Would you do it again? Everyone please answer

Without question I would do it again.  I am someone who had this surgery after my best friend recommended it, and I have another good friend and a co-worker who are in preparing to have it now that they see how well I'm doing.  My only regret is that I didn't do this a long time ago, but the insurance I had up until 2 years ago didn't cover it.  It's been 9 months for me and I just had my very first PB and sliming episode yesterday.  It was totally my fault and completely preventable.  I was talking while I was eating and swallowed a barely chewed bite so I could answer a question.

I had my last soda the night before my surgery and I haven't missed it.  I knew this surgery was going to change my life for the better and if it meant sacrificing soda, I was okay with it.  It's been worth it.  I figure it was one of the reasons I got to 300 lbs in the first place.   Other than that, I eat whatever I want.  One thing I tell people is that if I want a piece of cake, I'm gonna have it.  The band is the tool that's going to keep me from eating the whole cake.  The changes I made have helped me be successful with the band.  I still eat mashed potatoes, just not mountains of them and I occasionally eat a few french fries, just not a super-sized portion.

My advice to you is that you shouldn't wait for your sister.  It doesn't sound like she is ready yet.  She may need the incentive of seeing how well you do to help her make the decision.  Ultimately it's her decision -- don't let it influence yours.

 Good luck!

Absolutely NOT!!!  I would not recommend the band to anyone, not even an enemy.  I had mine removed and revised to a duodenal switch.    You need to visit the revision boards.   You and your sister owe it to yourselves to investigate all your options.   I had my band revised to a duodenal switch.   You also must read up on the medical literature.   You will never get an accurate representation of your likelihood of success by visiting a forum such as this since there is a natural selection bias in the population.   Add to that there are some people here who are active shills and work for doctors and manufacturers and get paid to influence people.  The only place where you can be certain of unbiased representation is in peer-reviewed medical articles.   Pubmed - the database of the National Institute of Health has plenty of articles.  You needn't read the entire articles unless you are so inclined, but a review of the summaries is usually sufficiently clear enough for a lay person to understand. 

Weight Loss Surgery (WLS) of any type is somewhat of a gamble.   The success of these surgeries is measured by the average Excess Weight Loss (EWL) within a population.  The story of any given person is what we in the scientific community call anecdotal evidence - it is simply one story.   It proves nothing.   They way the medical community, and any research community for that matter, determines success is by selecting as large a random sample as possible, measuring every subject in the sample in a common and consistent manner and then examining the attributes and distribution of all these data points to draw inferences based on statistical techniques.    The findings are then reviewed by peer groups to make sure that the study design and statistical techniques are consistent with good research practices.  After this vetting process, the studies are published.

If you examine the literature, some things will become apparent quickly.   The lap-band has a very high rate of failure and re-operation.    If you get banded, you will have selected the weight loss surgery with the lowest likelihood of success.   You will also find that the likelihood of re-operation is quite high.   This becomes even more important since you are self-pay.   Add to that the persistent and chronic maintenance needed for fills and you have a prescription for a personal economic disaster in addition to the potential for medical failure.  

Below is the conclusion of one 10-year study found in the National Institute of Health Database.

CONCLUSIONS: LGB appeared promising during the first few years after its introduction, but results worsen over time, despite improvements in the operative technique and material. Only about 60% of the patients without major complication maintain an acceptable EWL in the long term. Each year adds 3-4% to the major complication rate, which contributes to the total failure rate. With a nearly 40% 5-year failure rate, and a 43% 7-year success rate (EWL >50%), LGB should no longer be considered as the procedure of choice for obesity. Until reliable selection criteria for patients at low risk for long-term complications are developed, other longer lasting procedures should be used.

Source: 
A 10-year experience with laparoscopic gastric ban...[Obes Surg. 2006] - PubMed Result

Other summaries showing comparisons between surgical types and the supporting medical literature can be found on www.dsfacts.com   This is a patient developed site that has no commercial interest in any surgery or manufacturer.   It was designed by grateful DS patients to help pay forward their positive experiences. 

You should stop by the DS board too.

Good Luck and keep digging.  

Peace,

William

Please keep in mind that some of those studies are based on the OLD band (which they don't use anymore).  There are new options that have major improvements over the old ones.  I did lots of research and I was banded 2 weeks ago.  Find out more about Lap Band AP or the Realize Band.  MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS. 

