Search the Community

Did u go through this? How do u feel. Are you able to eat? I'm so scared of hairloss too... Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App No, I haven't but I have seen and talked to a lot of people who has gone through it. When I went to my check up at my bariatric center, I spoke to one girl who said she cried every day since her revision, poor thing . Yeah, I'm worried about hairloss too. I didn't go through it with my band because the weightloss wasn't as drastic, a normal 2-3 lbs a week or slower... So I'm a little worried this time around because our calories are sooo much lower.I have only loss 15 pounds in six weeks so my weightloss is not to drastic but they said it would happen because of the stomach hormones loss. Yea I cry alot and I don't know what to do to make it better. How far was the girl in the group post op? I don't know why this is so hard. Thanks for listening Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App No problem at all. Anytime. I didn't know about the hormones and hair, I only knew about the Vitamin deficiency and too fast weight loss by being anorexic when I was young. Sent from my SM-N910V using the BariatricPal App Neon anorexia?? Yea they say at 2 yrs a person with a sleeve should be able to get enough Vitamins through there food. Yea I try really hard with vitamins .. I even take extra Biotin for my hair 20,000 mcg a day plus b12 plus zinc.. zinc is a hair vitamin... but u have to be careful if u get to much u could get sick. I even bought nioxion shampoos to help with the loss. I am blonde and don't have tons of hair so who knows how much I will have.. they say it starts at 3 to 4 months. I myself am already shedding a little more than normal.. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App Neon was because my stupid autocorrect, which is never correct lol. I edited it... Hehe I'm on biotin too and you're right, too much is often not a good thing. Sent from my SM-N910V using the BariatricPal App I had bulimia for years.. I think I'm scared to because I want another baby and im worried how much this is all taking a toll on my body with my first son I had gestational diabetes and other things so I wanted to be healthy Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App

I am a lap band revision and post op sleeve 6 weeks . I am having a little of a hard time emotionally Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App

Hello! I had Lapband in Dec 2009. HW 250? Got down to 199 at lowest.. Like many, I had success at first but then the complications set in. In April 2015 I had the revision to sleeve, primarily to just get the band out of me and not re-gain a bunch of weight. On revision surgery day I weighed 211 pounds. By October 2015 (6 months) I weighed 169 and felt GREAT... my lowest adult weight ever. I wanted to lose 25-30 more (I am 5'3"). Over the past year the weight has slowly crept back.... I weigh 189 today. I am going back to the basics.... Protein, Water and walking. My roommate and I had the sleeve on the same date. She had never had a weight loss surgery. We were the same height and she was about 10lbs heavier than me. She weighs 145 and looks amazing. We cook and eat the same things.... she is constantly snacking. I definitely think the second time around our bodies are holding tighter to the fat!! Best wishes. Just stay positive. At the end of the day, I am happy with my weight loss.... maintaining is hard and I live in fear of regaining to 250. I will be watching to see your success!!

Did u go through this? How do u feel. Are you able to eat? I'm so scared of hairloss too... Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App No, I haven't but I have seen and talked to a lot of people who has gone through it. When I went to my check up at my bariatric center, I spoke to one girl who said she cried every day since her revision, poor thing . Yeah, I'm worried about hairloss too. I didn't go through it with my band because the weightloss wasn't as drastic, a normal 2-3 lbs a week or slower... So I'm a little worried this time around because our calories are sooo much lower. I have only loss 15 pounds in six weeks so my weightloss is not to drastic but they said it would happen because of the stomach hormones loss. Yea I cry alot and I don't know what to do to make it better. How far was the girl in the group post op? I don't know why this is so hard. Thanks for listening Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using the BariatricPal App

In 2013 I got sleeved. By 9 to 12 months post OP I went through the same issues. I was able to work and focus, but I lost a desire for everything. I didn't have any interests, desires, and everything I used to care about was unimportant. I was also getting light headed and dizzy at that time. I know my diet at the time was too extreme. This is when I hit my lowest weight in a decade. Was 327 lbs. and got down to 209 lbs. I wasn't expecting weight loss to reduce my happiness so much. Unfortunately, the way I dealt with this was to just stop the extreme diet. I gained some weight back and most of these issues cleared up. I was probably dealing with a combination of poor nutrition, low blood pressure, and depression. Fast forward to today. I recently got a revision to DS. I again feel light headed and fatigued. My Doctor is adjusting my blood pressure medicine. I'm careful about getting all the nutrition, vitamins, and supplements I need. Now I'll follow a permanent, reasonable and sustainable diet.

