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Had my lap band 2011, just had my revision October 1st. Could use someone to talk to that has had revision. I have some post op questions? Also help entry of my weight and surgery date in my profile? Anyone can help a girl out??

Hello! I will be 52 this Month. I started my journey yesterday with meeting my surgeon. I would be having a revision from the lapband to gastric bypass. Sent from my SM-G960U using BariatricPal mobile app

I had RNY gastric bypass in 2002 with Dr. Callery in San Diego, ca. My insurance will not pay for a revision. In the last 3-4 years I have gained 45-50lbs. I want to have a revision, my pouch made smaller again and possibly more intestines removed. I had the surgery open and have a large scar. I had minimal to no issues with my first surgery. I have had a chronic back injury that now limits my exercise, hence the weight gain. (also, my poor choices at times). I will need to pay myself and need info, reviews on revisions any doctors in Tijuana have done. Thank you starting weight 9/2002 332lbs 9/2014 160lbs current 203lbs

A revision from sleeve to rny for severe reflux is considered medically necessary, hence all the tests to establish the necessity. It is not considered weight-loss surgery by my insurance.

I have a band, recently went to see my surgeon as it is no longer helping. He told me that a band to sleeve revision would not be recommended as there is a very high risk of reflux with a sleeve, apparently reflux is rare with RNY.

How is your insurance covering this? As a revision bariatric procedure or as reflux surgery? I think it’s normal to feel nervous. Good luck!!

I agree and mine is a revision from a band so I would have hoped it would go quicker. Saw my surgeon on 18 Sept. He suggested a revision to RNY and I was given all the info and costings. Did some research , discussed it with hubby and decided I want to go ahead so called his office a week later to ask what the process was. Apparently I have to see the surgeon again before I can be given a date, I was hoping that I would at least be given a provisional date as I like to be organised and know whats what. Seeing him on 29th Oct and the NUT a day later. Did manage to get a referral for the preop consult and that Dr had a cancellation so got in on the same day. That was a bit weird, I was expecting the ECG but hadn't been warned he would need to look at my armpit! So hoping that I get a date soon.

Hi all!! I had the band removed and was sleeved on 5/2017. I immediately had bad reflux but was told to just keep taking the meds. Here I am today 17 months out with extremely bad reflux. I’ve regained about 20lbs because only crackers and bread don’t give me flare ups. I’m choking nightly even while sleeping on three pillows and can’t eat anything without acid attacks. I switched surgeons offices because I kept getting the runaround from the sleeve doctor. So far in the past 6 weeks with my new doctor I’ve had an endoscopy which showed a hiatal hernia, esophageal weakness, I’ve had the 96 hour Bravo ph test which showed severe reflux. Tomorrow I am having post prandial esophageal manometry to check pressures and such. My current doctor is an esophageal specialist and has already suggested he cant do much in the way of help except changing meds which he has already done. He did suggest at my next appointment with him to also meet with his bariatric partner to discuss surgery. If they suggest RNY, is that considered reflux surgery or a bariatric revision in the eyes of insurance? Thanks!!

@travelher did you request a revision? How long after your initial procedure?

I’m 4 years As of September 26. I literally starting feeling so depressed about my weight gain. I’ve gained 36 pounds and never made my goal weight. I’m wondering if I can have a revision

Yep it's awful. Had to do it for my band in 2009 and now looking at a revision so will have to go through it again. Not sure how I'll cope because these days I seem incapable of having a liquids only day. The only way through is to keep focusing on those goalposts and the end game

Coping With Tight Days Pouch Days... I am seven weeks post sleeve to RNY gastric bypass revision, and All things considered, I am doing Quite well. No Hair loss or excessive tiredness (knock on wood), I am working out 1 to 2 hours a day, I have lost a total of 33 pounds, of which 20 have been since surgery day and I have started a new and healthy vegan lifestyle in which I have wonderful green smoothies for Breakfast and focus on live colorful nutrition to heal and repair my body. The one thing that I do struggle with from time to time is tight days. These are days in which I wake up, and from the moment I take my first sip of Water I say oh no... because I realize nothing is going to go down well. My attempts to drink anything let alone eat cause a lot of belching discomfort and my stomach just balls up and rejects the notion of eating anything. This, of course leads to tiredness and dehydration and the worst part is that I cannot seem to tie it to the consumption of any particular food or substance the previous day so it makes it hard to control or prevent these types of days. This also needs to dehydration as I try not to stop what I do and still go about my business and still workout as normal. But If I do try to eat or drink then I will get the foamies and eventually throw up :( Today is a tight today and although I am working out etc, it is just not a good and healthy feeling to be doing so on zero food and water. But the alternative is to ball up and suffer and I’m not one to go down without a fight. Does anyone else suffer with These kinds of days, and do you have any advice or insight as to how I can deal with it or make it better?

