Search the Community

There are different types of weight loss surgery. The different types affect the amount of weight loss expected and the speed of weight loss. They affect the revision rate (this relates to how often one might need to have the surgery modified or corrected or adjusted or changed to another type of surgery). I choose RNY gastric bypass because it had the smallest revision rate. It also produced the quickest and deepest weight loss. Also because of a pre-existing medical condition "major acid reflux or GERD", it was the only procedure recommended for this type of condition. But it also means that I have to follow a strict Vitamin regime for the rest of my life because my body no longer synthesizes Vitamins from the food that I eat. The process of getting surgery is not simple. It has many steps. Qualifying for insurance is one of them. But then you need to undergo an evaluation by a Psychologist. There is a half day of pre-op testing to uncover any medical condition that may impact the surgery. Generally there is also a half day of classes in which almost all aspects of the surgery and meal plan and vitamin regime and exercise are covered. Many insurance plans require that you undergo a medically supervised dieting and exercise program in order to qualify.

JUST SEEN YOUR POST, I TOO AM BEING SLEEVED ON NOV.1ST. I AM 54, AND AM FREAKING OUT, ITS FUNNY CAUSE I HAVE THE BAND AND THEN I HAD IT REVISED IN MARCH AND WASNT SCARED AT ALL, BUT NERVOUS WITH THIS ONE. PROBABLY CAUSE THEY ARE TAKING SOMETHING OUT...LOL...GOOD LUCK TO YOU, KEEP US POSTED

I cant believe you lost sooo much. I would love to hear about your story!!! Maybe start a new thread. With my old band I definately contributed to the `slip` because I always pushed the limits with my eatting. I still went from 105 kilos to 65, nothing to sneeze at, but I didnt put effort into following the rules. For some reason the weight just came off even with me eatting junk & drinking with meals etc. My problems really started when I kept getting more fill to speed the weight loss or to compinsate for my lack of effort. ie instead of revising what I was doing incorrectly, I just wanted more fil. So being too tight eventually caused too much pressure from the pbing & it caused the band to fail. I plan to remember & learn from this 2nd time round. However, this new band has different signals than the old one. I can feel things getting stuck & then make their way down! That never happened with the old band. I can eat everything from chicken to california rolls. I dont know if its because the new band tollerates more food types or because Im not tight enough. It is interesting though to have a second chance, I hope I can make it work......because you know, of course I had to tell everyone in the world about being banded, & I am getting lots of comments!

Kathy, THANK YOU for always keeping me in check. I love you, too! At least I have an excuse for acting insane, considering I'm the product of a mother who just spent another stretch in the rubber room. I know there's a huge part of my brain that reacts the way she does and flies off the handle without thinking, which is why I thank the LBT Gods for the lovely Edit feature. The difference between me and the Momster is that I realize when I've acted like an ass so I retreat, reflect and revise.

i had revision surgery from the lapband to the sleeve in October. when i found out my lapband slipped, i was so afraid of gaining the 70+ pounds back so i started researching the sleeve. i had to have all liquid removed from my band so my stomach was "normal" and i was able to eat whatever i wanted. i decided to gain 20 pounds before my revision surgery so i'd have a buffer of weight to lose after surgery during the liquid food stage. i didn't want to go in to surgery at my goal weight and then lose more weight. i weighed 147 pounds the day of my sleeve surgery. today, almost 6 weeks later, i weigh 137... so i've only lost 10 pounds. i would like to lose the other 10 pounds i gained "on purpose" but i'm okay just maintaining too.

Congrats on your revision. My story is extremely similar I was banded in nov. 2013 lost 130 lbs but had a baby in 2016. Through those years i threw up at minimum 5 times a day everyday it was horrible. I had my revision surgery on 12/1/17 and I am loving my sleeve! 12/1=259lbs now 1/4/18=231 Sent from my SM-G930P using BariatricPal mobile app

I agree you are not a failure, you just have veered off course. I too had a revision. During my weight loss phase I always ate protein first, tracked everything I ate, never ate takeaways, drank water, exercised. I do all the same things now during maintenance. Takeaway foods may be doing you in; high in calories, fat, sodium and some times fillers. Go back to basics and set goals for yourself. You have to be accountable AND weigh yourself : I weigh most every day, this way I am accountable and if I go up a couple pounds I watch what I eat the next couple of days. I have read that those that keep their weight off(from any method of weight loss) weigh themselves often. You can do this!!!!!!

That is odd that you're able to eat more now that you have a sleeve. Most people get the sleeve after the band for 2 reasons: Because the band was causing complications, or because the band wasn't working as much as they expected. A lot of people get the revision because the sleeve has a higher/quicker weight loss rate than the band. Have you talked to your doctor about this? I was going to ask if maybe what you're feeling is cravings instead of hunger pangs. But I see where you said that you're feeling nauseous by trying not to eat more than you should be, which makes me think that you're actually feeling hunger pangs. If I were you, I'd call my doctor and discuss this with them. My first assumption would be that they didn't remove as much stomach as most doctors do. I actually know of a woman whose doctor only removed 65% of her stomach, (while most doctors removed 85-90%) and she still felt hunger pangs.

