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Hello all, I had my lap band placed back in march of 2007 when it was all the rage and no proven long term research. I went to surgery at 283, and managed to drop to an all time low of 220 within 10 months. I spent the next 9 years battling with this lapband and all the CRAP that came with it. I remember feeling like I had hit rock bottom when I couldnt even swallow my own saliva, but was slowly seeing the scale creep up. Today I am right back to 274, which is NOT my highest post surgery weight. (I would have never guessed that 9 years ago) Any how about a year ago, June 2015, I decided something had to give and started seeing a new Dr. about my options. I honestly hadnt see one in years. I had just learned to live with the GERD, upset stomach, inability to eat healthy foods, sleeping sitting up, etc.. I have seen this Dr and his team monthly since June of last year. I have been doing all of the things required by my insurance to meet the criteria for a revision. When I went to see my surgeon 3 weeks ago, he said we need to go ahead and get the band out asap, since it has been causing me problems. I said GREAT to that and we scheduled my removal date for 7/29/16. woo hoo!! So then I ask him what about the bypass surgery. He says that will be treated as a completely separate case, and that I was technically on visit #5 of my bcbs required 6 month diet. (the office didn't start to count the visits as diet visits till Jan 2016) not sure why, but okay. His attitude seems to be "Lets get the band out first, and fight with the insurance company later about the revision to rny" Has anyone else had this type of experience? Im wondering if hes hoping to find something during the surgery, that would lean in favor of the insurance company approving me for a revision. It just seems a little round about... Thanks everyone for your input

Thank you all for your replies. I have decided against getting the fill back as I do not want the same issues to reoccur at some point and run the risk of either having a bigger unfill or losing the band all together. I cannot afford the cost of a revision surgery (I was a self-pay). The band is at a much healthier place today than a year ago with it on the loser side. I feel healthier, eat healthier. If this means I have to accept myself at 199lb instead of 190 or even my lowest weight ever of 180 lb, so be it. I was 270 lb six years ago. I would have been tipping the scale at +320 lb today if it wasn't for the band. I have to keep reminding myself that the enemy of good is better.

I went bypass as well, mine was revision from a band. I had bad reflux with the band, but my doctor prefered bypass as the tried and true surgery. so happy with my decision.

I haven't been able to get on this website for about 3 weeks due to computer issues, and then family illness. Thankfully, that's all taken care of now! It's hard to believe that 2 months ago I had a life-changing, mind-blowing experience with the realization of getting my sleeve. After years of major struggles with the lap-band, and 2 years spent searching for a Doctor who would even consider seeing me, God opened the door for me at Dr. Kaler's office. Dr. Kaler had no hesitation in telling me, "Yes, I can do your revision". I remember sitting in his exam room with tears in my eyes, thinking "Finally, someone who can help me". The sense of relief that this ordeal was finally over was surreal. After years of struggling with the band, the sliming, the sticking, the not being able to eat out in front of anyone other than my DH, my mother's comments of "Oh honey, I just wish there was something that could be done for you", my revision was done in one surgery. The changes that have occurred in my life since have been amazing. No more sticking, no more sliming, eating out with friends, feeling like I'm 15 years younger, the energy, the ability to get out and move, the improved numbers from my bloodwork, actually enjoy life has been such a blessing. As of this morning, I am down 42lbs, and 3 dress sizes. I still struggle with my eyes being WAAAAYY bigger than my sleeve. I suspect this will be a challenge for quite a long time. But it's always surprising to me how much is left on my plate. My DH has enjoyed my leftovers many times and isn't complaining. To have the ability to eat without the expectation that it's going to be a painful experience, has made me realize that I have taken eating for granted. I no longer do that. I know truly enjoy my food, more as a true pleasure, and I'm focusing on making sure that those meals are well worth the effort. I'm learning new recipes, experiencing new foods, and focus on eating whole, healthy, fresh foods. And it's such a great time of the year to do this. With the Farmer's Markets that are open now, my vegetable garden, learning to can and freeze fresh fruits and vegetables, purchasing grass fed beef, free-range chicken, and the most recent addition to our little farm - a Devon pig, who will be filling our freezer this fall, our food quality has increased by leaps and bounds. No more pre-processed food, no more white carbs, a significant reduction in gluten in our lives has made a tremendous difference in not just my, but my DH's life. I never would have made these changes in our life had it not been for the sleeve. I'm eating pretty much anything I want, just in drastically smaller quantities, and the only thing I haven't tried yet is a salad. For some reason, that's the one thing that looms in my mind as the "The Big One". I'm sure it's just in my head that way, but I still see a Salad and think, "One day I'll be able to eat that and really enjoy it", but I haven't tried one yet. I'm not big on restaurant salads, but prefer to buy my own ingredients and make them at home. That way I can control what goes in to it. I will always encourage those who are thinking about getting the lapband toward the sleeve, and I will support those who want a revision by sharing my experience. Just as so many of the folks on this wonderful website have done for me.

