I really just need to share my story. I got my band in July 2012. I loved it. I loved it until the day I got it removed. In December of 2015 I started throwing up. I threw up everything, even Water. I had an unfill. I still threw up. I went to the emergency room and they did a contrast upper GI and said everything looked normal. I went home and continued throwing up for another 2 months. I finally had an endoscopy, and the doctor blurted out, you need to remove your band it has eroded into your stomach. I was crushed. I saw my weight loss doctor, got insurance approval and had the surgery. Now let me backtrack a second, I had gastric bypass, and then had the band placed over top of it so I could loose the weight I had gained with just the bypass. So on April 1, 2016, I went in for surgery that was scheduled for 1.5 hours, and 5 hours later the surgery was finished. The band gashed a hole in my stomach the doctor said it was gigantic. He wasn't sure if the repair would even work. I had 6 tubes (3 were feeding tubes as I was severely malnourished and couldn't eat through my little stomach)coming out of me and probably a good 50-70 staples. I was in the hospital for 4 days and they were going to send me home, but I developed a leak from the stomach, so they kept me for 11 more days. I finally got to go home but I still had two feeding tubes. One I used to eat, and a back up in case that one failed. I was unable to eat or drink anything by mouth for 40 days. That was 3 months ago and I am still on tube feed 10 hours a day. I can only eat soft foods, but I need 60 grams of Protein a day to get off the tube feed, I don't see that happening in the near near future. But, I am alive, I had great medical care and I found out how many family and friends I really have. All that being said, if you have having problems with your band, please please don't take there is nothing wrong for an answer .

Unfortunately it's no longer a question of 'if' someone gets their lap band removed but 'when'. I'm honestly surprised that they still do the surgery in this country.