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Alot of folks already said more or less the same thing, but I'll throw in my 2 cents anyway: I chose sleeve because: I was afraid of dumping (but...I dump anyway) I wanted to continue using NSAIDs (but...I ended up not needing them anymore anyway) I was personally freaked out a bit by the re-routing of my intestines (but...not cutting out my stomach? lol) I DID NOT have GERD. I only had a choice between sleeve and bypass cuz those were the only ones covered by my insurance, so I didn't consider any other procedure. I think that one's results with WLS has more to do with the person, than with the type of surgery. I'm convinced I would have had the same result if I had the bypass. But that's just me. Some background and current statuses: I'm 5'2", almost 50yr old female, started off at 235 lbs at the beginning of my 2 week pre-op diet...2.5 years ago. I got to goal of 127 lbs in 7 months (108 lbs lost at that time). I settled into 115 lbs by 10 months post-op and stayed there basically since...but not without a bit of effort on my part. 3 times I got up to 120 lbs for a few consecutive days, and subsequently made efforts to get back down to 115. And 4-5 times I went sub-110 lbs for a few consecutive days, but didn't have to make any effort at all to get back to 115, go figure. This morning I was 109.2 lbs. I consumed very little calories during weight loss phase, and exercised regularly starting month 3 (running/walking mostly, and minimal strength training daily). No complications, nor issues other than those expected (dump with sugar, foamies/chest pressure if I eat too much or too fast, need to barf if I drink with my meals, burp like a teenage boy) At 2.5 years out, up until a month ago, I was averaging around 1800 cals a day with regular exercise (running & strength training 4-5 times a week). Currently I'm playing around with calories as I'm sidelined on the exercise front, which explains my lower weight these days cuz I haven't figured it out yet. I mostly eat salads (by choice, I LOOOVE salads!) , but I also eat desserts, spicy stuff, fried stuff, fatty stuff, drink coffee, alcohol and carbonated water. On rare occasions I eat bread or potatoes, but I don't eat rice nor regular pasta. I max out at about 1 to 1.5 cups of food per sitting (more if its salad) My lab results have consistently been uneventful (my last one was in November last year). So....so far so good. I have no illusions that I will be like this forever...but that's on me, not my sleeve.

No it's eat more complicated than band to sleeve. The iband is the band and plication done on your stomach under the band. It was a clinical trial being conducted my some drs with true results.

Congrats on taking the first steps to a healthier you! One of your first decisions to make is which surgery. Please don't do the lap band. Just cross that one off your list right away. The Roux-en-Y bypass (RNY, or simply bypass), the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy (sleeve), or Duodenal Switch (DS). You might qualify for any of the three, your surgeon will likely point you in a direction based on your circumstances or his own expertise (be careful of the latter, because you want the right surgery for YOU, not just what he's selling). There are tons of threads on the board about how to choose a procedure. Look around, and have fun during the research phase. You don't have to make a decision right away either. (But you might as well start looking early so you have time to really get comfortable with the idea of whichever you choose). All three have similar post-op diets and recovery phases. The main differences are the long-term complications, statistics, and vitamin requirements. (The DS also has higher goals for protein and fat intakes.) Good luck!

Hi all! I sincerely thank every one of you for taking the time to answer my call for help. I now know that my friend was just concerned about the complications. She told me of speaking with her beau's sister who is studying to be a nurse. The sister had told her that I was crazy & that just that weekend she had to help a lady in the ER who was having complications from WLS. Didn't expand on what WLS the lady had had, when, or anything. My friend told the sister "I don't want to hear about any complications." Our friendship will survive, and if it doesn't then I'll know that she was one who was here for a season (as opposed to a reason, or a lifetime). I sent out a quite hilarious email on Tuesday after my surgery to all of my friends & all of the responses have been overwhelming (& overwhelmingly positive). I am at peace & in a good place. Thanks again to you all for helping me with this issue. Susan 2.0

