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I went to a surgeon this past february 2015 for a second opinion. After getting EGD done it was discovered that my band had started to mildly slip down. Surgeon suggested a revision to sleeve or RNY. Insurance approved revision even though my BMI is at 28.4. Insurance stated that since band started to slip plus GERD is present they deemed it as medically necessary regardless of my BMI. I suggest to ask surgeon because I did come across one surgeon who would not do a revision because BMI is under 30..

It's open enrollment at my job, so we have to pick our insurance plan for the next year. I plan on revising from the lap band to gastric sleeve shortly after the switch, I am confused on which plan to choose. Which would give me the best way of paying less out of pocket, for my surgery. So can I have some advice from someone who is knowledgeable in these matters. With my current plan - which is the middle tier, I pay $338 per month and it has a $1000 deductable, and it says for a hospitalization it says 90% after deductible. Does that mean I pay 10% of the total bill after my deductible? The highest plan is $539 per month has no deductible and $500 hospitalization inpatient and $150 out patient. The difference would be paying $200 per month, which would be $2400 more per year. But the lower plan would be $1000 plus 10% of the bill if I'm understanding correctly. Do you think it would be about even in the end? Does anyone have any idea what the gastric sleeve surgery costs with the one night hospital stay? If it is about even, I'll probably keep the middle plan and just pay off the other part. Any advice would be great! I have to choose by May 1st. Thanks!

I'm a 34yr male. 6'1 and currently weighing 225 pounds. I had succesful lap band surgery in march 2007 and lost 80 pounds. From 265 went down to 185. I had maintained overall weight loss success until sometime last year in january 2014 when i started to notice the GERD getting worse and also some weight gain. For the first time in 5 years when i hit the scale i saw numbers over the 200 range. I started to worry because i knew something was not right. Got an upper GI series done and all it showed was mild pouch dilation. Doctor left band as is and never suggested any course of treatment for the dilation and for the GERD. Fast forward now to 2015 and I seeked a second opinion from another surgeon. Surgeon performed an EGD and it shows that there is band slippage, gastritis and presence of GERD. Surgeon suggested a revision for the lap band and to convert it to either a gastric sleeve or gastric bypass. Insurance has approved the revision but need guidance or help in deciding which one is better for me. I see soo many mix responses from people suggesting or prefering one over the other. I will say that yes the band did work for me and do its job. It improved my health alot but now is the GERD that is just kicking me in the rear end very bad. Like stated before I weight 225 now and for the long term success and achivement I'm undecided as to what procedure is more suited for me at this point of my life. I do need the surgery to aliviate the discomfort plus without any bariatric procedure on me I would go back to how i was prior to the lapband. I tried it all before deciding doing bariatric surgery in 2007. Thank you.

I'm still pre-op for my revision from band to bypass, but even now, my nutritionist makes me get at least 80 grams of Protein a day.

Terry, I'm sorry to read that you had complications and the band is no longer useful. I don't have an opinion on revision but I just wanted you to know that I always appreciated your posts and support for the bandster cohort here.

You have to decide which lifestyle suits you. Do you need malabsorption to help you? Do you need to take NSAIDs? Please bear in mind that I am a very happy and very successful bandit now 9 years post-op. I do not regret my band, would do it all over again and if I ever have to have it removed, I would hope to have a replacement. When I was banded in 2006, it was a miracle surgery. And for some people, who accept that they will still have to work hard, it is just that. It was and still is for me. But over the years it has become clear that serious complications necessitating further surgery are much more common than originally thought, some of these are avoidable by careful eating and by not keeping the band tight; unfortunately others are beyond our control. We used to be warned about band slips, leaks and about ( very rare) erosion into the stomach tissue but it turns out that a build up of scar tissue round the band (causing it to tighten) is quite common. It can be very difficult to get the right level of restriction and some people are tempted to keep it tight enough to physically limit food, in fact it was once thought this was how it should be. But this causes food to back up into the oesophagus and that risks problems such as oesophageal dysmotility which may be irreversible. It can also damage the vagus nerve. Quite a number of doctors have stopped implanting bands as they found the removal rate was unacceptably high and it was too easy not to lose enough weight. Revision from band to sleeve is not uncommon! We still need lots of will power. The band makes it easier by dimming hunger, but it does nothing for head hunger and, contrary to popular opinion, it does not and should not physically stop us eating. If it does it is too tight! Having said all that, I love my band, I know many successful long term bandits in real life. My own experience has been good and so has that of almost all those I actually know and have met. Equally, I know people who have had major successes AND serious complications with both sleeve and rny. But I haven't had those surgeries myself so will not speak for them!

