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I don’t think leaks are a common issue with people that have had multiple bariatric surgeries. Instead, it sounds like it may be an issue with your surgeon’s practice. You may want to investigate further. I had revision surgery in July 2018 and have had 5 abdominal surgeries in my lifetime. My surgeon, who is one of the preeminent bariatric/GI surgeons in the U.S., did not tell me I was at increased risk for leaks. I have suffered no complications post-op.

I am almost 6 months post op. My initial pouch was 4 oz. I was a little bit of a different case because I had a leak complication with my surgery which prevented me from being able to eat or drink at all for the first 5 weeks. At 5 weeks, when the leak was healed, I could eat one hard boiled egg. Today, I could probably eat two hard boiled eggs and two pieces of bacon. When I eat out with my friends/family, I tend to eat 1/2 to 1/3 of the portion I am served. I eat kind of like those teeny tiny skinny ladies who seem to barely eat... and you always wonder if they feel constantly starved...only it is not miserable. You feel just fine/full. At first, be prepared for waiters to ask you if "everything is ok" and you like your food (because you ate so little of it).

I too had these same worries and fears. I have 2 young girls and a son about to graduate high school. I was very worried. Here's the thing....1. This surgery has a lower mortality rate than gallbladder surgery. 2. The complications Usually happen to people with other issues going in besides being overweight. 3. If you don't do this...will your kids have you when they are older? Not trying to away you. We all have to make our own choices...just want you to think about wha you really want and why...you began this journey in the 1st place. Believe me when I tell you I was right where you are and the fear was consuming me...finally I had to "get a grip" and remind myself over and over why I was doing this.

Everything Berry78 said! I would also read the complications forum. This is might be odd advice. But it's best you know the real complications regardless of how rare they are.

You're already doing well! It's going to be very difficult post op. I would recommend your wife begin counselling or join a support group. It will be helpful to have the added support in case of complications. All the best.

I am thinking about having a Super Sleeve done in at Star Medica Hospital, 15 mins across the border from El Paso, Texas in Juarez, Mexico by Dr. Jose Rodriguez. The cost is $6200 for everything. Has anyone gotten the super sleeve done or know of anyone that has. OR Has anyone worked with this company or Doctor or even hospital? Can I trust them with my money and more importantly my life? Here is the Info they gave me on the super sleeve: What is super sleeve? Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy is not as simple as any other gastrectomy. Gastric tube size influences both the degree of weight loss and weight stability. A large sleeve predisposes to gastric dilatation (stretching) and weight regain. Inexperienced surgeons tend to create large tubes (:thumbup: or to leave back large remnants of the gastric fundus. A standardized technique with a gastric capacity less than 100 ml (A) is mandatory in order to get the patient to achieve a durable weight loss. The sleeve should be super which means a small gastric sleeve diameter and a higher degree of restriction. With the gastric capacity being restricted to 60-80gr and Ghrelin (the appetite hormone) totally suppressed, the resultant weight loss is predictable and comparable to those achieved with gastric by-pass (60-70% EWL), without any serious complication or side effects (e.g. Vitamin mal-absorption). We believe the Super Sleeve to be a very effective and safe bariatric solution even for super-obese patients.

So sorry you had this complication, surgery twin! I'm glad it was caught in time and pray for your quick recovery. Keep us posted!

Surgery was 8/20. This past Monday 8/27 I presented to the ER with pain in my rib cage area on my back and that sides associated shoulder when I breathe. They did a CT chest..multiple blood clots. I'll be in the hospital for a minimum of 5-7 days. Can't believe this happened to me. I Pray that none of you experience this.

I went to the ER with dizziness, headache, rapid heart rate. They said I had dehydration and my body was going into ketosis where you start to eat your own muscle. That eventually it could be life threatening. I'm 7 days post op so this is scary! I lost 13 pounds in 9 days. I started at 180, I now weight 167. I just hope it's only dehydration and not a leak :/ scared.

