Hello, has anyone recently had their band removed due to erosion and decided not go get another surgery? Also, if your insurance did not cover the surgery to put the band in, did it cover to get it removed? I'm pretty depressed and upset by this, but I do not have a choice and I do not want a sleeve, which is what the doctor suggested after removal. Also, for anyone that had this done, did you start gaining the weight back or could keep on losing? I'm hoping I have learned my lesson and will continue to eat like I'm banded and just try to keep myself full with Protein and Water, but right now, I'm just at a loss, I just had the EGD done today and this happened unexpectedly. I had no pain and no symptoms and had a flouro to just check things out and resulted in this.

I'm sorry to hear things didn't go as planned. Hope it all works out for the better.

When I was doing my research on what was the best procedure for me, I did notice many Sleevers were previous Banders. Issues with erosion and slippage seemed to blanket that community, along with fills and refills. Most switch due to the more permanent solution with less follow ups and great results!! Also with the sleeve, you get great restriction and can still eat just with limited portions.

Maybe you should reconsider your doctors suggestions. Just my 2 cents.

Good luck on whatever choice you make!!

Did the Dr. ever give you a reason for why the band eroded?

Thank you MsKeeKee, I will keep that in mind and may revisit it after my healing period, which is about 6 months and only if insurance will cover it (I'm moving to another country and I think my insurance there will cover it, my current coverage in the US will not).

Any idea what caused the erosion???

Something I am always mindful of, and do routine maintenance time to time, hopefully it will help in prevention.

how did you know it was eroding??And only after a yr and a half,Ive had mine 3 yrs and have stopped losing weight.Is the pain the same removing as putting it in?Recovery time the same?

Hello, has anyone recently had their band removed due to erosion and decided not go get another surgery? Also, if your insurance did not cover the surgery to put the band in, did it cover to get it removed? I'm pretty depressed and upset by this, but I do not have a choice and I do not want a sleeve, which is what the doctor suggested after removal. Also, for anyone that had this done, did you start gaining the weight back or could keep on losing? I'm hoping I have learned my lesson and will continue to eat like I'm banded and just try to keep myself full with Protein and Water, but right now, I'm just at a loss, I just had the EGD done today and this happened unexpectedly. I had no pain and no symptoms and had a flouro to just check things out and resulted in this.

HI!

I had my band removed in September of this year after 3 years, but not for erosion.

I'm sorry yours has eroded. It's good they found it early (or at least before you started having ugly symptoms).

I chose to not have any more weight loss surgery. My insurance covered the removal as it was medically necessary. It also paid to have it implanted.

Your idea of continuing to eat as though banded is good, in my opinion. It is what has helped me. I continue to lose weight or hold. At first I lost 8 pounds pretty quickly. Now it is slow and I sometimes stall for a while before it drops again. I want to lose at least 40 more pounds.

Having your band removed is not an automatic sentence of weight gain! Not at all!!!

Keep your goal as your top priority, no matter what.

I feel so much better without the band because my body was rejecting it; so it helps me to feel how wonderful I feel being at a lighter weight and continuing on from here.

I eat mostly protein and vegetables. I'm finding recipes from www.health-bent.com are helpful. My surgeon suggests a modified Mediterranean diet and also promotes the cook book found on health-bent called, Primal Cravings.

I also take a high quality probiotic from Metagenics called, Acute Care.

Banded or not, keep heading in the direction of your goal!

I feel very fortunate to have found a surgeon who realized my band needed to come out. Your surgeon may have saved you a lot of pain and grief by getting to the problem before things got bad (as other people have described on this site). I had 3 years of discomfort, the last 2 quite miserable, before finding someone who could see clearly what needed to happen. I am so grateful.

I'm glad you're being proactive about diet and thinking about how to proceed!

~hiddn~

Thank you hiddn, I feel much better! It's nice to hear from someone who has had this done and continues to lose weight. I've heard a lot about primal eating and I might just give that a try, go back to the basics and it's usually cheaper to eat this way too, so that's another benefit .

