Travelher

Best of luck with your bypass. i've had tons of success with mine and have a lot of regret about my lap band.

Exactly, so someone starting at 400lbs might lose 100 in the first 3-4 months...so from their perspective it sounds easy, right? That could explain the thinking they have, because naturally they’ll assume it is the same for us. And it just isn’t.

Why is your weight or body anyone else’s business?

Next time someone suggests you took the easy way about, just ask them what kind of idiot chooses the hard way. That is like in the movies when the heroine backs into a dark room when they hear a scary noise....who the f&#’k does that?!!! So the path on the left will be long and arduous and result in 95 percentile of failure (a statistical fact). or the path on the right may be shorter and have some obstacles but a 75% rate of long term success. Chosing the path to failure does not result in a martyrdom award in real life or really any kind of rewards...so why exactly does that make sense?

I applaud this subject. I was worried about surviving weight loss surgery at 260. At that weight I felt like a heart attack about to happen. It was inconceivable allowing myself to get bigger. Losing 100 lbs gets harder, the smaller you are...not easier.

Omg I wish people would stop putting the word “only” in front of extraordinarily large weight loss numbers. Would you ever say I “only” gained 23 lbs in a month? No. You wouldn’t. Stop diminishing success. If you went out on the street and complained to random people on the street that you only lost 23lbs you would not have a sympathetic response. Your monthly weightloss outpaces most people by a significant margin. That is a monthly weight loss number more typical of someone with a much larger BMI. Think in terms of my 600lb life. They are in the first few months losing typically around 5% of their body weight a month...it then drops and slows from here. Do the math on 5% of your starting weight and then celebrate losing double that! There is no such thing as gaining 3lbs of fat overnight, nor is there such a thing as losing 3lbs of fat over night. Everyone has normal weight fluctuations for many reasons. And weight loss is not linear for anyone. It looks a bit like a mountain range. Fits and starts, and yes very short term gains...but over the long term it looks like a slope.

This is probably a question best suited to ask your doctor. Mine was smooth sailing. If there were no adhesions with your removal, you are probably ok. Adhesions may form from the band to other organs. When I was in the hospital my roommate had 4hrs with 2 surgeons to remove the adhesions from his band to his liver and intestines. It was so bad he got a sleeve instead of an rny because of the scar tissue and time under anesthetic. Mine was smooth sailing, 90 minutes start to finish. Easy peasy. My doctor gave me the option prior prior to my revision/removal. If scar tissue is bad...1...we clean it up and close you up and you come back in 3 months for Rny once things have healed. Or 2 we clean it up and sleeve because we can cut around the scar tissue to form the sleeve. I was lucky and didn’t have anything to prevent Rny. You've already had a band removal, if there were major issues, they likely would have seen them then.

actually you wont. with skin removal they'll remove all the skin from probably just above your belly button down, so you'll only have the one or two above and they'll end up below your new belly button.

This is what it looks like now.

what I remember about pregnancy is being winded all the time. there is little room for your lungs so breathing is hard. I had to stop to take frequent breaks to catch my breath and had to go to the chiropractor non stop to have a rib popped back into place and have my hips adjusted to ease the back pain. I had to sleep on the couch because it was softer than the bed. and yes. bladder control, thing of the past, and HANGRY...like "get me x food now, or I swear to god, I'll eat you!" kinda hunger, usually followed by "ugh, that didn't taste like it was supposed to! why does that taste like perfume? ugh, I can't eat that".

well 12 lbs is totally crazy loss...I thought 16 in a month was crazy. my ticker below gives my monthly play by play and it looks pretty common from what ive seen (12-18 a month in 1-2) then a drop to around 8-12/month until about month 6 and then another drop from there. Keep in mind starting weight (BMI) has a huge impact of rate of loss, certainly early on. Age and health conditions all impact rates of loss. The reality is, that I have yet to see even one post from someone who considers themselves a "slow loser" who actually is a slow loser. most bariatric patients have wildly unrealistic expectations of post op weight loss. I can only imagine it has to come from shows like "my 600lb life. Think of it in percentage of total weight...if you weigh 600lbs and you lose 5% a month for the first two months...it looks like 30lbs. if you weigh 250lbs 5% looks like 12.5lbs.

gastric bypass

I have to agree with others that knowing the real results of the band I would never steer someone that way and then sleep at night. Look into all your options, read the studies and make an informed decision, i for one wish i'd just done RNY to begin with.

what you are going through is normal for many in the early post op period. it is the hormone dump from rapid fat loss and the adjustment to the healing (I remember thinking "OMG am i going to be burping my way through every meal forever?" Now I read posts like yours and go "oh yeah, i forgot about that part". you will feel totally normal in 3-6 months (for me it was 2 months, but i'm a quick healer)...I'm 15 months now, in and if it weren't for: being amazed every time i look at a picture of myself wondering why i don't get winded anymore, ever wondering how far i need to push myself on the treadmill to get my heart rate into the cardio zone wondering how the hell these size 2 pants fit me, because that makes no sense at all ...i would not remember I had surgery.

