[akdrummer22]

Hi everyone, I am new to RR but have some experience in the surgery area I thought I would share for those of you considering these procedures. My name is Don and my story is probably not too dissimilar from many of you who have struggled with weight loss. I was always the "big kid" or "fat kid" in school. I joined the Army in 1991 and was discahrged in 1995 for being overweight. By 1998 I was a staggering 380 pounds. With the combination of sleep apnea, chronic low back pain and a crippling gastro intestinal disorder I opted to lose weight rather than purchase the expensive "C-Pap" machine to aid my night time breathing. Through shear will power and near starvation I got down to a thin 220 pounds. (I am 6'2 and have a fairly large frame so 220 is thin for me) With no knowledge of nutrition it did not take long to start putting the weight back on. By the time I reached about 260 pounds I told my wife that I had had enough of the yo-yo games and needed a "permanent fix". The gastric band seemed the best option as it was reversable, if needed, less expensive and far less invasive. In 2003 I had the Swedish Adustable Gastric Band (SAGB) placed laproscopically. Things seemed fine for the first 6 months until I had my first "episode" as my local baritric surgeon called it. I suffered a total and unexplainable blockage. I felt a terrible cramping in my stomach and about every 15-20 minutes I would vomit up my own saliva. After nearly 6 hours my wife took her very thirsty husband to the emergency room where I was admitted overnight, placed on pain medicine, steroids and hydrated with IV solutions. Initially we thought it was a freak occurance until the same thing happend 6 months later. This time I did not wait as long to go to the doctor but the unexplainable condition still eluded my surgeon and the treatment was again the same. I suffered this way for over 2 years with 4 similar episodes. It would take me, on average, over 2 hours to eat a bowl of soup. My tounge had turned a permant yellow and my general practicioner doctor was researching expensive vitamin shots to get me the necessary vitamins and minerals that she suspected I was missing as I was unable to even swallow pills. Finally, with much hesitation I opted to have my band removed. My Surgeon warned me that a reversal of this procdedure, while necessary, would ensure me a weight of 300 pounds by Christmas. I was currently at my goal weight (although extremely miserable and hungry) of 225 pounds. He said that reversal patients have no idea how powerful these procedures could be until they are reversed but I had no option and had delayed as long as possible. I scheduled what was supposed to be a quick 1 hour laproscopic day procedure and forked over thousands of more dollars to the surgeons, anesthesioligists, and hospital. I woke up after 4 hours with a 7 inch diagonal slash across my abdomin full of staples. When the surgeons went in laproscopically, (small tubes and camera) they could not even find my gastric band!!! They were forced to cut me open and to their amazement, it had been completely encapsulated with scar tissue. Apparently, my own body had been systematically attacking this foreign object with scar tissue which had been causing all of the issues over the years. They had to spend hours hacking away tissue just to remove the band. In the process they nicked my spleen and I almost died on the table. I was released from the hospital 4 days later on Thanksgiving day 2006 feeling a bit like frankenstein with my gigantic row of staples but finally able to eat again. 3 days later I had a post op complication that literally sent blood squirting all over my bed and my wife and put me back in the hospital, back in the OR and under the knife once again. A broken blood vessel had caused the golf ball sized swelling to tear through my staples and give my a ride in the ambulance.

I share this story because I am now a reformed surgery survivor. I believe that the "tools" are available for you to achieve your desired weights and/or measurements WITHOUT surgery. Today I am at 235 pounds and aobut 15 pounds and 6% body fat away from reaching my goal.

As my first post here I will stop but please share with me your feedback if you have had similar or better exsperiences than I regarding surgeries.

[minnesotashopper2]

Wow, you had quite the unusual experience. I feel that yes, for you, it will be a forever memory. WLS is not for everyone. I am sorry for all the pain you had to indure, while not knowing what the cause was.

It is an opener to those who are looking into the same type of procedure. As always, there is those that have better experience, and there is always the small percentage that will have complications. No surgery, is without possible complications. Some are more serious then others
I am sorry that you had to have such a terrible experience. I wish for the best in the future for you. There is a site on here for those who dont choose WLS for their weight loss. You might really find comfort talking to others that are going a differant route then those who are or thinking of WLS.
Lori

[greensgirl19]

This is why I didn't have the gastric band. I've heard many stories not to unlike yours and opted for the Roux en Y bypass instead. I made the right choice for me, and your story is another reason why.
I'm sorry for what you went through and I'm glad you're better and maintaining. Good luck.

[judijo]

I am very sorry you had so many severe complications. I withheld having surgery for almost 3 years because I had one friend who had an early "stomach stapling" in the 1980s, and was now as fat as ever, and another friend who died "on the table, under the knife" of a bariatric surgeon.

Actually, the scarring of the band is exactly why I finally opted for RNY over banding...I know many people who scar over surgically implanted devices, deeming them essentially useless, or "lost". RNY, duodenal switch, or gastric sleeve were the only surgeries I considered. (I actually preferred a "switch", but the surgeon did not agree...oh, well)

I am happy to see you have found satisfaction, finally, in a non-surgical way.

[ragdolldude]

This is a weight loss surgery support site. Not a site to "bash" these procedures. There are chances of complications with any surgery. Noted on your profile--no personal data-and this is your one and only post. ??? DAVE

[OMCV]

My surgeon said he refuses to use the lap band for various reasons. But surgery is surgery. Our body is incredible, if it detects a foreign object it takes care of it. My Grandfather had intensinal issues due to an car accident. Nearly 20 years later, with bouts of pain, they found what they thought was cancer, the size of lemon attached to his intestine. Come to find out the previous surgeon forgot something and my grandfathers body decided to protect itself.

