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May 21 I had the intestinal bypass. It was a revision from my sleeve. For the past 3 days I've been having diarrhea. Has this happened to anyone? If so what did u take? I'm barely getting my 64 oz of liquids and with this, I don't want to become dehydrated. I'm only doing clear liquids now. Please help!!! Sent from my SM-N950U using BariatricPal mobile app

I had my revision from Band to sleeve on May 17. Glad to here your surgery went went well, too!

First, congrats on starting your WLS journey. Second, Please do not take this as anything negative, but please do some research into the band, it's being phased out due to overhyped marketing and overwhelming under performance. Even the top 2 manufacturers are no longer making replacement parts, one company sold that portion of their business completely. There are far greater numbers of people that have had issues, complications or performance that was so subpar that they required revision to another WLS. I'm one of those revisions. I was banded in November of 2011. Lost 70lbs or so, but that was it, I was stuck bounding back and forth between 300 - 310 (and sometimes a little higher) nothing I did would break that plateau. I got stuck on foods that should have been fine, I had issues with leafy greens... in the end I revised to RNY and wish I went that route from the start. I got lucky, I didn't have any symptoms of major complications, but my band was 100% encapsulated with scar tissue and took my surgical team over 3 times longer to remove than it should have... I don't even want to know what would have happened if I didn't have it removed. Just a heads up, be informed and get all the information up front. Whichever you choose, understand it's not going to be an easy ride, WLS is not the short cut fast track to a skinny you. It all takes time, effort, patience and practice. Good Luck!

I was in a similar boat, had the band back in 11/2011, lost 70, then gained some back and then just couldn't lose anymore weight no matter what I did. So, I had the band removed and revised to RNY, wish I had done so sooner. Also, something they doesn't get discussed often, Your band could have some serious issues and you won't know unless they open you up. In my case, I had no *major* issues, I had some problems with certain foods, ut no slippage or erosion. Yet, when they went to remove the band for revision to RNY, the band was 100% encapsulated with scar tissue and took 3+ hours just to remove... So, you might not have any symptoms and you could have a ticking time bomb band in you, like I did.

I actually had this same question...was going to call my surgeon's office Monday, but it's a holiday. My revision from sleeve to bypass is Tues (29th). Have basically been on pureed soups for a few months....no solids, due to GERD. Planning on doing my full dose of Milk of Magnesia today, because like you, I have had major issues with constipation and for a long time. Was really concerned an whether or not I needed a bowel prep. Not a stupid question at all, thanks for asking it! Good luck with your revision on June 1st...we will be just a couple of days apart.

If it is any help, I had one of those “swallow a camera” test before my lap band was revised to RNY. He put the camera down, through my stomach, and into the top of the intestine past the stomach. I had to fast 12 hours first - and the entire area I watched on camera was as clean as a whistle! So, the bit they cut/sew/staple is clean as, after just 12 hours!

I would say contact your insurance company and speak with someone about your benefits. Ask them what the clinical steps are for you to have your revision. Usually they can give you the specifics of what your clinical qualifications are. Good luck!

I have not had my RNY yet October 2018 I will have it, but my reasons are : 1) my BMI high. 2) I am a insulin dependent diabetic , I have been on insulin for over 22 yrs and was told I would not get off all of it but most of it and most of my oral meds also for a laundry list of health issues. 3) it will give me better control because of the dumping . I know myself and I will need this extra kick, to not even think about “just a little taste will be ok” not for me it won’t !!!!! 4) I will lose weight faster but I know I will have to be spot on due to the malabsorption issues. Something else to help hold me accountable . 5) I don’t want to have to go in for a revision. I will save my 20% for my reconstruction surgery and not a second weight loss surgery. 6) my doctors feel it will work better for me and I have killer heartburn at times be kind to yourself , everyone makes mistakes.

