Twice Shy

So, I am just getting ready to go have my surgery. I have already had a gastric bypass 20 years ago that has now failed and the lapband seems to be the only option for me for reconstruction - unless I go through the whole bypass thing again, which I don't want to do. I have scheduled, made my deposit, and purchased my airfare to go down to Mexico for the surgery at the end of October (just a little more than two weeks away) and I can't wait! I have questions though, about filling. I live in a very small town with the nearest larger City about 2 hours away and it is not certain that they have any doctors that do fills. I know I can go the other direction about 4 hours away and can get a fill, but that is a long way to travel for it. Once I have the fills, am I okay to drive 4 hours home? How much do fills cost? and how often do I need to get one? As I am not working with a local doctor I have a lot of questions about diet as well. I keep hearing rumors about eating a lot of Protein, but when I have been researching Proteins and how much different foods have, considering the portion size and eating only three tiny meals daily with no snacking in between, how does one actually ingest enough protein to be safe? Back when I had the bypass there really wasn't much emphasis on what you were supposed to eat - just what you were not supposed to eat, which has stayed pretty-much the same from what I have read so far. So even though I know the rules of "what not to do" I don't really know the rules of what I should be doing. I'd like to know those things before having surgery so I can have it all planned out for when I get back. I notice that some on this site talk about gaining some post-op weight and wonder what things can cause that or is it just eating in between meals? When I do a web search for protein supplements they always direct me to muscle-enhancing products, which I would guess would put weight on rather than allow for weight loss. So, if anyone has any answers, I'd really appreciate some feedback about all of this. Thanks. By the way, how do you get those cool weight rulers that I see below so many people's postings? I'll be wanting one of those for myself once I have had my surgery.

I signed on here a month or more ago and then got nervous about this because I have already had a gastric bypass about 18-20 years ago and my weight is almost back up to where I began. Someone who responded to my posting kind of scared me into putting off a re-do of my surgery but I just can't get this out of my mind and I want to try to see if the lap band can work for me. In visiting the Jerusalem Hospital website one of the testimonials there was from a woman in Meridian Idaho named Suz. She indicated that she was a former bypass patient and had just undergone the lap band surgery at the Jerusalem clinic. As I am living in Idaho myself and I will be in the Boise area all this week, I would love to connect with Suz to find out how things are going since her surgery and specifically, how having the second procedure is working after already having the bypass. If you are out there Suz, I would really like to pick your brain about your experience. Otherwise, if anyone has had an experience with getting the lab band after a bypass I'd really be happy to hear about your story as well. I am pretty determined this time that I am going to go for it, but it would be nice to have some peace of mind by talking with a real person about their experiences. So thanks in advance for anyone who responds.

I keep looking on here to find someone who has had the lap band and are happy with it, but haven't seen much. I see forums to go from that to the sleeve, so maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place. Frankly, if I had my choice, I would go for the sleeve all the way. But I have already had a gastric bypass and so apparently the sleeve isn't an option for me. My only option is either the ROSE treatment, which I have heard bad things about, or the lap band. I'd really like to hear some positive things about the lap band, because I am determined to get back down to where I was 18 years ago after having my bypass and so if the band is the only way I can do that it would be good to know that at least someone is having success with theirs!

