I want the Band but Dr is steering me towards RNY or Sleeve

I really like the idea of the band and I admit that I am a bit afraid to go with it since I have read that about 50/50 chance of having complications.. 

Dr wants RNY or Sleeve. I do not like the idea of the leave as it it cutting out my stomach so I would RNY... but that also seems to be a pretty big step. Welcome any comments... PS. I have my official meeting with the Surgeon on 10/22 so it has not yet been discussed in detail

Please bear in mind that I am a very happy and very successful bandit now 8 years post-op.i do not regret my band, would do it all over again and if I ever have to have it removed, I would hope to have a replacement.

When I was banded in 2006, it was a miracle surgery. And for some people, who accept that they will still have to work hard, it is just that. It was and still is for me. But over the years it has become clear that serious complications necessitating further surgery are much more common than originally thought, some of these are avoidable by careful eating and by not keeping the band tight; unfortunately others are beyond our control.

We used to be warned about band slips, leaks and about ( very rare) erosion into the stomach tissue but it turns out that a build up of scar tissue round the band (causing it to tighten) is common. It can be very difficult to get the right level of restriction and some people are tempted to keep it tight enough to physically limit food, in fact it was once thought this was how it should be. But this causes food to back up into the oesophagus and that risks problems such as oesophageal dysmotility which may be irreversible. It can also damage the vagus nerve.

We still need lots of will power. The band makes it easier by dimming hunger, but it does nothing for head hunger and, contrary to popular opinion, it does not and should not physically stop us eating. If it does it is too tight!

Having said all that, I love my band, I know many successful long term bandits in real life, in fact almost all the banded people I have known for years are still happy with their bands.

Good surgeons no longer do the band because of it's serious damage and lack of effectiveness. Even the Mayo clinic no longer does them so that should tell you something, if one of the most highly respected medical communities no longer does them they can't be good for you. The sleeve and RNY are very effective surgeries and by the way the sleeve doesn't take out the whole stomach. It takes 80% so you still have a normal stomach just smaller.

There are some bandsters who have had great success but there are also many like myself who did everything they were supposed to only to end up with permanent stomach and esophagus damage. Even worse we lost hardly any weight either so not only do we suffer from the damage we didn't lose either. So listen to your surgeon he sounds like a great one.

Well  he is and its at a top Center of Excellence.. Northwestern University Hospital in Chicago.. a world class medical facility 

Yes, the UK national health service may be far from perfect but we have surgeons every bit as good as the US ones! And although the sleeve may be becoming the most performed weight loss surgery here (don't know the actual stats), we are still offered the band. 

The procedures which can be offered by the NHS are listed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence and the band is one of their accepted procedures. 

I dud ask my own surgeon about this. He says that there are more complications than they expected back in 2006 when I was banded and it is completely true that some of these are no fault of the patient. But, from his experience, a lower success rate is at least in part due to a lack of patient compliance. There are people on here who complied in every possible way and have had horrendous problems! I do not doubt them for one second. But the overall stats are swollen by people who do not, and it is easier to be non-compliant with the band than with other surgeries. 

Do not get a band. Yes some are happy with no problems, but MOST have issues and you will have to get it removed at some point. You can't live 20-30 years with an object in your body and not have issues.  Listen to your Doc and do the research.  

I think you'd better do more Research, do you realize that the stomach is stapled in the Sleeve, RNY and the DS? Staples ARE FOREIGN OBJECTS. My older sister had her stomach stapled about 30 years ago wen she was very young and she'd had NOTHING but stomach issues, vomiting pain and horrible hypoglycemia which is caused by stomach being stapled.

She got skinny and stayed skinny for about 3 years and after that her stomach stretchered, and she has been on a diet for over 25 years and still fat.

The stomach stapled stomach from 30 years ago is NOTHING like a sleeve.  Yes, it was a big "fat" failure. (pun intended) 

I really do usually avoid these debates. Every now and then, I just can't leave it!

It is not true that MOST people have serious issues; it is true many do! My personal, real life experience is that almost all those I actually know, many now 10 years post-op, are happy with their bands. And it is perfectly possible to have foreign objects in our bodes for a very long time! Knees, hips, stents, crowns, pins etc..

I never, ever say the band is a perfect solution. I never tell anyone it will be trouble free. I never doubt the problems others describe. But I do sometimes get fed up with sweeping generalisations! 

I know people with sleeves whose experience has been appalling. I don't know personally but I know of people whose bypass has brought misery. 

With all the respect you know I have for you, you are still my band hero!  At our center they have in fact reached the 50% removal due to the problems with the band. That doesn't count those that went to other centers for removal/revisions.  These are people I talk to in real life and those I talked to in real life that I can only talk to on the internet due to distance so I guess they could be lying but, I don't believe so.

I have talk to medical persons about the foreign object thing because of the band and my hubbys knees.  They said and the manufactures sites verify that the band, breast implants and devises of that material usually have a ten year span.  The metal the use for knees, hips and pins doesn't seem to have that problem. 

We officially don't have a single bander coming to support that is still banded.  That said if I didn't have the band when I did (only other option was RNY), I would have just kept gaining like crazy as I was going thru Menopause and nothing that had worked before to lose was even slowing me down.  I am sure I would have been another 100 pounds heaver by the time the sleeve was available to me.  I just wish I could have skipped the band and gotten the sleeve at that time in my life.

At support, there are now more Sleeves than RNY, I have met people with tons of bypass issues and non of the sleevers had issues but the one that got pneumonia which you can get from any surgery.  Strange how different huh?