Hi everyone Just thought I'd share my VSG story with you all. Though my story is not as positive as most other posts are, I will say right now that I don't want anyone to use this as a reason to not get the surgery done. If anything, use my story to better your story. I've STRUGGLED with my weight all. my. life. On top of that dealing with asthma, allergies, PCOS, Metabolic Syndrome, fluctuating thyroid levels, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (which took them a shocking while to determine whether I was type 1 or 2) by the age of 14. I've been seeing doctors regarding weight issues and trying to avoid it since I was around 7/8 years old. So literally this has all been my life, trying to avoid it and working so hard at the tender ages. By the age of 18, I absolutely could not take it any longer. I was tired in every way and form. Discouraged was an understatement at that point, I literally gave it my ALL and NOTHING worked. I dealt with more than you could possibly imagine in 18 years than some do in a lifetime. Cutting to the chase a bit - a close friend of my parents was also dealing with weight issues and so was her daughter. They both had the lap band done and they looked PHENOMENAL.Then more individuals related to them had the surgery with the same amazing results. As extremely happy as I was for them knowing the struggle, it also made me so jealous wishing something great like that could happen for me. She then helped me out and talked to my mom about it and then had her surgeon meet with my mom and I to talk to us. After meeting with a LARGE sum of doctors within my 18 years, this was the first time I met with a doctor and I didn't feel like everything was my fault, like I just have to keep trying and just hope for the best, like I didn't care about myself and was probably just a lazy kid. First time I felt like a doctor truly felt my struggle. The doctors main concern was living with the diabetes, they wanted that to be resolved more than anything - and so did I, because living with diabetes was a nightmare for me (that's a whole other story by itself). We later came to the conclusion that the Gastric Sleeve surgery was the best option for me and I totally agreed. My excitement was out of this world! I met with the doctor in May, had my surgery on July, 12, 2013. So, now looking back, you can say it was a fairly rushed process. But I guess at the time I didn't see it as that because I just wanted to have the surgery done! Had the blood work done that the doctor needed, did the pre op diet (which I barely lost much weight with), had my surgery done. Supposedly everything went well during it. Had A LOT of stomach aches and pains but everything was fine, did experience hunger pains which was strange. Cutting the to the point again, by the 2nd or 3rd day post op, my sugars were normal! I could neverrrr describe that unreal feeling! By the fifth day I believe I had dropped 10 lbs!! By a week 15 lbs - but, that was it.... Yes, you read that correctly. This coming July will mark 3 years post op, and I am still fluctuating around that. 3 years... I've been told about plateaus but it is clearly something much more than that. Almost 3 years and I am now a diabetic, again.. Nothing seems to help me lose weight, and the weird feeling now is that I feel hungry almost all the time. To be honest, I was and am not one of the sleevers who tried to force themselves to eat more than they could or got sad that they couldn't eat as much as before - those things made me soo happy. But that feeling of satiety was something I rarely ever experienced throughout these 2 almost 3 years. For sure I would take 2/3 bites and feel full but that only lasted half an hour to an hour. I can't ever remember eating what is a normal amount to a sleever and having the full feeling remain for a few hours until another meal time, and I was dying the experience that feeling and I still am. I went into the surgery as everyone should know "this is not going to work by it is just a tool to help you", and yes I did understand that and yes as I'm sure every person would had/ will have a WLS feels deep down somewhere is that euphoria feeling of this will be your fix. Could there have been times where I could've/should've put more work in - for sure as I'm sure that's the same with everyone. I was tired and done by the age of 18, almost 21 now I don't even know what to call the state I'm in. If ANYONE has any type or form of advice, or experiences like this, please do share it with me if you are comfortable to do so. I've been doing a lot of new research recently and came across some people with the same issue and it appears as though not enough of the stomach was removed which results in losing some weight at first then no more at all afterwards. This then lead to a Revision Sleeve surgery (basically re-sleeving the sleeve)...is anyone familiar with this/has anyone experienced this? Super proud of everyone who is losing weight and have successful stories, keep going you got this! To anyone who has lost a fair amount of weight but is maybe feeling annoyed or anger because their weight loss has slowed down or anything that that, remind yourself that you've still lost and at least you are not in my boat Be grateful! Best regards <3 P.S. sorry that this is kinda of scattered and trust me when I say this story in MUCH more in depth in many areas, but I shall leave it at this, for now.

