My band needs to be repositioned or removed

HI Sharon, that is truly a nightmare - I hope you get some action soon.  I can't believe this still goes on that level and they get away with it.  This happened to my sister at the beginning of high school - she needed to move school but years later is suffering from debilitating anxiety and depression that her psychologists link to trauma when she was younger - this is the only trauma she suffered in her life and she started showing signs of having issues around this time.   She still can't work and she's in her mid forties.   I sincerely hope you have some resolution soon for your son and yourself.

Shrinking Violet, I'm 53 this year and I don't ever remember bullies at school either and I opening state that corporal punishment is the answer. Unfortunately there are some Prinicpals who I know will just take it too far and it would turn into abuse these days, but I personally wish the cane was still in place.

My son has Aspergers which as you ladies are aware, is on the the Autistic Spectrum.

I actually work the education department here in Brisbane and it sickens me that they are failing him so badly.

Braveheart, I'm glad the therapy is working for your son, as we are about to start the journey. I wish I could home school, but work full-time and I can't afford not to as a single Mum. I'm writing to the Director General when I get to work tomorrow and forwarding the emails from my sons Psychologist and Psychiatrist and asking him, what he thinks I should do. I can only put it back on the department that has destroyed my sons life and is crippling mine. My son has already attempted suicide, but they just don't care.

What a wonderful solution. I'm glad it worked for your son.

I sympathize with you and your son .My son 12 now 22 with severe asperges and was horribly bullied at high school to the point of talking about self harm .The school did nothing and it so impacted his health with tics etc that we withdrew him and enrolled him in distance ed qld. Ionly have the highest praise for this organization and cannot recommend it enough. My sons physologist now treats my son for ptsd and i have to say it is a slow but positive process.I wish you and your son all the success in the future

I don't know if I and my relatives and acquaintances around the same age were lucky or it just wasn't common, but, I've spoken to a lot of people my age or a bit older and they can't recall school bullying being a problem. I'm 60 next year and I can honestly say I never experienced or witnessed any bullying in either Primary or High School. There was the occasional school yard fight which was swiftly broken up by on the ball teachers doing playground duties but they were very infrequent.

Maybe the difference was that when I went to school we had corporal punishment......howl me down if you wish, but from the very first year at school you knew there were embarrassing, immediate and public consequences for bad behaviour. The punishment wasn't painful, it wasn't meant to be, it was meant to shame you in front of your peers.....it worked. It was at the discretion of the teacher and circumstances, such as intellectual/physical disability etc could be taken into account.

Wow! How stressful for you both.  I was bullied as a child and would definitely say I suffered mentally for it for many years afterwards, maybe even now a bit - and I did not have any other problems like your son does.  Bullying is a terrible issue in some schools. 

As a teacher I have witnessed certain children who are aggressive or nasty and seem to get pleasure out of taunting and bullying others, and I've also seen how some kids get swept up in group mentality and join in with the bullying behaviour when they probably wouldn't dream of doing it if they were on their own.  I am thankful that I am at a school where the bullying is generally dealt with in a responsible and fair way, although I have experienced times when I have disagreed with decisions that have been made by principals in certain circumstances.

 It is very good that you have the link with the DG's office. Surely they CAN'T NOT take it seriously with your son's specialists weighing in on the matter.

I wish you all the best. Take care of that boy and try to stay strong.

WondaWendy, my son turns 13 next month and has Autism, He has been subjected to bullying since the beginning of Term 1 last year when he commenced high school in year 7. It's a very long story, but the school have been aware of the situation but had assured me that it has been attended to. My son got worse and worse last year getting himself suspended a lot towards the end of the year for his actions. We couldnt' work out what was wrong. Last term he only attended school for 2 full days and 5 part days with 2 of them only being for half and hour. The rest of the time he was suspended. Other parents came to me to tell me what was happening and the bullying was extreme and out of control. Because of my sons Autism, he couldn't articulate exactly what was happening other than, "I'm sick of the bullies".

I emailed the school last term to update them on what I had learned. After 24 hours, they had not responded to me, so I forwarded my email to the Director General of the education department. I actually work in central office where the DG is. The bullying was addressed, but it still continues and I keep telling the school every day what has happened. 2 weeks ago on the weekend before Term 2 commenced, my son started twitching with really bad tics. In the past 2 weeks his tics make him look like he has an acquired brain injury with severe fast head turning, his face flinching, his eyes going everywhere, and his arms punching towards the ground and continually grunting.

I took him to his Psychologist's appointment yesterday who is fully supportive of us. I'll copy and paste below the email that his sent yesterday to my sons Psychiatrist by the Psychologist. At our appointment he never mentioned what he thought was wrong with my son, so when I read the email last night after driving for hours through flooded roads trying to get home, I just wanted to die. It has gutted me. I'm going to forward the email to the DG on Monday when I'm more settled and ask for action. I also have a Lawyer writing a legal letter to the school demanding action. I'm going to try and take out AVO's on the children (it's been done before) and then we are taking the case to Human Rights.

