:help: :help: :help: Wow i am getting very scared and very doubtful now. The more i read the more scared i get. Whats with the gull bladder removal thing i have been reading? And the stomach erosions wow thats enough to make me change my mind. but i know i have to do this for my future health. Right now i am completely healthy just oveweight. No problems with nothing but weight. I dont know what to think i am paying 17k to have this done. and i dont wanna have new problems from this what happens if your stomach erodes? do you need more surgery? does it fix its self? how do you know if its eroding? PLEASE PLEASE SOMEONE HELP me i have the surgery october 16 so it is fairly close. :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:

I'm going for the @lapband. :biggrin1:

I friend of mine that I hadn't seen in 2 years dropped by to see me and ... I hardly knew her. She always had a pretty face so I knew it was her.

INCREDIBLE!!!!! I can't tell you how I felt!!!!! She used to wear a 24 and now she's down to a 4!!!! She had the DS which yes, DID scare the dickens out of me after I visited her surgen! That surgen said I shouldn't bother with lapband because it mostly does not work - but I think he just wanted my money. :phanvan I didn't want the RNY or the DS - too scared! So I backed out of the whole and thought about for a long time.

Well, of course, I've tried a zillion diets since then .. and here I am again - still struggling with my lifelong battle.

So I found a different surgen and it's GO for the @lapband.

What I like about it:

-You lose weight much slower ... so it looks like your latest diet is finally working

- I would like to avoid the lose skin thing if at all possible and slow weight loss will help in this

- loss of hair - losing too fast messes with your hormones so I would like to minimize this if possible

- it IS reversable

- lower cost

- LOWEST COMPLICATIONS ... like no DEATH!

About the PB and all the rest I've read ... I'm just gonna have to find my own way like the others. I think it's a small price to pay to finally be free of this 'fat suit' I've been wearing most of my life.:speechles

As far as choosing the RNY or DS - THEY have problems with digestion etc as well - so none of the 3 options are a breeze. IF you can get your head around some kind of wls ... of the 3, the @lapband has the LOWEST COMPLICATONS.

I'm excited and determined to go through with it! I'm realizing this as I'm writing this text.

Good luck!

:help: :help: :help: Wow i am getting very scared and very doubtful now. The more i read the more scared i get. Whats with the gull bladder removal thing i have been reading? And the stomach erosions wow thats enough to make me change my mind. but i know i have to do this for my future health. Right now i am completely healthy just oveweight. No problems with nothing but weight. I dont know what to think i am paying 17k to have this done. and i dont wanna have new problems from this what happens if your stomach erodes? do you need more surgery? does it fix its self? how do you know if its eroding? PLEASE PLEASE SOMEONE HELP me i have the surgery october 16 so it is fairly close. :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:

These boards are scary and there is a lot of negativity....your best bet is to go to a local support group meeting..there you will see first hand that the people who have already had this done are fine, and even though there are some who had problems, they have overcome them! Another thing to keep in mind, is that there are people here who have never had surgery and this is very dramatic and traumatic for them. Also...ask your doctor about his success rate. Eroding stomach is rare and comes from other underlying causes...the band is silicone. The band doesn't move (ask the doc about the procedure where they take a piece of stomach and stitch it over the band so it doesn't move. The band doesn't get smaller or tighter throughout the course of the day. Only when they fill it does it get smaller. Its not made of human tissue so it doesn't "react" as some have posted a while back. Its a man made compound.

I am having surgery tomorrow and just now came back from talking to someone who had total success with it!! I needed to do that to keep me in check. I saw the incisions last week of a girl who had it done 3 weeks ago...looked like scratches!!! Healed beautifully!!

Don't go entirely by what you read...talk to your surgeon, talk to others who have gone thru it. You'll be great!!

Ok

Iam trying to decide on the Band or RNY, this sounds like possibly some of you would go the other way if you had it to do over again........

Any feed back would be appreciated

Thanks

Christina

Christina,

My insurance(BC-CA) no longer covers LapBand for people with BMI's over 50...they lose weight, to be sure...but, ON AVERAGE, too many higher BMI's end up STILL MO a couple of years out.

It's all so individual...when I had my band removed I went for the Duodenal Switch, see www.duodenalswitch.com But, I'm me. I already knew--from living with the band--that I would HATE the RnY eating prohibitions. And, I was in my late 50's and didn't have a biological clock running out on me and didn't need to think about pregnancy. I know me well enough to know that I WILL take my supplements and I know that my finances can handle paying for supplements.

I probably would not have made the same decision if were younger, or pressed for cash, or if I knew me well enough to know that I'd flake out on supplements.