Hello all I was banded yesterday and the surgery went smooth, better than I expected. I was so anxious and nervous in the waiting area, but luckily I found comfort on a patient who was going to have the lapband done as well. His family was there for support and they had thad the procedure done in 2005 and 2006, They had success and NO complications! His uncle was there as well and he had lost like 180 pounds !!! since 2005. So finally wen I went to the operating room about 12:35 I was still nervous but before I knew it they woke me up and it was done!. I had no pain in my stomach at all, just a little discomfort on my neck area and left shoulder side. When they took me to the recovery room it was about 2PM. my vision was very blurry but it did clear up eventually. My mouth was very dry, thankfully I was able to take some sips of Water about an hour later and it went down well. My surgeon came by to see me, and I asked her about my liver ,( knowing that I followed the pre-op diet 75% of the time) but she said it was very small. I did lose 12 pounds though. I was able to walk and sit without paun and and I left the hospital about 5:00 PM. When I got home I had some Soup broth and it went down well, I was careful with my sips and played close attention to my body, I felt full and I saved some for later. Over all I had 5 small incisions not sure were my port is, I can't feel it yet and I forgot to ask. I am assuming its on my left side abdomen with the little heart shaped band. This morning I woke with a little pain on my abdomen where the incisions are nothing major took some liquid pain medication that was prescribed. I haven't experience any gas yet or I think I haven't LOL . I feel very positive about this and I am getting ready to throw away those women size 20 pants, I AM NOT going back there no more!

I felt terrible in the mornings for a while. I wound up having some complications so I'm sure it will go away for you faster than it did for me, but yeah, I'd say feeling weak in the mornings is totally normal. Advice: coffee makes it worse, and don't take a hot shower-- it taxes the body too much.

3/17/10 had lapband. Never, never, never had a problem with the band that I knew of. The problem I had was my surgeon quit the practice 10 months after I had surgery. Ended up switching to the NP in that WLS clinic. Never once in those three years did they ever fluoroscope that band, only right after surgery. But there again I didn't seem to have any problems, or so I thought. Anyway the nurse was to have called me regarding laps, after waiting six months (I had gotten the laps myself, but she had already po'd me) I switched doctors. He did the fluoroscope and found the band had slipped. I ended up having to have the band out and 10 weeks later had bypass. I did a lot of research during this waiting period, including the complications with the band which is now coming in. The doctor recommended bypass vs sleeve for me because I'm a diabetic and there are better results getting this in remission than with the sleeve. In my research bypass has been so perfected in the past 30 years I had to agree with the doctor. I'm not sorry I had the band as it started my weight loss journey, just wish more research had been done three years ago and I would have eliminated two surgeries. So I would definitely research all the major hospitals, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland, all of them and then determine what would be best for you.

Hi, just a quick update! I finally saw dr omalley yesterday for my consult and they are submitting to my insurance next week!!!! I am thrilled but also felt my anxiety kick in once I had to read and sign all those liability forms making sure you know all about every possible complication. I guess things just got very real for me. I have MVP which of course is the last insurance in the Rochester ny area that does not cover the sleeve!! Even Medicare covers it now, this is just crazy, so hopefully they can be persuaded!!! I am now very nervous and all that's left to do right now is wait.

Am at 9 weeks and have been stalled more or less for 3 of those. Ive lost a little bit in the last few weeks, 1lb or 2, but I expected to lost 2lb a week or more...I am not eating any crap, I am eating lots of protein, I am under 900 calories a day. I am SO disappointed that Ive gone through all this for such little loss..I had a LOT of complications from the surgery and nearly died, but I recovered and I am going mental here wondering what else I can do. I guess the issue is that I dont want to go back to the surgeon with small loss..and have him say that it's not good enough..It seems I only lose weight when I eat nothing!. Getting all my protein and water, but frustrated every day...Ive lost more weight on diets without the gut rearranging...

I did bypass at a center of excellence. My surgeon was the founder of the center and has been in the business for decades. His program's guidelines are unique, from what I've read here. No shakes, no liquid pre-op phase, straight to purees/soft foods. I had scrambled eggs in the hospital the morning after surgery and was working out at the gym after a week. My recovery was a breeze with no complications. Now I am 6 months out and have lost 105 pounds. Every surgeon is different and so is every patient. I think this is particularly true of the surgeons who have been at it for a long time and have learned what works best with their particular surgical / cutting style and habits. Follow your program and no one else's.