Dear Anja

I saw Anthony today.  He has again been suspended for ten days.  His anxiety and tics are at levels I have not seen in a long time.  It is noteworthy that Anthony meets all criteria for PTSD.  I am not of the view that anything other than a comprehensive approach will suffice.  Therapy alone will not mitigate his treatment at school.  From what Anthony describes, most literally, he is effectively being abused, and then punished for being victimised.  My own staff have witnessed and overheard first hand the treatment he has received from other children.  Absent the complete cessation I cannot see how the situation can improve.  It is my real fear borne of years of experience that Anthony may end up as some of my older clients, in legal or social difficulties.  As the school has rejected my offer of myself and my staff to attend regularly to provide appropriate support, as part of my duty of care I have now sought legal advice about the role of Child Safety in schools as well as the involvement of police if necessary.

As an interim measure on Anthony's return from this suspension I have suggested to Sharon that his carers do brief stress inoculation prior to dropping him at school and that she similarly arrange to phone him at each break and talk him though his prior experience that day.

My firm view is if this continues on his next return, that legal action to protect Anthony will be necessary as I am advised that there are some clear breaches.

Hey Vivace,

It's good that you are doing well but the problems with your son sound awful.  Are you willing to share what has happened to him to cause the PTSD? How old is he?

Hi Nic, I'm doing really well, still a little sore even though I'm now 4 weeks post-op. I'm also finding that I'm eating too much if I'm not concentrating on what I'm doing and I'm trying so hard to keep my weight down, it's not easy.

I hope things work out for you medically. October will be here before you know it.

As for my son, things are not good. He was diagnosed yesterday with PTSD and we are now taking legal action against the school. My son has an excellent Psychologist and Psychiatrist who have offered so my in-school support to the school and they have refused their help. Now my son is in a really bad way, it's so sad to watch him with his continual severe tics. He doesn't even look like a normal child any more. He looks like he has an acquired brain injury. The severe tics started 2 weeks ago on the weekend prior to him returning to school in Term 2.

Sharon

Hi Sharon, how are you travelling now?  I'm two and  half weeks post band removal now and feeling great.  I had my 2 week follow up with my surgeon this week and I asked if I did the right thing by having the band removed.  He said my stomach was coming up through the band so it either needed repositioning or removal.  I was pretty relieved to hear that it wasn't just my fault it wasn't working as my last surgeon told me it must be.  It confirms I know my body best and should trust my instincts.  I now need to wait till end of October for the sleeve.  I'm okay with this but am pretty worried about how much I'll gain over the next 6 months.  It's already a bit disturbing how much I can eat if I don't pay attention.

I'm a little worried about how I'll cope with the survey too as I need to come off my autoimmune drugs for a month before and a month after as they can interfere with healing.  If my condition flares, I won't cope with getting back into the swing of everyday tasks and work very well and can see the recovery dragging out a bit.  I guess I just need to accept that it'll take a while to feel like me again and try very hard to stay positive and see it as a means to an end.  And of course get a lot of very good painkillers to see me through!!  The lighter i am the less meds I'll need in the long term hopefully.  Even loosing 10% of your body weight has been shown to have great positive benefits so disease activity so fingers crossed.

Are you still finding eating to be easy to manage?  Are things improving for your son at school?

Nic

Yes Nic, where my port was is still the sorest part and that area of my stomach is so bruised. Yesterday, my surgeon was really surprised by how much bruising I have, but I can deal with that. I was on Endone for a few days also, but within 5-6 days I could get out of bed without any severe pain. I've had a very small dinner tonight. Food is really of no interest to me now and I'm still eating really slowly. I guess after 6 years of having to eat slowly, it might just be the way I eat now, which is a good thing!

Take care and keep me updated on how you're going. It's nice to have someone at the same stage as me. I don't want to put any weight on, but made my appointment yesterday for 21 August after I get back from Bali to see Blair about the sleeve......

Hi Sharon, good to hear you are feeling alot better now.   My band was also tightening alot and was very changeable.  One day I could eat a piece of toast and the next, i was getting blocked with yoghurt.   This was a problem for the last few years and I have been without any fill for the last 6 months as I just couldn't stand it anymore.   I was sick of the pain and really sick of vomitting.  

I put it down to an inflammatory condition I have - Psoriatic arthritis and some of the drugs I need to take for this but my original surgeon said that hasn't been proven - although even on the lap band site it says people with inflamation issues shouldn't get the band.   He said if I was going to get the band out, I should get a by-pass but this would also be an issue with the types of medication I take - but he wasn't interested in listening so I found another surgeon who had some knowledge about the drugs and he agreed the only way to go was the sleeve.

Weird about the BP - mine is normally high but was low intermittently after surgery. Getting in and out of bed is definitely the low point and the incision where the port was it the most painful.  I has to resort to endone today - a visit to the park and taking my daughter swimming/shopping was  little too much I think.  I've hear 3-4 weeks is when the hunger comes back - not looking forward to that.  

