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because when I talked with a local surgeon he seriously discouraged the band eventhough he would give me one if I wanted. because if you look around this board you will see many who have had the band and are now having to have it removed and have revision surgery to the sleeve because either their band slipped, or stopped working for them and they gained some (or all) of their weight back. because I don't have time to go have the required maintenance on it (filling, etc) because the thought of that foreign object in my body gives me the heebiegeebies..

Not getting any support from my husband about getting my sleeve revision to gastric Bypass,he thinks this is a stupid idea and is very negative about everything. Tomorrow is my surgery and I have to be there at 5:30 am and he’s even complaining about that because God forbid he loses his precious sleep.

Wow, what an inspiration you are! I had to call my daughter over to see your pics. Thank you for posting your story, especially about your decision to be rebanded. Often we only here of the people who had slips and decide to revise to something else. Thanks again!

Prior to surgery I went out to eat 3-4 times a week. After surgery I didn't feel comfortable eating in restaurants so I stayed home. When I do go out to restaurants I tell the person that I'm with to order two entrees. I'll eat what I want from the second order and they can take home the rest. It seems to work fine with everybody. Ask hubby to order another entree and eat what you want. He can take the rest home and have something he likes for lunch the next day. Let's also keep in mind that you went down the WLS road once before. What made you do a revision? Was it for medical reasons or did you fail at losing and maintaining the weight loss from the sleeve? If it's the former, what has changed to give you a better shot at long term success? Did your husband sabotage the weight loss from your sleeve as well or was it something that you did? If it was you, what did you change to be successful this time around?

I had my revision surgery on May 22, 2018 from sleeve to bypass. It has been very difficult regarding food intake. I am not hungry and eat only when hungry. I stay away from all the bad food but my spouse is not supportive. Prior to surgery we went out to eat on a regular basis. He still wants us to continue to go out to eat and expects me to eat the way I used to prior to the surgery. He gets upset when I tell him I am not hungry or order something small. I sometimes just ask for an extra plate and eat off his plate but he ends up serving me a large amount off his plate. He always makes hurtful comments regarding my food intake. I remind myself that I did the initial surgery for myself and for health reasons. This revision surgery was done for medical reasons and he does not seem to understand that. He eats unhealthy foods and likes to go to restaurants where I really don't care to eat in. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't want to hurt myself and be back where I was before.

I am having my band to sleeve revision on Monday! Positive thoughts and well wishes of quick healing to you!!!!!

You've lost 37 pounds and aren't happy with that? That's 9.25 lbs/week, and average weight loss with the band is 1-2 lbs/week. I would suspect that your body is now in a quandary because of the big initial weight loss and trying to readjust your metabolism. It's way too soon to judge your restriction or your band's success. I think you need to work on your band eating skills. Read the article I wrote about that here: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/page/index.html/_/support/post-op-support/how-to-eat-like-a-bandster-r58 ) Also, you need to re-think what "full" means to you. It's not healthy for anyone, especially a bandster, to eat and eat until they feel "full". Eating that way is overeating, and overeating is how we got fat in the first place. And when a bandster overeats, it overloads the stomach and esophagus and can cause esophageal dilation,stomach dilation, and band slips. So, don't go looking for "Thanksgiving dinner Full". Eat only until the physical hunger pangs are gone. You wrote: I'm really think I'm wanting a bypass but, figure that sense I haven't had the band that long that I Probaly won't be able to get it and I supose there got to be something wrong like the cabs slipping before I can get a bypass ? As I said before, it's way too soon to decide your band isn't working. And no, you won't be able to revise to the bypass so soon after your band surgery unless you have a lot of cash and can persuade your surgeon to do it. The bypass isn't going to work like magic either. Weight loss is hard work no matter what surgery you have. I don't know what you mean by "the cabs slipping." What is "cabs"? If you mean that a complication like a band slip could justify revising to the bypass, you're right, but you can't assume that your insurance is going to pay for revision to another procedure because some policies allow only one WLS in the patient's lifetime. So your insurance might pay to remove your band, but not to do the bypass. I was hungry at lot as a new bandster. It will probably take a few more fills for your band to start helping with that. In the meantime, hang in there!

Banded 11 months Started at 205. Currently at 141.4. Wanted to lose 75 pounds. Revised to 70 pounds Have lost 63.6 pounds. 27 of that was pre-op. Rating of 10. I love the way I look, the way I feel. But biggest difference is in the bloodwork. Triglyceride count from 399 to 133. Overall cholesterol normal. Hga1c is 5.0 from being a type 2 diabetic. Pretty awesome. Did I mention I'm hot now??

Hello I am going through the SAME EXACT situation. Dr unfilled me to allow stomach to recover, and I am SO HUNGRY. I return to Dr on 6/13/14 to check for improvement. Uggghhh When I got my band in 2010 I was self pay, because my insurance sucked. Now I have good insurance that will pay for a revision. I just dont know what to do.

Just an update....the dr and I have decided that I will have the revision to the RNY. During this process, I have gained around 40 lbs, which is so discouraging. Hopefully surgery will be scheduled end of November/Early December!

Positive thoughts flowing your way. Try to believe for the best - if you have to have a revision surgery, we're going to believe now that your insurance will cover it and you'll have even better results than you did with the band. Hugs

Thanks! Just to give you an idea on the sites we're launching: 1) Realize Band Forum 2) RNY Forum 3) WLS Revision Forum 4) Plastic Surgery Forum 5) Recipe Forum 6) Duodenal Switch Forum 7) One Main Site which will pull content from all sites together I've found that having one web site serving the needs of multiple communities isn't the greatest idea. That's one of the main reasons we're going to keep LBT focused on one thing - Lap-Band and only Lap-Band. Stay tuned......

I know it's already done, but I have to add my "no". My reasons, and mine alone, being: If I have WLS and come to a messageboard called "whateverWLSIhadtalk.com" then I expect that the people at that site are "experts" with the band to some capacity, or fellow researchers. If I want information about - let's say a RNY just to throw something out there - I will look for RNYtalk.com or some other "targetted" site. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I will come to a board because of the information, not the people, so I would not stay here and expect to get good information on a non-band procedure. I cannot necessarily give good, reliable or even safe information to the recipient of a different type of WLS. So why would I want to answer someone's question, or on the flip side, why would I come here to get information? If this were "weightlosssurgerytalk.com" that might make sense, but to me it just doesn't give that I'm going to have some other procedure but expect support from LBT. And if I'm smart, I understand the opposite to be true. Hence the only reason I can see someone who is not an AGB patient coming to an AGB site is for social reasons, and in my case -- that's not going to be the case. If someone is here for social reasons, we should see them in off-topic/social areas, not needing a separate forum. Revisions, whatever - fine. There's still a lapband core there, and someone who has had and then lost their lapband will likely still have "lapband" issues, or issues that lapband patients can assist with because of the common thread (e.g. adjusting to a new diet, regretting decisions, etc.) By opening up to any WLS, or if we went further and opened up to any WL efforts, we would not be lapbandtalk. So is the goal to stay true to lapbandtalk, or to broaden to a larger market and become tryingtoloseweighttalk? Dunno.

Congrats brother, I hope that I can come close to your success. I get sleeved next week on the 29th. I would love to be down a hundred by May 18th, it is my 38th BDay and I want to go home and show off to my Grandma. She is getting up there in the years and I want to show her my healthier self. She is always so worried about me being so heavy. I figure 5 months will to be down a 100 is a good goal, but now I think I will revise that and shoot for 4 months. Bill

Since I posted this on the complications forum, my intended audience is those having complications and perhaps looking into revision. The links I posted have some very relevant information for people like myself who are contemplating which surgery to revise to. This was in no way intended for those of you who are currently banded and having no problems. I think the absolute intolerance of this sort of post is ridiculously immature. Dr Keshishian is one of, if not the most respected revision surgeon in the country. Context is important here...I posted on the COMPLICATIONS forum.

I’m planning a revision from the sleeve. I look forward to keeping up with everyone’s journey

I could be you , I had a band in 2009 lost all my excess weight, kept it off for ages and then it stopped working. I had a band to bypass revision in Jan and haven’t looked back. All my excess weight has come off - I now sit around 49kg and my diet is so much healthier. I can eat steak and chops and salads and there are no stuck episodes. I no longer waste nights out in restaurant loos because my first bite of food got stuck. To me my RNY does what the band was marketed to do. I know when i’ve had enough, I don’t get stuck, full is in my stomach not my throat and I can eat small amounts of healthy food and be satisfied. Sugar causes me issues if I’m not careful but that is a good thing. Good luck with whatever you decide to do but when deciding don’t write off the RNY, it is so much better than the band.

I came back home after 5 days in the hospital for my duodenal switch revision. I weighed 23 lbs. more than when I left! I literally ate nothing during those 5 days. I had as little of the liquid diet components as possible. This weight was all IV fluids. I was on IV everyday for 5 days. I had IV infiltration due to a poor IV placement. I dropped 5 lbs. per day for 5 days. Don't gauge progress day by day. It is best to track your weight and look at the month to month change. You may even stall for a full month, but overall, you'll progress fine if you follow your diet.

I'm not going to read through every response so forgive any of these that are duplicates. The things I didn't know about before are fairly personal - not as in "won't share" but as in "specific to my situation". I was a revision, and so the only things that have surprised me are relative to my previous WLS, or the things you have to be living it to know whether or not they even apply to you. But I'm a researcher, and started looking into VSG about 5 years ago. Not a lot will escape those two conditions. However, I see a lot of new people "shocked" to learn lots of things, so here are some that I see come up a lot: You will probably lose a good amount of your hair (I'd estimate 20% - 40%) starting about 2 or 3 months after surgery. It's possible to dump with the sleeve. Most people seem surprised to learn this. In fact, there's already been a thread on it today. It's possible to develop intolerances to foods with the sleeve. Not "sleeve doesn't like it" but actual intolerances. Reflux is a fairly common side effect. Reflux over time can lead to additional issues such as Barret's. Reflux can be helped (I won't say controlled) by medications - PPIs and the like. PPIs are currently under a lot of scrutiny for their long-term effects, i.e. bone density. [*]Your tastes can change with this surgery. So can the foods that work for you. These aren't necessarily slow changes. You'll probably be eating low-carb, at least for a while, and that can bring its own complications: "Ketosis" breath Low potassium may result in muscular cramps particularly in the legs/feet Pooping might totally change. In too many ways than I can list here, but let's just say there aren't really any good ways. Etc. [*]You may have to take Fiber supplements and/or laxatives for quite some time, maybe permanently. But maybe you'll never need one. Just gotta wait and see. [*]Since this is not a malabsorptive procedure, it's still possible to gain weight. You're still accountable for the things you eat. I'm surprised to see others surprised by this. [*]When food doesn't "sit well" it can be surprisingly painful, and can hurt in places that initially won't make sense (referred pains). [*]You may or ay not have problems with nausea. I've had no nausea, and no vomiting -- but I've had my share of discomfort. [*]Your body will probably start to make new noises. Gurgles, burps that aren't burps (I call them nurps), etc. They may or may not go away. [*]Your hunger may significantly diminish, or go away completely. But it might also remain consistent. Our fundus is the primary place where Ghrelin is produced, but it's not the only place. Think this is only a good thing? Lots of studies right now are pretty consistently linking Ghrelin to things like memory and cognitive function, is in - not enough Ghrelin, so in 50 years you may be skinny & have no idea why. [*]Lots of aspects of general weightloss tend to be forgotten or overlooked: things like your feet get smaller, your fingers, etc. Medication dosages may also need to be recalibrated You will need to actively adjust your caloric intake (you won't have much say in it for a while, tho) to adjust for your shrinking body - needs can change by 1000 calories, easily. Don't get in a "rut" and assume things will be forever this way, or that. There's more, but that's all I can think of off the top of my Ghrelin-starved brain.

I never threw up. I never had nausea in the hospital. I did once feel like I might chuck (the first time I tried something thick & sticky - cream cheese, of all things), because it didn't want to go down. It wasn't really a stomach thing, it was an esophagus thing. I was a revision from a band so my issues were a bit different. They had to do magic with my scar tissue. And this caused some swelling in areas that don't really swell. So yeah - you can assume the worst, but it's actually very very common for people to not have any problems (way more common than I thought it was when I went in). You guys not pooping - unfortunately it happens. I'd say (not a Dr.) that as long as you aren't in discomfort, it's OK-ish. I mean, it's never great, but it's not horrible either. I pooped once or twice after surgery, then went either just under, or just over 2 weeks without pooping. Without having any urge to poop. Soluble Fiber + Miralax + as many fluids as you can manage. (You REALLY don't want to take additive fiber without increasing your fluids). And when I did poop, it wasn't nice. I felt like I pooped a sandpaper brick. Actually it felt like a pooped a huge sandpaper brick. And in reality, it was like a walnut. Yes, I looked. I wanted to see what 2 week old poop looked like, I guess. Or how alien the thing I just birthed really was. I was like "OMG - no... that's SO SMALL!" How our butts distort things like that, I have no idea, but they do. Wait until you have to poop, and it comes halfway out and gets stuck. Tell me what you do then.

If you keep that up, your band may slip and you may have no choice but to have a revision with sleeve done. Be careful and again, just remember why you did this. If the doctor has cleared you to eat, make better food choices, and eat foods that are high in protein and low in carbs. Eat to live, don't live to eat. Good luck.

Hello, was yours a revision from a different surgery or was sips your first surgery ?

My revision surgery from VSG to Bypass Went excellent. Not many issued, just post op pain which is normal. I get to come home today! I very happy about that especially. How is everyone else?

AZDee, I've read so many of your posts that I feel like I know you. I agree with your comments about scaring. That's initially one of the reasons I looked at Gutierrez -- his micro-surgical expertise. But now I'm trying to look at the big picture thanks to all of the honest, open feedback provided by you and others. I'm definitely concerned about scaring, technique (sculpting skills), infection rate and of course price. Because I need multiple procedures, pricing is a concern but doesn't trump the other considerations. I hate, hate, hate general anesthesia and really think twilight is a better option. But that's not enough to make me have the procedure performed in MX. Initially I too thought that affordability was only an option outside of the US, but I'm seeing more and more affordable options. I know the look I'm going for. As the girls on realself.com say, "I want to get snatched!" But..... I'm trying to be realistic about what is possible for my body type. I find that a lot of the drs. here (even in FL) give tummy tucks with a boxy shape. I'm in love with the curvy hour glass sculpting done in MX and DR. So I still have a lot more work to do. I really wanted to chat with you about your experience with Gutierrez since you're having some revision work done in TX. I read a review from someone else that wasn't thrilled with their work. Sigh..... Ally

Someone very close to me is 10 years out, has had and kept her success and never had a revision to bypass! HW 289 SW 262 VSG 5/2/18 Kaiser, Ontario - Dr. Chin