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I had my lap-band removed after 10 years due to a malfunction and quickly gained back a good portion of the weight I'd kept off despite my best efforts. So I had MGB surgery 3 weeks ago and am now starting to eat mostly normal foods (soft foods). What is really surprising to me is the difference in the level of restriction. With the band I could only tolerate 1/2 or so cup of solid food at a meal. With my MGB, they say you should eat about 1 cup of food at each meal. However, while I do stop myself at a cup, I feel like I could eat more and find this a little unnerving. My body got pretty used to only eating very little food at meals and it makes me wonder how I will be successful eating almost double that amount. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Hi, I just had a mini gastric bypass revision last week. So far so good. I had my lap-band in for 10 yrs and kept about 55 of my 75lb loss off. But I never did get that sweet spot and my eating life was miserable all that time. It wasn’t until the band really started to malfunction (ie I could only barely tolerate fluids) that I said enough is enough and had it removed. Not surprisingly I gained back all of my weight in 10 mos despite eating right and exercising 5 days per week. I had to pay for both surgeries myself, but wish I’d done the bypass in the first place. I wish you well.

I was banded in 2006 (private pay) and thought I did fairly well going from 220lb to 150lb in the first year or so. Over the next 10 years, I had my third child and managed to maintain about a 55lb loss. I was and remain dedicated to work outs 4-5 days a week. However, I never felt like I ever found that "sweet spot" with my fills. I had to make a 14 hour round trip for fills and the surgeon I had was the least compassionate, most fat phobic person I've ever encountered. How he got into that line of work I'll never know. Unfortunately, he was the only option in near my home town at the time when Lap-band was fairly new in Canada. I spent most of the time either feeling hungry or nauseated/stuffed and if I'm honest with myself, I think a threw up at least once almost every day of that 10 years (surgically induced bulimia?) Last year things got bad with my band. It became way too tight (even when completely unfilled) and I experienced terrible reflux at night and could barely tolerate fluids. It had to be removed. Luckily another surgeon closer to my home had started to do band surgery and was willing to remove it. He said with the earlier versions of the Lap-band, they often become inflexible and too tight after a long period of time. With this surgeon, my only option was to replace it with another gastric band (Mid-band is his device of choice). I could not convert to a sleeve or bypass as this is not offered as a private pay option in the province where I reside. There is a 5-7 year waitlist for government-funded weight loss surgeries. He said he wanted to see how I did with it out and that he "had faith in" my ability to keep the weight off. Well, I think we all know what the research says about gastric band removals. Despite my best efforts to watch what I ate and maintain my exercise routine, I regained almost all of the weight. Even though I eat a healthy diet (way healthier than what I could tolerate with the band), in less than a year I found myself 10lbs shy of my highest weight. My blood sugar and blood pressure are creeping up and I'm noticing more PCOS symptoms again. So, I started researching self-pay options for gastric sleeve surgery out of province. The surgeon I consulted with feels that the MGB is the best option for me. I'm not thrilled about paying for this again along with airfare and hotel. And not only do I get the pleasure of paying for WLS twice, it's extra because revision surgery requires more OR time. But I think my health is worth it. I'm booked for September 28th and have started my 2-week pre-op liquid diet (blech!) Part of me is scared that the surgery won't work. I feel like I have the slowest metabolism in the world. This, combined with my meds that promote weight gain and my PCOS, makes it feel like the odds are against me. However, my surgeon reassures me I'll do well. I've found reading about others' successful revisions also very encouraging. Thanks for reading my story.

sharon232 : Thanks for sharing your story. I'm also a nurse and really thought I'd done my homework when I chose the Lap-band, but at the time it really was pretty new and the studies didn't go beyond 5 years. Hence I couldn't have predicted my problems that started mainly at the 10 year mark. I agree there is a lot of fat phobia and bigotry out there and I've really become a champion of the fat activism movement. This especially salient for me as a health care professional and a nursing instructor in the BScN program. There is a lot of judgement and prejudice that occurs in health care and I make a point to speak out against it and model respectful care to all. Everyone has their own story.

Garveydanielle : Mini gastric bypass is similar to roux en y bypass, where the stomach size is reduced; however, the intestinal bypass itself differs in that it only has one anastomosis vs 2 two. The studies show the results are similar to traditional rny, but with fewer surgical complications and faster recovery. It's still considered a newer surgery and not all docs are doing them yet.