TexasT

As someone who had the band in me for 3-1/2 years I'm telling you DO NOT DO IT!!!! It was the worst decision I think I've ever made to get one. Yes, I lost weight. And no, I didn't have a slippage or erosion. But I had a very hard time eating, and there are so many healthy things you can't eat (salads, oranges, and many more fruits and veggies). I got to where I was eating a lot of empty calories of "soft" foods that would go down, gained a little weight back, and was very unhappy. If you get the band it is NOT permanent. I feel most people will eventually have problems. My surgeon, who put in my band, actually told me most people start having problems with them 3-5 years out. I started having vague pains in my abdomen. I did have gall stones, but there was something else going on. On Jan. 8 of this year I had the band removed and was sleeved. During surgery they found a huge hiatal hernia in the area above my band. Then I got a very large hematoma in the area where my port had been (complications with that ensued, but that's another story!). I am SO glad to have that band out of my body. The port was huge and would get 'stuck' under my ribs, eating was a nightmare, and trying to find what they call the 'sweet spot' with fills never really happened.

Regarding hunger - I'm 3 wks out and was SO looking forward to starting mushies. Now that I can eat them I could care less!! Nothing looks good to me or smells good to me. I do good to get a couple of protein shakes down. Thank goodness for Isopure and it's 40+ grams of protein per bottle or I'd be in trouble. I'm hoping in a few weeks when I can start to eat regular food the desire to eat will come back some.

Tiffy - had my gall bladder out when I did my revision on 1/08 so I feel your pain. It took me almost a year to get someone to take my pain complaints seriously. I'm so sorry you're going to have another abdominal surgery. If you're like me that's the last thing you want after all that band to sleeve business. You might be surprised at how sore you'll be after having the GB removed. That area has been more sore at times than my sleeve area is. My surgeon also said I had tons of adhesions all over my gall bladder too, which I'm sure didn't help matters. Good luck and I'll send some Reiki healing your way (I'm a Reiki II practitioner) along with lots of prayer. - Tara

I know I've read of a few people having hematomas (pools/clots of blood) after surgery, but I'm one of the few whose incision came open and now I'm having to deal with an open wound. I had a band to sleeve revision on 1/08/10. When I went to have my staples removed, the post-care doc said to keep an eye on the swelling under my largest incision (where the port had been with my band). The swelling was the size of a lemon and pretty hard. It kept getting more and more purple/bruised looking and the swelling did not go down. On Saturday Jan. 23 (2 wks post-op) I was sitting down drying my hair after a shower. When I stood up it looked like I had been shot in the stomach. Blood was everywhere. I pulled my shirt up and saw that the incision above the hematoma had come open releasing the blood. I called my surgeon and he met me at the ER. The now open wound had to have the internal stitches removed (very painful!), then he cleaned and flushed it out and packed it with cotton packing before covering it with gauze. Once an incision comes open it has to stay open to prevent an abcess/infection. So twice a day my dear hubby cleans and re-packs my wound for me. He's a hunter and isn't squeamish about stuff like that. I looked at my wound once without the packing in it and almost gagged. Can't handle it! This continues to be pretty painful and is causing a definate slowdown of my recovery. I'm healing and have no infection, so I'm grateful for that. I still wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy though! I wish I could scream from the rooftops for people to NOT get the band - having to remove that port that had been put in so well in the first place really tore me up inside and left a big hole for all that blood to pool in. Those of you having the sleeve as your only WLS are so lucky!

Mine was a 32. I was a revision from the band.

I had my fill completely taken out about 10 days pre-op. They said it would give my tummy time to adjust before the revision surgery. Man, it sure was nice to be able to eat a dang salad again (couldn't with my fill)! I was afraid I might overeat with all that freedom, but found I really couldn't eat that much anyway (guess my tummy has shrunk). I was on a liquid diet for 3 days before surgery.

I know this is an old thread, but I also had my band removed by Wade Barker on 1/08/10. He put it in March 2006. I 've been having pain and after tests found out I had gall stones and a hiatal hernia. Dr. Barker charged me $5000 to revise my band to the sleeve. My insurance paid for the gall bladder removal and hernia repair. I am SO GLAD to have the band out and think it contributed to my hernia.

I had my gall bladder out on 1/08/10 the same time I had my band removed and was sleeved. My mother had hers out years ago with an open procedure, so I was happy to be able to do mine lap. My mother has never had any problems with having hers out, so when I was told mine needed to be removed I had no reservations. Since it was only 11 days ago I can't vouch for how I feel without it yet. I'm still on a liquid diet so my stools are loose anyway right now. If your doctor thinks it should be removed, I'd do it now rather than face worse complications with it later. Good luck!

