SpaceCowboy74

So I was banded back in 2012. I was about 420 Pre-Op. At one point, I was down to 250, but my wife said my face looked too thin. Anyway, I had plastic surgery to remove loose skin and had a complication from it leading to a MRSA infection. While recovering from it, my Bariatric Doctor took all the fluid from my band to let me heal. Afterwards, we could never dial it in quite right again. Always either too tight or too loose. Since the skin removal, I've put back on about 100 lbs. Fastforward to a few months ago. I started having weird GI issues (Diarrhea every 13 days with severe nausea). I would get very strong dry heaves (nothing coming up because of the band). I go into the Hospital a few weeks ago and a CT says my band moved. Since the heaving, I cannot sleep through the night and vomit at 3 am even if I ate little to nothing. I had a Upper GI done and the doctor said there was a much larger pouch above my band than there should be and it drains slowly (even though my band is empty completely right now). I know something wasn't right since I lost 11 lbs with my band empty because of the "Involuntary Bulimia" I had. So now I am trying to decide what to do. I have read if a lap band slips once, it is more likely to slip again. When I was having trouble getting the lap band right again after the MRSA issue, I asked about conversion to a Gastric Sleeve. My doctor said I did so well with the band before the problems, he wanted to stay with the band. I'm debating if I should just ask him to fix the band or to remove it and convert to a GS instead. I am so tired of never eating bread or other foods because they block. I would love to be able to eat anything, just be full sooner because of the GS. Any one here have advice from being in a similar situation?

That’s pretty much it exactly. I don’t want a whole loaf of bread, but once in a while I would like to go to a restaurant and actually be able to have a burger with the bun. Or a slice of pizza. My office tends to get sandwiches when we have lunch catered. I’ll look at the RNY as an option. My aunt had one and lost a lot, but put almost all of back on cause she ate around it. My fear has been the dumping problems she had and other issues. Of course, she had other issues (Lupis, knee issues, hip problems and so on). At least I stay somewhat active with TKD. I will admit, I had some commitment issues when first looking at bariatric which was why I chose lap band (could always be undone, right?). Before the surgery and since, I committed to changing my lifestyle, but still miss the freedom to have options when eating. Eggs. Bread, rice. All those kill me even when the lap band was normal.

So I was banded back in 2012 when I was about 450lbs. Since then, I got down to about 230. With my frame, even though I was not at my target BMI, 215 was about my goal. I talked to a plastic surgeon because the amount of loose skin was causing issues and got a Tummy Tuck and panectiomy (sp?). Insurance covered the latter, but not the tummy tuck. I ended up getting a bad MRSA infection (the plastic surgeon looked at it and said it was nothing, so I am not happy with him). To have the tummy tuck, my lap band doctor emptied out the band before the surgery. After the surgery, he started adding fluid back. Since then, I have gained about 100 lbs. He said my lap band is less than 1/2 of what it was when I was losing the most weight. The problem is, I cough to the point of vomiting every night and can barely eat a small meal. Even when i do eat a meal without risk of vomiting, I still cough myself awake around 2-3 am, barely make it to the bathroom and start vomiting. I've also had aspiration pneumonia twice since the skin removal surgery. After the last fill, I have only lost 10-15 lbs and have plateaued. My lap band doctor has done a barium swallow on me once already (taking all the fluid out to do it) to check for slippage. I know the plastic surgeon moved the port on my lap band, but I am wondering if he did something else on accident. Should I demand a 3d MRI to see if everything is correct with the current fill amount? If the doctor removes much fluid, I will just start gaining again, but I would be able to sleep. My doctor keeps telling me it's nothing, but I don't feel like it is. I'm frustrated as hell and tired of vomiting all the damn time.