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Hello everyone. Today marks my 6 month Post-op Band to RNY Revision. It's been an interesting ride. March 21st, I arrived for my surgery at 0600. Was taken back to prep at 0630 and was in surgery before 0730. My surgery was a tough one, the band was fully encapsulated in scar tissue and took almost 4 times longer to remove than it should have, the surgery itself lasted much longer than expected. But, thankfully my super awesome surgeon Dr. Beth Ryder stuck with it and completed the full revision rather than only removing the band. I remember it being after 3pm when I made it to the recovery room. Recovery, for me, was super easy. I was a little weak/woozy for my first walk around recovery. But once I got to my room for the rest of my 3 day 2 night stay, things were just super easy. I would disconnect and reconnect myself from pretty much everything to do my walks. I didn't need any extra nausea meds or pain meds. I did have an on demand morphine drip if needed. I'd hit that before I had to do any big moves, or to help me sleep. But that's really it. They took that away early on my last day, it was no longer needed. At home, things continued to be easy, I was already familiar with the log roll method of getting in and out of bed from my lapband surgery, so I had zero issues with that. I took my time with things, followed my instructions and made sure to hit all my requirements. The weight loss has been both amazing, and frustrating. I weigh myself every day. I know it's not advised, but I like to track it daily if possible. I have a scale that does body fat % as well and this has helped quell some of the frustration, those stalls, I'd see my body fat % dropping, so I knew that even if my weight wasn't moving, that I was still on track. It helped a bit, but still, it was / is, frustrating. I feel fantastic. I've had issues with not recognizing myself in mirrors which is a trip. I've almost broke down in tears because I could shop at normal stores, I bought things right off the rack without trying them on and they fit exactly as I expected. I'm much more active, have less issues with lots of things. I'm very happy overall. There have been some odd "side effects". I have thoracic spinal arthritis. Guess I've had it for a while, but because I was fat, the visceral fat that covers our bones, tendons, joints, muscles, etc, was insulating the nerves from the arthritis. So, I drop a ton of weight... and now I can feel it. Also, with the visceral fat loss, tendons and other connective areas had gotten a little, slack/loose/painful. But that wasn't anything some time in the gym couldn't fix. Working out really REALLY helped tighten up areas that were excessively loose, internally. Excess skin isn't super bad either. Which is awesome seeing as I'm coming from a max of 370. Yes I've got a bunch of odd "crinkly" skin, but it's not near as bad as I had expected. I got lucky and didn't have to deal with hair loss either. Thankful for that. I'm hairier now it seems. I guess with reducing the "stretch" my skin had to do in order to accommodate me being overweight caused the follicles to become spaced out more. So I'm not "hairier" exactly, but my follicles are closer together making for the appearance of being hairier. I've had some CRAZY emotional swings. Fat stores estrogen, So as you lose weight, expect there to be hormonal imbalances. Make sure whomever your support is, knows this as well, so when things get heated or super emotional, they'll understand that you are dealing with weight loss related hormonal changes. I'm able to eat pretty much anything I want now. Which is a double edged sword. I can eat cake and cookies and cupcakes without any real issue. But, I can eat cake, cookies, cupcakes without any issue... so, will power is still needed. I got lucky and my hunger sensation is still very low. I don't get a "full" feeling exactly, but I get to a point where I just don't want to eat anything else. I still take my time and I don't drink within 30 mins of eating. I'm currently doing a light Intermittent Fasting (IF), I'm eating between the hours of 8am and 6pm and that's pretty much it. The science behind this process is pretty sound and makes TONS of logical sense. March 21st, I weighed in at 294.4. Today, I weighed in at 224.1, 70.3 lbs dropped since surgery, 145.9 lbs since my heaviest. Thank you to all for your help and support. I hope to continue hanging around providing any help I can to those walking the same path. To all: Learn to love yourself. Learn to forgive yourself. Stay strong, everything is only temporary.

