Is the lap band healthy?

[hollyb 0]

I just had to have my band removed because of a pretty significant slip. I had if for a couple of years. I did have the option of having it replaced but I opted for removal because of the generally unhealthy feeling I had even when it was in the proper place. Reflux, vomiting, heartburn, Constipation, all these things just became part of my life. I also felt I could easily eat bad foods and not so easily eat good foods, like fruits and veggies and lean meats. Is is just me or do others feel that way? I don't want to badmouth the band because I know it helps people but I just wonder if I failed or if it failed. I don't know.

[GeezerSue 7]

...

re: 'easily eat bad foods'....well, that's exactly one of the problems that made me MO in the first place. And postBand, I consider it habit or simple stubbornness when I have indulged in such activity;

I can't speak for anyone else, but when I would say something like the "eat bad foods" comment, it meant I could not eat grilled fish or canned tuna or broiled chicken or a salad or an orange, or most vegetables, etc. And, when you go through months or YEARS of not being able to consume much-- survival being a pretty strong drive--you consume what you can.

When we would go out for dinner (which we do a lot), I could have a few spoons of Soup, but not my fish (we live at the beach and our favorite restaurants are fish places.) But I found I COULD add cream and sugar to the coffee and get a FEW calories for dinner. I could even have a slice of key lime pie if I didn't eat the crust. When you are routinely HUNGRY because you CANNOT EAT solid food, you eat what you can.

[bandayed 0]

I am just coming to the same realization. I have been very happy with my band and I do still have it -- just one year now. I am thrilled with my weight loss, and I feel like for the first time in my whole adult life I am probably eating enough Protein. Other than that though, I think my diet is pretty unhealthy too. I cannot eat most fruits & veggies. I cannot eat tuna or chicken. I feel like alot of the things I would like to eat to be health are off limits and instead I eat chili, clam chowder (not the clams) and hamburger. I miss salads, I want to eat fruit! I take my Vitamins and Calcium supplements but I still think that the natural food source is better than the pills...............Why is it easier to eat Cookies & ice cream than chicken & melon???? It does strike me as going against the weight loss & healthy mode. In this respect I do feel like the band is unhealthy. Hopefully taking the supplements, vitamins etc makes up for it...............

[ralheit 0]

I have no problem with salads or vegetables. I eat chicken, fish and red meat. Fresh fruit is a problem, so I eat the canned variety in juice only. bread is a real problem for me, but I don't really miss it. I haven't had any of the problems that you have mentioned. I do have first bite syndrome occassionally, but then I'm fine. I feel healthier than I have in years. Maybe some of the things you have been experiencing aren't really band related.

[GeezerSue 7]

We've all had such different experiences!

Jack, MOST of what you listed, I could not eat because the band would not let me and later because of esophageal damage. The food just bounced around in the esophagus.

Before the damage, I COULD eat a chicken stew kind of thing...it became a mainstay around here. But NEVER a sandwich, because NEVER any bread except for a max of two bites of heavily buttered (oops!) crust from sourdough. NEVER anything called chowder, if it contained potatoes. NEVER any raw tomotoes.

But I have an "issue" (not with you, Jack...not with anyone in particular) but with the promotion of the band as a healthier and more natural way to lose weight. I'm convinced that far fewer people would opt for the band if they first read about all of the changes...many of them rather drastic...that some banded people have to endure to keep the band.

The band isn't always just about smaller portions. It CAN BE about leaving in an implant that causes a LIFETIME of reflux and places the patient on a LIFETIME of reflux meds to treat something that would just go away if the causative agent (the band) were removed. To me, that's like walking around with a rock in your shoe and treating your foot for cuts and bruises and infections when all you have to do is get rid of the rock. It can be about not ever again eating a salad or an orange or not ever sleeping lying down flat. It can be about horrific slime wads and having to barf in public places.

And, as some long-time successful banded people I know are dealing with, even after YEARS of being model banded patients and following the rules and making rather bizarre changes, a slip or erosion can come out of nowhere and at least one more surgery is required and--for many--the weight starts piling on as a result of being freed from several years of severe eating restrictions.

