I had my lap band surgery November 1, 2010 and things went great for a while. I bounced back from surgery quickly and had very few issues adjusting to banded life. From November until the following March/April, I dropped about 65 pounds...then I hit a wall. It was like a light switched and I stopped losing weight. To date, I have never had any issues throwing up. If something does get very uncomfortable, I can drink a little Water and it goes right through.

There were two surgeons in the office I went to, but the one who performed my surgery moved to another state to start a new practice. Unfortunately, the other surgeon doesn't like the band because he's a big advocate for bypass. Since I felt like I could eat anything, I went to him to see about getting a fill. They use fluoroscopy to actually see how restricted you are and he wouldn't go any tighter because it "looked" tight enough. Of course what it looks like doesn't make any difference in what it actually does to help restrict food intake?

After a year of getting nowhere and gaining back a little weight, I drove to another city to get filled in another office. They have added Fluid twice, but I can still easily eat what I want with a little drink if the bite is too big. If I take smaller bites, I probably wouldn't need the drink at all. I'm very frustrated because I'm two and a half years out and I'm almost back to my starting weight. I feel like I had no issues when I started because everything worked and I was moving in the right direction. Now, it's like I can't stop since I know how to cheat the system and it's so easy.

I've considered going back and converting the surgery to the bypass or sleeve, but what's to say I won't end up in the same place again? I don't feel like I got very much support from my surgical center to begin with and I'm sort of flying solo on this. How do you get past the mental struggle of knowing how easy it is to cheat and making the right choices? Is it even possible to start over again?

You most certainly can start over again, but I think in order for you do that you need to have realistic expectations of your band.

You talk about being able to eat whatever you want and the band not restricting your food intake. That's normal, in fact the band isn't meant to physically stop you from eating anything. This is exactly why it's so important to stick to band sized portions.

What the band is supposed to do is allow you to be satisfied on less for much longer periods of time.

Please have a look at this link, I really think it will help you a lot: http://drsimpson.net/fills/Lap-band-eating/lap-band-not-restriction/lap-band-and-restriction.html

You have to do whatever you feel is best for you, be it starting over or another surgery. Just make sure that whichever you choose you realize all WLS is just a tool. The work will always be yours to do.

Best wishes.

gaining is so much fun and it is easy, committing to a healthly weight takes a lot of thought every second of every day. We all know how to cheat and get back to where we were and leave notes around the house reminding the rules..don't bring drinks near you when your are eating set up some brain blocks I had to..even told the kids no more peanut butter in the house till I could get it under control, and no junk in the house or no allowace and you know how teens love there money...hope some of this helps you can do it.