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I had the sleeve done in January 2014. It was successful when you consider why I had it. Which was to be able to get pregnant along with some other health concerns. I didn't lose as much weight as one would think but again it wasn't my intention anyway. I just wanted to get to a healthier weight. My highest was 311 and the lowest I got to post sleeve was 206. I loved the way I felt and looked at that weight. After having a baby and falling into some bad old habits but more importantly suffering from severe acid.reflux and being dependent on antacids I decided to look into revision surgery. On Sept 17th I weighed 286 as of today I weigh 254. Things are for the most part going well and I no longer rely on antacids. That being said I am suffering on a daily basis from pain shooting from abdomen to back. It is below breast bones in center. I am most certain it is gas so I've been taking a lot of gas-x. I suffer from chronic pain from a previous injury so I take pain medication daily. I eat when I am hungry but throw up almost every time which happen the first time while I was training my mind and body until I learned the hard way what not to have. So I've just switched to protein drinks and water. But the pain is almost unbearable and I'm wondering if anyone else had this happen to them?

My first fill was UNSUCESSFUL! Surgeon couldnt find my port and stuck me over 25 times!!!!! I cried the whole way home and still have swelling and pain in the port area!! I am so discouraged. Question: If he wasent putting the saline in the port, where was it going when he injected it in my body? Doc wants to schedule an appt. in two weeks to do the fill under floroscopy. At this point panic has set in and I am worried that my port may have flipped or is angled in such a way that a port revision surgery will be warranted. I am so depressed!! Havent excerised and losing motivation to eat right!!! Has anyone else had a first fill horroR? Is this common? What do I do next? Helllllppppppp!!!!!:(

I found out today there's leak either in my port or the tube right after the port.. So I have to go in next week to have revision surgery, and they're moving the port while they're there so it's easier to access. While I watched the contrast go into the port and then just SPLOOSH into my body, it made me cry and I feel like the band is not going to work for me.. like I'm doomed for failure. That's why I never felt proper restriction, so I know the PLUS SIDE is that when they fix it, I'll be able to find a sweet spot.. But for now, I'm dejected about the whole situation. How long does the depression of knowing you have to be 'fixed' last?

I had kind of a similar experience, except that my symptoms started suddenly. An upper GI showed my badly dilated esophagus; the gastro doc who did an EGD found food in the lower third of my esophagus (I hadn't eaten for 12 hours) and diagnosed me with an esophageal motility disorder called achalasia. My surgeon removed all the saline from my band and strongly recommended removing it. I decided to revise to the sleeve,but when my surgeon removed my band, she was unable to do the sleeve because of a stricture we didn't know I had. I went to a different gastro doc who said I don't have achalasia, I have stenosis (thickening of the tissues) from 25+ years of "silent" reflux. He dilated the stricture and I'm having surgery again in August to try to do the sleeve. My unfill greatly relieved my symptoms. I'm still taking omeprazole. My symptoms were like yours but I wasn't vomiting blood. That kind of thing URGENTLY needs attention. I would be concerned about ulcers or band erosion. I hope you get in to see a specialist at Hershey Hospital ASAP. Good luck!

Well, I am new to this forum and I need desperate help. I am 10 1\2 years out first surgery and 7 years out from revision due to a botched surgery the first time. I got down to 120 after second surgery but I was sickly thin. So I purposely gained 10 pounds. Over the last few years I've gained about 5 pounds a year. Well, I had a full hysterectomy least year and was thrown into menopause and put on a high dose of estrogen. I've gained monthly since then. Now I'm up to almost 160 and I'm scared. I don't know what to do. I don't eat sweets at all. I drink tons of green tea a day and focus mainly on eating meat and veggies. I do eat some carbs. I can eat a regular meal depending on what it is. Can't eat pasta very much or bread so I stay away from those. I do eat granola bars but not too often. I don't know what to eat or how much! I don't know how many calories I should be eating. I don't really exercise because I'm a full time elementary teacher. I get up at 5 a.m. and get home at 6 p.m. I cook dinner, grade papers, spend time with my teenagers and am in bed by 10:00. Can someone please help me? I don't have any support here and feel lost.

