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Original VSG WLS 11/7/2017 (revised to RNY 2019) Height 5’3”-5’4” starting BMI 43-44 current BMI 25-26 Measurements July 2017 (before WLS) Hips 51 Thighs 31 Lower abdomen 53 Mid abdomen 49 Under bust 43 Full bust 50 Over bust 46 Arm 16 Measurements Jan 2021 (before plastics) Hips 43 Thighs 25 Lower abdomen 38 Mid abdomen 34 Under bust 31 Full bust 38 Over bust 36 Arm 11 At this point I barely remember what life was like preop unless I look at photos. However, I vividly remember immediately post op. The constant monitoring of every aspect of life to make sure I got it all right. Not going to lie, I don’t miss that- it could be exhausting at times (but ultimately worth it!). I have relaxed into a routine that works really well for me and nothing feels restrictive. I’m very happy I chose this path.❤️

I am 7 weeks out of revision. Things are getting better each day. It took 5.5 weeks before the pain went away. Additionally, I have stalled and lost over these weeks. However, I am at my lowest weight in 8 years. No GERD and no current regrets. I am 53 years old. Sent from my SM-G996U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

Two major ones for me stand out… First - I was on an insulin pump because my diabetes was so bad (was 274 lb at the time) Second - I went to ride a rollercoaster with my kid and a couple of his friends, could not fit in the over the shoulder to buckle the belt. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life. I can say the guy was a bigger guy and was trying to make it better by saying “oh it happens all the time, these seats are weird” but it was mortifying. And I told myself I wasn’t doing that ever again. Sleeved in 2020, about to have a revision for severe acid reflux and I’ve never looked back.

I’ll hop on the bandwagon! I am having a revision from a sleeve to a bypass on 11/28 for severe GERD. I also have a stupid hernia now too which will get repaired while they are in there. I can’t wait for some relief of pain. Hoping anyone who had surgery today or so far this month, is doing well so far! Even with my issues, I don’t regret having my sleeve! It truly changed everything for me.

Thank you so much!!! I'm still in shock about it all. I knew what I wanted, but actually getting there...well, you guys know how hard it is for us to really believe we can do this. Living the life I always wanted still seems like a dream to me. Now here I am. All the complications, surgeries, pain, the revision.... all of it led me right here, and I don't regret a single second of it.

So I had to go to visit my surgeon the other day for my 2 year after revision check up. He was happy with my continued results. And then ... I had the urge for a Potbelly sub. I know, I know lol. I ordered a Bacon lettuce tomatoes avocado sandwich, and it is was so good. I rarely eat out these days. Once a month at best. I used to eat out every day but times have changed. I ate half for lunch and then ate the other half the next day. Total calories for half of an original is 335 calories as per their menu. I want to go back. Oh goodness....

My surgeon recommended starting with the sleeve, and then at a later date it can be revised (if needed). If you start bypass then the sleeve would do no good.

It was 100% worth it for me. Easier recovery for me as well. I feel normal, normal as in pre any WLS but with the added benefits of smaller meals. Hard to explain. No side effects except the common constipation which is easy to treat daily with a tsp of miralax in my coffee. Severe gerd was hell to live with day in day out, night in night out, year in year out. I finally got tired of acid coming up through my nose when I was finally asleep. In the end, no ppi helped no matter what I took. I was told right away not to expect much weight loss. "Perhaps 40 lbs" . If your previous WLS was done properly, the weight loss will usually be much slower after a revision. I did it for the relief of the gerd. I really had no choice.

BTW this is what BSBCNC said to me. They just seem like they auto deny and don't even check records as we have been so compliant and have plenty of evidence. It sucks because I don't even live in NC - I only have this because I work remoltely for a company in NC and live in CA.. We are gearing up for the peer 2 peer now but here is what was said: Revision of a primary bariatric surgery to a gastric bypass is covered when you meet one of the following scenarios: (1) You have regained weight after your original surgery. In this case, you must continue to meet basic criteria for weight loss surgery, including nutritional and psychological assessments, and you must have documentation of compliance visits (including compliance with nutrition and exercise recommendations) after your previous weight loss surgery (2) You have severe reflux disease that has not been responsive to optimal medical management (maximum medication therapy, diet alteration with the assistance with a nutritionist, and change in activity and positioning). Failure of medical management must be documented, and studies to support persistent untreatable reflux must be submitted. Review of your provided records reveals that you have regained weight after your previous surgery; however, we have not been provided with compliance records from your prior post-surgical visits. Additionally, it does not appear you have undergone optimal medical management for your reflux or that studies show severe signs of reflux.

