Hi everyone!

Looks like I'm the first one here. So let me be the first to welcome you all and invite any questions or comments you may have.

Here is my story, in all it's revolting detail:

I was banded (Realize) in June 2008 and received my first fill in July. (3cc's). I followed my post-op diet to the letter, but began vomiting shortly after my fill. *I thought it was my fault for overeating/under-chewing, etc. I tried to change my eating habits & put up with the vomiting. I was always hungry, and never had that "early and prolonged feeling of satiety" that I was promised. When I tried to eat anything it didn't matter how slowly and carefully I chewed, I went from being hungry to being in agonizing pain with no warning whatsoever. The vomiting would follow anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours later. *When this didn't get better, I got the band completely deflated, but that only helped for a couple of weeks. *By September, my stomach had herniated up through the center of the band and I was fully obstructed. This required an emergency 2nd surgery to reposition & re-secure the band. *I decided to give the band another try because my surgeon told me he had never heard of anyone slipping twice, and I felt that I had come through too much to give up yet. * I had my first fill (3 cc's again) in November '08 and began vomiting again in early February '09. I ran to my surgeon to get deflated, got re x-rayed and he informed me that my band had slipped AGAIN. Time for surgery #3. *

For the majority of the time that I had my band, I walked around with some degree of obstruction, and my diet was limited to liquids & puddings. *I had to go out of town one weekend & tried to eat a small sandwich & ended up vomiting so hard that there was blood in it. *I was deeply concerned about the damage that I was doing to my stomach, esophagus, and teeth. *I lived in constant fear of choking on my own stomach acid as I refluxed in my sleep. (There are documented cases of band patients actually dying from this!) *I had to buy a wedge-shaped pillow to elevate my torso, but it didn't work all the time. In the last 6 months that I had my band, I did not lose a single pound despite all the vomiting. *This is because I couldn't eat anything but Protein shakes, some kinds of soft cheeses, and pudding. *The port never stopped hurting, for the entire time I had it. I couldn't wear jeans or shorts with a firm waistband, because it felt like I was being jabbed in the guts with a broom handle. Whenever I tried to exercise, I could feel it ripping into my muscles and I would be sore in that spot for days after. I felt like I had a knife sticking out of my gut for 10 months. For a weight-loss procedure to actually REDUCE your ability to exercise is unacceptable.* For a band to slip TWICE in only 7 months is unacceptable.* I don't think I could ever recommend the band to anyone.* I regret my decision immensely, not just because it was a miserable experience, but also because it ended up costing me nearly $50,000 for 3 surgeries, all of which came out of pocket since I am self-pay. I had to beg & scrape for the $13,500 for the first band surgery, and this ordeal has pushed me to the brink of bankruptcy.

In March '09, I finally got my band removed and converted to a sleeve. What an amazing difference! I can now eat real, healthy food again. I am hardly ever hungry. I eat 3 or 4 bites of something and I am full for hours. I am no longer in pain from the port digging & ripping into my abdominal wall. I am not vomiting anymore. I can sleep lying down like a normal person. I no longer need to have a bucket in my car or on my nightstand. I can exercise as hard as I want and wear anything that I want. I have lost 17 lbs in the 2 months since I was sleeved, because I can finally eat healthy & nutritious food instead of Protein Shakes all the time.

I am a veterinarian, not an MD. *But I have enough medical knowledge to draw the following conclusions about the band. *This is only my personal opinion.

1: There is no real way for the surgeon to secure a band to prevent it from slipping. *It cannot be sutured to your stomach. *Really it's just friction, gravity, and/or prayer that holds it in place.

