Care to share your BAND CATASTROPHE story?

 Folks,

 

BAND FAILURE IS A REALITY. While some Doctor’s may not present this fact, or some folks refuse to believe it does happen, unfortunately it does. My Doctor explains this is a mechanical device, and it can fail. It has nothing to do with the person, or them not following the rules, it just fails.

 

While others may refute this, this board clearly shows it can occur. While I hope and pray it never happens to me, there is a chance it can. So in order to better educate myself, and maybe others, I’d like to ask some personal questions.

 

I understand if you care not to share. These issues, and this entire journey, are a personal one, and I truly respect that. While I am a person who is willing to share everything, I understand other don’t and rather be private, and I admire that.

 

So here are the questions:

 

How long did you have the band before the complication began?

 

What symptom(s) did you experience?

 

What was the Doctor’s initial reaction / cause of action? (Sadly it seems some Doctors ignored patients complaints)

 

What was the official diagnosis issue (band erosion; slippage; port displacement; tubing leakage/separation; leakage, etc).

 

How long between diagnosis and new operation?

 

Which operation did you choose, and why?

 

Did you use the same Doctor?

 

How long between new operation and “recovery" from band issue?

 

Any long term (irreversible) complication(s)?
 

For anyone who is thinking about the band, I didn’t write this post to scare anyone about the band as a choice. KNOW ALL THE FACTS BEFORE YOU DECIDE.

 

TALK TO YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT HIS PATIENT’S SUCCESS/FAILURE RATES with the band and/or other bariatric choices. Truth is, if you peruse all the boards you’ll see there is success and failure in ALL these operations. NOT ONE IS 100% PERFECT, and on the other side of the coin NOT ONE IS 100% FALLIBLE.

 

RESEARCH BEFORE YOU DECIDE!!!

                                                                                       

NOTE: I DON’T WANT THIS POST TO TURN INTO ANOTHER ‘BASHING’ ONE. If you disagree with a statement, refute it in a nice calm RESPECTFUL manner. If it gets personal, I will contact OH. Call me a stool-pigeon, but I want us to learn from one another. Remember, I am asking for PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, and you can’t truly argue with that.

 

FINALLY, for those who went through this, my I am heartbroken to see you did, but elated to see you're now healthy.

Thanks for enlightening me.

Thank you for acknowledging that the band failure is real and that it can happen to anyone. 

I do not really appreciate people accusing us of being band bashers, while we are not.  We are doing them a favor of listening to the cons of the band as well as pros.   I understand that it may be disheartening for the "successful banders" to hear it and worry it will happen to them.  I know because I thought the same thing, and thinking it will never happen to me.

Now to answer your questions: 



How long did you have the band before the complication began?

SEVEN MONTHS!   What symptom(s) did you experience?

Random tightness, band-induced bulimia, weight loss stopped after 7 months, constant tightness and bulimia continued after complete unfill two months before revising.   What was the Doctor’s initial reaction / cause of action? (Sadly it seems some Doctors ignored patients complaints)

He was very concerned and sympatheic.   The MA even suggested revision, and my surgeon was very supportive of going bypass.   He even acknowledged that the band is the hardest tool.  He does not advocate band anymore, he was never a fan of band due to low rate of success.   What was the official diagnosis issue (band erosion; slippage; port displacement; tubing leakage/separation; leakage, etc).  
At the removal, he found nothing wrong, just didn't work for me like for most people.
How long between diagnosis and new operation?

n/a   Which operation did you choose, and why?

Bypass, because it was the only other WLS they did and it has a high rate of success.   Did you use the same Doctor?
Yep!
  How long between new operation and “recovery" from band issue?

Have to say the recovery was good but a little harder with bypass than the band.  Bulimia and tightness went away after band removed.    Any long term (irreversible) complication(s)?
n/a

If you knew someone had been in a car accident and got badly damaged from it, would you make fun of them... or make light of their situation just because YOU'D never been in a car accident?  I hope that's a rhetorical question... and I would HOPE that the answer would be "NO, of course not."  Would you point out that they drove the "wrong" car, causing them to get in the accident in the first place? Would you point out that YOUR car would never do that to you? Maybe you could add that they should have had more maintenance done... or rotated the tires more often. Then, you could slap them on their broken arm and say, "Well, now that you've had this accident, you should probably just fall off the face of the earth and die because no one wants to be bummed out having to listen to your experience."

SAME THING. The lapband damaged my body, causing me years and years of really, really bad pain and suffering. It's not a "catastrophe story." It was my real life. And it hurt... and it still hurts.

Good point there,  If you have seen the movie "Remember the Titans" where a guy got into a car accident and became paralyzed, he died later of complications from that.

 Tom, I love all your posts but this type of post is just asking for trouble.

 
Why is it asking for trouble? The head in the sand mentality will get you nowhere. If you want the band then fine, but go into it with your eyes wide open. I wish I had seen a post like this BEFORE I got my band!

Good luck!

Did anyone answer your question about what a revision is, carolinagirl2012? I would have answered, but you had me blocked until today.

If you go to the Revisions forum, you'll see the different types of surgeries that people revise to when their initial surgery didn't work... for whatever reason.  There's a lot of really good information there that is important to see BEFORE making a final decision, in my opinion.

I'm all for analogies, but this one doesn't really work. One who experienced a terrible accident would not generally tell everyone who owns a car that they should get rid of their car because cars cause accidents and that, if you keep driving a car, you are clearly destined to have a horrible accident. Unless the car in the story is a Pinto. Then you could say that you had a horrible accident because you bought a car you thought was safe, but in actuality it turns out it explodes easily when you get rear-ended and getting rear-ended is a fairly frequent hazard of driving anything. So, you would probably not recommend anyone buy a Pinto after that experience, but you would also recognize that buying something other than a Pinto is no guarantee of an accident free driving experience for the rest of ones life since other kinds of accidents still happen and we don't know which car is going to be the next Pinto.
And do know, before anyone gets their panties in a wad, that I'm totally being facetious here. Although I do think the pinto analogy is a good one, so feel free to use it.

 And y'know, you STILL see Pintos on the road, 40 years later.

Not surprising, but you guys REALLY missed my point.

Yesterday morning, I woke up with pain in my left shoulder. As I sat up, I also got sharp, stabbing pains in my stomach from gastritis, ulcers, whatever... just when I think MAYBE I'm healed FINALLY from the damage from the band, I find out I'm not.

I literally had tears in my eyes when I was here yesterday. I spent most of the day in pain.

So, you guys might see Pintos on the road yet... but I'm still DRIVING one...even though I thought I had junked it over 6 years ago.