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I had my band for 4 years. Lost 80 pounds, but it slipped and had to have it removed Aug 10th. I wanted to have my revision in one surgery, but my insurance company didn't want to pay for that, so instead they are paying for 2 surgeries, oh well its their dime. It would have been nice to have it done all at once for less time off, less recovery time, less risk...etc l. The pain of the removal was pretty intense at the port site, and the most pain I had was the scar tissue that he removed that the band had made. My surgeon made me wait for 3 months and I am scheduled for my revision Nov 30th. I am hoping the pain won't be as severe as the removal was. When banded it was difficult to eat healthier foods. I was unable to eat citrus, hard veggies, salad would get stuck often, shrimp, and no breads, chips, or pastas. Meat would also get stuck. I know what you dealt with. I think everybody has the fear of failure, more so with revision. It is normal, but don't let the fear consume you or prevent you from being successful with this new chance. Follow the rules, measure and weigh your food and you will do great!!

I am scared too. My revision is next week. I would guess most of us who are doing a revision are scared of failure. How could we not be? But it is also exciting because it does have a higher success rate and gives us a better tool with which to lose weight.

Hi everyone I just had my lap band taken out and a revision to a sleeve almost 2 weeks ago. I don't know what is going on with me but this only liquid thing has me so depressed. It was a month with the band and for the most part I did fine but this time is totally different. The last few days I just feel like I have made the wrong choice. I have just been watching my son and husband eat and wondering why I chose to do this to myself, I don't feel normal now. I guess this is hitting me so hard because this one is permanent. Has anyone else felt this way and how did you deal with it? Thanks

Hi! I am new to this forum. I got my lapband in 2013. My starting weight was 280lbs and I am about 5'3". In the first year I lost 95 pounds and was down to 185lbs. I never had a fill as my doctor never recommended one. In the last 4 years I have shot back up to 225lb as menopause had set in and I started to lag going to the doctor which was no help. I am now 56 years old and can't seem to budge even a couple of pounds off. I have moved out of the state where I had the procedure years ago and had a consult with the local general/bariatric surgeon about 10 months ago. He agreed to remove the lapband and do a revision to bypass. I met remotely with the bariatric nurse and participated in the orientation zoom meeting. I went for my first weigh in as I was told I would have to start from scratch and in the program and work with a doctor or dietitian for 6 months before they would get approval for the surgery which Iwas more than willing to do. I was turned off by the nurses attitude as she never answered my calls to guide me in the right direction to get started so I gave up on the idea. I feel stuck, depressed and frustrated and I don't know where to turn. My insurance has changed and I can't seem to find a doctor to help me. Thanks for listening. Sent from my SM-A505U using BariatricPal mobile app

It's been quite a journey so far successful band surgery 2012 then problems with my band and weight regain all bar 30lb. I am on the pre op diet of lean protein and no more than 40g of carbs. Surgery is 11 days away feeling nervous and excited. Have lost 10 on pre op diet so far. Have pdh diet protein for post op in strawberry and mint choc chip. Any other revision people out there how are you all doing x

sounds like me with the band too. mine slipped about a year after i had it, i then had another surgery to revise it but the doctor warned me that once a band slips it usually always will slip again. well about a year after that band slipped as well. since i was pretty much as goal too, i had the band removed . here i am 5 1/2 years later and my weight is all back. im considering the sleeve for the past 2 years. im just very nervous especially since i had problems and i was also told i would have a lot of scar tissue which mean im at a higher risk for leaks!!!!! im scared!! any advice or words from anyone???

