Gastric Band Reviews
Gastric band surgery is a form of weight loss operation which involves placing a band around the upper part of the stomach to effectively decrease the size of the stomach. This encourages patients to eat smaller amounts of food, and it dramatically helps with weight loss
Positive Reviews
“I was not always an obese person. In secondary school I was a size 8 and I was proportioned correctly. After becoming pregnant my weight increased dramatically to the point where I was obviously becoming unhealthy. I began to get numerous types of illness shortly after the weight gain, including diabetes and arthritis in my joints from the strain they were under. My doctor told me I needed to lose weight or I would die. After trying and failing at numerous diets I opted for laparoscopic adjustable band surgery. I did a lot of research and found a private surgeon who I felt comfortable with. I had the surgery in February 2007. After the surgery I was in a lot of pain although the medication I was given helped enormously. The following day I was allowed to go home. Three days later, I started back at work and it was just like another day. On my first visit to the doctor I had lost 34 pounds, and within a year I had lost over 100 pounds. By the end of the second year I had reached my weight loss goal.”
“I had always been an overweight child, and at the age of 40 with a BMI higher than my age I spoke to my doctor about having weight loss surgery. I have tried numerous diet plans over the years and none had worked. My doctor suggested gastric band surgery and I was put on the NHS waiting list for the operation. Just under two years later I was meeting with the surgeon to discuss the benefits and the risks of the operation. I was determined to go through with surgery in order to vastly improve my current life. I was allowed to go home two days after surgery and my recovery time took around one week. Since then I have managed to lose 5 stone in the first year alone. I would definitely recommend it.”
Negative Review
“I have always been severely overweight, ever since I was a child, and so at the age of 23 I opted for weight loss surgery in the form of an adjustable gastric band. I started to lose weight slowly, but five years after the surgery the band began to leak. I went back to the same surgeon who replaced the band via open surgery. Not long after the second operation the band dislodged and I climbed to my highest weight of 29 stone. I was too scared to have surgery for a third time. As the years passed however the second gastric band began to dig into my stomach and caused severe complications for me, no surgeon was willing to help me. I finally found a surgeon who would replace the band, but again after a huge initial weight loss my weight plateaud and I have again started to gain weight. I am now wheelchair bound with numerous illnesses including diabetes, arthritis, sleep apnoea and depression.”
