New life for old band?

Hi everyone! I was banded April 10, 2008. I had a solid 5-6 years of success with my band. I lost 160 pounds & kept it off. At some point after losing almost all of the weight I wanted to lose, I started eating carbs again at first in controlled portions. Over time little by little I could eat more & more. Over the past 8 years I put back on 100-120 pounds. That is:9 hard to type. My understanding is that my band was tight & the volume of Food would stay above the band. All I know is my breaks were gone No more discomfort and no more sliming when I overate. I was having Night coughs & sometimes I'd wake up choking with acid or fluid in m lungs & chest.

in February we did a complete unfill. My appetite and ability & desire to eat large quantities is back to pre band levels.

im wondering if anyone else experienced this & waited 12 weeks to let things settle & got a re-fill. If so I'd love to hear your experience. Can my band work again like it did in the beginning?

I'm hoping that I get a do over. I wish I would have known then what I know now & started with vsg but I didn't. I just losty best friend of over 30 years to a blood clot becoming a pulmonary embolism at age 48, & now I'm afraid to get another surgery. Hers wasn't related to baristric surgery but it's very much in my head now. Also I know a revision to vsg can have more issues than that being the only surgery. Sometimes with deadly results. So that is how desperate I am to have my band work again & re-lose this weight regain. It's my best shot and I know me well enough to know I can do it but I absolutely need a tool to help me. If not the mountain is too high to climb all on my own.

thanks for your time.

Love,

Kim

I am sorry you have gone through so much. Acid reflux is often terrible with VSG. I personally believe that the big weight loss with surgery is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We learn how to eat around the restriction and gain the weight back. I do believe that you can lose the weight again, but not with surgery. I have found that the only way I can lose and maintain my weight is with diet and exercise.

My regain started at 30 months after RNY and I joined Weigh****chers when I was seven pounds above goal. I count WW points and eat any food that I want. I don't restrict any food groups, but do eat a lot of veggies and lean proteins. I track food and exercise. I drink a lot of water and weigh myself daily. I am obsessed with the scale but for me that is a good thing. I have gained and loss many times after surgery. I am currently eight pounds over my goal and hoping to lose at least two pounds this month. Weigh****chers published a book last year called, The Shift. It is full of people's experience and common sense approaches to dealing with weight. I hope you can get a copy and read it. Good luck with everything.

I eat bread, pasta, sugar, cake, cookies, candy, and potatoes. But I weigh measure and track what I eat. I don't believe that 1000 calories from bread is anymore fattening than 1000 calories from chicken. But the chicken is much more filling.

Thank you!! I have an appointment towards the end of June to get some more info. I plan to try to do better with diet & adding in activity is a must that I have to start doing.

I've had very similar problems with reflux. I did have fluid removed from the band and pretty immediately was STARVING. After having a fill again I did have a return of some better control of my hunger. I still have to be very careful about my reflux, when I don't control my diet and WHEN I eat it gets out of control and like you I'm up all night coughing.

My experience is that after the first year with a band your metabolism has slowed and experiments on contestants of the Biggest Loser had shown that 6 years later their metabolism has not returned to normal levels. I lost over 80 pounds my first year but some of that was from starving with a slipped band. For the last 10 years, my weight has remained consistently 40 pounds down from my original weight. Try as I may I can not seem to lose anymore. My surgeon says I may not be thin but the band has prevented me from becoming a lot larger.

Thank you! Never heard that theory before but it really makes sense. I appreciate you taking the time to share.

My experience is that after the first year with a band your metabolism has slowed and experiments on contestants of the Biggest Loser had shown that 6 years later their metabolism has not returned to normal levels. I lost over 80 pounds my first year but some of that was from starving with a slipped band and weight loss affirmations. For the last 10 years, my weight has remained consistently 40 pounds down from my original weight. Try as I may I can not seem to lose anymore. My surgeon says I may not be thin but the band has prevented me from becoming a lot larger.

Right! My metabolism has never returned to normal (and probably never will.) I lost 62 pounds during the first 12 months, yet I can't seem to lose more. It seems that the weight is stagnant, and my body does not want to get rid of more fat for some reason.

IMNSHO, get the band completely removed it's not doing you any favors.

There are patients who can do well long term I'm talking 10-15 years with the lap band or even I know people cause I'm from da olden days being 21 post rny and 12 years post rny reversal, with vertical banded gastroplasty was performed in my era to be less invasive than rny and was performed open though and wasn't adjustable.

I don't ask nor do I give weight loss surgery advice, I just share my journey on here and people can do with it what they will, for one what the person said about biggest loser metabolisms definitely applies to bariatric surgical patients, just not all of them, and my weight has been all over the place which I am post menopausal at 53, and have hypothyroidism and am seriously allergic to Synthroid, as well as many other meds.

I'm back in onderland after reaching my all time heaviest Summer of 21, even though how much I can eat and be active is cyclical, I'm 60 lbs now from my all time heaviest and almost 70 lbs heavier from my lightest (i've been anywhere from a 24 to 2/4 back to 24 to 12 back to 24 to now 16/18 not kidding when I say cycle a lot weight wise).

In my case I've decided to not ever do anything bariatric surgical again, other than possibly have a total gastrectomy that I looked into about 6 1/2 years ago as while the complications I've had from my reversal suck, they aren't anywhere near as bad or deadly as the complications I had from my rny.

I had an old friend get unbanded in 2008, she had vbg which I talked about above 2 months before my rny and decided when the comorbidities of Obesity (I've never had any of them) to get rny 2 years ago. She has lost about 1/2 is happy though and it's easier for her to eat than it was w/her non adj band that made her life miserable.

It was worth it to her, it wasn't worth it to me. Some other bariatric patients would try to see if getting a replacement band some have converted to rny or vsg.

It's your life, you have to figure out what's best for you, in my case I'm a medical unicorn in a lot of ways, but I come from a family of 3 out of 5 of us are all 20 plus post rny (that would be a sibling and a parent) my sister can eat whatever she wants and all she had to was pick up intense exercise 10 years ago to keep her weight off, my dad had wls TWICE orig 1981/revised 10 months after my rny and the day before my sister's) is still SMO and can do more stuff at the age of almost 77 and having wls twice probably slowed the comorbids of Obesity down in him, but he can do more than what I can.

But the 3 of us had the same surgeon, same dna, same surgery and had extremely different long term outcomes, the reason why I get wordy on here as I've been in the wls communities offline and online for a long time, if we can vary within a family, obviously we differ and vary with outcomes in any of the bariatric surgeries long term.

Hopefully you will find a way that if where you are at right now isn't working of what works for you, you could beat the odds by being unbanded or rebanded but statistically long term the band is showing to be not a great tool long term even for the most compliant of patients, they wear out, slip you know, you had one, so decide what you need to do to be your particular healthiest and happiest, whether that's figuring out another way to lose weight if you want, non surgically, trying a new band or revising or deciding just to stay the weight you are at, or trying to lose a little on your own, if obsessive thoughts about diet and weight loss have over taken your life and it's not worth it, again only you can decide.

Again this was wordy but it's also worth quoting my friend's surgeon *****moved her band and he also did an egd on me once, but he said to her, bariatric surgery is supposed to be a tool NOT a form of torture, it's not meant to be easy but again there's a difference between having to work at something and it being torturous.

I hope you find /or figure out what's best for you.

Peace, Lisa