I posted a few days ago in post-op fourm and got the suggestion to post here as well. Here is the link to my original post http://www.verticals...ss/#entry710830 Basically, has anyone else suffered from gastroparesis as a result of surgery? My doctor's seem to think that it will only last for a few months. Hopefully, my stomach is just taking longer to "wake up". There is a small chance that it may be permanent and have to revise to gastric bypass. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Please let me know. Thanks -Paige

I had phrenic nerve pain since the day of surgery and, after 17 months, just had my band out this past Wednesday. My surgeon wanted to do a revision to the sleeve. I might've seriously considered it (may still) except I think I inadvertently discovered the source of my hunger. I decided to give it a couple months to see if I could do this on my own now that I don't have the hunger because, the truth is that if I can't control the desire to eat when the hunger is eliminated (basically what WLS does), then WLS won't help either. You might check verticalsleevetalk.com and talk to the people there. There are quite a number of people who had the revision from band to sleeve. .

I had my surgery on 12/21/2015 and also had my gallstones and gallbladder at VSG survey. I was also a revision from lapband though not at the same time as surgery. I have tracked my progress against others on the site, and I think having the two major ops together, it might take a little while longer for recovery. I am at 5.5 weeks post surgery and although it has been a struggle to get my fitness back I am getting there, and I would definitely not have wanted two surgeries.

Hi guys! I'm 24, I'll be 25 in April. In the process of planning my second wls: revision from the lapband to the bypass. The band just doesn't work for some people unfortunately. I'm hoping for a second at life!

I had someone at work say in a joking way that I am "cheating". She weighs under 150 and is very tall, she doesn't know how it feels to be obese. I just looked at her and said "b*#$%h please, you will never get it" and moved on. Someone will always say something stupid. They know that unless you are making my meals, wiping my butt, paying my bills, or in my shoes, I really don't care if you think I am "cheating" or not! You guys now this is hard mental and physical work!!! This is not easy for any of us. We got cut to save our lives, some of us multiple times with revisions. I say forget people like that. You are doing well. Don't let any one discourage you, EVER!

So sorry to read your story! I hope that you can make a decision that is amazing and changes your life for the better. I just had a revision (8 days ago) and I am very happy so far. It has been hard, yes, and I am still on fluids, but I am so happy already. My clothes are looser, I am on a really exciting new path, and I have no pain at all. I hope you can get to a decision and read lots on these boards to help you get some ideas xx

Basically what LifeChangesLori said. I'm four months post-op Gastric Bypass. I'm not a surgeon or anything but I'd say go for Bypass. I did it because I thought the benefits outweighed the benefits of the sleeve and I needed the extra help with portion control. I did it because I only wanted to go through one surgery and not have to risk coming back for a revision. Never had experience with the lapband. This was the first surgery. ---------------------------- HW- 273 Pre-op Wt- 230 SW- 226 CW- 172 GW- 130 Ht- 5'2.5" DOS- April 26th, 2017 "Only those who try will become." ~FFX

