It looks like a ghost town, lol back when I had my lap band 3/2009 this board was booming!!! It's weird now there is hardly anyone on here. We were all for the LP and willing to tell our perfect stories. Helping each other out. How sad we were all lied to about the out come of The Band. After 5 yrs I too zm one of the " old veterans" from this board having the "side effects" of that Perfect Band .  I am soon to have that creature out of mybody.  Hoping I caught the real danger of its wreath before it gets to bad.  I wish to thank all my old buddies who like me helped the newbies. Hoping to revise to the sleeve. I just might see ya over on that board. Wishing you oldies great success in what ever you do.  Talk to ya soon and will keep ya posted, cheers to a new start!!!!

Hope you get your band out soon and get the wls you want. My best wishes. 

i wasn't personally ever lied to. There were things about the band no-one knew when I was banded in 2006, but my doc made a point of telling me whenever new things were discovered. In a national health service there is no point in lying because the doctors are salaried and so have no profit motive. 

I am fortunate in that most of the banded people I know in real life are, like me, still happy with their bands so I have a positive support network. Many of us are over five years out and so have lots of experience to share. I know many on here do have problems.  The 40+ I know IRL are obviously much luckier. 

I guess you could say that I lurk. I check the board every couple of days to see who's doing what. I was banded 6/2009, same day as Kathkeb, with radically different results. I did well at first, then life happened hard, and I gained back about 80%. I'm well on the road to losing it again and luckily have had few problems with my band. I haven't had an adjustment in 3 years, and it actually still provides some restriction. I have difficulty drinking water when I first wake up, and can't eat after drinking an ice cold beverage unless I want to feel pain and probably PB. Some days I wish I hadn't done it, but mostly, it's okay. I hope that getting yours out helps you and that you're well and on the road to good health!

I'm still around as you know  I just feel an obligation to stay around and warn those I can and try to help those that go ahead anyway. I truly think that our docs(well most of them)were also lied to by the manufacturer who was out to make money at any cost. So they just told us what they were told and they really believed it to be a good product. Unfortunatly others had to pay the price first to warn us down the line. So I'll be here till I can't physically do it anymore. Wish you the best on your sleeve.

I don't feel like I was lied to, either. I was told from the start, by my surgeon, that the band wouldn't work for everyone. However, the "wouldn't work for everyone" part turned out to be such a wide spectrum of "WTF??" that even now can't be explained.

Why does it work for Kate and me (and untold others), for example, but not you?

Poor surgeons? Certainly possible, but that can't explain ALL the "failures" (the word "failure" meaning the band and/or its implantation, NOT the person who has one!)

Just a bad device? Certainly possible, but that can't explain all the successes.

Variations in individual human physiology? Possible, but again, can't explain all the failures.

The problem is that NO surgery is ever going to be guaranteed. Look on the main board, the revisions board, the failures board: there are band people getting sleeved, sleeves getting RNYs, RNYs wanting to get banded, even people who are considering their THIRD or FOURTH weight loss surgery. It almost seems that EVERY WLS option is a total crap shoot.

I pop in when I get a chance Lucky!  I was banded a month before you!  Yes, the board was booming, like the VSG is now.  Many are over on the other boards as they have revised already.  Some are here and do great like Kate and Bette.  Some went to other boards but when something goes wrong there the person with problems has to post off forum or slink off altogether.

Our center does band but, the surgeon still there steers most to the sleeve instead.  At support group last night for the first time, I was the only band and a revision.  Also the sleeves out weighed the RNY too!  Sure has changed from five years ago when we had our own support group.

The band has changed my life.  I am just a couple of weeks from my 5 year anniversary and I am still happy and doing well.  I have lost 180 lbs and doing well.  Was it harder than I was led to believe....sure but I lost 180 lbs!!!  So how can I complain.  I still work hard to maintain this loss.  I have to watch what I eat and workout.  There is no easy way out with the band.  Did I think it would be easy....Ya to be honest I did.  I thought I would eat a little bit of food and not be hungry and lose a ton of weight.  It didn't happen that way for me.  I have head hunger like crazy.  I am always wanting to eat the wrong foods (I slip up once in awhile and have to buckle down).  And of course those are the slider foods that you can eat a lot of.  So I still have to use my willpower (which I thought I would never have to use again).  I have to exercise to maintain or lose weight....which, who would have thought I would be doing that???  LOL.   

On the bright side I have never had any problems with my band.  I can eat any foods I want...veggies, fruit, white meat...no problems.  I don't get stuck.  I just eat less of it.  I don't puke.  I go in for my yearly check ups and my doc checks under fluoro and my band is always in perfect placement with no problems.  I am very blessed.  I have no more health problems and my cholesterol and blood pressure are back to normal.  

I guess the band forced me to truly change my life style....which is a good thing...my old one was killing me.  

Yes, this place is a ghost town.  I do log on a couple times a week and lurk a bit, although not daily like I used to.  (I stopped posting many many moons agao, and actually requested OH to remove all of my posts (which they did), back when that whole "share" button fiasco was going on.)  I wasn't lied to.  Don't know why I didn't have any complications, but I'm grateful I didn't and continue to be virtually symptom free, maintaining a 120 lb weight loss, living life as a vegetarian, and helping other WL people on a more personal, 1:1 level.  Keep us posted on your revision!  Edited to add:  I was banded in 2007

I have to say that I am on Facebook far, far more than I am on here.

You want to see booming, 2002 - when I was voted "***** of the boards - this place was insane.