Just talk to your doctor at the next appointment and let them know you would prefer to do a bypass, the doctor will let you know if they think you are a good candidate for it, and then it should be no problem, even for the insurance. I am getting the roux-en-Y bypass for those same reasons you stated and because I want to lessen my chance of revision, one and done with surgery is what I said to the doc and he said I get it.

I got it in the first 6 months and stayed that way through years. Then a little more than 2 years ago, I had a revision for gerd and it somewhat corrected it. My doctor said it may be my hormone levels changing. For example, estrogen is stored in fat. I'm still colder than I was before I had any WLS though but I don't have that achy to the bone freezing feeling as much anymore.

I was sleeved 14 years ago and then got a revision 4 months ago. With my sleeve, I would get the foamies (hyper-salivation), my forehead would sweat, or my nose would start running (or all 3). Now, with with my bypass, if I forget I had a surgery and try to eat like a regular person, I get nauseous, my stomach makes SUPER LOUD noises, I'll feel pain, and sometimes have to run to the bathroom (dumping syndrome). A lot of people think this happens when you eat the "wrong" foods (super sugary, super greasy), and they're right. BUT, it ALSO happens if you eat too much, or even just too fast. You could be eating a super healthy, super small amount of food, but if you eat it too fast and don't chew it down to mush (like people at work who have really short lunch breaks), you'll still experience these things. As time goes by, we start to forget to take our time to eat, to really chew our foods to a paste before swallowing, or to wait a while after eating to drink something. The longer it's been, the more we forget. Sometimes, we need to reset our eating habits back to taking a full 30 minutes to eat, to eat healthy foods again, to over-chew our food, and to wait at least 30 minutes to start back on fluids.

For me I think I should’ve gotten a bypass in the first place but my pcp said I was so young and the sleeve was good so I just went along with it. At first I had no intention to get a revision even though I had gained almost all the weight back but I’m glad I did and I have no regrets.

That is really good to know. My particular situation is I had a baby eariler this year and gained 80lbs from pregnany. I"m 6months post partum and still breastfeeding so that makes me super nervous but docs say I should get the revision.

Wow that’s amazing progress! I’m so thankful you responded back to me! Sounds like you’re having a happy ending. Any advice on the revision? Anything you would change or prepare for? What would you tell yourself before the surgery?

Congrats!! I'm so happy for you! how has your journey been with revision?

I had a band. Wish I never had. They are only temporary, have to be replaced in 10 years. Mine caused permanent stomach and liver damage. Ended up having to revise to RNY. Good luck.

So frustrating. It's less than 4 months since your revision though - this could be a long stall as opposed to the end of your losses. I hope you start losing again soon. You've done so well, you're an inspiration.

I have not (being over here on the "left coast" but he would be high on my list of docs to talk to if I were on the East Coast - his reputation extends this far. His name comes up positively on occasion in our support group of largely DS folks, as he has frequently given talks at the ASMBS conferences on related topics, and I've seen other positive responses online over the years. I like the way he thinks, from what I have seen that he has written. He is also one of the few capable of tackling the complex RNY to DS revision when that is necessary, so he knows his way around a sleeve.

Congratulations! You got this!! Good luck on your 2nd Bariatric journey! I'm in the same boat. I had my sleeve to RNY revision with a hiatal hernia repair on 9/11/23.

Congratulations! You got this!! Good luck on your 2nd Bariatric journey! I'm in the same boat. I had my sleeve to RNY revision with a hiatal hernia repair on 9/11/23.

