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I was like that too. I didn't lose or gain for months, then I got tighter and started losing. I liked losing the weight. But the constant of the food coming back up caused my band to slip. You don't want that to happen. Tell your Dr. It's better to have an unfill now, and let your stomach heal, than to have to have revision. Call your Doctor.

Well, it had been a good 24 hours!!! 1. Yesterday I found out that my revision surgery will be on June 10th!!! (Bye- bye to this broken lap-band!) 2. I tried a sample of the Chike protein iced coffee. DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!! What a way to start the weekend!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all. I am 4 weeks post op from a band to sleeve revision. I have heard of people using stomach binders after surgery to protect their incisions but I am wondering if anyone has used them after healing? I am not so much losing pounds but inches for sure and my stomach is becoming saggy and the skin is loose. Any insight?

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&

Good morning, happy to find our forum to check in as we prepare for our life changing surgery. I'm grateful to be on this journey. My bypass is scheduled January 23, 2023.

I had my lapband in 2008. My band has a leak. They sent the paperwork to my insurance ( Optima ) and they gave their approval within 2 weeks for me to have the band to sleeve revision. They pay for all of it. My surgery is May 3

I have BCBS of Illinois, and they approved my revision last week. I don't have a slip or eroision. I just wasn't getting good restriction AND started regaining weight over the last year. Aslo, like Wheetsin said, call the insurance company. I started calling the day after my paperwork was submitted. I'm sure they are used to patients calling to question the status all of the time.

Hello, everyone. This is my first post. I'm aware that stalls occur, however, I am just starting my seventh week after gastric bypass surgery on October 20, 2015. Two weeks after my surgery I stalled at 352 pounds. It took me two weeks to lose down to 348, and today when I got on the scale I weigh 351. So basically for the last month what little I've lost i've gained right back. I've been monitoring my food intake and I have not eaten more than 800 cal each day. I've gotten in most of my protein but not close to all of my water. Could you please analyze what's going on here? I started my liquid diet pre-op on October 8 at 385 pounds and I was 372 pounds on my surgery date if that helps. Thank you for your time.

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.

Good afternoon everyone! Just wanted to give an update. I got sleeved on 12/15/2011, I was a lapband to sleeve revision. I am loosing slowly but surely and I am currently at 152 lbs. I started with pre Lapband at almost 250 lbs and pre Sleeve at 193 lbs. I work out 3-5 times a week and I also drink my protein shakes as a meal replacement at least once a day and try to limit my carbs and sugars. It has taken a lot of work, but I am very proud of my accomplisments and very happy with myself at this point. A little nip and tuck wouldn't hurt but will look into that in the future!!

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 🤞🏼

Dear stay tuned: That is frustrating, no doubt about it. Sounds like your port flipped...and it unfortunately DOES happen. My tubing kinked, and my second fill resulted in WAY too much Fluid in since they couldn't tell if it was going in or not. Once I drank Water, it was obvious it HAD gone in I had extreme pain, vomiting. This was on June 6th - also the night of my 3rd child's high school graduation -- in our home town 60 miles away. So, I ended up missing graduation and having an emergency port revision instead. It's just a memory now, and I was upset at the time, but what are you going to do? It sets us back, it's not convenient. I've managed to do very well by sticking to the band rules while awaiting for my delayed 2nd fill - which I finally had today - because it was delayed while I re-healed. Hope you can get this fixed real soon and get back in the swing of things. In a few months from now, I won't seem so bad once you're back on track. Hang in there!!!! :thumbdown:

I need to give a little back story here. My husband is 26 (will be 27 on Sunday), he's a great looking, attractive, naturally fit/lean guy. He's 6'0" and 165lbs dripping wet. He is currently deployed to Afghanistan and will be returning late September/early October (4 months after my post op revision). Ever since I told him I was moving forward with the revision surgery, his mentality has changed. He's working out, weightlifting to what I consider an extreme. He's bragged that he's "getting bigger" and I will be able to see a difference. I asked him "why are you working out?" He brushed it off that he was was just "passing the time". Now today, he has ordered a whey Protein supplement online from a bodybuilding website. He overpaid for what he is getting, and the email I sent, once the email confirmation came through, let him know that he overpaid for something I could of gotten here and shipped to him for less. I could care less about the money, or that he had ordered a supplement, just the fact that I asked him about that a couple weeks ago, he said he had no desire to "bulk up". My question is: Have any of ya'll experienced this with your husband/significant other? I almost feel like he is threatened by the fact that I will be losing weight. Kind of like he wants or feels the need to 'one up' me. We've never had jealousy/insecurity issues in our relationship/marriage. We've dealt with long distance relationship for over half of 3 years together. This is our 1st deployment as a married couple, I'm just really perplexed by all of this. He isn't the work out type. He hates working out when he is here. He has always loved me for me regardless of my pant size. He was and still is extremely supportive of my WLS decisions. He has mentioned a few times about me changing, but after the initial surgery back in October all of that was never mentioned again. We did talk about me sending him progress pictures. He decided that he wanted it to be a surprise. . . I just need to know if this is normal. I kind of feel like he is threatened by the thought of me losing weight. He knows that I get hit on now as a "hot fat chick". I feel like he is doubting me, or my fidelity, and he wants to make sure when he comes home that I am going to still want him, or even worse that he is the "better looking half". I may be overthinking all of this, but I can't shake this feeling that something other than "passing the time" is the driving force behind his 5-6 day a week working out/weightlifting. Thanks for any input. I appreciate it. . .

My Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC does cover it. I just had band to duodenal switch revision on 12/26 Katy W- Louisburg, NC Lapband revision to VSG with DS HW- 297 Weight at Surgery-279 CW- will update at two week appt

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

BIG NEWS IN THE BAND WORLD On October 30, 2012, a Reuters article revealed that Allergan is considering selling the Lap-Band® to another medical device company due to declining sales of the band. Not surprisingly, this news has caused some excitement in the bariatric surgery community. When I first read the article, my immediate thought was that I don't have enough information to make it the subject of an article of my own. I'm still missing a lot of information, but have plenty of opinions about it (which can come as no surprise to you), so I've decided to give you my opinions with you in this article from today’s special edition of the Bandwagon® on the Road e-newsletter. ALLERGAN PEDDLES THE BAND I have a hard time drawing any conclusions (pro or con) about the band itself based on the Reuters report. The decline in Lap-Band® sales could be the result of management or other business problems rather than due to a problem with the band itself. It's highly unlikely that Allergan will ever reveal the whole story to anyone but their team of attorneys and board of directors. So, what could this hot news story mean? As you read on, please remember: these are only personal opinions from an ex-bandster who’s fairly well-informed but not a medical professional and in no way associated with Allergan or any other medical device or other company in the world of bariatric surgery. For what it’s worth, here’s my take on the story. The US economy is in tough shape, the popularity of bariatric surgery in general is leveling off, and insurance coverage for bariatric surgery is still a challenge. Allergan is not alone in this - Johnson & Johnson must face the same challenge in marketing the Realize™ Band. The story of what's really behind all this is clouded by the reactions of the media and of band-bashers who sing the "I told you so" song because they assume (without any credible basis at this point) that Allergan's decision is related to the safety and/or efficacy of the band. SO, WHAT’S THE REAL STORY? All the other bariatric surgery procedures now performed in the USA can have serious complications and failure rates, but it's easier to point the finger of blame at a single manufacturer of a medical device than it is to blame the thousands of surgeons who are doing bariatric procedures that don't happen to use a medical device. The FDA isn't looking over the shoulders of all those surgeons the way it scrutinizes Allergan or Johnson & Johnson. When Dr. John Doe stops doing bariatric surgery and goes back to yanking out gall bladders, no one leads a parade down Main Street waving banners about the dangers of the procedures Dr. Doe was doing. Except in rare cases (such as the sad story of my original surgeon), nobody's even discussing Dr. Doe's surgical expertise or behavior. It's an example of what I call the David & Goliath Syndrome. A big company like Allergan is an easy target thanks to its size and visibility. The general public may step on Dr. Doe's fingers but otherwise will kick him to the curb in eagerness to throw rocks at Allergan. One of the hurdles facing any manufacturer of an adjustable gastric band is that it is (in my opinion) the bariatric procedure that requires the most patient education, aftercare, and support. In the 5 years since I was banded, I have encountered plenty of evidence of bariatric clinics doing a great job of that, but I've also encountered clinics that are failing at it, to the detriment of their patients. Not because they're doing something wrong, per se, but because they're directed by a surgeon (or team of surgeons) who was trained to think of surgery of any nature as an in-and-out deal. They're used to seeing the patient 3 times: a pre-op visit; in the operating room (with an unconscious patient); one post-op visit; and never again unless the patient experiences a complication that requires more surgery. That's fine when the surgery involves removing a gall bladder or a mole or a wisdom tooth, but it's a set-up for failure with band patients. The bariatric surgeon who vetted Bandwagon told me several years ago that the band manufacturers make few demands on the surgeons or clinics that buy their products because they don't want to marginalize the customers who don't follow the manufacturer's advice but have acceptable patient outcomes. Avoiding marginalization of customers is a smart business decision but a poor medical decision, and I think it's a mistake for us to view surgeons only as super-wealthy, super-powered medical demi-gods anointed by a Supreme Being and the ASMBS. They're also customers, and just like you and me when we're shopping for a new car, they're looking for a product that has reliable quality and performance at a price they can live with. They are business people who want to make money (to pay their staff, their malpractice insurance premiums, their colossal student loans, and their kids' college funds). Sure they want to practice the art (and science) of medicine, but they can't do that very well if they can't pay their bills. Finally, keep in mind that someone, somewhere is going to end up with the Lap-Band in some form. It is highly unlikely that Lap-Band® research & development, its technology and FDA approval, to say nothing of the existing customer base, will drop to the bottom of the bariatric pond and never be seen again. Both Allergan and the new owner will legally and ethically have to stand behind their product, with the details of that worked out to the last detail by teams of expensive attorneys and insurance companies. Even surgeons who stop doing band surgery to concentrate on other procedures will still have the basic skill and knowledge to provide fills and other aftercare to their band patients. Although I lost my beloved band in April 2012, I do not regret having Lap-Band® surgery and if I were starting my WLS journey today, I would ask my surgeon's opinion about the Allergan decision and also ask how (or if) it will affect his/her practice. The answers to those questions would be towards the top of a long list of questions I'd be asking before deciding to have surgery. And if I still had my band, I'd be asking my surgeon the same questions so that I could go forward with some degree of comfort (if not 100% satisfaction) that I'd have someone to turn to should I need band help in the future. I most certainly would not be rushing off to make an appointment with the Speedy Weight Loss Surgery Revision Center, or at least not until I'd done plenty of homework on the procedures offered by the quacks at Speedy. Trading in a car just because it's 2 years old has never made sense to me, and if it isn’t broke, why fix it? Although my journey from Lap-Band® to vertical sleeve gastrectomy ended up taking 6 months, I'm still nagged about it by a little doubting voice, especially when my sleeve is giving me trouble. Should I have chosen the sleeve, or not? Should I have risked the return to morbid obesity, or gamble on more surgery? There are no easy answers to questions like that. If there were a cure for obesity, I'd be first in line for it, but until that cure is invented, I'm making the best of what I've got.