That sounds really rough. Sorry to hear that you had complications.

Anyone here that knows what kind of complications are common long term after bypass? I'm talking about 5, 10+ year veteran's? I'm so scared about having this surgery and it being great at the beginning but then later on down the road having a bunch of stuff going wrong.

My mom had the gastric sleeve done a few years after having a tummy tuck. She didn't have any complications and said pain was minimal. Sent from my SM-G960U using BariatricPal mobile app

I'm three years out. So, I walk a line here. And for now, that line is pretty easy. But it's not the simple, mindless thing I thought it would be. Does that make sense? I think the challenges in maintenance aren't when life is rosy and things are going well. It's when we hit the normal ups and downs and run into stress that our ability to hang in there (both with diet and weight) get tested. So for the most part, my maintenance was pretty easy. But add in some stress and it does become something I have to battle more. If the stress and upheavals are a normal part of a person's life, they're naturally going to experience a greater struggle. The issues I have with food are emotional and are really tangled and complicated. There is still no physical desire there unless I trigger it with some type of food - and even then I'd probably be battling a mental/emotional food association more than a real, genuine, physical desire to eat. I do still eat what I lot of people call junk. But I try very hard to keep it in moderation. And if I'm feeling particularly stressed or going through a lot, I try to limit my exposure to that stuff. Because yeah, it could easily become a mindless food binge if I went after the junk food on a really bad day at the end of a rough week. I've done it before and suffered no regains, but in the back of my head is that voice that says I've just been lucky so far, and I must be more careful or it could be an issue the next time. I don't know if it gets easier. I think my whole perspective is skewed from where I would have been had I not had a baby and been forced to lose weight again. If you had asked me at two years out, before I was pregnant, I'd say it wasn't hard and it was easy. That food was just food and not good or bad - that the real issue lies with controlling how I use food and how much of it I eat. But having the last five months be what they've been - facing a lot of struggles and a new baby (and likely some postpartum blues for good measure) has really changed my mind about a lot of this. Do I find it easy to avoid eating foods I shouldn't and to avoid gaining weight at three years out? Yes. But do I find myself wanting to lean on food more, or skip fast days or just eat what I want because I can do it once in a while without gaining (so far)? Yes. Every day is not a challenge for me. So in that respect, maintenance is okay - if I can really even call myself "in maintenance" right now while I'm still trying to shed a few pounds. The issue comes up when we have something change. New medication, new house, new baby, life issues, sick friends, sick family, etc. It's how we cope - and I don't really think that gets any easier the longer you get out from surgery. And for me, the way I am eating has NOTHING to do with that - I can eat what I want. For me, that's okay. It's the stress/boredom/mindless eating I have to watch. The desire to eat a brownie doesn't show up because I ate chips the other day. It shows up because I have a bad day and food is my drug and will probably always be my drug. So I guess all of this rambling (which probably makes no sense to anyone but me) is all to say that how hard it is will likely depend on first and foremost, your relationship with food. If you use food to cope or satisfy or soothe, I think you're going to have a much harder time at any point life gets tough. And if you're just a volume eater that enjoys food too much, you're probably going to have an easier time in maintenance. My opinion, based upon my own experience, is that it's a separate issue from regular diet. Moderation works incredibly well for me, and I do eat things and make things that I get the feeling many here would cringe about and many would not be able to eat and walk away from as easily. I don't think there's any easy answer here. I do think that no matter what, being careful about my weight will never, ever go away. If I use that as a benchmark of success - staying in my maintenance window, I mean - I can't see how it could be an issue. It's when I avoid the scale that I have an issue because I get "surprised" by five pounds (it's never happened, BTW, I'm using it as an example of my past behavior) so if I weigh daily and make small adjustments as needed, how could I ever get out of control again without a major upset to my health or without consciously choosing to stray completely and overindulge regularly? I probably sound slightly judgmental - along the lines of "if you're not losing you're not trying" but I am genuinely curious if anyone has been diligent and just been sideswiped by a gain of more than five pounds. Because I might be forgetting things I've read but I swear that almost every single regain post (that isn't due to a medication/illness) involves deliberately avoiding the scale and eating "wrong." Am I mistaken? I clearly need more calories. Today's a fast day and without my realizing it's gotten past noon and I haven't eaten. I doubt this makes any sense. I'll have to eat something and come back to edit it later, to make it coherent! ~Cheri

