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My story doesn't have a happy ending.



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I had lap band surgery in October of 2012. From the beginning, it was nothing but trouble. I followed my instructions to the letter, so this was a band failure. Not a surgeon failure, not my failure.

In almost a year and a half, I never hit the sweet spot. The band was either too loose, or too tight. I threw up every time I ate. I could not eat the things I was supposed to eat. No meat, no eggs, no vegetables, no fruit. Basically if it wasn't in liquid form, it came back up.

Having food get stuck is unpleasant. Productive burps are unpleasant. No matter how well I chewed, everything got stuck. It got to the point where I was eating all the stuff I wasn't supposed to eat, because I couldn't get anything else to go down. I didn't lose any weight. Not an ounce, with the exception of the pre-op diet, and the couple of weeks after surgery where I survived on liquids.

The final straw for me was being in the bathroom, violently vomiting, with my two small children standing outside the bathroom door, crying, because it sounded like mommy was dying. Plus, I didn't want them to think that vomiting after eating was the norm. That's not a healthy thing to teach children.

My band came out in March of 2014. Best decision I made, regarding the band. I'm having revision to gastric bypass done, later this year. My surgeons are now trying to steer people away from the band, and are more focused on Sleeve and Bypass. I, personally, would not recommend the band, although I do know people who are happy with theirs.

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So sorry to hear your experience has been so poor with the band. I'm one of the ones who've done well with it. Glad to hear that you are revising to bypass. Am hoping you will be able to change the title of this post to 'My Story HAS a Happy Ending'. Good luck!

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sorry your experience was not good. I am one of the many successful bandsters. The Lapband was the best decision I ever made ..It saved me from a life of poor health. at the age of 66 I made the leap to weight loss surgery after many years of failed diets and gimmicks I was a diabetic and had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. My mobility was getting limited every day. I am always sad to see such drastic post about any of the weight loss surgeries but, I am in hopes your issues will be resolved with bypass surgery. There are many failures in each type of weight loss surgery so that being said, there are still plenty of surgeons who will and do perform lapband .

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sorry your experience was not good. I am one of the many successful bandsters. The Lapband was the best decision I ever made ..It saved me from a life of poor health. at the age of 66 I made the leap to weight loss surgery after many years of failed diets and gimmicks I was a diabetic and had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. My mobility was getting limited every day. I am always sad to see such drastic post about any of the weight loss surgeries but, I am in hopes your issues will be resolved with bypass surgery. There are many failures in each type of weight loss surgery so that being said, there are still plenty of surgeons who will and do perform lapband .

I wouldn't say it was a drastic post, but it was certainly truthful. I'm glad you had good luck with your band. I didn't. I didn't see a heading stating I was only allowed to tell my story if it was positive. I believe in presenting both sides. I wish I had seen a post like mine before my band, so I knew the good, bad, and ugly, and could have made a more informed choice.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using the BariatricPal App

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    • LeighaTR

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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