I was also only one night. My night in the hosptial was bad as my room was right outside of the nurses desk and they forgot to turn up the heat when I got to my room, so I was cold all night. But I walked almost every hour. I don't think there was another sleeve patieint so I had the hallways to myself. I was released by 10 am the next morning, My DH and I went directly to walmart to fill my prescriptions. I went home and took a nap then we went to a park and did a small walk. Since I had no complications-no gas/nausea-One day was fine for me. I also had a hiatal hernia repair.

I'm scheduled for May 11th and my daughter will be 5 months old. I am planning on breastfeeding through it. To complicate matters I am going to Mexico to do the surgery so I'll be gone for 6 days without her. I'm planning on pumping and dumping (since there is no way to freeze it and carry it with me on the plane) but my husband has a supply at home to feed her while I am gone. I expect my success depends heavily on my Fluid intake and how my body responds to just pumping and no suckling. I know there are different hormones involved between those two means of getting breast milk I'm hoping my body will be too preoccupied with the stress of surgery to bother with the hormones Everything I read says your success depends on fluid intake more than calories (think 3rd world countries and their calorie consumption!) As BIG girls we have plenty of calories to share even while shedding weight. However, if our Water isn't sufficient then the body just can't produce the milk. So, watch the water! Even if I have to stay up all night to get it in I'll be sipping water... I don't think of it being selfish since I am already a ticking time bomb. Even if I have to stop breastfeeding she got 5 months AND I'll be alive long enough to see her children, God willing, but if I die it won't be because of weight related issues!! Right now I think my life expectancy is only about 20 years if I continue on the path I am. My body just can't hold up to my metabolic issues and my overeating.

Well, Im a week back in full force after 4 yrs of unfilled complications and Im happy to report that after having a fill, talking to an RD, and doing things exactly how Im supposed to with measuring and weighing everything, Ive had no complications AND lost 7 lbs!!! YAY!!!

I agree with Foxbins - when I am truly hungry (need food for nourishment) I feel light-headed and empty. That usually happens for me at about 4 hours after eating Protein last. If I go much past four hours without protein, I get cranky. Head hunger is anything other than the above. Example #1: The feeling I get when I am eating something I enjoy and I am full (the point I like to stop). Head hunger will say "gosh, this food is tasing great, I want another bite!". Sometimes head hunger is driven by tastse - other times it can be driven by boredom, or in response to a TV commercial or program, or a smell of food, or numerous other triggers. I had a complicated relationship with food prior to my sleeve surgery - eating was my go to response for dam near any situation. I am working every day to change that. One thing I do to see if it is head hunger or I really need to eat - I look at how long it has been since I have eaten. If it is less than four hours, I drink 16 -24 ounces of Fluid. Of course I can't drink that much fluid all at once - so I tell myself NO POSSIBLITY OF EATING UNTIL THE DRINK IS ALL GONE. (I have to be stern with myself). Then, after I finish drinking the designated amount, I re-evaluate the situation. I am always full after the liquid is done, so I will re-check in about a half an hour. Then, if my body is telling me it wants food, I will eat something (snack or meal, depending on what time it is and what the plans for the rest of the day are). Good luck.

Oh dear, please, do NOT go with the band!!! :-/ I have had two of them now! Please take a minute and read my story on my profile. The band gave me some up front success but then nothing but problems and multiple surgeries on top of all the maintenance!! It's taken 10 years, but I am finally getting this thing out of me! There are so many people with stories just like mine. I wish I had never messed with the lap band, and wish even more that after I did and had it taken out, that someone had told me about the sleeve before I tried it again (though it wasn't near as well known in 2006). There's a board here called "Lap Band to Sleeve Revision" ... Go read up there and also on lapbandtalk.com under the complications section. There are definitely risks with either, but the long term (2+ years) complications of the band far outweigh that of the sleeve! Good luck with your decision though. I know there's nothing easy about it. And I certainly understand the appeal of the band... but it's a trick

