changes you have a good chance to keep your weight down. I've been empty for over a year and still holding steady. Feel better soon!

Thank you so much HisLady, you have always been so kind and supportive. I'm not going anywhere!

You where my surgery sister.  I loved hearing your stories about Badaquita. 
I thought that was so cute.  I had my band remover four weeks ago.  I am down ~50 pounds from SW.  But, that only came off the last six month as
they kept unfilling the band as it kept getting tighter.  The reflux is all gone.

Good luck with what ever you choise to do from this point forward!

I know pineview, we are surgery sisters. Thank you for telling me your reflux has resolved, that gives me a lot of hope. I could not really tell from last night, as my throat is still pretty sore and dry from the intubation, but I don't think I had reflux. I am introducing soft foods today. Just had some Greek yogurt.

It took a couple weeks.  Even though the band is gone.  The stomach
is still iritated/inflamed from being messed with getting the band out. 
I stopped the PPI's two weeks out and all is fine now.

So glad to hear you are doing well. Get some rest and best of luck!

Thank you so much Jamie.

I am sending you many prayers and hope you have a speedy recovery.  When you posted last week of horrible regurtitative reflux on an empty band, I knew your band had slipped. Those are classic signs of slippage, reflux and vomiting on an empty band, as a matter of fact when you are vomiting on an empty band, this indicates your band is pretty much in the last stage of slippage and can cause great harm, if it is not removed promptly.
 
It truly breaks my heart to see so many lap banders lose their bands. This board USE TO TRAIN newbies on the dangers of the lap band and its traps. The traps were the addiction of saline and being too tight. 

The lap band is THE ONLY WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY where WE PICK and CHOOSE our restriction, and that's part of the problem. 

 I fell into the trap myself but I learned quickly (when my band almost slipped over 6 years ago) and early on that if you allow the band to help you 50 percent it will be there for you forever, and if you allow it to help you 90-100 percent, it will only be there for a short time and that short time will be living hell.

Also I learned from the BEST VETS, they stopped posting about 4-5 years ago when a lot of newbies would not listen to the warnings, when we are newly banded we ALWAYS THINK that problems can happen to others, and those others are not following rules.

The truth is the lap band does not discriminate, it does not care how much money you got, ethnicity, or if you got your band installed by the best surgeon and have excellent aftercare, if we IGNORE those warnings, and MANY IGNORE REFLUX when it first start ( I am SURE someone is reading this post RIGHT NOW and can't sleep without sitting up in a recliner or have 5 pillows elevating their heads in order to sleep, but HEY the scale is moving right?) and some don't know the dangers because they assume that is how the band is suppose to work, (or the reflux is NOT that bad yet) or if the scale is moving in the right direction, we DARE NOT LET GO OF SALINE, because it may be costly, people may have to drive a long distance, or they FEAR GAINING weight.

But the sadness of it all is that if we don't let go of a little saline, BEFORE damage is done, we can keep our friend our tool our companion and it won't turn into a VERY EVIL PIECE OF CONTRAPTION, YES OUR FRIEND THE LAP BAND WILL TURN ON US....AND it gets very ugly in the end, if we ignore those signs of being too tight.

I am happy that I listened to those vets, I am very saddened that many newbies in the last few years have not had the guidance that I had when I got my band placed, and I am saddened this trend will continue to happen, surgeons are surgeons, they will fill the band AS THE PATIENT DESIRES....they will still get paid to install lap bands and get paid to remove them.

I wanted to tell you how beautiful you look in your avatar, I pray that you stay strong, and never give up your fight of obesity and know you have other options.

Sending you prayers to stay strong.

It was very weird though, the slip was very slight according to the surgeon, but was just enough to start the vicious cycle of vomiting, which lead to the stomach prolapse. The EGD and the barium swallows always showed everything in the correct position, which is why this was so out of the blue. Surgeon agreed that I have been a very compliant banded patient. My records all show that I had no compliance issues. I never stretched my pouch, never dilated my esophagus, and the other things that would possibly lead to a slipped band. That's why I said in my original post that we all need to be very tuned in to changes in our body, despite what we may be told by the health professionals that things are all A-OK, only we know when something is wrong and we must advocate for ourselves. in my case, my body just started rejecting the foreign body. After nearly four years, go figure. No fault of mine or the surgeon or the folks at the bariatric clinic who were always very conservative with fills.

Naomi, I very much appreciate your support and kind words. I'm glad you are still rocking your band, which is my sincere hope for everyone here. I still believe in the lap band.