Is it true there is maintenance? YES!  We all will have to mess with fills the rest of our lives. BUT if there is a problem, it can be adjusted or removed without any problems.  The DS and RNY people cannot say that.  My mom had RNY.  After seeing her complications-I GOT LAP BAND.  She has vomited nearly everyday and lives on Tomato soup and granola because those are safe foods for her.  The doctor thinks that she has extra scar tissue in her stomach.  Needless to say. she is self pay and it will cost $1500 just to find out for sure what is wrong, I think that is the equivalent to 15 fills (YEARS) of maint. with lapband.

People who have these surgeries (RNY or DS) have other problems for the rest of their lives, MALABSORBTION being one of them.  This is a MAJOR problem.  You can easily become malnourished and even have memory and personality changes from this.  

I am not bashing it, but telling you there are a lot of educated BANDSTERS out there who knew better than to have someone screwing around with their insides like that.  One false move and you could have serious problems the rest of your life. 

I DO NOT WORK FOR ANY FIRM.  I am just a well informed WLS patient.  So please don't let a person that had a bad experience with the band, for whatever reason, tell you to distrust an entire community of people who have had this done.  

It isn't easy, but for many it was just what we needed to be healthy.  I have lost 27 lbs in one month.  I feel better already.  Good luck to you!

 WTG Melissa!

As Senator Moynihan was fond of saying,  "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.   They are NOT, however, entitled to their own facts."   There are no studies showing any type of improved efficacy or safety between "new" and old bands.   If you check both manufacturer's sites you see dismal statistics with respect to the likelihood of success.   While everything is presented with plenty of marketing hype, both the Realize band and the Lap-band AP claim average excess weight loss of LESS than 50% in the first 1-3 years out.  This means that the typical bandster hasn't even met the clinical standard of success.  (50% EWL is the NIH definition of success for bariatric procedures)   While clinically defined success is one measure,  patients who only lose half of their excess weight often have a different opinion of their outcomes.   Put another way, by the manufacturers own admission, your chance of losing more than half of your excess weight in 3 years is not even 50-50.   That simply sucks.   WLS is a gamble no matter what procedure you chose.  I suggest you go with the best odds.    Based on a large scale study done by Dr. Baltasar  EWL for DS patients "reached 81.4% at 5 years when 97% of the patients had a %EWL > 50%."   In other words, 97% of the DS patients lost more than half of their excess weight and the average excess weight loss for these patients was 81.4%   I know which group I would rather be in. 

Source:
Duodenal switch: an effective therapy for morbid o...[Obes Surg. 2001] - PubMed Result

Another study echoes this with one year comparative results showing:  The percentage of excess weight loss was 84%, 70%, 49%, and 38% for the BPD/DS, GB, SG, and AGB groups.  (That is DS, Gastric Bypass, Sleeve Gastrectomy and Adjustable Gastric Band groups)

Source: 
Comparison of weight loss and body composition cha...[Surg Obes Relat Dis. 2009] - PubMed Result

In terms of Malabsorption, you have no clue what you are talking about.   Malabsorption is NOT a Problem.  It is the actual MECHANISM that makes the RNY & DS so much more effective than a purely restrictive procedure such as the lap-band or VSG.   Essentially there are only 2 forms of action for weight loss surgery.  Either you restrict how much food you can eat, or you reduce how much consumed food your body can absorb.  Some procedures use both mechanism to a greater or lesser degree.   The nature of the malabsorption will determine what type of supplements you should take.  DS & RNY patients must take vitamins to stay healthy.  It comes with the territory.   That being acknowledged, DS patients have no stoma, so there is no abnormal chewing of food required.   Things will not get stuck and since you only absorb 20% of the fat you consume,  there is no need to follow a restrictive or low-fat diet of any kind.    Becoming malnourished means you have not been properly supplementing for months.  (It is not something that is "easy to do".   It is something that involves a flagrant refusal to follow the rules.)   DS patients who follow the simple rules and get blood work once or twice a year are usually the healthiest of all bariatric patients.   

You have also tried to lump the RNY & DS together.   The RNY is an inferior form of WLS compared to the DS for many reasons - we can take up an entire thread alone on just that topic.  Essentially, you lose more weight, avoid long term regain, resolve far more co-morbid conditions more completely and have a better quality of life with the DS than you do with either the RNY or Lap-band.   (see the comparative articles in www.DSFACTS.com)   Vomiting is a way of life for some RNY patients and a lot of bandsters.   It is pretty much unheard of for DS patients.   We have a normal but smaller stomach.   The openings to our stomach both at the esophagus and the pyloric valve are intact and unaltered.   We chew normally, swallow normally and can eat and drink fluids like normal people can.  Nothing gets stuck.  We can also take NSAIDS - aspirin, alleve, ibuprofen, etc.    I was advised against this as a bandster and it is strictly forbidden for RNY patients. 