Hey guys. So, some of you know and some don't but I have had complications since surgery, which was August 13th. It boils down to my lower esophagus is very narrow. I have a difficult time getting anything that is not liquid down and I am constantly feeling nauseous. As a result, I have had 3 stents placed and botox injected into my esophagus as well as numerous other tests and hospital stays. I began feeling nauseous again about 2 weeks ago and have been in contact with the GI dr following my case. I just got off the phone with him and he wants to do another dialation or stent placement tomorrow or Thursday. He also wants me to discuss with my surgeon the possibility of converting my sleeve to a bypass (which my surgeon and his team have discussed briefly in the past.) I guess I'm just venting and want to feel better. If anyone has any advice or have heard of converting to a bypass, please let me know. Thanks.

Guys. You have to do this for you,not what your lunch buddies think. I told my wife and son and one else in my family. I told Most friends. Only 1 pushed back. She has since come around and supports me. she is coming to dinner Friday night. I am 4 weeks out and start " mush food" that night. I'll control the menu. It will be aewsome for them and compliant for me. The " eating out weirdness". Only lasts a very few weeks. I have danced around it successfully with my extended family. Due to complications I was hospitalized 6 days. No one knew. In terms of eating out. --- 99.9 % of people will understand and be helpful. I have explained my needs To waiters. Thay have in 100% of cases been helpful and have even gone out of their way to accommodate me. Sunday night we are going out with friends. They suggested a place. I looked up the menu on line and suggested some. Place else. I told them I had just had stomach surgery and thought the place I suggested would work better for me. They were very much on board. I am happy to chat 1 on 1 with anyone on the fence. It is all about YOU AND YOUR HEALTH.

Be careful, as my surgeon had a lot of "uncovered" fees that really added up after the portion that my insurance would cover. And I have really good insurance, low deductible and out of pocket. Also, the estimate the hospital provided was a fraction of what it actually came to. I think the final bill to the insurance company was close to $130,000 for a 34-hour stay with no complications. Thankfully, I only had to pay a small fraction of that after all was settled and done (I was covered at 90%). They also quoted me around $15,000 for an overnight stay, and I paid cash of the anticipated co-pay to get the 20% discount. Good luck! I hope it works out in your favor!

I had to have my band out because it slipped twice within 1 1/2 years. It would have been 3 years this June that I had mine put in. Would I have the sleeve even though there were no complications?? Probably not. Why fix something that isn't broken! I liked my band. I have a friend that had the band about 7 years ago and she still has it and is very happy with it. My husband has had his band for 2 years and his hasn't slipped yet. He said the only way he would have his removed is if a complication can up. And he wouldn't get the sleeve. Hes taken up running and has lost 40lbs since Dec and is convinced he can now do it on his own. I don't think he has much of a restriction because of the amount of food he eats!! But he's burning it off with running. He ran his first marathon 2 weeks ago and plans on doing more! I just wish when I went in for WLS would have considered the sleeve. It wasn't as main stream as it is now. I was so worried about not having my whole stomach I didn't research it at all. Now that I have the sleeve I wish I had long time ago because I feel so good. I don't have to worry about small bites, chewing 2500000 times, worrying about something getting stuck or the PBing and sliming when something is. But jsut to remove it with no complications, I don't think I would have.

I need help. I had my lap band on 12-1-04 and 3 days after surgery I was starving. I stayed up all night hungry, not able to sleep from hunger. I was drinking liquids as instructed by my dr. , but it was not helping. I called dr. office to ask if I can eat something and nurse never returned my call. I ate solid foods already and now I am afraid that I have done damage to my self. I had no problem eating solid foods, no thorowing up or anything. On 12-10-04 I went for check up and nurse just looked at my scar and said you are fine you can go home. I told her i have not been able to do liquid diet and am afraid of complications and all she asked is did you throw up and I said no , and she said I am fine and I can go home. Today is 12 days after my surgery and I can normally eat solids. I cannot eat as much as I used to , I feel full much sooner but I can eat solid food with no problem. Has anyone experienced this? Have I damaged my stomach by eating solids right away? Please help....

