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I was banded in October or November 2010, and lost about 80 pounds. By 2012 I'd had all the fluid removed due to regurg, pain, etc., even with minimal fills. Even with the band unfilled, foods still got stuck and some things were completely off limits. I just dealt with it for a few years, ignoring the problem. Earlier this year, I finally decided to do something about it and saw a bariatric surgeon here in Minneapolis (my band was placed in Omaha). In June of this year, I had a barium swallow xray done, and I was diagnosed with esophageal dismotility, a complication of the band. So, the band needed to come out. (For anyone reading this curious about the insurance approval process, I have Blue Cross Blue Shield and it was pretty straightforward, I just had to show proof of getting fills done (got my records from my old surgeon's office) and proof of a complication (the barium swallow showing dismotility).) I had the band out in August, and will be sleeved on December 7, in just 2 days. My surgeon does the revision in two different procedures because she feels there are fewer complications this way. Though there are other surgeons in the same group who do the revision in the same procedure. Waiting in between is not exactly easy on the pocket book (though I would have hit my out of pocket max either way), and my sick time at work has really taken a hit, but I understand the reasoning. Looking back on it, I'm really glad I've had the time between getting the band out and getting sleeved. I've had time to unlearn all the unhealthy habits I developed while dealing with my failed band. (And yes, I realize the failure was likely partly my responsibility, too, for anyone looking to jump all over me for that one.) I had to sip with my meals to get food past the band, and I definitely wasn't getting enough protein because that was likely to stick, too. Basically, I've had time to practice the "way of the sleeve" to replace the "way of the failed band". Between the band and the sleeve, I also have been hungry. My stomach hasn't rumbled this hard in years! (Maybe because it couldn't physically do so?) Protein shakes have helped, and paying attention to whether or not I'm actually hungry (or have any right to be based on what I've already eaten) or if it's just mental "hunger" have kept me from gaining weight. I've actually lost about 20 pounds now, and not just from the liquid diet I'm on before surgery. While it's frustrating to have to do two procedures, I hope you find the time in between helpful. Good luck! Wishing you the best.

I also choose the sleeve after a lot of research, plus I have 2 friends that have had bypass. You need to read everything you can but I felt that it was important to still have my body function the way it was made to and didn't want to deal with dumping syndrome or the malabsorption problems. I also felt it was a safer surgery with less complications and that was really important to me. I don't know your medical history but your doctor must have his reasons. Did he explain why he felt that way to you? I just got my sleeve on the 12th and am very happy so far.

Wow, sleever314, I'm sorry you had to go through that! I'm not sure why a stress test was ordered for me because I had the endoscopy done with no problems and my had my colonospy done earlier and I was un anesthesia both times with no complications, but the cardiologist ordered it so I don't have a choice. Good luck with your surgery, I will be praying and thinking of you, I can't wait to get my date.

If I could up your number from 10 I would give it a 20 in the worst complications. But would I do it again...YESSSSSSSSSSS in a flash. I am very grateful for the second chance I have to live and learn and change my life. I can't remember feeling this good since I was a teenager. Even with existing complications. I am 17 months out! I am a totally different person. The girl I was before died with the surgery. Trust me it was a good thing!!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I would have this surgery again every year for the rest of my life if I had to. No questions and no hesitation. I had zero complications from surgery.

Almost 3 years post and would sign the release form right now, if I had to. On your scale, my complications have been a 1, physically. About a 5 mentally. I have learned things about myself I never anticipated. That was the toughest part. But not so tough I wouldn't do it again. I have grown from it.

Been hovering in this forum for a couple of months, just felt I should join today. I was banded on Jan 30. Had no complications or pain. I'm already on mush/soft foods because the doc said I was doing so good. Lost 32lbs since the pre op diet until today. Feel really good and already have lots more energy.