Help!! I am wondering if anyone has any experience with Highmark after having a revision. I am looking to have a band to sleeve revision but I am concerned that it may possibly not be covered due to my current BMI which is 35. According to my plan coverage it states it will be covered at 35 with at least 1 co morbidity if there was failure to lose weight or complications which I fit. My concern is the co morbidities. I have had sleep apnea when I was diagnosed prior to banding 5 years ago but unsure if I do currently .. although my husband and kids say I am snoring really loud now again.. but I haven’t had and new sleep studies. I really need to get this surgery done and I don’t want to disqualify myself for insurance payment. I really don’t want to gain weight ..any suggestions or input on what I should do!!!!! HELPPPPPP!!!!!!!

A lot of people go with the sleeve for their own various reasons. To my own surprise. I thought I was only going to see 150 but my body surprised me. Motivation gets you places. I lost about 149 lbs altogether. The reasons why I chose bypass over the sleeve are because: 1. I loved the idea of losing weight faster 2. My surgeon recommended RNY because of my BMI. We were on the same page which made me happy, therefore I listened to her and glad I listened to her and my gut feeling. 3. I wanted to get the surgery to help with portion control. 4. I needed dumping syndrome to keep me in line with bad eating habits and it does. 5. Although some do and some don't, I have a history of Acid Reflux and getting the sleeve would have made that worse which only made me want bypass more. 6. Just wanted more bang for my buck. 7. Didn't want to risk getting a revision if the sleeve didn't work out for me in the end. Now a year post op and never regretted my decision once. Glad I did it. 🙂 Hw-273 Sw-226 CW-124 GW-130 Size- 2, Small in sweats. Small in shirts. depends on how it's cut or made. Bra Size- 34C Surgery Date- April 26th, 2017 RNY "Only those who try will become" FFX

Thank you so much for your response! That’s what I’m scared of doing, by getting the sleeve and it not working. And having to do a revision. You are strong for going through the surgery more than once! ❤️

I had over 100 lbs. to lose and I originall my had the sleeve. Didn’t lose anything(in the end), developed extreme GERD, & felt no restriction over time. i ended up having a revision 7 years after my sleeve after resetting my sleeve, 5 day sleeve test, kept diet etc. I am only 15 days post op my revision to bypass but glad I had it. I feel for me, that the malabsorption and restriction is what I need versus just restriction from the sleeve. And the recovery was exactly the same for me for sleeve and revision; as well as operation time (about 3 hours each) everyone’s experience is different and it’s about how compliant you are as well. I feel for me dumping syndrome is a slap in the face to let you know that you aren’t suppose to be eating this or that. I see that there’s a lot of leniency for this with sleeve sometimes. And personally that’s something I can’t handle i will never say that one surgery is better than the other but for some people bypass is better than VSG and vice versa. I have seen some amazing results with vsg and I have seen some horrible results with bypass that scare me. It is a tough decision for sure

My period stopped for a few months after surgery and then it was back to normal. The hunger may also be due to the reflux. Will it go away? Only time will tell. I've had reflux for 2 years and maxed out on several meds. A revision is in my near future. Are you on a PPI???

Girl what you just wrote sounds like ME!!!! I refuse to go to the bar, why watch people drink when I can't?! I need to focus on my mental and physical health first. I wrote this on a few other threads, but its a combination of things, acid re flux, and the surgeon didn't take enough of my stomach out. My revision surgery team said that in my GI series, it didn't even look like a stomach that had been sleeved, and it wasn't because of pouch stretching. Bad luck I guess! But, thank goodness I got a second chance. A lot of people say, "omg I would be so angry, that's not fair, etc" but I look at it like yeah it sucks, but that's life sometimes! With the bypass, I think that i will have more success, and there is less that can go wrong in my situation. He asked if I wanted to be re-sleeved and I said hell no, I'm terrified of that now. Losing 50 pounds to gain 70 is a nightmare!!! It works for soooo many people, and I am so happy for that, I am just the unlucky one I guess! But on to better things! =)