I posted this on another thread about revision, but I had a hiatal hernia and bad GERD so it applies for this thread too. I want to preface that this is about to be a long message, but it's my journey. Thanks for reading. My 1st Bariatric journey started in 2009 (I was 26 years old). My heaviest weight was 250 lbs. I did a month liquid diet as my preop diet and got down to my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I had a sleeve done in Sep 1, 2009. I got down to around 175 lbs from my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I got down to a size 12. I did regain some weight years later, but that was my doing (not eating the best, not exercising as I should). In addition to gaining some weight back, i developed a 5/6cm hiatal hernia and had really bad heartburn and reflux. I started taking Nexium for years. Finally 14 years later (now 40 years old) in April of 2023 I decided to ask a doctor about taking daily Nexium (after hearing constantly from family that it wasn't good). My surgeon gave me 3 options. 1. Continue taking Nexium daily 2. Fix my hiatal hernia (but he did warn me that hiatal hernias are known to come back) 3. Fix my hiatal hernia and do a revision from Sleeve to RNY. Before any of that to make an informed decision I had to get an upper GI with contrast and an endoscopy with a Bravo study. I had the endoscopy done and the Bravo capsule placed on my esophagus. After the 1st endoscopy my GI doctor said she didn't even need to see the results of the Bravo study...seeing my esophagus alone was enough to see how inflamed my esophagus was and she confirmed the bigger sized hernia. Either way, the Bravo capsule was placed in and I did the 3 day study. The results came back and like my GI doc said...it was bad. The acidity in my stomach and esophagus was ridiculous. I use to take generic Nexium 20mg but my GI doc said that wasnt enough for how bad my esophagus was. I was told to bump it up to 40mg 2x a day. So I did that and it helped to heal the massive amount of inflammation I already had in my esophagus. To confirm that I had a 2nd endoscopy done. The Bravo study, the upper GI scans, the endoscopy was all completed so that I could make an informed decision on how I wanted to proceed. Which of the 3 options discussed did I want to proceed with. I decided option 3 was best (revision from Sleeve to RNY with a hiatal hernia repair). For me my insurance approved the procedure and it was fairly a quick process because I went the general surgical route vs the Bariatric route. I could have had the revision in July but I had a cruise planned in August and I wanted to be able to drink and eat and ENJOY my vacation so I opted to wait and had the revision 2 weeks after I came back from my cruise on September 11th. I was 215 the 1st day of my preop diet. I got down to 206 but then mother nature decided to show up the week of my surgery so as women we gain water weight during our cycle and the day of surgery i weighed in at 209. I was so pissed. I knew it was water weight because of my cycle but still nobody wants to see the number on the scale go up. Surgery went well. I had no complications. My recovery was A LOT smoother. I had BAAAAAD nausea and gas pains after my sleeve becauseof the anesthesia. With the RNY I had 0% nausea. I had a little bit of shoulder pain because of the gas and I did have another pain when I inhaled big because of the hernia repair, but it was all normal and pains of that nature were expected. I was just sooooo glad that I didn't wake up extremely nauseous after the RNY like I did after my sleeve. So now I'm 31 days post op. I've been at 195 since like September 26th. I hope that I've HOPEFULLY lost at least 1 pound now since I've been stalled at the same weight for 2 weeks. Btw I'm 5'4 for reference. My size 14 clothes button again and my 16s are getting a little loose on me now. I'm not swimming in my clothes or nothing but it's a small progress. I was wearing XL shirts and now Large shirts fit me a lot better. I feel less like a sausage in them lol! Oh and tonight I tried on this bra that I know for a fact a couple of weeks ago could not button or even come close and today it fit. So now a 38D will fit. Great non scale victory! I can tolerate all food and as long as I don't take huge bites and I chew my food well and eat slow, I'm good. Otherwise I've already had my 1st reminder of what it feels like to throw up because your food feels stuck. I had that happen after the sleeve sometimes too and it sucks, but it's a process learning how to eat again and reminding myself that I can't inhale my food. I am taking a daily vitamin with iron and then 3 calcium citrate chewable daily. My doctor also still wants me to take 1 Omeprozole daily for 6 months post op to give my esophagus and hernia repair time to truly heal. 1 month down....5 months to go. Then I'll be able to see if I don't have any GERD or heartburn without any medication. The weight loss is a perk and I definitely want to lose more weight and get down to 150 or at least my best sleeve weight of 175, but I always have to remind myself that my goal of this entire revision surgery was to not deal with heartburn and reflux anymore. So yeah...thats my revision story so far. Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer.