Hi, I'm waiting on my insurance to approve my band to RNY revision. They have approved my port revision (three months ago - which I had to wait on pre-existing condition clause) until now to have. I was banded April 11, 2008 by Dr. John Bagnato, Albany GA. Assessment day I was at 271, with a pre-op diet I went into Surgery at 259 pounds. By my first fill I was down about twenty pounds - or perhaps I should say attempt at a first fill - my port had flipped. So I had to schedule revision surgery, which I had in July. I think lost an average of 15 pounds a month. I found out right after my revision surgery my husband was having an affair - emotionally I was a wreck but I think it gave me a push. By November I was down to 214 (my lowest weight). I worked out, followed all the rules - strictly and even ran in a 5k. My marriage continued to deteriorate and by December I asked for a divorce. We separated in February. I ended up moving to my hometown in Florida (four hours away) in March. It never dawned on me the impact of moving to another state would have on my health due to my band. I ended up getting sick and had to get an unfill a few months after moving to Florida. I went back to Georgia for one fill which I had to have removed due to esophagous spasms. When my divorce was final in October 2009 I lost my benefits. I quit my job when I left and it took me four months to find a job (and it didn't offer benefits). But with two small children to feed I didn't feel I had much choice. So no doctor, no follow-up. I tried to find a doctor in Florida to see me, closer than four hours away. No one would take me. I tried everything. I finally found a doctor in Pensacola that would see me. He was able to put in 1cc (I have a 10cc band) in November 2010. I went back in March for my second fill and he couldn't access my port. By the way my port is in my chest, stitched to my left breast muscle). He said it has to be moved. We filed the insurance and they denied me due to pre-existing condition (June 2010 is when my insurance took effect, so I had to wait until June 2011 for anything related to my band). In May I started having port pains and reflux issued - I had an upper GI done. I have mobility issues in my esophogus and some erosion...so I'm told that the band has to come out. I had an appointment Wednesday of this week with him. He confirmed it and we discussed alternatives. I had been reseraching the RNY for a few weeks (once he told me bye bye band)...so now I'm waiting on insurance approval. I'm curious how many of us are out there? and if it is specific to the doctor or type of band? Is there a specific timeline when the failures/complications begins. For the longest time I blamed myself - thought I'd done something wrong. It appears after getting back on LBT (after a two year departure), I'm not the only one. I really hope this RNY site takes off...looking forward to talking to everyone...

@Simply_Divine sorry you are going through acid reflux bummer, painful!! my dr told me prior to surgery that the reflux is a common side effect from the VSG he told me if i was prone to it before, the sleeve might make it worse. Or you could just start having the reflux for the 1st time in your life, Luckily it never bothered me over these past 5+ years. I've read that many Peeps that suffer like you do, might have a revision surgery to gastric bypass. That should get rid of the problem ! hope you can take care of this problem sooner than later good luck kathy

Me too Band07!!! I'm scheduled for 9/25 for band removal and revision to the sleeve. My surgeon removed all my saline on 8/12 and had me do an UGI to check out everything. According to my UGI results he said he didn't see a problem with doing the 2 surgeries at once, but it did depend on how much scar tissue is around my band and he can't tell that until he gets in there. Praying that I don't have a lot of scar tissue!!

I was bad with my dinner last night. But I loved every bit of it. Today is another day and I will be better. I did not over eat, I just ate the wrong things. I had 3 coconut shrimp, great bread dunked in oil and cheese pizza. The local restaurant has a great football special when the N.E. Patriots play. Yes they won!!! On one of my other WLS groups one person spoke of her friend and by pass. The woman had by pass about 10 years ago and was doing great for a while. She is now in the hospital for revision. She stretched out her pouch and when the doctor went to sew her insides it was like cotton candy, her words not mine. The woman is on ice chips for a few days and in the hospital for at least 10 days. If that doesn't scare the S**T out of you, nothing will. ​I never was a drinker. In fact the last frozen Girl Scout cookie I had I broke out into hives and never had a drink since. That was over 15 years ago. So drinking was never anything I was going to miss with my journey. I never liked fast foods and yet I was and am obese. Fast food was always a comfort food but not for me. Give me bread and more bread, ice cream. I now have bread in restaurants and maybe once or twice a month in my own house. I think we all went into this new journey to get healthy, be thinner and move our bodies that were just sitting around. No one forced us but we need to be smarter with choices. Like CG always says, Listen to your doctor!! Listen to your dietitian and finally listen to your body. Have a great week. October is tomorrow and before you know it Halloween. I only buy candy I hate and I hate more candies than I like. I never had a problem with buying candy. Yes, I hate Snickers!! Arlene

