Search the Community

I'm looking forward to the day when I don't have to order the "cowboy cut" of prime rib just to slake my appetite! My idea of culinary heaven will be the day I can eat a few ozs. of prime rib, 1/3 of my baked potato and leave there, fully satisfied, to the same extent that the 24 ouncer used to satisfy me. I'm one week post-op so hunger is not an issue with me at this time, just dreams of revised standards of normalcy as it pertains to my new eating habits.

I'll always recommend my surgeon, Dr. Aceves. He does do revisions and has done a great deal of them. However, your particular case I'm not sure... Good luck!!

I'm a revision from band. I've always been a slow loser. I've lost 26.6 lbs so far including my one week pre op diet. I started at 248.8.

I am one year post revision. It is much different then the previous one which did not come with support or education. I'm in Alberta Canada and I had a whole team assess me for about 6 months before they determined that a revision was warranted and to get me into a frame of mind that would set me up for success this time. It has been wonderful. I haven't lost as fast as I did the first time but I know that this time I have been able to make the necessary changes and to sustain those changes for the rest of my life. The big difference for me was in working with a psychologist who helped me to understand why this time would be different and successful. I'm now down to a size 16 from size 24 and continue to lose at least 1 pound per week. Doesn't sound like much but I can be patient and ensure that the lose I"m experiencing is sustainable and part of my new normal.

I had my gallbladder removed today I’m in so much pain today I found out I have esophagitis and I have bail my surgeon found I have wait a year too make sure is clear if not I’m going have get revision from gastric sleeve to gastric bypass

Hello all! I had the lapband 5 yeas ago, it slipped due to being to tight, had surgery to correct it then about 6 months ago I had it removed... I am starting my journey to get gastric bypass. I am a little worried about scar tissue and issues with bypass because of if... Has anyone revised and been okay ? Any issues due to scar tissue ? This is all if my insurance approves for revision.

I didn't have the Band but did have a stomach stapling back in the 80's. The staple line did not hold up.....so I had lots of stomach problems over the years and lots of scar tissue. I had my surgery in June and have done great. Just make sure you do your research and use a doctor that has done revisions. I went to a doctor several years back and the first thing he said to me was "I hate revisions...and can't stand to do them".....I knew he was not for me.

Most surgeons aren’t doing the band anymore so it might be tough to find medical support if you need it. You may only be able to find surgeons who are willing to remove them and revise to a different WLS. RNY and VSG are the most popular by far. Ask your surgeon questions. The choice between them should be based on what’s best for you. Hopefully your surgeon can explain the factors that go into their recommendations and you choose based on research and your comfort level. I would recommend protecting yourself from information overload especially watch “experience” video or reading testimonials. Your experience will be totally your own. I also recommend If at all possible to clean and organize your space to be clutter free so your recovery is smoother (Imagine tripping on something after having surgery or needing to clean your bathroom or mop the floors immediately after surgery). Good Luck ❤️

I agree with Isajck. I don't know how it would even work technically to sleeve with a band still in place. Ditto on the coverage: if your insurance pays for revisions, it should not be a problem. And if your insurance agrees to pay to remove the band, it probably will pay for the new procedure.

No questions are stupid but I cannot imagine a credible doctor that would leave the band on wile performing a revision. The band has to be removed so the stomach can be resized into a sleeve.

Ok, I was approved to have my surgery, which is a revision from a VBG to a Sleeve. Here is the issue. The surgeon is out of state, and my original EGD (Endoscopy) showed I had a Grade C esophogitus and he won't let me schedule my surgery until I have another EGD done. I can actually go down to TX to have this done this Saturday, but they won't do it unless I am released to "someone". I am single, do not have any family anywhere in my geographic area and I don't have any friends who are available for this trip on such short notice. I am hoping someone in the Plano, TX area might be willing to "check me out" after the EGD. It is an outpatient procedure. I am currently scheduled to show up at 9:45am this morning and I think I should be done sometime around noon. I can get an exact time. I hate to put anyone out and I can give you some gas money- god knows how expensive it is getting. Anyways, if you can help- send me a PM. Thanks.

I was banded the end of june and had a port revision in Sept.I have had 3&1/2 fills and only lost 22 pounds I upped my protein and need to start excersising.how much protein and activity do you get in a day.I am an active person at work and at home I think I'm loosing inches but I want to see weightloss.Please let me know your tricks!

