JACKIEO85

My only advice is try your hardest!!! I had my band removed last August with expected revision to RNY but during the removal surgery had so much scarring and inflammation from the slippage that my doc took out my band and sent me home to heal for 6 months before revision. I lasted about 6 weeks maintaining my weight and then got ticked off that I was starving all the time and fell back into old habits. I gained 30 pounds in 6 months....was so mad at myself (but boy were the holidays yummy!!!!!). Practice your healthy eating habits. Small frequent meals throughout the day. High Protein, low carb, and above all, KEEP EXERCISING!!!! Best of luck with everything!!!!

Yes, I can speak from experience too! I lost 45 lbs in 7 months when first banded and nothing else since. That was 4 years ago and have been having issues as well. The band and I quit each other 3 years ago and my Dr has assured me that it will never work for me again despite all of the fills that I was constantly getting and then to be unfilled b/c of being too tight. Good luck to all of you that haven't had any issues with the band and can't understand how this could be. I love my band and will truly miss it after 8-6.

I'm sorry you're going through this. Everything you have written sounds very familiar. I've watched the same things happen over and over for the past 10 years. A lot of times the problems start at the 2-3 year mark and then it's a lost cause after that. (Speaking from experience.)
Best of luck to you with the sleeve. I hope it works well for you.

Hi all!
Yes, the band had originally proved very effective for me - the first time around. I'd say it was about 2 years after initial placement that I was diagnosed with the first slip, the band had moved down my stomach and the only thing I was able to keep down was milk. I had the bad repositioned and since then I have has minimal success and maximum trouble! Every fill was either to tight or no restriction. I began having to have refills quite regularly as the band started leaking and loosing effectiveness.
Originally my surgeon thought it was 'in my head' and there was nothing wrong with it, I was just bring paranoid after what had happened with the original lap band. Eventually I convinced him to send me for a swallow which showed a pouch dilation above the band. Dr.D removed all liquid and told me to come back in 2 months after the pouch had time to rest and hopefully slip back through the band. This seemed to work for a while but all it did was resolve the heart burn I was having - there was no weight gain.
In recent months I've been unable to eat solid foods. meat is absolutely off the menus! And I have been unable to eat more than 3 hours prior to bed - any later than that and I wake up chocking on reflux and have to make myself sick to remove any reflux from my chest. I'm piping antacids like candy!
Fast forward to today and the most recent swallow shows pouch dilation above the band and again, a slippage down the stomach.
Apparently it happens to some people and you stomach begins to accommodate the band. My surgeon says that the band was not really meant for long term usage and most have about a 10 year lifespan on them.

Thank you everyone. I called and changed my appointment until the Monday after I get home. My doc office recommended this.

I am very much of the belief that food eaten in the way I see myself and others who have ended up resorting to lapbands ect as an addiction. Just as debilitating and harmful to the individual and others.

Your Correct!! as Usual.. but then Since they only started to do bands in the US in 2001 the studies are limited. and since they do have to remove bands, because "people don't follow the rules" just quoting here NOT MY OPINION. Some people choose to Revise instead of getting another band. And since the study says that
High secondary failure rate of rebanding after failed gastric banding. This must have been only the 4cc type and we all know that those have higher complications, funny those complications are the SAME as all the rest of bands But If you have a study that differentiates the 4c band complications from the "newer" less invasive band complications I'd love to read that Thanks

the First fill @ 6 weeks is just a guideline. I too was traveling and had to wait 12 weeks for my first fill, but why stress yourself out on what is supposed to be the happiest place on Earth!...lol
Enjoy your vacation, you don't want to be uncomfortable, I honestly don't think that would happen for a first fill but why take the chance
It's going to take some time to get where your going with the band, another week really isn't going to make the difference.
ENJOY YOUR VACATION!!!!

the First fill @ 6 weeks is just a guideline. I too was traveling and had to wait 12 weeks for my first fill, but why stress yourself out on what is supposed to be the happiest place on Earth!...lol
Enjoy your vacation, you don't want to be uncomfortable, I honestly don't think that would happen for a first fill but why take the chance
It's going to take some time to get where your going with the band, another week really isn't going to make the difference.
ENJOY YOUR VACATION!!!!