There are dozens of studies globally that all say the same thing. complications that require revisions (read surgeries) of some sort range in the 30-50% range by 10 years out. it is why the rate of banding dropped to less than 5% now and it is banned in some countries. Until the "newer" bands have been around for 10 years, no one will be able to predict whether the pharma marketing claims are true (hopefully they are, but nobody can say that yet). all procedures have advancements over the years. the data is what it is aged, in every single case for all surgeries (by about 10 years to be viably trusted). Frankly at revision rates of 30-50%, the long term band complications are significantly higher than other bariatric surgeries. Having said that, this means 50-70% are still revision free at 10 years, so issues are not a foregone conclusion. So if you are symptom free and successful, enjoy it and don't worry about it. I had a great 3 years with the band before mine went bad. My advice though is this. if you start to have issues, don't do what I did and many others and ignore the symptoms, make excuses for it and stick your head in the sand. get them addressed and fast. If they aren't resolving, remove it before it is too late to have other options. The band is sold as low complication and virtually consequence free, that is simply not true. Yes it is reversible, but it does permanent damage in many cases. it stretches the esophagus over time and can cause reflux (which can lead to cancer), cause adhesions to other organs (my hospital roommate spent 4 hours longer than me in surgery with 2 surgeons removing the adhesions from the band to his liver and intestines. many have slips or erosion. Just make sure you are being your own best advocate for your health, and act to resolve issues, they will not go away on their own.

revision rates due to complications range from about 30%-50% from most of the studies. estimates are that those numbers will only continue to go up from here. ultimately it is a piece of equipment and equipment fails. if you go the the "failed Lap band and realize band" page on Facebook, it looks, overwhelmingly that gerd, reflux and vomiting are the major causes for people wanting to seek removal. followed by lack of weight loss (mostly due to de-fills to alleviate the reflux or vomiting or eating unhealthy sliders because healthy foods get stuck). and also erosion and slips show up. I revised to RNY and just wish I'd done it to begin with. no issues with surgery or recovery, RNY feels normal. totally different than living around a band and dealing with the unpredictability of a band. recovery felt quicker and easier than with the band, but that is probably knowing what to expect and doing lots of walking to get the gas out. I did self pay because I couldn't live with the band for one more second (and frankly was warned by my surgeon that it needed to come out asap) and wait lists where i am can go a year or more. I also wanted to chose my surgeon. my cost for the revision was 23k CAD, straight removal would have been less (I think 16k). it would have been covered if i'd chosen to go through the whole process for insurance. In the US I know some folks have had issues getting coverage for revision unless their BMI was high enough. .

What works for me is to not “work out” but to fit activity into my life. That looks like walking to the local fruit market and carrying bags home instead of driving. Generally walking instead of driving whenever and wherever I can. Doing activities I like, like riding bikes in the summer with the family. Playing dodgeball at the trampoline park with my kid or doing climbing walls with him. Activity does not seem like some sort of thing I have to do. It is just part of my life.

I did not have any skin removal yet, if you have a large amount of weight to lose you will have loose skin. Exercise for health, not to reduce skin issues because it does nothing for skin...there is no muscle in skin. I have no hanging pannus..that is luck and body composition, and also the fact that I got down to the low end of body fat for my age. That is it. I didn’t spend time in the gym (though I am active), use creams or any of the other bill of goods people sell people on to make them think they’ll avoid it. Unfortunately, if someone carries weight around the Middle, odds are high they will have a Pannus, the only thing that will really solve that, is compression wear to disguise it or surgery. I’ve attached a pic of my loose skin. You can see standing it is not too bad (it is crepey and wrinkled, but I’m also 50). Lying down, it slides down...that is where you can really see the excess skin, and that it really is just skin.

Actually, things are great for me. I’m thrilled with my revision to a bypass. People come here for advice and mine is to not get a band and if you have one that is giving you problems, don’t stick your head in the he sand and ignore it, get it out before it causes permanent damage. There is life after a band...and it’s is infinitely better without it.