Impatiently counting down the days to get rid of this crap-band. I am sitting here on a Saturday morning trying to enjoy some scrambled eggs. First bite and I am stuck and in so much pain! I HATE IT! The thing that sucks about my band is that the first bite always gets stuck and then nothing after that. No restriction, nothing! This POS can't get out of me fast enough.

I can totally relate. I was so happy to get the band out. I still get so angry at how they market the band so much when it has such a high failure rate. Congrats on your sleeve. You will LOVE it.

Thank you Becca. Your progress is awesome!

I thought I remembered reading somewhere on here that the bariatric center at the Mayo Clinic doesn't use lap-bands anymore because of the high failure rate? It is such a waste of money (in my experience).

I agree... I hated the band! Somedays I was so stuck I couldn't get water through, and other times no restriction at all. Had the band fully emptied and still had issues until it eventually slipped and had to get it out the next day. That was a little over a year ago. Since then I had gained about 20 pounds. I am now 11 days post op from the gastric sleeve and have lost 23 pounds already! Could not be happier with my decision, only wish I had done the sleeve sooner!

I was really fortunate that my dermatologist had a band put in and she said to me that if she had to do over she would no way do the band and that she would consider the sleeve. At that point I didn't know what a "gastric sleeve" was. Thanks to her I looked into it. I think you guys are right about how it's being marketed as such a great thing. Given all the "conversions" as well as failure rate, I find it hard to believe it's still being performed. If you think about it, insurance companies are so hypocritical always touting procedures that supposedly have emperical support and they won't pay for those that "don't have the research." How interesting that there's all this research on how crappy the band is but they push it and won't pay for something like the sleeve!!! It makes me angry so many of us have had to self pay because of it. I am among the fortunate - and I don't take it for granted -- that I was able to swing it. But I'm angry that those that can't pay out of pocket are getting screwed - either because the band gets pushed on them or because they have to forego the procedure all together!! Hey sorry about the rant guys!!!! :-)

I am so glad that I happened across the sleeve by accident when I was researching the LapBand, because I was pretty much convienced if I was going to have surgery that I would do the LapBand. Thank God I found the Sleeve instead and avoided all those issues. Although to be fair I imagine there are some people that have no problems at all with their bands.

YEah I agree that there are people who have great luck with the band. I have a friend who loves hers and she has had it since 2007. She lost weight and kept it off. I know she gets stuck and pukes a lot though. IMO that would just suck even if you were successful with it.