I had a totally erosion and had the band or gastric bypass options. I have tears saying this bc I a, nit negative about band but gastric bypass after band saved my life

The statistics of something happening to a 2nd band once theres complications from the first are really high. I wouldn't risk it.
My band slipped last year and 5 weeks ago I had a sleeve revision. Lost 18 lbs of the 30 I gained over the last year that it was slipped. Only about 26 lbs left to goal. Glad to be rid of my contraption (as my hubby called it!). Took my dr 30 minutes to dig it out of my stomach. It was totally embedded.
Good luck to you!

My doc won't reband after an erosion either, says the risk of complication is too high....good luck! I've had my RNY 6 months now and its been such smooth sailing compared to my 3 years with a band

Update: I had an EGD (scope) today that revealed multiple problems with the esophagus and stomach. The band is going to have to be removed. I have esophagitis, gastropathy, tortuous esophagus (which means that it is twisted and causing painful swallowing) and lastly and more importantly, a mushroom type deformity in the stomach proximal to the band. Which I believe is also called dilation or slippage. At any rate, I decided against revision to a sleeve. With all of these gastro/esophagus problems, I think it's best to just go without. Now the waiting. I'm waiting to see if my insurance covers the removal. Prayers appreciated.

I would google the stats for a 2nd band placed. I've heard from my dr and several others hat once ur band slips, the chance of u having complications with a 2nd band are astronomical. My insurance won't cover plication so I just chose to revise to the sleeve instead of having it repaired. Glad I did. Loved my band until it slipped...

Last year I started having coughing at night and severe nightime reflux. I ignored it for 4 mths cuz I knew my dr would unfill me. Finally, hubby ordered me to the dr. My band had slipped. They unfilled me by 1/2 and let me rest 4 weeks. Without a followup xray, he put 1cc back in 4 weeks later. I had no reflux but also no restriction. So he put another 1cc in. That nite the reflux started. My band had not fixed itself. The dr took out the previous 1cc out and told me it wasn't bad enuf to come out and the weightloss was now 100% up to me.
Fast forward to about 4 mths ago. My stomache was KILLING me for 4 days. Finally went to the ER (my dr is 3 hrs away) and after the CT they diagnosed me with a herniated band (when your band is up and over your band) and unfilled me and told me it needed to come out.
5 weeks ago I had a band to sleeve revision. it took my dr 30 minutes to dig my band out of my stomach. It had embedded itself. Making the recovery much harder than my lapband 4 yrs ago
Don't mess around with reflux. The band can be doing damage without you even knowing it. PM me if you have any questions...

I haven't had a bypass But I do have a band, what type of pain are you experiencing? pain or discomfort is normal, it's major surgery and usually it's not the band itself causing pain, in most cases. It's from the CO2 gas that they put into the abdominal cavity to raise the abdomen to see around the organs to do the surgery. That will cause pain in the Left shoulder and in the stomach in general. The incisions of course will hurt as well. The best thing to do is WALK WALK WALK it helps to dissipate the CO2.
I hope this helps, and if it's really too much to handle call your Doctor!!

Best of LUCK EllieMae!!!! You will do Great, I belong to a band Group on FB and they say that having the band removed is sometimes easier than having it placed. They explain it as minor discomfort, anywhere from 3days to a week or less . Some Dr's Don't use the CO2 gas, so no shoulder discomfort, and minimal pain meds, and pre-removal post removal diet is limited. They also have good groups for WLS Or regain/revision even if your not considering it, still good information/support to avoid regain