Nancy, I had and currently have no symptoms, no pain, no vomiting, nothing, actually I feel great. I am moving to the other side of the world in a couple of months and I had a flouro done just to check out how my band was doing and this is how it was found, just a checkup. And I can't answer the rest of your questions as I don't know myself. I just know it has to come out since I have a hole in my stomach with part of the band in my stomach. My doctor said that 2-3% of people's bodies reject the band and I'm one of them. I did not have problems with my band like you usually hear from people on here when they have them removed, so there was no warning I even had an issue, I'm just glad I found it while in the US and not while I was on the other side of the world.

If you are concerned, just get a flouro done and they can tell if everything looks okay and if they are still unsure from the flouro, then they would probably do an EGD (camera down throat to see internally). I was all worried about the EGD and it was nothing, they knocked me out, woke me up, and then told me the bad news and showed me the pics of my insides, no pain and not even a sore throat like I thought I would have.

So sorry you have to have your band removed but it sounds like you have a good handle on your diet and exercise......good luck with your move and all that lies ahead. Even if you're on the other side of the world the forum is here and you're not alone. Best wishes!

Thanks Bandista, I appreciate it!

Hello, has anyone recently had their band removed due to erosion and decided not go get another surgery? Also, if your insurance did not cover the surgery to put the band in, did it cover to get it removed? I'm pretty depressed and upset by this, but I do not have a choice and I do not want a sleeve, which is what the doctor suggested after removal. Also, for anyone that had this done, did you start gaining the weight back or could keep on losing? I'm hoping I have learned my lesson and will continue to eat like I'm banded and just try to keep myself full with Protein and Water, but right now, I'm just at a loss, I just had the EGD done today and this happened unexpectedly. I had no pain and no symptoms and had a flouro to just check things out and resulted in this.

HI!

I had my band removed in September of this year after 3 years, but not for erosion.

I'm sorry yours has eroded. It's good they found it early (or at least before you started having ugly symptoms).

I chose to not have any more weight loss surgery. My insurance covered the removal as it was medically necessary. It also paid to have it implanted.

Your idea of continuing to eat as though banded is good, in my opinion. It is what has helped me. I continue to lose weight or hold. At first I lost 8 pounds pretty quickly. Now it is slow and I sometimes stall for a while before it drops again. I want to lose at least 40 more pounds.

Having your band removed is not an automatic sentence of weight gain! Not at all!!!

Keep your goal as your top priority, no matter what.

I feel so much better without the band because my body was rejecting it; so it helps me to feel how wonderful I feel being at a lighter weight and continuing on from here.

I eat mostly protein and vegetables. I'm finding recipes from www.health-bent.com are helpful. My surgeon suggests a modified Mediterranean diet and also promotes the cook book found on health-bent called, Primal Cravings.

I also take a high quality probiotic from Metagenics called, Acute Care.

Banded or not, keep heading in the direction of your goal!

I feel very fortunate to have found a surgeon who realized my band needed to come out. Your surgeon may have saved you a lot of pain and grief by getting to the problem before things got bad (as other people have described on this site). I had 3 years of discomfort, the last 2 quite miserable, before finding someone who could see clearly what needed to happen. I am so grateful.

I'm glad you're being proactive about diet and thinking about how to proceed!

~hiddn~

There is another great site on Mediterranean food that I know about. Follow the link to check it up, and there are a number of great food recipes of all Mediterranean Cuisines.

i am so sorry for u-----stay true to ur diet!

I'm scheduled for removal in 3 weeks. It's been 5 years for me. I lost 45 lbs the first 5 months and nothing since. I was too tight and loosened several times. I ended up gaining back 13 lbs but have managed to maintain there. Right now I can't exercise or sleep on my left side due to pain that's sometimes there NOT ALL THE TIME THERE. I'm afraid of the whole process, but I still have at least 40 more lbs to lose. Like you 2012, I'm having no pain at times but I do know that after 5 years, I want to be sure that nothing bad is going on. Good Luck to everyone!