So, HollyB, IMHO, YOU did not fail. For some people--and I think it's a small percentage, the band is a "piece of cake" (pun intended since with the band I could never have had even a bite of cake.) For others, it is a problem that causes SOME weight loss but...all things considered...the juice ain't worth the squeeze.

Another consideration is time. As I was deciding to have my band removed, one of the factors that I considered was that I was 58 years old and looking at my mother, now frail and in her 80's. What if the band caused NO more problems for me...for ten or twenty more years? And then what would they do with me if I had a slip or erosion...at age 68 or 78. I didn't want to spend my waning years drinking Ensure because I was too frail for another surgery.

[GeezerSue 7]

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The question then becomes 'why not have it removed' when the issues you raise become such a problem. Is there some kind of secret BandSurgeon protocol that prevents them from removing the device were it causing those very problems, unresolvable as you have noted?

For me a Big Issue would be 'what OTHER option would better serve my problem'. Your experience is encouraging that there IS another potential remedy, rather that return to the errant preBand OverEaters Society.

I'm thinking it's an American thing...especially related to how medical funding is handled. One of the long-time banding doctors I contacted in Europe thought I was joking when I asked if he had revised the band to other options. Seems that fully 20% of his practice is removing bands and revising to something else.

I'm still struggling to reach a personal goal...well, I'm not exactly struggling...more accurately, I'm sitting here :ranger: eating whatever I want whenever I want :hungry: and not exercising and wondering why I'm not there yet...so...I guess I have this vague inclination that there is another weight I'd rather be...and wondering how hard I have to WISH for it to get there.

Right now, I'm thinking I should be working on a Plan B.

[GeezerSue 7]

Because I was experiencing problems, the removal was a no-brainer and something insurance even covered. My local band doctor--at the so called "Center of Excellence"--had never removed a band. So he wouldn't have been my choice for THAT reason.

In fact, he was so inexperienced at band-related problems, that he wanted me to go to a support group meeting so I could hear from others what life with the band was like. My first eight months with the band was relatively perfect...so I already KNEW how it should have been...and how it used to be...and how it wasn't anymore. Duh...

[Bettina 0]

I miss salads, I want to eat fruit! I take my Vitamins and Calcium supplements but I still think that the natural food source is better than the pills...............Why is it easier to eat Cookies & ice cream than chicken & melon???? It does strike me as going against the weight loss & healthy mode. In this respect I do feel like the band is unhealthy. Hopefully taking the supplements, Vitamins etc makes up for it...............

Just curious: Why can't you eat salad? I do know the answer to the Cookies and ice cream question...its because its all sugar and breaks down quicker. chicken and melon have Fiber = harder to break down. (but not impossible).

[Iulizbug 0]

salad gives a lot of bandsters a good deal of problems getting stuck. It goes down fine for me but I know a good deal of ppl that cannot tolerate it. food intolerance is so individual with the band.

~Liz~

03/10/06

241/168/160

5'7''

[Bettina 0]

She never said why she couldn't have it, I thought maybe she was told not to.

I had to ask the nutritionist the other day if I could eat salad eventually...she kinda smirked and told me that they want me to eat healthy.

I can't go by what a lot is said on the boards...my doc is so completely different.:phanvan He doesn't require a pre-op diet, except for the standard one day prior clear liquid diet...I was surprised!:biggrin1:

[Wheetsin 714]

I'm about 7 months out and there aren't any foods I *can't* eat, but there are some I've chosen not to eat.

Some foods cause discomfort, I believe due to their texture - bananas, applesauce, scrambled eggs - mainly. Sometimes Peanut Butter but this is probably an issue of my swallowing too much at once. If I go slow, or have it whizzed up in smtg else, no problems at all.

Some foods I've given up on because IMO it's too much work to chew it up well - most red meats, which I wasn't a big fan of anyway.

I haven't tried rice yet.

I can eat anything else - poultry of all kinds, salad/veggies, breads (hard breads like chips/pretzels, and soft breads like rolls), fish...

I never expected the band to stop me from eating the bad foods. I expected, at best, that it would help me feel full quicker when I ate bad foods, so I'd eat a few bites vs. a few bags. That's been pretty true.