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've prided myself on losing 100 lbs eating whatever I want, just a few bites. Well, after my band to sleeve revision 4 mths ago, I've only lost 22 lbs (knew I'd lose slower, started at 174). So I guess I'm gunna have to reevaluate my intake. Counting carbs would be miserable. I was on Atkins induction for 4 weeks last Feb. I would've killed my mom for a cookie I think counting calories would be a better choice for me. Occasionally I count on myfitnesspal and I'm usually under 1200. Guess I hafta stay under 1000 to take off the last 20 lbs. Those last 20 r the hardest of all. for sure. My goal is to maintain until after the holidays. Then I will take it seriously and lose the last 20. Hubby gained 40 lbs over the last 8 mths or so and he's doing the same thing (no, he hasn't had wls, just does Atkins).

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.

I'm assuming you treat a revision like the first time? I would think Prilosec would be a great way to start! My kiddo is on prevacid now and her tummy would randomly hurt on and off during the day before they started her on it.

Because when I had revision back in 2012 my BMI was 62 now I believe is like 47 or something now, and he thinks because I've been at the same weight for 6 months my body may have lost all it could with the sleeve procedure... He told me to give it my all the next 3 months and if I still cannot break the stall then we may need to explore me revising to DS... I really dont want another procedure, but I've heard good things about the DS....but ultimately the only way I will get it is with insurance approval, I had to pay out of pocket for the revision to sleeve, I honestly cant afford another procedure... So, I am going to give it my all the next couple of months and pray I can break this stall, which is now 8 months and counting

I'm having the bypass revision surgery on the 4th of February

It was the right decision! You are going to do great. Do you mind if I ask how your sister gained 100lbs post surgery? Doesn't the small stomach size make it very difficult to overeat? I don't mean to sound ignorant at all, but I'm just unaware that's all. Transitioning from lapband to bypass on June 12! HW: 402, CW: 314, GW 185