I have a question for Maria, and others in the ANTI-BAND camp

I appriciate your comments, but I will add that I do thank him for calling me out by name. What annoys me are the ones on this forum that post "some people" and "a certain person on here". If you have something to say about me..........address it to me. And he at least had the balls to do that.

Well then  I stand corrected HOWEVER I wasnt saying not to call you out by name but I was saying not to make it personal but general, I guess I thought it would be better to say..."I have a question for all the ANTI-Band camp"....but in this instance I was wrong.

Interesting perspective about lurking on other forums and seeing "certain" information and not posting because it's "their" forum. 

I on the other hand feel entitled to and welcome MYSELF to post on all forums on ALL topics (I deem necessary) and no one has the capability to make mince meat out of me.  Not that any have dare tried...or at least I don't think they do.

I WELCOME threads about the negative aspect of life with ANY wls.  This is what helped me to form MY opinion. 

By the way thanks for the comments you personally directed to me about defining "success"

Continues success with your Band.

Ms Shell

i'm am not anti band, nor will i recommend it - specifically for self pay patients, unless this is their only alternative to have WLS.

my success is vanity driven, as i never had a weight problem till i tried to get pregnant.
no comorbids, no meds, no physical restrictions....my ASS just got too big for some really expensive clothing & i wanted back in them - period.

i was always active (minus the 3yrs period i put on the lbs) - so exercise & diet is nothing new.
a WLS that provided malabsorption was nothing i needed - restriction alone does me fine, however the sleeve would have been my choice given a few post op complications.    it really wasn't an option or talked about when i looked into WLS.

as far as maria goes, how does her so called bashing impact your experience so far w/the band?
she'd still be outnumbered here by those who a yr in & LOVE their's - -

there however is a whole other camp that have had a complication or 2 and still have done fine (such as myself) with the band & still would have opted for another surgery.   it's not bashing, it's called living with it & what your threshold is for dealing with problems along the way.    

 ALL WLS comes with the risk of "failure"and ALL WLS comes with the risk of serious side effects. Each person needs to weigh what is most important to them and come to their own decision. For me, the apparently high rate of complications I see with some surgeries like RNY that leave people needing lifetime iron infusions, or repeated hospitalizations for strictures or other intestinal blockages made me reluctant to go that route unless I really have to. My philosophy has been been to do what seemed the least risky first, particularly since I was self-pay. Although some complications can be more common with a band, MOST of them are not life-threatening. Would I like to weigh less than I do now? Sure. Am I willing to have a revision and deal with the potential complications of another surgery? No, not yet. I have now maintained a good loss at 5 years out, with minimal complications. I have a good quality of life, I'm pretty healthy and I'm happy. That is more important to be than being a certain weight or size. Not to mention, as I like to periodically point out, that I have now seen many cancer clinical trial eligibility criteria state that patients are not eligible for a trial if they have any "non-normal" gastric anatomy or any malabsorption. That concerns me, so I don't take signing up to have part of my anatomy removed if it is going to make it difficult for me to access something like advanced cancer treatment later on.

 And you know what I think a lot of people fail to understand about ALL WLS and the internet? Happy people don't need to come here and complain, they have better things to do. It is the unhappy and those who DO have complications who are most likely to be seen on ALL WLS forums, so no matter what surgery you look at, you're going to see a higher complication rate among the people you encounter here. Those who don't have complications get tired of all the crap and don't bother to check in much. Like me! 

Why do all the OTHER WLS's have long term happy, successful ppl that continue to post, and yet that is always the excuse for why no long term successful bandsters posting???

 It is interesting that you say you don't see long term happy successful bandsters posting, when I could easily name quite a few, myself included. When I visit other surgery boards, I also see plenty of people posting who are either unhappy or have complications. I don't participate in the "bashing" of surgeries one way or the other, but I do get tired of people who are unhappy with their choice assuming then that whatever they were unhappy with is no wrong for everyone. We all need to do our own research and make our own decisions.

Of course there are some. But comparitivly speaking.........extremely few compared to the other WLS's!

All the other forums also have ppl posting about their compications, vomiting, tooth loss, etc.  No WLS is without problems.