Search the Community

I have Bipolar 11, and take Riperidone which when i first started made me gain 20 lbs in 3 weeks!!! I kid you not! I had had my gastric bypass July 2009 and had lost 60 lbs by Nobember then i had to be put on Risperidone and it basically reversed the whole surgery. So i go in for lapband surgery next Friday now that i am almost weened from it. Abilify is a weight gainer but not as bad a risperidone. Here is a link to a study about Abilify and other of the same kind of bipolar meds. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/business/28psych.html?_r=1&

Hi all. I'm a 34-year-old mom of 2, dd is 10 and ds is 7. I was banded in August of 2006. Immediately after my port flipped and needed to be repaired. THat should have been my first clue I made the wrong choice! I managed to lose almost 100 pounds with the band in the first 2 years, but it was s-l-o-w. At the end of 2008, my band surgeon said I should get a consult with a plastic surgeon about my huge apron of skin. It was horrible, hung down past my girlie bits, made me look a lot heavier than I was, my skin was constantly tearing and it gave me rashes. So, in Feb of 09 I had a tummy tuck and breast lift. Holy crap what a difference! He took off 16 pounds of extra skin and the surgery took 11 hours. The recovery was horrible. Because of the band, I've had problems with medication working right and it took a bit before we found an oral pain killer that actually worked. I was off work for 6 weeks and the recovery was horriblle. I managed to mess up my knee the day after surgery so it was always going numb and giving out on me. No one knew why. Then I got a stomach virus and puking after a tummy tuck, with a lapband, is it's own special kind of hell. Just as i was starting to feel human again I got scarlet fever. Which I thought went out of style with hoop skirts and mutton chops! Evidentally not though. My pcp said because my system was so screwed up due to the surgery, a strep infection just went haywire. That took another 2 weeks to recover from. I'd finally gotten to a weight that, while it wasn't as low as I wanted, I was happy with my body. I looked good, felt normal for the first time in my life and liked the way I looked in the mirror. I no longer walked into a room and got that horrible feeling of "Oh no, I'm the fattest person here". I felt like people noticed me and not my weight. A couple months ago I started having restriction problems, bouncing between too loose or too tight, and waking up at night with horrible reflux and choking on my stomach contents. Yuck! Had an upper gi done last week after an unfill didn't help matters and surgeon says the band needs to come out. It is extrememly tight, which he said makes no sense because it's empty and I don't feel like I have any restriction (which is why I've gained some weight back ). So, now we start the process of getting insurance approval for the band removal and revision to the sleeve. He said he'll push for the sleeve instead of bypass because bypass does not appeal to me. I'm already deficient in B12 and vit D and take injections and supplements for that. I'm afraid of what would happen if I had the malabsorption issues to deal with too. If insurance (Anthem Blue Cross) wil only cover the removal but not the sleeve, I'm hoping it will be cheap enough for me to self-pay for the sleeve. And I really want to get this done soon! The idea of being on a liquid diet over the holidays is not at all appealing. I've been reading all your stories since finding out I might lose my band and have gotten so much help from them! Thanks for sharing your stories. :001_smile:

Matt, I am so sorry to hear this. In 2013 at the age of 47 I had 2 cardio vascular events, the 1st resulted in 2 stents inserted in my right main artery. 5 months later I started feeling the same shortness of breath, pain that started in my chest, then radiated into my jaw. I went to emergency, where after another angio-gram, I was told my left main artery was 80% blocked. They called this the 'widow maker'. I was devastated. How could this happen after only 5 months, I was so young. They did another angioplasty, and inserted 2 more stents in the left main. I was off work for a total of 9 months, did extensive cardio-rehab, and today I am 3 days post -op from RNY bypass. One of the 1st things I asked, in recovery was "did I have a heart attack?" I understand your disappointment, but your Dr is right. Let's make your heart stronger, so you can have the best results once you do have your surgery. This is not a step back, it is just an unexpected detour towards a new future. Wishing you nothing but the best.

We will be visiting family for Christmas this year and I will be at the solid foods stage by then. They are all about the food, their cooking means so much to them if you don’t have something then they will get upset. I’ve looked up most of the nutritional info on the foods and have found some I can eat and others to avoid. The ones I am most unsure of is lumpia (egg rolls) because of the wrapper and pancit because it is noodles. I’m concerned the noodles or wrapper might get hung up or swell up, what do you think? I can bypass them, no problem, but asking just to make sure. Please don’t think I am asking because I want to return to the foods that made me fat. I didn’t do all of this just to jump into bad habits. I’m going to be there a week and want to make good decisions while I am there. If I have a plan, I can avoid things that won’t work. I’ve done this same thing with Restaraunt’s and fast food joints incase my family decides to go out. I am not allowed to cook while I am there so it’s their food or protein shakes. Have a great day! Amanda [emoji16] HW 248 CW 230 SW 231 ASW 239 Surgery Date: 11/21/2017. Goal weight 150’ish 🤞🏼