Your Correct!! as Usual.. but then Since they only started to do bands in the US in 2001 the studies are limited. and since they do have to remove bands, because "people don't follow the rules" just quoting here NOT MY OPINION. Some people choose to Revise instead of getting another band. And since the study says that
High secondary failure rate of rebanding after failed gastric banding. This must have been only the 4cc type and we all know that those have higher complications, funny those complications are the SAME as all the rest of bands But If you have a study that differentiates the 4c band complications from the "newer" less invasive band complications I'd love to read that Thanks

ElieMayClem and lisabenband Sorry that you went through band removal just an FYI the studies show that Rebanding has a High secondary failure rate. Probably the reason people that can get a revision to another form of WLS do, instead of getting re-banded. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17593435

((((Hugs))))welcome back. I know there are many folks here who will condemn you. But, you are a strong woman and know your mistakes. There are so many here who can learn from your story if they are willing to listen. I only hope that you can lose the right way this time. My own daughter was have esophageal problems, then she read that it can lead to cancer. That scared her and she had some Fluid removed, too! Be strong and come here for support. i am glad that you have a supportive husband! Karen

I have been a member here since 2007 and at one time I was a contributing member. I have been gone from the sight for several years now but I am back. I am writing to tell my story in hopes that I can find some much needed support and also maybe give a word or two of advice to those who think they can outsmart the band, eat around it and most importantly, to those who are abusing the band or using it as a crutch instead of a tool. This story is long but I believe it will help so many and possibly even save someone’s life. I hope I am posting in the right area, if not, maybe a mod can move it.
I got my band on December 10th of 2007 and I was very excited and hopeful that it was going to be the answer to my prayers. I weighed about 380 pounds the day of my surgery and wanted desperately to find a way to get control of my life-long emotional eating problem. Although I lived in Phoenix, AZ, I had my surgery done near Denver, CO because I found a U.S. based doctor that provided the band at a discounted rate and I did not want to go to Mexico. I was a cash pay patient and I had to borrow the money from my dad to get the surgery so I needed to find the best bargain for my money. My husband and I drove to Colorado to get the surgery done and 2 days after my surgery, I got in a car and traveled back from Colorado to Arizona with my new saving grace installed and a sense of hope that I would finally be able to lose the weight that had been making me miserable most of my life. Just like most people, I was given rules/instructions about only full liquids the first 2 weeks, the basic band diet of how much to eat afterwards, no soda, no drinking with meals, when to get fills, etc.
With the band in place but no Fluid in it yet, I was yet to experience this thing they called restriction and I was eager to get my first fill so I could start to reap the benefits of my newly installed ring of hope. During the first 2 weeks, I was hungry! I mean I was VERY hungry and full liquids was just not cutting it for me. I tried my best to stick to it but after about 5 days, I decided that I would just try to eat ONE french fry and “see what happened.” I ate one and oh my goodness, it tasted soooooo good. I waited a few minutes and nothing happened. Nothing! Ok, so maybe I will try one or two more since obviously it is not doing any harm and I didn’t have any fill in yet. What could go wrong, right? That night I ate about 10 fries. The next day, realizing that nothing bad happened from my french fry episode, I started adding little bits of solid food here and there and by the end of day 8, I was eating small portions of solid food a few times a day.
On the morning of day 9, I woke up and I was just not feeling right. I was cold and no matter what I did, I could not get warm. Having 200+ pounds of fat to insulate me, being cold was something I was not accustomed to. I was always hot so this feeling of chills was definitely something new for me. I also started noticing that my stomach was making this loud gurgling sound. It sounded like the stomach fluids were working overtime and my stomach ached. On a hunch I took my temperature and was shocked to find out that I had a fever of 102.9. I asked my husband to take me to the ER since it seemed that there was something possibly band surgery related going on.
