1959JimmyJames

I feel bad for you. I am 11 weeks post-op. I had liquid percocette for pain when I came home from the hospital. Tasted like crap but it knocked me out. I felt serious pain for about 5 days. After that it was ok and I stopped taking the pain killer. I don't know why you are pushing yourself so hard so soon. Take it easy and relax for a while. I haven't walked 2 miles yet. The weight will come off. I am down 40 lbs. in 11 weeks. The weight is coming off slower now because I am eating but I can't eat very much so the weight keeps coming off. You should let yourself heal first, and then get down to the exercises.

Hi Circlegirl. You have really been through the ringer with this one. I pray that you will find the power to heal yourself. My situation seems like a walk in the park compared to what you have been through. I had to look at a Kilo to Lbs. conversion chart to know the numbers that you are stating. But that is all they are, numbers . They don't define you as a person. I wish that I had something to offer you that would really help, something that you could grab onto, but you need to find that inside yourself. Money for surgery isn't the answer. This topic and this thread that I have just read through are an inspiration to me. Lots of fantastic advice, from people that have been through it and have the success that I want to enjoy. I live in Seattle, and it rains alot but today is a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky and when it is like this, there isn't a prettier place in the world. I am going to get up, and get the 4 little munchkins, and go for a walk and enjoy it. Good luck to you Circlegirl.

I don't think that you can fake those problems and symptoms on a test. You either have them or you don't. My BMI was under 40, but I had some other medical problems. At first the surgery was denied but after they reviewed it and the doctor appealed the first decision, the insurance company approved it. If the band is causing you serious problems, then I would get them to take it out. You said that they would cover that. Let yourself heal and try to maintain your weight loss. If you can't keep the weight off then the co-morbidity problems will come back. If you gain weight back, you will lose it very fast with the gastric sleeve surgery. This is all about being happy and healthy.

Great story. Good for you. This will surely help someone trying to make the surgery or not decision. I had problems with my band after 8 years of success with it. My esophagus dilated too. I also developed an ulcer in my esophagus and I regained most of the weight that I had lost. I feel great now. No feeling of restriction anymore and no feeling that port in my abdomen. So congratulations to you.

I am 9 weeks post-op. Just had my 2 month follow-up exam today. My blood pressure is normal and I am down 38 lbs. I am on a normal diet now and that is anything that I want to eat. I follow the nutrition plan but I don't substitute anything for flavor. I use real butter and I drink whole milk. I do use sugar substitute for ice tea and kool-aid. I haven't exercised at all yet. I have a back problem that I am recovering from. I just walk around the house and help out with the kids. I guess that is a workout, chasing after 4 little kids. On surgery day I was nervous and anxious. I am a band to sleeve revision. The surgery took about 4 hours. I felt miserable when I woke up in recovery. It was the anesthesia. After it wore off I started feeling the pain from surgery. I was hooked up to a morphine pump and I had the control in my hand so I used it alot. Whenever I saw it lit up, I would drug myself. You will be up and walking by dinner time on surgery day. They won't let you lay there. There is a danger of blood clots. I didn't have a urine catheter when I woke up. It was removed right after surgery. It was my option, so the doctor went along with it. Walking around after surgery helped me with going to the bathroom also. I was in the hospital 2 days. You have to pass a swallow test before they release you. Just making sure there are no leaks. You'll have liquid pain killer at home. Keep it handy and after about the 5th day you will be feeling pretty good. Some people feel great right away. My pain lingered for a while. My wife took care of me through this whole thing. She is a great woman. I think the main thing is to have someone around to help you the first week. And if that person loves you then that is all the better because you are going to be an inconvienence for a few days. Good luck to you and let us know how you do.

You need to eat out of small dishes. If you eat too much, it will hurt. That's how I learned when to stop. I did not feel full, I just started to feel pain in my stomach. At home, I eat from the same plates that our little kids use. I eat the same as our 3 year old foster daughter. I don't feel full when I stop eating. I just stop because I know that I have had enough and to continue is going to bring me misery. I am 8 weeks post-op now and I have lost 35 lbs. I know my weight loss will be slower now because I am eating real food again. I don't feel hunger so much as I feel a craving for a taste or flavor of something that I use to love to eat and I still love it, I just can't eat much of it. This probably didn't help you very much. Maybe someone else will give you better help. Good luck.