First off.......you have rocked the band and done a hell of job in utilizing it to get excellent results........and have lived with those results....through what life has thrown your way. I have huge respect for you in this. You haven't trumped up excuses to hide behind. You've ceased the opportunity and have truly kicked ass. It takes just a few minutes reading around here, at other wls sites or in the two support group meetings that I've attended to find many who simply didn't get their minds wrapped around it before having the wls. I'll likely never go back to another of those support group meetings. It was draining and filled with anything but motivation.....but a gathering of sympathy and validation of bad habits. I suspect those that are successful are busy getting on with their lives and moving into new stages of healthy living.....and posting less or not in attendance at the various support experiences. Maybe I'll reach that point one day....where I'm no longer thinking in terms of being "on a diet". I'll be just living and thriving and not thinking about the bariatric aspects so much. I sure would hate to have to fact my surgeon in a future meeting.......where I'm sitting across from him with a sob story about how I ate around my sleeve. He is very, very clear during all the pre op discussions. He doesn't do revisions in cases where it was patient failure. Very clear on this.

First of all why wouldnt she see her surgeon in a year. The first five years post op are important to maintain with your surgeon. I moved and found another surgeon who took me in as a patient all he wanted was my op report and to know I didnt have an complications after surgery. He sees me regularly and is very nice. Everyone will not like their doctors or the care they get for some reason but I think it is also our duty as the patients to remain in contact with our surgeons at least yearly once banded. You need follow up care. If you are not willing to travel to see that surgeon then you need to find one that will follow you and as long as it is after care and not to redo the surgery then most surgeons will take you on as a patient as long as you are not asking them to revise what another has done.

Revision patients usually lose slower.

I am slipped too. Going in tomorrow for a revision or removal(they won't know which til they get in there I guess). I've been on liquids for 2 weeks and I'm miserable. Slipping can be caused by excessive PBing, chronic overeating, improperly placed band, etc. I'm not sure what caused mine either. At first I thought it was due to all the PBs and poor eating habits, but the fact is I never was able to tolerate my first fill and it was all removed after my esophagus was swelling. Maybe it wasn't placed just right in the first place. Who knows. I wish you the best canadian bandster! I am self-pay as well and the bills are piling up!!

Thank you so much for the KIND responses. When I was researching the band, there seemed to be quite a few people on here who had had revisions to the sleeve, and also others like me who wanted to compare the results for the 2 of them. I wish everybody the best success with their weight loss, and if anybody pre op would like to know anything specific about the sleeve, I'm more than happy to chat.

Wow, your stomach is your best feature?! Wanna trade? LOL The scars are really not bad, and some people I've seen in their after, a few years later you can barely see them.. they look like a freckle or something. I had revision surgery and they cut open an existing port scar, so it looks kinda ooky, but I don't care!!! I am 110lb lighter and that's a small sacrafice, right? I don't know if I ever worried about the scars.. maybe a little bit, but I was more concerned about not being fat!

Thank you everyone so much! I am starting to think those that are not supporting me in this, are definitely scared about the surgery because they are misinformed. I really only have about 3 people that are totally supportive of my decision, and two of those people I haven't know for very long. The other, being my mother. I figure if my mother suports me, that is all that should matter. Once it gets closer, it just seems like even though I have done all this research, all these what-ifs are looming overhead. What it comes down to is going to be my own experience with the band and how I go about my daily life. The one thing that really brought into the light the complications that can occur is in my last support group. There was a girl around my age and same BMI situation that had a slippage after a year and a half. She had so many complications. And it didn't phase me at first, but it scared my and I started having bad dreams right after that meeting. She was having a revision to a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. I started thinking that was a safer route, thinking no band slippage, but that is such a permament procedure, and I dont want to deal with the possibility of malabsorption and such. There are many more success stories that I read about the Lap-Band than stories of complications. I came to find out later that the slippage was caused by the woman's own actions, that she started eating Pasta, bread and rice and was vomitting and didn't tell her doctor. So, ultimately, she set herself up for failure. As my date nears, I am very nervous, because of the unknown really. I am excited about finally being in control of my weight, and not being labeled the "fat chick". Thank you again for all of your support. Cheers!