Hi Lisa - Im hoping we can work together on this ebcause i just read your story and let me tell you a little about my story -- lap band 9/2005 02/06 - slip 03/06 - re band throught the past 5 years I have STRUGGLED and the ONLY time i lost weight was when the bad was so tight I barely could drink Water. One day I would be able to eat yogurt, the next day it would get stuck -- it was this way constantly and Id never know what i coul or couldnt eat unless i tried - so in teh end I have a band with 1/2 fill so i can eat normally but it defeats the purpose of even having TWO surgeries because here I am weighig in 10lbs les then my 1st surgery and 10 more then my second.... Just went to the Dr. yesterday and he suggested I look into the bypass revision. He made it sound really good but he also didnt leave out the fact that because it is a revision - the risks are automatically higher for compications. I sit here wondering if my body had this many compications with a simple band who will ti react to a bypass? Maybe I will do great with bypass and i will finally see results Ive been striving to see forever what is I am the 15% that thigs go drastically wrong My job now covers this revision - if I waitr health care might change ................................... I too dont know what to do! Complications? What kind of complications? Like is its "dumbing" more often.. k I can handle that.. If its leakge... that can cause death.. IDK I wish I could survey 100 ppl who had this themself! Help for us both What ever we decide , we r not alone! Lisa (yes im lisa as well)

Mom - I read with interest this entire post and was really wanting to follow up with you. I had my LAP-BAND®® placed in March 2009 and haven't had ANY problems. I could eat or drink anything in small amounts and other than the first weeks after surgery haven't had the gas problems. Anyhoo, about three weeks ago, I overate a bit and had my first bout of vomiting. I went back to liquids and felt much better. But the vomiting had become a daily thing and got worse and worse. Finally ended up in the emergency room on Thursday, and the regular doctors didn't know squat about what to do for me. By the grace of God, my surgeon just happened to walk through the emergency room and saw me. He immediately asked for my x-ray and cat scan and told me I had slipped. He immediately removed all my fill (I was at a 5) and told me to go back on liquids for a few days than start putting in additional foods just like after surgery. He said that he has seen a number of slips correct themselves following this method. Has anyone else experienced this or even heard of it???? My insurance did not cover the surgery (I paid cash) so I will need to do some finagling to even get them to pay a surgeon they don't contract with (yay, Kaiser)take it out much less revise it. I'm terrified. I keep envisioning this thing bursting out of my stomach, like on Alien. I'm also terrified to put the weight back on...I'm down 85 lbs in 14 months and know there is no way I could maintain it without the band. HELP? Can it fix itself? I really don't want more surgery or life without the band. Cristy Banded March 31 at 265 pounds June 19, 180 pounds and scared poopless :smile2:

Thanks for sharing. I, also, hope that you have reached your restriction level. You are the one I read if I need inspiration! You have done amazing! I, too, just had revision, so I am not sure what my restriction will be after I am off liquids! Good luck, Karen

PKB said: You mentioned..."If that happens, you'll be in the same place as you would be post-revision with an infection." - I'm not sure what you mean? Knee revision or Sleeve revision? What I meant by that is that if you don't have any kind of WLS, you will probably not lose a significant amount of weight, which would lead to another knee replacement in the future. I read your OP as you being worried that an infection from a leak would lead to a knee replacement, so I wondered whether you'd end up having to do the knee replacement whether you had WLS/sleeve or not. My point is that your weight is damaging the knees anyway, so it might be worth the risk to have the sleeve, especially if it helps you take off the weight and allows you to keep the current knee replacements longer than normal. As for finding Tiffykins' leak story, I believe she has parts of it posted in her profile and I know that she has posted extensively about her journey. To use the search function, you need to go to the forums home page, then do the search so that you can search for her posts. There are other band to sleeve revisions who have had some complications, but Tiffykins is the one whose name came to mind first for me. As I said, you definitely want to discuss this risk with your surgeon and your medical posse (stole that term from Eggface, y'all!) to see if the risk/benefit ratio is acceptable to you! Good luck whatever you decide!

I had 5 incisions for lapband 2005 and I had 5 for revision to sleeve in 4/2014

Ok, the hiatal hernia is bcause the weight of the stomach area stretched the muscle that is around your esophagus near where it meets with the stomach. Imagine a hose attached to a balloon going through an uncooked bagel....stay with me here....if you pull the hose, the balloon is supposed to stop....if you have a hiatal hernia, the bagel is stretched so part of the balloon (stomach) pokes up through it. Now considering that the sleeve shapes your stomach like a banana, if that opening is stretched then a lot more stomach can shift up through there. Its not really age its more size and wether or not your "bagel" is stretched open or not. I hope I didn't sound too insane. Btw, I had a hiatal hernia repair on the same day as my sleeve and I hardly ever had pain or discomfort. Im 2 weeks+ out from a revision from the lapband to sleeve. As far as other hernias go, there's multiple reasons for them but age still doesn't save you. I was 21, in shape in the Army and got a hernia in my lower abdomen. Just happens.