Just think about all the industry that has grown up around weight loss. No wonder they want to keep everyone overweight. How many people would be unemployed, and how many corporations would go bankrupt if everyone stopped dieting?

Get use to the diarrhea, until you can eat normal food again your stools will be like this. As for the stomach pain, your healing still. I have felt stomach pain too. Not often and I haven't felt it for over a month now. Relax and take care of yourself. If the pain persists, then you need to go to the doctor. Good luck.

Congratulations Teshadb. I am about 6 and a half weeks post-op now on a band to sleeve revision. I've read lots of different surgical experiences here on this forum. Some easy and painless and some pretty bad. I guess my experience would fall in the middle of that. I can say that now I am feeling pretty good. Getting back to my old self again. Good luck to you on this new journey and hopefully you have only good feelings. Let us know how it goes.

marfar7 has given the best information so far about this issue, I think. My doctor said basically the same thing. I am afraid of a leak because it can kill you. The chances of leaks are very low and they are rare, but they do happen. The symptoms are almost flu like. Pain, vomiting, fever. You can't feel it leaking. The chances of leaks are greatest in the first month. They are the highest in the first week. I am six weeks post-op now so I am feeling better about it, but I will probably always think about it for the rest of my life. I am going to try to post a link here to a doctor's account of a patient that went through a leak and how they treated it. You can google this yourself. There is lots of good information about this. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/205979

I am a band to sleeve revision. On Monday, I will be 6 weeks post-op. I had a band for 10 years. If you pull up my profile you can access my story. I explained all of my troubles before the sleeve surgery in that section. So far I have not had any complications and I am feeling really good now. I am back on a regular diet again. I worry about the leaking problems too so I try to follow the food plan and just hope that I don't feel any leaking symptoms. My surgery was done at one time. He removed the band, performed the sleeve procedure, and repaired a hiatal hernia. It's still pretty new to me. Maybe someone else can help you with your questions. Good luck to you.

Turn off the television.

I am about 3 weeks behind you AuntieLala83. My surgery was on march 17th and as of today I am down 33 lbs. Congratulations to us and keep it up.

I am 5 and a half weeks post-op. I am with you. I haven't found any shake that tastes good. I can't drink them. I felt weak until the start of this week. I can eat a normal diet now. I eat protein instead of drinking it. I am not eating very much either. I am never hungry. I tried pouring half the shake into a glass and then adding a cup of whole milk to it and then shaking it up. The vanilla flavored ones tasted the best to me but you still get that smell and taste but not as strong. I have given up on them now. I drink liquids all day long. Water, Gatorade, Ice tea with splenda and cool-aid with splenda, milk. When I was at 2 weeks I was eating a lot of jello. Otterpops help. Beef soup broth. I had the runs daily. Not so much now. I take chewable vitamins daily. I am retired now so being lazy around the house, is OK for me. Good luck.

Excuse me. I wasn't going to respond to this but I can't help it now. What the heck is an Indian burn?

Great comment. Your experience will help somebody with their decision. Mine was a little bit more painful and I was in the hospital longer, but we are all different. I am retired so I don't have to worry about going to work. I do have little kids to help take care of and they keep us busy. I am a little over 5 weeks post-op now. I am eating a normal diet again, but I can't eat much. I can really feel when I am getting too full. It is a very uncomfortable feeling. I still do lots of liquids like soup broth. It is nice to not feel that plugged up feeling from the band anymore. Take care and good luck to you.

I had surgery 5 weeks ago today. The doctor removed the lap-band, did the sleeve procedure and repaired a hiatal hernia. I was in the hospital 2 days. I was released from the hospital after passing the drinking test. I have had a one week post-op exam and a one month post-op exam. I am only 5 weeks into this but so far so good. I worry about leaks also. That is a big concern from this type of surgery. My surgeon has been doing this for a long time and I have known him for 10 years. He did my band implant 10 years ago. He has never had a patient with a leaking problem. I still worry about it though. I think that if your doctor takes his time and is very thorough,you should be all right. I get monthly follow-up visits at his office to check my progress, for one year after surgery. My stomach should be all healed up by then. I wish that I had more confidence to give you. I am worried about leaks also, very much, but all I can do is keep an eye out for the symptoms and be very cautious about the food that I eat and how much I drink. Good luck to you.