Sounds a lot like me, I was ecstatic and I still am. I’m just so happy and grateful for my little pouch. From my approval all the way to surgery and even right now as I heal I stayed away from people and social media. I just needed to organize myself and time to be in my head. I didn’t go out or do much of anything. Buying the things I needed pre and post op and getting myself together was all I focused on. I also did a lot of cleaning to have my place ready when I got back from the hospital. I don’t have much clothes to donate because I literally lived off 2 pair of jeans and a few “just my size” shirts with and without sleeves. I refused to be buying clothes for my size. Are you having a revision because of GERD or do you feel like the sleeve isn’t the right tool for you? Today my goal will be to drink more water 🤢 Yo-Yo Girl from New York City

LOL agreed fellow New Yorker!! Some people just don't know how to answer the question. And ironically enough, although I do not 100% the answer to your question, I'm having my surgery next week for a revision sleeve to bypass. maybe we can stay in touch?! What i can tell you though, is when i had the sleeve I could barely drink the recommended 64oz daily. I would try to sip every 10 minutes but it was soooo uncomfortable. It would take me an entire day like this to even hit my fluid intake.

That's that "Revision pace", slower, but supposedly more consistent. Guess we'll see! Congrats BTW, I know exactly what you are dealing with LOL And now back to your regularly scheduled forum posts.

Hi @astarwalker I am a band to RNY revision. My band was 10 years ago, and my RNY just pre Christmas. I am now almost 20 lbs lower than I ever achieved with the band. I am on maybe 700-80 calories a day. I suck at getting my water in (excuse the pun) and like you work 14 hours a day and my exercise aim is slight! I have an Apple Watch and try and get 15 mins heart rate elevation exercise a day by taking stairs to visit staff across floors at work! My carbs: try for below 50 but certainly below 70g a day carbs, and 20g sugars. Most days 50g protein, sometimes 60g. Strictly 3 meals a day - my surgeon, who is following 1700 bypass folk in a longitudinal study, is adamant this is the key determinant of success. No snacking. Ever. I adhere 9/10 days...

I've been sleeved since 7/2015. I've put on about some weight this past year. I went back to my doctor and he suggested I do an EGD scope to see if there is anything going on especially since I've been having acid reflux. He found I have a retained fundus - which is a poooch out at the top of my sleeve. He said this is the cause of the weight gain and reflux. Since I'm a candidate for the revision to do the DS switch I have started the process for that next step. He will fix the retained fundus at the time of the next surgery. Has anyone dealt with this?

Ha Ha awesome, I have to do the conversion to see the numbers but that is so cool. I did not have a pre-op diet either. I was highest weight day of as well. I was a lap band to sleeve revision. Not sure if that is your case as well. My weight loss seems to be a little quicker the last week or two. Which is awesome. How is the working out going? I really want to get consistent with that. tomorrow I go for my 12 week checkup. How was all your lab work? sleeve twin Dawn Marie

I honestly believe the pain was less after the bypass than what I remember with the band. I was under for WAY longer than I was expecting. I went into pre-op at 0630 and it was almost 4 when I was wheeled into Recovery. I didn't know until my wife told me. Your confidence in your surgeon is paramount! If you are questioning his decisions, NEVER feel that you can't challenge or question your surgeon, You shouldn't feel like you can't ask for more information or pose the "why" questions. If he won't be open with you about what he's going to be doing, what the risks are, etc... then, personally, I would look for another surgeon. But give him the opportunity to answer, it could have been a long or hard day. I've got a pretty solid rep with my surgeon, she did my band back in 2011 and we've been back and forth over stuff enough that I really wouldn't want anyone else doing the revision. Plus, she put it in, she got to take it out, so there couldn't be any "well your last surgeon..." comments. (not that she would ever, but, you know how that goes). Hope you find the answers you need!