2: The band sits so high up on your stomach that it is practically wrapped around your lower esophagus. *This essentially forces any solid food you eat to back up into your esophagus, causing pain, vomiting, and reflux. *Enough exposure to your stomach acid will cause ulcers in your esophagus. *This can lead to scar tissue formation, which will cause PERMANENT narrowing and/or obstruction of your esophagus. *In the medical community, this is what we call "a bad thing".*

3: The stretch receptors in your stomach that tell you you're full are located in the bottom part of the stomach. (called the Pylorus). *Because of the band, these receptors never get stretched. *Therefore you have to rely on other signals to tell you to stop eating. *Like the searing pain in your esophagus. *In my case, the first twinge of discomfort that I felt while eating meant that it was already too late and I could expect to be vomiting within the hour.

4: The purpose of any weight loss surgery is to help you lose weight. *This depends on you eating a healthful diet. *In my experience, the band actually FORCED me to eat high-calorie "slider" foods. *I could not eat rice, Pasta, bread, vegetables, meat, fruits with skin, or anything with Fiber. *One does not lose much weight on a diet of protein shakes and ice cream, but that is pretty much all I could swallow without puking.

In hindsight, I really wish I had gone with the VSG to begin with. *I didn't because I was afraid of actually cutting my stomach, and the adjustability of the band appealed to me. *I thought it was the least risky of the options. *Sadly, it has turned out to be the least effective. *The more I research, the more I find droves of banded people with similar stories as mine. *Prior to receiving my band, I was told that the rate of band slippage was something around 5%. *Since then, numerous studies have been published documenting that it is more like 25-35%. *That means 1/4 to 1/3 of banded people will experience a complication requiring a 2nd surgery at some point. *A device with such a high rate of failure/complication has no business being on the market. Had I known this, I never would have chosen the band.

In considering my options for revision surgery, I chose the VSG for the following reasons:

1: there is no re-routing of the intestines and hence no malabsorption. (translation = no nutritional deficiencies). *Since my family has a history of osteoporosis, the last thing I want to do is limit my ability to absorb Calcium. *Also, menstruating women will frequently develop life-threatening Iron deficiencies with malabsorptive procedures. *Also not appealing. With a bypass or the duodenal switch, you MUST take your Vitamins religiously or YOU CAN DIE.

2: With the sleeve there is little to no risk of obstruction because your pyloric sphincter remains intact

3: the stretch receptors that tell you you're full are located in the pyloric area of your stomach, and they are stimulated quickly with a long/narrow stomach pouch

4: the part of the stomach that is removed is the part that secretes the hormone "ghrelin", which is the hormone that makes you hungry. *So there is better appetite suppression than with the band even though the stomach capacity is similar.

5: there is no foreign device implanted in your body to slip, erode, or cause pain.

6: this procedure carries the least risk of bleeding & leakage compared to the bypass or duodenal switch.

There is no way I could maintain the weight I lost if I*just had the band removed, either. *As soon as I was deflated, my appetite came back with a vengeance. *Even so, I could still feel that my stomach was being pinched off and I was constantly at risk for progressing to a complete obstruction, or heaven-forbid a band erosion. *

If there is anyone out there who's had a gastric band for 5+ years, and isn't having problems, I'd love to hear from you.

I do NOT feel like I failed the band. The band failed me. It did not do what it was supposed to, which is make me feel full and stop eating sooner. All it did was slice up my stomach, shred my esophagus, burn the enamel off my teeth, and give me a constant sharp pain in my abs. And since all I could keep down was protein shakes, I didn't even lose that much weight. And if you are one who thinks it won't happen to you because you are a model patient who follows all the rules, then think of me. I am a doctor. I researched the crap out of the band & thought I could make it work. I followed all the instructions to the letter, and my band slipped anyway. TWICE. So my advice to you is, don't be afraid of cutting your stomach. Think of it as getting a new & improved stomach that actually works the way it's supposed to, like a normal person's.

I wish you the best of luck. This is a decision that only you can make. I'm sure there are some people out there who have gotten banded and are enjoying good success. I am not one of them, and I am not alone. Educate yourself and learn all you can. *If there is anything else I can do for you, I'm happy to try.

