nowornever14

Hi Everyone, I am supposed to get my lapband replaced by a sleeve. During my Barium swallow my fear had been confirmed that through my lapband my esophagus was damaged and I am suffering from Achalasia which results from a malfunction of the nerves controlling the rhythmic contractions of the esophagus. My esophagus muscles do not function as they should to transport the food down through the spinster into the stomach. They just fire off completely uncoordinated which results in food getting stuck in my esophagus. SO my question to all of you. Is there anybody out there who suffers from this too and still got a sleeve and if so what is your experience. I want to be prepared when I see my surgeon and need to get as much information as possible to make a proper decision. Thanks to you all!

It is not about the body rejecting the band it is about the fact that the band damages the esophagus and the stomach wall or corroding into the stomach. Those things are just a matter of fact because of the fact that this idea of a band "strangling" our stomachs is just being a faulty concept to begin with. Believe me I was one of the illusional people who thought that this is a god given alternative to getting my stomach cut away. I had the band put in place almost 11 years ago and just got it removed last September. And I am glad I did ..... all my suffering from pain, GERD and blockage and vomiting is a nightmarish memory of the past. I have irreparable damage to my esophagus muscles and spinster, which will remind me of a $18,500-mistake I have made because the companies pushing sales of a medical devise, which many responsible surgeons now reject to put in. But companies still advertise agressivly and all because of the money being made and not the well-being of the patient. If you read reports from bariatric conferences and what surgeons have to say you will see that they see this devise as a failed mistake. I have the gastric sleeve now and am happy with it, happier than I have ever been.

Hi to all PLEASE give me your number on how many pounds you guys all dropped in your first 2 months after you had been sleeved. I know it depends on every individual body and on habits and activities but I need to get some kind of average number since I have an anniversary to attend and want to eyeball where I might be at. THANKS

Yes. The hospital I had surgery in usually does not do both in one procedure but since I suffer from Lupus they supported my request to have it all done at once.

Since I was hospitalized for 10 days and "plugged " onto an iv I had "gained" 7 pounds but I am at home now for a few days already. And so far lost all the Water weight. So I will see how it goes from here. Lost 23 in total as of this day.

Nope not really. Do far they have found out that I have Bronchiectasis and the CT scan and x-ray revealed spots on my lung and they suspect cancer. I am now waiting for a lung biopsy. Not the outcome I was expecting. But hey one has to see this from the glass full position :at least I have a week of vacation and somebody else prepares my daily meals

Me too But I am back in the hospital with lung bleeding. Do those are not the best of circumstances to get back into a natural rhythm

Good to hear you all are doing so well. I am down 22 pounds as of today. Except for those two nights of stabbing pain in my right chest, which seems to have disappeared and acid reflux in the evening I am doing great. Already entered the next size jeans, 14 stretch , which is probably a 16 I try to eat anti-reflux food after 3pm every day now and especially oatmeal with some fruit seems to do a good job. But even though I HATE taking those acid reflux meds, I got myself Zantac 150 for night burn. 2 nights I took one and I slept like a baby and last night I did not take any but woke up at 1 a.m. with burning in my esophagus. So I took only 1/2 of a tablet and I could fall aleep again. Other than that .... if my acid reflux does not get worse .... I am the happiest person on this earth. I am super glad that I got my pain-causing band out and got a sleeve !!!!!! Hope you all have a perfect day!

Hi All I need advise! My surgery was on the 8th of September - 1.5 week ago. I even had my checkup with the hospital nurse yesterday and all seems to be perfect, great healing, good weight loss, no pain. Last night when I went to bed out of nowhere it seems I felt a sudden sharp stabbing pain in my right chest every time I try to pull in a breath. I tried to kind of sit more upright in my bed because the pain breathing was not as bed and I managed to fall a sleep. But it is only 1:50 am and I just woke up 20 min ago because of this pain . Anybody any idea what this could be. Otherwise I do not feel sick nor do I am dizzy or have a temperature or any other pain . PLEASE help if any of you has an idea or experienced the same. Thanks

I apologize for my ignorance but what is a Charlie Horse?

Same this night woke up at 3 with stabbing pain in the same spot. My right chest into my breast and this time it was clearly accompanied by acid reflux pain. So now I am completely thrown off. This time I did not rake pain killers but ate a banana ( or 3 bites if it) and drank water and the pain slowly went away. Is that the new indication of acid reflux??????? And I will not take anti acid reflux meds because I do not believe in them. I will have to learn which foods trigger acid refux and will have to eat accordingly.

All the best for your big day. Soon you will be a happy SLEEVER

I did not have to do anything except to tell my family doctor what health issues I had with the band. And he referred me to our bariatric centre in our hospital. From there I agreed to get the sleeve done after the band was removed. I am in Canada we have free health coverage here. This falls under our health care system. Check out this website for other topics which are exactly talking about this issue and the process in the US. I know there you will be able to get a lot of answers to your questions. I hope this helps.

No it had nothing to do with hard burn because I have had horrific acid reflux with the band. Last night after I took quite a few pain killers it took me until 5am this morning to fall asleep but when I woke up at 8 am it was like nothing had happened. So I am now wondering maybe it was some kind of gas that was trapped somewhere and with the move I made when I laid down it moved to my right chest and caused that stabbing pain. So I really have no other explanation for it. @ bebeandkoko I hope you got some rest last night after the meds too. !!

@@bebeandkoko I hate to say this but I am glad there is somebody with the same symptoms. Believe me I do wish you would not feel this but not being alone in this helps. I just decided to grab a handful of chewable baby anvils an hour ago and for the last about 20 minutes the pain has numbed away. So I will try to get some more sleep and will keep you uptodate on this tomorrow. I wish you get some sleep too.

