Banded in 05

Please ignore Nana. I am a very happy, very successful banded person, almost 8 years out. For me the band was the corrct choice. I have been (rather viciously!) accused of being blindly pro-band but this is far from the case. I fully accept that band issues arise which are NOT the fault of the individual.

It is true that some people actually cause their band problems. I know someone IRL who deliberately lied to her doctor to keep her band so tight she could hardly eat, and became, basically, a band bulimic. Not at all surprising she had an emergency removal.

ir is also true that IRL I do not know anyone who has had to have their band removed for any of the complications we read about on here. But that does not mean I doubt them! Clearly online we don't truly know people but I am very sure that many of the tales of woe we hear on here from people are genuine. Yes, there are some which make me think that maybe the individual contributed to their own problems. But many clearly didn't. I have people on here that I now consider to be true friends of many years and I fully accept their accounts of their band problems.

I do know (not IRL) people who have had serious and irreversible problems with the sleeve. But they seem to be very much in the minority. It is not true that it is a new and so less understood surgery as partial Gastrectomy has been doneand so evaluated for medical reasons for many, many years. 

If I ever have to lose my band, I will either try to go it alone or have another band. But that is a very personal choice. And who is to say that I will feel the same if it actually happens! Reality is very different from an idea!

I would think verry carefully of your options I have had the band in for 12 years with many problems I have considerd having asleeve.

I m looking at my options in my case it has been recomended that I would need two operations 6 to 12 months apart one to remove the band and the other to sleeve the stomach. This is on account of bleeding,  posible damage due to the lapband and open surgery. I am currently thinking about just removing the band and feeling healtheir. Think carefully and ask questions as problems do occasionally occure.

lIn my first lap band operation my bowl was ruptured (found out 3days later) in the following week I had several operations due to septicemia ending with an open wound taking approximately6 months to heal