It is OUT!

On Monday I had my band removed. IT was a quick procedure. My throat was sore because of intubation, so I didn't push eating solid foods. But now, I am pretty well normal again. I can guzzle water for the first time in six years! A real plus out here in the desert! I ate a piec of beef and a small dinner salad. It stayed down. It didn't feel all choked up in my throat for 6 or 8 hours. I didn't aspirate all night. I went to the grocery and ran to the fruit/veggies and loaded up. Now I can eat them. I could only keep down pasta, ice cream, pop and cheetos before unbanding. Protein and veggies and fruits would not go down no matter how I prepared them and cut them and chewed them. I am excited to NOW be able to eat how I WANTED to eat when I got the band. Which is healthy and good quality food. I am no more or less hungry than with the band. CARPE DIEM!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!! As you already know you will Feel 100% now that it's GONE!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad you are feeling so good.  I am 4 years out, struggling with regain.  Feel the band was never the tool I hoped it would be.  I think about getting it out, before there are problems.  I have trouble (get stuck) sometimes, but that is when I eat the wrong things such as bread too early in the day.  I had my band very loose after loosing all my excess weight, it has since tightened some with the weight gain.  However, still not the tool I hoped.  I am hungry most of the time when I eat like I should.  I know the band works great for some people, I don't mean to ba**** at all.  Again, glad you are feeling so good.

Congrats Nanner! Mine has been empty for 3 yrs and that was the first thing I enjoyed was being able to eat healthy again. I always are healthy 90% of the tike anyway, my weight was from forced inactivity because of other health issues, so what I ate wasn't a problem. You are gonna love being able to eat the good stuff again and with your new activity you should do great!

Congratulations Nanner!

Go climb those mountains without having to go back home.

Mine was really fast too!  They called the surgery at 9:15 am and I was home at 1:30 with a 20/25 minute drive. I felt 99% better after surgery.  It was a month or two before I realized I wasn't getting stuck at all anymore.  I had so much scare tissue that I was still "banded" without the band.  Glad to hear that didn't happen to you and you are doing so great.  Go hit that healthy food!!!

Did the scar tissue dissolve? He cut mine open and said it would absorb and break up and I can tell that is happening. Also told me I would initially get a car ball in the port location that would then break up and absorb.

To some degree it did and the stomach opened back up some.  But, when they went back in 4.5 months later to do the sleeve, it took them 45 minutes to remove the rest and "straighten the stomach back up" enough to do the sleeve.  Know what I do now I would never do a revision in one surgery.  And I was the one that begged and pouted to get them to do it in one.  They said it was the ASMBS recommendation to wait at 2-6 months just because of this.  

Sounds like you are doing great.

Here is my whole story:

 When asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, Mallory responded with the now iconic "because it is there." When asked why I ate that Valencia orange, my response is "because I can."  Seems like two simple statements about two relatively simple things. But each statement is quite complex. May I explain?

In 2006 I was finishing up law school. I was 45 years old and quite sedentary. I had spent years not doing any of the active things I had done in my younger days. And the past 4 years had taken a particular toll on my health as I worked and went to law school. And as I approached the summer of 2006, I had ballooned to 320 pounds and could no longer carry my heavy law books to the library without assistance. My back was in pain all the time and I was taking long, hard looks at the scooter in the grocery store when I was shopping. After a lot of thought, I decided to have a Laproscopic Band placed in order to assist me with the battle to get my weight off. It was a very difficult decision.

At first it was great. I began to lose weight and my back pain got less intense. I started walking 5k races and slowly increased my activity. Soon I had lost 80 pounds, and though far from a lightweight, was out hiking, kayaking and even a little rock climbing!  But along the way, funny things would happen. I would not be able to keep hard to eat foods in and foods I specifically wanted to avoid, soon became the only foods that seemed to "stay down". For 6 years, I went back and forth between trying to eat right and eating foods that made me gain weight simply because I could not keep anything else in.

I had started CrossFit in 2011 to help me get weight off and in shape to go to Everest Base Camp. I loved it. And the paleo food lifestyle was very attractive to me. But those good foods just would not stay down. And I could not eat enough good food to fuel my body. I went to Everest and after I came back, tried to figure out what to do to eat and be active yet not have these problems. My weight fluctuated up and down all year 20 or 30 pounds depending on which part of the vicious cycle I was in. 

Over the last months, a new complication came in....aspiration. It is an awful thing to wake in the night choking. Especially when you haven't eaten for hours because the food you had for lunch was still "stuck" in your "throat". The fear that  you may NOT wake up because you choke so badly or taht there is damage being done by the aspiration itself. I went back to see my surgeon. He told me my options. I decided to exercise the option that had attracted me to the Band in the first place....removal. The fact I could reverse this process if it did not work out. 

Monday, September 9, 2013, nearly 6 years after having the band placed, I went in and had it removed. I felt that I had just run into a wall. No weight loss beyond where I had gotten to date because I could not eat the good foods....proteins, vegetables, fruits and nuts.....that I needed.

In the time in between the banding and the removal, I had learned so much more about food and fitness than I had known...or was willing to acknowledge...before the band. And because the band was not preventing me eating things like ice cream and pop and Cheetos, I felt I had nothing to lose by getting rid of it...except weight. Because if I DID get rid of it, I could eat the things that I need to be healthy. The Band did me a great service. It got me from a near cripple, to so active I needed to get unbanded. I am grateful for that.

I have set myself up for success. I have a great community of people who believe in nutrition and fitness and help me with mine. I have a personal coach. I have a goal and a plan. I have activities I enjoy that push my limits and abilities and make me a better me every day. My next trek is to Machu Picchu. It is in one year and it is a milestone for me. When I first thought of going, I was near the top of my weight and lying on the couch watching a documentary.

The day after the procedure I went to the grocery store. I found myself headed strait to the produce department.  I got all sorts of wonderful things....and then I saw them. Valencia oranges. I had tried a few times to eat them over the last years..but was sick each time. So today, band free and excited about whole food, I took that orange, peeled it with purpose, and I ate each and every section as if it were the most precious thing I had ever eaten. And I did it....because I can!

I am so happy for you!

 I am in Spain, doing the last leg of the Camino to Finnesterra tomorrow.

 Being able to  Get adequate protein is so critical with this level of .

I wish you all the  best as  you go forward unbanded.

Congrats!!!!  I too absolutely loved being able to eat an orange (well 1/4 of an orange, I am a revision to VSG) as soon as I was approved for solid food again.  It's funny how many band folks I know, including me, who made cheetos a much bigger part of their diet than they ever were pre-op because that is one of the few foods that you can count on to stay down.  Good luck and congrats on being able to eat healthy again.  I would never, never, never, suggest the band to anyone.  It's a horrible device.