Is the Lap Band forum discussions slowly being phased away? Perhaps by natural selection?

I always click "New Content" under lap band forums, and find it is predominantly all posts from people with other surgery procedures, such as Gastric Sleeve....

At first I thought that maybe people were not aware where they were posting,and that there are different categories, but lately there seems to be no boundaries between the types of surgery forums.

Nothing against other surgery types, but I feel experiences between them are different. And when I see a post, and it is from someone with another type of surgery, I cannot respond having no experience....and when there is a thread concerning the Lap band, people with other surgeries respond giving a less than sincere-accurate opinion.

I have heard that most Dr.'s are no longer doing Lap band surgeries and that other procedures are preferred...Least that is what is being said....so is that reflective on this forum also??? And eventually the Lap banders will be over-run and extinct?

@@B-52 I just had the sleeve, however, in my pre-op visit, my surgeon said that last year out of 300 procedures, only 5 were lap bands. It does seem as though it is becoming a thing of the past.

Yeeeesh!

No need to get upset People that I've spoken to in regards to why they chose one procedure over the other simply told me that they didn't have time for the band. That could be a reason why people are choosing it less as well. I have my personal reasons why I chose the band. I am happy and confident with the choice I made just as other people are with the choices they made.

...they didn't have time for the band. That could be a reason why people are choosing it less as well.

Good point! Never heard of "no time for the band" as a factor in deciding which WLS to get. Thanks for enlightening me @Sophie123.

I want to clarify:

- I'm not against any WLS procedure nor am I attempting to create US-v-THEM debate. I'm just talking about the percentage of repetitive self-sabotagers

- Just saying, there's a large demographic of people (not everyone) who (according to my WLS team) go into banding with the mindset that it's reversible & they can get something else (an uninstall, then, a revision) if they don't like it. Of course there's those who genuinely worked hard to make the band work for them but had serious complications where the only choice was band removal & revision. I'm not talking about 'that' demographic.

- This "I can have it unfilled if I want to gorge, or have it removed if I don't like it"-mindset, IMHO, sets up the whole WLS journey for failure before it's even installed.

Way before mine was installed, I knew, this is for life.

There's a place for banding and every other WLS. Not dissing any of it.

Perhaps the lap-band procedure is becoming less popular among surgeons....however, the point of my post was that on THIS forum...those with the lap band are becoming, if not already, the minority and that when I log in, it is hard to find threads from people with the lap band and discussions limited to people with the lap band.

Seems wherever or whatever post I open, even if started by someone with the band, it becomes over run by people with other weight loss surgery procedures....

That may well be indicative of what is happening in the real world.....NOT that I have anything against people with other weight loss procedures, it's really none of my business..... but I have the lap band and I want to have discussions and read posts with people in the lap band community...as I'm sure people in other categories would desire also.

Can't we all just get along?

We are ALL battling the same disease. It's silly to battle one another. I doubt cancer patients are fighting with one another on which is the best approach for their cure. Sure, we might have all come to a different conclusion on which approach is best for us individually, but I think everyone just needs to calm down. Love one another. There's far worse going on in our world than this debate. At the end of the day, the very person you are fighting with would probably be your friend in "the real world", but everyone becomes a hot head behind a computer screen. Be kind, people.

Agreed! So sick of people who don't have a band chiming in about it -- what is to be gained by making pre-surgery band patients nervous about their choice? Or for the rest of us to feel like there's some looming problem ahead. Good grief. And I can see by reading this thread that there will always be people who just don't get what they are doing. It's disheartening. But so are the comments in the NYT. Best to ignore what needs to be ignored. Garbage in, garbage out.

PS My hospital only performs lapband surgery. What does this mean? Well, it means if you want a lapband then go there. If you want another surgery, go somewhere else. It does not mean those other surgeries are being phased out -- just at that hospital. Good grief. Bariatric surgeons now specialize. That's good for all of us.

B 52

I notice that bands are being placed less also. The WLS group I'm in has 2 out of 40 banders. I respect all forms. Truly. It is just big differences in outcomes, cost, recovery, weight loss so it is harder to relate. It's exciting to read honeymooners stories first year in. I would like to see more veterans post. It is quite different 4-5-6--10 years out

And I like seeing how people cope. And NOT with band removal. Sigh. I'll stop now. I am thankful????