So after much consideration I decided I would go ahead and blog my sleeve journey.... I wasn't going to because of keeping up with it but after surgery I find myself on this forum 3 and 4 times a day! So I guess I'll start out with why I decided to even get the sleeve and go from there This first blog will be long!! sorry!! In May this year, I had a meeting with my knee doc who explained to me that if I did not lose at least 60 to 80 lbs in the next year I would have to have a knee replacement because it was simply not holding up to my weight requirements. I cried and complained, went on yet another diet and failed and then ran across an ad for Dr Nicholson's weight loss seminar. I thought yay! I'll get the lap band and get this weight off! Well, I went to the seminar and loved him and all of the information, if you can possibly absorb all of that info in one setting! Anyway, after hearing the info I went home off on my own new journey to find the best option for me because what he was saying about the lap band was definitely going to be a no go. I did not want to deal with the fills and unfills and the possible erosion complication just from the info he was giving me. I started to look at video blogs of people with the lap band and couldn't believe it! There were problems with food getting stuck, vomiting if your food didn't like your band (ex: a piece of lettuce covering your opening), NOPE! the band was def a no go for me.. I did not like the extreme of the RNY or Gastric Bypass but the sleeve seemed like a good fit for me! Low complication rate, quick recovery, back to normal (albeit smaller portions) food after a couple of months and people are keeping the weight off! So I sent off my paperwork to Dr Nicholson's clinic!! Now for the Doom and gloom .. lol My Aetna policy has a weight loss surgery exclusion on my policy, as I am self employed so if I was going to consider going on with the surgery I was going to have to self pay. I contacted several medical financing companies and even my bank but for what I was doing and the associated costs it was just simply not going to happen. As I said before, I am self employed, as is my husband so those are hard circumstances to get financed for a large unsecured loan like I was talking about, approx $14K. Now, you have to know my personality, if I want something, I don't just sit back, I am a go getter and something like financing was not going to hold me back! I researched and dug and found a couple of companies would either 1) finance me or 2) do it for much cheaper. I was thrilled! Until I learned that these surgeries were in Mexico AHHHH!!! Are you kidding me?!?! Surgery in Mexico?!?! Don't they harvest your organs there?!?! I know, I went a bit overboard but I couldn't believe I could afford it so it was at least looking into right? Well, I researched lots of Dr's in Mexico and decided on Dr Jose Rodriguez in Juarez. He operated out Star Medica hospital. I researched his credentials, his staff, the hospital, the area and on and on. I found out that he had been doing these surgeries longer than Dr Nicholson and had a low complication rate. He was out of a company called Belite Weight and they would finance half of the surgery for me as long as I could cover the other half up front! Woo Hoo! So Mexico it was!!! Now for the surgery My surgery was scheduled for June 29th and I was completely prepared. I did the preop diet of Dr Rod's choice, basically the Atkins diet but with 50 carbs a day. I could handle that, as a matter of fact my husband and daughter (21 yrs) went on it with me and we lost weight! I lost 19.2, my husband 30 and my daughter 10.4. I was so stoked to get on with this surgery! I had bought our airline tickets in the early part of June and gotten our birth certificates to cross the border (don't believe the hype, the birth certificates worked just fine, no problems!) finance documents signed, family doc here on board with my journey, and so on and so on. I was prepared! We landed in El Paso and the hospital sent a shuttle for us to take us across the border to the hospital. We crossed the border and Juarez was a pit... a desolate pit. Scary as a matter of fact, sand lots with kids playing in them, people living in conditions I couldn't even fathom! They lived in cinder block houses!! businesses boarded up, people driving like idiots, I freaked completely out! I thought, what the HELL have I gotten myself into?!? Now, please know at this point that my husband and my daughter insisted on going with me so I am not alone but there were 2 other women there who were alone! I couldn't imagine being alone! Well, we finally got to the hospital and man was I relieved!! It was so nice! It was super clean, modern, smelled nice (not hospitally lol) so completely different from the outskirts of Juarez! There was mall across the street, nice restaurants within walking distance, the US Consolates office was 2 blocks away. Couldn't have been more pleased! Anyway, we did a brief stay at the front desk (I was with 4 other patients) to get our arm bands, checked in, pre op, etc. All went well and we headed up to our rooms. I was completely floored! It looked like a spa hotel room with 2 rooms, leather couches, cushy futon with giant pillows and a really nice bathroom. So nice! I was calming down at this point and happy we were in a safe area!! Day of Surgery!! I was so nervous the morning of the surgery! They came in and drew blood and took my vitals and EKG the day before so the day of surgery you don't have much to do or think of except that you are about to embark on a journey of a lifetime! Your choice! The thoughts that went through my mind were... 1) What if I am not one of those people who recovers quickly? 2) What if I die on the operating table? 3) What if I need a blood transfusion? How does that work in Mexico? Do they have the same strict testing as the US? (the answer is yes by the way lol I asked!) 4) What if I don't get to see my grandson ever again? CRAZY questions!! My mind was playing tricks on me and I was doing this surgery electively!! What the crap was wrong with me? doing this in Mexico no less?! My husband was wonderful in calming me down and so I just cried instead of backing out =) When they finally came and got me around 11:30 I was about ready to just back out, call it quits and go back home, stomach in tow! lol They got me down to preop and I was praying (along with my husband :wub: ) that everything would be fine, quick recovery, the whole bit! I remember them giving me something to "relax" me and off I went..... I woke up in recovery and they wheeled me back up to my room quickly so I was with my family. I had a little gas under my shoulder blade and a little pain from the drain site but great other than that! I got up after about and hour and walked walked walked! The gas pain went away after the first day and I never really had any nausea problems so I was a lucky one!! God is good!! My mom and her boyfriend came to the hospital to see me, yep! they drove in my Dallas and came to Juarez for 2 days to spend some time with me! I love my supportive family <3 My whole family and all of my friends were so supportive and good to me the whole time! I love them all!! Anyway, fast forward a couple of days to going home!! Home again, Home again, jiggity jog!! We left for the airport around 9:30 am although our flight wasn't until 1:30pm. We needed to make sure we got across the border in time to catch our flight and had heard horror stories about it taking sometimes 3 hours to get across. Lucky for us, it was the Mexican Election day!! There were only 3 people ahead of us to get through the border so less then 20 min to get across! Woo Hoo! We got to the airport with plenty of time to shop, go through security and time for me to sit down and rest for a while. The flight home was uneventful and once home I was content to take a nap =) Happy to see my kitties (Bella and Momma) and my 12 year old lab Buddy. I have a grandson that is 1 year old and lives with us and seeing him made me melt!! There is nothing better than a grandbaby!! I love him dearly!! Well, after all that, I am home! I work from home so it is nice to be able to work, nap, sip sip, work, sip sip, nap lol I feel like one of the cats! I feel good though! I have walked, done some laundry, cleaned and even cooked a little. I will venture out tomorrow!!! Thanks for reading!!! They will be shorter here on out! PROMISE!! Oh by the way, my weight!!! 6/15/2012 247 lbs 6/29/2012 227 lbs -19.2 lbs 7/1/2012 229 lbs (gotta love the IV fluid and being swollen!0