Long story short, I ended up having a micro-perforation in my stomach and almost died. They admitted me to ICU and the local Lap-Band doctor said that the doctor that performed the surgery had pulled the stitching too tight and left a very microscopic tear in the stomach tissue. I admitted to him that I had been eating solid foods too soon and he said that may have aggravated the issue but was not the cause. I was put on nothing by mouth for 14 days. I could not even have an ice chip. The doctor said that I had a 50/50 chance of my stomach healing on its own and if not, they would have to do surgery to attempt to repair the small tear but that it was a very dangerous surgery and could be fatal. Thank God that after 2 weeks of nothing by mouth and an IV bag full of proton pump inhibitors, the tear healed on its own and I was released. Because of the tear, I had to wait 6 weeks from my release from the hospital to get my first fill.
The time came for my first fill and I was so excited. I have a 14cc band and they started me off with 5 cc’s of Fluid. I had the fill done under flouro so I could see that the fill slowed down the flow of liquid. I wanted more but the fill doctor said I had to take it slow and adjust it slowly to the right amount, until I found my sweet spot. With 5 cc’s of fill, I still did not notice any restriction at all so I made a follow up appt for more fill 4 weeks later. This time when I went in, they added 4 more cc’s and I was at 9 cc’s in my 14 cc band. For the first time, I was starting to notice restriction and I was able to eat way less. Although I did have restriction, I wanted more because I felt that I could still eat more than ¾ cup at a time so I made a 3rd appt and had more fill put it. This time they only added a little less than 1 cc. I swallowed the barium under flouro and I could see that the flow was much slower this time. They handed me my bottle of Water and asked me to slowly drink it and let them know if I had any issues. After a few sips, I could feel the Water sitting in my esophagus, waiting to slowly trickle down but I did not tell them. I finally had really good restriction and although I should have had about ½ cc removed, I left with the additional 1 cc of fill. This is when things really started to change and the weight started to drop off. I could barely eat 2 tablespoons of food and I was pb’ing several times a day.
Even though I finally could not eat very much at all and had super tight restriction, the emotional urge to binge was still there. I can’t believe I am admitting this but there were several times that I would go to a fast food restaurant, order a couple of cheeseburgers and fries, chew them up in huge bites and spit them into a bag, just so I could feel that sense of relief I used to get from binging. Thinking back on it, it was really gross and more importantly it was really sad and should have been a warning sign that I have emotional eating issues but like most people, I turned a blind eye to what was going on in my own body/mind/life.
At this point, it had been about a year since my surgery and the weight was coming off at a steady pace. I was down about 125 pounds since my surgery date. On a daily basis, I was pb’ing 10+ times a day, every time I attempted to eat even the tiniest bite of solid food. FYI: This means my band was too tight! If you are unable to eat solid food without pb’ing, after properly chewing and taking very small bites, there is a problem. Even though I knew this, I ignored it because I was finally, for the first time in my life, losing weight! Since I was unable to eat solid foods, I lived on creamy Soups, mashed potatoes, pudding, ice cream, etc. As time went by, I noticed I was able to eat more and more of the slider foods so I made another appt to get more fill put in because the weight loss started really slowing down. In hindsight, the problem was not that I needed more fill, the problem was that I was eating high calorie slider foods because the band was too tight to eat solid foods and this was slowing down my weight loss. I also started taking little sips of fluid with my food because I noticed that I was able to eat more when I did this. I was emotionally eating, just like before, but I just changed the way I did it. In hindsight, I should have had about ½ cc of my fill removed and then I would have been able to eat about ¾ cup of solid food without pb’ing and if I would have followed the band rules and ate properly and healthy, I would have had absolute success. However, this was not the case with me. I wanted to do it my way and my way it was.
