Jade C.
I had the lap band surgery in October 2004. Right away I knew something was not right. I was having extreme pain in my left shoulder and my collar bone and no matter what I did (pain medication, heating pads, laying down) I got no relief. I mentioned it to my surgeon a few times and was made to feel like it was all in my head. I had him remove all the fluid to open my band up to take the pressure off whatever was being aggravated in there and it worked. My doctor is no longer doing weight loss surgery and I have my suspicions of why. I have found another surgeon in Portland (Dr Cobien) that said he would remove the band but we have had a problem getting my insurance to pay for it. He recommended I convert to the bypass but I was scared and never followed through with it. I just saw a specialist for a different medical problem and he strongly suggested I have the gastric bypass. I’ve been pondering the idea for almost a year but his strong recommendation is what I needed to make the phone calls and get this process started again. I was asked at that appointment why I went with the lap band in the first place instead of the bypass. My reason was that I was scared of the "big" surgery, how final it is, and the many possible complications. With the lap band it could be removed if it needed to be. Now here I am 5 years later almost as heavy as I was when I started all of this back then. My health problems have progressed and Im in so much pain everyday. I have to go to a pain clinic and take strong pain medication just to feel ok enough to make it through the day. I know it’s a never ending cycle and if I don’t do something about this now I may not get the chance to in the future.