People often fall off the wagon. The trick to success with your band is that you are determined enough to get back on the wagon. So you messed up one day. OK. Next day starts back 'doing the right thing'. If you totally shuck your doctors orders, you may surely pay for that in lack of weight loss or band complications. If you are really serious about wanting to lose weight, you will have to make the changes necessary to allow the band to work for you. This includes a 6 week healing phase to allow you stomach NOT to grind and churn to digest harder foods. A gradual return to solids including hard Proteins, not soft foods that allow more calories to slide by your band, exercise at least 30 minutes 3/5 days a week and Water, water, water. Please be kind to yourself and your band. The stomach 'growlies' are inevitable, but don't necessarily mean you are starving. Pretty soon, they subside and you can get your mind on other things, like riding a bike or shopping for hours because you've lost enough that you can walk for hours. Getting your head in the right place is tough, we can all agree with that, but it will come, if you meet it halfway! Good luck to you!

I went to the surgeon who originally placed my lap band today to talk about the surgery I need to have to remove it due to erosion and subsequent revision surgery. I had my head completely reconciled with having vertical sleeve revision and then he threw in a new option. For the past year, he has been doing banded plication surgery. In my particular situation, due to the erosion, we would do the surgery to remove my band first, give my stomach time to heal, and then I would have a second surgery to revise to the banded plication. For those of you who are not familiar with this procedure, it involves folding the stomach in on itself and stitching it to achieve a sleeve like effect. This is a similar procedure to the old stomach stapling procedure but much more effective due to technique and the usage of sutures as opposed to staples. Then, he will place another band at the top of the sleeve thereby essential having two weight loss surgeries at one time. My understanding is that the plication is better for achieving immediate weight loss, the band is better for long term weight loss. Combining them is essentially the best of both worlds with a few added benefits. First, because you have restriction from the plication, you don't have to fill the band as fast or as much in order to achieve satisfactory restriction. Second, because of the more slender shape of the stomach, incidences of slippage are greatly reduced. Third, there is no need to dissect 90% of your stomach. Fourth, if you do have a problem with the band, it can be removed and you will still have restriction from the plication. As always, there can be complications. Sutures can come undone. There can be necrosis of the upper part of the stomach right below the band. My understanding is that so far, the complication rate is extremely minimal and weight loss results have been comparable to the sleeve. I have to admit that the thought of not having to cut my stomach is appealing to me. At the same time, the thought of putting in another band after my first one eroded is a little unnerving. My surgeon is not pressuring me to do either one. He wants me to do what I'm comfortable with but he is very excited about the results he has seen with this surgery. I am 52 and this is more than likely my last chance at getting to be where I want to be. This is still considered to be investigational and is not covered by insurance but I believe the majority of the costs will be covered by research study funds. I have complete confidence in my surgeon. He secondary specialties are liver transplants and pediatric surgery and he is always at the cutting edge (pardon the pun) of the latest and greatest bariatric surgeries. I just want to do the right thing for me. My instinct is to let him get in there and take out my band, take a look around and see what kind of damage my band did to my insides. Then, make a more educated decision about which surgery would be right for me. As an aside, he completely refuses to do gastric bypass. What would you do??

aj, i think you are normal. you are half way home! give a call to your physician to see what suggestions they might have or if you can step up to mushies. the one thing that I have learned about this process is ....the rules are all over the place! some have liquids for 1 week some have a few days and then some have it for weeks. I am only speaking about surgeries without any complications here. The one thing I will tell you is that first bite of mushy food will be heaven! to this day my poached egg is and was the best thing in the world! you can do this!

