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I had the band in 2008. Went from 310 to 175. After six years severe complications began. Feb 2016 needed emergency removal and switch to gastric bypass. Six weeks later i could not drink liquids. Er called it stricture. From 11/2016 had ten ballon endoscopies , a stent which broke lose causing three surgeries, two surgeries for total small bowel obstructions . In the six months since removal of band my weight went from 175 to 235 my weight one year post revision is 157. Rough ride but what in life comes easy I switched hospitals to columbia presbyterian in NYC to finally get it fixed It was worth the rough journey but risk of adhesions is always present

Hi Julie, yes I believe the Overstitch is fairly new, although not to sure how new it is. It was new to me and my surgeon is quite experienced and up to date with new developments and I think he'd done about 5 previously and only in recent weeks. They go in endoscopically and put some permanent sutures in the stoma, then if needed also in the pouch to reduce the size of that as well. I don't think they could do it to a patient with a band in because you don't have a pouch or stoma. And it wouldn't be a stand alone procedure as it's designed to be a remedy for gastric bypass patients experiencing weight gain due to enlarged stomas / pouches. Although I believe they can do something similar to a gastric sleeve endoscopically which I think is gastric plication. (If I am not 100% correct anyone please feel free to correct me) :-) Now as for the cost, my surgeon didn't charge me for this Overstich or the Gastric bypass. I've been quite lucky. I paid the full price for the band 13 years ago, which I had done in the South off France. Then 10 years later after I had moved to Australia from England, I had the band removed and the sleeve done in the same operation. My private health care insurance covered most of it, I think I had to pay $3000 extra towards it. Then as my sleeve failed, the same surgeon did the bypass for 'free' just charging my healthcare fund with no co-payment, and the same for my Overestich. No co-payment. He accepted just the payment from my health care fund here in Australia. All I had to pay for was a payment towards the anaesthetist fees which in total were $800 and Medicare paid $300 so all I paid all up was $500 which I was very pleased about. :-) Now to answer your last question about pain, I experienced next to no pain at all. I had a slight scrape on my lips from the scope, like I've had bigger pimples really. And a very mild sore throat when I woke up. The kind of sore throat you had after slight cough for a few days. Gone all together within 24 hours. Hardly worth mentioning. I was prescribed antiemetics and some strong pain relief, however, didn't fill the script as my nausea and pain were zero, seriously nothing at all painwise post op. I should add though that I was the same after gastric sleeve and bypass. No pain, no wind, no pain relief needed, I was up doing laps of the ward same day as both operations and declined all pain relief. I've either been very lucky or have a high pain threshold or a mixture of the two! Never even had reflux or anything. Oh and time in theatre was 1hr 20mins, think that it normally takes around 45 minutes, but I had sutures to both the stoma and pouch, and there was an Overstitch rep or something in the theatre watching the procedure and asking questions / having things explained I think, so that may have added time, not that it bothered me, I wouldn't have known if the operation took 10 minutes or 10 hours, i just closed my eyes and then woke up, felt like milliseconds haha, I went home after about 2 hours with a recommendation to follow a liquid diet for 1 week then soft / puréed for the second week, then a normal diet after that with lots of chewing and not to push the amount of food eaten. Now I am at the stage of puréed food and cottage cheese, I am eating around 100mls and feel as full as an egg. Have lost over 10kg and am only 4kg away from my target and about 1kg away from being in the healthy weight / BMI range, but I did start the Saxenda injections one week before the Overstitch and they are definitely helping, I felt the appetite suppressing effects of the Saxenda even just on the initial starting dose of 0.6ml, am now up to 2.4ml and will be on the maximum dose of 3ml starting this Friday. Apparently a fair few people stop taking the Saxenda because of the most common side effects which are abdominal pain, headaches and nausea, which I haven't experienced any of at all, must be my high pain threshold again! :-) The thing with the Overstitch is that I guess it can stretch again over time if it's not looked after. I'd imagine it wouldn't be able to stretch as much as without the stitches as they'd continue to provide some resistance, although I'm not sure if there have been any long term studies on this yet, again happy to be corrected if anyone knows anymore about this. Not sure what could be done after stretching the Overstitch, maybe another Overstitch or change to a Duodenal Switch. In wouldn't be too keen on the DS as I'm already severely anaemic, even though I'm not feeling any ill effects. My doctor said my iron levels and ferritin are in the low single digits and I shouldn't be feeling at the very least tired and exhausted but I'm not for some reason. Anyway, I'm hoping I won't need any more revisions. I have enough already!! So here goes, fingers crossed for me. Anymore questions, just ask, more than happy to share my journey / experiences. John :-)