Great job already! There are so many Protein supplements out there that DO taste good that I wouldn't continue with something you don't like. liquid diets are hard enough already! I've never used Optifast, but I really like American whey, nectar, and Isopure products. You can buy them at GNC and Vitamin Shoppes. I like the vanilla Protein shakes because you can add so many things to them for flavoring - frozen fruit, extracts, coffee syrups, etc. Of course, chocolate is also great and tastes good with a dab of Peanut Butter or a bit of Almond Extract. This website has tons of info on great supplements. You just have to try a few and find something that tastes good to you. Don't settle! Good luck on your journey - sounds like you've got a great start!

Stacy, I got a band in 2006 and was sleeved this past Friday. Before WLS I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and was using a C-PAP machine. Without the machine my sleep was terrible - waking up all night, snoring, etc. After I lost 50lbs the apnea went away and I slept much better. Losing the weight will most likely help quite a bit with your sleep issues. If you still have problems after losing a bit of weight don't hesitate to talk to your doctor and ask for a sleep study. If you do have sleep apnea it is a very dangerous thing. I have a friend whose 23-yr old son died from it (yes, he was overweight). Best wishes!

I had a band put in in 2006, lost over 50lbs then started having gall bladder issues about a year ago. Last Friday I had my band removed and was sleeved, but also had my gall bladder removed. They said it was FULL of stones. I also had a hiatal hernia repaired that had been undiagnosed before. So having a gall bladder ultrasound would probably be a good idea.

Hey everyone - my revision from band to sleeve was done on Friday 1/8. Came home yesterday and feel AMAZING today. So thankful that there was no nausea and/or complications. This is a blessing in itself as I had all of the following done: 1. EGD 2. Gall Bladder Removal 3. Adhesion removal from previous abdominal surgeries 4. Band Removal 5. Sleeved 6. Undiagnosed hiatal hernia repaired I was also on a heart monitor after surgery because of an electrical issue in my heart that they wanted to keep a watch on. The nurses said I was the lady that had the "whole laundry list" done and now that I look at it I guess they were right! Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas was wonderful. This was my first time there and I was really impressed. They are very good at pain management and all the nurses, techs and docs super attentive. I'm actually working at my home office today (trying not to do too much!), but I'm almost caught up from my day off on Friday. It feels SO GOOD to have that band out and I'm looking forward to the rest of my life with the sleeve. I was really nervous the days before surgery but am so glad I didn't let that get to me and went ahead with it all.

Dr. Barker did my lap-band surgery in 2006 and will remove it and sleeve me on January 8th. I've always seen just him on my visits, but did meet his assistant at my pre-op last week. He's done a ton of WLS, and is a very competent surgeon. All the ladies in his office are super helpful and sweet. I will admit that I had quite a wait in the office last week, but don't know if that's par for the course. I guess I'll find out in the next few weeks as I have follow-up appointments. As a surgeon though - I would recommend him. He's got a great track record - if you ask for it they will give you all the stats. Good luck! We're lucky to live in an area with such a great selection of docs.

Well - I guess I'm the first to 'fess up - I had laser hair removal on my bikini line. And believe me - I've been wearing bathing suits with skirts on them for years because of that area. Never could seem to get it all shaving. Anyway, laser removal is not absolute. It doesn't remove every single hair. It gets most of it and you can shave the little bit that's left. It works best on dark hair - so blondes and grays (you know you're out there, ha!) are discouraged from doing it. It hurts a bit when they're doing it, but kind of like a rubber band snap on your skin. Not too bad, and it's over pretty quickly. You have to have several treatments over months (4-6 depending on your hair growth), so if you're going to do it you should get started soon. And of course, it's permanent -so no getting waxed every few weeks. I've had my upper lip and lower legs waxed and didn't even think about doing it in such a sensitive area. But I guess there are plenty of people that do it or they wouldn't stay in business .

My revision surgery in on Friday, so I'm doing pre-op right now. Even when I had my band put in, I added extracts to my shakes for flavor. My favorite is to get chocolate Protein powder, frozen cherries, milk, and almond extract. ALMOST has good as eating chocolate covered cherries:001_tongue:!! A dab of Peanut Butter in chocolate powder with bananas and banana extract is also yummy. I never thought of using those coffee flavorings - I'll have to get some when I get off clears after surgery. Great idea!!

My doc's standard is a one-week liquid diet pre-op, but since I've already lost a lot of weight from having a lap-band he said I only need to do 3 days before my revision to sleeve. He took my fill out of the band a couple of days ago, so I have 6 days to eat what I want. My 25th wedding anniversary dinner was last night and it felt so good to eat and not have that awful band feeling of food getting stuck. I was surprised that I didn't "pig out" - I still got full fairly quickly. Guess my stomach has just naturally shrunk over the last few years of eating very little.

Dr. Barker did my lapband March 2006 and will do my revision to VSG on January 8, in addition to removing my gall bladder. Everyone at his office is very nice and helpful. Some of them have had WLS, so they have first hand knowledge of what you'll be going through. I feel he did a very good job with my band surgery, and the follow-up care was great. His lobby is super comfy with nice, large leather chairs and a flat screen TV. When I originally had my lapband, his staff helped me find a lower price by doing it at a smaller hospital, which was wonderful since I was self-pay. All in all I have no complaints and would recommend him to anyone. He's got a LOT of experience and has done several thousand WLS procedures with almost NO complications (they will give you all the numbers if you call and ask them). Good luck with your decision!