Hi everyone, I am in the looking into / leaning towards the sleeve. A little more about me. I am an (ugh) 45 year old single mom to an amazing 17 year old daughter. She’s truly my partner in (all quite legal) crime. It’s been 12 years that we have been a team. I had always been active growing up. I swam US Swimming up until I was 17. I coached swim team. Taught swim lessons, etc. I worked in various health clubs and worked at the very first curves in my area at the time. So I always watched what I ate - but not anything outrageous. I am 5’ 4” and my weight would fluctuate by about 20 lbs (depending on the season...damn you egg nog). Which brings us to April of 2010. I live in MA to be more precise, on Cape Cod. If you don’t know where that is - GOOD (I’m kidding - kinda). But back to Doomsday as I now call it. I was visiting my mom who lived about an hour and a half away and I needed to get back for a pedicure appointment because it was the Friday before April vacation and we were going to the coolest indoor water park. At that time, I drove an older model Volkswagen Cabriolet Convertible. And it was borderline HOT that day. As I was leaving my mothers I contemplated taking the roof down, but decided not to because I was running late (typical). So I’m driving down the 2 lane stretch of highway that will bring me to the bridge to get to my town and nail appointment. I’m going a steady clip and traveling in the fast lane. All of a sudden a Ford 350 Truck is pulling into my lane on top of me. I was terrified of slamming on the breaks and getting rear ended so I hit my horn (if you could call it that- honestly it sounded like you blew into the wrong side of a kazoo) so I’m edging myself over and now I’m panicking. I have gotten myself in a terrible position. Since I was on the shoulder of a very narrow road, my car hit sand going at least 60 and I took off. All I really remember is sky/grass, sky/grass, sky/grass and finally coming to a stop upside down I could see all my belongings strewn everywhere in the grassy median. That accident made my “bad back” (ha not even close) worse my disc between L4-L5 was bulging. My options were spinal surgery or Physical Therapy until I couldn’t bear the pain anymore. That moment came in October of 2014 my daughter’s friend dropped an ice cube on the floor and somehow I managed to step on it and it took me down. I was in great shape and wanted to go the PT route again So we did that with Pain Management and a TON of steroids. I wasn’t improving so I was referred to my Neurosurgeon. I had the fusion in December and I knew it didn’t work. You have to wait a year before you are re-evaluated So I did and this led to a year and a half of anger, agony,depression, - you name it I had been gaining weight since the accident since I couldn’t do kickboxing any more. It’s weird, with the obesity epidemic where it is in this country why did not one single nurse, aide Rt doctor mention it. I am now 5’4” and weigh about 250. I’m supposed to have revision back surgery with another level of my back fused and they will take a bone graft from my hip to help ensure the surgery goes well. As I researched I started reading more and more about complications with spinal fusion in obese patients I got up the nerve and emailed my new Neurosurgeon’s nurse for information and she sent it to me right away as the clinic is a bit a way from me I opted to do orie I online. That will be next week. I feel like this may be my one best last chance to get some quality of life back. I would love to hear your stories and successes. Also how long is the recovery time? I think I read 4 weeks. Another question - my only other medical condition is my back at this point I have Medicare and Mass Health How long is the procedure from deciding , choosing dr appointments etc to actual surgery? i hope I didn’t put you all to sleep thanks for listening xx jacie

LOL it is like we are a bunch of sports fans and each surgery is a different team that we are all fanatics about. Well here in our park there are a ton of band to sleeve revisions so for those people it was not the right choice. Each surgery has it's pro's and con's so depending on each person and the things they find important to maintain their lifestyles you will get fanatics on each side of the surgery road. I personally think the ongoing risk of complications with the band (slippage, errosion, esophogeal issues and fills then needing unfills etc) it was just too many "what if'" I wouldn't want any surgery that reroutes my intestines because I personally know of two people that died of complications after those types of surgeries and I would rather leave that part of my body intact. The sleeve for me was shown as effective as the other two if not even more so. I felt like once I healed it was a one and done procedure and the risk of complications after the initial healing period was done was minimal. So this was the right surgery for me. I am now a diehard TEAM VSG fan!

from what I've read, about 30% of sleevers have or develop reflux, but it usually can be managed medically (e.g., with PPI's such as omeprazole). There are some who have it so severely that they end up revising to bypass - I don't know the percentage, but I don't think it's huge. It may appear that there are more people who revise than actually do, because people post about it. Those who don't have issues aren't as likely to post about it. Your surgeon may know the stats, though...

To add to what catwoman said another reason people revise to a bypass is weight gain which I would imagine to be the biggest reason

I have been having nausea and,vomiting since 2 weeks post op. I had a stricture that kept coming back and had to be dilated 3 times and I'm only 3months post op. I have been in and out of the hospital several,times as well. I was in the hospital 2 weeks ago for over 2 weeks. I was unable to take anything by mouth. They put a picc line in and started me on TPN (IV nutrients). Thy had to pull my picc line a week later cause it went bad. I was eating a clear/full liquid diet. Now I'm vomiting again and this time I'm having sever abdominal pain as well. I'm unable to keep much down and it all hurts even water. My surgeon has me on several medications but they aren't helping. He suggested I might have to have a revision done. Has anyone had a b anything like this? Or had a revision? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I'm extremely weak physically and emotionally drained from all this.