I am having revision from band to sleeve on Friday. My surgeon never mentioned anything about higher risks for a leak because of the band. According to their stats out of hundreds of revision procedures he's had one leak, which was small and healed on it's own. It's a major surgery, you never know what will happen I suppose. I also have to have my gallbladder out. So it's band removal, gallbladder removal, and sleeve. Unless he decides that needs to wait for a few months - which he said was also a possibility.

Do it this is me less than 6 months after my revision surgery . I self payed.

I had my band out in June 2014 and just had the sleeve done Nov. 12. I am losing but pretty slowly. That is fine but just wondered if those of you that are revisions, and female, about how many calories do you consume to continue losing and did you find that you have to add exercise too to keep losing. I plan to add exercise in when they release me to do so but feel like my metabolism is very slow from having the band prior. Any thoughts are welcome.

If my doc wasn't givin me fills when I asked for em, I'd go to another doc. Luckily, he lets me decide how I think I'm doing. I had a fill from the port-revision, was too tight, unfilled in November, decided maybe I wasn't too tight, just not use to how restriction fills.. got filled back up in Dec. Now I am pretty tight, it's hard to eat a lot of solid foods, but liquids go down fine. I eat about 1/4-1/2c of food depending on time of day. Mornings are a lost cause, I will always spit up solid breakfasts, so I stick to a coffee, frappuccino, v-8, or milk. Lunch I am still pretty tight, so I have soup, or a few really small bites of something solid that take a while to eat. Dinner I am still restricted, but not nearly like I am for the rest of the day. Depending on what I'm eating.. I have never had a rice problem, but pasta doesn't go down well. And bread is out. I still try to eat bread even though it makes me sick!! A typical dinner is about 1/2c of food, spread out over whatever I feel like eating. I make dinner most the time, DH eats most of what I make and I take 1/2c and pick at it.

I had a VSG by Dr Alvarez in 2008, he used a large bougie... didnt lose the weight I needed...went in to see Dr Rutledge in Vegas last year and thought he would revise my VSG to make smaller and it was planned to do a small MGB. Unfortunately, he did the MGB and did not touch my stomach. As such I can eat tons of food and have terrible gas and diareahea all the time. I am going in for my last and final surgery in 1 month to reverse the MGB and have him revise and make smaller my stomach. I'm scared as this is my third surgery...and last I might add. Can anyone comment about VSG revisions? Blessings to you!

My 2 week pre-op diet was 3-4 shakes a day with no more than 200 calories each and minimum 15g of protein, celery and cucumbers, and 1-2 cups of chicken or beef broth a day. Absolutely NO popsicles or sugar free jello. I would constantly be shaving celery with a peeler into “noodles” and then adding it to the broth for a soup of sorts. AND I was super lucky enough to do it twice in an 8 month period. 😂 (needed a hernia repair surgery that was coupled with a VSG to RNY revision to reduce chances of future hernias.)

So I'm about a month and a half post band to sleeve revision (5/10 surgery) and I'm feeling very frustrated and confused about my lack of weight loss. I started at 236 and shortly after surgery (2 weeks postop) was down to 220. I'm now down to 214. I haven't moved for about a month. I was logging my food whole hog at the beginning but fell off the wagon for a couple of weeks but in the past week have gotten back at it in order to get a handle on things. At my last follow up appt my surgeon asked how much Protein I was taking in (when he found out I stalled) and I told him I was aiming for around 60 grams. He told me to only aim for 40. That seems counterintuitive to me especially being pre-diabetic with PCOS. His office doesn't have a NUT so I only have him to rely on. At this point I'm beyond frustrated. He wants me down another 20 lbs by the time I go back to see him in a month. Everyone else on here seems to have the weight melt off and I'm sitting here much like I was before with the band - feeling very frustrated and wondering why I did this. I'm committed to tracking my intake, getting more exercise, and getting my protein in but beyond that I'm at a loss. Any suggestions - especially from those who have done a band to sleeve conversion?? Thanks for "listening".....

Do you have any chance of having a revision to a different surgery? I think the feeling of "I couldn't have this before but now I can" can cause really big problems, because your current situation likely isn't going to change soon

Insurance is a puzzle. I knew that my insurance covers WLS and I met all the criteria, but we had a few extra hoops to jump through to get approval for a revision. That extra hoop was easy once I was diagnosed with a slip. Basically, if you had a "failure" of the previous surgery like a slippage it didn't matter your BMI or co-morbidities. Even so, they wanted my NUt and psych assessment to approve the band removal... I think they got wires crossed because that makes no sense. The insurance person said, oh we needed it anyway for the sleeve procedure approval. Anyway, my doc was alarmed by my slip too because even though all Fluid is out he said the band was too tight and it had slipped alot. It is strange because I feel basically no restriction. He too warned me that I could suddenly be totally blocked and require emergency surgery. Tomorrow, I have my EKG which is the last step before the removal - I somehow missed that I needed to do that. Only after the EKG is done will they schedule the removal. Ask your doctor how often the "repositioning" actually works or if it is likely to slip again.