I'd like to apologize for sometimes posting on the Lapband threads. I stopped using the browser version of BP awhile ago because it kept making Safari freeze on my iPad. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to view new content from sleeve and General WLS forums only on the iPad app. I just select Timeline and it brings up threads from ALL forums. And sometimes I reply without noticing which subforum I'm in. I'll try and pay better attention.

In the meantime, good luck to ALL bariatric patients!

I like stories about maintenance because that happens to be where I am at. Pre op. I can't contribute much as lots has changed since dec 2006. I'm open to listening to ideas... Struggles... Jokes. I just find it a different category the first months of post surgery. Things certainly change years down the road. Just me

**Chiming In**. My inspiration for even considering WLS is due to someone with a lap band. She wasn't someone's spouse or someone's friend that I "sort of" knew, she was someone I worked with. She is still my inspiration and I am grateful. I follow these threads and support all of you. I hope this never goes away.

My hospital does not even do lap band anymore. They say the sleeve is much more effective and they have so many of their lap band patients come back for the sleeve that they have made the lap band obsolete. Even if I wanted one I could not have one at my hospital.

Where I go to the Doctor there were 5 of us all having surgery on Friday only one was a sleeve, so I think it's really what your comfortable with. I like the idea of not cutting out my stomach, but I support anyone else's choice to do the sleeve.

Um, I was just positing a reason why some doctors do not do the band any more. I'm not going to post some study because said reason made you mad. I'm also not saying the band doesn't work. But that was told to me by the clinicians in my program. You don't have to like it, but you also don't have to be defensive about what I posted either. That is the reality with a lot of programs. It is what it is and if you do not like it fine, but no need to go of on me.

My comment was directed at the comments you alleged that your doctor made. I was asking for something more tangible than his "opinion," but I guess he didn't bother to substantiate his assertions with verifiable information. There are a lot of studies that that showed poor results for the band, but that is dated information and based on 4 cc bands that are no longer used in the US, and for early surgical techniques that have been refined over the past few decades. For a doctor to say the band offers less efficacy compared to other procedures raises a red flag. It is true that on average, the weight loss for gastric banding is usually about 10 to 20 percent less than for the sleeve. But, that doesn't mean that the band is not the best procedure for particular patient.

Doctors do not like the band for one reason: it requires follow up care, which means lost revenue and the need for a much larger staff to handle the future needs of band patients. Medicare does not pay for fills or follow up visits, because it is considered a follow up visit for surgery. Did your doctor explain that to you? The practice I visit has four APRNs on staff who are there for follow up support the band patients. My doctor would not do a sleeve on me, and that is what I had wanted, because it was not the safest surgery based on my age and related conditions. I'm glad he put my health above his own needs. A surgeon does the sleeve, and he is done with that patient... clean and simple.

I know folks who have had all of the popular surgeries. They have all had some good amount of success. Have you ever asked your doctor why some folks have revisions to place a band over sleeves, or a band over plication? Or, why a person with a sleeve would ever need a revision to RNY???? I 've asked the APRNs in my doctor's office about some of those avant guarde procedures, but I would NEVER repeat their responses since it would hearsay, and not proper for me to repeat, their comments on a public forum.

IMHO, people who continually, consistently self-sabotage their weightloss simply should not have any WLS! Anyone can eat around the band, not follow Dr. orders, and blame it on the banding so they can get the next best thing (latest fad WLS) just like they (and I) did- onto the next fad diet, fail, next fad diet, Fail... on & on.

NO MORE!

For me, my band is for life! MY life!

Yes... it easy to eat around the band... and, folks have failed the sleeve for the same reason. The band requires a bit of work--you have to listen to what it is telling you. Many folks simply don't learn how to live with a band, or they don't, or can't, do the requisite follow up visits. sometimes it is the fault of the surgeon, sometimes the fault lays with the patient.

With the sleeve, it is a bit harder to cheat, but folks have managed to figure out they can graze all day, or simply eat beyond what their stomachs can hold,and finally they stretch the small stomach to to a point where the surgery is no longer effective. I've seen a lot of posts where folks have gone from the band, to the sleeve, and from the sleeve to RNY bypass. I've seen folks who lived in misery with a procedure for years, and you have wonder why in the world the problem wasn't addressed immediately? That isn't a fault of the surgery if it is allowed go on that long without medical intervention. I've seen posts where WLS patients are asking about drinking alcohol, and not in moderation... really? And they would expect to receive absolution from strangers in order to justify imbibing hundreds of extra calories and sabotaging what they have worked for? As Pogo wisely said, I've I meet the enemy, and he is us.