Those are 3 very different topics and wouldn't be all in 1 place on any site. I'm a band to bypass revision myself, if you've got any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them if I can.

Thank you guys...that's kind of what I've been thinking, and feeling like I should go with my gut. But yikes, it's scary too.....I am scared about what will happen if I don't do something drastic (i.e. revision). Ugh! What I'm shocked about....surely this has to be more common, right....sleeve to bypass revisions? Why is no one talking about it?

SEPTEMBER 26th for me@shoregirl75! Revision sleeve to bypass and I am scared out of my wits but every now and again excitement peeks through! congrats pray all went well Sent from my SM-N950U using BariatricPal mobile app

I 2nd @GreenTealael 's sentiment. It's either really bad scheduling or he's got so many "flukes" there is no way around scheduling them all together. I would definitely consult a 2nd surgeon, maybe even a 3rd. Sorry I can't give you any input on the revision but the bigger concern is this surgeons response to your question about the complainers. Best of luck to you!! Sorry @GreenTealael I wound up getting my curser stuck in the box of your name and can't type anything after it when that happens. So you get 3 shouts.@GreenTealael

Sexymomma - Congratulations on your upcoming surgery! Why am I sooooo nervous??? It is not my first weight loss surgery! I had a lap band placed in 2006. Revised to the gastric sleeve just last year...July 2017 and now scheduled for the granddaddy of all RNY on September 26th due to extremely painful GERD! I can't enjoy the excitement of being scheduled because my head space has me hung up and all in my feelings! The strangest and most frustrating thing is I can't figure what in the HECK I'm even nervous about! Tell me there are others out there that have been on this emotional rollercoaster while on their journey's. I can't be the only one.....right???????

Not a revision patient but stopped by and answered because this sends up red flags. Why would this office schedule 5 dissatified patients at the same time to be in the same room discussing the same thing within earshot of new patients? Sloppy. Either it's not a fluke they have a lot of issues or they need a significantly better office manager. Either way, never a *good* thing IMHO I would totally get a second and third opinion, diligently research the surgeon you chose.

Busy looking at revising from a band to an RNY. What is the difference between that and the DS.Are there long term stats on weight loss, regain etc?

Bypass complications Preparing for surgery Revisions from band to bypass I would like to be able to find all the threads relating to a topic in one place

Hi! I lost almost 140 lbs w/my sleeve but have slowly regained 35 lbs over the last 3 years. I'm scared I'll be back to where I started at this rate. Since my original bariatric surgeon passed away, I went to see another WLS doc and he performed an endoscopy. Said I have a hernia, reflux, kink in my sleeve and stretched out sleeve, so that is why I'm gaining weight. He recommends a revision from sleeve to bypass. He also said the surgeon who did my sleeve had a different (inferior) technique for doing sleeves, thus this Dr. does a lot of revisions for my original surgeon. Insurance has approved but I'll have out of network coverage. Here is my concern: In the waiting room of this surgeon's office, it just so happened there were 5 revision patients, and they told horror stories of complications, and ending up in severe pain, kinked intestines, needing additional emergency surgeries, not being able to eat, pain months after, regret, etc. I'll be honest....it scares me!! I asked this surgeon about those patients, and the doc said it was flukes, that there are a few people who have complications, but they may not be following directions, or maybe they had numerous WLS before, etc. I'm scared if I do go forward with my planned revision, I could end up in worse health and have regrets, but I am scared if I don't, I'll end up where I started 5 years ago....very unhappy!! Would love to hear from a good number of folks who have had sleeve to bypass revisions, and what your experience was? Thank you in advance!!