Be well,

Natalie

O.K. Well to make it short as I could go on and on about what happened to me.............Ditto to what Natalie said. I did well after receiving the band until about Feb of this year (had lost 85 lbs). I had always had pain in the abdomen around where the port site was every time I did anything requiring use of the abdominal muscles. I had always had pressure type pain in the esophageal area, even after having had nothing to eat or drink for several hours. In short, I was never able to forget that I had a foreign object in my body making me miserable every day. The feeling of something not being quite right has been with me basically 24/7 since the original surgery. I was willing to accept this as I felt that I was loosing weight and getting "healthier".

In Febuary of this year, I developed severe chest pain one night and it was all down hill from there. Just prior to having this, I was having so much acid reflux for a couple of weeks that the skin around my lips felt like it was on fire 24/7. My teeth were rotting out due to the acid breaking down the enamel (I can't imagine what it was doing to my esophagus). Anyway, went to my original surgeon who took me to surgery for lysis of adhesions around the band. Since then, I have been unable to get a fill to reach restriction. I do not even have the amount of fill in my band that I did before the second surgery (only 4.5 ml in a 10 ml band). Every time I try to get a fill to get the magical "sweet spot" that I heard everyone talking about, I develop severe pain with the first swallow of any thing, including Water. I have this problem even when there is no Fluid in the band. Have had multiple different x ray exams, etc. Had a slight slip which corrected after an unfill. Have been diagnosed as having esophageal spasms after all the x rays. The spasms happen as soon as the first swallow of water or what ever I try to swallow rounds the bend from my mouth into my throat. These spasms feel like someone is shoving a knife down my throat. Then it feels like someone slugs me in the epigastric area with their fist. This happens simultaneously as the food rounds the bend. The original surgeons had placed me on Prevacid in the AM and Pepcid in the PM, with Maalox/Mylanta between times for the reflux. I would take the Maalox/Mylanta 4-5 times a day.

Much to my dismay, several months after the second surgery, I developed nausea with vomiting and diarrhea pretty much after attempting to eat anything. Went to my original surgeons office and their response was "you should be happy that you have lost 85 lbs" while demanding that I put my purse down and get up on the table so they could do an unfill. The nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea went on for about 5 weeks. The only way I could make it through the day was getting I.V. fluids pretty much every couple of days (I am a nurse at a surgery center so every couple of days when I was looking like I was about to die one of the surgeons would write me a prescription for IV fluid therapy and my co workers would hang an IV on me). Believe me, I did everything by the book to make this thing work. I would chew any food I was able to get down into liquid form, obeyed the no drinking rules, no eating for 3 hours before bed rules, etc, etc, etc, etc blah, blah, blah........... (That is why i got so pissed when I read on another post in the lap band talk that a "nurse" said that most people have problems with the band because they are not doing what they were supposed to do-bull shit..........).

I had posted several times on the lapband site and Wasa came to my rescue. She literally saved my life. I will be forever grateful to her and so very much miss her contributions to the site. Anyway, through her I met Dr. Aceves. She also told me about band intolerance. I went to Dr. Aceves. He took me off all the antacids. Stated that I had basically probably wiped out all the normal acid in the stomach and that the food was basically rotting in my stomach before being digested as the acid was not there to help in the digesting of it. This pretty much cured the vomiting and diarrhea issue. I am at least able to eat now but still have the severe pain with any thing as soon as it "rounds the bend". I still am unable to go out to eat with anyone and need to set close to a bathroom as I never know when with the first swallow I will spew (yes, this is even after I have chew, chew, chewed-I swear to god if I hear this one more time-I do chew, chew, chew. Do people think I enjoy the severe pain with swallowing every day? How can I chew water? Jesus).

These are only a very few issues that I have had with the band. If I listed every one of them it would take all day. These are just the "highlights" so to speak.

I am so looking forward to the day when I get my sleeve. I can not live the rest of my life like this. I want to lead a normal life again. I am not afraid of the sleeve like some people are as I know that they have been doing partial gastrectomies for years. Believe me, I am not just counting the days but also the hours.

