New here! Researching and Learning!

I am glad you are doing your research! And I wish you the best of Luck my dear! I would like to share with you my lapband experience. I had the band placed in 2008 after 2 yrs of research. I was pretty much afraid of having any of the other procedures! And I too thought I would put the effort in to the band and it would be more of a "tool" to help me lose the weight. I did okay the first 7 mns. I lost 42 pounds in that time. I did struggle with not being able to eat in the mornings because of a "tightness" in my chest and would drink warm/hot beverages to get "loosened up" a bit so that I could eat by noon or so. I then had a slip at 7 mns out. No rhyme or reason... just happened. I was miserable before my surgeon could get me in to have the fluid taken out of my band. I couldn't even swallow my own spit without vomiting!! I then went un-filled for 6 wks in the hopes that my stomach would "slip back into place", which it did, but in that time I managed to gain 25 pounds back!! I then started the whole process of fills again! Only this time I had horrible reflux. I couldn't lay down in a bed to sleep without waking up choking in the night several times. I literally had to sleep sitting up in a recliner and still had reflux episodes. Day or night. I also found that I couldn't eat "heathly foods". They just hurt too bad going down. I was only able to get "soft foods" down without pain and without vomiting. These are the types of foods we as dietiers try to avoid!! But it is what I had to live on. I then got to a point where after I would eat, I would vomit. And during all this time I was gaining weight!!! So not only was I miserable...I was gaining more weight....after having WLS!!!  I was devastated!

I didn't want to meet with my surgeon, but because of the all the vomiting...I just had to. The doc. said I probably had yet another slip and that it was just time to revise, plain and simple! THAT was the best decision I have ever made!!

There are several different types of WLS out there. Do your research and do not let "fear" guide your decision making process. All surgeries have their risks and benefits. Weigh them out carefully. WLS is a lifetime decision and it will take your lifetime to care for yourself after each and every surgery, no matter which one you chose!

I would advise you to talk with a surgeon who is capable and does all surgeries or at least 3 of the 4! And go over your eating habits and health history and then let them give you their input. And read as much as you can....everything, the good, the bad and the ugly about the procedure you are leaning towards. Be educated and make an educated decision!
I wish you all the best of luck with your journey!!

I gotta join the run away from the band group! While I haven't had serious problems I did finally get mine unfilled completely because it keeps tightenup on me with out any fills. So to avoid (hopefully) the problems some of these other folks have had I emptied mine to ease the pressure and I hope scar tissue issues. I wish I'd never gotten it because now I firmly believe the manufacturers have lied about the seriousness of complications and that the band should be taken off the market. That's my 2 cents worth, just study long and hard before making a decision!

Banded 2 years,  have lost 200 pounds and am still losing (albeit slowly now as I get closer to goal).   Malabsorptive (RNY, DS, etc.) not appropriate for me due to other health issues and my age.  I've had no band complications.  One unfill in these 2 years due to getting a tad too tight.

My doctor did not do the sleeve 2 years ago and honestly, I didn't know about it.  I would maybe consider it now, but doubt it.  I'm weird about having body parts that I came with removed. 

Do your research and get what's right for you.  Don't let other's experiences scare you, not everyone has a bad time.  Yes, some do and these complications/situations should be considered, but discuss these issues with your surgeon and what he would do for you if you should have problems.  You do need to check to see if your insurance has a "one WLS per lifetime" exclusion and let that help you also decide.

There's yet another surgery that I haven't seen mentioned (and I'm not sure how effective it is), called gastric plication.  It's supposed to work much like the sleeve, but as the stomach tissue is folded in upon itself, nothing is removed.

Best of luck to you.

Lisa,
 I don't want to scare anybody with my story. I just want people who are considering getting the band to consider other options. I'm happy for you that your band has been good to you, but there are many of us who were not so lucky and all we really want is to try and help others avoid the pain and damage that we have had to endure.

Lisa

I understand that.  But I also think that this thread is over-weighted with the things that can go wrong.

Let me also add I have just an inkling of the depression over the pain that was mentioned a few posts above.  When I was banded, I was in pain for at least 2 weeks, maybe 3.  I had periods of time I could only situp in a chair for an hour at a time and had to go back to bed.   I was not given good post-op pain management medication (one reason I won't let my bariatric surgeon near me with a scalpel again.. he's good in surgery, but post-op care sucks).   I remember telling my husband I now understood how people in chronic pain got depressed and sometimes went to extreme measures.