I had my first appointment with my new surgeon today. Since it had been two and a half years since I'd seen my original one, he did a fluoroscopy on me. We saw that my band was extremely tight and that my pouch was extremely dilated/stretched. The tight band was news to me, since I hadn't felt much restriction in a long time and could eat close to a full meal. The band was so tight that we couldn't see the barium emptying out of the pouch at all. He said that my opening between pouches was probably about the size of a pencil eraser, and that he was amazed that I'd lived with it for as long as I did. He did an immediate complete unfill, since he said that it was pretty dangerous. He said that eventually it would migrate and close off my stomach entirely and I'd have to have emergency surgery to remove it. He gave me three options, all of which are surgery. Remove the band and leave my stomach alone, go in and reposition the band, or do a revision to a sleeve. Right now, I don't meet the BMI requirements for revision, but he thinks we may be able to make an argument that it's a medically necessary surgery anyway. Ideally, we'll revise, if that isn't possible, I'd rather have the band repositioned than removed. I admit that I was kind of hoping to have something wrong with the band in order to justify revising to a sleeve, but actually KNOWING that something is wrong bothers me more than I thought it would. I almost started crying at the surgeon's office. Now it's time to hurry up an wait while we get everything together and submitted to insurance. It's going to be at least a week until anything gets done, since the insurance coordinator is on vacation this week.

Im getting revision on November 14!!

Thank you for all the well wishes. I am anxious to get this done. I have been totally unfilled for almost 3 weeks now. I have been able to eat just about anything for the past 2 weeks. I haven't gained but a pound or so. I'm happy for that. We will be leaving for Mexicali tomorrow. We plan on meeting a driver on the US side of the border at 1:00, Saturday afternoon. They are letting me have all of the tests done on Saturday. That way, we have all day Sunday to do some sightseeing. That should be fun. I have surgery on Monday, and should be out on Thursday morning. I am a little concerned about the long drive home (Seattle area). We plan on going slow and stopping every hour or two. Denise, the revision from lapband to sleeve is costing me $12,500. My insurance won't cover it. Since I've already had the TT done, this should be it for me. Cheryl __________________ Originally posted at www.lapbandtalk.com

WASaBubbleButt, Thank you so much for replying. I have read your posts over the past year or so and appreciate your honesty. After being unfilled for two weeks (liquids only), I had an upper GI done. It came back "absolutely perfect". No slip, erosion, ulcers, or irritation. Because of this, Dr. Aceves said I could eat anything. I have been careful, but have eaten half a hamburger and a few fries for the first time in 2 1/2 years. It was nice to have real food and throw it up! The doctor now feels very confident that he can do the band to sleeve revision in one surgery. That was what I was hoping for. When you have some time, can you tell me exactly what to expect from getting to Mexico to leaving? I was happy to hear that Dr. Aceves has not had any leaks. I think she said no complications in any sleeve operation. Thank you for your help. I know I can trust that you will be honest in your experience. Cheryl __________________ Originally posted at www.lapbandtalk.com

Well you two it took me a bit to google and translate kilos into pounds lol, but I think I got the gist of the weight gains and losses. Like Chilo said there are many band to sleeve revisions on this site and they will be able to give you the low down on that idea. I was just curious though, I heard the port and metal on the bands were titanium like the staples used for the sleeve. If this is so you may need to go with a physician that uses threaded sutures and glue vs the staples if this is possible or maybe go with the gastric plication which is not excising the stomach only folding it within itself and suturing it up, to avoid the titanium. Hmmm

Hi everyone Was great to stumble across this forum and find out that Aussies visit too! I was banded on the 3rd of April (so 13 days today) at Bethesta Hospital (by Mr Kierath) in Perth. Im 6.5kg's down as I type, but have started to notice that my weight is starting to fluctuate (Im a scale junkie unfortunately!) and the last few days have seen me go from 99.9kg - 98.5kg then right back up again. Is this normal whilst you are still on liquids? I have my first appt with my surgeon since the "borg" was put in on the 24th of April - and boy I am filled with questions! My port is definitely noticable (which Im not happy about) and even my DH can see it sticking up through my tummy, just under my ribs. I am having nightmares that it has flipped or turned on an angle, and can see myself having some type of revision surgery. Has anybody had their port turn/flip - and if so whats the general action taken? Revision surgery? Sometimes I feel as though mine is floating around - or maybe Im just freaking myself out here! Lucylee - I had that tightness in the chest area that you talked about, and ended up ringing the hospital (because I was concerned) and they told me it was all perfectly normal. They reminded me that even though I had keyhole surgery, (and yes, it is less invasive) its still major surgery and that my internal organs were basically not settled and that the discomfort was caused by swelling of the organs and the gas that they use to pump you up to see what they are doing. Mine has only recently let up the last few days, so give yourself a good couple of weeks to let everything settle. However, if it doesnt feel right to you, the best advice I can give would be to ring your surgeon! Anyhow, enough of my blather.. I appreciate finding Aussies on the board, and look forward in getting to know you all better