In 1991 I had a Gastric Bypass. My beginning weight was 284 lbs and I got down to 150 lbs within the first 6 months. I stopped there and was really quite happy with my loss as I was the smallest I had ever been in my life (including in high school). I thought I looked pretty great. It didn't last, though, and now, 20 years later I am almost back where I started--and sick about it. Looking back, I can see where I made my mistakes (I refused to exercise, other than the normal increase of activity due to a smaller frame and more energy, I didn't give up sugar, and I could probably name a number of other things that I did wrong). I am now looking at starting again, but there are so many more options than there were when I first had this done. I was planning to look into the lap band procedure, but then I began hearing about the sleeve. As I have been doing some online research about that process, it seems that there are more long-term benefits to that surgery than the lap band. Of course, money is an issue with no coverage for either procedure by my insurance company, so I was very happy to hear of the Jerusalem Clinic and their extremely reasonable price for this surgery. I am not naive enough to believe that everyone has a wonderful experience or that I am going to have a top-rate hospital for the advertised price, but from what I have read on these boards, while not top-of-the-line, I can expect a clean facility with a doctor who apparently knows what he is doing. My question then, is what about follow up? I have been reading a blog from a woman who had the sleeve done in San Francisco in 2008, I think. She was required to go through psych evals, pre-surgery weight-loss, and extensive followup visits including a lot of lab work at key points following surgery. She is EXTREMELY into being an athlete now and has gotten down to size 0 and 113 pounds. Honestly, I still don't need to do all that. I think that I gave up on myself last time by allowing myself to break the rules such that I regained the weight back, and I really do want to go down to probably 125-135 lbs rather than stopping at 150 like I did before, but reading her journey makes me a bit nervous about living a "normal" lifestyle if I expect to get the results I want. I have decided that I want to begin exercising as it is good for the body and I am now 50 years old and will really need to work on exercise in order to cut down on the excess skin after getting to goal, but I don't want every day to have my first thought be about going to the gym, competing in triathalons, and all that stuff. I want to be comfortable riding my bike (I have a beautiful one I haven't gotten on for the last 5 years), swimming, speed walking, or just playing a game of volleyball when I feel like it, or even just attending the local gym to work out 3 times a week. Is this possible? Can this sleeve work to get you to a reasonable goal weight without killing yourself at the gym? The second part of my question is about whether there is anyone out there posting here that has gone through a bypass and has or is considering doing a second surgery. When asking the person at the Jerusalem Center about that, she suggested that I would be better off with the lap band rather than the sleeve. But the big bonus in the sleeve is the removal of the hunger thing and the lap band (nor the bypass) had that. I'd like to get some input from someone who has been there. Plus, I'd love to know how it is going the second time around. Thanks in advance for any responses.

Mina, THANKS! That sounds like a very interesting avenue to look into. I will check that out some more.

Thanks for the input! I have wondered myself about the complications that may come from already having had surgery; but when I asked them at the Jerusalem Center, other than telling me that they recommend the band over the sleeve for former bypass patients, there didn't seem to be an issue. It is definitely an area that I need to look into more closely. Thanks! Also, one more question for Tiffykins. How pregnant are you? Or have you already had the baby and are on the way back down the scale? I am interested in how easy it is to begin re-losing once you have begun putting weight back on, as that is one of the things that I was thinking about as well. I mean, at one time, my stomach was just large enough to eat 2 oz., so maybe there is something that I could do to re-shrink my stomach without the need for additional surgery. But I haven't found anything yet.

Thanks for the encouragement. Are you scheduled for your sleeve? Where are you going for the procedure - or are all of the posters on this site patients (or potentially) of the Jerusalem Center? Actually, rather than losing, I feel as though I am gaining 3 pounds per week--ok, a bit of an exaggeration. I just really feel out of control with food right now, though. I'm looking forward to finding out more about my options and making an appointment to get this done. Honestly, I haven't yet told my husband I want to do this (he didn't know me when I had my other surgery, and when I mentioned doing something surgically again about 2 years ago he was definitely NOT for it) but I am hoping that arrned with my new information about this procedure he will come around.

Thanks for the info. How much is 25 kg as compared to pounds? I am hoping to do this in October, as work evens out then with the start of a new fiscal year. My plan is to be off work on Thursay through the following week and return on the next Monday (about 10 days). I don't plan to tell anyone at work about this and wonder if I am giving myself enough time for recovery. My bypass had a recovery of around 8 weeks. Of course this was 20 years ago before laser surgery and I have a huge scar from stem to stern and I came out of it not only with staff infection, but with major back issues because they moved my ribcage open and I was apparently lying on them for the 4-5 hours of surgery until they closed me back up. I do extremely well with surgery so I actually healed and got on with life faster than most, but it is so encouraging to know that this procedure leaves only small scars and is fast and easy compared to my former recovery.