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My awesome surgeon has told me I can decide which surgery to have up until they wheel me in. I have a lot to lose 188 pounds to get to the weight suggested by my height and age. I don’t expect to get that low- at all. But I want to optimize my chances. I first chose sleeve but now I’m leaning towards bypass. What was it that cemented your decision? My insurance will pay for either and the surgeon is not making a firm recommendation either way. Which should I do??

Sorry. I see bypass. Hope you recover soon!!

Congratulations on your 100 lb loss - that's terrific! I'm looking forward to when I can post that as well... I've been referred for WLS by my primary care doc, have nutritionist and psych appts in September, and hopefully I'll be banded before Christmas. I investigated the bypass, but the surgery aspect scares me since I also have a tendency to develop keloids (raised, puffy scars) like a lot of African-Americans. I'm not up for such a drastic change to my anatomy, but the band I could definately do...I also believe that for me, the slow and steady weight loss will minimize my need for cosmetic surgery afterward (again with the keloids). You are definately an inspiration!

You stated that correctly Missouri- Lee Summit, put it writing if necessary ahead of time. Many on Team Sleeve, a little less,on Team Bypass with,it's 2-3 varieties, some Team ESG and very few now Team Lapband, make your choice, stand by your convictions and don't think,of "waffeling" as you go through the Oprating Room Door. As the song lyrics go " it's a little too late to do the right thing now!"😷✋😷

Has anyone had any dental issues since surgery? I know way back in the beginning of the bypass craze, dental issues were significant, but now that things have improved have the dental issues improved also? thanks!

Day I finally went to the emergency and they discovered that Lap Band I had put in my stomach on October 2010 has severely slipped. and I was way dehydrated since I couldn't drink more than a half a glass of Water a day before and couldn't get out the bed because of the weakness. It was also the day I reached my goal weight of 150lbs.... Now, completely unfilled waiting for my lap band to gastric sleeve revision. food... My roommate though something was not right when I came home with groceries one day. 6 IVs a day keep the dehydration away... It would be interesting to see nurses faces when they will be stapling 90% of my stomach off - I am so tiny now... but I love it. Now... The question part - should I just have it taken out or should I do revision to sleeve surgery at the same time since they can do it for free for me since it was a slip. Even though I am at my goal weight - they offered it. Well, I just feel like I am greedy. Surgery cost 27,000 and now even though it slipped, I finally reached my goal. But you know you never know - I am just afraid that some day I will be fat again and I will regret that I did not do sleeve when I had the chance. What would you recommend?

Really.........,even if its only 7 grams in ONE serving, due to the fact that its "whole foods 365 brand unsweetened organic craberry juice", meaning, the product contains the original original original sugars of the cranberry fruit itself, without the preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, or even the cane sugar, which all usually sweeten up its tart nature? I just want to be absolutely clear on that, because it's as if you are saying that I should never eat an orange or an apple. Especially when I am only talking about refined sugars/carbs here contained only in fruit, as opposed to white bread or white pasta. I understand with gastric bypass, the possible effects that come forth due to the dumping syndrome, however, despite the most important emphasis/priority placed on protein, you make it seem like fruit is not an important thing organic-juiced or raw food form? Please explain? Thanks, Gabriel

Before having children I weighed 135 pounds. I remember weighing 180 pounds on delivery day with my oldest daughter and I was horrified! After I had her my weight went down to 150, but I never really lost the extra baby weight. Well after my daughter, I went on to have 6 more children and none of them were twins. With each pregnancy I'd put on a little bit more weight and I'd never be able to lose those last few pounds. When my youngest son turned a year old in March 2007, that is when I seriously looked into getting weight loss surgery. He had been breastfed but now he was weaned, so I would be able to have this done without interfering with his breastfeeding. I had seen the commercial for the lapband and I got excited- this was MADE for me! I had dieted so many times in the past and the thing that always got me was my hunger. Gastric bypass had been around for years, but the thought of having my stomach cut and rearranged scared me to death.So I made an appointment with my Dr and got an appointment with the surgeon at the military hospital to see about having lapband surgery done. My appointment was in June 2007 and I almost cried when the I heard say the words "Tricare does not cover the lapband yet." My heart sank. I had finally taken the steps to start on this journey and it wasn't covered. He told me that gastric bypass was covered and that he hoped that lapband surgery would be covered in the next year. At this point I was so disgusted by my weight that I thought that maybe I could do the gastric bypass surgery and so I started on that journey. ~The Gastric Bypass Diet Class~ So, I was already at the point where I was ready to have my body cut in some shape or form so that I could finally lose the weight that I had gained over my childbearing years. Lapband was not covered yet, so I actually started the process of getting gastric bypass done. The class consisted of about 7 women, sitting at a table in a classroom setting and was taught by the dietitian. I knew I was not going to be able to eat the same foods anymore, but I had no idea that after you have gastric bypass done, that you will be fighting to get the nutrition you need. Sure, you lose the weight, but you can also lose your hair, become anemic, and you have to fight to eat enough protein every single day. And if you ever decide that you want to have something sweet, EVER again, you may have dumping syndrome. I walked out of the class and literally had to digest all of the information. "Non-reversible" stood out in my head. What if when I got older this was something that could seriousily affect my health in a negative way? The amount of vitamins that I had to put in my system was alarming. If gastric bypass went wrong, then this was a life long mistake that I would have to live with. At 37 yrs of age, that scared me enough to hold off. Fast forward to Feb 2008....Tricare APPROVES THE LAPBAND!!! :thumbup: I jumped on the phone and called my Dr for an appointment for a referral, and that is where my lapband journey really took off!