Hi Bird lady, I read all that Aetna claptrap too, with a magnifying glass. When I started in 2002 Aetna excluded the band altogether based on its being "experimental." Phooey. The band is LESS INVASIVE than RNY, so any complications that occur are going to be less dangerous, difficult, and damaging. Excess weight lost is a function of US and our behavior; I refuse to be defined by statistics. It doesn't surprise me one whit that it has records of less "success" than RNY--people have to work with the band more than with the RNY and of course there will be more failures due to noncompliance. I do not see that as a bad thing, just a fact. The RNY changes your anatomy and permanently creates malnutrition. Of COURSE you're going to lose weight. But I for one had absolutely no desire to relinquish control of my health to a one-size-fits-all rearrangement of my intestines. Malabsorption is NOT something I wanted to face the rest of my life with. Aetna has a vested interest in not adopting a new procedure that will attract thousands more patients who might otherwise not have surgery. Of course it's going to pick and choose the studies that support its position. If you think that having help controlling your caloric intake is going to help you lose weight and maintain that loss, then banding is for you. That's all there is to it.

Before I left the hospital the nurse strongly urged me to get a medical bracelet to state "no blind ng tubes". She shared a story with me of another patient with VSG who got into a car accident and the paramedics inserted a tube and punctured something. I don't remember the exact complication but the nurse said the patient was going to deal with the consequences for the rest of her life. That was enough for me to buy one. Like a previous poster stated, I got mine from RoadID. They have tons of options to choose from. You can even pay extra to do an entire database with all your med info that lists all surgeries you've had, current meds you're on, allergies, emergency contact etc. I had 2 separate incidents (prior to VSG) where I passed out bc my blood pressure meds weren't balanced right. So I WANT paramedics to have any info they need if something ever happens again. I'm not embarrassed wearing the bracelet. I'd rather have peace of mind that should I ever become unresponsive, the info is readily available to a medical professional.

So, I am sitting here looking at my chewable aspirin, my chewable calcium supplements, my chewable Gas-X and my Benefiber. I went shopping yesterday for some of the things I know I will need. I am currently a functioning Carb Nazi - I stive to erradicate carbs from the face of the earth. So far, I am doing well on that - but having just a smidge of trouble with the fat thing. South Beach is harder for me than Atkins was. On Atkins, I would eat all the cheese I wanted. I was good a finding delicious low-carb cheese that I could eat plenty of and stay within my 20 gram carb limit. This fat monitoring business is a pain the ass. I can live without sour cream. I can live with less Mayo (I mean if you can't make sandwiches, it has limited usage, doesn't it?) but the cheese thing is rough. So I am already breaking the diet... sort of. I guess I am doing Atkins instead of South Beach. SB allows Beans and stuff - It's way more complicated than Atkins. You have to think about it too much - so I just won't, I guess. I will just do a lower fat version of Atkins - Ketosis is ok, for right now. I mean, the point is to get the liver to suck all the fat out of itsself, right? After the surgery, I will eat "normally" again eventually - and ketosis can't be any harder on my liver than anything else I have done to it, over the years of eating every rich creamy delicious thing that brought me to weigh well over 300 lbs... :mad: Can you say "Total lack of self control?" Sure y' can... DH surprised me yesterday. We were talking about him studying the doc's info so he could prepare appropriate meals and he said maybe if he were going to get the surgery, he would read up on the stuff. In one sense, it just means his ass is too lazy to read the stuff, (he wants me to just tell him what to cook) but in another sense, it means that somewhere in the depths of his psyche - he has actually considered doing it. That is good news. DH also tops 300 lbs - and although he is much taller than me - and weighs LESS - he is still MO and Diabetic. I am hoping that if I do well and have few complications, he might actually consider it in his conscious mind. He is ten years older than me - and I worry about him almost as much as I have worried about myself. How cool would it be if the surgery did for his Diabetes what it has done for others. I guess I will just have to be a model bandster, a rabbit, and make it look easy while I am doing it. (um, yeah. sure. whatever.):paranoid I am in that Obsession phase of my weight loss journey. That's good. But that is also a standard pattern for me. Here's the pattern: 1) Irene freaks out about being MO and decides it's time to finally do something (for about the 50th time - but we won't go into that now). 2) Irene finds the diet du-jour and begins to follow it with fervor - the model, nay the very icon of the plan (whatever it is). Obsessing over every calorie, carb and fat gram, exercising, and actually losing weight. 3) After two-three months (MAX) Irene get's bored? Gets tired? Get's afraid of being thin? I still don't know exactly what it is that causes it - but that is when I start to lose it. Maybe that's when my natural OCD tendencies have just run their course? It just seems like so much WORK to keep it up. Of course, that's usually when the weight loss slows down - so maybe it's a reward issue. Once the rate of weightloss gets dramatically lower, what is the pay-off for all this work? Hmmm. My hope is that with the band - this cycle will be changed. Well, it will practically have to change. My own fervor will carry me through the liquid phase and all the healing. By the time I start to get discouraged, it should be time for my fills to begin - and Doctor Fox seems like he won't be shy about giving them. Besides - I won't be able to eat the volumes that I have eaten with the band. It's not like I will be able to suck down half a pizza in a sitting. (Like I can EASILY do now...) Besides I will have all the LBT folk to keep me sane. I really will have NO excuse for becoming a drama queen about all this stuff. I have absorbed a whole boatload of info over the last several months. I know I will suffer some post op depression, I know that I will have food mourning issues, I know all that stuff - But I suppose knowing it won't make it any easier. :rolleyes Of course, my biggest fear is that I will slip or erode or something. I guess it's just the luck of the draw on that stuff. I am going to have to just suck it up and count on the Luck o' the Irene that has carried me this far. Good Karma pays off. I guess I had better get out there and spread some more good vibes. I will need them back, say in about 3 months! 8 days to lift off.....