The revision process with the surgeon I chose has gone so fast, my head is spinning...compared to when I originally had surgery for my sleeve. My insurance approved solely from seeing the endoscopy results therefore a lot of the other things like the sleep apnea test, I don't have to endure. Things that I'm curious about, how will the weight loss be the second time around? Will the malabsorption be a little more normalized with what my body has already gone through with the sleeve? I had many fainting episodes from lack of eating, dehydration, etc. and really fear that may worsen with the bypass.

I enjoyed this post! Ideally I can get to a point where you are where you can just relax and know you're doing the right thing. I am obsessive about the scale. I hit goal on April 1, but now I revised it to 10 pounds less because that was my old goal. I do well with quantitative goals...I don't care if my pants are loose- I need that number to show up on the scale! I feel like the scale gives me a lot of control. I have a regular scale that I had since the start of surgery so that is the one I base my official weight loss off of, but I also have an Aria scale because I thought it was cool that it syncs to MyFitnessPal. Of course the Aria scale is always a bit higher than my regular scale, so I record both the numbers. Sometimes the difference is a few points, while sometimes it's over a pound. Using both scales keeps me feeling confident that I am on the right track and maintaining and it leaves me less time to stress out over whether or not I may have gained from enjoying a bite of cookie or a glass of wine. Also, when the day goes badly at work or otherwise, I look at that number on the scale and I say, well, I'm 128 pounds and 2 years ago I was 230-ish...the day could really be going much worse than it is. So...I am jealous that you are so laid back! I wouldn't mind being like that.

Thank you so much for your post as I am schedule for revision surgery from band to sleeve on 4/30/2015. I am scared and nervous.

Hi am schedule for revision surgery on 4/30/2015. Am nervous and scared but there's also a feeling of excitement.

I am in the same process. My sleeve dilated during pregnancy (I was not overheating) it was a difficult pregnancy. The weight I gained I have not lost and my gerd is horrible. So I went in for a the upper gi and barium swallow a few weeks ago and he determined that I have severe gerd and a dialated sleeve, which he says he has seen in several post pregnancy sleeves. I am scheduled for an endoscopy the end of May. In the meantime, they are contacting my insurance regarding revision. I have BCBS Federal, I am not sure if I will have to go through all the requirements again. So just waiting. Good luck to u.

This topic comes up just about every day on this site. You can search for it and fine hundreds if not thousands of posts that should help you. For me, the band was never an option to consider. My surgeon feels unless you have really great exercise habits in place, the band will not succeed long term. Banders had to work even harder. Given I have psoriatic arthritis and degenerative spine disease, we felt that was not going to be as successful for me. So my decision was between the sleeve and RNY gastric bypass. We then had to take my health concerns into account. I suffered from a lot of things, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, reflux/herd, diabetes and stage 3 kidney disease. As soon as my surgeon realized that I suffered from reflux, he immediately recommended that I go with RNY. I was devastated. I had my heart set on going with the sleeve. I was told the sleeve can make reflux much worse and that many folks will go the sleeve route and then have to get it revised to RNY anyway. I got a second opinion from my gastroenterologist and he immediately confirmed for me that RNY was the way to go. I had RNY on 9/29/14. It is the best thing I ever did. I am down 95lbs, all of my issues: high blood pressure, diabetes, reflux/gerd, high cholesterol and even my kidney disease have resolved. When you go for your consultation, they should go through your medical history and that should really help with your decision. Good luck to you!