Well it was severe....I had gall stone pancreatitis with my lipase almost 6000. Fortunately it dropped very fast (passed the stone). Had my GB out yesterday and I'm now home recovering. Never planned on 2 surgergies in less then 8 weeks. My surgeon doesn't typically give Actigall to her lap band pts, but always to bypass and sleeve pts.

I had same thing. Only way to make that stop is to have the bypass bcus the dr told me the area of the stomach that makes the acid is in the lower area and it would have to be removed. I’m having my surgery tomorrow! I can’t wait. I couldnt live like that. It was getting increasingly worse and the long term results are worse. Good luck to you

@@JamieLogical Is totally correct. Now people with bypass, have malabsorption, which work the best early on. The further from surgery they get, their body adjusts and it lessens. The honeymoon people talk about is really the time when the tool is doing most of the work and you are forced into eating decent because you are healing and adjusting. It is really just the time you are healing and should be labeled as such. while people have this really strong support of their tool to keep them on track, they should establish good habits while they still have their safety net to catch them. I'm 9 months out. My experience has been the first 6 months I was still healing, so my portions were limited and my tolerance to foods was sensitive. At the 6 month mark, like my Dr told, I was fully healed and it was like a switch flipped with my sleeve. I could eat more, I could tolerate more. If I hadn't established healthy lifestyle habits that I liked and enjoyed, it would have been really easy to slip back into old habits. I think the biggest mistake people make during the healing phase is adding slider foods into their diet because they are easier to digest and you don't have to watch your portions to prevent feeling full (which is really not pleasant). If you add them in during the healing phase, when you are fulling healed, you will be able to binge on them at the same level as a person that hasn't been sleeved.

to to revise still having problems with this band, has the surgery to fix hole in tubing had a fill of 3 cc's that day went back this month and lo and behold had nothing in my band again, went for a port-o-gram and dye fill to check it and wouldnt you know it it is leaking again in same place, so its back again to have it fixed yet again

Hi everyone, I haven't been on here in sooooo very long but recently I found out that my band has slipped and i have to go back in to have it corrected on 1/28. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what to expect. My Dr says it's basically the same procedure all over again, same surgery minus the port scar, same diet but she couldn't tell me about continued weight loss. I'm just wondering if anyone has continued to loose after revision surgery. I was banded on 12/21/06 and at my best had lost 80lbs but have since gained back about 15 due to poor eating habits due to the slippage. Any insight as to what I could expect would be greatly appreciated. I am alittle apprehensive about this surgery but I know it needs to be done. Thanks in advance

Almost 2 years later, I am actually suing my surgeon for "double-dipping". I paid as a "self-pay" (ie 100%) then he billed a bunch of "medical" ( ah, cough-I call #&%$& - cough)to insurance and they actually paid him!! So, he got paid twice!! And, I had no unexpected or necessary procedures, nor did I have ANY complications. They get away with it because, as long as the patient is not asked to pay anything beyond their co-pay and what insurance pays (for those with bariatric coverage), they don't really care HOW the doctor bills it to get it paid...so, of course, they take both payments. Insurance can't help, because they can't tell the MD what codes to bill; Insurance Board doesn't care because they only regulate insurance; AMA doesn't care because no "malpractice" (as far as injury. My primary physician even said it was "illegal as hell" but not really surprised by it. Funny...both the hospital AND anesthesiology wrote off everything except the amount I paid up front...yet the surgeon didn't.....HHHHHMMMMMMM. The "average" self-pay price for a revision gastric bypass is about $23,000 in my region. I had two quotes, both right around that amount. My doc got closer to $35K...imagine that, on a quote/contract of $22K!!! I guess it's largely because they are rich and "powerful" (ie, can afford an attorney/staff, etc) and we can't...the rich get richer, huh???

