Bear in mind all these answers are personal or anecdotal.
1. I was under St Mary's in Paddington, and the staff there were very responsive.
2. Why didn't it work for me? Who knows? I have a couple of pints of beer most days, which I keep within my calorie allowance, but they speculated that something may be happening there.
3. Why did it cause discomfort? I can give a few possible reasons. I think if you are prone to hyperactive inflammatory process, as diabetics tend to be, I'd guess that you are more likely to have problems - when they put the implant in they found some gut inflammation there already for me.
Part of the protocol includes very high dosages of Omeprazole. Clearly they know that very high acid production is likely. Additionally, Omeprazole itself has some noticeable side-effects and the protocol states 80mg a day, which is the highest allowable maximum dosage. That caused me problems, but they were insistent I stayed with the dosage. I suspect acid damage is a risk.
4. They took the implant out within days of my decision, and were supportive of that decision. After effects? Well, I nearly died from the anesthetic of course
Otherwise the gastric symptoms stopped immediately and I've not had any more gastric trouble than normal.
5. No forum I know of. I suspect the company would not encourage that. For some people it worked, not everyone had my level of distress. Most made it to the full year rather than 6 months. And some did have big weight loss (although the risk of putting it back on stays the same as always). So all I can say is, your mileage may vary.
I'd say if you are looking at surgery this would be good route to go first. It would let you know if you are a responder, may do the trick itself and will give you an idea of what living with the surgery permanently would be like,.
