nowornever14

@ Teshadb .... Yes eating small portions and feeling satisfied or not feeling always hungry like it was with the band I am looking forward to that And it really seems with that big portion of the stomach gone the gremlin production reduced makes the world of a difference in comparison to the feeling during the band. @ Cowgirljane .... WOW #160 that is amazing. That is a huge achievement !!! I would be happy to lose 60 or maybe 70 pounds. How much had you lost at your best during the lapband. I am really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when I read your comments and see your amazing success. You girls look so vibrant and beautiful .... like it never was any different. I really hope I will go back to my normal self again , like before my illness and the weight gain started. For the last 5 years I though that was it for me, I never would be able to go back to having a normal life where eating is just normal and not a permanent issue to think about 24/7. Well I started the pre-surgery Optifast diet yesterday. 3 more weeks to go. It seems most people have only 2 weeks of optifast, we have 3 weeks to do. How long did you both do the optifast diet? And how did you do on it?

You can not imagine how positive this sentence ".... It's the best thing I ever did!...." makes me feel in my decision. Thanks you !!! You are such a pretty girl. I just looked at your 4 before and after photos. You were a beautiful young woman before but you look so happy on your after pic That is something so many people don't get. Gaining so much weight and living with it takes not only a toll on our bodies but it also takes a big toll on our happiness.

Thanks Teshadb !! Believe me I am (despite my concerns) very excited to get the band out FINALLY and the better solution. I just want to move on and put all this behind me. So you have your sleeve since May 2014? Well I hope I will be as successful as you with getting rid of my regained pounds Take care.

Same story as all the above. I had my band for 10 years and the last 5 it was more or less empty. Gained a bit less than 50% back but will have my revision on the 8th of September now. I really hope I feel the same way as you all. I just hope that my acid reflux does not come back when having the sleeve. I asked to get a bigger size to avoid reflux. I will get a bougie size 44F. Does any of you know which size you go? Please wish me luck ! And good luck to you Akafij !!!!!!

Hi Akafij, I feel you !!! I am where you are. I have a band since 2004 . Same thing I am so hoping that all will go well and I am not too scared that they can do the surgeries in one shut. At our hospital they usually NEVER do a band to sleeve revision in one surgery but since I suffer from Lupus they do not want to force two surgeries on my system , so I pushed to get it done all in one. Keep me posted !! I cross my fingers for you

You look great!! What a beautiful transformation!!! Such a motivation , I am 3 weeks from my second surgery : lapband to sleeve on the 8th of September.

Good for you!! And how do you feel? I am a band to sleever too ..... and my surgery was supposed to be on the 10st of August and now postponed t the 8th of September. I have my appointment with my anaesthetists and nurse on this wednesday the 13th too. For how long have you had your band?

See that is exactly what I can not afford anymore I was a few yours older when I made the decision to get the band back 10 years ago. And I thought that was it - finally at least that hurdle taken. I lost the 101 pounds I had gained through my illness and kept it off for about 7 years even though the trouble with the band started 5 years after surgery. I still was happy I even opened a fitness centre and was back to my normal self happy and slim and even way healthier. And than it got worse and worse and they pain and the GERD was unbearable to the point that I had to get the band open basically completely. I got back into flares and with it I am paralyzed and that means every tiny piece of food I put into my mouth ends up on my body. I still managed to keep 50 pounds off over the last years but it is hard because since I can not move much I have to more or less starve. I eat paleo little fat only healthy fat, all as raw as possible, no or little read meat and and and But I am just tired, I do not want to fight anymore.

