New......and a bit scared!

Hi Jules! 
 I had my lapband done by Kevin Dolan in November 2010 and same as u had a bit of a dream run and then nothing but trouble!! I lovedDr Kruger! But he no longer works with Kevin anymore as far as I know...
I had my band taken out in May 2012 as it was killing me, emergency surgery in Melbourne while I was on holidays!
I am gettin my sleeve done by Dolan on 9 August and can not wait! 
Good luck with ur decision and I reckon it will be a great decision to get the sleeve done! :-) 
Xxx

Hiya Jules,

WELCOME !!

Yep Lapbands are just plain evil (I had 2).
You'll love the Sleeve in comparison - like chalk and cheese !

All the best,
Tara

Been there done that. I know where you are coming from, I had the same experience , I had my bad removed in March and had my sleeve done three weeks ago. Still on puree foods but slowly getting to eat more interesting foods, I have lst 6 Kgs since surgery and 11 since being on Opti.
Love Btgirl

Not scared of you guys lol. From what I've been reading on here, you're all awesome! I'm scared coz I think I've realised that my band hasn't been the saviour that I'd hoped it would be. Im scared coz ive finally decided, after months of constant difficulties with an inability to consume anything even close to healthy or nutritious, to consider unbanding and going down the sleeve route :-O
I was banded in August 2011 (so nearly 2 years) and felt at the time that I had tried pretty much everything to lose weight but never had any success at keeping it off. I was depressed, was suffering anxiety attacks (not like me at all) and just felt like a massive failure! The band went in and I had a dream recovery. I lost 10 kilos on my own in the time between when I initially visited my surgeon to discuss the lapband, to when I got banded. And then another 14 kilos post surgery, which took about 7 months I think. So all up 24 kilos. Not great, nothing really to write home about but I was for the most part, pretty happy. Then it all went to sh*t!! I don't know what happened. My fill seemed to be fine. I was 7.5ml in a 12 ml band and had what seemed to be just the right restriction.....but out of nowhere, I found myself struggling to eat anything that didn't get itself stuck. I was working full time, and it was just almost impossible to find a good time to take time off work so I could make an appointment with my dr. My surgeon was Dr Dolan, but Dr Kruger is who I saw for fills and support. The doctors rooms are an hour from where I live, so i suppose I used this as an excuse not to go and get the issue sorted. The longer I left it, the worse my eating habits became and the weight started slowly keeping back on! I am only eating easy, slider type foods right now, coz I'm just so tired of fighting with meal times. I succumbed to a left over sausage today for lunch....BIG MISTAKE! I spent the next hour and a half bringing it back up again. Yuk! It seems the only things I can eat are high calorie, sh*t foods. And I'm now at the exact weight I was on my surgery day! Feel so sad. And feel like a big fat failure all over again. Even a f**king lapband didn't work for me! My so called last hope.........
My colleague at work, (2 of them in fact) has recently been sleeved. Watching how well she's going, has really made me seriously consider the sleeve. She's taken the fear factor away. I really thought that the sleeve seemed like such a scary option because it seems so much more drastic than banding. But my opinion on that has changed dramatically of late.
After reading the stories, support for each other, and advice on this site tonight, I've decided that I'm going to go and get a referral to a surgeon closer to where I live, and discuss my situation and my options.
I really look forward to reading many more of the threads that I haven't looked at yet. You guys will be great support, I just know it!

Jules :)