I am in the process of trying to get my band removed. I have had to for almost 11 years and feel that its time to come out based on all the new research coming out. I would love to hear everyones experience on their lapband removals. How was the surgery any complications and how is life now?

1 hour ago, jennmarie79 said:

I am in the process of trying to get my band removed. I have had to for almost 11 years and feel that its time to come out based on all the new research coming out. I would love to hear everyones experience on their lapband removals. How was the surgery any complications and how is life now?

Hi!
I too had my LB for 11 yrs n finally got it removed in 2018 due to many prior unrelated medical issues n the best thing I could’ve done. Thank God surgery n recovery went well with no complications period.

Also, unfortunately for me 4/6 months after surgery I developed an under active thyroid that caused an onset of various menopausal symptoms. Got put on thyroid medication for 5/6 months n HATED cuz it caused me a weight gain of 50 lbs. In addition another 20 pound weight gained on my own due to overall menopause issues.
It’s now been almost 2 yrs where I’m no longer on any medication n all of my menopause symptoms/issues have little by little started to subside due to incorporating a better wellness nutritional/physical care of my overall wellbeing. Therefore, I’m now down 30 lbs out of the 70 gained n still slowly making progress.
Wish u the best with ur choices n surgery is going to go well.

I had my lap band out in 2009. I was just miserable with it, constant reflux issues. Felt immediately better having had it removed. It was probably one of the easiest surgeries I've ever had and I had no complications.

I was a little terrified that I'd gain all my weight back but noticed that my portion sizes were still small. I kept up my general lap band-like practices and my weight held steady UNTIL life handed me a big bag of stress and change. As a result, I started stress eating. Over the course of a year and a half, I gained all of my weight back. Fortunately, those pounds didn't bring too many extra friends to the party. Long story short, I had the sleeve in 2017 and am happy with that decision.

Moral of the story: there IS life after the lap band. If you stay the course and do not return to bad habits, you'll keep your weight off. Best of luck to you!

I had a lap band for 11 years also and starting having major issues with it the last two years. I lost 80 pounds and regained half of it. When I got it removed they discovered it had slipped up around my esophagus and caused a hiatal hernia. My surgeon removed the band, fixed the hernia and revised it to a gastric bypass all in one surgery. That was only a bit more than five months ago and I already weigh less than the lowest weight I got after my band.

So far I have been pleased with the decision and haven't regretted it--other than wishing I had gone with the bypass in the first place!

Good luck to you!

S@ssen@ch: I'm so glad to read your story. I got the band in 2010 and lost 100 pounds and life was good until the reflux started. It was so horrible I woke up choking every night and eventually could only sleep in a chair. They took all the fluid out of my band about 6 months ago and that combined with covid pounds and not being able to get to the gym I've put on 40 pounds and I'm miserable. I'm on track to get it removed and get a sleeve but I'm hearing that the sleeve causes reflux too and now I'm having second thoughts. Do you have any issues with reflux with the sleeve?

@Barbwired Having reflux after the sleeve is a bit of a coin toss. Some get it. Some don't. Before being sleeved, I had a discussion with my doctor about reflux potential and they always gave me a non-commital answer with a cautionary warning. Ultimately, my doctor and I felt that my reflux was largely related to dietary practices, a general state of obesity, and a small hiatal hernia that I had. A friend of mine had really bad reflux with the lap band to the point she had Barrett's esophagus. Her surgeon actually recommended the sleeve and she's had NO ISSUES with reflux after it.

Me, I started getting heartburn within a month of having the sleeve. I immediately started taking Nexium, which took care of the heartburn. Flash forward to about a year. I was waking up with a sore throat that I knew was reflux. It kept getting worse and while I have never woken up choking, I knew the reflux was a problem. I tried every home remedy and every reflux supplement I could find. I modified my eating and behavior to reduce reflux. I sleep on a wedge. When the reflux is at its worst, my wedge can be at about 45°. It's not sleeping "sitting up", but pretty darn close. I saw a gastroenterologist and told him that I wasn't interested in revision to bypass. He offered me a choice between Stretta and Linx. I was in the process of scheduling Stretta when COVID hit.

Today, my reflux isn't really that bad. I'm not 100% sure why it's been better, but I'm not looking that gift horse in the mouth. I sleep on my lower wedge and am comfortable with that. I do not eat after 7pm. If I do, I will generally go to bed later than usual or make sure I've had a whole glass of water before bed (flush out the sleeve). I take my Nexium religiously every morning and I take digestive enzymes with my evening meal (THAT seems to have made a BIG difference in my reflux). I have prescription Carafate, but haven't needed it for about 2 months.

Best of luck.

17 minutes ago, S@ssen@ch said:

@Barbwired Having reflux after the sleeve is a bit of a coin toss. Some get it. Some don't. Before being sleeved, I had a discussion with my doctor about reflux potential and they always gave me a non-commital answer with a cautionary warning. Ultimately, my doctor and I felt that my reflux was largely related to dietary practices, a general state of obesity, and a small hiatal hernia that I had. A friend of mine had really bad reflux with the lap band to the point she had Barrett's esophagus. Her surgeon actually recommended the sleeve and she's had NO ISSUES with reflux after it.