In terms of your irrational statement - "one false move and you could have problems for the rest of your life", -  are you describing a worry over malpractice or arguing about the nature of the procedure?  In the context of the latter your statement is ridiculous, with respect to the former, malpractice can happen whenever someone screws up.   Make sure your surgeon is experienced whomever you chose.     Hazard data exists with respect to the various procedures and are all fairly close in terms of the dangers of surgery.   What everyone is in agreement about is that REVISION SURGERY IS THE MOST DANGEROUS OF ALL.   The band is touted as a "reversible procedure".   What is not mentioned is that you get scarring from the band as soon as you put it in.   Bands often become embedded and that combination of scarring and embedding, along with all of the adhesions that always accompany abdominal surgery make any revision - whether it is to another procedure, or ex-plant or a repair to the band -  substantially more dangerous than an initial procedure.   

With respect to your comment on fills,   having something adjusted via the port and having the band removed (ex-planted) are completely different animals.   Band removal IS major surgery.   It is a revision and far more tricky and dangerous than the initial implant.  It will also probably cost more to remove than put in since the procedure is longer and more complicated. 

I do not know who you work for  - if it is a doctor's office, manufacturer, or if you are simply who you say you are.   You are not, based on my comments above, knowledgeable about much of what you said.   Either you are spewing out the propaganda of the band manufacturers or your are just being disingenuous.    I don't really care which it is as long as your comments get corrected.   For those of you who have bands, I hope you are one of the lucky forty-something percent that has a successful outcome.   In terms of my own experience,  I was forced into a band by insurance limitations.  I knew the odds were lousy, but took the gamble anyway.   Fortunately, at the point it really began to fail spectacularly, my new insurance covered DS revisions.  To the OP,  as I said initially, WLS is a gamble.   The only place you will get an accurate representation of what your true odds are is in the academic literature.   Good Luck whatever you decide.   

Peace,

William

edited to correct an awkward sentence

I understand your point but it does not hold a lot of water for me.

The newer bands are just another generation of bands.  They are new, they have NO long term studies.  They are claiming fewer erosions but how can they make a band that causes fewer erosions when we do not even know what in the world causes erosion?  I think that's on the doctor, not the band.  Why is it that one doc in Monterrey has a 20% erosion stat and my doc has had 2 erosions in 2200 bands?  It's the doctor, not the band.  So to make a difference in the band is fruitless when it comes to erosions.

Stats are not panning out that the new bands have fewer slips.  The slips have been increasing since the adjustable band was created.

First they had the mesh band, that didn't work.  Then they had the non adjustable band.  That didn't work.  Then they had the small adjustable bands.  They blamed erosion, slips, and band intolerance on the small size.  Then they came out with the mega bands today.  Slips, erosion, and band intolerance are not lower AND there are no long term studies on the usefulness of this new band.

You are incorrect about the old (smaller 4cc) band not being used anymore.  People are struggling to get restriction with the mega bands.  It is taking people much MUCH longer to get restriction overall with the mega bands today.  In Canada many doctors are going back to the 4cc bands because patients are happier and they are losing weight faster.  Mexican doctors use the 4cc bands and they are the folks that perfected the surgical technique used by all doctors today.

Bands still provide the lowest weight loss, the slowest weight loss, and the highest regain by the 5 year mark.  Sleeves still provide better and faster weight loss and much fewer long term complications than banding.

Absolutely! I would go through it again and recommend it to anyone who came from where I came from. I was 270 lbs and 5'2 and lost 100 lbs in a year (plus 20 pre-op) I have had almost NO problems. I have to work very hard at exercise but I eat 1600 calories / day and don't feel like I am "suffering" on that by any stretch of the imagination.

I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat!!! I am almost 6 months out lost 60 lbs and have more stamina then I ever did before. I researched the surgeries and this was the one for me. I can also eat what ever I want just so much less. I've never felt deprived of anything. I can also have soda I just choose not to. I do drink club once in a while.

I have had no problems. Thank god!!! Good Luck to you!!

Kim

Never. I only lost 16lbs, and never found the "sweet spot". I've endured numerous fills and unfills, and then it slipped. I'm worried I have other issues like possibly erosion, but don't have insurance.

I self paid for the effin band, so am entirely broke. I'd like to revise to the DS, but I'm still paying for the band. Now I read the band is only designed to last 5,7 or 10 years depending on maker (although I had problems within months). My surgeon mislead me and lied to me and I'm angry.

I should have researched the other surgeries before being sold a bill of goods. Now I am broke in more ways than one.

YES!