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hi,i thought id introduce myself im yvonne and on the 18th im having a gastric band done with the hospital group having it done at dolan park im not nervous no more cant wait til its over now need to get my life back im havin a sils op through the belly button any way day 1 tmw of pre op diet 2 slimfasts and a small chicken salad just got over a cold now my mum who lives with me has one so ive been getting very stressey worrying il get it bein over weight ive been out in the evenin once in two years i thought it was iyear till my mate said im prepared to work hard to get it off need to get out sooo bad.

Welcome Yvonne and good luck for the op!I've lost 73 pounds in seven months so far with a vsg.  Lots of good advice on this, and most of the other boards. 

hi,you must be sooo proud of yourself what is a vsg.?

Vsg is a vertical sleeve gastrectomy.  90% of my stomach is gone, rarely feel any hunger and should be off insulin around Christmas!  No malabsorbtion.  There are horror stories about bands, just as there are about the other surgeries.  Up to now, apart from occasional vomiting the journey has been pretty effortless - apart from my 5K treadmill walks 5 times a week  LOL!  Best of luck with the op!!!! 

Welcome, Yvonne. Nice to have a fellow-bandster on board!

Do feel free to ask me any band related Qs - the American way is not always our way and it is anyway easier to talk about UK foods etc with a fellow Brit!

Are you self-pay? Or one of the very lucky ones with NHS care? Dolan Park sounds like a private hospital.

Best wishes with your surgery - hope your recovery is as fast as mine was - should be faster with just the one incision, when I was banded 4 1/2 years ago, that wasn't an option!

Kate

hi i know this sounds like a strangs question now but im always reading different what are the chances of thinge goin wrong with the band longterm thanku yvonne

If you listen to the anti-bandsters on the main board - almost 100% with vile complications! But don't listen to them!

No-one knows if the band really is "for life" as it has not been around for a lifetime! As an implanted device, things can go wrong. Many of the problems people report are ones we can control (eating with care, not eating very dry foods etc) but there undoubtedly can be serious issues which need surgery or removal.

Studies ( and I can give you the names of these if you want) seem to show that about 1-2% of bands may destroy the tissue underneath them (erosion) - this requires band removal. Between 2% to about 10% may at some time slip. This means part of the tissue from the stomach comes up through the band. A minor slip can be dealt with by unfilling the band for a few weeks. A serious one will require surgery but often a new band can be fitted.

We can minimise the chances of a slip by making sure we do not keep our bands too tight and by making sure we follow post-op dietary instructions so that the sutures can heal properly.

Sometimes, often for no obvious reason, there cn be a leak in the tubing. I have just had one repaired. A very quick surgery with an almost 100% success rate.

Sometimes ports can become slightly tilted and it may be hard to get the needle in for fills. This might lead to the need for a minor surgery.

A small number of people just never get on with the band.  This may be that they just don't work with it and it is their own fault! But it can also the the case that it is in no way their fault! They just can't get restricition - either too tight or too loose. No-one seems to be able to explain why this happens. A very small number have problems because of poor quality surgery.

BUT we don't malabsorb so we won't get vitamin etc deficiencies. We still have all our body! These two things matter as recently people have been denied access to cancer clincial trials if they have either malabsorption or incomplete stomachs.

Bascially, all weight loss surgeries have good and bad points!

But the key words for us are PATIENCE and REALISM. We don't lose any faster than we would if we were following Weigh****chers or something like that. And we may not get restriction until after several fills.

Kate

 Hi there Yvonne, nice to have another uker around.  I have found OH a really useful site, but to go along with what Kate says, you often get a very distorted view of problems on the site because those who shout loudest are those that have had the problems.  Those who have all positives to say, are often off living life because they don't need to post.  Bear that it mind.

I find the info on all the boards useful, but the uk board is the best of  all :-))), theres not many of us posting on here, just a handful infact, but I find everyone to be level headed and objective and I really value their opinions.  The US differ so much in their opinions and products, that I often found it wasn't always helpful for the info I was after.

I had my gastric bypass done at dolan park too (Mr Sigurdsson), and its the best money I've ever spent - I'm loving the new me, and I can't tell you how much easier every area of my life has become since losing weight.

Good luck, not that you'll need it.
x

hi,ive got mr  sigurdsson to for a band whats he like?

 He seems to have made a marvelous job of my RNY, I have had no problems, and he got my restriciton spot on and I have no problems with getting things stuck - I've always kinda credited his work for that.  I really thought a lot of him pre-op, he gave me faith in him and explained things really well.  I have to say though, he is a very busy man, and does a hell of a lot of these ops, so I found that on the op day and afterwards you get very little in the way of his time or attention - I was shipped in and out pretty quick.

I kinda wanted a little more hand holding from him than that, but I guess thats the price you pay for his experience.  The staff on the phone at dolan park are great and really helpful, and I'd be happy to recommend him.