I hope all goes well for the rest of your recovery!

Nic

Hi Nic, I went back to my surgeon for my post op appointment yesterday and I'm feeling great 2 weeks later. I found the pain wasn't as bad as when I got the band, but getting out of bed or rolling over in bed was really painful.

The only problem I had with my band was that it had tightened dramatically and we put that down to the stress that I'm under. I'm a single mum with a son with Autism, and he's out of control at high school this year, but we'll get there.

I had my op the day before Good Friday and went back to work the following Wednesday. I worked Wednesday and Thursday and took Friday off because I was exhausted, even though I sit at a desk all day. My BP crashed last Saturday which was scary, but my BP is never good at the best of times and normally 105/60, but it hit 88/45. I was ok again last Sunday but then it crashed again at work this Wednesday just gone. I'm feeling ok again now though.

I went out for dinner with friends last night, and I could only eat half of it, so I'm noticing that I'm not going back to my old way of eating, like I ate prior to getting the band. It's taken me 10 days to even want to look at food and I wasn't even hungry over those 10 days.

What were your symptons for needing to get the band out? I just couldn't eat anything on most days over about 3 weeks and then on some occasions, food would go down ok. It was driving me nuts, but I'm so happy I made the decision to have it removed rather than repositioned.

Sharon

Hey Vivace, how are you feeling now?   I had my band out on Tuesday and still struggling with the pain.  Worse than getting it in that's for sure.    

My surgeon mentioned my stomach was stuck to my liver and I had alot of scar tissue.   Did you have similar issues?   I have a 6 months wait for the sleeve - at this point, that's just fine by me but of course am scared of weight gain.  Right now, I'm struggling to even look at food but I'm sure it won't take long to get over that. 

How long did you need off work?  My doc said 1 week before surgery but the nurses I saw after the surgery thought that was a bit optimistic.  I am moving like a bit of nana at the moment...

Hope you are on the mend.

Nic

I'm back home again. Really sore, but glad the band is out. I'll wait 4 months now and then get the sleeve. I really want to try and lose some weight myself before then if possible. I have a wedding in Bali in August which I'm singing at, so want to be really well for that and will have the next op when I get home from Bali.

Hope the surgey goes well!!

Thanks Beth. I decided last night that I would get it removed and not repositioned. I am sick of the issues. My sister and best friend are sick of theirs too and wish they'd never had it done. My surgery is tomorrow morning, so I'll update you once I'm home. I'll book in for the sleeve later in the year. I'm going to Bali in August for a wedding, so want to be sure I'm ok for that, so will maybe have it done once I'm home from that. And yes, I am going to have to be very careful with food intake. I'd like to lose a little more weight before the wedding and definitely not get any bigger.

Hi Vivace,

I have experienced exactly the same issues. I had a major band slippage diagnosed in May last year - I had been having trouble with my band for 18 months (had it inserted in May 2010). I had the band removed as an emergency procedure (I couldn't swallow my own spit!).

I had a sleeve done 5 months later. The difference is phenomenal. It is so much easier than the band, though for some reason band to sleeve do not have the same dramatic losses that straight sleevers get. Something to do with changes to the metabolism, I believe. However, that being said - I would not change a thing.

I had my sleeve in November, and I have lost 18.5 kg so far...with 14 kg to go. I just wish the procedure had been available at the same level as it is now 5 years ago...this is soooo much easier than the band. Not one regret choosing the sleeve! Never have to look for a bathroom to throw up, never suffer "sticks", I have never had a slime - though I have heard some people do...

The time without the band is very very hard. No restriction sends you a little mad! Try as hard as you can, you will gain weight. Be vigilant with portion sizes!

Good luck - let us know how you go!

Beth

Hello everyone, I am brand new to this forum. I've been searching for some information on changing from my lap band to a sleeve and Blair Bowden was my surgeon back in 2009 when I got it. I attended upon him again last night because of the issues I'm having and he needs to remove my band and asked me to decide whether he repositions it or removes it and then does a sleeve in 4 months time. My surgery is this Thursday 2 April 2015.



6 years down the track to the day, I'm having issues eating and drinking everything and anything. I have always struggled with my weight even with the band. When I first got it, I lost about 25kgs and then slowly it crept back on and at the beginning of last year I was actually 13kgs heavier than when I first had my surgery. Last year I lost 33kgs by really watching what I ate and I guess the band also helped. The last few weeks, I've struggled to keep food down regardless of what and how much I eat.


Blair is a fantastic doctor and his bedside manner is wonderful. My sister and I both find the band difficult to live with and maybe this is my chance to finally fix my weight issues. I know I would still have to monitor what I eat, but it's sounding like it's a much better option and I could tell Blair would like to see me do this, even if he didn't come straight out and say it.



What are your thoughts on changing to a sleeve? I have less than 48 hours to make my decision.