I have Aetna POS II, scheduled for band to SIPS DS on august 8th. Hopefully a one and done surgery. For my band I had to do two appeals with Aetna but my revision approval was super fast and easy. I did three months of visits with my surgeon, 3 nut appointments and a whole host of tests per my surgeon's requirements. August 8th can't get here fast enough!!

I will be 53 soon. Was banded 7 years ago and it hasn't worked for me.. I had it removed today. Considering revision to sleeve but haven't ruled out bypass. Dr prefers to do as 2 separate procedures to allow healing time. Ok with me. I am working towards requirements for insurance. Sent from my SM-G930V using BariatricPal mobile app

That's pretty much how I was too. I hated my Lap Band. I just had revision surgery this month I couldn't wait to get that thing out!! I went from Lap Band to Gastric Sleeve. Might want to look into it. I was so tired of vomiting everyday!!

I just had a revision to RNY on 6/17/2017 from VGB 3/1994 I had leakage and secure GURD. Good luck. [emoji106] Aka_ET HW-220 Pre-op 194.3 RNY SD June 16th 2017 CW-176 GW-140 HT 5' 3" [emoji120][emoji878][emoji1272] "You may see me struggle but you will never see me quit"

Curious what's safe for me and what everyone else is doing? I'm 6.5 months out and feeling great except for this issue. Fruits and veggies don't seem to be cutting it. Thanks in advance! Band to sleeve revision surgery 1/16/17 HW: 283 CW: 199 GW: 160

Yes! I had mine done when I was 19 and now having it revised to a sleeve today!

I am in the process of having the band to Sleeve revision surgery. It was discovered during my EGD the end of May that my band had slipped, and it is now medically necessary to remove it. My surgeon's rule is that if it is deemed medically necessary to remove the band, he only requires you to lose 6 pounds from your initial weight at your first visit with him. Well between my first visit with him, and my EGD, I gained 11 pounds from taking an anti inflammatory medication for my back. So that put me up to having to lose 17 pounds. Grr!!! So I immediately topped taking the medication that was causing me to gain weight, and started the low carb diet that my doctor put me on. From the end of May until July 7th, I lost a grand total of 4 pounds. So frustrating!!! Since then, I have restricted my carbs even more, watched my caloric intake, sodium intake, fat intake, and have been switching out one meal a day for a protein shake. Today I go for another weigh in, and to see the nutritionist, and I just know that I'm only going to have about a 3 pound loss, and I just don't understand why. I have been to my regular doctor and have had my thyroid checked, and all blood work done to see if there are any underlying issues, and there aren't any. I also spoke with my insurance company this morning, and my surgery has been approved! Yay!!! But.... there's a time limit on this approval, and it runs out October 17th. So I am hoping and PRAYING that my surgeon will bend his rule, and let me slide on the remaining 10 pounds..... 🙁🙁 Sent from my SM-N920V using BariatricPal mobile app

