Converting from band to sleeve

[JohnC 31]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I was banded in April of 2008 & after 14 fills I lost 75 lbs. I got to where I was able to eat more & more & I started gaining weight back. It was like I didn't even have weight loss surgery cause I was following the same pattern I did before the band. Recently I started having stomach pains & gerd.When I finally went to my Dr. he had an endoscopy done & found I had prolasped & my esophigus was inflamed so he did a biopsy. My wife & I met with him on Monday & he said the biopsy came back OK but we needed to select one of the 4 options he had for me. 1. He could empty the band & allow the stomah to go back in place & bigin fills again, 2. Remove the band & return to original stomach, 3.replace the band, 4. remove the band & revise to a sleeve or gastric bypass. We all agreed that the gastric sleeve would be the best option. I need to get another phyc. eval. & apply for approval from my insc. again. I'm feeling good about this because after this surgery I don't have to keep going back for fills & worrying about prolapsing again. This is where I'm at right now.

[Kristina J. 581]

Congrats John! That's exciting news!! I'm finally ditching my band after 10 years in May!! I had prolapse issues twice. I chose to unfill and refill once, but once it happened again, I decided I was done. I haven't had much success at all since replacing my band in 2006. I think you made a wonderful choice. The reality is, you would likely end up anyway, as prolapse generally becomes a repetitive problem!!

Have you discussed a surgery date yet?! There are quite a few band to sleeve revisions around here and I have yet to hear one person say they didn't have more success and feel better after revising!!