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I have had my band for a couple years now and I have had very little success and feel I eat worse than I did before I got the band. I wish I had gotten the sleeve instead and now Idk how to getting a revision done. I always feel deprived of food with the band and only eat slider foods so I feel satisfied. Idk what to do I am disappointed in myself and the band. Any suggestions?

Ok i have just been worried that i pushed it. I know my dr told me to eat till im full so that i can get as much nutrition from my food as possible and inwas afraid maybe i was just advancing too fast. I know people can stretch their sleeves and wind up needing revisions and i dont want that to happen i just wanna make sure im doing it right. Thanks everyone.

Hi Dr Illan, I may have asked you this but when you do a sleeve revision to mini bypass, do you re-do the stretched sleeve to make it small again? Or just the bypass part?

It makes me very sad to read this and know that your daughter is suffering. That alone should be reason enough to have the surgery. I would go to the hospital and have them x-ray and show that there is trauma going on in there and that this needs to be removed before more than pain is the issue. It is abdominal surgery but no longer bariatric since she is not having WLS. She is not revising to another surgery she is simply having a foreign body that is causing a danger to her organs removed. A general surgeon and/or a gastric surgeon should be able to do this procedure without issue and the insurance company should not dispute it. I would contact and visit a gastroenterologist and see if they can be of help with the insurance company. Please let us know how things work out.

So I'm new to this but I had a hernia repair and a lap band revision to gastric sleeve on July 19th! I'm pretty excited with this new choice of life but confused at the same time. I never know if I'm eating enough I always have a rumble in my stomach. I'm not able to drink anymore than one bottle of Water a day. I sip on it all day but never exceeded one bottle. I know that's not good and I'm probably dehydrated but I feel stuffed after a few swallows but my stomach sounds like it needs food. I eat sf Jello, broth, Greek yogurt, and strained Soups but I'm not sure how much it too much. After two spoons of something I'm done. Is this normal?? My doctor has now allowed mushy foods. What should I eat and how much is normal? On the bright side I've lost a total of 19lbs but it sounds so unhealthy.

Hello, I am 1 month band revision to gastric sleeve...doing well down 28 lbs but am very tired no energy at all, trying to get my all my protein and vitamins and have been trying to walk but without energy its really difficult. When will I get my energy back ? Looking forward to get back to gym but it does not look like it will be anytime soon.

Hello, I was heavier but otherwise healthy. Started at 272 and had a band in 2007 at 25 yrs old. I loved that band! Over 2 yrs I lost 100 pounds and would recommend it to anyone looking for help.It was amazing for 4 yrs, then everything slowly went into the crapper. I had multiple slips and it plain old wasn't working. Finally the tubing cracked so I went in for a revision in December. I was excited to have my lovely band back, but it was not to be. When I went for my first fill after the revision the port had flipped and was not accessible. On May 26 I hay band removed and opted for a gastric sleeve. I already feel much better, not to mention I'm happy to have the foreign (and broken) object removed. Good luck with whatever decision you choose. Just be aware many bands are being revised into different surgeries and they are not nearly as common as they were a few short years ago

most people don't lose weight nearly as fast after a revision as they do after a virgin surgery. So your 33 lb drop is actually very good! Check with your surgeon's office as to what you should be eating. All surgeon's plans are different.

I am having my revision surgery on April 6th with Dr Edward Mun. Does anybody have information regarding VSG with him? My surgery will be at Kaiser Harbor City.

I had the revision in August 2013 and lost 30lbs pretty quickly but the weight loss has stopped all together and it's frustrating. I lost 135lbs from the band and got pregnant gained some weight and I'm still 60lbs from where I want to be but the weight isn't moving! I thought this was just me the sleeve is a much slower way for me to lose weight but I know much safer way since I had a lot of vomitting with the band. I'm not eating bad foods, I exercise reguarly and the weight isnt' going anywhere....

Have you addressed these questions with your surgeon or NUT? I am a bit confused at your first question. You've already had the revision surgery but you aren't sure of the difference between the band and the sleeve? I am POSITIVE I am misunderstanding that. And no, mashed potatoes are NOT liquid. If you can't drink it through a straw, it's not liquid. (And no, just because you CAN drink it through a straw, doesn't mean you should. Milkshakes are out of the question! ) THINK PROTEIN!! If you get all your Protein in, you should not have room for anything else.