I think I have totally screwed up my surgery. I started at 274 lbs down to 166 now 207 lbs. Surgery in Feb 2013. Great education at dr. I stopped going for follow up after year 2 because it is 2 1/2 hrs away. I started drinking regular soda. It was painful at first, but now I can drink alot of it. I stopped drinking it a few weeks ago. My husband died about a year ago and my eating got out of control. I am frequently hungry and don't get full. Can tolerate most foods. I am taking pain meds for arthritis and have other problems back. I want to see if band over bypass will help. I have called the surgeons office. It is in for insurance review before I can make an appt for a revision consult appt with the PA. Anybody have this problem or band over bypass? Any help? Sent from my SM-G900V using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi All, I'm not sure how this website works. I'd like to reply to Kathyatcare and Mimi52 individually, but just can't figure out how to do it! I can "like" or "unlike" but don't see how to respond individually. So I no doubt will be doing this incorrectly, so my apologies to all. Kathy, where did you have your sleeve done? Were you a revision? I think 2 lbs. a week is amazing weight loss! Keep up the great work!! And for Mimi52, where did you have your revision done? How does having a gastric sleeve "feel" compared to the band, would you say? Do you feel a difference in the restriction? I am also 5'2", and right now weight 150, but have gained over 20 lbs. since having all the fluid taken out of my band. I'm up over 2 clothes sizes and feeling VERY large! Since 5'2" is so short, even 20 lbs. looks like a lot! I am a flight attendant, so I'm in the public eye, and don't like looking "plump" too much. Right now, I'm spilling out of my current size of flight attendant uniform and don't want to buy the next size up. I went for my revision surgery last Tuesday in Tijuana, Mexico. The doctor could only take off my band. He was unable to do a revision. My stomach was in too much of a mess! He showed me pictures. The doctor wants me to wait 6 MONTHS!!! before I have the sleeve now. So back home I am, and waiting until the end of January for my surgery. I will do my best to lose weight before the surgery in January. Not sure how having no band will go though, so I'm a little scared about it all. Thank you for your insight and input, you are doing great, so keep up the good work!!

Where do you live? I just had a revision 6/16 at Cedar Sinaid hospital in Beverly Hills, my surgeon is amazing. I had my original surgery 20 years ago a VGB and recently had a revision RNY due to severe GURD and pain. I remember there was another patient that who I met that had the sleeve to RNY and she had Medicare. It's possible when you're having complications. Document everything. Pain and vomiting have studies done to see if you have GURD. Best of luck. http://bio.csmc.edu/view/5877/Daniel-Shouhed.aspx Aka_ET HW-220 Pre-op 194.3 RNY SD June 16th 2017 CW-176 GW-140 HT 5' 3" [emoji120][emoji878][emoji1272] "You may see me struggle but you will never see me quit"

HI Everyone, New on this site. Would love to have a weight loss buddy. Someone to talk to or walk with here in the area. Some history. Had a RNY on July 11th this year. I was a revision from sleeve to bypass due to chronic GERD. My highest weight was 340. My lowest weight 165. Regained some weight over 10 years, but kept 2/3 off. Reflux, menopause and having a chronic autoimmune disease with lots of fatigue plus eating too much due to reflux caused the gain. Back to the basics again and hope to get to an all time low. HW 340 LW 165 CW 207 Goal: 145

I am 4.5 months out from my band to sleeve revision and my surgeon and nutritionist told me the exact same thing -- Band to sleevers don't lose as much weight as virgin sleevers. The reasoning is that we are not at our highest weights ever when we get revised AND our pouches are not as small as virgin sleevers because our "damaged" stomachs from the bands prevent the surgeons from making a smaller sleeve. That said -- I am 4.5 months post-revision and am down close to 91 pounds. I have 45lbs more to goal. My surgeon and nutritionist are both shocked at how much I've lost and are super supportive of me. I hope they rethink their position on band to sleevers not losing as much weight. I have, however, put in alot of hard work. I am exercising 4-5 days per week for an hour --- cardio plus weight lifting and then doing yoga and walking 2-3 miles on my "off" days. I am a vegan and religiously stick to my meal plan -- 800 calories/day; 60g of protein and 100 ounces of water - and I log everything I put into my mouth, even on days when I've not made the best choices. It's not easy, but I am fighting hard to get to goal.