I had GERD since 2010 and took omeprazole daily. 2016 I got the sleeve, didn't affect the GERD one way or the other. 2021 revised to bypass and my Doctor had me take the meds for 30 days post-surgery and then stop - my side-effects after I stopped and the GERD is gone.

Hi! I had a Lap to RNY conversion on Wednesday. The surgery was scheduled for Tuesday, but the anesthesiologist pumped me up with too much gas & they had to try to do the surgery the following day. I was an add on patient for Wednesday. The procedure was supposed to be strictly a laparoscopic surgery. I noticed when I came home that I have 10 lap sites & 1 open incision on my left side. The site is puckered in VERY deep & looks like a huge/wide/ scary roll with sores inside of it. The "sinkhole" is completely disproportionate to my body. I didn't know if this was normal. It's extremely painful & I am so upset. I'm not trying to complain. I am completely grateful that i was given the opportunity for a revision... I just don't know, if this will look like this forever... Or if it should be this painful... Has anyone else went through this? I don't know if this matters, but I started out at 285. Thanks, guys!

Hello everyone, My name is Kirstyn and I am finally introducing myself after lurking here for a little while. I am just starting the process of having a revision from the lap-band to the sleeve through Kaiser Fontana. I self-paid to be banded back on Nov. 6, 2002, 9.5 years ago, and did very well with it for about 7 years. I lost 112 pounds, got pregnant, gained 30 pounds, lost 18 of those pounds within a month and a half of having my baby and then maintained for about a year. Then everything went haywire and I have now gained back 82 of the 112 pounds that I lost. I have requested that Kaiser do the revision and am scheduled to have any Upper GI on Thursday, May 31 and also to start my Options classes that night. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone out there that had had a revision through Kaiser Fontana. I have had contact with others who had revisions through different Kaisers in SoCal but never Fontana. I am also interested in learning more about living with a sleeve and look forward to getting to know some of you here! Have a great weekend everyone!

Can anyone tell me how your experience was in weight loss went after RNY revision. Like how fast did you lose and how much. I know everyone varies but just wondering if it is somewhat quick or slow? Thanks Sent from my SM-S906U using BariatricPal mobile app

Great post, thank you. I finished all the tests and the last thing I need to do is the pre-op testing which includes, blood work, urine test (for nicotine), chest xray and ekg. Now I'm wondering if I'll be going through an anesthesia evaluation as well as I was determined to have mild sleep apnea (no cpap yet). Thanks again, I'll give the nurse a call. For those who haven't started their hoops... I had to go though ekg stress test with a bicycle, as well as the nuclear stress test with imaging, echo,respiratory testing/pulmonary function, cardiac clearance appointment, sleep apnea test, two nutrition classes, and the dreaded endoscopy. All of them were alright, nothing too painful but some were annoying. The hardest were the stress test on the bicycle lol, and the endoscopy left my throat feeling sore (and a week or so of acid relux which I didn't have before). The nuclear stress test was a breeze. I prefer that over the bike/treadmill stress test. P.S. Having a band to sleeve revision, after years of the band.

I’m losing slower with the revision but it’s still very respectable loss. -78 in 5 months so far.

I had gotten my band in Mexico and now I'm have serious problems. I'm throwing up can't eat or drink with out vomiting or it hurting. Water I can barely drink. I just want to know if anyone gotten out of country and then their insurance covered the removal and revision to sleeve?

I have had a similar experience. I have my band for 2 yrs. It never felt right to me. I vomitted all the time and had loads of swelling. About 6 months ago I began having reflux that responded to absolutely nothing. After nearly 6 months of endoscopies and esophograms, I went to see my surgeon to say--I need to take this out--I am done! After seeing my seriousness--they then determined that the band likely slipped. With only 1 cc in my 10cc band for more than 3 months, it never went back into positon. I had a band revision last week with plication. I understand the plication helps to hold a slipped band in place. One week post op and I have absolutely no reflux and have experinced no vomitting. This is new for me. I'm encouraged that revising the band and doing the plication were the right way to go. I don't think I will be too quick to fill the band. I feel as though I will have a certain degree of restriction without fill and that combined with the plication might be the best solution for me. I encourage you to be your own advocate and have a serious conversation with your surgeon. You should not have to live with reflux and a slipped band.