So I'm thinking about giving up on my insurance fight and just switching to self-pay. I had a slipped band over a year ago. It took 6 months to get the insurance company (Fed BCBS) to finally agree to remove the band but they denied a revision to VSG stating it wasn't medically necessary because my BMI was under 35. I submitted an appeal to the Federal Office of Personnel Management in October for what was supposed to be a 60 day appeal. They "lost" my case and had to start over. Then they closed it because they didn't understand I was asking for a revision and not some sort of random partial gastrectomy. They finally sent it out for review but it sounds like they didn't select a bariatric surgeon because the answer last week came back that it isn't medically necessary because my weight isn't over a 40 BMI. The told my attorney to wait for the report and then call and talk to the nurse but I haven't heard back yet. At this point it's been almost 7 months since I submitted the appeal. This has been going on for so long I'm almost back to my original weight. If I had it to do over again I'd have done a self-pay revision with Dr. Aceves right from the start. Heck, I'd be at my goal weight by now. I just don't have it in me to keep this up. I went ahead and requested a surgery date with Dr. Aceves and put first-class airline tickets on hold on my miles. I can't think what hoops the insurance company would have next. They just don't get that the standard of care for a revision doesn't require you to regain all your weight first. I could go forward with the surgery and then sue them after the fact but I'm not sure it's worth the mental energy after all this. I had some old Microsoft stock lying around and it's almost enough for the surgery. I'm thinking that I'll never miss the money and can just get on with my life. I don't want to self-pay up here because it's really expensive and they don't cover complications like Dr. Aceves does. I could be down there next weekend having this done and just moving on. Thoughts? I could use some additional input... Thanks! Britt