There are currently two widely used surgeries (the bypass and the band), one coming in third place (the DS) and one that is just gaining in populatioty with no long-term stats (the gastric sleeve.) Read about them all at www.obesityhelp.com and take your time deciding.

Sue

:::I still HAVE a LapBand...in a baggie in my guest room:::

Christina:

for my OWN choice, I simply couldn't accept the RnY after going to their live support groups....

and while there are day-to-day issues WITH the Band.....they are far less noisome than the OTHER issues I face daily....such as what daily difficulities an amputee faces simply trying to walk around...

Were I to have such problems as outlined and discussed at length, certainly I'd have to modify my opinion.

The truth for ME is, I'm in that group with good results. No more, no less. I'm grateful for the opportunity to benefit from what the Band has done for me.

I played WITH the big odds, and so far, the 'little odds' have not kicked in ...yet....and maybe never will.

I'm the type that has to look at everything about a jillion times, worry about all the normal things, worry about whatever I've left out or overlooked in my consideration of what CHOICE to make....

I'm still in the BandLand line...I'd do it again, and I'd do it about 20 years ago were that possible...

On the other hand, my older brother had an early version of RnY decades ago...and while he reduced from over 400# to around 180, he's had chronic diarrhea daily, AND he's dieing-literally-from the effects of malabsorption and trace mineral losses...his medical team can't seem to do anything to bump up the lab values....and he's been under as good of care as the allopathic world has to offer....

We have choices....'tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun'.....

Yes, it's the effects of malabsorption that I can't take. That's permanent. You also have a high risk of malnutrition. :omg:

Hummm um these are the things that bother me.

I think the band is less-invasive. If it does not work out for me - at least I won't be permanently damaged. I

Yes, there's always a risk in surgery - but it's low.

I was actually supposed to have a RNY but after my dr did a scope on my stomach he recommended the band. I have a lot of problems with my stomach and may need future scopes. Having the RNY would make it really difficult to look at the entire stomach in the future due to the fact that most of the stomach is cut off and sewed up. I know a lot of people who had the RNY and do great but a few years later put a lot of the weight back on. Out of the 5 people I know 3 have put the weight back on. Also 2 of the people were very ill afterward, but are ok now. I don't know anyone personally who had the band. I'm glad I had the band because it is reversible. I pray that I don't have complications but am aware of the possibilty. You definetly don't lose weight as fast and easy with the band because everything you eat you absorb all the calories unlike the RNY. You have to do what you feel is right and listen to your dr.

For what it's worth - S L O W weight loss doesn't necessarily mean No gallbladder issues. I 'only' lost 55 lbs my first year. I had a gallbladder removal exactly 15 months out. Large amounts of weight loss definitely contributes to gallbladder removal. Would it stop me from getting a band? Nope. Is it possible I'd have had to remove my gallbladder even if I weren't banded? Who can tell?

I had to have my gallbladder removed about 4 years ago before I ever heard of the band. Don't let that hold you up.

I had my Gallbladder out 4.5 years ago, long before I knew the band existed. I had been doing Atkins, and lost a lot of weight rather quickly, and the doctors said that was what triggered the attacks most likely.

Personally for me, RNY scared the hell out of me. I had some friends who had RNY and lost a lot of weight but they lived their lives popping supplements and constantly having eating issues. Not to mention both of them eventually gained all their weight back.

I also have two friends with the band. One chose to have the band tighter and lose more quickly. She doesn't have as much freedom as my other friend who prefers to keep eat looser letting him eat more of the foods he likes. Both are losing comfortably and neither are having issues with nutrition and popping supplements like Pez.

I like the fact that the band is not nearly as invasive as RNY. I also like that your weight loss is controlled by you. You decide how quickly or slowly you want to lose.

I love the fact that every time I get on the scale I can say, with almost 100% certainty, I'll never see that number on my scale again.

Gallbladder problems can occur even when you are not losing weight. I went to my preop last Friday and I was mixed with bypass patients and the Dr. was discussing the different meds that we have to take for 3 to 6 months and Actigall was one that was to be taken for gall bladder issues, however, when I met with him privately, he nixed that one prescription from mine. I assume that it is because even though we may lose quickly it is not as fast of a rate as bypass patients and it is less likely to be a problem. Not sure, but I assume that is why he removed that from my prescriptions. Perhaps you should mention to your doctor the Actigall and see if he would consider putting you on it. I may ask my doctor next week after my surgery. Especially after reading this.

Good Luck!

I have a bypass friend who was taking actigall and wound up in the ER out of town with stones and gangrene setting up in her gallbladder after losing over 100 lbs since last Christmas. Again - it's a crap shoot. You may or may not have to deal with gallbladder issues banded, bypassed, or not.