Sure not the good old days.

I am saddened to see this forum decline so since the good old days. I wi**** were the vibrant place it used to be. But now it is so less active. I have to admit, coming here to see posts about hugs and philosphy and crap I can see all over facebook if I want quaint and trite communication is going to drive me, and I suspect others, to quit wasting the time. Unfortunately, the few people who do come here for help suffer as a result. So could we stop the dumb stuff and stick to the band on this forum and see if we can actually be productive again? 

I've tried that, too, krinannie, but so far no good. I took 6 months away from posting her because I just got tired of hearing that EVERY band is going to fail, that anyone who gets one is an idiot, that anyone who has one will get what we deserve, etc.

I have just recently come back to posting because I see so many newbies who want to hear something other than that they have a ticking time bomb inside them. While that may be the case for SOME it is not the case for ALL. Additionally, the hatred and vitriol of some posters seems directed only at the band and those with one: the negatives and possibly life-threatening side effects of other WLS are never discussed, as if only the band can cause issues, which is not the case.

Those who have had negative experiences of course deserve to have their voices heard. But when their negativity drowns out all other voices, when their posts degrade into "I hope you DO get the band and I hope that you have a horrible life because of it" . . .  it goes beyond just making one's experiences known. I don't want an endless parade of unicorns and rainbows, either, but there appears to be a lot f ground in between those two poles that would allow civility and, perhaps, fun.

The "Failed Lap Band Board" was created so people had a place to take their problems and commiserate with others who have gone through the same thing, while leaving the Band Forum to the rest of us. The "rest of us" , however, have been called band shills, "militants", liars, delusional and god-knows what else.

There seems to be no place for POSITIVITY and no place for anyone who is happy with their band and with their weight loss - unless you create your own private board, which is what some of us have done.

I never thought I would be nostalgic for the halcyon days of arguments about protein shakes and chewable vitamins. I don't see much chance of this board going back to the "agree to disagree" days, but I am will to give it yet ANOTHER shot if other people are as well.

Bette,

Very well said.  As you know, I am fairly new to this and cannot believe the negativity and just down right insulting that goes on.  It is sad.  I feel that it is ok to have an opinion, but to degrade someone for a choice that they have made is unacceptable in my eyes. 

I again, just want to tell you that I truly appreciate how positive you are and look forward to sharing my successful stories with you once I get further along in this journey.  You have helped me tremendously already in the short period of time I have been here.

Thank you!

Sheila

And how IS everything going?

I'm still here, every once in awhile. For some reason can't post in our group page. Still banded, no problems. Hello Bette and all!

This makes me sad. I'm back after a long absence and was hoping to find the great advice and support here that I was used to. Good to see the two of you are still around!

While I had problems and had mine removed, I also hadf benefits. My exoperience is mine andI will share it, but I will never tell another what to do unless directly asked. Then I would tell them to weigh the factors involved. As a matter of fact, cost/benefit analysis should be employed for any procedure at all. Sometimes even the negatives are outweighed (no pun intended) by the fact the cureent weight and helath issues must be fixed to even LIVE. I was 320 and bad back and awful eating. I lost enough to get moving, I fixed my dietary problems and I had some problems so my choice was to unband and give it a whirl on my own. MY chocie. So if we could all talk AND ditch all the off topic crap we could do this like we did back then.

I'll disagree on that last part. We had a lot of really, really fun discussions that were totally off-topic. 

I agree!  We just had people upset because we weren't having the really fun discussions of the old days 

So, since we're in the same boat, what do you want to talk about? Regain, losing post band, food plans?