Hello there! I want to preface that this is about to be a long message, but it's my journey. Thanks for reading. My 1st Bariatric journey started in 2009 (I was 26 years old). My heaviest weight was 250 lbs. I did a month liquid diet as my preop diet and got down to my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I had a sleeve done in Sep 1, 2009. I got down to around 175 lbs from my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I got down to a size 12. I did regain some weight years later, but that was my doing (not eating the best, not exercising as I should). In addition to gaining some weight back, i developed a 5/6cm hiatal hernia and had really bad heartburn and reflux. I started taking Nexium for years. Finally 14 years later (now 40 years old) in April of 2023 I decided to ask a doctor about taking daily Nexium (after hearing constantly from family that it wasn't good). My surgeon gave me 3 options. 1. Continue taking Nexium daily 2. Fix my hiatal hernia (but he did warn me that hiatal hernias are known to come back) 3. Fix my hiatal hernia and do a revision from Sleeve to RNY. Before any of that to make an informed decision I had to get an upper GI with contrast and an endoscopy with a Bravo study. I had the endoscopy done and the Bravo capsule placed on my esophagus. After the 1st endoscopy my GI doctor said she didn't even need to see the results of the Bravo study...seeing my esophagus alone was enough to see how inflamed my esophagus was and she confirmed the bigger sized hernia. Either way, the Bravo capsule was placed in and I did the 3 day study. The results came back and like my GI doc said...it was bad. The acidity in my stomach and esophagus was ridiculous. I use to take generic Nexium 20mg but my GI doc said that wasnt enough for how bad my esophagus was. I was told to bump it up to 40mg 2x a day. So I did that and it helped to heal the massive amount of inflammation I already had in my esophagus. To confirm that I had a 2nd endoscopy done. The Bravo study, the upper GI scans, the endoscopy was all completed so that I could make an informed decision on how I wanted to proceed. Which of the 3 options discussed did I want to proceed with. I decided option 3 was best (revision from Sleeve to RNY with a hiatal hernia repair). For me my insurance approved the procedure and it was fairly a quick process because I went the general surgical route vs the Bariatric route. I could have had the revision in July but I had a cruise planned in August and I wanted to be able to drink and eat and ENJOY my vacation so I opted to wait and had the revision 2 weeks after I came back from my cruise on September 11th. I was 215 the 1st day of my preop diet. I got down to 206 but then mother nature decided to show up the week of my surgery so as women we gain water weight during our cycle and the day of surgery i weighed in at 209. I was so pissed. I knew it was water weight because of my cycle but still nobody wants to see the number on the scale go up. Surgery went well. I had no complications. My recovery was A LOT smoother. I had BAAAAAD nausea and gas pains after my sleeve becauseof the anesthesia. With the RNY I had 0% nausea. I had a little bit of shoulder pain because of the gas and I did have another pain when I inhaled big because of the hernia repair, but it was all normal and pains of that nature were expected. I was just sooooo glad that I didn't wake up extremely nauseous after the RNY like I did after my sleeve. So now I'm 31 days post op. I've been at 195 since like September 26th. I hope that I've HOPEFULLY lost at least 1 pound now since I've been stalled at the same weight for 2 weeks. Btw I'm 5'4 for reference. My size 14 clothes button again and my 16s are getting a little loose on me now. I'm not swimming in my clothes or nothing but it's a small progress. I was wearing XL shirts and now Large shirts fit me a lot better. I feel less like a sausage in them lol! Oh and tonight I tried on this bra that I know for a fact a couple of weeks ago could not button or even come close and today it fit. So now a 38D will fit. Great non scale victory! I can tolerate all food and as long as I don't take huge bites and I chew my food well and eat slow, I'm good. Otherwise I've already had my 1st reminder of what it feels like to throw up because your food feels stuck. I had that happen after the sleeve sometimes too and it sucks, but it's a process learning how to eat again and reminding myself that I can't inhale my food. I am taking a daily vitamin with iron and then 3 calcium citrate chewable daily. My doctor also still wants me to take 1 Omeprozole daily for 6 months post op to give my esophagus and hernia repair time to truly heal. 1 month down....5 months to go. Then I'll be able to see if I don't have any GERD or heartburn without any medication. The weight loss is a perk and I definitely want to lose more weight and get down to 150 or at least my best sleeve weight of 175, but I always have to remind myself that my goal of this entire revision surgery was to not deal with heartburn and reflux anymore. So yeah...thats my revision story so far. Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer.

Congrats on getting answers and having the problem fixed. I can tell you that I had SO SO many complications that led to a revision. Once there's answers, that's truly half the battle. I had 6 surgeries in 6 months to correct everything, but now I'm 3 1/2 months out from my revision and feel fantastic. I'm happy you're on the other side of everything now. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing for you from here on out!!

Hey, y'all, it's been a while. Back in May, one month before I had my revision from sleeve to bypass, I began using the Premier Protein shakes for my pre-op diet and taking bariatric vitamins (including a multivitamin, calcium, iron, and biotin). It started with a tiny, itchy hive on one side of my neck about the size of my thumbnail. It would go away, though, and I'd forget all about it. As the days went by, I would begin to get the itchies again. I noticed I'd get the hives on the other side of my neck now too. At this point, it looks like a ring around my neck. I read about the Premier Protein shakes being recalled, but that was a while ago. I spoke to my sister who's been an RN for 40+ years, and she thinks it's more likely to be the biotin rather than the shakes. I stopped taking both 2 days ago. The itchies have stopped, but I'm left with textured skin where the hives were. It almost looks like a healing burn. It's weird. I know I need to see a dermatologist about it, I just have to find one that will see me after work. I can't miss any more work. I'm wondering if any of you have had a similar situation with allergic reactions to either shakes or vitamins. I'd appreciate any information or knowledge that you have. TIA.