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Yes, it worked initially, I'm 3 1/2 years out and got down to 142 and stayed there until about a year ago. It was amazing!! I've since gained back almost 35 pounds and having terrible GERD. I have a history of esophageal strictures with dilations, and the sleeve has made it much worse. I got approved for the mini bypass as few days ago. BMI of 29 with comorbidities.

Hi! Am joining to share with others like me. Had lap band dec 2011- had oesophageal dilatation band was opened from oct 2013 till my new surgery on July 31 2014; roux en y bypass . Am learning to live with new surgery. Found to be loosing hair now a little worried and still learning how to eat. Tonight had pistachios and had bad cramps and bloating . Not sure if blockage am waiting to see how it goes, am having hot water to help things go down... A little worried and new at this... Anyone with suggestions or just comforting words?

I am new here as well and I am considering revising to the bypass from having the sleeve last year in May. I have vertigo and very much confined to my bed accept for when I am working, which is quite difficult. However, I have been stalled for quite some time and have picked back up 30 of the pounds I lost. I started at 326 and the scales 279 now, I am seriously considering the bypass. Some days I can eat more than I should and other days I don't eat nothing.I do a lot of bored snacking sine I work from home. I wold love to follow your journey and perhaps be each others support.

The biggest issue I seen with band in the office I go to is, if you don't use it as the tool it is, you won't lose the weight or can gain back. You still have to be responsible and have more choices. You need to be able to make the right ones. Saw a few patient that came back for gastric bypass because their band " didn't work". When I asked them about it as I was still preop and making up my mind. They said it didn't stop them from cheating. They could eat ice cream and candy and weren't losing weight. You need to be able and willing to eat right and try to beat the band. The band works if you use it right. Good luck again.

I was originally scheduled for Gastric Bypass and canceled. I simply could not justify rerouting my intestines and cutting up my stomach without trying something less drastic first. I also didn't want to deal with malabsorption and "dumping" forever, either. The Lap Band is reversible and doesn't change my digestive system, so I decided to get the band.

I guess I'm confused at your story -- you said you've already had gastric bypass? I thought that was the most radical of surgeries. Or, perhaps I'm missing something and those more experienced will have a better idea of what you are referring to. WELCOME to VST regardless.

Well, I can tell you from my experience that the letter of medical necessity came from the surgeon doing the lap band. The medical clearance comes from your general practicioner. (cause the lap band doc, if he is a specialist only deals in your weight and co-morbidities, but your GP knows your history so they will be able to tell if the surgery is safe for you. I had one visit with the nutritionist and still have to attend another one called "Boot Camp" then I can have the surgery )each visit is $250...ugh....then I had to agree to 12 more visits.....mandatory...otherwise I will not get my receipts and then I can't submit them to insurance. My doc is huge on this because the Lap Band is only a tool....it doesn't curb your appetite, doesn't keep you from craving, so he wants to make completely sure this lap band is gonna work.....my sis only had a quicky meeting with the nutritionist and she gained some of her weight back (gastric bypass) On the upside the nutritional Evaul is great! When I left, I was thinking if I get denyied, I will continue with the nutritionist cause I think i can lose the weight just with them!!!! --I too am waiting to hear--just gotta get my apnea machine and i can schedule. Yay. Oh and I was wondering, why didn't they tell you about these test up front?? My doc told me on the first day....do this, do that...gave me a packet and told me to get it all finished and then we schedule. To maybe set you at ease, I was just looking at my doctor's website and I stumbled upon all his patients who posted feedback...it gave their date of approval and I would say 98% of them were Blue Cross Blue Shield....not one of them had my insurance...talk about nail biting! Good Luck and let me know how it goes!!!!!

Hello my name is Robin I'm 43 years old (44 on Saturday) i live in eastern Pennsylvania. I'm currently halfway through my required six month program prior to gastric bypass surgery. I chose Dr Richard Boorse to do my surgery. I'm hoping this is my last birthday at this weight. I'm thankful to have stumbled on this app and hope I'm able to freely speak of what I'm going thru prior and post surgery.

Did they not do endoscopy or barium swallow first? I find that odd that you would go in for exploratory surgery and come out with a bypass.

Well I was suppose to be sleeved aug 19th. As I was lying there waiting to go for surgery, the surgeon, tells me he thinks I should not have the vertical sleeve done because of my servere hiatal hernia repair I had done last year. He suggests a Rny bypass . I was so lnto the sleeve being done, ive done my homework on this sight and I really thought the sleeve was the way I should go. But I guess he knows best but now I have to have that new procedure re submitted to my insurance company which took 2 mos before..ugh so discouraged.

