S@ssen@ch

Banded in 2005.  Nothing but problems.  Unable to tolerate a fill.  Had constant reflux to the point I was mostly sleeping in a sitting up/reclined position.  Band out 9/7/10.  At the time, I was relieved but terrified that I would regain all of my weight.  I did well until the end of 2013, when my husband got transferred to another state for work.  I stayed home with our youngest son, who was still in high school.  Somehow I reverted back to all of my bad habits and looking back, was binging.  
By the time I joined my husband in our new state, I knew my weight was a problem, but refused to get on a scale.  I just did NOT want to know.  By 2017, I had to see a doctor for some other things and wanted to cry when I saw the number on the scale: 295.  That's 10lbs higher than my pre-banded weight.  I suppose it could have been worse, but it seemed just awful to me.  I tried to start getting back on track, but wasn't making much progress.  A friend of mine, who has gone through a similar experience with lab band to sleeve had been encouraging me to get sleeved.  I was resistant.  I really didn't want to have parts of my anatomy removed.  After several months of floundering, I came to the conclusion that I need a more powerful tool than my own stubbornness.  
So, 4/10/18, I got sleeved.  My time in the hospital was nothing like anyone else describes on these forums.  I believe I was overdosed with pain medication in the recovery room and I was a zombie for at least 12 hours.  By the time I was awake enough to move, I had no energy and no ambition to walk, even though they keep telling you to walk, walk, walk.  I felt and looked like I had been run over by a Mack Truck.  I had no desire to sip, sip, sip, either.  It was only after the doctor basically yelled at me that I forced myself to sip.  Word of advice for those revision patients: be prepared for a slower recovery.  My surgeon said that I had A LOT of scar tissue from the band that took him a half hour to untangle.  I think that may have also contributed to the Mack Truck experience while in the hospital.
Once home, I was a little better but still had to force myself to drink.  I had a pretty strict schedule of fluid consumption so that I could stay on track and prevent dehydration.  After about 4 or 5 days, I started feeling a little human again.  I could NOT have worked in that first week.  I did return to work the 2nd week, but had to take frequent breaks because of fatigue.
Now, at 15 weeks, I feel pretty "normal" again.  I've lost a total of 54.5 lbs from my highest.  I've gone down 2 pant sizes and I feel good.  The weight is coming off super slow, but I'm Ok with that.  It's coming off.