I completely understand how you feel, when I had my gastric bypass surgery, my significant other was always trying to undermine my goals, my whole family ate unhealthy, I just kept telling myself that I had to do this for me and my health, the more I continued to build myself up and ignore them I became stronger, of course I had my weak days, but I would get back up, and shake it off and continue to work on myself, it worked!!!! I was 320 at the beginning of my surgery and I reached my goal of 135!!! You can do it!!!! Sent from my SM-N976V using BariatricPal mobile app

Savery, believe it or not, I actually see where you are coming from on some of this. It is a legitimate question. I've been told that after banding the trick is NOT to diet. Now, that being said, it isn't license for no behavior modification. We obese folks have extremely flawed mentality when it comes to eating. We head for all the WRONG foods in the WRONG amounts. Now, when you get banded, and I mean banded with a decent restriction, a portion of that battle is removed...the WRONG AMOUNT portion. You can still eat the wrong foods and defeat the band. That's why the band takes more "work" than, say, a bypass which in many cases can physically restrict you from eating the wrong amounts AND the wrong foods (i.e., dumping syndrome, etc. and many bypass people cannot eat surgars afterwards without a lot of distress). To put it simply, if you were told you had to stand on your head and knit a sweater, that would be a daunting task. However, if you were told that you didn't have to stand on your head...just knit the sweater...it's still work, but it sure looks easier to accomplish!

I had gastric bypass in 2003 and kept weight off for about 7 years. Due to medications etc unexpected weight gain resulted. After working with doctor and nutritionist for about 2 years -- having revision surgery next week.

Hello out there. I haven't had surgery yet...I haven't even sent in my packet questionaire to be submitted to the insurance company for approval/rejection. I went to the required seminar back in November and weighed in. I told them at the hospital that I wouldn't be able to have surgery until April because I live with my parents and they go to Florida for winters and won't be back to "take care" of me until then. They said to send in my packet around Jan./Feb. to get things going. I just received a call from the hospital asking if I was still interested. I haven't returned the call yet partly because she is only there until 3 pm and I work until 3:30...but also because I don't know what to say. Part of me wants to do the surgery but I am so unsure. I guess my biggest question is will the surgery make it impossible for me to binge eat? I know how to lose weight on my own and have done it many times...but I don't know how to keep it off and have always regained (plus more) the weight. I think to myself that the surgery is the answer to my horrible relationship with food and that doing the surgery is exactly what I deserve for a lifetime of bad habits. However...I just don't know if that is what the surgery will do for me. What if I have it done and I still want to eat too much food. I know I would get sick but does it help you to fight the urges? I just don't want to fail again and then this time change my body only to find out that it isn't going to change Me. I really want to have surgery and be successful and be able live a life free from this prison I've put myself in. I want to be healthy and hopefully get off all my medications and I want to believe that this is the ticket to that success. Can anyone shed any light on my confusion and second-guessing? Thanks. slh.

At 3 weeks I was still very swollen and I doubt a fill would have been a good thing - but everyone is different and every doctor is different. My doctor says mininum of 6 weeks between fills. I've had my first fill of 3cc and seriously doubt I will get another fill in November because I have great restriction - but again everyone is different. Good luck to you - if you are losing weight nothing says you can't push off the appt a few more weeks.:eek:

I used to work at a non-profit organization. They had a plan with a company that did cover it, but the plan excluded it. The best way they explained it to me is that my employer had the "Ford" plan and in order to have the surgery they needed the "Cadillac" plan. I petitioned my employer to ammend their plan to include this coverage (I was persuing gastric bypass at the time) and they would not do it. They were afraid it would start a "trend" in the company. I left that employer a year ago and work for our local school district and my banding was definitely covered Good luck to you as you seek your funding source...

Hi! So I received the RNY gastric bypass on September 23, and just got home out the the hospital yesterday. 11 days in the hospital. I'm in a crazy amount of pain and it's really hard to do simple things like getting out of bed and going to the bathroom. My surgery journey isn't at all what I had planned. What happened was after the first surgery, on the 23, I was throwing up, weak, and other gross things. The doctors checked on me every few minutes because they were worried they were going to lose me. So they rushed me to a different hospital for surgery number 2 to fix the problem found in the c t scan. They said I was born with an abnormally shapened stomach and it has always been larger, and that the weight gain my entire life hasn't been my fault and it was a medical issue! If I hadn't of gotten the surgery they said my stomach would have crushed my spleen. So the second surgery gave me a Omega Loop to help alter routing of my insides. So many things are horrible and went wrong, and I'm really starting to think this was the wrong thing for me. I'm eighteen, and this has been an abnormally amount of anxiety in my life. I have to drop out of classes this semester and quit my job to focus complete on healing. I just needed to share my story so far and look for some encouragement. Also, I'm hungry, is that normal? I'm worried that this didn't work. I eat my puréed food plan me always feel hunger after and like I can eat more. Advice?