Reading your comment I know exactly where you are coming from, because we had made this entire decision years ago and the procedure we had chosen failed us miserable and not only that it has damaged our inner organs. Exactly did that to me which I wanted to avoid by choosing the band and not the bypass. And here we are again, in front of the same overwhelming decision, what to do. My doctor wants me to do it in 2 separate surgeries but since I suffer from systemic Lupus, every additional surgery can trigger a Lupus flare up with I am more afraid of then any surgery. So I am not only in the dilemma to find out if I should do the sleeve but also how and when. Even my surgeon sees the point of doing it in one shot might be the better solution for me in my situation. But before making any final decision I need to have all the information I can gather about my special condition combined with my physical health conditions. Also I might not have the 5 years you have and I just want to get to the body and life (at least as closely as I can get) before saying goodbye to this world. I am not young and I have waisted 10 years of my precious life on this horrible lapand with all the pain and suffering attached to it. I am getting tired to fight this battle over and over again. I just want it done and leave the past 10 years behind. Does that make any sense to you ?

Thanks for your posts, I definitely helps me with furthering my decision. @ Keysosa , I wanted to place an article on this issue here because I thought it might be of interest to you and of course to others as of the reversibility of this occurrence. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736786/ I sure wish those companies would take responsibility for the damage their product can cause. But it seems like they advertise even more aggressive to people . At least nowadays there is enough longterm research published for the people who want to read such to make a well informed decision before they go and get a band. This was sadly enough not the case 10 years back when I chose the band over bypass surgery, because it was supposed to be the more sensible decision.

@ girliegirl I have not seen my surgeon since my barium swallow so this is why I try to research as much as I can about this issue t be well informed when entering into a conversation with my surgeon. I have found a medical article on a follow up group of LSG patients done by a group of bariatric surgeons on the condition of preudoachalasia caused by LB and the reversibility after band removal. And it seems quite promising, from what I understood, most of this is getting back to its former function if not too much longterm damage was caused by the band Which means 10 years for me ......... what do I have to expect when they get into my insides. @ cowgirljane you look like you are doing amazing now !! This always gives me hope that there is life after the band. I suffered quite a bit during my last 5 years, but I guess I do not need to tell the details to a bandster, right. Would you mind to share what the damage to your body looked like? And how was your surgery to sleeve done ? In one or in two surgeries and how did you feel physically during and in the first time after ? I know those are a lot of questions but I am so glad I have found people here who went through the same already. Thanks

Thanks Kysosa for your post. First of all I think you are doing very well !! 40 pounds is wonderful congratulations. May I ask you a few questions? I had found out that something was not right about 5 years ago when I experienced the inability to swallow after a horrible serious of acid reflux episodes . Have you noticed this too that when you try to swallow only the immediate first muscle in your throat functions but after that the wave of muscle movement does not continue and the urge to flush food down with liquid because it feels it is stuck in you esophagus ?

Thanks Isereno

Hi Everyone, I am supposed to get my lapband replaced by a sleeve. During my Barium swallow my fear had been confirmed that through my lapband my esophagus was damaged and I am suffering from Achalasia which results from a malfunction of the nerves controlling the rhythmic contractions of the esophagus. My esophagus muscles do not function as they should to transport the food down through the spinster into the stomach. They just fire off completely uncoordinated which results in food getting stuck in my esophagus. SO my question to all of you. Is there anybody out there who suffers from this too and still got a sleeve and if so what is your experience. I want to be prepared when I see my surgeon and need to get as much information as possible to make a proper decision. Thanks to you all!

Thanks for your comment but my problem is not GERD. I do trust my surgeon but I am not the type of person to leave the decision making in the hands of any doctor. That is why I am looking for people who suffer from the same damage and have experienced the outcome in relation to the LSG. I need to go by what I have learned and what my gut tells me ( this time in the sense of the word By the way did you have a hernia ? And if so was is repaired during the sleeve surgery?

Congratulations to your wonderful success !!

vjs87uk I understand where you are coming from. I had many MANY surgeries in my 55 years but the upcoming band to sleeve surgery is kind of nerve wrecking for me too. I had my band for 10 years and the last 5 years had been challenging to say at least. I just feel like I am too old to have to go through more s$%#t . I want to be done with this and have my peace and quiet and my "old" skinny body back the one I had lost before I got so sick and gained so much those 11 years ago when I was diagnosed with my immune system illness. So I want the surgery done in one shot ..... band out and sleeve done. The older I got the harder the surgeries had been on my body and that is why I am so concerned.