Lap Band & port removed 4 days ago with post op picture

[Buh Bye 63]

Hi there! I had my stupid band removed on 08/11 and revised to RNY so today is post op day 10! I was also nervous about the RNY and had considered the sleeve but I wanted one surgery and that was it. The sleeve has been great for some people but for me...I was only doing this one more time. I should have done the RNY in the first place!

Anyway....I don't regret it! Good luck to you! No matter what, you're going to feel better with that thing out!????

[Dream4tc 192]

@Pinkgirl1234. My removal was scheduled at 0730, so I had all day to recover, however I was having pain control issues. I had asked my surgeon before surgery if I didn't feel good if I could stay for observation overnight since I lived 4.5 hours away and he said no problem. I woke up in recovery and they had a hard time keeping my pain under control, so they asked me if I wanted to stay and of course my answer was yes. I am really glad I stayed, because it took them almost until the next day to get my pain under control. The surgeon again seen me the following day. As far as your Upper GI goes, isn't that a trip? I had reflux all the way up my thoracic inlet just from a sip of water!!! Crazy, so glad you are making the right choice!

[Pinkgirl1234 761]

Dream4tc,

Yay...its out!!!!!I would do the same....just to be safe....hospital will monitor you....November will be here in no time!The Gold Standard once and for all!!!!

[Pinkgirl1234 761]

SuninUT,

Absolutely!!!!!I tried to go with the sleeve but it reminds me of the band....the hot thing at the time!!!!I agree ....this revision is it...."Bypass all the way!!!

[reinventingme63 3]

@Pinkgirl1234. My removal was scheduled at 0730, so I had all day to recover, however I was having pain control issues. I had asked my surgeon before surgery if I didn't feel good if I could stay for observation overnight since I lived 4.5 hours away and he said no problem. I woke up in recovery and they had a hard time keeping my pain under control, so they asked me if I wanted to stay and of course my answer was yes. I am really glad I stayed, because it took them almost until the next day to get my pain under control. The surgeon again seen me the following day. As far as your Upper GI goes, isn't that a trip? I had reflux all the way up my thoracic inlet just from a sip of water!!! Crazy, so glad you are making the right choice!

I have had a lapband removal just last week. My surgeon left the whole oped from where the lapband was removed. It is rather painful and I have to remove the old packing of the whole and insert new medicine packing and then patch it up every day. My follow visit from the surgery was a horrendous one as I had no idea that my doctor was going to remove the gauze and the packing from the hole in my stomach and then stick his finger deep in the hole. I screamed to the top of my lungs. The doctor leaves the hole for drainage purposes so that there is no drainage inside the stomach and the blood stream. It is taking a while for the hole to close up and I am getting very frustrated with the healing process. Has anyone had this experience? I havr read about the band removals and the after experiences but they all seem to be the same and totally different from my experience. Scary.

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[reinventingme63 3]

I have had a lapband removal just last week. My surgeon left the whole oped from where the lapband was removed. It is rather painful and I have to remove the old packing of the whole and insert new medicine packing and then patch it up every day. My follow visit from the surgery was a horrendous one as I had no idea that my doctor was going to remove the gauze and the packing from the hole in my stomach and then stick his finger deep in the hole. I screamed to the top of my lungs. The doctor leaves the hole for drainage purposes so that there is no drainage inside the stomach and the blood stream. It is taking a while for the hole to close up and I am getting very frustrated with the healing process. Has anyone had this experience? I havr read about the band removals and the after experiences but they all seem to be the same and totally different from my experience.

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[reinventingme63 3]

Hi everyone!

I had lap band November 2011. This worked well for a while. I lost about 80 pounds, until I had complication Nov 2014. I had problems with vomiting everything I would eat, so my previous surgeon ordered an upper GI and esophageal manometry. Both of those tests confirmed I had a prolapse. Long story short, my insurance company made me switch to a different surgeon. I had my band and port removed 8/10/15. My new surgeon said that my band had also slipped and was sitting sideways which was causing me to have the vomiting. He also did an intra-op EGD to look at my esophagus to see if there was any damage from 9 months of vomiting. He said it didn't look too bad,but I needed to continue my Zantac and Prilosec. He said he had to remove the adhesions(scar tissue) from the band. I am not going to lie, the port removal and scar tissue removal is painful! It was supposed to be an outpatient procedure and go home same day, but I ended up staying the night in the hospital due to pain control and I am really glad I did. IV Dilaudid was the only thing that was helping my pain. They eventually switched me to percocets and that seemed to help with the pain. I am attaching a picture of the port site. I am now 4 days post-op band and port removal and I am still taking percocets for pain, but it is improving. I will be revising to Gastric bypass in late October, early November based on my surgeon's recommendations and my history of GERD. My insurance company wouldn't allow me to have the revision done in 1 surgery, so it has to be done this way. I am interested in hearing from those who have had band to bypass and what their experiences were.