I finally had my first visit and the surgeon is recommending that I get the bypass while I was already heavily in the sleeve camp. He said he's not trying to talk me into it but that the bypass would be better for me since my biggest problem is eating the wrong foods. I am 57 years old and weigh well past 300. Can you give me your opinion on this topic? I'm assuming most of you will go with what you chose but if you can be objective for someone in my situation what would you advise? The other difference is that I am a cash pay patient so I believe the difference is going to be an additional 4k out of pocket to get the bypass. I keep reading good things about the sleeve but also read the bypass is the gold standard and that you lose more weight with the bypass. Is that still true? Thank you to everyone that responds.

When I originally started my journey, my heart was set on getting the sleeve surgery. It wasn't until I met with the surgeon the first time that he thought I would benefit from gastric bypass. I was a full blown diabetic at the time, who had to take insulin at night as well as meds, and had high blood pressure. The surgeon mentioned that I could go with the sleeve, however if I am not happy with my progress, I would have a sleeve to bypass revision. I only wanted to go under the knife once, so I eventually decided on bypass. Its been almost 7 months since I had surgery and I cant tell you how happy I am with the results. I was almost400pds when I started, and I am now in the 200s. I still have a long way until I meet my goals, however I am no longer diabetic by medical standards, they even took it off my medical chart. I say good luck to you in whatever journey you decide. You may want to make a list pros and cons for each, and see what you come up with. You are the one in this

You are under anesthesia longer with bypass and that may be his concern @Ruin's_Angel. Alot of High BMI patients get the sleeve. I don't think ulcers are any more of an issue with sleeve vs bypass.

In the past they would do the sleeve for morbid obese ppl to help them lose wt for their bypass... (research from the TLC 600 lb life ) anyway at the end of day if ppl don't have the food behaviors/addictions conquer neither surgeries will give you the long term results... Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G530AZ using the BariatricPal App

If eating the wrong foods and not portion control are really your issue, bypass might be a better option. Once most people heal from the sleeve you can eat almost anything.

I think whatever you decide you have to be comfortable with, my choice was and still is the sleeve. I had the choice of all 3. Band, sleeve or bypass. I was over 120lbs over weight. I didn't have a lot of the issues others have pre-op but I was headed towards diabetes and that scared me the most. I probably would be at goal by now with the bypass aka the "gold standard" but I didn't like the re-routing of my intestines and malabsorption issue. My "gold standard" is my sleeve

Get rid of the Doctor...I demanded the bypass .I have to much weight to lose to screw around!!Best thing I ever did!

They are both good procedures. I weighed 308 when I revised from band to sleeve 4 years ago and am maintaining in the 150s now. Here is what I think, if a person thinks any WLS is going to keep them from making"bad" choices over the long haul, they are likely to be disappointed. I have read that not all bypass patients "dump" and that extra help offen goes away over time. You must be committed to a lifestyle overhaul with either procedure or you risk regain. The sleeve helped me change my relationship with food for several reasons, but I think the key was the elimination of the 24/7 drive to eat, constant hunger. Years later, My hunger is now what a normal person experiences and that period of time of no hunger helped me figure out how to keep it in check and how my choices dictate my hunger drive. They each have risks, and benefits. The bypass has a much longer proven track record. I had my , probably somewhat irrational reasons for avoiding the bypass, but I guess in the end I came to "believe" that the sleeve would help me and i proceeded to make sure it did. Research, and decide which seems to fit your life better and go for it!

I joined a couple of bariatric support groups on facebook and listened to those that have gone through both procedures to help me make my decision between the sleeve and the bypass. After a lot of research I have decided to go with the bypass and here are my reasons why: 1. Sleeve is not recommended for people with heartburn and acid reflux and I have a problem with this. 2. I noticed a lot of people that have had the sleeve reported frequent stalling of weight loss as well as more frequent regain as opposed to bypass patients. 3. I also need the discipline that gastric bypass provides. Just knowing I may dump from eating something bad (whether I actually do or not) is enough to stop me from eating it. I am afraid that knowing I would be able to eat whatever I want with the sleeve is going to make me do just that, and that may lead to overeating since I have problems with portion control and eating when I am not hungry. Good luck with whatever you decide Phynale! Btw I am 392...