Sounds good. As I may be revising to sleeve, I'll be following your reports. My fate has yet to be determined, as I'll be reacquainting myself with my surgeon, NP and the gang. It's been a while, not a good one. I was banded twice four days apart at age 61. You're the only other person I've come across who had a similar experience, but moreso. If my second surgery had been problematic, I don't know that I would have gone for a third. My med plan required an overnight stay which worked in my favor. For the rest of the day after surgery #1 (10cc band), I was able to sip Water easily. Went for esophagram the following morning; the barium came right up. After that, not even the smallest sips of water would stay down. My surgeon thought that there may have been much fat on the side of the liver not visible during surgery or that I may have had swelling at the band site (or both, I suppose). I was put on IV for hydration and we decided to wait a few days to see if any internal swelling would go down. My initial feeling was, "Get this damned thing out of me and let me go home." Then I switched to, "After all this there is no way in hell that I'm leaving here without a band." Still unable to tolerate sips, we went back to surgery on day #4 (14cc band). All was well thereafter; went home the following day. I love my surgeon and never found fault with her. She truly felt bad for my experience and was supportive all the way. To make a long story longer, I did wonderfully well the first 15 months and then went downhill, an incident started me on regaining much of what I'd lost. On two occasions my band was loosened due to dilation and I'm sure I'm dilated again. Hence, my expectation that revision is on the horizon (the NP suggested I see the surgeon to discuss this quite a while ago). I don't want to walk away from the whole thing. I want to see through what I started way back. Your big smile is visible in your message. Keep going.

My story has been a long 10 year roller coaster ride both in weight and emotion! I was banded at 18 in California. I was just under 250 at 5'1". I had an easy surgery and started losing pretty quickly. After a couple years, I was down almost 100lbs and feeling great until suddenly, in August 2005, I couldn't swallow Water. My band had slipped and badly. I went into surgery the next day to have my band fixed, but due to erosion, it was removed and as the surgeon put it to my parents, he "MAY have punctured my stomach trying to navigate scar tissue, but it was difficult to tell what was a puncture and what was an erosion." I was devastated to put it lightly and spent 9 days in the hospital recovering. Insurance refused to replace the band (despite multiple appeals) because my BMI was too low. My surgeon and I worked through the year on appeals and by June, I had climbed back to my starting weight of 250. We found out in March that when my insurance changed at the beginning of the year, they had made WLS a contract exclusion and we had exhausted our appeals. I decided that if I wanted my band back, I would have to pay for it and began looking into options out of the country. For a bunch of different reasons, I ended up choosing a hospital and surgeon in Mumbai, India. The surgeon in Mumbai told me that my first band was placed so high, that my scar tissue wasn't in his way at all. I now wonder if that is the only reason my first band worked so well. I had a new lap band placed in August 2006 at 269lbs (my highest weight) and went home filled with hope. My hope faded as over the next year I only lost around 40-50lbs or so. Not a small amount of weight, but only half of what I lost the first time and only about a third of what I was hoping for. This band never worked like the first one. By 2012 I was back up to 250. My band has dilated for the 2nd time. I have unfilled, gone through nutrition counseling and slowly refilled twice, both times with the hope that I could do it... but it just isn't working. My current insurance has a contract exclusion as well, and will not remove or revise my band unless it is life threatening. Instead of going through lengthy appeals (since that worked so horribly before), I decided to self pay again. My first thought was just get this band out of me... I just want to be done! I'm tired of being stuck and puking only to end up over eating in the end. But after speaking at length with my primary care, I started to consider revising to the Vertical Sleeve. I've been researching for a few months now and I've officially made up my mind... I'm going for it!! I'm terrified of failure, but I'm more terrified of being unhealthy for the rest of my life and never being the healthy active parent that my daughters deserve. This time I am going with Dr. Fernando Garcia in Tijuana with Ready 4 a Change. His extensive experience with band to sleeve revisions gives me hope. Through verticalsleevetalk.com I have been able to talk to literally hundreds of his patients, so many of whom were previously banded. I have my surgery scheduled for May 11th and I'm fearful that I am starting to get my hopes up that this will be the right path for me. I am hoping that this roller coaster will take one final dip (hopefully at least a 100lb dip lol). My kids need a mom that can keep up with them and I know I can't do that on my own.