Hi! I had a rather large umbilical hernia repaired at the same time of my bypass on Aug 15. My surgeon did say that I would be at a greater risk of a hernia in the future but that I should still be able to exercise. My program requires follow up appointments every 3 months including with a physical therapist. He had me start with just walking post op. I progressed to adding weight machines for stability with a low weight after a couple of weeks. About 3 months post op I moved on to free weights and now at 6 months I continue to be able to increase the weight I use during my strength training. I check in with my body a lot to make sure I'm not getting any tingling or burning sensations around my belly button (first indicator things are having too much tension) and I always wear a weight belt. He did tell me that it would probably be smart to stay away from jerk & cleans and other rapid heavy-weight moves. But there's very little overall that I have to stay away from. I would highly recommend going slowly with increasing weight. The other thing is that it was 3 months before I was able to do any ab-focused exercises. It was really uncomfortable.

Thank you so much [emoji4] I have Gastric Bypass on March 2016

I had Gastric Bypass March 2016.

Hi, VSG friends!! I know this question has been asked a million times but every one of us has different circumstances! So, here I go, and I apologize for this being kinda long to begin with! My name is Dana and I've been married 12 years to my wonderful hubby! We have 2 gorgeous girls (ages 9 & 6) who I homeschool! We've been trying to have one more baby over the last 5 years, but have been unsuccesful. I have PCOS and have been on fertility meds off and on and every time I take the meds, I gain 10 lbs. So, I started out 5 years ago weighing about 225 lbs and I now weigh 288 lbs. We've decided to leave the fertility drugs alone forever, choosing VSG instead and if we have another baby when I get healthy, we'll be overjoyed.....if I don't get pg, we'll count our blessings and move on! I had a friend ask me the other day if we were still trying to get pg. I paused before I answered her because I just didn't want to tell her about WLS!! So, I told her we weren't trying anymore, but I was going to see a dietician in January (not a lie, I am to meet my pre-op requirements!) and see if I can get some help losing weight. Ok, I don't mind telling people I'm having WLS AFTER I've already had it. It's the before part! My hubby is chairman of our church's deacon body and although our church is loving and supportive, I will be the FIRST person to have VSG or gastric bypass in our whole church, not to mention as a person who holds several leadership positions. I'm not at all sure of what reaction I'm going to get. I KNOW a few people would try to talk me out of it and tell me I just need to pray for more self-control....just a few, but I'd really rather avoid any negativity altogether! Do you agree?? If you were me, would you wait until after to tell? The other issue I have is when to tell our parents. With my in-laws, I'm not worried about them being unsupportive necessarily. They won't be thrilled, but I don't think they'd discourage me. It's more that my MIL worries and when she worries she gets horrible migraines! With my parents, it's a bit stickier. I don't have a good relationship with my parents right now. My mom tried to committ suicide for the second time a year ago and it was then that I finally realized that we've had a co-dependent relationship my whole life. I started setting healthy boundaries, my parents didn't like it, so we only see them on holidays/birthdays now. Their choice, not mine, but I decided a year ago that I would be healthy mentally and this year decided that my body needed to reflect the new health on my insides!! Anyway, what would you do? I was thinking about calling and telling both sets of parents the night before my surgery. I think they'd all be upset if we told them after the fact!! I'm having my sleep study done on January 5th, my diet consult and psych eval on January 12th, then we submit everything to my insurance company and I should have a surgery date in February! I'm so excited and feel so blessed that I have a hubby that is so incredibly supportive. I can't hardly wait to start my new life!!! Thank you to those of you who made it through all that!!

I had over a year leading up to my band removal that I used to research both options. I lurked on these boards and read as many posts as I could on both surgeries: what complications people were having, weight loss, nutritional needs, etc... For me, it was just tossup too. I ended up with Sleeve because I felt that the Bypass had bigger issues with malnutrition, due to the malabsorption aspect. Some actually choose the Bypass because of the malabsorption, because it leads to faster loss. It really boils down to personal choice and/or your doctors preference for you.

I'm in MD... I'm having my surgery at Virginia Hospital Center. This Dr did my lap band 7 years ago. I'm revising to a sleeve on 10/6. Band was removed in July. Sent from my SM-G925P using the BariatricPal App

My starting weight was 283 lbs. I have done all of the fad diets over the years including multiple attempts at Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Slim Fast, just to name a few. The most I ever lost on any diet was about 70 lbs and I gained it all back(and then some). I had reached a point where my health was really beginning to suffer as a direct result of my obesity. I had hypertension, heart palpitations, type 2 diabetes, and was on multiple medications. I decided to look into WLS in January 2013. The only 2 surgeries I was willing to consider were lap-band and gastric sleeve. I ultimately decided on lap-band because it is less invasive, reversible, and can be revised to the sleeve, if needed, at a later date. The reverse is not true. I was also very uncomfortable with having part of my stomach removed, concerned with leaks, and other post-op complications that can happen with the sleeve. I was banded on December 20, 2013, so less than a year ago. My current weight is 148 lbs. I have lost a total of 135 lbs. I have gone from a size 24 to a size 6 in pants and dresses, and from a size 3x-4x down to a size small in tops. The best part is that I am off all my cardiac, blood pressure, and diabetes medications. The only meds I take now are synthroid because I have hypothyroidism(and even that is only 1/3 the dose I was on before), zyrtec for seasonal allergies, a multivitamin, and calcium supplement. This was absolutely THE best decision I ever made and I would do it all over again! The only regret that I have is that I didn't do it sooner! Best of luck to you in whatever you decide to do!