I went for another fill but this time I used a different fill provider that did not use flouro. I had another cc of fluid put in and that made me have a total of almost 11 cc’s in my 14 cc band. Then a few months later I had another cc put in and to make a long story short, at the end, I had almost 12.5 cc’s in my 14 cc band. Over time, even with all of that fluid in my band, I was able to start eating more solid foods. By the end of this fiasco, I could eat an entire McDonald’s hamburger and a small fry. I knew something was wrong. It had to be. I thought I had eroded, or was losing fluid or something. Something had to be going on because I could eat way too much for the amount of fluid I had in and what used to make me pb was not even phasing me anymore. I went for another appt to see what was going on and had the doctor that uses flouro to look at everything while I was under flouro. All the fluid was still in the band, there was no leak. He said I had really good restriction but was concerned because he noticed my esophagus looked enlarged and said that I needed to go on liquids only for 2 weeks and then come back to see if the esophagus looked normal again. Sadly, he did not remove my fluid at the time and that was a HUGE mistake on his part. He should have taken out the fluid but he didn’t and I left the appt a hot mess. I tried to stay on liquids for 2 weeks but it only lasted a couple of days and I was back to just like before. I did not return for the 2 week follow up and continued to do the same thing I was doing because my biggest fear was to have all the fluid removed and be able to eat like I did before the band and gain all the weight back that I lost.
For more than a year I continued with the same amount of fluid in my band and eating slider foods and drinking with my meals and just continued on in this craziness. In January of 2011, I was standing in my kitchen and I started to feel really sick like I was going to pass out. I had my husband take me to the hospital and they ran some test and told me that I was anemic and my blood level was low, indicating that I had some sort of internal bleeding going on but they did not know where it was coming from. I was admitted to the hospital and they ran more tests and didn’t find anything and sent me home. This horrible feeling of passing out continued for months and each time I went to the ER, they told me my blood levels were low but just above where I needed a blood transfusion. I had no insurance so I was only able to get care at the ER. In June of 2011, I ended up back in the ER and they admitted me this time. They did an endoscopy and colonoscopy looking for the source of the slow bleed. They found it on the endoscopy. It was coming from my esophagus! I had stretched it out so much from the fill being so tight that I had caused a small tear in the tissue. Once again, here I was in the hospital with another tear! Only this time I did it to myself. The doctor said my esophagus had turned into a stomach and the area where my esophagus ended and my stomach began had become one. They removed every drop of fill from my band at that time and after 2 more weeks of nothing by mouth, that tear healed as well and I was released and feeling much better. A year later I had another Endoscopy and everything was back to normal again. I never had any of the fluid put back in my band and over the last 2 years, I gained back every single pound I lost, plus some. I now weigh 400 pounds.
This is my biggest warning: If you are finding that you can eat more and more and you are pushing yourself and the restriction is lessening, there may be a problem. For me, my esophagus had turned into a stomach and was holding entire meals! If you cannot keep solid food down the majority of the time, then you are likely too tight. I used the band as a crutch instead of a tool as it was intended.
I am starting over again and have an appt for a fill tomorrow. I am going to do it right this time and I will actually follow the rules this time. My life depends on it. I have to lose the weight or I am going to die. Period. I would be happy to elaborate on anything for anybody, just message me. I will be hoping for support from fellow bander’s and if I can help anyone at all or answer any questions, please let me know.

I had an erosion with gi bleed at 5 years postoperative. All I wanted is removal and was told that was not an option due to the scares under the band. I had a revision to gastric bypass, which scared me. I woke up a new person and have not vomited or had pain in 4 weeks

Your situation is very like mine. Lack of concern from a physician is always a bad sign. I wish I had "fired" mine earlier than I did.
I'm very sorry you're experiencing complications. I did, too. I hope you'll feel much better after band removal. I know I did. It was like waking up from a horrible nightmare.
Best of luck to you.

I was almost embarrassed to read some of the responses to the original post. Megan, no matter what people say, your story and experiences DO matter-- thanks for sharing. It's insulting to think "newbies" will run away because they read about your negative experiences; after all, we should all "bat for both teams" when doing our research. I don't think you sounded "preachy" like someone implied, I think you are genuinely concerned, and just want you story told. On the other hand, there are people who may (or may not) have a "wealth" of information but EVERY TIME they comment on a post, they come off as too-into-themselves-know-it-alls (at least to me)... And like someone said: if the shoe fits....! Thank you to those that also made their feelings be known, but at the same time showed compassion, understanding, and most of all respect for the original poster. And, Megan, I wish you all the BEST with your revision!!
XOXOXO