This thread post gives me hope. I had an upper gi done and was told my sleeve is stretched. I have an appointment this week to discuss a revision. My new doctor wants to do bypass and my insurance covers revision. I'm only worried about whether or not they will pay for mine because my bmi is 31. I'm hoping they say it's medically necessary and cover it.

Not only is is possible, it's very common. It's one of the main reasons I chose bypass in the first place, honestly. So many people have issues or do not get to their goal with the sleeve. Then again, it works perfectly for some people. If you are not happy with where you are, then a revision may be just right for you.

My tongue is covered in thrush.I am 2 week revision lapband to gastric bypass.It is horrible.Calling my doctor on Monday.Any suggestions? ...and I smell weird!

I'm only almost 4 weeks out from revision surgery but I would say that so far I'm losing weight faster that initially with the band. Total weight loss including pre-op I've lost a little over 30 pounds so far. I hope that the weight keeps coming off. The band was very difficult. So far I don't have the hunger like I did with the band.

I'm a band to sleeve revision. It's too early for me to talk about long term results but I have a neighbor who had the bypass and has gained a lot of her weight back. Both options are not going to lose the weight for us - we need to take advantage of this wonderful tool that has been given to us

I think that both surgeries are reasonable options. Posting here, you are obviously going to get a pro sleeve bias. I am very happy with my choice, but I can understand why another person would chose the rny. I think that 3 critical things need to go into the decision: 1. Relative risk of complications (revisions are always higher risk, but ask about the difference between sleeve and rny) 2. Outcomes based on the data available. Factor in some risk for lack of long term weight loss/maintanence data for the sleeve. 3. Lifestyle/eating/long term living with either procedure. This in the end was probably the deciding factor for me. I am scared of GERD with the sleeve (so far doing great!) but I had a pouch with the band and ultimately decided I never want THAT AGAIN. I am not trying to sell anybody on the sleeve, but you can read mine and other revision patient posts. After the initial few months, I feel like I eat very normally just small quantities. IT is a huge leap better then the band and I honestly felt like it was being sentenced to h*ll to have to spend the rest of my life with a pouch that restricted food in that way and that caused vomiting.

Hi Squeaky, I'm new here too and in a very similar boat. Also had band in 2008, lost similar, gained back similar, and now just DONE with it (the band). So I'm, obviously, going in for revision. I'm on the fence now between having just the sleeve, and having the Duodenal Switch. I would like to think that I'll do well with the just the sleeve, but........I thought I'd do well with just the band too. I have found a surgeon, apparently the ONLY one in Melbourne who does the DS. He's agreed to do it, as the final stage of a 3 stage op. First stage being removal of the band, second stage getting the sleeve 10 weeks later (although I'm going to see if he won't agree to do it at 8 weeks), and then stage 3 a year out from the sleeve he'll do the DS, if it needs to be done. He doesn't think it will. I am not so confident myself. The more I read on here, the better I feel about having just the sleeve but.........I just remember how I started out really well with the band, and started having endless stuckage problems, sliming, vomiting, (the scale wasn't moving, at all)........ultimately I too figured out how to eat around it to avoid those painful and often embarrassing problems. I'm just afraid that the weight is not going to come off at a pace that I'm going to be happy with. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect to lose 10 lbs a week or anything, and i am aware that there will be some weeks that I don't lose at all. But I know that I am unable to deal with that scale not budging for weeks at a time, especially if I AM busting my a**. that's where I'm worried........because when I'm putting in 300% effort and getting nothing in return (on the scale and shrinking I mean....I know there are health benefits that one doesn't see), I get angry and frustrated. I suppose that is classified as impatience? I think expecting to drop a couple of lbs a week, as an average, is fairly realistic. Note I say as an average, so I know that some weeks it will be more or less. But I've been on the 10 week stall, and by the end, I was so angry! It didn't help that my doctors were telling me it was ME, when I knew it wasn't, and my husband suddenly became the food police and I wasn't even eating naughty stuff yet........talk about throwing in the towel! Anyway, sorry to ramble. I just wanted you to know you're not alone, up there on the fence! Cheers. :-)

