I had my lap band in 2008. It was in place for 8 months. Put a hole in my stomach. Had emergency surgery to have it removed and hole repaired. Lost 110 pounds on my own. My niece has lap band in 2009. Came loose, went up under her heart and stopped it! No visible weight loss for her. My advice....find another way.

Had mine for nine years. All good. Am in touch with just over 50 people (not online, in real life); two have had bands removed, one because she deliberately kept it too tight. Rest doing ok.

Two friends have sleeves and have had an appalling time. One friend has RNY and nearly died.

Horror stories? Yes. Happens to everyone? No!

I had mine done in 2009 and it's been great I'm still losing today and day by day im learning about it and how to work with it. All major surgeries have their problems but a lot of the time it's the fault of the person for not complying to all its rules.

I know three people who have lap bands. All three have major problems. I did comply with every rule. Was in constant pain. In sincerely glad that not everyone has these problems. I do feel that the lap band is more problematic that most. Of the three others I personally know, not one pound lost and many problems. I don't like those odds.

There is no doubt that the complication rate is far higher than it used to be thought. Some doctors have stopped offering banding because of that. I think the stats are "bad" in several ways. One is that it is very easy to fail the band by eating round it so weight loss is minimal. A second is that people abuse it by keeping it too right thinking that is how it should be.

But the third category is people like you - who follow all the rules but things still go physically wrong - reflux, slips, scar tissue, erosion. Erosion, which I assume is what happened to you, is by far the least common so you were particularly unlucky,

But there are still many success stories, my own doctor says the vast majority (no exact figure) of his patients are like me - long term successes.