salubrino

Hi! I will reverse my almost 20 year old VBG/Gastroplasty on October 6th to RNY. The VBG has´nt worked in ages and I was diagnosed with a broken staple line earlier this year. but it´s probably been like that for a very long time before that. I fell really motivated and have started the pre op liquid diet . I have so far lost 20 pounds which is great and above the target set by the surgeon.. I´ve seen a lot of threads on Lap-band ot RNY but few on my specific operation. Is there anyone out there who knows what to expect? Any specific problems that are common when converting from VBG to RNY or just the same as with the lap-band? Any input highly appreciated! Thanks!

There has been much very good and some bad…I had some postoperative complications (more about that below) But when it comes to the surgery and how it works I regret absolutely nothing but not having done this earlier! I managed to lose 20 pounds the month before surgery . It was actually quite easy since I was so motivated. I had done that before (VLCD quick loss) and knew that it wouldn´t last normally but the surgery as a goal made it easier. The surgery went OK as far as I can judge. Spent two nights in the hospital. A lot less pain then when I did the open VGB 20 years earlier. Had some problems starting to urinate again after the anesthetic (quite common as they told me) and that’s why they kept me two nights. The sensation of drinking Water was a lot better than after the VBG, I was worried that the suffocated feeling I remembered from the first month then would return but it didn´t.I felt kind of sick the first week at home but I attributed that to fatigue and rapid weight loss which I exepcted from all that I had read up on That was a part of it for sure but it also turned out when I was examined at the ER after I got a rapidly rising fever that I had gotten a postoperative infection. Sigh! I was readmitted and put on antibiotics. I spent a week in the hospital while the doctors discussed whether to perform another surgery to drain the abscess under my ribs or if the antibiotics would suffice. It turned out that they did and I was released after a week with a continued antibiotics treatment at home. It took two months before they cleared me of the infection. So be attentive to how you feel postoperatively and don´t, like I did, underestimate the signs of your body. Better to do an extra check up than to spend an extra week in hospital and two months on antibiotics is the lesson I learnt from this! The infection made it impossible for me to exercise more than slow walks but I´ve lost a lot of weight any way. When it comes to the actual surgery I couldn´t be happier. Everything works grand. My GERD is gone and I hope to be cleared from my sleep apnea soon (scheduled for the sleeplab in two months, feel great). Still some weight to lose but I don´t have any unrealistic expectations, would be super happy if I lost another 40 pounds or so . We´ll see. I´m playing volleyball Tuesdays, cardio in the gym Thursday and walk/jog 3 miles every weekend so I think that will help too. I´ve had some of the normal problems that I expected and read up on before. Mild constipation etc – takes some time to learn what foods that works for you. I recently discovered that my stomach works better if I eat more fat than I initially did but I guess that that is individual. When it comes to the dreaded band the surgeons’ didn´t remove that but left it in. They reasoned that the risks of removing it (being stuck to everything after all those years) were higher than leaving it in. They don´t expect it to be a problem and I hope that they are right of course. I didn´t feel a need to question their knowledge on that one. I´ve discovered one thing that I believe to be an advantage for VBG:ers…the chewing is already there. Many fellow patients complained about the difficulties of learning to chew properly but for me that was already a natural habit. In all, despite the infection, I am super happy with this decision! I have gotten a new life. I will trek the In ca trail in Peru in October, a thing I could have just dreamed of before loosing all this weight. I wish you the best of luck whatever option you go for!

Thanks Cheri_J for your story! I´ve only had to do one upper endoscopy but that´s plenty enough.... And no fighting the insurance either. I live in Europe so here you don´t fight the insurance companies...you fight the public surgery queues instead... I guess it all adds up in the end?! Did your surgery take much longer than normal RNYs? My surgeon has done quite many revisions and says they normally take about twice the time. And did you have any issues with the old band? My worry is that the band will not come out easily and that they will have to postpone the RNY part....would be just my luck. Glad to hear that you have had a good weight loss despite being a revission, thats another fear of mine that it will be less effective the second time around. I´ve gotten to a good start when it comes to pre-op diet and exercise. A bit tired of the monotone liquid diet but less than two weeks to go.. I´m confident that it´ll be worth it.

Hi! I´m about to get a revision from vertical gastric banding to gastric bypass in a couple of months. When I got the band my main food problem was regular food - Pasta, meats & junk food stuff. After a while with the band that changed and I went into slider foods likes sweets and ice cream instead. My band is not functioning now due to ruptured staple lines, a technical failure of the original operation method. (old, 19 years ago) My question now is what can i expect with the GB beeing a sweet eater. I know about dumping but also read that many GB-patients don´t get it at all. What is your experiences when it comes to this? If you didn´t get the dumping syndrome how did you go about to control the sweet cravings? Any tips on how to prepare or what to do to control it after the GB would be highly appreciated. Thanks - glad I found this place to be get some real knowledge before the surgery. That was a major shortage back in -96 with the first surgery - getting the peer input!

I know there aren´t any easy fixes and that GB is "just a tool" but I must admit I´ve was a bit disappointed to realize that not all GB-patients got the dumping syndrome (I know that @goodnuf told me to be careful what I wish for). I sort of had hoped for that easy fix..... Sugar is hard to break with - it is everywhere and it tastes so good. I actually managed though to break my Coke-habit two years ago (Coca Cola, not cocaine...) and noticed that my taste for sugar changed when I got less of it in my system. So I´ll do my best to wean off sugar when in the liquid- and soft food phase. And to tell myself that I´ve got the dumping syndrome after the surgery and not eat to test if it´s true or not like you wrote Djmohr.

Thanks for your sharing your thoughts Carolm1965! I have been in therapy a long time because of my own food issues. Not at the monent though but I feel that I´ve come a long way. I am at a much better place when it comes to my food issues compared to when I had the band 19 years ago. At that time I was quite young and very much in denial and totally unable to handle to psychologal issues of the whole thing. This is something I want to change this time around and I have decided to be totally open about med having the revision surgery to everyone and that food is a problematic area for me. Posting this post is also a a part of me preparing, I want to hear you other sweet eaters story so I can learn from them in my own process. Today I am still overweight (340 pounds to my 6´2.8 , was 410 when I had the band and has been so low as 245 a couple of years after the first surgery but since my wheight has crept upwards. This in part to me adressing my food issues (working on a good routine instead of dieting all the time) but also due to the techical issues with my band (ruptured staple lines) . The poorly functioning band makes it hard to maintain a healthy diet (difficulties to eat Fiber, meat etc but simple to eat carb rich sweet stuff). This is the major reason I want to change to GB, since I understand it its generallt easier to eat a more varied diet with that procedure. My worry now is that It will be hard to break the sugar habit if I´m among those who don´t get dumping syndrome. Any more sweet eaters out there who want to share their story? Both those with and those without the dumping syndrome are very welcome to post. Thanks!