Yes but I am 1.5 weeks out and had not had any gas pain before the entire time. So why would it show up after 10 days?

Hey - I am out 8 days and I am too feeling much MUCH better. Not to my very best but healing is still in process so I do not mind too much. Regarding drinking - I still make myself sip because if I do not pay attention I would drink way to fast and therefore too much at once.

-------------- WOW 3 months out and 60 pounds down that is amazing to me. In my wildest dreams I would not expect to achieve that. I think you are doing outstanding. Well I only hope I would remotely get there. Because 60 down would bring me to my first goal weight and I thought 180 would be enough, but than I got cheeky and thought why not aim for 160. So this is my final goal weight.

Hi pirate_rn sounds great. Do those 25 pounds include the pre surgery weight loss or was it 25 after surgery ?

As you probably could read by my way-to-long post I am super happy with my decision and I can tell you I struggled to the last minute before my surgery if this will be the right thing for me. I was not nervous and my blood pressure was at 103 to 64 .... which is really low ...so no hyper excitement there. But you know the feeling that you just can not predict what it at the end does to your own body. But I can tell you it really is more than I had hoped for !!! So try to cover all your questions with the people you have to turn to, dietician, psychologist but especially your surgeon. Because the better you are informed the more solid is your ground to stand on when making your final decision. Good Luck!!

What I would do is just google your questions you have and you will be overwhelmed by the many reports or posts the search engine will filter out for you which have been posted on the internet exactly related to your concerns. Or type into this website search your keywords and find the many posts specifically focused on your questions. If hair loss is your main concern, just keep eating enough high quality protein and you will be fine.

Hi JakeLancaster , You would not believe how many people claimed that the smaller Bougie is actually the better choice and if I would have done this blind without researching on the internet I probably would have followed their advise. But I am glad that after the moment my first surgeon (band surgeon who is retired now) suggested a revision and my second surgeon who actually did my surgery confirmed that it would be a good idea to make a sleeve when the band is removed, I started researching. Great topic, I am scheduled for my band to sleeve revision. I think the starting BMI has a lot to do with it too. I would be scared of the 44 size bougie, I really want this to be the last surgery. I get the acid problem with the band though and understand why you choose the large bougie I just do not want to risk it. I am prepared to lose slower than I did with my band, I was told revisions lose slower but your averages sound great. See you on the other side in a couple of weeks! I had only 2 months to make my decision. I was for hrs on the internet trying to find the newest research published by the medical world , newest studies and so on. I am glad I did!! Because even though I value VERY much real life report from Sleevers I still think that each and everyone of us has a subjective approach, which is often mixed with emotional statements. When I went to my last meeting with my surgeon I had a list of questions I needed to be answered by her. I made my decision depending on her answers at the end. I asked about : - which size of staples to use since different cases demand different staple sizes to prevent leakage - wanted to discuss her position on oversewing or not - and buttressing or not - on the problem with the hourglass shape or the twisted stomach in case of an ear curve which happens to be a problem with many surgeon because of the way they staple - on the fact that the staple line distance to the pylorus and the sphincter is crucial in regards to prevention of damage to both - and last but not least the size of my bougie because research shows clearly that there is no difference in the success of weight loss results with bougie sizes between 32F up to 40+ F The surgery in itself through the removal of 75% to 85% of ones stomach and therefor the reduction of the ghrelin (hunger producing hormone) production completely changes our metabolic biochemistry, which at the end causes us to lose weight. But the fact that a smaller bougie size is proven to have a significantly higher affect on GERD occurrence and on leakage made me 150% sure that I choosing a smaller size was a risk I was not willing to take. I can say I'm only one week out of surgery but I did not regret anything. I have no acid reflux symptoms not the slidest nor to I feel I could eat more than my fellow sleever. I am in close contact to sleeve friends who had been sleeved on the same day and when I read what they can eat and what I can eat there is no difference in size or portion. I agree with you Cowgirljane 100% the quality of life is much higher with the sleeve than it is or was with the band. I can not count all the times I was vomiting, the permanent hunger, or almost suffocating in my sleep because of horrific GERD or feeling I would die and having to go to emergency because some kind of food got stuck again and closed my stomach that I felt I was drowning on my own saliva. Since I have my band out and my sleeve in, I actually feel normal again..... I just feel like life is perfect and I just can only eat 2 or 3 spoons full of whatever I am eating for a meal. I feel as full and satisfied as I would have eaten 2 plates of food. I even do not feel the desire to step on the scale every day, which I did with each and every diet or with the band. I feel like all will come as it is supposed to be and that I will be back to my normal slim healthy weight before my illness. It almost sounds corny but I wake up every morning thinking : OMG I am so so happy . Happy I am alive . Happy I got rid of this band. Happy I made the decision to get the sleeve. Happy I feel like I am being a fully integrated part of our social life again soon. Happy I can do stuff with my grandchildren again. Happy I can go to every normal cloths store like before my illness and before my outrages weight gain soon. Happy Happy Happy that me second half of my life started last Monday!!

You are welcome John

Hi I think I saw a post / forum where people talk about exactly that. And I am sure you will find answers there. P.s. I m in Canada and we have government health care and therefore will have this covered as soon as a health problem occurs.

Guess why that might be that some surgeons close an eye to the now known reality of the danger of the band ??? Because the band companies pay tons of money for a "better" sales-pitch through surgeons . Money can buy everything !!!