Again, you really need to learn what a COE means.  It does not mean what you think.  It means the secretary wrote out a bunch of policies and procedures.  It has nothing in the world to do with the skill of the surgeon.  Honestly, I don't know how I can explain this differently.  Some of the worst surgeons are CEOs.  Can I BE more clear?

I don't think people believe it is all that safe anymore.  Allergan was just subpoenaed for their records due to 50% of people needing their bands removed in the first 6 years and the alarming rate of erosion.  Entire countries are walking away from bands and opting for safer long term surgery types.  

I do put stats on the sleeve board.  Face it NaBl...Naomi, you don't get to determine who posts here.

I hope you lose that regain, I am quite sure it is difficult.  If you want some pointers, feel free to let me know.

Sleeves are safer and more effective long term.  Period.  I've had both, I have lived and breathed both of them.  Have you?

You really want to get into a ******g match with studies?  I can play if you want.  It would be fun!  But then, I am dealing with a person who doesn't have a clue what the long term stats on banding are or what a COE means.  Pfttt.

 
Oh, btw Cutie-  This is not the latest study as you suggest.  It is several years old, was written in a journal 2 years ago.  It was also sponsored by Allergan.  And one other thing, I thought the rule was to not post about anything that had to do with the old bands.  If any of us post a study that involved the smaller bands we are told it doesn't apply anymore, those bands are not used in the US.  hmmm...

But you a  good girl for trying your best anyway!


www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-07/allergan-receives-u-dot -s-dot-subpoena-over-weight-loss-device

abcnews.go.com/Health/video/risks-lap-band-surgery-weight-lo ss-treatment-13196012

abcnews.go.com/Health/video/lap-band-surgery-falls-13193458

SORRY....TRY AGAIN....THAT SUBPOENA was specifically targeted at those 1800-thin clinics.....and THEY SHOULD CRACK DOWN ON THESE OTHER CENTERS THAT ARE NOT FOLLOWING THE FDA RULES AND SAFETY GUIDELINES..THAT IS WHAT I'VE BEEN POSTING ABOUT IT FOR THE LAST WEEK....OR ARE YOU IGNORING THAT ALSO......THE LAP BAND IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE SURGEON WHO INSTALLS AND THE PATIENT WHO FOLLOW RULES.....

 
Flat out, that is another lie.  Yet another example of how you change the facts to suit your agenda. This is from the link I already provided you:

***In January, House Democratic lawmakers called for hearings on medical devices including Lap-Band, following a study in the medical journal Archives of Surgery, that found almost half of patients with a gastric band had no weight loss or needed the device removed after six years. More than 40 percent had long- term complications.***

Nothing in the world to do with 800 GET THIN clinics.  EVERYTHING to do with the band and long term complications, lack of long term weight loss, and the need for almost half to have the band removed.

HA! I figured out who you are...MIDWESTERGIRL...YOU STARTED ALL THE BAND BASHING..BUT LEFT THE BOARD.....THIS IS WHY PEOPLE BLOCK YOU --NOT BECAUSE YOU ARE A BAND BASHER...YOU GOT SOME SERIOUS ISSUES...I THOUGHT YOU WERE BANNED FROM THIS SITE??? YOU ARE ONE EXTREMELY ANNOYING WOMAN.....

YOU ONLY POST THINGS THAT ARE AGAINST THE LAP BAND...I REMEMBER YOU FROM DAY ONE WHEN YOU FIRST GOT YOUR LAP BAND AND ABUSED IT...YOU CAN FOOL THE NEWBIES BUT YOU SURE CANNOT FOOL ME!

IF YOU ARE GOING TO LIE ABOUT SUBOENA ARTICLE ON THE LAP BAND PLEASE POST THE ENTIRE ARTICLE INSTEAD OF CUTTING AND PASTING FOR YOUR OWN EVIL AGENDA...HERE IS THE ORGINIAL ARTICLE...IF ANYONE WANTS TO KNOW THE TRUTH...
 
I CAN POST MANY MANY ARTICLES ABOUT THE DANGERS AND FAILURES OF THE SLEEVE..BUT WHY SHOULD I TRY TO HURT THOSE ALREADY HAVE A SLEEVE? ...JUST LIKE YOU ARE TRYING TO HURT EVERYONE THAT HAVE A LAP BAND...SHOULD THEY SHUT THE BAND FORUM DOWN BECAUSE YOU ABUSED YOUR BAND AND DID NOT HAVE AFTERCARE WITH YOUR MEXICAN SURGEON????

WHY DIDN'T YOU INCLUDE THIS PORTION REGARDING THE 1800-GET THIN CLINICS IN YOUR SMEAR POST?

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL HERE? WHY ARE SO GUN HO TO RUIN THIS FORUM..YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE AND GET ON SOME TYPE OF MEDS.....

In December, the FDA warned eight California surgical centres and a marketing firm for providing misleading information while advertising Lap-Band. However, the agency made no allegations against Allergan at the time. In January, House Democratic lawmakers called for hearings on medical devices including the Lap-Band System, following research published in the Archives of Surgery that suggested almost half of patients with a gastric band had no weight loss or needed the device removed after six years. Additionally, the data showed that more than 40 percent of patients had long-term complications.

http://firstwordmedtech.com/node/934237?tsid=13

Allergan issued US subpoena over Lap-Band System

(Ref: CNBC, Bloomberg, Morningstar) May 8th, 2012 By: Katie Bell Tags:

• Allergan
• Corporate Affairs
• General Practice
• HHS
• Internal Medicine
• Lap-Band System
• Obesity
• United States

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Allergan disclosed in an SEC filing that it received a subpoena from the US Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month requesting the production of documents relating to its Lap-Band System. Company spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs acknowledged the subpoena but declined to comment further.

In December, the FDA warned eight California surgical centres and a marketing firm for providing misleading information while advertising Lap-Band. However, the agency made no allegations against Allergan at the time. In January, House Democratic lawmakers called for hearings on medical devices including the Lap-Band System, following research published in the Archives of Surgery that suggested almost half of patients with a gastric band had no weight loss or needed the device removed after six years. Additionally, the data showed that more than 40 percent of patients had long-term complications.

The FDA approved the Lap-Band System in 2001 for patients who are at least 100 pounds overweight, have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 40, or a BMI of 35 with obesity-related conditions such as heart problems. Allergan, which acquired Lap-Band in 2006 with its purchase of Inamed, gained expanded US clearance in February last year to market the device to people with lower BMIs and at least one obesity-related condition.

Naomi -

You are comparing two totally different subpoenas.  Derrrr.  This one, again, is from an entirely different department.  Not the FDA as the subpoena YOU refer to.  I have no clue what subpoena you are referring to and I doubt you do either.

I did post the LINK several posts ago, but just for you I will post the link again as well as the entire article.

Allergan Inc. (AGN) (AGN), the maker of the wrinkle treatment Botox, received a U.S. government subpoena over its gastric banding device for obesity.
Allergan received the subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services’s Inspector General this month, the company reported today in a filing. Bonnie Jacobs, a spokeswoman for Irvine, California-based Allergan, acknowledged the subpoena but declined to comment further.
Allergan generated $203.1 million of its $5.42 billion revenue (AGN) last year from devices for obesity. The company acquired the product, called Lap-Band, in 2006 with its purchase of Inamed Corp. The adjustable silicon band helps people lose weight by reducing the amount of food their stomachs can hold.
In January, House Democratic lawmakers called for hearings on medical devices including Lap-Band, following a study in the medical journal Archives of Surgery, that found almost half of patients with a gastric band had no weight loss or needed the device removed after six years. More than 40 percent had long- term complications.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the device in 2001 for patients who were at least 100 pounds (45 kilograms) overweight, had a body mass index of at least 40, or an index of 35 with obesity-related conditions such as heart problems. Allergan gained clearance in February 2011 to expand marketing of the device to people with lower body mass indexes and at least one obesity-related condition.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at [email protected]

www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-07/allergan-receives-u-dot -s-dot-subpoena-over-weight-loss-device
 

BTW, you are not even capable of honesty.  When you get a copy of my medical records, you let me know.  In the meantime you are simply dishonest.

I am sincerely sorry you failed your band.  Again, if you need any tips on getting to goal and staying there, I am happy to help.

I can't reply to Nana b/c she has me blocked, but I just have to say that I am not in any way, shape or form morning my Lap Band LOL My Sleeve has treated me WAY better then my Band EVER did, my weight loss has been better as has my quality of life. 

I come here to share my story, to support those who have issues and to pass on any knowledge I can to people looking for a revision. 

 
HA!  I don't mourn my band either.  If I still had it, I would be dead.  Naomi has very little understanding of reality.  But, she does have an understanding of band problems and a regain of 40#.

I wish there was no need for WLS at all. BUT, of course, that's living in a world where unicorns poop on your head and you become magically thin.

You have to realize that I started researching WLS back in the late 1990s. I had gastric bypass or gastric bypass to choose from in this area. I was told that it would be an open incision from my breastbone down to my bellybutton or lower. That thought scared me enough to simply accept the fact that I was going to have to diet and exercise, as usual.

In 2002, my ankle that was broken in 1989 really, really started hurting badly. I was told when I broke it that I'd have a limp... and I was thrilled when that turned out to NOT be the case. Add enough weight, though, and you tend to limp even without formerly broken bones, right? So, I started looking into WLS again.