I had the two week preop, cheated on day 9 not bc I was hungry bc I'd gotten threw that phase but bc my family went to the mall where my fav meal was. Tried it, was discusting, made me angry but I survived. So, postop day I had complications so for the next 5 day stay in the hospital, no drinking, just iv fluids, on day 6 they let me drink. Day 8 came home for another 2 wk liq. I'm no hungry, physically or mentally but my doc makes me drink the 1 oz med cups 4/hr. So I'm constantly drinking shakes, crystal lite lemon flav, some chicken broth I'd done myself prior to surgery ( low sodium) and jello in the oz cups. Ik I prob didnt help u, bc u do know what ur feeling, but the routine of drinkn that I'm on, keeps my mind settled away from head hunger. I cooked for my family today, was hard smelling it but I did good. I guess smelln it everyday in the hospital helped a lot. God bless and gl and if ur able to walk, take a stroll, read a good book, play spades on ur phone like I Do, lol. And most of all, all u can do is one day at a time, so don't waste it on the next day or the ten other days. Just get threw today.

There's this great great SUPPORT GROUP on Facebook.. go in there, it will help a lot, still helping me, and I had my surgery done a couple of months ago...there's a lot of real patients, but it is a really active group, even surgeon answer your questions..it's call Dr Carlos Altamirano Support Group, he's not my doctor, but he also works for bariatricpal, but even though I didn't use him, they left me in. And here is my experience... I will like to share my experience after 9 months because now I'm closer to my goal, but first of all because I know I made the best decision ever, it's not just how I look, but how I feel inside, I'm a healthier and happier person now, I have improved my relationship with family and friends. My self esteem was in the ground, therefore I wasn't too friendly, now people like to be close to me, and it's only been 9 months like a I said, Im doing all kinds of outdoor activities, I'm going to the gym, I have a new wonderful wardrobe, I'm dating, I love myself more than ever.... and everything started like this…I tried all kind of diets and diet pills before going to surgery, they helped, but only for a short period of time, and if I dropped 10 pounds, after a couple of months I gained 15, I kept going like this FOR YEARS, I just couldn't keep that weight away FOR GOOD, I went into depression, the worse year of my life, but yet the better, in January of 2014, I wasn't getting out of my house or job, obviously my family was a bit worried, I even went to therapy, I felt petty about myself, then I signed up in forums of people with the same issue I had... OUR WEIGHT, met this girl that was doing the same thing as I'm doing right now...sharing her story and helping people, I had made my own research, I looked up for doctors in Tijuana, and this girl told me about Bariatric Pal, they were so helpful, I started with them from nothing.... and they guided me in every decision I was taking, first, they gave me my options, I visited the doctors they recommend, and I stayed with Dr. Lopez,I felt really comfortable with him, It felt like he knew me, well to make the story short, Bariatric Pal made all the arrangements for me, the day of my surgery, they picked me up in San Diego, they took us (my brother and I) to the clinic, as I hoped, they made me feel so welcome, I signed up, a few papers, they explained to me everything I was signing and they gave me my room, they did all kinds of pre-op tests, EKG, etc.. they gave me a pill to calm me down, since I was really nervous,I had Dr. Lopez visited me before surgery, I liked that, because sometimes you never get to see your surgeon, I think he gave the attention every patient deserves, we deserve to be treated as humans, if it is not too much to ask, well SURGERY went great, no complications, afterwards a Lil bit of dizziness, nauseated, but that's just normal, I stayed two days in there, then Mike from Bariatric pal drove us to the recovery house where my brother stayed while I was at the hospital, they didn't have a room for him, but the guys from BP take great care of him as they did for me the two extra day we decided to stay at their RH, then they drove me back to San Diego the day Dr. Lopez discharges me...I will be in debt with all the staff the rest of my life. My recuperation, had its ups and downs, but I did a lot of reading, about what I could eat, which is one of the hardest parts of it, I learned my vegetables, my Protein, and I learned to eat, I would cheer myself up every time I felt this was too much to handle, my family and friends helped a lot also, but now I know it was the BEST DECISION EVER, I'm proud of myself, and telling my story because I want people to feel the same way I do, I'm still dropping weight, and I will keep telling my stories, my progress and my humble advice in case you need support.

I have 130-140lbs that I need to lose. I didn't like the fact that I would have to get fills and all that PLUS I'm insulin resistant with having PCOS and I know the Lap Band isn't the best for that which is why my last surgeon switched me to gastric bypass but I didn't feel comfortable with that. I got July 10th to the first seminar. I'm nervous because of all the complications that can happen but I've had 10 surgeries so far that also had complications but I never had a second thought of having them done. I just need to keep my anxiety at bay