Me, I started getting heartburn within a month of having the sleeve. I immediately started taking Nexium, which took care of the heartburn. Flash forward to about a year. I was waking up with a sore throat that I knew was reflux. It kept getting worse and while I have never woken up choking, I knew the reflux was a problem. I tried every home remedy and every reflux supplement I could find. I modified my eating and behavior to reduce reflux. I sleep on a wedge. When the reflux is at its worst, my wedge can be at about 45°. It's not sleeping "sitting up", but pretty darn close. I saw a gastroenterologist and told him that I wasn't interested in revision to bypass. He offered me a choice between stretta and Linx. I was in the process of scheduling Stretta when COVID hit.

Today, my reflux isn't really that bad. I'm not 100% sure why it's been better, but I'm not looking that gift horse in the mouth. I sleep on my lower wedge and am comfortable with that. I do not eat after 7pm. If I do, I will generally go to bed later than usual or make sure I've had a whole glass of Water before bed (flush out the sleeve). I take my Nexium religiously every morning and I take digestive enzymes with my evening meal (THAT seems to have made a BIG difference in my reflux). I have prescription Carafate, but haven't needed it for about 2 months.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the reply. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. It's such a tough decision.

@Barbwired. It IS a tough decision. I strongly recommend that you have a heart-to-heart with your surgeon about it. I saw your other post on it and I totally understand your reluctance to do bypass. I was the SAME way. I didn't want it then and I don't want it now. I will do everything I can to avoid that and told my GI doctor so. That's why he recommended the Stretta or Linx.

If it makes you feel any better, I went without my Lap-Band for years and was able to largely maintain my weight. In 2014, my life turned upside down and I used food to cope. Managed to gain all my weight back by 2016. It took me an additional 2 years to decide to have the sleeve.

Personally i would have NEVER chosen to have my band (2009) removed just because. If it's not giving you trouble, i would leave it alone. After mine was ER removed 2017 (143lbs) about 2 weeks later, hunger came back with a vengeance. I couldn't get a revision because i "didn't weigh enough". I had no problems until the stomach virus that caused violent vomiting...... NOT the bands fault, NOT my fault.... It wasn't until 2.5 years and a gain of 30lbs that i paid out of pocket 14K to have the sleeve done 8/2019. Starting weight with that 173ish. Today i weigh 124lbs. and even with the weight loss i still preferred the band. I liked the control i had with the band.

As far as the removal. That was on a Thursday and i was back at work on Monday. Sleeve was done on a Wednesday and back at work on Monday

I say this to all my band friends...... if you feel like your band stopped working for you ... it didn’t, you just stopped using it...

sorry ,i have no idea ?

1 hour ago, BayougirlMrsS said:

Personally i would have NEVER chosen to have my band (2009) removed just because. If it's not giving you trouble, i would leave it alone. After mine was ER removed 2017 (143lbs) about 2 weeks later, hunger came back with a vengeance. I couldn't get a revision because i "didn't weigh enough". I had no problems until the stomach virus that caused violent vomiting...... NOT the bands fault, NOT my fault.... It wasn't until 2.5 years and a gain of 30lbs that i paid out of pocket 14K to have the sleeve done 8/2019. Starting weight with that 173ish. Today i weigh 124lbs. and even with the weight loss i still preferred the band. I liked the control i had with the band.

As far as the removal. That was on a Thursday and i was back at work on Monday. Sleeve was done on a Wednesday and back at work on Monday

I say this to all my band friends...... if you feel like your band stopped working for you ... it didn’t, you just stopped using it...

I would never get my band removed if it wasn't giving me so much trouble. I LOVED my band but the reflux it caused was hell on earth. I'd give anything to have just kept the band if it wasn't for that.

1 hour ago, S@ssen@ch said:

@Barbwired. It IS a tough decision. I strongly recommend that you have a heart-to-heart with your surgeon about it. I saw your other post on it and I totally understand your reluctance to do bypass. I was the SAME way. I didn't want it then and I don't want it now. I will do everything I can to avoid that and told my GI doctor so. That's why he recommended the stretta or Linx.

If it makes you feel any better, I went without my Lap-Band for years and was able to largely maintain my weight. In 2014, my life turned upside down and I used food to cope. Managed to gain all my weight back by 2016. It took me an additional 2 years to decide to have the sleeve.

Thanks so much for sharing. I will not get the bypass. This whole Covid thing makes it harder too because a big part of the reason I've put this weight on is because I went from doing fitness bootcamp 1 hour a day 5 days a week to doing almost nothing once my gym closed. The struggle is real. ?

On 7/21/2020 at 11:01 AM, Barbwired said:

I would never get my band removed if it wasn't giving me so much trouble. I LOVED my band but the reflux it caused was hell on earth. I'd give anything to have just kept the band if it wasn't for that.

I completely know that feeling..... I didn't know you were having trouble

Gastric band - been there, done that. Stopped working and I never felt full. So last year after my weight went back up I decided to have the revision and get the sleeve bit due to the build up of scar tissue (surgery was May 2010), surgeon ran out of time to do the VSG safely. So had to wait until 11/30/20 and finally all was completed. I was told he might have to do the bypass and I prayed so hard that didn't happen. I'm 65 and glad I did it.

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I had a lap band in for 4 years when it slipped and I had to have it removed while 20 weeks pregnant with quadruplets. The surgery was relatively easy for me and I was up and walking within a few hours. I was miserable with the band the whole 4 years I had it. I thought it was me but the dr that removed it said he would have never recommended it for me.

You and I are in the same situation. I'm having my band removed in two days and I'm looking toward the sleeve. I am terrified. I will be watching this thread like a hawk.