Congrats I had my sleeve done well my revision done on May 30th and I'm losing weight so slow probably like 2 lbs a week if that Sent from my LGMP260 using BariatricPal mobile app

Had the revision back in Sept 2016, after years of issues with my band, took some time for approval but once approved had. Now down to 158. Been at 158 for about3 months, but very happy with my weight loss. Dr told me would not lose as fast as sleeves that never had band, but she's very happy with my loss. Personally want to lose another 20. Best decision I ever made. Hopefully you had your bye now or at least its scheduled good luck

So in 2006 I made the decision to get the lap band. I lost a total of 75 lbs... and over the years gained almost all of it back. On July 26, 2017 I am officially did the revision to the sleeve! Perfectly Imperfect

Does he perform revision WLS?

I just turned 52 and had revision from failed lap band to bypass 4/14. I have lost and maintained 115 lb weight loss. My weight loss was slow and steady but I really feel at least for my body it was the best way as there was no dramatic adjustment to recover from. I follow the rules for protein, no carbonated drinks and I exercise daily but not vigorously. I just completed plastic surgery for tummy tuck, lower body lift and vertical thigh lift. Even after the weight loss I never really felt comfortable due to all the loose skin. I am only two weeks post op but I already feel so much more comfortable with how it turned out.

that's odd. because according to the legions of pro-sleeve propagandists on this website, the sleeve works just as well as RNY, and won't kill you. oh well, they must be wrong or something. sounds like you need the malabsorptive component of RNY. that's where the magic happens. congrats on your choice to revise. i'm sure you will hit your goal weight afterwards, if not more. don't worry about dumping. chances are you won't experience it at all, and if you do, it's easily controlled. best of luck brother.

Sleeved March 22nd, highest weight 227lbs, surgery weight 196, down to 154 now. 4 pounds from my original goal of 150lbs so I'm revising lower. when I was obese 150 seemed so far away and unreachable... and now I'm there in four months! I know I can do more than this now. I'm absolutely loving my life now. I can't believe how much better 2017 has been to me than years before! I have so many new friends, I do so many activities that I'd have never even thought to try. I have a whole closet of cute dresses and lululemon I never could have worn before! tracking has been kind of on and off, but overall I've still been eating healthy, not drinking calories, not eating out as much as I ever used to, trying to avoid bringing tempting junk food into my house. still working on getting enough water in during the day, and making a point of being more consistent about taking my vitamins. I've been really good about keeping up activity though, so that's a win! I have lots and lots to work on, but even so, what a change!

It's a shame that participation has diminished. I've only had great experiences in here and have participated less due to not having any problems. Bad reason, but the truth... I'm still about 10 lbs higher than lowest weight, but I'm fine with that. I think I'm 5 pounds higher than my revised goal. I'm hoping to participate more, and not just when I'm seeking help. Andrew

In my opinion the sleeve should be the default surgery for everyone unless they are dealing with: 1. Type 2 diabetes (especially if they are on insulin, or have trouble controlling their blood glucose levels) 2. GERD 3. Food addiction (we all like to eat, but the true food addict would benefit from possible dumping and the malabsorption component) 4. Particularly high BMI.. in which case a DS might be a better option than RNY 5. Physiological factors (for example: lap bands can damage the stomach, making RNY a better option) 6. The patient doesn't want to risk "another surgery". RNY is "one-and-done" (usually). Sleeves sometimes need revision.

Good luck! You'll do great. What is prompting your revision?

I had my bypass on 7-7-17 & had a complication that led to a revision on 7-19-17. I have been doing well on my post op program outside of another complication(collapsed lungs).Lately, I been talking more about food that I had in the past(good food&bad food). When I saw a pizza hut commercial I saw the cheese&tomato sauce and it kind of perked me up to where I started discussing with my father how I loved cheese pizza with extra tomato sauce. Then later my dad asked me about oatmeal and honey and I was like oh I love oatmeal&honey and that conversation continued on with me telling him that adding butter to oatmeal & even steel oats are the best. Then I sat back in my recliner and just thought about how great oatmeal is. Then peanut butter & jam came up later in the day and I was like oh yes I love it. This has been the theme in the past 2 days. Im not tempted to have them but it is refreshing to talk about them. Is that weird? Has anyone else liked to talk about food they ate in the past? Im sure its just a phase iamready4this