@@JacksdadShane, I would suggest meeting with your bariatric team and go over your health issues. The reason I say this is you may get your heart set on one surgery only to find out another will actually solve your issues better. For example, if you suffer from reflux/Gerd, the sleeve can make this problem worse where as RNY can cure it. It is so important to take your personal health issues into consideration with your surgical team before deciding. Also I would not get overly concerned about the rerouting issues that everyone talks about or in the case of sleeve where they remove part of your stomach. They have these surgeries pretty well figured out by now. That is one of thee reasons you see less bands being performed. I have seen quite a few bands have to be revised to bypass or sleeve on this site. Keep doing your research because it is important that you are fully informed and comfortable with your decision. I had planned to do the sleeve and after research on line and meeting with 3 different doctors I was switched to bypass and have not ever regretted it. I wish I would have done it 20 years ago. Good luck on your decision and certainly keep us posted.

So once you get to your limit on the bread, how do you feel? Are you just full? Does it hurt? Do you feel nauseous? Sorry for all the questions - I'm a band to VSG revision - with my band, when I ate something I shouldn't (or didn't chew enough) food would get stuck and it hurt. Bad. Sometimes had to make my self throw up. Thanks!

Thanks for the heads up, I'm trying to get my EGD scheduled now for my (hope) revision

I had the bypass done for several reasons. The biggest one was for the diabetes. Bypass is the only surgical procedure that can be considered a cure for diabetes versus a control. Secondly the acid reflux which was a huge problem for me and it's now gone. Third it has a better long term success rate than the sleeve. There were many people in my classes getting revisions on their sleeves which kind of turned me off. Good luck which ever way you go!

Hi Pippa. I live in Ireland but I had my surgery done with Dr Chris DeBruyne in Belgium and I cannot speak highly enough of him and his team. http://belgiumsurgeryservices.com/ The Jan Portaels hospital was excellent, and the nursing staff all spoke English to me. Very professional. I had a revision from lapband to mini-gastric bypass but he does the sleeve as well. You can talk with him and/or his team as to which would be the best option for you. The website lists all the costs for the surgery packages and there were no other costs except the flights for me from Dublin to Belgium. I took my hubby but you don't have to bring someone if you don't want to (much better if you do because they can help you with your luggage and being there for you). Also book assistance at the airport for the return trip so you can be driven around on a scooter and you won't have to walk / stand for a long time. You might still be a little sore afterwards. The hotel is a very short walk away from the hospital and also the town (there's a Lidl right nearby). Good luck! Sent from my SM-G930F using BariatricPal mobile app

I am sorry that he made those insensitive comments. I would be upset as well. Changing surgeons always scares me, but it's something that I know I will have to face because my surgeon is military. He is deployed right now, so I have to see the surgeon (Dr. Riley) that assisted him on my revision. I think very highly of both of them. Dr. Riley is phenomenal, and took care of me while I was hospitalized in July. He'll also be the one performing my GB removal surgery sometime this next week. I always have to mentally prepare myself that one day Dr. Michel (primary surgeon) will get orders to go somewhere else or my husband will get orders and we'll have to leave. As for follow-up care, if you want to change, I would find a surgeon that has performed VSGs. My follow up has been a little more extensive due to complications. I had labs done at 3, 7, and will have 12 month labs pulled in June. We've discussed him doing an endoscopy at my 1 year follow up, but I'm not sure if we'll actually follow through on that one. Once I pass the 1 year mark, my PCM will order my labs, and the only reason I'll have to f/u with the surgeon is if I have a sleeve related issue.