I'm going to be discussing with him the right surgery for me. I weigh in the 350 range and I'm really thinking about gastric bypass. It's going to be at least 6 months because of my insurance but I think the nutrition classes will do me some good. I hope everything goes well. I've NEVER been skinny. I've been down in the mid-200s but never lower as an adult. I'm already picking out clothes and it's going to be another 2 years before I am anywhere near my goal! Also, for the guys who are starting/started around my weight, what did you pick for your goal weight.

Each surgeon is different as is each patient. With my sleeve I was in patient overnight and got a dose of heparin before surgery and another the next day. I didn’t go home on blood thinners. Walking really helps with preventing blood clots so make sure you move but don’t overdo it either. If you have any questions you can always call your surgeon. Make sure you have a ride home though; they won’t let you drive yourself post-op. That said, sleeve surgery only takes about 90 minutes to complete so most of your stay will be waiting pre-op and in post-op recovery. Your fears about Covid aren’t without merit. Surgery does affect the immune system for a short while after. If you can avoid crowds and any excessive trips outside your home, I’d do that. Recovering during a pandemic is scary! I’ve been there. I had revision surgery due to GERD in August and I stayed home as much as possible. It made me feel safer and I was less nervous about catching Covid that way.

I can give you all my statistics and tell you about all my gains and losses and why "I" chose the band, but those things are not what is really going to help you. Everyone can find success and failure with any WLS modality. For that matter people can find success with Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig or Medicinal intervention. For most of us our reasons for choosing Weight Loss Surgery was because we have exhausted all other other attempts to lose our weight, keep it off, get and stay at a healthy weight. I can't tell you that your diabetes will go away because it may not. I can't tell you that you won't have high blood pressure because you may lose all your weight and still be hypertensive. I can't tell you that you won't get cancer, but I can tell you that losing weight will greatly reduce the statistics that these things will kill you. The reason to choose one WLS over another is YOU and your medical team. You can have a Gastirc bypass lose all your weight only to gain it back 3 years later, the same can be said for the sleeve or the band. You are the key here friend. YOU and only you can make this choice for yourself. What do YOU feel would be the most successful surgery for you? What do the doctors who have been taking care of you think? Do they agree with what you think? If not why not? These are some key questions to ask. After doing exhausting research on the modalities of WLS, finding out the pro's and con's of each surgery, and let me tell you that the worst "con's" against any surgery are almost always people's negative experiences amplified and not so much "fact". For me I need the facts, and no matter which one you choose or how you spin it the worst is always death, and/or major complications. This would be true of any surgery, for any reason. While some think this is an "elective" surgery for me that is not how I view it. For me it was a life saving surgery as much as if I needed open heart surgery and that's the idea I went into this with. I chose the band based on my research and personal experiences meeting others who have had other surgeries, witnessing their experiences and knowing myself well enough to know what it would take for me to be compliant with all of these types of surgery. I chose the band, because at this point in my life I am not ready to re-wire my entire digestive system. I do not want to have part of my stomach removed if it does not need to be. I knew I could and would be compliant with the band surgery and make it work for me and I loved the fact that I could alter it to fit my life and my life style. I can add Fluid and remove fluid. I have done so when I have gotten sick and then put more in when I was well. My husband who is also banded was able to loosen the band and take fluid out so that he could recover from hip replacement surgery smoothly, and then was able to put the fluid back in once he was off the medications he needed to take. Most of all when you hear all the good the bad and the ugly, take the time to work out and understand the mechanics of all the surgery options. Read all you can and I always advocate @Alex Brecher books! Decide what is best for YOU with the guidance of your doctors and medical team. I wish you all the best on your journey!

Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy... it's the first part of a Duodenal Switch operation. Basically, they shape your stomach around a thin tube, called a bougie. They staple it off into a banana shape... leaving the pyloric sphincter in tact, so no dumping. It's restrictive only... no malapsborption. Has only been done as a stand alone for about 4 years... but results seem to be as good or better than the Band. No fills... no PBing. It's becoming very popular both as a primary operation as well as a revision for Bandsters. You can find a bunch of Bandsters talking about it on the Obesity Help VSG forum... also there's a post by an ex-Bandster in the Band Removed thread. I think his name is Andrew? Laparoscopic Associates - Weight-Loss Surgery San Francisco, Bariatric Surgery is one group of doctors that do a lot of them I really really don't want surgery again... but if I can't get my Band to work, I'll have to. When I first had surgery, I had no kids... was single. Now I have three little people under four that need me. Totally changes the risk profile, KWIM?