I was wondering too. I have my consult next Friday (July 24th) and I'm going to ask him if he could take it out. There is nothing wrong with it, but I've heard soooo many people having a lot of issues after W.L.S. My uncle had the gastric bypass and told me to be sure to ask if it could be taken out because he had to undergo another surgery to remove his after his bypass. He said if you can prevent the horrible and agonizing pain, it is sooooo worth it.

I personally feel that there is a lot of misinformation being spread by well-meaning counselors, nurses, and even doctors. The gastric sleeve is a fairly new procedure in the grand scheme of things, and I think a lot of the "cautionary tales" people like to spread are actually referring to gastric banding or gastric bypass.

The Unjury website www.unjury.com sells Opurity vitamins. They have a bariatric multivitamin customized for gastric band patients. Would these vitamins be good for VSG too? I'm thinking they would since both procedures are restrictive with no intestinal bypass. Also has anyone tried these. I'm wondering what they taste like.

That's not really correct, you *can* get your Lap Band done through Australia's public system if you're willing to wait long enough and if you have a doctor that operates in the public system. Not many doctors do. To do so, you'd have to contact the hospital and see who they recommend, but just as a guide, the waiting list at The Alfred in Melbourne has been up to 7 years long at times. But cosmetic surgery is an entirely different matter, you'd have to convince a surgeon to give you an item number for the surgery and they're unlikely to because the need for a tummy tuck is not considered to be related to your health the way a Lap Band is. Its cosmetic, and you might get a portion covered (like about $100) but not much more. There's item numbers for things like breast reductions, but then you have to weigh up that the surgeon's taht do them are mostly private and will charge well and above the scheduled fee by thousands of dollars. To find someone to do it in the public system, you're going to again face a long waiting list. And even then, its not completely free, you get 85% of the scheduled fee back, so if your surgeon charges more, you're out of pocket. I would think that you'd almost always have to find a cosmetic surgeon in the private sector becuase of the nature of cosmetic surgery which means it will be done in a private hospital so if you have no private health insurance, you're up for well over $1000 a night for the bed as well. You just really cannot get cosmetic surgery done without private health insurance unless its some sort of urgent disfigurement or similar. When you weigh it up, waiting several years on a waiting list for your band and for any cosmetic surgery, having to pay for aftercare, etc why would you not just take out private health insurance, wait a year to qualify, have the surgery etc? It will cost you little more in the long run and you're not in strife if you need any revision surgery etc. And waiting the year, you'll probably get done a whole lot sooner.

You can't do it for her! She has to make the decision to eat healthy foods instead of stuffing herself on what we call "slider" food! Gastric bypass doesn't come with a guarantee and your friend may become a statistic but the sad fact is that you can't make her as successful as you've been. I could guess that perhaps she's intimidated by your success and/or her fear of failure but I don't know that for sure -- it's just a supposition. It sounds like she desperately needs therapy but I don't think she'd do it. She can stretch out that little stomach of hers and eat whatever the heck she wants. Obviously, she's one of those that doesn't experience dumping so she has pretty much nothing to slow her down.

My depression/anxiety was well controlled before my surgery and now it's back, so I can understand. I have the same thoughts you do about the future. My husband had gastric bypass 2 weeks before me and he is doing SO good and feeling great. My nurse told me this week that generally the sleeve is harder for the 1st 3 months than the bypass (and I originally wanted the bypass but my surgeon suggested sleeve). Would have been nice to know before surgery. I have hopes that it will get better- not feeling yourself mentally or physically can be miserable. Sent from my SM-G900V using the BariatricPal App I totally agree Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

The reactions of the veterans around here show that "rejection" of a band at 2 weeks is VERY uncommon. So much so that we've never heard of it before. We've all seen bands removed for one reason or another after some time has gone by. We've also seen some of those people get re-banded. The ones that have been re-banded had their bands removed mostly due to a bad slip that could not be corrected through conservative treatments. If it were me, self-pay or not, if my surgeon said I'd rejected the band, but we can try again in a few months--I'd want MUCH more information on just what he meant by 'rejected' and why he thinks it occurred. After what the OP went through, I'd want to be pretty sure that my body would not reject again. I do realize that there are no guarantees, but that is a lot of surgery to be put through. Thinking it over, if I had even possibly rejected one band (I realize it isn't certain what happened) I'd look at bypass or sleeve which don't require insertion of a medical device. Also, keep the possible rejection in mind for future surgeries, such as knee/hip replacements or heart valves and the like. I hope you are feeling better!!