I believe i started this thread stating I was impressed with Dr. Kelly. Never did I bash Dr. Kelly. I was concerned with all the drama from professionals. I did not expect to call a number listed for a dr and have them recommend a different dr. Very unprofessional and to me that is a red flag. It makes you wonder if they know something that they are not telling you. That was my concern starting this topic. To the idiot that thinks im being deceitful and posing as someone looking for wls, well you're just an idiot. I paid a $500 deposit to Dr. Ortiz, scheduled the surgery, even flew to Atlanta but because I fly standby I could not get to San Diego that day January 9th. I have the cashiers check still in hand, all I have to do is reschedule. I believe Dr. Ortiz is an excellant dr, as I stated he did my lapband and didnt think twice about booking revision with him until talking to a coord. I just dont know if he has enough revision experience. So exfatso take your lanceur de merde somewhere else. Im not going to keep going with this, I have talked to Dr. K personally and feel very comfortable with his experience with revisions. He has great credentials and I will be booking my surgery for next week. His cell phone number is 619-793-4869 and email is jrkelly45@hotmail.com if anyone wants to book with him directly. Dr. Kelly assured me he would take good care of me so I am at peace with my decision. For those that have just booked and now having doubts, call him directly. Im done dealing with any coordinators, they are the ones causing so much trouble for him.

I credit my band with helping me lose, but I did the bulk of the work to lose. I will not discredit by band for my gain, coz it doesn't choose what I put into my mouth. You think it's sad that people take responsibility for not following the band rules and gaining? Who else is responsible if not them? I'm more saddened that anyone thinks that nothing that happens to them with regards to their weight is their responsibility. Maybe that's the difference here, and I'm glad that I don't think that way. Anyway, back to the topic, I'm 5 years banded now, did spring a leak about 18 monthsw ago, had 2 port replacements and 1 band replacement to finally resolve it. I gained 35lbs in 10 months when the band wasn't working and I lost about 40% of it when I realised how much I'd strayed from my initial goals. I then got rebanded. The reasons for chosing a band over sleeve are in this post: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/topic/165592-full-band-replacement-experiences-sought/ I won't say that initially it was an easy decision to make, which way to go in terms of revision. But when I talked it out with my physican and my family, it then became a no brainer. The band gave me a great, easy 5 years and if I get another easy 5 years out of it, I'd be grateful. If it lasts longer, than yay for me! It worked the first time and is working just as well this time for me. So I am absolutely sure I made the right decision.

Ditto what AZHiker said. I'm back on keto with exception of fat %. I use vinaigrettes for salads and some salad dressings that straddle line between low carb and low fat. I use spray butter instead of butter, avocado mayo mixed with low fat mayo or greek yogurt and I use sparingly. Instead of full fat heavy cream, I opt for a splash fat free 1/2 and 1/2 )or vanilla protein drink). On rare occasions if overall carbs are low, I will use 1 TBSP of heavy cream in something but that is rare. I use fat free cream cheese, etc. - I think you get the picture. On top of this, since my calories are between 700-800 a day I still can be in ketosis sometimes partly from lower calories & part from low carbs. I notice when I stick to this, I lose weight faster. If I do some of the 'low glycemic carbs' like oatmeal, sweet baked potato, beans, I notice slow down in loss but I've had these items sparingly.. My surgeon is a keto fan after full healing when he lets his us start eating "regular food" . On the ongoing nutrition plan I just received, they had the macros as follows: 800 calories with 40% of total calories from protein, 30% from fat, and 30% from carbohydrates this should help increase your rate of weight loss. I can understand 800 cals & biggest % being protein but I was a bit surprised by 30% from fat part although I know they mean healthy kinds of fat like avocado, etc. Here is what plan says about fat: Limit fats to 2-3 servings a day; avoid unhealthy fats such as cream, lard, butter. 1 serving of fat should = 5g fat. Some examples include: 1 tsp. oil, 1 Tbsp. regular salad dressing, 2 Tbsp. reduced-fat salad dressings, 1/8 avocado, 6 almonds, 1 Tbsp. peanut butter. In looking at sample meal plans, I will revise it for me by removing some of the bigger carbs that the list has like once a day having oatmeal or 1 pc whole wheat toast as I need to keep overall carbs down to lose more quickly.

Hi Lapbandster...I did have a slip and needed surgery to revise it, but it was due to extreme vomiting and not the band at all. I would suggest to anyone to either a) carry prescription strength anti nausea drugs (my PCP makes sure I have a recent prescription at all times because I travel and get to the Dr when you start vomiting. For me, I was travelling in a foreign country when it started and slipped all in 1 day of extreme vomiting. Other than that...the band has been GREAT!

I would love to hear more success stories. I see/read more of the negative than the positive. 7 years this month and needing a revision. Surgery is in 2 days. Not sure if it's the old band or something is damaged inside. I will find out this Friday morning. Doc wants a decision from me if I want a new Realize band (if there are no issues) or to go unbanded. All the negative stories, and my own issues have me leaning very far to the latter.