I just wanted to know if anyone is happy about revising from one surgery to ds. after my research this surgery seems to be so appropriate for my eating disorder. I can no longer have fills in my band so it is wide open and slowly my wt is going up. complications caused me to be in this spot. just was wondering if anyone had an opinion.

New to the site, I had the VSG in October 2011. I am 5'2" and weighed 265 when I started the pre op liquid diet and 247 the day of surgery. Six months later I was down to just under 180, never did make it to 100 lbs down. My sleeve had already begun to dilate shortly after that visit and led to putting some weight back on over time. I now weigh 206 with severe reflux issues as well as a few other minor setbacks...high cholesterol, etc. I am scheduled for the Gastric Bypass on May 22nd and will admit that I'm more nervous than ever. I anticipate this being a more long term solution for weight loss as well as overall health improvement and hope I will not be here again in four years with the same story. I am happy to have found this site as I've learned a hard lesson that education is key!!

Hi everyone on Feb. 2015 sleevers: Happy to be here. Here's my scoop: Feb 4, 2015 for me Revised from a lapband originally placed April 2012 Surgeon: Dr. Michael Feiz

From Jan 2015: I have been through so much in the last year..... I originally had my band done on April 27, 2012. Over the course of the 2.5 years, the majority of my diet was liquid. I could rarely keep things down. When I was lucky enough to keep something down, I'd eat it at a later date and then it would come back up again. The 1 cup of food I was supposedly able to eventually eat never happened. My surgeon kept saying I was fine. I had to go to the hospital twice last year, a CT and ultrasound done and was told everything was fine...no slippage said the surgeon and again, I was fine. I don't think so. The last 6-7 months of last year, I kept growing sicker....toward the end only keeping water down. But supposedly I was FINE. I sought a second opinion the last part of last Oct. by another physician...this time one specializing in bariatrics not just a general surgeon. He said that not everything can be seen on a CT scan or ultrasound. I had an Upper GI in Nov. and was found to have a slipped band...quite slipped and was eroding. I saw the pictures. So it was immediately deflated. I already had some relief. On Dec. 5th, my band was removed. My band had eroded two complete holes in my stomach and the port had become encapsulated in the muscle. No wonder I felt so bad! It was such a relief, I cried. I also saw surgery pics. Needless to say, I could not have a revision done at that time. The doctor was quite sure that I could get insurance to cover the revision. But, I knew that there were no guarantees. I wanted to believe but there was always a little fear in the back of my mind. I tried not to think about. I just concentrated on recovering and trying not to gain too much weight since I could finally keep down food. I have gained 10 pounds. I would normally feel bad about that but the dr. said that even if I was eating very little and the best of the best, compared to water, I'd gain weight. Anyway, I got word today that there is medical necessity for the sleeve gastrectomy. I had to read the "medical necessity" part of the letter about 7 times. I then broke down in tears. My surgery is scheduled for a little over a week away. Will be starting pre-op diet tomorrow. I am so looking forward to being healthy again and finally lose my weight after almost 3 years on this journey. At my lowest on the band, I had gotten to 185 lbs but had slowly regained to 208 (when I could drink more than water, I had some ice cream shakes as the protein shakes and soups were getting old. Imagine eating only protein shakes and soups for about 90% of your diet for 2.5 years! So yes, I added the ice cream shakes. I asked my new surgeon why it had eroded and so badly. He said that it usually happens when too much pressure is put on one side of the band and stomach....that usually happens when it is put in(which could explain why I never really could eat). Also, I am sure my GERD had a little something to do with it. They said that because of my GERD, the acid attacked the food before it ever got to the pouch (everything is slower) forcing it to be attacked and me losing it before it ever got to the stomach. Then when I vomited, it could have shifted the band a bit putting too much pressure on the one side. So, I wanted to update my story and am hoping that my story may be of some hope and help to others struggling out there. I am so looking forward to next week. Thanks for listening.