My surgeon explained that a minority of people will have Gerd after surgery. He said that for the vast majority of those people, medicine alleviates it. He said there is a small percentage, I forget whether it was one or 3%, for whom the medicine does not work, and they need revision surgery.

I am a bit of a hypochondriac so I was inspired to read this as well! I have hope that a revision won't be needed and that I can keep my weight maintained!

So I finally got the call I been waiting for over a month! I will be getting my band removed (2/2011) and getting a gastric sleeve. I have had too many issues and can't get my band any tighter because when I do I can't literally even drink a sip of water. Other issues as well but I'm excited and would love any info on anyone who has done this and what is recovery time for this since my surgeon told me it will be longer and I also will have drainage tubes as well. I have a 10k scheduled for May 7 and my surgery is March 30th. Thanks

Good Morning Sleevers!! I have a question regarding the ability to eat without effort 4 oz. of food. I feel that I can easily eat more but, stop myself at that point. My surgery date was 9 Feb 15, so, I am about 2 1/2 weeks out. I started soft foods 1 week after surgery (fish, tuna, green beans). I guess each Surgeon is different. My surgery was completely pain-free and, though I am off work for 6 weeks, I could have gone to work the same week. I am losing fine (hit a stall now but, not too worried) but I am concerned that if I am able to eat so much now, in a month I will be eating a much larger portion. Also, it takes me about 5-10 minutes to eat meal. I have forced myself to slow down to minimum of 20 minutes. I can drink 32 oz of Water in about 5-10 minutes too. I can't eat salads yet. Sorry for the long post!! My actual question is: Are you or were you able to eat so much 2 1/2 weeks out or, is this due to my having a revision? Let me give an sample of a days worth of food: 1st meal: Protein shake 11 oz. mixed in my decaf coffee about 10 oz. 30 minutes later: water, water, water 2nd meal: 1 scrambled egg with 1 oz. of chicken and laughing cow wedge water 3rd Meal: 4 oz. grilled chicken breast w laughing cow wedge or chicken salad w light mayo 30 minutes later: water, water, water 32-40 oz. 4th Meal: 4 oz. grilled chicken breast, 4 green Beans water w Crystal Lite 5th meal: Protein Shake or string cheese with 1 slice of budding turkey wrapped around water, water, water

I made the band decision for a couple of reasons, all personal: 1. When jets head coach rex Ryan got the band and Chris Christie followed (let's leave politics out of this please) it made me wonder why recreate the wheel- these two individuals have access to the best and the brightest and ultimately chose the band so to me that said something; 2. I am only looking to loose 100 pounds. I have noticed that some sleevers look too thin- almost sickly. It was also a concern of my wife in not looking too thin. 3. Worried about the higher incidences of serious complications immediately following gastric sleeve survey versus what I perceive to be minor annoyances of band life in general; 4. Easier to eat 3 meals a day than 4 with the sleeve. Also worried about if I was sleeved and started exercising heavily with weight loss, would I be more prone to dehydration problems (I live in the Deep South- high heat and humidity); 5. Alzheimer's runs in my family and if I get it down the line, it could be dangerous for myself and caregivers in taking care of me- where with the band I could just have it removed at that point. 6. If the band doesn't work by the end of year 2 I will just suck it up and go with a revision to a sleeve. What amazes me the most is no matter how many years of research I did concerning both surgeries, I never could get enough info about which one was better. Thus, I had to make my final decision on the criteria above and choose the procedure that best matched those self-imposed criteria.

My revision was a bit more... complicated than most. Due to unforseen issues (basically one anastomosis was not done right), the surgery in March had to be aborted after 3hrs. New surgery was scheduled for June to allow for healing. 2nd surgery, the surgeon discovered another surprise. My common channel was only 25cm and the configuration of my intestines was not the rny configuration. He had to back my common channel to 300cm, cut out a portion of my pouch and small intestines due to necrotic tissue. This surgery took 8hrs! So almost 9months post op, I do have better restriction than I did with my surgery 22 years ago, but I'm absorbing more. I'm down 50lbs so it's been slow going, but I'm still losing. Thanks for asking, Hope you are doing well on your journey.