I want to thank everyone who posts here daily (VegasAngel, Oregon Daisey, Mac, Ruthi, etc). Just reading your posts and tips gives me hope.

It is too damn bad that so many people are getting sucked into the banding.

isn't that the truth? People are still getting banded and they are so happy and excited. they have no clue what they are getting themselves into.

Millie, you poor thing. I feel horrible that you have gone through such an experience. And, it basically sounds like your band doctor just blew you off. I would have been furious with him. I had a great first year with my band, but the the last two were a living hell. When I went to my band doctor and told him I had the opportunity to get sleeved with Dr. Aceves, he was very supportive of my doing so. He said some people just do not tolerate the band well and I was obviously one of them. Like you, I did everything exactly as I was supposed to, my body just didn't like having that thing in me.

There are many, many, many people that have had wonderful success with the band. I am so pleased for the ones who have. But, I am also very happy that the sleeve is now moving to the forefront and giving people what I consider to be a much better choice.

Millie thank you so much for sharing your story. I hope others read it and take your problems into consideration when deciding to get the band. What a terrible time you have had.

Do you have a surgery date yet for the sleeve?

OMG, Amazing Story!!!<3

Millie thank you so much for sharing your story. I hope others read it and take your problems into consideration when deciding to get the band. What a terrible time you have had.

Do you have a surgery date yet for the sleeve?

DownInSoCal,

I just got my date yesterday. It will be 12/18/09. I can't wait but I'm really nervous. I can't wait to get rid of this band before it kills me but on the other hand, I am a big chicken!!!!

Millie, part of your story sounded so close to mine. I am so elated for you getting your date, and agree that you will be so pleased with the sleeve.

Thanks Tiffykins. By the way, I loved your "welcome home outfit"! Give him a hug and a thanks from me. I treasure all of our service men and women.

Thanks Tiffykins. By the way, I loved your "welcome home outfit"! Give him a hug and a thanks from me. I treasure all of our service men and women.

Thank you so much. I will definitely give him a huge hug. Thank you for your support.

Good Luck Millie and please keep us posted on your progress. Thank you for posting your story. I almost got the band till I came to this forum and read stories like yours. My insurance would pay for the band or by-pass. So I decided to self pay. I'm sorry about your pain and hope you get relief soon.

Thanks Ky.hen. I am so glad you will get the sleeve to begin with. Have you been to see Dr. Aceves yet or will you meet him when you get there for your surgery day? If you haven't, rest assured, you will be impressed. He has helped me survive the last few months after my original surgeon in Phoenix basically blew me off. I have taken many of my nurse friends with me to Mexicalli and they are so impressed. The hospital is immaculate. Dr. Aceves and Dr. Campos (they both see me when I go) are so kind and gentle. Their sterile technique is impeccable (puts the ones I went to in Phoenix to shame).

Anyway, just know that I will keep you in my thoughts on the 1st.

SO glad I discovered the Sleeve. I was all "band gung ho"....and my first impression of the sleeve was ICK! but then I started to dig more and read more and then the seminar I attended just sealed the deal for me. I hope one day in the near future I'll be here posting my Sleeve story!!!

I wish they would just stop doing band surgeries. People get so excited thinking they are doing something good for themselves and they have no clue how badly the band can damage their stomachs. The bands should be outlawed!

I am rather astonished at all the horror stories I have been reading lately about it.........

I wonder how long before it does go bye bye. It's got to happen and the sleeve is going to be THE Surgery! don't you think?

Pretty good article about the sleeve here:

Laparoscopic Gastric Sleeve Overview - Is it the future of Weight Loss Surgery? | Medical Tourism

I wish they would just stop doing band surgeries. People get so excited thinking they are doing something good for themselves and they have no clue how badly the band can damage their stomachs. The bands should be outlawed!

Ohhh...........Daisy, I so totally agree.