I'm having a revision from band to VSG on January 8th at Forest Park with Dr. Wade Barker (he did my original lap band surgery). I'm glad to see all the good remarks about the facility as this will be my first time to be there. It looked really nice on the website.

I'm still waiting to be sleeved (surgery in Jan.), but after 3.5 yrs with the band I still put too much on my plate. When I go out to eat I usually order a cup of soup or an appetizer. My husband calls me a "cheap date" - ha! If the waiter sees my plate with only a few bites taken out and wonders if the food was bad I have to say "No, I guess I wasn't as hungry as I thought." We ALWAYS have a box of food to take home. I have to eat out for business occassionally and a few of my associates know about my band. But with others that don't I've turned "picking at my food" into an art form. I can make things look like I've eaten more than I actually have. It is definately hard to get your head and stomach on the same wave length!

Hey Texans! I live in the DFW area and had lapband surgery 03/2006 with Dr. Wade Barker. He's going to do my revision surgery to VSG in January. I would fully recommend him as a surgeon, and everyone in his office is super nice. I haven't had any band problems due to his efforts, I need my gallbladder out and decided to have the band out at the same time. I'm afraid it will be a problem SOMEDAY, so I'm just going to have one surgery and be done with it. Dr. Barker removes the lapband and does the VSG at the same time. He's an excellent laproscropic surgeon in all areas, but does mostly bariatric surgeries of all kinds now. I think he also has some type of seminar if you want to talk to more than one doc.

I still have my band, so he will remove it when he does the sleeve and gall bladder removal. I'm not sure the total number of sleeves he's done, but he's done around 216 since the first of 2007, with 223 band to sleeve revisions. He still does more gastric bypass surgeries, as that's what most insurance co.'s will pay for. He's done 1787 of them and 817 lap bands. He's also a general surgeon, so he's done thousands of gall bladder removals, appendectomies, etc.

I just got off the phone with a nurse at my doc's office and had several things clarified. I WILL be staying overnight at the hospital - I'll be admitted as an outpatient, then he will sign for me to stay. I will also have a morphine pump that will last 3 days. He will do a leak test day of surgery and again before I go home. Then I will return a week after surgery for staple removal and follow-up. I also got all the pertinent info regarding quantity of surgeries he's done (sleeves, revisions, etc.). His overall complication rate is 0.04%, which I consider pretty darn good. The info the nurse originally gave me for going home the same day was because she thought I was only having my gall bladder removed. She had no idea I was having a revision. Boy oh Boy - this confusion caused me a lot of mental anguish. But things look good now. The only thing I'm concerned about is having to dish out all my savings if there are complications from the sleeve - but with my guy's complication rate I feel like my chances for success are very good. He's the same one that did my lap band and I've not had a slippage, erosion, or flipped port, etc. so I trust him. Thanks for everyone's input. It really helps to know what your experiences have been for those of us that have yet to go through it.

Thanks for the info. Just today I made an appointment with a gastrointerologist for a second opinion on the gall bladder issue. My appt is on 9/23. I also have a call into my surgeon's office to talk about the outpatient situation too. His receptionist had VSG two yrs ago and she's the one who is supposed to call me back to tell me her experience, along with what his other patients do. As for the morphine pump, I've heard some people take liquid morphine, so that might be something my doc does. I'll just wait to see what his office says.

If you have insurance you must check your policy. Mine will not pay for anything related to obesity help - no matter what. So I would to have to pay for anything to do with complications. My revision from band to sleeve surgery is scheduled for 10/30, and now I'm not even sure I'm going to go through with it. I'm self-pay, but am also have gallbladder removal, which is covered by insurance. My doc is charging me $5000 for the sleeve portion of the surgery. I'm just afraid of having to pay for complications if something were to happen.

So basically my answer so far is a resounding "NO!". Boy, oh boy - do I need to have another talk with my surgeon. Oregon Rose, no - I don't know anyone in the medical field locally, so I have no one to call on in that area to help out. I'm actually even re-thinking the decision to have surgery again in the first place. I went in to the doc because I've been having abdominal pain and think it's probably from adhesions (after 2 C-sections I had tons of them, which were removed during a hysterectomy) caused by the band surgery. There was a report in my file from my internist showing I might have gallstones, so my surgeon jumped on it and and said we should remove the gallbladder, get rid of any adhesions and do a sleeve while we're at it. I had never even heard of a sleeve before he mentioned it. My husband thinks the doc just wants to get more $$ from me since I was a self-pay, and that I really don't need to get a sleeve. I'm afraid that I may have complications in the future, so why not get the band out now while I'm already being operated on? Since I'm prone to adhesions, more surgeries in the future will just make them worse. I know it's my body and only I can make this decision of what to do with it - but it 's just a lot to consider...