mreckner

My only fear is dying. My husband has good insurance, so the loose skin doesn't bother me, I can most likely get removal covered, at least partially, by his insurance company.
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I wouldn't say it was a drastic post, but it was certainly truthful. I'm glad you had good luck with your band. I didn't. I didn't see a heading stating I was only allowed to tell my story if it was positive. I believe in presenting both sides. I wish I had seen a post like mine before my band, so I knew the good, bad, and ugly, and could have made a more informed choice. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using the BariatricPal App

I wouldn't say it was a drastic post, but it was certainly truthful. I'm glad you had good luck with your band. I didn't. I didn't see a heading stating I was only allowed to tell my story if it was positive. I believe in presenting both sides. I wish I had seen a post like mine before my band, so I knew the good, bad, and ugly, and could have made a more informed choice. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using the BariatricPal App

I never had the band but I did get a RNY gastric bypass surgery over 3 years ago and I am satisfied. My pouch is small after surgery so if I try and overeat, my stomach does punish me. I am maintaining fairly well. I find softer foods such as chili and Soups go down easier than harder foods such as steak. So overall I am pleased. My primary objective in the surgery was to combat most of my destructive health conditions. I had diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and GERD plus some more before surgery. They went away within 2 weeks after surgery.

I wouldn't say it was a drastic post, but it was certainly truthful. I'm glad you had good luck with your band. I didn't. I didn't see a heading stating I was only allowed to tell my story if it was positive. I believe in presenting both sides. I wish I had seen a post like mine before my band, so I knew the good, bad, and ugly, and could have made a more informed choice. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using the BariatricPal App

So sorry to hear your experience has been so poor with the band. I'm one of the ones who've done well with it. Glad to hear that you are revising to bypass. Am hoping you will be able to change the title of this post to 'My Story HAS a Happy Ending'. Good luck!

I had lap band surgery in October of 2012. From the beginning, it was nothing but trouble. I followed my instructions to the letter, so this was a band failure. Not a surgeon failure, not my failure.
In almost a year and a half, I never hit the sweet spot. The band was either too loose, or too tight. I threw up every time I ate. I could not eat the things I was supposed to eat. No meat, no eggs, no vegetables, no fruit. Basically if it wasn't in liquid form, it came back up.
Having food get stuck is unpleasant. Productive burps are unpleasant. No matter how well I chewed, everything got stuck. It got to the point where I was eating all the stuff I wasn't supposed to eat, because I couldn't get anything else to go down. I didn't lose any weight. Not an ounce, with the exception of the pre-op diet, and the couple of weeks after surgery where I survived on liquids.
The final straw for me was being in the bathroom, violently vomiting, with my two small children standing outside the bathroom door, crying, because it sounded like mommy was dying. Plus, I didn't want them to think that vomiting after eating was the norm. That's not a healthy thing to teach children.
My band came out in March of 2014. Best decision I made, regarding the band. I'm having revision to gastric bypass done, later this year. My surgeons are now trying to steer people away from the band, and are more focused on Sleeve and Bypass. I, personally, would not recommend the band, although I do know people who are happy with theirs.
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I am extremely happy with my decision for revision from band to RNY. I feel so much better. No more acid reflux. I can actually eat salads and raw veggies now. I hadn't been able to in years. The surgery was no big deal, either. Minimal pain.
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I had lap band surgery in October of 2012. From the beginning, it was nothing but trouble. I followed my instructions to the letter, so this was a band failure. Not a surgeon failure, not my failure.
In almost a year and a half, I never hit the sweet spot. The band was either too loose, or too tight. I threw up every time I ate. I could not eat the things I was supposed to eat. No meat, no eggs, no vegetables, no fruit. Basically if it wasn't in liquid form, it came back up.
Having food get stuck is unpleasant. Productive burps are unpleasant. No matter how well I chewed, everything got stuck. It got to the point where I was eating all the stuff I wasn't supposed to eat, because I couldn't get anything else to go down. I didn't lose any weight. Not an ounce, with the exception of the pre-op diet, and the couple of weeks after surgery where I survived on liquids.
The final straw for me was being in the bathroom, violently vomiting, with my two small children standing outside the bathroom door, crying, because it sounded like mommy was dying. Plus, I didn't want them to think that vomiting after eating was the norm. That's not a healthy thing to teach children.
My band came out in March of 2014. Best decision I made, regarding the band. I'm having revision to gastric bypass done, later this year. My surgeons are now trying to steer people away from the band, and are more focused on Sleeve and Bypass. I, personally, would not recommend the band, although I do know people who are happy with theirs.
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I was 389lbs at time of surgery
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I had awful issues with my band. I NEVER got to the sweet spot. I threw up after every meal, every day. Worst decision I ever made. I ended up having it removed after a year and a half of zero weight loss and misery. The surgeon who did my band is starting to discourage patients from getting the band. I'm in the paperwork phase of getting a revision to bypass.
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There was a post earlier this week using these exact stats. At least we know where it is coming from now.
It makes sense that in the super morbidly obese category.
Not sure where you currently sit in terms of size but this would certainly be a great starter question when you meet your surgeon. I would follow up with asking him/her what his/her mortality rate is. When you ask the surgeon they are usually pretty good about sharing the details of any death they might have had as well.
I would also venture to guess that staying over 600lbs and not having surgery has a higher death rate even yet. This is just a guess....given everything we know and have learned. If anyone has that mortality rate it might put things into perspective for people considering but struggling because they are afraid of the surgical death rate.
I was morbidly obese weighing 310lbs and sick as a dog. I honestly would have made this decision even if the mortality rate was 1 in 50 but again that is me. I wanted to be here long term for my children and grandchildren.
Best of luck to you!