I had sugery 5 weeks ago, today. I week prior to surgery the doctor went over the entire surgical plan with me. He has been doing this a long time. He did my band 10 years ago. He said that he has never had a patient experience any problems by doing both procedures at the same time. His main concern was if there were complications that made the surgery last too long then he would have to decide if he would stop at a good spot, and then finish with the sleeve at a later date. Being under anesthesia for too long isn't good for you. My surgery took 4 hours. He removed the band, did the sleeve procedure and repaired a hiatal hernia. Around the 5th day post-op, I started feeling pretty good. I feel great now, and I am glad it was all over in one visit. Good luck to you.

Hi JacobsMommy. Me again. I am 4 and a half weeks post-op and I have lost 26 lbs. You will definitely lose weight the first month for sure because you are consuming liquids mainly and you will be very good at following the diet plan because you will be too scared to do anything else. You will have the runs almost daily. At the very least, it will clear out your bowels and intestines thoroughly. I am on a regular diet now. I don't eat like before, even with the band. I am not hungry anymore. I don't know if this will change for me. I am going to find out though as time goes by. You should look through the patient profile list on this website. Look for people who have lost a lot of weight and ask them specific questions. You can do private messages and I have found that all of the people on here that I have asked questions of, all took the time to respond. It's wonderful. You can see how they dealt with problems and got through it. Stick with the success stories. You have to convince yourself that this will work and you will make it work. I don't think that you need to worry about eating very much because I can't and I am a big guy. I am worried because I can't exercise the way I used to. I retired a few years early because I was developing back problems. I can't do high impact aerobics or walk fast or jog, but I do need to move and walk, and I am, but it takes me a while to get anywhere. Good luck to you.

Never trust a fart. I hear that Lipstick Lady. LOL. Jacobsmommy. Why would your first doctor completely reverse himself? That would really bother me. You have a good relationship with him because he operated on you before, with good results. I would go with doctor #2, because I think that it is better to do it all at once. The more surgeries that I have, the harder it is to bounce back afterwards. My doctor did my original band surgery and my sleeve revision. This was over a 10 year time span. He has lots of experience at this. He said that if he saw problems while operating and wouldn't be able to finish, in a timely manner, then he would stop after removing the band and then let me heal and then come back for round 2 to do the sleeve. He said that he has never had a problem with doing both procedures at once. The patients all did well. His main concern was that if the surgery was going to take too long then he would stop because it is not good to be under anesthesia for too many hours. My surgery took about 4 hours and he did both procedures at the same time. He removed the band, performed a Gastric Sleeve, and fixed a Hiatal Hernia. I am 4 and a half weeks post-op and I feel pretty good now. Your first doctor is being very cautious and that is a good thing too. You have a tough decision to make. I just went through the surgery and I am glad it is over and it was done at one time. Good luck to you.

I had surgery 3 weeks ago, today. I feel really good now. You are worried about the first few days, and those are the worst. I am a band to sleeve revision. Surgery took about 4 hours. The doctor had to do something else that I needed. That is why it took longer. When I woke up in post-op, I had a bad headache. I didn't feel my abdomen pain yet. I just had a headache. They give you ice chips and that helped the cottonmouth. I kept saying," my head hurts", and the reply was, "I can't give you anything yet", then I would raise my hand to my head and feel it being pushed back onto the gurney, and heard someone say "lay still". Then I would say, "my mouth is dry", and ice chips would magically appear on a spoon in front of my mouth, and the whole cycle would be repeated again and again and again. When you get to your room you will be hooked up to a pain pump. You will have the control in your hand and when the button is lit up you push it and pain medicine will will enter your IV and you will feel better. I didn't have a catheter. I was up the first night for a walk and a bathroom break. The second day was about the same and the second night. The morning of the third day I was taken to radiology for a swallow test and after a couple more hours I was released to go home. I was given a liquid pain reliever that helped alot. It is very strong but tasted horrible. The only time I hurt was when I would get up to go to the bathroom or move from side to side in bed. Around the fifth day post-op I stopped drinking the pain reliever because the taste made me want to puke and I didn't really need it anymore. I am not making light of this. The pain was strong and I felt like I had been beaten up real bad, but if you drink the pain killer and try to stay still and sip water constantly then you will get through the first 5 days. After that I was moving around pretty good with out any pain reliever. Thank God for my wife. I feel wonderful now. I am down 26 lbs already in 3 weeks and I am not doing any kind of exercise yet. Just walking around the house and helping out with the kids. Watching TV is bad. But it is boring without it. It's not the shows that are bad, it's the commercials. I am not hungry anymore, but when I see a food commercial for pizza or hamburgers or steak and lobster or something else that is delicious, I start to feel like I am starving. It is an instant reaction to the image. I am just amazed at how much control these images have over my behavior. I am being very good and following the plan that I was given. One more week and I can eat a normal diet again. I am waiting to find out what that is like. Good luck to you.