I had sleeve and developed gerd.... Now looking at a revision.... Not fun going through all this again. Good luck on your Journey. I did not have gerd presleeve. I wish I had read more information prior to.

My surgery was 4-14. Down 20# already. I feel ok other than a sharp pain in the left side. Apparently that's where they sutured into the fascia. Normal pain. The surgery was great. The hospital stay was two days and wonderful. Happy to be home of course. I've been getting one liquids and proteins with no problem. I don't feel hungry at all and have to remind myself to eat/drink. I also don't feet full. I goes o don't know what it's supposed to feel like with the new stomach. I was also a revision from Band to bypass and I'm so used to Knowing what a full band stomach felt like. Good luck to you!

I too second guess my decision to get the revision. My GERD is gone however I have such a hard time eating. My pouch is super small and everything I eat upsets it. I was finally at a place with my sleeve where I could comfortably eat and now I'm back to the beginning only this time I can't keep anything down. I feel like I'm slowly starving because my nutrition is so bad right now. My energy levels have crashed. I go in next week for my blood work and then see the doctor. On the brighter side I'm almost at goal which is very good. Now if I can only get everything else to line up.

Hello everyone I am almost 4 weeks post op revision lapband to sleeve surgery and have been experiencing some serious nausea. Nothing seems to be sitting well in my stomach and I have a nasty taste in my mouth. Even at times I'm vomiting. Has anyone else experienced this if so how did you get through it. Please help!!!!

Here is the thing, if you get heartburn or reflux at all the sleeve can make that much worse very quickly. You must do your research and quickly. I have read so many posts from people that made the decision to go with the sleeve even though it was recommended to do bypass and now they are having revisions to bypass anyway. I originally had planned to go sleeve and after my doctor recommended bypass I was devastated. Then I researched the heck out of it and came to the conclusion that I was only going through this once if I could help it. I went with bypass and have not regretted it once. I can eat anything I want, have never had dumping syndrome, have exceeded my weight loss expectations. I was removed off all heartburn and reflux medication within one month post op and have never had a single episode of heartburn/reflux/herd. Good luck, and please do your research quickly.

I'm undergoing a revision from a slipped lapband to a sleeve this week. I am only about 20 pounds from my goal. However, as this was an unexpected situation, I'm concerned about my future travels. I received a fellowship to travel abroad and it will begin 5 weeks after my surgery. Declining the fellowship is not something I want to do--it's a great opportunity. I know that it varies from person to person and that if there are any complications. that will make a difference, but for a young/otherwise healthy person and a smooth operation/recovery, is 5 weeks enough time to heal before embarking on a 2-month trip? I will be traveling (by train, plane, bus) approximately every week during those two months. Otherwise (hopefully!) doing a lot of sightseeing and lecturing. I have purchased trip insurance, so if I need to fly back to the US for an emergency situation, I'm covered. The places I'm traveling to all have excellent healthcare, and my companion is well-informed about my situation. I plan to do nothing but rest and try to recover for the 5 weeks leading up to the trip. I guess I'm asking for tips on energy so I'm not exhausted as well as things to look out for/be vigilant concerning. Multivitamin recommendations, etc.? I have a prescription for 30 days of Prevacid; should I get enough to cover those 2 months? All words of advice and caution are welcome. General stories about how you felt 5 weeks out of a sleeve would be great information. Thank you all in advance.

I was banded in Mexico in 2007 and I'm having a revision done by Kaiser So Cal on 5/4. I had old X-rays and info about my band but my doctor didn't need any of that. They did a scan so he could see the condition of the band and port sites. He said he takes out bands from other doctors, including those in Mexico all the time. I think it's becoming very common for some of us with the older bands to finally become fed up with the throwing up and problems.

I have revision surgery on 5/4. I'm a little scared because of the damage the band caused.

We live in a parallel universe! I haven't been in a restaurant in over a year because I hate that sudden need to run for the bathroom. I'm getting a revision on 5/4 and I'm excited to live life without throwing up. I'm scared too but I think we will be fine.