Insurance is a puzzle. I knew that my insurance covers WLS and I met all the criteria, but we had a few extra hoops to jump through to get approval for a revision. That extra hoop was easy once I was diagnosed with a slip. Basically, if you had a "failure" of the previous surgery like a slippage it didn't matter your BMI or co-morbidities. Even so, they wanted my NUt and psych assessment to approve the band removal... I think they got wires crossed because that makes no sense. The insurance person said, oh we needed it anyway for the sleeve procedure approval. Anyway, my doc was alarmed by my slip too because even though all Fluid is out he said the band was too tight and it had slipped alot. It is strange because I feel basically no restriction. He too warned me that I could suddenly be totally blocked and require emergency surgery. Tomorrow, I have my EKG which is the last step before the removal - I somehow missed that I needed to do that. Only after the EKG is done will they schedule the removal. Ask your doctor how often the "repositioning" actually works or if it is likely to slip again.

I had my first appointment with my new surgeon today. Since it had been two and a half years since I'd seen my original one, he did a fluoroscopy on me. We saw that my band was extremely tight and that my pouch was extremely dilated/stretched. The tight band was news to me, since I hadn't felt much restriction in a long time and could eat close to a full meal. The band was so tight that we couldn't see the barium emptying out of the pouch at all. He said that my opening between pouches was probably about the size of a pencil eraser, and that he was amazed that I'd lived with it for as long as I did. He did an immediate complete unfill, since he said that it was pretty dangerous. He said that eventually it would migrate and close off my stomach entirely and I'd have to have emergency surgery to remove it. He gave me three options, all of which are surgery. Remove the band and leave my stomach alone, go in and reposition the band, or do a revision to a sleeve. Right now, I don't meet the BMI requirements for revision, but he thinks we may be able to make an argument that it's a medically necessary surgery anyway. Ideally, we'll revise, if that isn't possible, I'd rather have the band repositioned than removed. I admit that I was kind of hoping to have something wrong with the band in order to justify revising to a sleeve, but actually KNOWING that something is wrong bothers me more than I thought it would. I almost started crying at the surgeon's office. Now it's time to hurry up an wait while we get everything together and submitted to insurance. It's going to be at least a week until anything gets done, since the insurance coordinator is on vacation this week.

My surgery is Tuesday so I can't add my own two cents but I was wondering, Myturn12, since you are self-pay (as am I), did you have to pay for the revision surgery and will you have to pay again for the next lapband surgery? I hope you don't mind me asking, I'm just curious about selfpayer's experiences. Thanks, and I hope everything works out for you!

Hi Trish, Gosh, I don't know how to respond. I don't want to call your feelings silly or anything but honestly I weighed even more than you when I got my band and haven't regretted it for anything. I would have NEVER considered the by-pass of any kind. I am 30 and still want to have kids myself. I also get on obesityhelp.com but ussually stick to the Oregon group and nobody has ever said anything negative about the band on that group. I think a pregnancy with the band would be much safer than the bypass anyway. By-pass people have massive Vitamin deficiency's, they have large parts of their hacked off organs stuck inside them, etc. I have a local banded friend who is 7 months pregnant and she is doing wonderfully. Hasn't gained a pound at all. I am sorry you are having regrets. One thing to consider is the by-pass people only have a certain window of opportunity to lose weight. Once that is past, if they haven't lost all their weight they probably never will. I have also know many by-pass people who have gained all their weight back. The band has an infinite window of opportunity and hopefully will always be there to help us. You don't think we all get frustrated sometimes? I had a plateau from thanksgiving to new years... I was totally frustrated and bummed when I went to all the trouble to go weigh in every week and see the same damn numbers. I just tried to not let the plateau overwelm me. We go thru those naturally anyway but I also wanted to eat some of the holiday treats. I felt blessed I had stayed the same in the end. Anyway, I definitely feel for you and hope you can change your mindset. The band does work. Best wishes, Teresa