On the other hand, you can try sleeve, which as you say, is less invasive and has fewer malabsorption risks longterm....and see how it works. If it's not working, you can do a revision to DS. The majority of patients have very good luck with sleeve. it's a personal judgement call.

I am also scheduled for a revision on the 20th. Mine is scheduled for one surgery. My surgeon is confident that will be the outcome. He hasn't even discussed that it may have to be two. Good luck. I am also hoping that this surgery will have much better results.

Welcome! There is a forum for band to VSG revision about half way down the page and there are several people here!

Right. Scar tissue is thick and doesn't heal as well. Revisions are higher risk than virgin sleeves due to the thickened scar tissue.

I had no complications. According to surgeon revisions have "about" double the risk of leaks and excessive bleeding. So, if leak risk is around 1-2%; for revisions it is still single digit but much higher. For me, the risk was worth it because I was dying slowly being so obese.

I had my revision from band to sleeve on 5/28 as well. I have had absolutely no complications. I had my surgery in Dallas, Tx, with Dr. David Kim. I have lost a total of 19 lbs. After reading on here everyone's experience, I was so scared that I was going to have issues getting fluids down. From day 2 post op, i have been drinking fluids no problem, I have went forward on my diet without dr's orders, but I am on phase 2 of post op diet, which should just be creamed soups, well I have started refried beans and fat free cottage cheese, which has settle just fine. My only compliant right now is, I get tired so much faster than I use to. Understandable, due to not getting the calories and carbs that I usually did. I will be release to exercise in about 2 weeks. I love my sleeve, and I love that I have vomitted in almost 3 weeks. Good luck...

It varies by facility. Here at Eglin, my revision took 3 months to get done, and I did NOT have to jump through any of the normal hoops, like the psych or nut evals. However, I had to have more labs done, and had to get some extra stuff done due to being a revision. I've seen other MTFs require these appointments, the basic seem to be(marked with an * are ones I had to do as a revision) : Labs*, eKg*, endoscopy (I did not have this one), psych and nut eval, chest xray*, informational seminar (typically the very first appointment). Some require a manometry (up in the Northern region is the only place I've read about this requirement. In the Pacific NW (Oregon, Washington area MTFs) they require a 6 month supervised diet/weigh in, with multiple nut visits, but that could have changed. With my band, I had a civilian place it and it was covered by Tricare Prime 100% with zero out of pocket. I had a psych eval, 3 nut visits, labs, chest xray, eKg, psych eval. I'm really sorry that you are having to go through all of this Heather. I am not surprised that Tricare isn't picking up the VSG(as we've heard they were going to do so since 2009, 1 October comes and goes without changes in their bariatric profile of approved surgeries) since Medicare is still NOT fully covering it with all of their plans.

Hey Melissa, What is your BMI? The requirements are BMI 35 with at least 2 co-morbidities, or BMI of 40 without co-morbidities. The sleeve is covered at military hospitals on post/base, but not by civilian surgeons Dr. Nick Nicholson Dr. Wade Barker Dr. David Kim Are the 3 surgeons I researched for my revision when I was trying to get my revision from band to sleeve covered and approved and was looking at self-pay options. All of my family is in D/FW Texas so I would be close to family/friends if I had to go that route. I'm not sure what area of Texas you are in, but there are some great surgeons in San Antonio and Houston. If you need anything, feel free to contact me. I've gone round and round with Tricare for 2 years now on the sleeve so I'm fairly well-versed.

Awesome ! ! ! Hope everything goes through. . . I knew Dr. Riley was leaving this year sometime as he was my assisting surgeon on my revision and Dr. Michel told me that Dr. R was leaving as well. It really sucks because I have a friend looking into VSG and she's hitting roadblocks too.

I feel for you, and I'm about to go through what you have. Though I haven't had burning, I have had nausea, and vomiting shoulder pain and some of the worst headaches I've ever had in my life. I've been through the whole gammit of tests, and my doctor is very unsure of what is causing everything. I've made the decision, but I'm revising to VSG. In 3 weeks, I should find out if the band is what is causing all this misery. I will keep you in my thoughts while you keep looking for your answers. w

Thanks so much. I had my revision performed at an MTF over 2 years ago so I'm all set, it's all the other spouse's out there getting denied and then settling for a surgical option they really do not want just because they are desperate to have some sort of WLS. So, if anyone can give details on how they got it covered, the surgeon, location, either Tricare Prime, Standard, Prime Remote, Tricare for Life, ICD-9 codes, process and procedures that had to be completed before VSG was approved, all of that information can be used as ammo for other spouses. It's illegal for them to approve it for some dependents and deny others. I've been fighting with Tricare and trying to help my friends with appeals and congressional complaints to get it covered with Tricare Prime or Standard with civilian surgeons.