Fellow RNY'ers, So in my quest to understand what and how we should eat, the other night I watched "What the Health" Documentary on Netflix.... Because yes I want to loose weight but even more than that I want to be healthy, have vitality, have energy, nourish my body and re-learn how to eat to support those goals. Let's just say I was...disturbed. It seems like EVERYTHING I thought about food is...wrong!? I walked over and watched my kiddos (6 and 8), peacefully sleeping, and I felt like I was failing them. For I have taught that Eggs, Milk, Chicken, Yogurt etc is good. Following this documentary I hesitate to ever buy those products again. But what and how do I replace those items?? And to my dismay I also realized that , as a person 4 weeks post Sleeve to RNY revision, I know that going forward my diet will be very much an animal protein first diet, then a few spoons of veggie. My mind is swarming a little and I'm trying to make sense of this new knowledge. I called my doctors office and made an appointment with a nutritionist, but in the meantime....if any of you has watched this or cares to watch it and discuss, please post here. I would really love to know your thoughts and reactions.

It's crazy that they didn't suggest a revision when they removed your lap band. In most of the things I've read and watched, that seems to be the case.

The idea is that pretty much*NO ONE* losses all 100% of excess weight. The majority of folks lose 60% of their total excess. Your excess weight is calculated by taking your "Ideal weight" and subtracting that from your actual weight. Then taking that number and taking 60% of that. That's how much you can expect to lose. At 5 foot 4 with a BMI of 36, that would put you at about 210 lbs. The "ideal" weight for a female that's 5 foot 4 would be between 108 and 132 lbs. So lets split that for the sake of math. Lets call the ideal weight 120. That means your excess is 90 lbs. 60% of 90 is 54 lbs. So you can expect to hit 256 lbs without too much trouble. If you don't follow your guidelines you might not hit that, if you really work with it, you should be able to go lower, but the "average" is 60%, so for you, about 54lbs going off of the limited information I was able to locate from your profile. For me, Ideal for 5 foot 9 is 144-176. I'm going to assume 175, I don't ever expect to hit that though. But lets just call my ideal weight 175. I started the bypass revision at 310. That's 135 lbs of excess weight. Bypass reports a 65% excess loss. I could expect to lose only 87.75 lbs. So I should bottom out at 222.25. I'm at 225 today and I can tell you, it's been VERY hard to get lower.

The band was over hyped, and under performed. I went into the band with all the praise and amazing reports of weight loss, etc. Sadly that information was skewed and reality was much different. I did lose 60-70 lbs with the band... but then it and I no longer saw eye to eye. The items I should have been eating, hurt or were problematic. I didn't have any slippage or erosion. But when my surgeon removed it, it took them almost 4x longer to remove it than they should have, because it was 100% encapsulated in scar tissue. I don't even want to think what would have happened if I left it in! The bypass has been everything the band was reported to be when I had it installed. My hunger sensations are greatly reduced, I don't have ANY issues getting stuck now, all the healthy foods the band fought me on, are not a problem at all now. I couldn't be happier with my revision, I'm losing weight like I wanted, I feel fantastic, I don't really have any issues now.

Thanks Matt Can you give me more info on why you believe the revision was the best choice ever.

I'm a band to bypass revision myself. Banded in 2011... revised this past March. BEST.CHOICE.EVER. The information on the operation is skewed by old data from older "versions" of the surgery. As medical technology has advanced... this procedure has become exponentially more safe.

wishing you well for your planned revision, there are many who have gone through this recently. My friend Ellie 123 from Texas comes to mind but there are many more, if you only look.

I was weighing up the choice between a revision to a bypass or doing nothing - I definitely wouldn't be looking at going against my surgeon's advice. My problem ( and my husbands) is that I still have this belief that I "should"be able to do it on my own.

I was revised from Band to Bypass in 1 surgery. There are plenty of folks that get their revisions done in 1 surgery, unless you have a medical need to do so, doing 2 surgeries isn't necessary. Somethings to be aware of, and I mention this because my surgeon brought it up when I asked about revision from Band to another WLS. Band to Sleeve is a higher risk surgery due to the staple line from the Sleeve going right through the scar tissue created by the band. This creates a weak point in an already high pressure incision line. This is why I ended up going Band to Bypass and not Band to Sleeve. Also, the sleeve is just another version of a restriction surgery, the reports that you'll never be hungry again because they are going to take 80-90% of your stomach out... is not 100% accurate, it's **NOT** a guarantee at all. Actually, you are more likely to develop GERD or other acid reflux issue than to never be hungry again. Just somethings to think about.