I had a band for 10 years and never heard of your problem till now. If you are thinking about the sleeve now, so early after the band then I think your doctor didn't discuss this entire situation with you to your understanding. I just converted to a sleeve on March 17th. The band failed and started leaking and I gained a lot of weight back. I am 11 days post-up. I have never felt this miserable, but I am feeling a lot better. The first 4 days were pure torture. The incission where he removed my stomach and the band is bigger than the rest of the incissions, and is where the port used to sit. Now that the pain is almost gone from there, I can feel that the port is gone and that is a nice feeling. This is very serious stuff. I do know that if the sleeve would have been available 10 years ago, I would have done that operation instead of the band. I just had my 1 week post-op checkup. It was actually 1 week and 3 days post-op, and my numbers are great. I am already down 20 lbs and my blood pressure is back to normal. Now that the pain is gone, I am feeling so much better. I am almost to soft foods. 3 more days. The band worked very well for me for about 9 years and then I started gaining weight. Now that I have the sleeve, I feel better about it. I feel relieved that the band is out of me now. Good luck to you.

The day you have surgery I will be 10 days post-op. Today is 6 days post-op and I feel much better. I can roll over in bed now without the incissions hurting. I can sit up without too much discomfort. Walking around is not difficult. I get lightheaded but I think that is because I need to eat. I stopped the pain medicine on day 4 post-op. I feel weak from lack of food. I am not hungry. I drink regular amounts of the liquids that I was told to drink. None of the Protein shakes or Vitamin supplements taste good to me. I hope I can find one that tastes good soon, because it is a long time until I can eat real food again. I was 2 days in the hospital and my surgery had no complications. I am a band to sleeve revision. When you wake up after surgery and they move you to your room don't forget to punch that pain medicine button. Whenever you see it lit up you push it. Good luck to you and to all of us.

I had surgery on the 17th of March. I'm 5 days post-op and feel like s--t. I am feeling better everyday though. I quit taking the liquid pain reliever. Tastes like s--t, and makes me act like a bear. I am only enjoying 3 things right now. Warm tomato soup, ice cold water and sleep. I was 2 days in the hospital and I have been home for 3 now. Stool started firming up yesterday. It's not all water anymore. I am also drinking the protein shakes and liquid vitamins. They taste horrible too. I am not hungry period. I stepped on the scale today just for laughs and saw that I was down 11 lbs. I need to drink more liquids and will start increasing the amounts today. I can't guzzle so I will have to increase the number of sips per 15 minute intervals. I can't lose weight this fast. I need to feel stronger. I will make these adjustments and continue on and see what next week holds. Talk later.

I had a lap band 10 years ago. I am 6'2" and went from 324 lbs down to 220 llbs and maintained that weight for 8 years without even dieting. About a year ago it failed and started leaking. I am good at losing weight but I suck at keeping it off. The band worked well for that until now. I have regained most of the weight in a little over a year. The struggle with my insurance company and being retired took a while. I can't keep doing this to myself. I am 54 years old now and decided that my long term health and life is more important than being able to eat big wonderful meals. My wife is an incredible cook. My surgeon is the same one that I had for the lap-band and we have seen each other regularly for the last 10 years. I would have had the sleeve surgery 10 years ago but it wasn't available like today. I have other health problems with my esophagus and stomach that finally got the insurance company to approve it, because my BMI is under 40. These problems aren't related to the band and I had them before the band implant in 2004. I can't exercise the way that I need to because of back problems now, and knee and shoulder joint problems, so working it off is not an option. This is it. I have to make this work.