Hello everyone,
I'm five months out after 17 years of banding. I am SO GLAD I made the switch. I won't bore you with my band and band revision journey. I will focus on how amazing having a sleeve is. It's the surgery I hoped I was getting 17 years ago! With the sleeve, I can drink my protein in the morning. No waiting hours for the mucus cap to dissolve. I can actually drink a good bit of water. I do not throw up. I only did once and that's because I ate too fast. Like it was said above, I don't feel like I'm being choked with food sitting at my esophagus. I am able to eat healthy foods (meat, salad, veggies). My head is in a better place because I had a wonderful two months or so of having NO interest in food. It gave me a great start/ restart.
To answer some questions from above, I had my band removed first and then was sleeved 7 weeks later. I did gain weight in that time, but it wasn't a ton- five pounds? I thought it would be more, but I hadn't been feeling much restriction for years so... At first I was upset about the two procedures and thought about going with RNY because my surgeon would have done that it one. But, I found the waiting time fine and I'm glad I didn't do so much at once. I have no pain in the port area. The band removal surgery was very easy. I was in and out of the hospital in four hours with very little pain.
If you have questions, just ask!