I've been reading again for the same reason. I joined when I was banded back in 2007 long story short I lost some weight down to 224 band was too tight for a long time I gained to 246 and then had an unfill due to dilation so I gained up to 276 and now from there I'm sitting at 320. I had Fluid added back in last year, but all it has done is stop the weight gain. I visited another surgeon hoping to have a revision to sleeve. My insurance right now is UnitedHealthcare Plus Choice (something like that) my RN told me that if it was approached as a revision surgery I would have to show some kind of complication with the band which my doctor said would be slippage, erosion, or the band somehow failing mechanically, otherwise it would be treated as a new surgery and I would have to go through the 6 month supervised diet, psych evaluation, and would have to show a 5 year history of heights and weights from a doctor to prove a history of being morbidly obese.
Because I haven't had complications my surgeon believes that it is likely my insurance will deny the request for revision and possible deny it as a new surgery because I don't have the 5 year weight history I need so right now I'm looking into self pay options. I hope your insurance will approve you and you can get the sleeve.
I've also struggled with feeling like I failed so I understand that. If I had just found the money to go back and get the band unfilled instead of living with it being too tight I might've kept losing weight. I just try to learn from it.