My surgeon advised against band to sleeve revision due to the sleeve being a higher pressure surgery, and the whole staple line going right through the scar tissue created by the band making that point a weak spot that's more prone to failure. My revision from Band to RNY, the recovery was about the same. The sleeve does have a slew of potential "issues" during the healing phase, people having tolerance issues with certain foods etc for a little while that might make things interesting, but as far as being able to do stuff like driving, the general rule is, no driving until you are totally off all of the narcotic pain meds.

I was revised from the lapband to the duodenal switch a year ago. I think driving three days after surgery is a little too soon. I would wait at least a week. You might still be on painkillers and still feel rather sore.

I was talking I terms of the three major wls offered : VSG, RNY & DS. You can "eat around" (intake a surplus of cal) all of the surgeries but only RNY & DS have malabsorption as an added layer to expedite weight loss and effectiveness. There is tons of research out there that states the further out you get the less effective the malabsorption. On the flip side VSG has become popular because the anatomical change doesn't *appear* as extreme as the others and everyone worries about malabsorption isssues long term. If the choice is yours consider: Do you have/or at risk of developing GERD? (Some get it anyway years later) Are you willing to have a revision surgery to correct it or for insufficient weight loss? (You may get different insurance, can't predict the future) Do you have additional medical/concerns ailments? How much do you have to lose? How fast? Why? Do you have eating/food issues that are not well managed/unaddressed? I personally only decided to go with VSG over RNY because I have medical issues & vitamin deficiencies that would have gotten much worse immediately with a super rapid drop , I didn't think I could physically handle it and if I ever need a revision (medical only) I will push for DS as it was the natural progression of the VSG path (originally designed as stage 1 of 2 of DS) Hope I was helpful, let me know

I am 7 days today revision from sleeve to bypass, hiatal hernia repair and gallbladder removal. I have had a rough time getting my fluids in and a lot of stomach spasms. The day after surgery in the hospital I did great. I drank fine went home second day no problem. But them I started have stomach spasms with cold fluids and my protein drinks. I couldn't get my fluids in and got dehydrated. I am doing better with getting fluids in, but I had a bad 3 hours bout with spams last night for unknown reasons. I go to the doctor tomorrow and I am hoping to move forward to pureed but I am nervous about having more problems with my pouch not liking it I never had any issues with spasms with the sleeve only just felt full. Anyone in pureed yet? Anyone having trouble with spasm? How do u feel the restriction? Do you just feel like you are full? Sent from my VS996 using BariatricPal mobile app

So I am at the point where it’s my decision to choose which surgery I want and it’s been so dang hard to choose. I was scheduled to have the sleeve done but then with possible revision of sleeve was not as successful. But got word my insurance only covers one surgery in a life time. So I only have one chance at this. So now I’m having to make the decision again bypass or sleeve?!? I have Dr. Chylsta and I am thinking he likes to do the sleeve but I can’t gauge his opinion. So just wanting to ask others who have been down this journey. What surgery do you think would be most successful? Just asking opinions ... I know it’s ultimately my decision. Thanks in advance!😊

My surgery was over 3 times longer than it should have been for a Band removal revision to RNY. I arrived at 6am, was in prep by 630 and was in the surgical suite by 730-800. I was awake and coherent before around the same time my bed made it back to the recovery room. My family was allowed in at that point (once I was awake) From there I did a little light walking, then I was wheeled up to my room within an hour or so. I was then in my room for the rest of day 1, 2 overnights and I was home before 1pm on the 3rd day of my stay.