Update. I met with my LapBand Surgeon yesterday. He does sleeves now too. He's such a kind doctor. He spent time discussing my history with four other doctors from around the country. They all agreed that the only surgery I should consider is bypass. Sleeve is too risky for someone who has already had band #1 slip, band #2 eroded, and I have a slow emptying stomach (even though I never feel full). He said there would be too much risk of a leak because the tissue is weakened by the band. There's a lot more pressure in the sleeved stomach than there would be in a bypassed stomach. He then gave me a peptalk about how he knows I can do it if I really set my mind to it. I don't want to disappoint him or my family. So, I've decided that I've got 6 months to lose a substantial amount of weight (I said 50 pounds, and he said I should only think about 25 pounds in 6 months). If I cannot do it, I will seriously consider gastric bypass surgery. I also met with a bunch of folks that are in my LapBand support group. We have monthly game nights that are really good for the mind and soul. They are very supportive folks. Between the pep talk from my surgeon, the support I feel from my group, and the desire to look better for my Daughter's wedding, I've decided I CAN DO THIS! I signed up for my fitness pal and logged in food for yesterday, and also did today's. What do you know, I lost 2 pounds overnight. It's amazing what a person can do when they really try. Can't say I'll be doing much exercise yet because it's still so flippin' cold out and my feet hurt when I walk on a treadmill, so I have to walk outdoors. Tomorrow I'll walk because it's not as cold during the daytime. Best wishes to all of you. I'll have to stop watching this site for a while because I am still very disappointed that I cannot be sleeved. Take care. Sue

I am in Porterville, I had been going through the process with Dr. Mackenzie too but she had her own surgery about 2 weeks ago so referred me to Fresno. Dr. Swartz. I met with him today & they will be submitting to insurance this week. I just jumped on here tonight to see what i could find about Swartz. I had to do the seminar there even though I had been to 2 others and it was obvious that they are much more PRO Gastric Bypass than band. But, It's ok because while he talked on for 2 hours about GB it just convinced me further that LB is the way to go. Hope to talke with you all some more.

Hi Everyone , I had gastric bypass about 3 months ago as a revision to the gastric sleeve due to horrible GERD, and before that I had the lap band in and had to have it removed due to some of the same symptoms that I am having now and since I left the hospital I have had nothing be chronic nausea and some vomiting, I do get dry heeves almost very day and these " episodes" can last for about 10 minutes at a time, I also have left side abdominal pain that sometimes feels like gallbladder attacks, my surgeon has been trying every thing to figure out what this could be, my EGD came back normal, no structure or leak, currently taking zofran raglan acephex Zantac and care fate, I have tried to stop these and I end up feeling worse and sicker I also had an upper gi done that just showed reflux, he is sending me for a ct scan because of the pain, he does think that there may be a super small hernia, and he wants another pH study to see if the acids are really bad again. He said that he has a whole bunch of docs looking into this but I have stumped them all. He gave several options such has having a j tube or tpn so that I am getting some nutrition, he did ask if I feel better if I don't eat, and I said yes the nausea is not as bad as if I eat. He also said he is going to see if mayo clinic will look into my case due to the complex nature of it all. I just want to know has anyone else had anything like this, or any other suggestions. I a just at my wits end with all of this I am not even 25 and having all these problems, and I just feel that all of this was done in vein, and I don't know what to think or do please help Erica

I had gastric bypass surgery last January 2017 i had roller coasters of my weight not so easy for me and I have work hardly to lose more weight because I got gain weight!! Clk, my dad died totally unexpected unknown cause and he died after Christmas 2016 and I'm so devastated!! I got gastric bypass surgery in January 2017 nearly two years after my dad's death in December 2016 im felt fabulous after gastric bypass surgery I have be careful to eat after my surgery..

I was up to my normal speed walking almost as soon as I got out of the hospital, although I couldn't go as far and usually took a nap after each walk during the first two weeks. I walked a 5k (3.1 miles) reindeer run 3.5 weeks after surgery and finished in under an hour, which was about the same time I had done a 5k in September. (Surgery was in November). I didn't start running until after January 1 because the holidays got in my way, but I swam laps as soon as they cleared me for the pool at about 4 weeks. The big thing is to listen to your body. There was a run in mid February where my left side near my largest incision started hurting when I ran. (not bad just letting me know it was there) As long as I only walked it was fine, so I didn't run and finished my time walking instead. When I went back a few days later for my next run, it didn't bother me so I ran as planned. I don't know what might have happened if I kept pushing through the pain. Maybe nothing, but I wasn't willing to risk it. Good luck and be patient. pam