Pain after revision was significantly worse than any of my other previous abdominal surgeries (myomectomy, sleeve, hysterectomy, colostomy reversal). I expected it based on the amount of scar tissue I have but it still shocked me upon waking up. Each day it gets easier. This group has really helped me this week. Any suggestions on how to get all my protein in since I’m going home soon?!

Hi!!! I am not a revision, I am 5 weeks out and I've lost 38 lbs total. I had 3 comorbidities... Diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. I also have Rheumatoid arthritis. All are resolved, no insulin or pills. I am so happy about that. I am in Burlington NC. My surgeon was Dr Jon Michael Bruce at Bariatric Specialists of NC. I do not regret my decision at all. I hope this helps you. Best of luck on your journey!!! [emoji1] Sent from my SM-G930VL using BariatricPal mobile app

Awesome! How far out are you and how has weight loss been? Are you a revision? What city are u in? Did you have any co morbidities? Sorry for all the questions!

Welcome! Dr Alberto Aceves in Mexicali seems to be the go to surgeon for revisions (I think Mexicali may be a quieter border crossing so not end up too much further timewise). Search for him on here as he seems to be often recommended for VSG revisions. You want to go with the best surgeon you can get to minimize complications as revisions do have more complexity.

I'm a little with Rainer.. I guess it's what they're saying, depends on what you want to hear!! I work with my entire family, including DH. So everyone sees me every day. They have blatently said, they don't notice the weightloss since they see me all the time. So, I send them e-mails with my before & after pic (of the month). And they go WOW! And that's that. DH has made a comment when it comes to sex, that he notices then. People in the back of our plant, who don't see me often, will once in a while say they can tell I've lost weight, ask me how much, etc. First, I love to hear that they can tell- because sometimes I can't tell myself When they ask how much, I get dodgy. And on smoke breaks, I don't like when people just want to talk about how much more I've lost since xxx. Especially since I'm in perma-bandster hell till my next surgery. And word spread like wildfire about me having to do a revision surgery, and I know that makes a lot of people think "She should have done the other one", or "It's not going to work".. the last one is how I feel right now. Just tough spots, and wish it wasn't a hot topic.

Yes, I have experienced that pain and I ended up having a port that would bonk against my rib area and cause pain that got worse and worse. I would call your surgeon, be very adament that you need to be seen, they need to determine what is going and then fix it! I ended up having a port revision with a low profile port that was smaller and thinner. My surgeon was very responsive to my needs. Good luck to you and do not take no for an answer!!!

You're losing much faster than I did (I averaged about 2 pounds/1kg per week), and I wasn't a revision patient. Just be patient and kind to yourself and stick to your plan and you'll get where you want to be.

Hello, I had the lap band 05/07/07 and I'm at my goal wieght, my port really sticks out and gets in the way even. I just got authorization from my ins. for the revision and were gonna due it in Jan/09 . My question is how long will I need off work, I dont want to really take any time cause I dont have the sick time!! And do they fill me again right away or do I wait??? I can take 4 days off work thats about it.

Just a die note I love the nut work you use in the states to describe your primary local dr. We call them gps in Australia, as in, general practioner. One thing that people should be aware of is that different types of WLS will not work for everyone. The band works great for some and not others, same as sleeve and bypass. When I originally went to my surgeon we discussed my reflux and how it could disappear with the sleeve but maybe not and then I would need to think of other options. As he discribed it the sleeve is a high pressure environment so I will be revising to a RNY next week. I also have another issues. Glad I got my sleeve as it did help me lose some original weight.

as others have said, weight loss after revisions is almost always slower than after a virgin surgery. Plus you're starting at a lower BMI to boot (and starting BMI is another factor in how fast or slow the weight loss is). Honestly, even given that, you're still losing faster than most people who've had a revision (and even faster than some of us slow-pokes who had a virgin surgery!). You are doing great - I'd quit worrying about it. Stay if the scale if it's playing with your mind too much - maybe just weigh once a week or a couple of times a month. If the general trend is down, you're good.