Hi SleeveGirl88. Having GERD isnt' the same thing as having reflux every once in a while because you ate some food that disagrees with you. When they are discussing GERD as a contraindication for VSG, they are talking about people that have it regularly at least one or two episodes a week that don't necessarily have anything eating greasy food. You also don't seem to have any co-morbidities and a relatively low BMI of 40 (the average bariatric patient has a BMI of 42.5). If you're goal is weight loss, I would probably go with the VSG. While RNY may have slightly better total weight loss numbers and slightly lower regain rates over 5 years, the differences aren't really statistically significant--particularly for someone with your BMI. You'll do great with either the sleeve or the RNY and you're not going to get much of a weight loss advantage going with an RNY. There have been a lot of comparative studies that have been published over the past two years that support this conclusion. In terms of weight regain, some people start to see it earlier in the process with the sleeve but in the limited number of long term studies that track people beyond 5 years--there really isn't a long term statistical difference. What does seem to make a difference your starting BMI. Whether you're a sleeve or an RNY, if you start the journey with a BMI of 40 or less, the chances of you having BMI below 30 after one year is 95% and the chance of you maintaining a BMI under 30 after 5 years is over 75% with either procedure. The numbers for both procedures drop considerable the higher your BMI is at the time of surgery. The other thing to think about, particularly if your young (under 50), is that you're going have to live with this surgery for a long time. While RNY may have slightly better 5 year outcomes on the whole, the differences aren't really statistically significant. For someone like you, it might only mean a 5-8 pound difference (maybe)--but ultimately, it's probably not much of a difference at all. Ten or 15 years post op, you could be at a point where you have had significant regain with either procedure (hopefully not) and then you have think about revision (since obesity is a chronic condition). With this in mind, you should consider which procedure gives you the most and best options for revision. With RNY, you're revision possibilities are currently limited. In some cases, the pouch can be made smaller. Surgeons can also increase the length of the biliopancreatic limb to increase malabsorbtion or convert you to a distal bypass. The weight loss benefits of these procedures are disappointing for the most part, but these procedures can help treat co-morbidities. A more aggressive or radical approach would be to reverse the RNY and switch to a totally different procedure, but this is a very complicated and risky procedure that most bariatric surgeons aren't comfortable performing (at least not in 2018). In truth, your options of revision from and RNY are limited and may not be very effective for weight loss/regain. Options for revision from a sleeve if there is significant weight regain or re-occurrence of co-morbidities are numerous and more effective. Resleeves are common, easily performed and can help get you back on track. Since holds more volume to begin with and the pyloric valve is preserved with a VSG, resleeves seem to be more effective than revisions to a RNY pouch for treating weight regain. A sleeve also can be easily converted to an RNY down the road, but this is usually done to treat severe GERD--not so much for weight loss (although it can be used for this too). The most exiting option with a sleeve is that it can easily be converted to a BPD-DS or modified duodenal switch (also called a loop DS, SIPS, SADI-S), which is still considered an investigational procedure in the United States, but is probably the future of bariatric surgery. This is essentially a VSG with a single long limb bypass that attaches midway down your small intestines (roughly speaking) and has only one anastomosis (one connection point). It gives you most of the benefits of a BPD-DS (which is by far the most power bariatric surgery, but also the most risky), with approximately the same risk factors as an RNY. More studies are needed for the modified DS before it will be widely adopted in the US, but it's being adopted by many surgical centers and long-term RCTs are being done as we write (with excellent short and mid-range results). As a revision from a VSG, the SIPS procedure will be an easy upgrade that will only take about 30-60 minutes and will mostly likely be performed on an outpatient basis in the future (The SIPS bypass is much less complicated and less invasive that the VSG part of the procedure). In the end, both the RNY and VSG are excellent options that are very effective for weight loss. You can't go wrong, with either one. However, if you like and trust your surgeon and if he or she has been gently nudging your towards the sleeve, you should probably take his or her advice.

Banded when I was 46, hoping to revise to RNy before I turn 56

My revision surgery was on May 24th. I have lost 52lbs. I’m 19lbs from my goal. Still learning about and adjusting to my new life!

Hi! I’m still in the waiting period and work up for band to bypass. I’m not sure yet but guessing surgery will be scheduled in January. How are you both doing/feeling? Anything I should be aware of with the revision? Thanks!

I am very interested. I had complications from the sleeve. I was already down to 165lbs and had to have a revision to bypass. There were more complications and I was in the hospital for 3 weeks, two of which were NPO before they put me on TPN. I lost another 20lbs, but a ton of muscle mass. Being a bypass patient it’s hard getting enough calories to support working out. I’m dying to see what advice if any you can offer.

My revision was on July 24th I have lost 26.8 lbs and am 14 lbs away from my first goal.