Well, apparently I joined here back in June but never posted anything, don't remember that, but here we go. I'm 28, I've been overweight since birth, 12 pound butterball. Played all the typical big boy sports and filled the typical big boy roles throughout my school years. Now, a married father of 3, with aspirations of becoming a patrol officer for the department I currently work for, it was time to jump ship from conventional wisdom and methods as my blood work was getting worse, family history started to bleed over in to my history, thyroid was jacked, metabolism in the crapper, I turned to lap band, and Dr. Kim here in Texas. I've always been active, I work out lifting at least 4 days a week, and do cardio hard at least 1 day, and do some sustained lighter cardio at least 1 day as well. I'm a certified NSCA-TSAC (Tactical Strength and Conditioning) coach, mostly done for my own gain but also to be able to spread knowledge to others regarding physical preparedness. I'm a competitive power lifter, and hold 2 current records in Texas. I'm an outdoors kind of guy, hunting, fishing, off roading in my big ol' truck, camping, etc. At my heaviest I was 464, 2007. At that time, I freaked out. I dieted down to around 320 with the help of a doctor on a liquid diet for a long time, but of course, it all came back. I've tried low carb/high fat (which works to drop body fat for a while and adding muscle for me wonderfully) however the weight, of course, came back. I even tried HCG, which is what my doctor felt possibly screwed my thyroid and metabolism up, but it's not totally sure, blood levels changed quite a bit from before, to after HCG. I went to Dr. Kim and had several consultations and meetings, it was determined gastric sleeve would be the better, more successful route for me, and after reading and collecting my own information, I agreed. So, after a 6 month turned in to a 3 month nutrition class (insurance changed in 2013 with lesser requirements), I was approved 5 days after a submission my Aetna insurance company for a 20,000 lifetime coverage, revisions/emergency treatment not included in that amount. My sleeve date is going to be February 26th at Baylor Trophy Club, TX. Before then of course I have my stomach scope thing, and a pre-op class along with my physical and cardio testing. I'm crazy excited about things, and the pace in which it has moved along so far. Of course I'm nervous, but way more excited versus nervous about the whole thing. My wife and family have been amazingly supportive throughout the entire process. I guess I've ranted long enough, probably too long to actually read, but I'm long winded at times, especially when typing things out. I'm hoping, obviously, for a smooth recovery and surgery experience, but I'm prepared for things to not be so great from time to time. My Dr, and his staff have been amazing, and have gotten great results from past patients, so we'll see how things go. I'll get some before shots up in my profile eventually, I have some trouble areas I'm worried about for loose skin and such, but I think overall things will work out just fine. Thanks for reading.

Yes it's still a revision, first surgery with them but still a revision. If it was me, I'd get back in with my bariatric surgeon ASAP for a possible fill/unfill and to discuss options. You want her records to show that she is currently actively trying to lose weight... Good luck!!! Life without that stupid band is heaven!!!! HW 312, pre-op (lap-band) 294, pre-op (RNY) 255, surgery date 2/11/13, goal weight 154, current weight 231.4

I'm hoping this will be more the case for me, versus the 4+ hour ones I've heard of here. Looks like you're down quite a bit in the short time since your revision. Nice!

Hi all - sorry if this is an annoying repost, but I'm 1.5 months pre-op and I'm trying to get a general sense of how long people are generally in the OR? I think my band procedure was about 45 minutes. I know a lot of the length depends on complexity which depends on what they find when they get in there, but any stories would be appreciated!

Really depends on what's going on inside. I had it done in one procedure and had a TON of scar tissue and it took him like 4.5 hours. Most of it was removing the adhesions. I had my band in for 9.5 years. Good luck! Band to Vsg revision: 5/23/17 HW: 315+ Starting weight: 294 Surgery Day: 281 Current: 226 Goal 170