I was sleeved 7 years ago and regained all the weight. I maintained my weight loss for 5 years and then over a 2.5yr period I gained it all back. I am now scheduled to have a revision surgery. I feel a lot of shame about regaining, which I am now learning isn't helpful. What I have learn't from regaining is that I have an addiction to food. For me to be successful going forward I need to focus on what motivates me to overeat, and come at the problem from a psychological perspective. Despite everyone saying that you need to work on your head, after my surgery I thought I would never regain and I could get away with not looking at how I became morbidly obese in the first place. I don't know what is happening for you, but if you haven't already I would possibly look into Overeaters Anonymous or seeking help from a therapist, plus a dietician.

Hello my name is Marisa, I live in Perris Ca, I'm waiting to be approved for revision from lap band to sleeve. My support group is also like an hour away. How's it going with your journey?

Hey friends - I have not posted on this site in such a long time. I have had a year of pure hell. And that's putting it lightly. I had my lap band placed November 13th, 2009. In the first 4 months I lost 45 pounds. It will be 2 years since I had the band in 2 days. Since then I have not lost about 8 more pounds. I worked my butt of trying to lose this weight. I was very cautious about what I was eating and following the lap band diet. I even joined Gold's Gym and hired a personal trainer for an entire year. Even though I could only afford to see her two times a month, when I saw her, she worked me to the bone. I managed to lose about 8 pounds. My lowest weight was 192. Before at 250 pounds Resized to 81% (was 640 x 423) - Click image to enlarge After 199 pounds Fast forward to 2011. Starting in January I had to stop my membership and personal training because it was way too expensive. I then went on to joint a gym called LA Boxing where you used boxing gloves and hit the bag and worked with a class tought by a trainer. The fun didn't last long. In march I started having severe pain. I found out that I had more ovarian cysts (i have a long history of ovarian cysts) that were pretty big. I was on birth control but obviously it wasn't working too well. Usually when you are on birth control you not supposed to ovulate which causes ovarian cysts. On April 28th, I had to have an Ovarian Cystectomy. The doctor was actually thinking about removing the whole entire right ovary because I constantly had ovarian cysts on that side. But they ended up saving it. I had what was called a hemorrhagic cyst that was actually inside my ovary. They removed the cyst. I went home and recovered. As I was getting ready to come back to work I started having really bad pain in my stomach and my stomach was really distended. I called my OBGYN and he told me to take a beano and assumed I had gas. It didn't seem right. I went to the ER. The doctors found that I had what was called a hematoma. It was about the size of a softball. I was hospitalized for 5 days and was given antibiotics and a PCA machine that distributed pain medicine Dialuded to me .I was out of work for a total of 7 weeks. Here is a picture of my Hematoma. Basically the left side is me right before I went to the ER. You can see my stomach is severely bloated and on the top you can see where the hematoma is. On the right is me after 5 days in the hospital and you'll see that the stomach is less distended. They went under a ultrasound and drained the 7cc's of blood out of my stomach. But I'm still distended: I wanted to get back on track with my weight loss so I went to my surgeon and got saline put in my band. I found out later that my band was way too tight. Tight enough where they had to remove all the saline for a few weeks because my band was causing my esophagus to almost dilate. Now keep in mind that this is the second time something like this had happened. This was getting old. Here is a picture of my band. The picture is my band under a fluro xray. As you can see it's extremely swollen and too tight: So I went back to my doctor and he barely put any saline in there so I didn't feel any restriction at all. I just dealt with it and tried just counting my calories and working out. My lap band was pretty much useless from that point out. I still had to deal with acid reflux. During the summer I had to deal with recurring ovarian cysts and then I developed kidney stones. FUN! Not. So because of this crap I was unable to work out. Let me tell you aside form the health issues I had I felt like I never had the restriction I wanted. I lost the estimated 50 pounds with a combination of the weight I initially lost straight out of surgery from the liquid diet, and then dieting on my own and working out with a personal trainer and working out on my own 5 days a week for 2 hours a day. I'm starting to get frustrated with this band because I feel like it isn't working. I'm following all the rules, I don't understand. I feel like I regret getting this band. I've been going in for adjustments like 10 times each year. And 5 of