This time, I decided I was going to just have the gastric bypass, no matter what. But, lo and behold, my new doctor told me that I would be an 'ideal' candidate for a fairly new procedure called the Lapband. I had about 100 pounds to lose, I wouldn't have to be cut from stem to stern... and best of all? It was LESS INVASIVE and "so much safer." 

Foolishly, I believed that information and scheduled surgery immediately. I came out of surgery in the worst pain I'd ever felt in my life... I'm talking in and out of consciousness, went into shock and had medical professionals crowding around me, poking and doing things I don't care to think about.

My surgeon treated me like absolute hell. He held me down and shoved an Ng tube in my nose, tearing my nostril, since he used no lubrication. He parked me in a hospital hallway to sit and bleed and cry. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I have never cried so much in my entire life. My heart was broken, I felt like a fool because I allowed someone to treat me so poorly... and yet, I had just come out of surgery, so it wasn't as if I could fight back.

I don't remember the ride home. I don't remember the first week, other than just resounding, horrible pain. I couldn't stand up, pain medications didn't help at all, and I knew I had made the worst mistake of my life.

My husband called my surgeon numerous times. He got treated like **** I called numerous times. I was told, "You just got out of surgery, of course you're in pain." I have had big, open surgery before... my gallbladder was removed in an open incision procedure. I had given birth. I had a broken ankle that crushed the bones in my ankle, requiring plates, pins, and screws. I ripped all the ligaments in that same accident. None of those things compared to the magnitude of pain I felt from the lapband. You could have put all those things together and it woudn't have come close to the pain I felt from the lapband surgery.

I visited the surgeon numerous times, always telling him that I had horrific pain in  my left shoulder, that I couldn't poop, that I was unable to eat. And this was before any kinds of fills. His response was always, "it's just gas. It's normal. It's in your head." 

The pain got worse and worse, I had a hell of a time functioning. I lost my job. My family was begging me to get the band removed, but like a damned fool, I still believed the surgeon had my best interests at heart. I thought the damage had been done and I'd just get fat again, if I got the band removed. And all the while, I had people telling me that they didn't have anything like what I had... and it must just be "gas."And that I should listen to my surgeon because he knows best, obviously.

Well, there was one person who said, "You know what? I think your surgeon is a piece of **** Why don't you see a different surgeon?"  I still said, "Oh, no, I'm sure that's not true. He's a nice person." 

When I went into my surgeon's office at the 6 month mark and I could barely walk, I hadn't pooped in almost 2 weeks and he was MAD at me for having a friend with me, I knew that he really was a ****head. So I found a renowned specialist in Chicago and he was appalled by what he saw. And he tried really hard to fix me. But the band had already caused a LOT of damage. He told me if I hadn't come to see him, I would have most likely been dead in a day or two. My stomach was twisted, my bowels were kinked, I had an obstruction and was full of ****

Emergency surgery helped keep me alive, but it did nothing for the chronic pain... the left shoulder pain never abated. And then I started getting messages from people on my support group about how THEY were having issues with left shoulder pain.

Now, you see it's a common side effect for many, many people. And it stands to reason! The band is dangerously close to the Vagus nerves that run from the base of the skull down through the diaphragm, into the stomach. How is a band NOT going affect those nerves? And, those nerves are essential and you need them to be in working order, to say the least.

I kept the band for another year or so, in spite of the pain, in spite of not being able to eat solid foods, in spite of my family's pleas to get it removed to save my life.

The day came when I couldn't lift my head off the bed. My son sat holding my hand, crying, BEGGING me to get the band out. I told him to call his dad at work, tell him to come home, and we scheduled band removal surgery with the surgeon in Chicago. My husband called my first surgeon before we left and asked him what HE thought was happening. And the "surgeon" said, "Why are you calling ME? I don't know." That was the extent of his "caring" for one of his very first patients.... the one who actually went on TV for him and told everyone about how excited she was to finally be healthy and free from being overweight.

So, I know this is LONG... but THAT is the "WHY" behind my posting about the danger of the lapband. Like I've said before, maybe if I had a different surgeon my experience would have been better. BUT, the fact that so many of my friends have experienced the pain,disappointment, and band failure... That isn't just me. That's a worldwide thing.  I am tired of seeing it... I'm tired of talking about it. And yet, my conscience will NOT allow me to stay silent about it. I wish to God I could just say, "Buh bye, good luck to you" but I'd feel like a real **** if I did that. I'm sure the day will come when I'll have to. I can't save everyone... although it's just part of my nature to WANT to. Even when I get kicked in the ass for trying.