Okay, so this has been eating at me for awhile so I decided to post about it. I have had several pm's regarding my weight ticker and my surgery date. I have tried to explain the best I can in the pm's but before I get another one I felt like I might as well post everything. So here it is..the good, the bad, and the ugly. I lived in Portugal for 5 years. My husband is Portuguese and I moved there, married him, and we had a nice life there. It was in Portugal where I first heard about the lap-band. It was a spot on a local news station and my mother in law called me and asked me to turn it on. I was very excited and I decided to do research, and then by luck, a guy that I met on a PC forum from Portugal had also had the lap-band. We spoke about it and I decided I had to do it. I have always been borderline obese and I just barely fit into the required BMI limits. My husband was totally against the whole thing and I have never had surgery before so it was taking a big risk. The cost was 8,000 euro, around $10,000 at the time. The surgeon was a very accomplished laproscopic surgeon but I was to be his 13th lap band patient. (no I'm not superstitious :smile:) I had the surgery in April of '06, it was very hard to get in to see my doctor because he worked in between several hospitals. It took me almost 6 months to get my first fill. I was seeing a nutritionist that kept telling me what to eat and do (while she put out her cigarettes!). I told her I didn't like fish, she said it didn't matter I needed to force myself to eat it, among other things she said I had to eat. She told me I had to eat dinner around 6pm, even though I was teaching nights and it was impossible for me to eat then. I asked her to help me make a different schedule and she refused telling me it was impossible. When I went in for my 2nd fill, 3 months after the first (it took me that long to get another apt.) I told my doctor how unhappy I was with the nutritionist. He sent me to another one that cost me 120 euro a visit. She was great, and I lost 25lbs during that time, but I couldn't afford to keep seeing her. I went for my third fill, 3 months later(again) and thats when the doc told me that my port was flipped, I needed port revision surgery. During the port revision surgery he put 3cc's directly into the band. I was struggling a lot to lose weight and I tried to keep up with what my nutritionist told me, but I got depressed, the port revision caused another nasty scar (over the old one that had healed so nicely) and I developed a nasty reaction to the bandages. It was also very difficult because I told my husbands family (if I had it to do over again I would have never told any one) They kept looking me up and down all the time looking to see how much I lost. It was very disheartening. So when circumstances in our lives changed and we decided to move back to the US I was excited to see a new band doctor. I never really thought I felt restriction, but then again I was never sure what was restriction any way. When I got here to the US, I made an apt. with a Fill Center USA in St. Pete. The fill specialist there was excellent. She told me that my port was on it's side, not completely flipped (I broke out in tears in her office thinking I might have to have another port revision) but she managed to hit it with my on my side. She pulled out all the liquid in my band. My doctor in Portugal said I had 9cc's in my band and that I was totally full. Turned out I had just under 3cc's. The fill specialist asked me when I actually felt restriction and I said the only time I could really remember feeling any thing was after the port revision, when he put the fill directly into the port (when it was sticking out of my stomach when he opened me up to turn it right). She gave me another 1.5cc and told me to come back in a month, when I got back I had 4.5cc so she determined that there was no leakage, the my doctor in Portugal had simply missed my port. So, taken all this into consideration I have only actually had some restriction since this summer when I moved back here. So I have actually gained back the original weight loss I had over the year that I had no restriction, and I am now struggling to start losing again. I actually have another apt. in 2 weeks for another fill. I had my first PB a few weeks ago. I am experiencing things as if I was just banded. I am not saying that is the whole reason I have not lost weight, I haven't followed all the band rules as closely as I should have. I honestly have no excuse for it, but that doesn't make me a bad person. Nor does it make me a failure. Several times I wish I could rip this band out of me and eat whatever I felt like. But I am trying, trying the best I can. And I hope that with the support I receive here, and my own will power, I can make this band work for me...finally. umm...sorry so long.:wink:

Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. I've read too many times about people's bands giving them trouble. It makes me wonder why it's still a WLS option. :lol0: Anyway, I had a hietal hernia that I didn't even know about that Dr. Aceves repaired while doing my VSG (free of charge :lol0:). It would be good if you could have yours repaired at the same time of your revision. Good luck!

Thanks for posting this!! Here's another Oregonian headed to Mexico...Scheduled for Memorial Day w/Dr Aceves for revision of Lapband to VSG. Trying not to be nervous

My doc's revision rate for DS with inadequate weight loss or regain is in the 2-3% range, which is a bit more than their revision rate for excessive loss; these past few years they've been doing more tailoring of the common channel length based on their experience with different patient and body types. But some people's bodies are more aggressive in adapting to the changes made, experiencing substantial growth in their common channels - that seems to be a harder one to predict.

The infusions are even worse. I had a patient who had to have them and they took four hours and hurt. The doctor finally told her to discuss with her surgeon to have the bypass revised.

Can't believe my day has come. I've been trying to mentally prepare but now that the time has come I'm petrified. So many thoughts running through my head. Worried about not waking up and uncontrollable pain when I awaken from surgery. I'm being revised from Sleeve to RNY due to severe GERD having hernia repair as well. Been on Clear liquids only all day just feeling awful in every way.

I haven't seen my doctor yet, my appointment is scheduled for Wednesday June 4, and I just got confirmation from my insurance that there are no restrictions for the revision from band to sleeve....I'm doing the happy dance right now and excited to hear what my Dr has say on Wednesday, I am hoping for a surgery date at my time of visit (keeping my fingers crossed)