First or second hand experience with lapband surgery?

I know one person who had it done recently. I think it has been about 6 or 8 weeks.

She has to limit the amount of food and types of food that she eats. She had no complications after the surgery.

The thing that she says has been critical for her is the pre and post-surgical counseling. She has joined a support group as well and likes that.

I have an aunt who had it several years ago, had a complication – something about a clot being thrown – that caused her to pass out, and she now suffers from slight brain damage because of it. She hit her head on the counter on the way down and nobody was home. It took her a while to re-learn certain things, and she’s very forgetful now, and suffers from depression also.

But that was a long time ago when the surgery was much newer.. I’m sure advances have been made.

What @poofandmook is describing is a thrombosis. It is a potential complication of any surgery. It is also a potential complication of just being ill in hospital and spending a lot of time in bed. It is very serious but I don’t think you could use it as a specific reason not to have a gastric banding.

I have nursed a lot of patients who have had some sort of weight loss surgery. It takes a little time getting used to how much (or rather how little) to eat and there is always the risk of ending up with excess skin which can be quite unsightly. It is major surgery and shouldn’t be entered into lighlty but the results can turn peoples lives around.

It’s NOT a magic bullet. MANY people have it done and put the weight back on to various degrees in various amounts of time. You WILL still have to watch your diet afterwards.

If your overeating is related to hunger, you should do fine. If your overeating is related to psychological reasons or just that you like to eat the wrong things all the time, then you have to watch.

If the doctor wants him to have it done, his blood tests and other tests must be in danger so he would need to get the weigjht off and fast.

My daughter’s MIL had a life threatening experience when she had hers done. I can’t remember the exact details, but it seems that part of the equipment caused either a knick in an artery, or an arc which stopped her heart and she coded.

To make things worse, the back up equipment needed (paddles) to revive her wasn’t sterilized yet, so she ran the risk of developing a horrible infection. Luckily, she was ok after the burns from the paddles healed, and she is doing well with her after care. Her surgery was a couple of years ago, and her husband had it done last year also with no complications.

They were both extremely obese, and totally out of control, so they needed some type of intervention to save their lives. She is finally getting her diabetes under control, and his sleep apnea is much better than when he weighed so much (over 400 lbs)

My mother had it done many years ago. Yes, she’s lost a lot of weight, but boy does she suffer when it comes to eating. She mostly eats soup now, because it goes down easiest. Many foods just don’t go down and she ends up throwing it up (don’t know if you can call it throwing up, because it never actually makes it down to her stomach; it’s more like coughing it up). My mother craves certain foods, like steak, but can’t eat it, so she ends up chewing it up and spitting it out. It’s quite… unsavory, to say the least.

A very close cousin of mine got it done as well, a couple of years after my mother. She’s lost very little weight because she’s sort of found ways to beat the lap band. For example, you’re supposed to wait 45 minutes after a meal before you can drink any liquid, but she gulps down water and tea while eating, which ends up pushing the food down more easily and giving her more room to eat.

People come to rely on the lap band and stop watching what they eat or bothering with exercise. I think it could be useful for the very obese, but I think most people need to suck it up and do it the old-fashioned way: counting calories and exercising.