Thanks everyone, for your good input. I'm hoping the attorney will call me with news one way or the other and I can move ahead. I've left another message for them today. ouroborous, how did you reconcile the risk of complications? I wanted to have my surgery with Dr. Billing at the same clinic you went to but Amber (their insurance person) tells me that complications aren't covered. Even if I could get a reasonable price for the surgery, I just can't risk catastrophic costs if I had a leak or other serious complication. Britt

Thanks Ladies! I HATE these threads b/c they can be so dangerous for the OP if they listen to the garbage above. Come 3 years (or whenever) down the road, they'll be on here crying b/c of the complications with their band that they probably caused when they didn't follow their surgeon's advice. It's sad and potentially dangerous. I really hope they're okay later down the road. :redface:

That 1 out of 400 will die from complications

Hi guys, I was just curious if anyone has had any complications from any of their pre-op tests? I had my sleep study, endoscopy, saw my pulmonary dr. some lab work done but now I have to have a stress test done and an echo done, because of my weight, I get out of breath easy and I'm worried about not doing good on the stress test, I guess my mind is playing tricks on me, did anyone have any issues with their stress test or echo, I just don't want anything to get in the way of my surgery after coming this far. Thanks everyone.

My surgeon told me unless a patient is adamant on getting the band he doesn't recommend them anymore and tries to educate patients to go with bypass or sleeve. He said in another few years it won't be a procedure that will be offered any more due to the high risk of complications that are associated with it.

Hi you all. I had my surgery last week Tuesday 3/25. I had a large hiatle (not sure of spelling) hernia. My doc said half my stomach was in my chest. I went for leak test and dye got stuck. It did go down next day.I also had Fluid in my lungs. I was in hospital for 4 days. My doc wanted 5 but I begged him to let me go home. I am better today but had to have more fluid put in me yesterday through Iv at doc office. To be honest I regretted the surgery for the first few days. I cant wait to get to next stage in diet because am so sick of shakes now. I am sorry if I sound ungrateful or negative. I am sure I will be OK and my funk will change.

With my new complication with the sleeve. And repeating several tests and having work done to fix the newest complications. I have become a topic of conversation in my area of the medical profession. I have been asked out of the blue by at least by 6 people who work at the hospitals and clinics how much weight I have lost...Stunned that that is the first question out of their mouths and instead of me keeping it close to my chest I tell them 200 lbs. It is only after that that they ask questions regarding the surgery. The next most asked question is would you recommend it? And then, would you do it again? Most that have found out how much I have lost, scream you must be proud. You should be on a poster in the hospital telling everyone there is hope. You must feel so good about yourself...I have thought about it a lot and I don't think proud is the word I feel...I feel a great sense of relief and a huge weight lifted off me literally. I feel that this is a life long journey for all of us and that pride has nothing to do with it. I did not win a contest or a marathon or the lottery or save millions of lives. I am working to save mine and it won't be done until I breath my last breath. A work in progress. Not to allow myself to get complacent over this new adventure and turn back to my old life... I am thrilled that I finally had the opportunity to get this gift of the sleeve. But there is no inner pride. There is satisfaction that I have gotten this far. But pride no. I still have so much work to do!!!

I'm just interested to know what amount of follow up others are getting. I'm not sure what the norm is in the UK. I'm very happy with the service so far, very quick and efficient and I've had no post op complications - touch wood. However I don't see anyone at all for six weeks post op. I can phone if I have a problem, but reading other posts people seem to be having more follow up than this. I feel fine but I'm just intrigued. Guess I want my monies worth!