those times I've been told that I'm already tight enough so I wasted $30 for them to tell me I'm fine. I would walk out of that office in tears. So that summer I had a conversation with my surgeon expressing that I'm looking into possibly getting a revision surgery to bypass. I was sick of the bullshit. He told me to come talk to him about that in November. I would of been 2 years out, and he felt I should wait until 2 years out to talk about this. By this time I have already gained 10 pounds. Lets fast forward to Friday 11/4/2011. I was feeling extreme stomach pain all week. I already had to visit the ER once because the pain was so severe. It felt like a burning pain in my upper stomach right above my belly button but kinda off to the left. The pain was very constant. Never went away. Earlier in the week I saw my bariatric surgeon who prescribed me a medicine called Carafate. It works mainly in the lining of the stomach by adhering to ulcer sites and protecting them from acids, enzymes, and bile salts. It's main function is for ulcers. He also prescribed me liquid oxycodone. I had to take double the dosage for it to help with the pain. So here I am Friday going back to the ER because the pain meds they gave me isn't working. I'm in agony. 10/10 pain scale. The doctor in the ER calls my surgeon and they decide to admit me to investigate what's going on with me. So that Saturday I saw a GI doctor who looked at my CT scan and Xrays and said that I was severely constipated. He felt that constipation was the diagnoses to why I was in so much pain. He was the one telling me I'm full of **** literally, when I was thinking the exact thing about him figuratively because I knew I was having normal bowel movements and there was no way that constipation would of caused that much pain. So his solution.. he wanted the nurse to give me an enema. Ugh...not fun.. not fun at all. They literally had an IV pole that was holding this substance that was going to be my enema. It took the nurse about 5 different times for all the Fluid to "go in". SO after several bathroom trips, I was finally cleaned out. I didn't feel any different. I still felt that severe pain. So I was right.. that GI doctor was really full of ****. So he comes back on Sunday to see how I'm doing. I told him that I felt a lot of pain still. So, he wanted to do an endoscopy. So I had an endoscopy scheduled on Monday. So they brought me to the endoscopy. I don't remember anything. Which was good considering they gave me anesthesia to knock me out. It came back that I had what was called gastritis. Which is pretty much inflammation of the stomach lining. I couldn't accept that this was the cause of my pain. I just didn't seem right. My surgeon came in and we spoke about what they found out. He felt that it is very possible that my band was causing this pain. It felt that I may have some adhesions stuck around my band. It's also very possible that after 2 years of having a lap band in my body that my body is rejecting this foreign object. He told me that he was going to discharge me on that Tuesday and I should call and make an appointment with him to schedule surgery to get my lap band taken out. So here it was Tuesday, I went home. I was so happy to be home. I spent the rest of the day sleeping mostly. Wednesday came around and that morning I was in severe pain. The oxycodone wasn't helping at all. By 5:00PM I called my husband and said I need to go to the ER. As soon as I got into a bed, the ER doctor called and spoke with surgeon and the surgeon wanted to talk to me so he brought the mobile phone into my room and I spoke with him. He asked me if I would like to be admitted and on Friday they take the lap band out. That was the best thing I have heard spoken to me in a very long time. I was 90% sure that this was the cause of my pain. So here we are on Friday 11/11/2011. I'm sitting here in my hospital bed typing this long story about the reason why I've decided to take out this lapband I now call a CRAPband. I'm mad that I chose lapband instead of gastric bypass. I'm mad because I was trying to be safe and avoid invasive surgery with gastric bypass. After much education on the gastric bypass from talking to other friends who have had it and going to a seminar, I'm confident that this is what I want to do. Unfortunately, I will not be able to get the bypass when they take the band out. I have to wait 6 weeks or so for my stomach to heal and then I will be getting gastric bypass. I also have to go through the entire insurance requirements again. I'm fine with that. It's 9:00AM and I'm very nervous about today. Here is a picture of me in my hospital bed typing this to you: Resized to 81% (was 640 x 480) - Click image to enlarge At 4:30PM today I will be laying on that OR table and I will be saying goodbye to something that has done almost nothing for me but cause me emotional and physical pain. I will update you on what happens. I will update you as in the next 2 weeks I recover from this. Please keep me in your prayers and thoughts. I'm really nervous. Until next time, Jessica Here's a picture of me when I'm not in a hospital bed: