Why I still love my band
I’ve been banded for almost four years now and have always been very happy with my band. I had never been able to lose weight on diets, but with the band the weight came off quite easily. Everything seemed to be going so well, after about the first two years I almost sort of *forgot* about the band on a day to day basis.
HOWEVER, I recently realized that it is important not to become complacent about the band! Just a few days ago, while having lunch, I noticed that I had suddenly lost ALL my restriction, and it scared me because I knew that it had to be some kind of band problem with such a sudden onset.
Yesterday, I finally had an upper GI test done, and it turns out that I have a dilated pouch. Believe it or not, I was actually HAPPY to hear that news, because I was relieved that it was a problem that can be corrected without surgery.
My surgeon simply took all my fill out for two weeks to help my pouch shrink back down to proper size. I’m trying to give my band/stomach a break by trying to stay on liquids and soft food for that time period (plus I find it hard to eat enough liquids to pack on weight than I would if I were on solids, which is obviously a big concern while my band is empty!).
At the end of these two weeks I will hopefully be able to get a fill again.
I still feel the lap-band complications are not that bad compared to how bad things can get with a gastric bypass operation. One thing I found comforting
when I first realized something was wrong with my band but didn’t know what was going on was that, no matter what was wrong with my band, I knew it wasn’t something that truly posed a danger to my life or health.
Now, more than ever, from seeing how my urge to eat excessively has come back in full force since I lost my restriction, I understand that morbid obesity is not just a personality flaw or a lack of control, but a disease that needs to be treated by surgery.
However, even if I had to lose my band, I would seek out a surgeon to do the Sleeve Gastrectomy operation, rather than getting a bypass.
The sleeve gastrectomy seems to be becoming more popular nowadays.
Back when I was looking into weight loss surgery (which was only about five years ago, remember), nobody was even talking about the Sleeve gastrectomy as an option. My choice was basically between the lap-band or one of the drastic, risky bypass procedures (the RNY or the Duodenal Switch).
Back when I first started looking at weight loss surgery, I was rapidly soaring towards 400 pounds, and I knew I had to do SOMETHING to put an end to the madness. If the lap-band hadn’t been around at that time, I probably would have resorted to a bypass operation out of desperation back then. However, I’m only in my early 20s, so I would not have been very happy about having to condemn myself to live out the rest of my life (hopefully 50+ years!) with constant malabsorption of nutrients and vitamins. I don’t think that’s a healthy way to live in the long-term even though in some cases it may be necessary as a last resort for someone whose obesity will kill them soon.
So, even *if* I had to lose my band at this point or somewhere down the road, I’d be grateful for these years of service it provided me with, because it saved me from having to get a bypass operation back then when the bypass was pretty much the only option, and now we seem to have other promising options like the Sleeve gastrectomy that don’t require a drastic malabsorption component like the bypass does.
It’s amazing how much the weight loss surgeries have changed in just these past 5 or 10 years. In another five or ten years, who knows how many other major
changes might happen in the field? So, for that reason, I definitely am glad to have an option that is effective, but also relatively “gentle” and easily reversible, even though the trade-off is that we occasionally have to worry about issues like slippage/erosion.
http://www.lapbandtalk.com/f78/my-dilated-pouch-story-why-i-still-love-my-band-regardless-33335/
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