I did not even consider bypass. Too dangerous for me. Everyone is different. Donna

Confusion can be caused by a variety of problems. This website lists 80 causes. https://www.healthline.com/symptom/confusion The ones I would focus on are numbers: 1, 7, 27, 28 and 62. #1 Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Many people develop a type of hypoglycemia after bariatric surgery called reactive hypoglycemia. https://www.ridgeviewmedical.org/services/bariatric-weight-loss/enewsletter-articles/reactive-hypoglycemia-postgastric-bypass This can also occur if you were diabetic prior to surgery and did not reduce your prescription medicine after surgery. #7 Low blood pressure. If you had high blood pressure prior to surgery and were taking prescription medicine for that condition. This may be an indicator that you may need to come off some of that medicine. # 27 Hypokalemia (low potassium levels). Make sure you are taking vitamin/mineral supplements for potassium. # 28 Hyponatremia (low blood sodium). Make sure you are getting enough electrolytes. # 62 Beriberi (B1 deficiency). I would also lump B12 deficiency into this one. After Gastric Sleeve surgery, my surgeon recommended 100 mg. Thiamine (vitamin B1) weekly and 500 to 1000 micrograms sublingual B12 weekly. While you were in the hospital, you were probably given a shot of B12 which is good for one month. Since you are 4 weeks post-op that is probably wearing off and you need to begin taking B12 weekly. I am not a doctor, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. But those are the areas I would explore.

Ok so yesterday I had my upper GI done and the radiologist was extremely distressed by the position of the band, the severe reflux, the dialation of the pouch and esophagus, and the fact that barely a drop a barium went through. Fast forward to this morning and after ignoring the radiologist's request that I immediately go upstairs to have my fill completely removed, I did just that. They quickly removed all of my fill. Then stated that I have a dialated pouch and stretched out my esophagus. My band may also be slipped, but not officially stated yet as such, but with all of the symptoms, it fits that diagnosis. They stated that more and more of us are having trouble as the years go by. I was a model patient for the first year, then complications struck. Major surgery to repair, then it was never the same. Extremely painful to eat, led to eating only foods that didn't hurt. I haven't gained much back, about 20lbs. But I see that changing. We are discussing a revision. Probably the VSG which they believe will phase out the band in the future. I don't knock the band completely, it did give me my life back, however with this foreign body inside of me, things have been complicated at times to say the least. So it looks like I'll enjoy a good thanksgiving dinner and that the new year will bring a new partner in helping keep off the weight. Any info on what to expect and/or consider would be appreciated.

It's three weeks till the big RNY. I thought I had it together, perhaps not? I don't have the pre-op liquid prep that most do. I'm doing my lung function test tomorrow which I'm scared of. I had pneumonia in late April, then again in early to mid May. The pneumonia is gone, but the cough still remains, for the most part. I have gurgling in my throat, possibly from all the post-nasal drip I keep swallowing. So I PRAY I pass! Im ending my second bottle of Prednisone. And I have been SO FREAKIN hungry! I have lost little since my second NUT visit and I fear pissing off my surgeon. I WANT to eat like there's no tomorrow. Could be side effect of Prednisone? But definitely a panic response. I was SO set and educated about the lifestyle change, And did it successfully, and will continue to do so. But I'm having these panic responses. I'm a revision from Band to RNY. What can I do to fight these very different urges to eat? Can I get away with a last supper here or there, or small cheats? I'm not going to be able, by necessity and CHOICE to eat some of the cravings I'm having for years. That, too, sets me into panic mode. It's really a tough time for me. A true test of my commitment. I am 48, and am being screened for uterine cancer, tomorrow too. I'm WAY stressed out about that. My Dad, 83, has been in and out of nursing homes and the hospital from complications from Leukemia. A lot more stress to that story. I'm completely broke. But the prize at the end of the tunnel is the RNY on 6/17. IF I pass all the "tests". I will die if it gets postponed. I've been prepping for this moment for years, and now that it's three weeks away, all the stress and panic is brewing in me full force. I am in shock. I am ready. I am obviously not aware of the test of self, post surgery. My therapist told me psychologically, the shits gonna hit the fan when I can't turn to eating, and food to cope. But then, we've been working on that all along. I don't know: Were YOU scared? Did you cheat? Do you pull your crap together eventually? I love you for reading this by the way, thank you! Vent-ology.....