Band to Bypass revision on March 21st. Loving my choice! Not as fast at dropping the weight as some folks due to having had the band already, but I'm so happy I did it. I haven't been this light in over 15 years.

Hey loosinit, I'm a band to bypass revision myself. So I can 100% relate! Lemme see if I can tackle these questions for you. - Most times, barring any major complications the band can be removed and you can be revised to either in 1 surgery. Having been through this with the band already, recovering from the revision to bypass was a breeze. To be honest, pain was minimum overall. Being familiar with the pain and restrictions in movement from the band, were pretty much the same as with the bypass. Your healing time will vary of course, but, it wasn't any worse than the band for me. -My surgeon refuses to do Band to Sleeve, because putting a high pressure staple line across the scar tissue caused by the Band, increases the risk of staple line leakage or failure. Plus, you aren't going to get the malabsorption with the sleeve that you get with the bypass, so going from the band to the sleeve, might not get you the results you want or expect. (My surgeon told me if I really wanted the sleeve that I could go to another surgeon on her team, but she wouldn't do it, I appreciated her honesty) -Hair loss is a personal thing. My primary walked me through the reasons for hair loss, and it's due some form of shock to the system from the surgery, she advised that as long as I kept my protein intake high and kept up on my required nutrients that I might not see any hair loss at all. I'm 2 months out and haven't noticed anything yet, but we'll see in the next month or 2. But yes, the hair loss typically isn't a permanent thing. -Yes, with the bypass you will be unable to absorb certain B vitamins from food as you normally do. So yes, you will more than likely be on some sort of supplementation for the rest of your life. However, the only real risk is a vitamin deficiency, which takes several months to even occur let alone become deadly. Unless you just never take any vitamins and never get your blood checked or never bother to pay attention to your health... then it's not really that big of a risk overall. Side effects, the Bypass has dumping syndrome if you eat things that are too high in fat or sugar. Most don't see this as a negative side effect as cutting high fat, high sugar foods is actually good for your health. So dumping can be a great "coach" or "punishment" for not eating what you should be. The Sleeve and the Band aren't drastically different in terms of how your body handles the process, there is no adjustment to your intestines so outside of the restriction there isn't much else going on. Overall, I'm VERY glad I decided to go for the Bypass over the Sleeve Something else to think about, because I didn't. Your surgeon won't know the condition of the band until they get inside you. For me, I had no real issues with the band itself, outside of typical pain with certain leafy greens or harder foods getting stuck, but when the doctor got in there, my band was 100% encapsulated with scar tissue and took like 3 hours to get out, 3 times longer than it should have, I wouldn't have been able to have the sleeve even if that's what we were doing. If I was going in for the sleeve, they would have had to do 2 different surgery's, one to remove the band, then after I healed up from that, one to create the sleeve. No matter which way you go, good luck!

I am a Band to Bypass revision. My Surgeon advised against Band to Sleeve due to the increased potential for staple line issues due to the scaring caused by the band. There were others surgeons in her office that would do it, but she won't do them. I trusted her inputs and went with the bypass. And yes, logically you will lose weight at a slower pace, simply because you are already used to the restriction. Now, that's not to say it's not going to be amazing or "slow" by any means. But you have the potential to not lose as quickly. Going from no restriction and no malabsorption to both is clearly going to be more of an impact than going from some restriction and just adding malabsorption. But, either way, it's still worth it. My band was not causing issues, but it took them WAY longer to get it out than it should have because it was totally encapsulated in scar tissue. Now, revision to sleeve, you are not going to get any of the malabsorption, just a different type of restriction. From what I read when I was researching Band to Sleeve, it can be rather slow. Whatever you chose, Good Luck!

I am new here...looking to share experiences with people who have been sleeved as a revision surgery following failed LapBand. My surgeon told me (post op) that those who have been previously banded lose weight at a slower pace, although they don't know exactly what the mechanism is. Any experiences?