If anyone wants me....

Karen, it was OH which transferred threads to FB. They were within their legal right to do so but a lot of people got upset. OH removed the posts from FB and stopped doing it when they realised people were upset but a lot of damage was already done and people had left here. So OH did try to put it right.

I don't know how often you have been on here. When I joined in 2006, it was a different world! A lot of the problems with banding were not known and the board was a very optimistic place. Then complications started to be reported. Unfortunately a few, not the majority, people dismissed the problems as being the fault of the bandster. This created very bad feeling and as the number of people with problems grew, those suffering became, not surprisingly,  defiant in their replies. Most of them had followed all the rules and objected to being told it was their fault!

Then the board swung  the other way. From being "blame the person" a few (and again it was a few) people became aggressively anti-band. The worst of these no longer post here but it got to the point where people who had just been banded were being told outright that they had made a stupid decision and that their bands would fail. That was just cruel!

So people just left the board. I can't access the Failed Band Group but I assume most of the unhappy people are over there. I am still in touch with many vets, both successful and unsuccessful, but not through this board. Me, I stick mainly to my busy, supportive, UK forum these days.

It would be good! I am not optimistic! Several people have tried. Me included! Trouble is, just too many left and so it becomes a vicious circle. People post, get almost no replies, don't come back. And the wealth of experience just isn't there any more. And those vets, happy or unhappy, who do come back find it hard to forget what has happened on here. The nastiness got right out of control. 

I know I keep answering on here! But it really is the last thread I am going to be involved in. I'm afraid that after a while, it just doesn't seem worth the stress. I am pretty unique in that, in trying to steer a middle path, I attracted vitriol from both band haters and band lovers. Daft to let an online forum upset me, but it did! It is nicer here now than it was a year or so ago but who knows whatt the future holds!

We're only unhappy when we're suffering incredible pain because our bands have caused permanent damage to our bodies, our families, and our quality of life.

This forum has become a forum where the pros and cons about the lab band can be shared by everyone, and no longer is it controlled by people who only want to hear fairy tales about a very dangerous product, which should have been recalled a long time ago.

I'm glad you have found your " Happy Place " Kate, I hope you will find the support and community feeling in your UK forum that you seek.

Support is many things to many people, which is why those of us who have been damaged by our lap bands will continue to speak out until we are heard, until it is recalled, until there are no longer victims of their unscrupulous surgeons and the manufactures of the lap band stop coming to us for help.

AND...quite frankly, I find it appalling,insensitive, ignorant and CRUEL to be continuously labeled a, " Negative Person. "

Be fair! I have never ever called anyone a "negative person". I have offered sympathy and support to those in pain, to those who have had problems.. I have never denied those problems.. I have never denied anyone's right to post here. I have even attracted vitriol from pro-band people for mentioning problems. 

So i object to your answer as much as you clearly object to my post. 

I made it very clear in the post you replied to that faults are on all sides.

My "happy place" has many people with band problems as well as those without. But the difference is no wise-cracks, no nastiness, no prophecies of inevitable doom. It is a SUPPORT forum for EVERYONE. Happy or unhappy.

i expected something a bit nicer from you! 

It would have been nice if you had actually replied to my post, I would have replied back to you much sooner Kate. Instead I had to scroll through here to see if you had bothered to return to this forum.

"Nicer."..you want " Nicer " from me ?  Okay, then maybe...just maybe, you could quit with the GCFP, and YES...this post is clearly a GCFP, even when you try to predicate it with a disclaimer.

Deleted so I could re-post using quote tab to make sure Pumpkin knows it was a reply to her in case she does not get an OH notification again.

Pumpkin, you may not have received notification from OH but I obviously did reply direct to you as my post is immediately after yours, despite the time difference in posting.  It would have been much closer to the end of the thread if I had just clicked Post Reply. 

I posted originally simply to tell people that I was happy to be contacted by PM. My only reason for leaving is that board is so quiet that there is little point in coming here. No-one had been nasty to me (well, not until your reply!) and I at no time in my original post said they had. Neither did I say the board was negative. In fact, in my answer to Karen I was at pains to point out that the problems started with pro- band people blaming people with problems!

And, yes, I did expect nicer from you! I have never been anything other than supportive to you. In fact I have always gone out of my way to show sympathy and support for those with problems. 

I said that this was going to be the last thread I was involved in and I have only come back to respond when notified by OH that I had had further responses to this. 

I am rather sad to end on this note. I am not sure why I have offended you. I know you to be outspoken but have previously seen that as a positive. 

As I always have done, I wish you well.  Kate

Karen, what in earth are you talking about? Where have I said I hate this board? Where have I posted horrible hings about people. I am NOT leaving in anger, hatred! I simply said the board is quiet and so no point in checking in! 

this one's no longer busy cuz it somehow got too negative.  :-(

It got negative because people started sharing their negative band experiences.