My wife had the banding prior to her eligibility for champva. She lost 110 pounds. She is happy with the results. No complications so far 2 years post surgery. Problem is she has to drink ensure 3 times per day to maintain her now 125 pound weight or she continues to loose more then recommended. She can only eat a couple of table spoon of food at each meal. She does have nausea and vomits if she eats to much at once. She does have intermittent indigestion and heart burn however she had that problem before the surgery. Now the good news is when we go out to dinner she eats a little off my plate and does not order a meal for herself, so I save a few bucks on dinning out. However it just is not much fun to go out to a nice meal and have her set there and watch me eat for 20 minutes when she is done in 2 minutes. Now for the bad news. Our medical insurance would not pay for the procedure. It cost $ 15,000.00 dollars up front and $ 250.00 ever time she has to have the band adjusted, which is about 6 times the first year and 4 times per year after that. So far we have spent about $ 20,000.00 out of pocket on this. Now that she gets champva, which her doctor does not accept, champva reimburses me a whopping $18.00 on my $250.00 charge for the band adjustment. The other thing is she has a addiction to candy and that has not changed, she just can not eat as much now. Was it worth it? For her yes. For me, hell no, the doctors driving my new truck.