Hi! I was a revision from band to sleeve in June 2017! Trying to get back on the wagon again. Only 16 pounds away from my personal goal. Water is a big one for me... oh and carbs and sugar!

RNY-to-sleeve revisions happen, but it's apparently mostly because of severe reactive hypoglycemia and other really weirdly specific complications. Sleeve-to-RNY is more common in part because the sleeve was eventually conceived as a safer surgery to give people with much higher BMIs, with the intention of converting them to RNY once they lost enough weight that that was a safe option for them. They started doing it as a standalone procedure when many of those patients opted not to come in for the second surgery, being successful with just the sleeve. But sleeve-to-RNY absolutely does happen, still, especially for people who have uncontrolled GERD or who can't lose enough weight with the sleeve alone. In my pre-op testing they found some small lesions in my esophagus, which might have been esophagitis or might have been a small amount of GERD. I went with the sleeve despite that, because I also have arthritis and might need to take ibuprofen and other NSAIDs again, ever, in my life. (Also, I had been taking large amounts of NSAIDs over a long period of time, and they may have been responsible for some of the damage they found.) I can't tell you how that turned out for me, since I'm only a week post-op, but I will say my doctor didn't try to sway me toward RNY at all, and given that I also had a hernia repaired, I'm pretty hopeful that it'll all turn out OK.

I understand, when I was talking with my surgeon about getting my band out and revising, I was leaning towards the sleeve as well. But, I ended up going with the Bypass. My surgeon won't do band to sleeve revisions due to increased rate of staple line failure due to the scar tissue created by the band. She would have sent me to another surgeon in her practice if I *really* wanted it, but she wouldn't do it. She installed my band, and I was really looking forward to having her do my removal and revision because of how skilled she is, so this really set me back. I originally turned my nose up at the bypass, for all the wrong reasons, because I was provided with incorrect or incomplete information when I asked around this site. It wasn't until I started doing my own deep dive into the reality of the surgery that I realized there was more myth and false information spinning around. I can say, that I'm absolutely tickled I decided to go with the bypass. The Ghrelin thing, is another topic that's not fully researched, not everyone loses the hunger sensation, and then, MOST folks regain it down the road. I'm over 6 months post op from the bypass, and my hunger sensation is TOTALLY different than before hand. Will that change? Maybe, but at this point, I've been able to really isolate the "head hunger" vs "real hunger" thing. Not everyone gets GERD issues post sleeve. But, that's one thing that is pretty much NOT going to happen with the bypass, due simply to the new layout. Does each have their pros and cons... clearly. I can only provide you with facts as they are, my experience, my knowledge from my own research and let you take the reigns from there. Sleeve to RNY revision happens a decent amount (I've got a friend of mine, like a IRL friend that had to get his sleeve revised to rny just a few months ago), there are RNY to Sleeve revisions, but those are *VERY* far and few between, you'll see Band over Bypass revisions more than you'll see RNY to Sleeve revision. Either way, research EVERYTHING and make the most informed decision you can based on your situation. Good luck! If you have any questions or follow up or just want to chat, shoot me a PM.

@Screwballski that dinner sounds delicious btw lol... i'm just so torn as i know sleeve is irreversible i'm just wondering what the percentage of sleeve revising to RNY v RNY to sleeve revision percentages are? and i do worry about GERD but also know a lot of people have had the hernia repair while under and been fine ;/ just kind of a catch 22 im hoping it will help mine either way i go

To be fair Matt, it’s 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Neither is reversible. They become variations of each other when you make the switch to/from. I'm sorry, but the Bypass **IS** reversible. It doesn't happen often, but it certainly does happen. There has been, at least 1 member here in the last, month or so that was approved for RNY reversal. And to be clear, I am fully aware of the process for revisions. I'm specifically stating, that the bypass *CAN* be reversed, under special circumstances, that *HAVE* happened to at least 1 member of this site within the last month or so, whereas the sleeve *CANNOT* be reversed, under any circumstances. And a quick google for "RNY Reversal" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4196428/ https://www.soard.org/article/S1550-7289(14)00472-9/abstract Conclusions Reversal of RYGB to normal anatomy is reasonable in patients with severe or refractory complications.

I was a band to Sleeve revision in May. I had slight GERD, even with my band because it had been faulty for over 12 years. My surgeon wanted to do RNY, I really felt strongly that I wanted a sleeve. In the end, we decided to do the sleeve if it was possible when he saw what was going on inside. I woke up to a sleeve. I couldn’t be happier. I took PPI’S for the first 90 days while stomach healed, like most patients. I’ve been off them now for a couple weeks. Not a single issue. I had a jalapeño meatball and a Buffalo glazed rib at a gourmet taster event Saturday. No Tums required. 👍🏻🙂. Your stomach may be quite different.