2012, so sorry to hear about your band and the erosion. Good thing you kept alert and kept getting things checked out. I had my band just shy of 3 years, got deathly ill this April and almost 30 hours of vomiting blood later, my band was removed. My band had slipped and almost 1/3 of my stomach was on the wrong side. I was throwing up my stomach lining. I had plication at the same time I got my band so when my band was removed, the plication remained (like a sleeve except it can be reversed). All of this happened 4/25/14 and I promptly gained 11 pounds..I am now headed back down. The doctor told me it was normal and not to panic. Keep walking and try to stay away from the carbs. Now I am at almost no carbs and the weight is coming off. Yes, I am scared and I really wish this had not happened, but it did and now I have to move on. Good luck with your surgery and what ever decision you make down the road about revision. There are lots of us out here who no longer have our bands - you have lots of company. Best Wishes

Melinda in Florida

Hi my name is Beverly and this is my removal story,

I recently had my band removed with the idea of going back later for a gastric bypass. The removal was 9/12/14, procedure supposedly went as planned and I was sent home the next day. The following days were nothing but misery for me. I could not seem to gain any type of energy, I slept almost non-stop and could barely eat anything without nausea or just not hungry. I had no appetite. On 9/14/2014 I started running a fever and had swelling in the lower part of my abdomen with tenderness particularly around the larger incision site where the trocar with the camera was placed. I called my doctors office and went in 9/15/2014 to see his PA, she checked site and noted the issue. She sent me home with antibiotics and told me to contact her if symptoms got worse. On 9/16/2014 in the evening, that large site that had the swelling dehisenced and this horrible smelling Fluid came out. My husband took me to the emergency room where I was immediately taken back and put in a room. I had a fever, my BP was 85/47 and when the lab results came back my potassium was 2.6 (Normal range is 3.5-5). I was in danger of going into heart failure. They began running all kinds of fluids to hydrate me and a potassium drip. I had a CT scan that showed I had an esophageal leak and the gastric fluids were pooling in my lower abdomen making me septic. The trauma surgeon on-call came into the ER and opened my incision further and it was packed. Then I was transferred to SICU for close monitoring. My surgeon came in the next morning and confirmed that I did have leak and would need to go back to the OR for a second surgery to repair the leak. He stated to me that he had missed the leak in the first surgery and had not done a ECG that would have shown the leak. I was appreciative that he admitted his mistake but it doesn't take away the pain and additional surgery. I went back to surgery 9/17/2014, he repaired the leak, put in feeding tube and additional drain, plus left wound open to be wet to dry packed for the next 6 weeks! I stayed a total of 7 days in the hospital, 3 in the SICU and 4 on the floor. An then went home on home care, where a nurse comes in 2 times a week to check my vitals and change the dressing. My husband ( God Bless him!) has been doing daily wet to dry dressing changes of my wound twice a day for the last 4 weeks and I went approximately 4 weeks with nothing by mouth. Feeding tube only. Mind you I've lost 13 lbs but this is not the way I would wish on anyone. The surgeon mentioned at the last visit that this complication did not mean we had burnt the bridge but I could still have a the gastric bypass later down the road. I told him thanks but no thanks my weight loss journey will not include anymore surgery and once I'm recovered, that I'll go it on my own with diet moderation and exercise. I've lost 6 weeks of work, had to go on FMLA, lost over $800 of my pay, had to use my own vacation time and been home bond for all this time. I wish everyone luck with your choices but mine time with the band was not fun! I did initially lose 72 lbs but had started to gain it back and who knows how long I had the esophageal erosion? Thanks for this forum to expressing my story. Think hard on your options! I almost lost my life to mine

Edited October 20, 201411 yr by Beverly Carroll