There were 3 total incisions. 2 small ones which don't bother me at all, and one large painful incision where port was. This larger incision is the mean monster. 20150810_185417.jpg

Was the larger incision left open to drain? Did you have to stuff it daily with medicated Guard stringy type paper and cover with gauze daily or was your large incision stitched or stapled up?

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[ladymiz 8]

My dr tried with the sleeve 7/22 but the surgery i had as a child left way too much scar tissue so im healing from scar tissue removal then rny in October i am sooo nervous but it is whats best for me im still in pain and super swollen good luck and god bless to all ....

[MrsJroChicago 32]

I was lucky enough for my insurance company to allow them to do the revision at the same time as the band removal. I originally had surgery in August 2012 to have a lapband put in. I had complications beginning almost on the one-year anniversary once I had the “right” amount of Fluid in the band to make it actually do something. I had my lapband removed on May 27, 2016 and had a revision to gastric bypass at the same time. It was, quite frankly, miserable but now that I’m three months out, it’s the best thing I could have done. I couldn’t live with the pain, reflux and inability to eat anything with band in and because of the slipping, I had the Fluid out more than I had it in. After MANY long talks with my doctor and his PA, we decided that a revision to bypass was the best bet.

My recovery sucked. The surgery was longer and more complicated than they originally thought it would be because there was so much scar tissue from the band. But, they had already decided that they wanted to do the removal and revision in one surgery, so they did whatever they needed to get it done. I had two drains when I came out of it and the larger drain I had for 17 days. The smaller on, the “JP drain” came out before I went home. Generally speaking, that bigger drain isn’t part of a normal bypass but is more common when they do the removal/revision in one step. I was in pain, nauseous, and uncomfortable until it came out. I was in the hospital for about 5 days. Since it was a holiday weekend, I wasn’t in any big rush to get out in case I had any problems. I was nauseous on Sunday when they talked about letting me go home, so they had me stay. They then decided to order “home health care” to change my dressings for me since my insurance would cover a few visits, but no one was available until Wednesday, so they had me stay until Tuesday. I was pretty stir crazy by then but it was nice to have them there to take care of me but shaving my legs in the hospital was a pain! I had to fight with them on Monday to let me take a shower even though I wasn’t going home. I needed it. I came home and took the rest of the week off. My mom came by almost every day to help me make food—not that I was eating much—and to keep me company. I needed more help because of the drain. It was painful and hard to put on any clothing including a bra because of where it was. It’s called a “G tube” which basically was a drain from the part of my stomach that would no longer have food going to it and it needed to be “trained” that it wasn’t going to be used anymore. It was not pleasant but it was “capped” so not draining into anything before I left so at least I could tape it up to my stomach to keep it out of the way and from pulling or banging into things. Jonathan took me to my first follow up on the first Monday in June and then I was cleared to drive and go back to work. The following week, the drain finally came out. It was a long 17 days.

The drain removal was no fun either! They just kind of yanked it out and it hurt for a good 24-hours! It took about 3 weeks for the hole to completely close, but I got pretty good at the gauze changes. They didn’t stitch it or anything, they said the skin would grow back together and it did. It was about the size of a dime at first. Now it is a small scar to match the others from the surgeries. The tape was awful. I found that if I used the sensitive skin kind, which was about $8 a roll at Walgreens, it was better. I was so happy when the hole was finally closed so I could stop taping up my stomach and start wearing a regular bra! So, I’d had a lot of tape on me because of the tube and because of the drain hole. It took a few days to get the residue off!

I had to travel on June 24 for our annual meeting. It was exactly four weeks from my surgery. I was going to be gone a week and I was a little nervous about getting through it. I still wasn’t cleared to lift anything and I was still getting tired pretty easily. But, by then I was already 20+ pounds lighter since the surgery so I felt good and actually built up my stamina as I was there. I managed to get food poisoning on my last day in Philadelphia, so that was no fun. But, after a few days, felt better.

Three months out now and I’m down over 50 pounds from surgery day and almost 80 from when I started the lapband journey. I will tell you, even though I was miserable immediately afterwards and asked myself everyday what the heck I did to myself, three months out, I’m so glad I did it. I’m basically eating normal foods, albeit nothing too high in fat or sugar, and I’ve not really done too much salad yet but have added back most vegetables. I’m careful with fruit because a lot is high in sugar. The first few weeks after the surgery with the various stages of liquid diet was really hard and I probably started to add things like cottage cheese in too fast, but I needed to chew! I have a few friends who have done the surgery and we’ve created our own little support group so it’s nice. We come to the same events as well so it’s nice to know other people in the room understand how we eat!