It is very normal to have second thoughts....This surgery is not for the faint of heart...trust me....but! You must have done a lot of research about it and made a choice to improve your health and make your life better...This is one of the reasons we do it..All other options have been tried. Personally I was chomping at the bit to get the surgery done and I ended up with a lot of complications....You are feeling normal..This is major surgery! Your going to be scared but very happy when it is done and you are on your journey to a healthier and better you!

Thank you, he is saying that he has never seen any post op complications so severe, and we're now just waiting to take the next step. I'll look into the RNY. Thank you for your concern, I hope it turns around soon too.

I wrote letters to my kids and husband. It's perfectly normal. I am six weeks post now and so happy. It helped new to think that even with complications people almost never ever die and the risk is similar to gallbladder removal and other surgeries.

Hi Nikki Sorry I didn't see this until today. I had the band for almost 10 years and after about 7 years, I started having lots of complications. I always had difficulty with fills and unfills because my port flipped almost immediately after surgery. I did fairly well with the band and lost about 100 pounds. However, I regained almost all of that weight after 2 children, 5 months of bed rest and an injury from running. I started looking into revision mid-2010 and was given the choice of RNY (which I found out I couldn't have due to my severe anemia) or sleeve. I wasn't happy with either of those choices so after about 6 months of research I found out about the plication. I was going to go to Mexico but ended up finding a doctor here in Southern California who had just started doing plication. I was his very first banded plication patient, which was scary but somebody's gotta be first!! Anyway - I've lost a bit over 42 pounds in 15 weeks. I'd like to lose about another 50-60 pounds. I started at 283 and am now at 240.5. I am actually surprised that I've lost as much weight as I have considering I'm a revision patient. I track my food but not religiously. I ensure that I eat 50-70 grams of Protein and drink about 60-80 oz. of Water. I do exercise almost everyday and walk/jog about 2-3 miles per workout. I completed my first 5K a few weeks ago and am planning on wogging (walk/jogging) a 10K July 23. I have averaged about 10 pounds per month and have lost 42% of my EWL (excess weight loss). I've gone from a 22/24 (26 top) to loose 20s and almost fitting into 18s! My goal is to be around 170-180ish which for me is a size 12/14. I don't want to be much smaller than that as I prefer that size on me and so does my husband! PS-I have not had any fills in my band and I plan on leaving it completely empty.

Hi dream, best of luck. i chose band for same reason. I liked that is was reversible in case of complications. I didnt like the idea of cutting away anything. You will do great. And if you have any questions or concerns we are here for you.

My sleep cycle was all jacked up for the first week once I was back at home. I had a prolonged stay at the hospital due to some complications so the continual wake-up calls every 2-3 hours for 6 days wrecked me. For the first few days at home I would wake up at 2 a.m. and then just be up from then on. I didn't do anything special to get back on track. Just took my body some time to get back to normal, but it did after a few days. It can be frustrating but it'll get better!

Hello to all of you, There are always posts on here about complications, problems and regrets but they are few compared to the posts of success,excitement and happiness over the results of WLS. Right now you are more sensitive to those negative posts and that is okay. You have to be realistic and know that anybody could have complications, its just a possibility that comes with surgery. Statistically, chances are in your favor that everything will be okay but every once in awhile something happens. Be honest and open with your surgeons about any issues you have that might complicate the surgery so preparations can be taken before hand. If you have done your homework and you have prepared correctly you will have no problems with your surgery. Keep focused on the possibilities of better health, significant weight loss, more energy and a more active life style. Are the risks worth that? Only you can answer that question for yourself. Whatever you choose, I wish you luck. As for me, I will be 4 weeks out on Monday the 10th and I could not be happier. This is much easier than I thought it would be and I have no results. Best of luck and happiness to all of you.

Unfortunaly there are tons of us out there that had the band and had to have a revision surgery down the road due to complications from the band. I am so sorry to hear about this woman, this breaks my heart. I am so grateful that I had that horrible thing removed from my body.