Everyone is entitled to express their views.  I'm not saying anyone shouldn't tell their story.  I'm expressing my views.

Very glad you were able to get relief and hope that the VSG will work for you in the way the band was intended.

Chronic pain just wears at you day by day by day until some people can no longer deal with the life they are living or not living so to speak. I was once there to that point because of the severe pain that was being caused by my band and my MVA.

Being banded did not allow me to take the necessary anti inflammatory medications needed to reduce the inflammation which was causing even more pain. My band surgeon allowed me to take NSAIDS whenever I felt that is was absolutely necessary and I did for a very short period of about two weeks. I ended up being hospitalized for severe gastroenteritis.

Please, Please DONT DO IT!!! I have port pain, some left shoulder pain (which i didnt even realize that it was from the band until i came here looking for answers!)  The foods i can eat changes daily but if i happen to swallow a WELL CHEWED piece of food and its not that foods day and gets "stuck" the pain is so immense it takes your breath away!

Food i KNOW i cant eat...chicken breast, hamburger, turkey breast, romaine lettuce, any dense vegetable...umm do you see that there might be a problem when you are try to eat low fat?!?! Of course i cant eat dense breads and pasta but i tend to stay away from those things anyways:)

I have good restriction and eat half (if not less) than i used to and the best i ever did with this band in 4 1 /2 yrs was 30lb and that was the first 9 months i had it! I now weight 15lbs MORE than i did when i went into surgery!

Now dont get me wrong i have lost large amts of wt in my life (75lbs and 95lbs) thru diet and exercise so i know what im doing. But the band makes it so hard to eat those good low fat foods!

I have an EGD on friday and wont know the damage done by the band until after that:(

I was scared TO DEATH of malabsorption and didnt want to lose a huge amt of wt either but i will tell you now at 31 that my body NEEDS me to be at a normal wt (for me because i could give 2 figs for the BMI scale) Ive been MO since my teens but the last 5 yrs has really done a toll on my body.

Im having a revision to the DS later this yr. I would recommend you look into the sleeve because at least with that if you found you need the malabsorption later the surgery would be much easier for you then. Plus with the sleeve it removes the part of your stomach that produces the ghrelins..the hormone that make you think you are hungery:)

Good luck!

I'm so glad you were able to determine that the left shoulder pain is from the band. THIS is why I still post here... because I know how awful it feels to have pain and not know where it's stemming from. I talk about it all the time because I know that whenever I asked anyone about it back when I was going through it, no one could tell me what the deal was. And it was scary! 

I hope your EGD tells you what's going on with you and that your DS revision goes really well.

Jennifer,
 Just a heads up. Don't be concerned if your EGD appears to be normal. Sometimes the damage that the band causes cannot be truly seen until it has actually been removed.

Good Luck

Hi there and welcome.  Glad you are considering WLS at a young age so you will have a healthy happy rest of your life.

With that said, I want to encourage you to look into all the WLS types.  Don't let them blind you with LapBand advertising.  I had a lapband and now I have RNY. 
They will tell you it's easy and reversible.  Well reversible, yes, but who wants to live with misery until that time?  O, and btw, there was nothing easy about my fills either, I had to lay on my back while a nurse held my legs straight up in the air while the doctor dug around with a needle in my stomach trying to find my port.  I just about passed out every single time. 

At about 2 years out, I started having chronic acid reflux and that led to precancerous ulcers in my esophogus.  I was unfilled and left to heal for 6 months, however the reflux never ended (even being unfilled) and my band was emergency removed when I vomited for probably the millionth time and my stomach came up through my band and blocked me off so I couldn't even keep water down (again this is unfilled.) 

I was fortunate enough to have great insurance that allowed for a revision to RNY even though I only weighed 213# at 5'5" (not looking up to see what my BMI was), but I am sure I just squeeked in there.  I never got to goal with my band, I think my lowest weight I got to was 189#, I am now at 167#, six months out from my RNY, and let me tell you I am NOT a model patient.  I am not advocating this, but I eat pretty much what I want (minimal sugar) as long as I get my protein in whatever else I want I eat, I just don't eat much of it.  I have vomited twice in 8 months since my RNY and really other than if I try and eat too much sugar (maybe twice) I haven't had any ill effects (dumping.)

I love my RNY, I love that the band got some of my weight off, but I definitely didn't love my band.  Please consider all of your options, but again, the choice is yours.  Best wishes to you.