Care to share your BAND CATASTROPHE story?

 Thanks! It's a bit overwhelming at times, but I have never felt better in my life.

Well you look great.  I can tell you are happy

CW~You look incredible! 

Look at the face on your little one... she's so happy! 

 Thanks! My daughter was so proud of me, I came off the field boo hooing like a baby and she just started crying with me, telling me how happy she was for me. 

Ok, if this is sincere (and I believe it is) I will gladly tell my story. I get so frustrated with CERTAIN people claiming that all people with band issues kept their band too tight, or refused to work for it, just got angry because the weight didn't fall off, etc. None of that happened to me, just to make things clear. Not sure why some people think they gotta act like they know everything...
 
Anyway, band was never too tight as my doctor was always scared of overfilling and would give tiny little fills, and then refuse any more for a month or more. And I wasn't afraid of hard work. I basically dieted and WORKED MY BUTT OFF (literally!) to lose 132 pounds. But go ahead "BaNana" tell everyone that it was our fault for being stupid and not realizing that the band would take work. SMH....


How long did you have the band before the complication began? About 8 1/2 months, but I've now suffered with the dang thing for nearly 5 years. Fills, unfills, medications, scopes, fills, unfills....
What symptom(s) did you experience? I would wake up in the middle of the night with acid shooting into my nose and throat. And my left shoulder always hurt. Sometimes it was terrible pain, sometimes a lingering dull ache.
What was the Doctor’s initial reaction / cause of action? (Sadly it seems some Doctors ignored patients complaints) Nothing really. Gave me some acid blockers at first. Small unfills. Finally completely unfilled me when I begged him to (at this point I didn't have much) because drinking was burning my throat and food wouldn't move down. I felt like I was being chocked from the inside out.
What was the official diagnosis issue (band erosion; slippage; port displacement; tubing leakage/separation; leakage, etc). There hasn't been an "official" diagnosis. The EDG came up clear so they tried to fill me again. The smallest fill at that point caused me terrible pain and I was unable to even keep down sips of water. And we are talking about having less than 1cc in the band. I haven't had any fill AT ALL since then (January of 2011), and yet I still get stuck, stil have trouble swallowing, and still PB. So no, this isn't a "band too tight" issue.
How long between diagnosis and new operation? It will be a year and a half since my surgeon gave up on trying to fill me and the time that I get to have the VSG.
Which operation did you choose, and why? I'm going with the VSG. Obviously I can lose weight with a restrictive only procedure, and I'm still scared of malabsorption.
Did you use the same Doctor? Yep
How long between new operation and “recovery" from band issue? Not sure if this is what you're asking, but I'm being unbanded and sleeved all in one procedure.

Any long term (irreversible) complication(s)? Hopefully not, but we shall see.


 I haven't seen on 'bandster with issues' (better than 'band basher') here yet that fits the criteria some of the cheerleaders are trying to label them with, but I can see why it would make them feel better to think it was something the person with issues did wrong. Something that could be avoided. I was the same way. It was just so much more comfortable to stick my head in the sand and blame the person with the issues.  I'm so sorry for that now.

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!

Rabid24,

Were you given any advice about the left shoulder pain at all? We have quite a number of people on the failed band board (here and on facebook) currently going through this. Nothing helped relieve the left shoulder pain for me... but I'm hoping that someone else might have found something that helped at least a little.

It makes me so sad that so many people experience it.

~Nic

Tom, you pretty much know my story and most of the people here know it, as well...but, I will repeat it. 

I was first banded in January 2008, but a complete quack.  He didn't have any aftercare, to speak of, and he had botched MANY surgeries.  Of course, I didn't know this at the time, and my insurance company only contracted with him, so I didn't do any shopping around.

After my 3rd fill, which brought me to HALF of my band's capacity, I felt really restricted with my food intake.  I thought my symptoms were pretty normal band experiences for someone learning to use their band.  Nah, not so much.  The quack left the state and my insurance company assigned me to a great surgeon.  He diagnosed me as having a slip.  When he did the surgery to fix the placement of my band, he said that from what he could tell, the band was never placed right to begin with.

By this time, I am 2 years from my initial surgery.  I have my band in a good position and a surgeon that is very cautious and would only give me tiny fills.  It took a year, and 5 fills to get to about 4 CC's in my 10 CC band.  That put me at a good restriction.  I didn't feel hungry anymore, but I could still eat about 3/4 to 1 cup of solid protein.  Hooray!  

A few months after that, I started experiencing inexplicable tightening of the band.  For those of you that have your band tighten up when you are really upset over something, it felt like that, but FOR NO REASON.  I would baby my band for a day or two, staying mostly on liquids.  It would be fine for a day or two, then BOOM....extra tight again.  WTF?!?!  

I talked to my surgeon and they checked to make sure I didn't have another slip.  I did not.  They told me that without something TECHNICALLY wrong with my band, my insurance would not cover a revision.  So, I suffered for almost a year with that crazy band ***** tightening up more and more often.  I finally gave up.  I traveled down to El Paso in February to get most of my saline taken out.  I had lost ZERO pounds since my surgery to fix my band two years earlier. ( i lost and regained the same 10-20 lbs over and over again).  

My surgeon and I talked again about a revision to VSG.  He agreed with me that it was crazy to try and manage my weight with a tool that wasn't working properly.  He knew that I had been trying very hard.  So, he decided to write up the request and send it to my insurance company for approval.  Neither one of us thought it was going to get approved.  So, he took out some saline and off I went.  To my surprise the insurance company approved me!!

I had my band removed and my VSG done the very same day.  Post-op notes show that the band was placed properly and there was no TECHNICAL malfunction with the band.  So, who knows what was causing it.  My theory is some people, especially, some women are more succeptable to water retention and swelling.  I am one of those women....I think this impacted my band restriction greatly. 

I am so much happier now.  I can actually sit down and eat some protein and veggies and never have to worry where the bathroom is!!!

 Thanks for the story ....All i am going to say is Thank goodness my band is out and I am ALIVE  for all those who support the band 100 percent .. when it hits home you are gonna feel so stoopid and that your head is going to be hanging in shame .. Listen to both sides of the stories peeps it can happen to you,just like it happened to many of us already. Stop bashing us we just want you all to know the risk  out there that many doctors failed to tell us.. Thank the lord my friend is still here with me ... 

LOVE!