We have to remember everyones body is different and will react differently to different types of surgeries.

I am so sorry this happened to you. Glad you are on the road to recovery!

[Trulykath]

About 50% of my surgeon's patients are band revisions to gastric bypass. I did YEARS of research before opting for surgery and went the way I did DUE IN LARGE part to some of the things you experienced. I have met/talked to VERY few banders who liked the outcome, didn't vomit all the time, or had to have the thing removed. (my step sister just had hers taken out).

I'm sorry you went through this...and yes, surgery is an option, just as food/portion control is an option....in the end....it's truly up to the individual. Think too, last year, 277,000 people had some type of weight loss procedure. The techniques are getting better....as are the tools. The number of horror stories will increase, only because more people are having surgery and talking about it. In the larger picture, it seems that the success stories FAR outweight the complicated ones.....

I'm glad you are doing better and it sounds like you are at a healthy weight....keep up the great work!

[DocSanae]

Welcome to the board, thank you for joining us, and for sharing your story with us.

I am very sorry to hear of your experience. Such incidents do happen, and no surgery is 100% fool proof. Our body works in protecting our life, so, trying to *do away* with an irritating foreign object, even if it is meant to help you, is not an uncommon reaction. I do suppose that despite what you had to go through, though, you are well aware that there are many others who are fortunate enought to have had better experiences.

I am glad to hear your health has improved greatly with the corrective measures. We have a Non-Op forum, so, if you care to share with us your life style changes that have enabled you to lose weight after your life threatening experience, please do so. I imagine, for you, this very very scary experience was a very very strong motivator to change your life style, to improve your eating pattern, learn about nutrition to nuture your body and exercise to activate your natural health promoters, and do well with losing weight without surgery.

This surgery, whatever type one chooses to have, is no magic bullet, but only a tool, one of the many tools that medicine can provide for losing weight. As you are aware (and experienced, up to your surgery and the aftermath) it is, in the end, changing your life style and eating habits, learning about nutrition and effective exercise, with or without the aid of surgery, or whatever tool you choose, is what leads to successful weight loss and successful maintenance. This is also the area that, where even those who chose surgery as their tool, have to work hardest with, for success and good maintenance.

On the other hand, was your surgeon able to leave your stomach intact and just take out the offending band? Or did he have to remove a part of your stomach as well during the procedure, due to the extensive scar tissue? If your stomach became smaller due to the revision, then that would also help you in losing some of your excess weight. You see, a certain amount of weight loss takes place with any kind of stomach surgery that results in removing part of the stomach, such as for refractory ulcers, ulcer perforations, stomach cancers, etc. That actually is why weight loss surgery was first started--someone had the bright idea that, since gasterectomy (surgery to cut out at least part of the stomach) patients lost weight and maintained the loss, hey, maybe it will help people who are unable to lose weight. It is over 30 years now since the first of such surgeries, and techniques and methods and appliances for weight loss surgeries have evolved and come a long way, and will continue to evolve and improve.

For those who come to this site looking for information on weight loss surgery, I hope you realize that not all stories have fairy tale happy endings, some can turn out to be nightmares. Please do a lot of search and research, and think everything carefully through, to decide if surgery is for you, to decide which type of surgery is for you.

((((HUGS)))) The best of luck to you, and may your journey go well.

[not quite Barbie]

Thank you for sharing your story. When I was first researching WLS I tried to find stories like yours. I found plenty of success stories but very few about the problems that could happen. Everyone needs to understand that there can be complications, this is no small decision.

As several people mentioned already, the band seems to be much worse than RNY for complications. In fact, my PCP told me that I shouldn't even consider it, and I didn't.

I am so sorry you had such a bad experience and I'm glad to see you have succeeded in your weight loss journey. Keep up the good work and please do keep posting for those who are going the non-surgical route.

[akdrummer22]

Thank you all for your replies to my post!!! What a great community. I, as previously stated, am brand new to this forum and so have just recently updated my personal profile as some of you have requested. I will upload some pictures later as well.

In response to DocSanae's questions; I did not have any section of my stomach removed. The scar tissue and old gastric band were all that was taken out. My weight loss since surgery removal has been twice as hard due, I believe, to the fact that my metabolism had slowed down tremendously as a result of years of limited caloric intake and bad nutrition. By treating my body like a fireplace, by eating balanced carbs and protein every 3 or so hours I was able to slowly increase my metabolic rate. I use the analogy of the fireplace because if you have a fire burning and go throw a big heavy wet log on it it will sort of smolder and smoke. But if you throw on smaller dry pieces of dry wood evey couple of hours the fire burns hotter and more effeiciently. People who skip breakfast and then have a big lunch are throwing the big wet log on their system. Exercise is a must, with or without surgery. My personal preferance is that for those who are seriously considering WLS to look for surgeons who mandate before and after counseling for diet and nutrition. As many of you have commented, these procedures can work as a tool but you cannot build a house with only a hammer. While I am an advocate for the surgery free success route, these procedures can be powerful IF used in conjunction with all of the other factors. I certainly am not here to share my story in an attempt to "bash" as a reader posted earlier. I think that my story should be heard as this information can be hard to come by for those looking for alternative points of view.

Thanks to everyone for all of the positive feedback!!!