You're welcome. I think we all go through a bit of panic or buyers remorse in the first days/weeks post-op and it sure doesn't help if you've had any complications. This one is pretty easily treated. Stay active, do your incentive spirometer and it will pass.

Atelectasis, or a partial lung collapse is a known complication of general anesthesia. It could happen with ANY surgery and is not specific to bariatric surgery. That's one of the big reasons we have to do that incentive spirometer. Do your incentive spirometer as directed in your post-op instructions. Make sure you're communicating with your doctor with your symptoms.

Let me start with a little history... I became a bandster in 2007. I lost 130 lbs and have gained back 115 lbs. I did well in the beginning. The weight melted off of me. Restriction was never a problem. I followed the band rules perfectly. Then in 2009, things changed. An event actually changed everything for me. I either had a virus or food poisoning. Either way, it was terrible, I could not stop heaving. We all know that with the band, anything below the band is not coming up. I had to call my surgeon and was prescribed Zofran, but I think it was too late. Something terrible happened. The area around my band was sore for quite some time and my little "friend" inside of me, started to become my enemy. Since then, I have shown a nasty hiatal hernia. My reflux is terrible. And there is no fill that is comfortable. I get a fill, follow the rules, and I am right back at the surgeon's office the next morning to get an unfill then I am back to NO RESTRICTION. It has become a viscous cycle and I have gained most of the weight back slowly since that time. I have been told that if I correct the hiatal hernia and if the band is pushed up a bit, that my restriction will come back and things will get better. However, even with that in mind despiration has pushed me to go more extreme to scheduling a VSG on September 17th. I am strongly reconsidering my choice after doing much more homework on the possible complications of a VSG. Now I am doing some homework on the RNY, which may be a better alternative to VSG. Either way, I have to get the hiatal hernia fixed. So, my questions to the lapband community: Would personally try to correct the situation if you were in this position? Have you been through a revision from an existing band surgery to a correction and were you successful after the correction? I am just looking for some input and possible support either way. Looking forward to hearing from you!