Well I am going to brag a little but because I am a revision(band to sleeve) this is really easy for me. I had to do it with the band and the longer you do it it becomes second nature. Yes your food gets cold, sometimes you have to re-heat, it is what it is!

Okay, to elaborate...I had issues from early on with my band being somewhat spastic...if I was stressed out, my allergies were flared up, I had PMS, ETC, it would be so tight I could only sip liquids for days...I kept very little fluid in my band to try to counter act this...but I did lose weight! Eventually, I got sick, sick to the point I couldn't tolerate fluids and was dehydrated had to have several liters of IV fluids and everything removed from my band...after that the band and I never hot along well. If they tried to put anything in my band at all I would have episode where I couldn't eat. I worked closely with my doc...whenever could find a good spot for me. About 2.5 years in I developed severe reflux, to the point I was waking up at night refluxing out my nose. Let me tell ya, that is hell. Then I got to where I was having issues drinking again. My band had slipped, my stomach was prolapsed up, I had to have urgent surgery to remove it. I had decided to revise to RNY but had so much damage my doc was unable to do the revision and I was sent home to heal (I had a partial erosion as well). Six months later I had my RNY and physically it's been so much easier. I feel fabulous and I can eat anything (apples, celery, chicken!!! Yay!!!). For me, RNY is the right choice.

Hi Wheetsin! No I don't think there is one thread that covers all the differences but there are numerous threads regarding the Band Vs Sleeve. I was revised from my band in September... and for me anyway my experience has been far greater than my band. IMO, the Sleeve is far superior. Good luck!

Me? Yes. I'm scheduled for revision on May 11th.

If she will provide the recommendation for the sleeve then let her do her thing. If she tries pushing the Lapland you can easily point out the huge failure rate of the band along with the success rate of sleeving. Not to mention, how many band to sleeve revisions are being done, I for one dont want to set myself up for a second surgery. And on top of this I wouldn't want the foreign object in my body, nor would I want to deal with the ongoing hassle & cost of maintaining the band.

§ Start getting in better shape. I walked, lifted, and did as much as I could 5 times a week getting ready for surgery. § Started practicing eating slower for lunch. § Watched many videos, talked to people who had been through it. § Oh, but best work was preparing for the mental changes with my therapist and worked through this book: http://www.amazon.co...=bariatric book § I drank a great deal of alcohol so I weaned myself off and slowly cut the caffeine. § Followed the pre-op diet to the letter § Shopped two weeks before surgery for the foods I would need for the first two weeks. § Revised my will and power of attorney just in case something went wrong § Tried pureed meal ideas before surgery so I had some meal plans.

I had my revision surgery at Star Medica with Dr. Rodriguez in april. My experience was awesome. The hospital was clean, modern and comfortable for me and my companion. Dr Calderon met us in the lobby and explained the process each step of the way. We saw him several times each day. I saw the anesthesiologist, I can't remember her name, and Dr Rodriguez everyday. They came to my room and chatted and answered my questions. I do have to mention that many nurses spoken varying degrees of english. Some of the staff spoke none. However, I never really had any issues making myself understood or understanding them. Everyone was very nice and very caring through the whole process.

I was Sleeved 12 Sep, feeling good, have another day to go before soft foods, can't wait to chew it (small curd of course). I'm a revision, had Lap band, the port flipped, no more constriction I was uncomfortable, had to lift bra to be comfortable, have lost 15 lbs since two weeks before surgery, if you are constipated try a Fleet supository. Sent from my SM-N910T using the BariatricPal App

Hi, I in the process of being approved for revision. My doctor plan is to go from sleeve to ? I was sleeved in 2014. I recently found out my sleeve is not a sleeve at all. That is why I have GERD. I also have a hernia. I been suffering for awhile. My GERD gets me up in the middle of the night. The bad stuff like bread does not give me reflux. However, get harburn from water. I was testing this week there is damage. I just didn't want cancer. I also have a hernia. I am happy to have this second chance. I am also worried. Can you share with me a little of your studies and why you did the revision? Sent from my SM-J727T1 using BariatricPal mobile app