Keep an open mind!

A note for people new to this board. From a band vet of five and a half years who is by any measure successful and loves her band.


Pease read everything on here with an open mind and caution. None of us is medically qualified, and if we say we are, you have no way of knowing if we are telling the truth. All we are doing is sharing our own experiences.

As you spend time on here, you will find regulars you want to listen to and some you want to ignore. Don't leap into deciding which is which - you don't know the history of those posting. And if there is an online disagreement, again, remember you don't know what happened last month or last year! Don't leap to judgement!  If things turn out to be other than you assumed, you will feel foolish!

Remember people have their own agenda. Those who have serious issues are understandably bitter and wish to share that. But most of them also genuinely seek to inform.

Equally, those who love their bands can become over- enthusiastic, especially in the first year or so. It is easy to believe the good times will continue and, for many, they do. But it is wrong to assume that because the first 6 months were good, everyone who has problems has in some way "broken the rules". You can be the model bandster and still have things go wrong.

If you have questioins about a surgery, take note of those who have experienced it. If I want to know about the band, I am not going to listen to someone with the sleeve, although I will listen to someone who has the sleeve now but used to have a band. Equally, I will take little note of a bandster who says that another surgery has this or that problem!

Those who can do nothing but damn the band are wrong. Those who can do nothing but praise it are wrong! The truth is inbetween, you have to decide where on the spectrum you wish to sit..

Kate

You are very diplomatic, Kate. I can respect that! 

However, I'm going to be less so because I'm tired of tip toeing around, to tell the truth.

I had my lapband surgery in 2002. As you all know because of how often I mention it   I nearly croaked from complications (whi*****luded a very ignorant and cruel surgeon, I full admit.)
I had the band removed a couple of years later in an emergency surgery.  I DO NOT believe this will be the fate of every person who chooses the band... but it happens to enough people that I have to believe that the odds aren't as favorable as the manufacturers would like us to believe.


Every week I get an email or phone call from someone I knew who got banded around the time I did and they're now experiencing complications. There are a grand total of 3 out of about 50 who still have bands. And one's about on the way out (left shoulder pain!) So, I don't base my opinion on the lapband solely on my own experience. Like I've always said, I am genuinely happy for those people who have bands and are happy with them. I wi**** could be that way for everyone, but I'm not enough of a Pollyanna to think it will be.

The thing I will ALWAYS object to is someone telling someone else what they can and can't post. And, as most of us know, there will always be at least one person who is so full of misinformation that they are dangerous to others. I will never shut up when I see this.

You're certainly right about people leaping to judgment and then feeling foolish. If a dozen people tell you the same thing about something, it might be wise to sit up and listen.

Nicci your's is the saddets band story I have heard. I will never forget you telling about how your son asked you if you were going to die because of how sick you were from the band. The band affects not just us.........but those around us. Me I can deal with, but it saddens me to see how it affects my family sometimes. But in your case..........what an awfull feeling to have to have your son say that to you and know all the pain HE was in because of your band! :-(

Hi Maria,

The day my son sat, bawling his head off, scared to death I was going to die right there, was the worst day of my entire life.

Everyone around me was affected. And I felt guilty as hell about it.

Thanks for understanding.

All you wanted to was to be healthy.  And this is what you ended up with.    I'm so sorry you and your family has had to go through all this.  I applaud your strength to share your story.

You are amazing, Nicci.  Some people have no idea how brilliant, compassionate, humorous, talented and creative you are.  Ya big old band basher, you.

You're right--it always happens to someone else.  Until it actually happens to you.  It's not band bashing.  It's giving others the ability to make an informed decision of what they may be getting themselves into.  

It could be a perfect experience.  It could be devastating.  There's no way to predict where on the spectrum your experience will lie.

Oh hai--I'm looking at my Mischiefs and they make me smile.  

corgis make me smile - i tease nell, she needs a band......SO round, so round

 They make me smile too . . . until big ass Jack is standing on my port, which hurts like a mofo!

I like to say, "So round, so firm, so fully packed!" which I think is a reference to an Old Porky Pig cartoon.  Jack is fully packed for sure.  (full of ****!  HA!)

Give Nell a scritch behind her ears for me!!!!

I  you, Denise. 

Great advice, Kate, as usual!

Jean