I have such severe nausea that even Water, ice, or G2 makes me sick to my stomach. It's horrible because I get about 4-8 oz of liquids a day and zero Protein. I just cannot stomach any Protein shakes. I've been to the ER twice for dehydration/nausea, and will surely go again soon. I am 23 days post-op. I could give a rats patootie about the weight loss at this point. Of course I'm losing weight because I'm literally starving myself! The doctors say that the nausea could last up to 2 months post-op and are almost flippant about the fact that I just may need to go to the ER for my fluids. That's a $100 copay each visit when I've already paid up the wazoo for this surgery (self-pay). To say I regret the procedure is an understatement. My NUT keeps trying to give me different ideas, like carnation instant Breakfast, or any liquid that taste good just to get liquids. But, all make me want to up-chuck. Even if I go to the ER again for IV fluids, how can a person survive without protein?? I'm taking my Prilosec twice a day and 8mg of Zofran for nausea every 8 hours. Doctor told me to hold off on Vitamins since they make me sick & fill me up too much. Which is another point, the doctor said my stomach is more swollen than most that have this surgery. So, that doesn't help, either. Did anyone have this severe of nausea and how long did it last? Any liquid or protein that worked? I've tried unjury & nectar... I cannot have milk-based because they make me feel worse. Like the carnation instant breakfast, which tasted like an ash tray. I even did a Lactoid prior to drinking it, to no avail. Everyone keeps saying it will get better. But, I'm having trouble picturing it. I need some BTDT (been there done that) folks. I know I should feel lucky of all the complications to have, nausea doesn't seem bad to most. But it feels like I'm living in a Medieval torture chamber designed to starve me more and more each day. No amount of weight loss seems worth this! (. Suggestions are much appreciated! ~Jenn

Hey there! I was banded July 8 by Dr. Ortiz at OCC in Tijuana, Mexico... GREAT facility and staff!! I will not be going back to Mexico for fills (bc I live on the East Coast, so it would get very costly with flights.. unless i am visiting my friend in San Diego or something) you just have to find a doc near you that will take patients who were baned outside the US. Prices vary on the doctor... all the docs I found are anywhere between $100-$250 for a fill (and thats W/O xray/floro...) So try to find a doc first if you dont plan on traveling to Mexico for fills. The last thing you want is complications and you havent found a US doctor yet.. A am self pay too, so I knwo how ya feel! Good luck!!!

The complication insurance will not cover any complications that are taken care of in the US. It is strictly for care provided in the country the policy if issued for. Won't work for me.

Today, Monday November 11, 900am, after 8.5 months of working on getting sleeved , I was approved. There were big mistakes made at BCBS of Illinois which lead to my denials. After nine calls to BCBS, two denials, working closely with the representative from my Bariatric Center, getting a benefit advocate from my companies Human Resources Department, and being very tenacious, it finally came through. Now, it is going to take a few days for my Dr's Office to get the approval in writing from BCBSIL but the office did call BCBSIL to get the approval. I have to go to the pre-op class and then I am set. My advise to anyone that is denied VSG Surgery is to make sure that they get a copy of their policy and the exclusions. 8.5 months ago I was approved to begin the program so this denial came out of the blue. My file became more complicated after the denials. Erroneous information had been added to my file that were not part of my policy. Unfortunately the representatives at BCBSIL read the incorrect information and kept telling me the procedure was denied. Thank you for all of your support everyone. I guess working this hard to get approved really makes me understand the importance of this surgery for me. It gives me, and everyone else that suffers from obesity a chance to have a wonderful, happy, healthy, longer life. Two weeks ago my hope for a healthier future was dashed. Today I am smiling from ear to ear. Again.......it is a go!

I just had my sleeve on the 29th, this past Monday. For the most part it was great. I am very optimistic and usually side on the glass half full. One small complication in post-op was my asthma related difficulty breathing. It wasn't something I addressed initially with my surgeon and it wasn't something I had read about in the Forums or blogs. I guess you take what comes. It gave me trouble for about 2 days clearing my lungs and coughing, but I am on the other side of it now. My pain after surgery was very minimal felt like I had done 5,000 sit-ups. I stopped pain meds. the day after surgery. Even through a cough I managed. I think your state of mind has a lot to do with how well, or complicated you are able to manage. I am so excited from the time I made up my mind to have the surgery even until now I think I'm running on pure adrenalin.