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Just like it says. My stomach is very sensitive and I have a hard time gauging what I can do. Even when it has been well enough time for me to be able to eat again or take a sip of something, it isn't. I have been sick all evening and I guess this happens 2-3 times a week. It is a very painful process for me. I go in for my third endoscopy this Thursday. I just had one almost three weeks ago, I guess it was and another four weeks before that. I have a stricture that keeps coming back. I am not sure how many times the surgeon is going to dilate it before he decides to go ahead and do a revision. I am feeling much better than I did in the first couple of months after my surgery but I am nowhere close to feeling normal by any means. I love the fact that I have lost weight and have more energy and can get around with more ease. My RA and OA have really improved, but feeling like I do right now is the pits.

Help! I am 5 months post RNY. I had band to RNY revision and was laced with complications (leaking, feeding tube, fistuals, PICC line etc). I have a remaining gastro-gastric fistula which is not closing with conservative (wait and see) approaches. I have lost about 116lbs in 5 months. Still 80lbs from goal weight. I see from a medscape article there are many approaches to deal with fistuals. My question to those with gastro-gastric fistuals: 1) Did you have the fistula repaired? If so, by what method? 2) Has anyone lived sucessfully with the fistula and maintained weight loss? My fear is after going through this the fistula will stretch and I will lose the restriction effect of the RNY. Please share your stories with me! Best, Janine

Talkalot1981, I just found this in Tri-care Provider News TRICARE covers the following bariatric surgical procedures: • Roux-en-Y gastric bypass • Vertical banded gastroplasty • Gastroplasty (stomach stapling) • Adjustable gastric banding (i.e., adjustable LAP-BAND®) TRICARE does not cover: • Nonsurgical treatment of obesity or morbid obesity (commercial diet programs, weight-loss supplements) • Redundant skin surgery when performed solely for the purpose of improving appearance • Biliopancreatic bypass, gastric bubble or balloon, gastric wrapping/open banding or sleeve gastrectomy for the treatment of morbid obesity • Devices used for bariatric surgery not approved by the U.S. food and Drug Administration Note: TRICARE only covers one bariatric surgery per lifetime. In certain medically necessary circumstances, TRICARE will also cover bariatric-revision surgery. For more information, visit www.tricare.mil/coveredservices. n

I'm scheduled for June 21st. I'm having a band revision. I just hope they can do both in the same day. Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

My surgery is Dec 31 in Pittsburgh, PA. So nervous! Im having a revision from the band

I’m on 2/20 also in Southern California, not on liquids until the day before surgery. Have to take milk of magnesia at noon and that’s about it. I am having my lapband taken out and revisioning to sleeve so hopefully all goes smooth! Good luck to you! Glad I found this website!

Hi guys, I'm doing fine, thanks. My daughter was out of the country all last year, and I finally have insurance that covered my revision and her lapband aftercare. (She was being seen before leaving the country, but not since returning in June.)So she had an upper GI series & is having an endoscopy on Wed. just to check the positioning of her band & to make sure all is o.k. I'm telling you all this because I mentioned to her doc that I've been reading here about a lot people suffering from reflux. He reiterated what Dr. Ortiz told me when I was first banded: IF YOU HAVE REFLUX AFTER BEING BANDED, SOMETHING IS WRONG. YOUR FILL COULD BE TOO TIGHT, YOU COULD HAVE A HIATIAL HERNIA, OR A SLIP, AND YOU ARE DEFINATELY RISKING THE HEALTH OF YOUR ESOPHAGUS. To anyone suffering w/GERD/Reflux, please, please have it checked out, and if your doctor shrugs it off, see another doctor! hugs to all, Karen

My surgery is December 10 in Provo, Utah. I'm having a revision from LapBand (2007). I've been on the liquid diet for 1 week, so I'm halfway there. Haven't cheated and hope to be able to say that next Sunday night. I'm probably the oldest one having surgery this month (63) and maybe the oldest on the site. Yikes! I guess it's never too late. Good luck to everyone having surgery this week. So anxious to see you on the other side!