actually, those stats *might* be true of people who weigh 600 lbs (I don't know for sure, though - I've never seen stats for that). I do know that a lot of surgeons won't operate on people who weigh that much. There are a few who do (like Dr. Nowzaradan from "My 600 Pound Life"), but not many. It would be considered a high risk surgery.

I suppose that might have been true back in the 1960s (although I don't know for sure), but not any more. Weight loss surgeries are some of the safest surgeries out there. Techniques have vastly improved, they know a lot more about it now, and it's really become a routine surgery. The mortality rate for RNY is something like 0.3%; VSG is even less. That's safer than hip replacement surgery, and they do hip replacements every day. It's about the same as gall bladder surgery.
My surgeon has done weight loss surgeries for over 15 years and has never lost a patient.

1 in 50 would be in the news.
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That's what I thought! Granted, the show was filmed in 2007, and these patients were about 600lbs, so I guess that could increase the odds, but it literally took my breath away. I have 2 small kids.
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I had lap band surgery in October of 2012. From the beginning, it was nothing but trouble. I followed my instructions to the letter, so this was a band failure. Not a surgeon failure, not my failure.
In almost a year and a half, I never hit the sweet spot. The band was either too loose, or too tight. I threw up every time I ate. I could not eat the things I was supposed to eat. No meat, no eggs, no vegetables, no fruit. Basically if it wasn't in liquid form, it came back up.
Having food get stuck is unpleasant. Productive burps are unpleasant. No matter how well I chewed, everything got stuck. It got to the point where I was eating all the stuff I wasn't supposed to eat, because I couldn't get anything else to go down. I didn't lose any weight. Not an ounce, with the exception of the pre-op diet, and the couple of weeks after surgery where I survived on liquids.
The final straw for me was being in the bathroom, violently vomiting, with my two small children standing outside the bathroom door, crying, because it sounded like mommy was dying. Plus, I didn't want them to think that vomiting after eating was the norm. That's not a healthy thing to teach children.
My band came out in March of 2014. Best decision I made, regarding the band. I'm having revision to gastric bypass done, later this year. My surgeons are now trying to steer people away from the band, and are more focused on Sleeve and Bypass. I, personally, would not recommend the band, although I do know people who are happy with theirs.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using the BariatricPal App

I had lap band surgery in October of 2012. From the beginning, it was nothing but trouble. I followed my instructions to the letter, so this was a band failure. Not a surgeon failure, not my failure.
In almost a year and a half, I never hit the sweet spot. The band was either too loose, or too tight. I threw up every time I ate. I could not eat the things I was supposed to eat. No meat, no eggs, no vegetables, no fruit. Basically if it wasn't in liquid form, it came back up.
Having food get stuck is unpleasant. Productive burps are unpleasant. No matter how well I chewed, everything got stuck. It got to the point where I was eating all the stuff I wasn't supposed to eat, because I couldn't get anything else to go down. I didn't lose any weight. Not an ounce, with the exception of the pre-op diet, and the couple of weeks after surgery where I survived on liquids.
The final straw for me was being in the bathroom, violently vomiting, with my two small children standing outside the bathroom door, crying, because it sounded like mommy was dying. Plus, I didn't want them to think that vomiting after eating was the norm. That's not a healthy thing to teach children.
My band came out in March of 2014. Best decision I made, regarding the band. I'm having revision to gastric bypass done, later this year. My surgeons are now trying to steer people away from the band, and are more focused on Sleeve and Bypass. I, personally, would not recommend the band, although I do know people who are happy with theirs.
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Unfortunately it's no longer a question of 'if' someone gets their lap band removed but 'when'. I'm honestly surprised that they still do the surgery in this country.