Thanks guys! I'm more calm now. I'm sure I'll continue to ride the emotional roller coaster between now and the 6th. I just keep reminding myself why I'm doing this. I think I just wasn't expecting to schedule so fast! Insurance was just approved yesterday afternoon! I decided on rny because my BFF just had her band removed today. It made her really sick. Then I thought about the sleeve but I worried about heart burn/acid reflux since I already have it. I didn't want to end up having to do a revision. So I said go big or go home lol. Just talk to your dr. There are people that argue for and against all forms. The hard part is determining what's best for YOU! Good luck! Feel free to contact me anytime. Maybe we can support each other's craziness! Haha!!

Dr. Moazzez placed my band in November 2008. I really love him! He removed my band last Monday and I'm hoping to be sleeved sometime at the end of July or beginning of August. My 90 program is up on Jul 9! Anyone use Dr. M for a revision??? He has a great bedside manner and his office staff is awesome. Good luck everyone!

Exactly Fanny!!!!! And Wasa, you don't know anything about me physically, emotionally, or mentally. People can takes bits and pieces of anything they want from prior posts but when it comes down to it I have had problems with my lap band and came to this forum seven months post-op to get some information and figure out what was wrong. And unfortunately you don't always get the proper back up with problems from your original surgical team once you've gone through the procedure and must be proactive and search elsewhere. Often you must involve a variety of doctors and in my case an endocrinologist who I couldn't even get to see until almost a year post-surgery as there seem to be only a handful of them in my location. If I had the proper treatment with an endocrinologist prior to surgery I never would have needed to be banded in the first place and I did not know this until I had the surgery. Anyway don't give me that BS that I had behavior problems with the band, it's just such a typical flippant remark that you people tend to dish out here. Just go over to Obsesityhelp.com and see how many people have revisions due to problems with the band and every single WLS out there! Do you have the band or have you had revision surgery? Have I judged you because you had a problem? No, so why so judgmental here, as I stated earlier people in glass houses........................Nancy

My first fill was UNSUCESSFUL! Surgeon couldnt find my port and stuck me over 25 times!!!!! I cried the whole way home and still have swelling and pain in the port area!! I am so discouraged. Question: If he wasent putting the saline in the port, where was it going when he injected it in my body? Doc wants to schedule an appt. in two weeks to do the fill under floroscopy. At this point panic has set in and I am worried that my port may have flipped or is angled in such a way that a port revision surgery will be warranted. I am so depressed!! Havent excerised and losing motivation to eat right!!! Has anyone else had a first fill horroR? Is this common? What do I do next? Helllllppppppp!!!!!:(

I don't post it on the general boards. I answer questions and try to help people make their band work on general boards. But yesterday I decided to answer BJean's question and I do refer to studies and such. What about Inamed? They claim at 5 years people have lost 55-60% of their excess weight. I don't consider those great stats. Neither does Inamed which is probably why they removed the actual numbers and changed it to a LOT of weight. They go so far as to compare it to bypass. What they aren't telling you is that they are comparing a group of bypass patients that did not have enough intestine bypassed and they did not do well. Why do you suppose they don't have the numbers there anymore? The 55-60% stats? I sure couldn't find it as of a week ago. It's a WLS! Why wouldn't they post long term stats??? That's like saying, "Here, take this snake oil pill I'm selling, I won't tell you what average weight loss is, but it's a LOT!" Some people beat the stats, I did. I lost 100% of my excess weight. It can be done but in my case it was at a price. I stand behind what I wrote. I understand exactly what Susan is talking about. It's the same reason I didn't tell many here I was getting revised to a sleeve. My friend Kira didn't realize I hadn't told anyone so she thought she was doing me favors by posting it. It wasn't a problem, but it was hard to explain why I hadn't mentioned it. A few knew, Denise did, Alex did, a few. But I sure didn't post about it. Well, I did once and went back and deleted it before anyone could read it. If you can't hack a band for whatever reason everyone assumes you aren't following some magical list of rules. I can't tell you how many newbies on OH suggested I just chew better. How the hell do you chew a Protein shake you slime on with an unfilled band? I learned my lesson about talking "revision" on OH. I wasn't going to do it here or my doc's board. If you insist you are following the rules then everyone assumes you just can't stop stuffing donuts in your face. If you are losing well then it doesn't matter because you are losing and people actually wish they had the same problems. That probably annoyed me more than anything. I wouldn't have wished the non stop sliming and assorted versions of stoma spewing on anyone and people wished they had the same problems as me so they would lose weight too? Ack! That made me angry. There is no winning with noobs and revisions. They HAVE to find a way that it is your fault because zog forbid something happens where their own band doesn't work and the only way they can justify it or work it out in their wee brain is to assume it's the banded person's fault. That's just not my personality type. I was vulnerable when I was planning the revision, I'm not that same vulnerable person anymore.

Some of the worst offenders (speaking personality here, not aroma) are revision patients. They had a band and lost it for whatever reason and they revised to DS. They egg on the others. I think most of them are people that honestly couldn't give up their food. With DS you can eat anything and lose weight for awhile. If you aren't losing weight docs will actually tell them to increase big macs in their diet. It's for the fat content. They HAVE to eat fried foods at least twice weekly for some nutrient. They boast of having to eat fried chicken, steak, etc. but what they don't tell you is the aroma they create when they do. The refer to DS as a "cure" for obesity but after their honeymoon stage (like RNY) they start gaining again so they have to limit carbs, ALL carbs including veggie carbs. They have to take massive doses of supplements daily. But the worst part is these poor people that didn't do their research and they had no idea they would stink for the rest of their days. It causes marriage problems, employment problems, the works. Then they are out there desperately trying to find a cure for the stench. It's sad, but you know what? It's stupid to have elective surgery of any kind without having a clue what you are getting yourself into. Emergency surgery is one thing, elective surgery is quite another. There is no excuse not to do the legwork and research. If you don't know you'll stink with DS until after you have surgery and the odor hits, you get what you get.

That's kinda my take on it. They can have surgery, eat anything they want, and lose weight anyway. But when they are telling you how great the surgery is they do kinda forget to mention your new body odor, Sewer-Delight. If they are not losing weight they will tell the person not losing to go eat a couple of big macs, or extra fried chicken. They need fat since they don't absorb much. Surgical Alli anyone? ;o) I swear, I have sincerely wondered something before. I wonder if DS causes emotional problems or if a certain personality type is drawn to that procedure. I have to admit, I've been pushing their buttons on that thread and not many are taking the bait. Usually the go get their little friends and start attacking but not this time. I think it's the wrong forum to pick on them. They like to fight in the band forum or the DS forum, this is the revision forum.

I'm a band to RNY and I trully loved my band, never had a problem just got po'd at the clinic I was using so switched doctors and just in the nick of time. I was going to follow up with band with the new doctor but he decided he needed to fluoroscope it and see where we were at with it since the other clinic never had in the three years I had the band. Discovered it had slipped and he thought it might be erroded. It hadn't erroded yet, but it had to come out on an emergent basis. So when the doctor and I discussed where to go from there he gave me the options of sleeve or RNY. I turned the table back to him and asked which he would recommend for me. He basically said since I was a type II diabetic that RNY would be the best as it shows over 90% remission for RNY patients. Sleeve doesn't give that good of results as you can still eat sugars and fats. The sleeve also has a faster weightloss than RNY but RNY is just a slower weight loss over a longer period of time. Also I am not too fond of having 2/3's of my stomach put into a hazardous waste bag whereas RNY if it needs to be revised it can be. I also based my decision on which had the most research available and of course RNY does because it has been around the longest and since the band is the next oldest and it is nowing showing a high failure rate I was afraid of the sleeve as it is the newest and not enough research coming in yet.

Karri you look simply amazing! It must feel fantastic having a body that matches all the hard work you've put in. I'm so happy for you that your results have been so amazing! Even without the revision, I think you look wonderful. I'm (more than) slightly jealous!

Had revision surgery 6/24.. And my MD said I will never feel hungry again.. I didn't believe him bc it doesn't sound logical and I was correct. I'm always hungry.. Not STARVING but certainly hungry .. I'm on regular foods and eating protein I know I'm not getting a full 70grams.. I'm hoping as I gradually increase protein the empty hungry feeling will subside, thoughts?

The conversation becomes relevant as people get further out from surgery. I have a good friend who is eight years out from lapband - a seasoned veteran by the standards of Bariatric Pal. She's about 30 pounds away from ideal weight and her band just slipped. And she went unfilled for several weeks. There are options of revision, using medications to jump start weight loss as her band probably has good life left. As we continue to fight obesity, the challenges and conversations do change. Weight loss meds could be back on the table.

It is set!! Revision in 12 days. I had my final consult yesterday, ready to get this show on the road. I start my clear liquid diet tomorrow for 11 day so I can shrink my fatty liver. I didn't know he was over weight ? I'm ready for it, but really scared of passing away during surgery. SCARED. On top of that I found out I have the pre stages of barret esophagus issues after my endoscopy. Then put H.Pilory in the mix. Baby steps one thing at a time.

Hi, I am going under the knife on Jan 30. Quite nervous about the slice and dice option. No going back from there. Had a band put in in 2007. Lost around 50kg but have put it back on. It was the hitting of my starting weight that triggered the decision. Plus all the things slim people didn't experience such as difficulty going to the toilet, breaking chairs, having no one sit beside you on the train, not fitting into plane seats, sweating, etc. Had a revision about 10 years ago which was open surgery, which has come around to bite me on the bum. When the surgeon goes in to remove the band, he might not be able to do the SAGB due to scar tissue. He won't know until he goes in. I am grateful for the band because it took me nearly 20 years to get back up to where I am now, even though it was often through bulimic behaviour. Me and my 3 siblings all had bands done about the same time. One sister is the only success story, with our brother dying last year through weight complications. He expected miracles from the band without the personal effort involved. I fell into the same trap but did not revert to the easy-eat stuff based on ice cream and milk which he did. Instead I pushed my body to the point where my pouch and oesaphagus are stretched. I can eat a normal meal and not feel it. Fears? Post op discipline. If I had the courage and self discipline to say no to myself in this area of my life, I would not be at this point. So the big unknown is will I F it up with my wrong-headedness. A personal challenge we all face. (Not helped by almost pathologically hating Many of the 'good foods' ????

2012, so sorry to hear about your band and the erosion. Good thing you kept alert and kept getting things checked out. I had my band just shy of 3 years, got deathly ill this April and almost 30 hours of vomiting blood later, my band was removed. My band had slipped and almost 1/3 of my stomach was on the wrong side. I was throwing up my stomach lining. I had plication at the same time I got my band so when my band was removed, the plication remained (like a sleeve except it can be reversed). All of this happened 4/25/14 and I promptly gained 11 pounds..I am now headed back down. The doctor told me it was normal and not to panic. Keep walking and try to stay away from the carbs. Now I am at almost no carbs and the weight is coming off. Yes, I am scared and I really wish this had not happened, but it did and now I have to move on. Good luck with your surgery and what ever decision you make down the road about revision. There are lots of us out here who no longer have our bands - you have lots of company. Best Wishes Melinda in Florida

I know how you feel. When I talked to my sister about revising to the sleeve she asked some questions and I answered all of them honestly. She then told me that I had said all of the same things before my band surgery and that was an epic fail. That was pretty mean. I thank the band for helping me not get to 400 lbs. she is heavier than me and I almost thnk she is jealous that I am brave enough to get the revision to the sleeve. But I think that people may not accept it until some weight comes off and you are getting healthier! I have to really not care what anyone else thinks... Congrats on being sleeved btw! You are on your way to proving everyone wrong

I was revised in 1 procedure and he said I had a ton of scar tissue. I was banded in 2008. mThe surgery took over 3 hrs instead of 1.5. One of the scrub techs was actually a friend of mine and she said they have never seen so much scar tissue. They had to switch out midway between the procedure to give a break. I kind of wish they would have recorded it because I would have loved to seen it. Weird I know but I work in the health care field.

My surgery group does a lot of WLS's each month and our pre op supervised visits were in a group setting of about 10 - 12 patients (we would individually see the Dr each time, but nutrition was in group). It seemed as though we were all there because it was required for our medical insurance authorization. Some of us for 6 monthly visits while others only required 3. Some of these patients were revisions and they were still required to do it. You may get away with not having to go if you pay out of pocket, but I don't see how they would be able to get around insurance requirements, my Dr office was pretty clear on this. I know it's a pain to wait this long, but it really does help you prepare for this life change and if you can put up with all of the pre op requirements you are obviously dedicated to it. best of luck.