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I had my band for 5 years before I had my revision. I initially lost 60 pounds and kept it off. 6 months isn't very long to say that you have given it your all. Is there a support system at your Dr's office? Is there a nurse/NUT that you can speak with? You should be losing weight if you are eating less and only healthy foods. A NUT should be able to help you. I did experience the same things as you but I think giving it a longer go before you quickly switch to the VSG. I wonder if a doctor would do the revision anyway thinking that you may "give up" so to speak with the VSG which is not reversible. Best Wishes.

I have Aetna and am being revised from a band to a sleeve. I have been approved with no pre requisites, but my case may be different from yours. I didn't have to go to any classes but I was going anyway as I had heard that they require people to do 3 mos with a nutritionist. Anyway, my doctor sent off for approval and next thing you know I get a letter and a call telling me that I have been approved. I meet with my doctor next week to talk about the surgery.

When is your revision? Mine is scheduled for this coming Tuesday. Thankfully he said after I come out of the anesthesia he will do a fill. He's not the surgeon that put the band in, because they were complete idiots. And my new doctor is amazing. He was actually going to take me into surgery yesterday when he couldn't get it, just because he has never missed a port before. Thank god for good surgeons.

Rescue-check out the Mexico/SelfPay Forum. It's pretty informative and you can get lots of insights about various doctors in Mexico and cost effective alternatives to Mexico if you prefer. I really like Dr. Aceves and he seemed like one of the more experienced revision surgeons. See www.mexicalibariatric.com. I had my band removed in June and will be going back for a revision in December. My sleeve will cost $9,500 and I paid $5,000 for the removal. But, most revisionistas who go to Dr. Aceves get it done in one procedure for $10,500. It's a little pricier than some in Mexico but the quality of the team, hospital, and general pre/post coordination is top notch in my opinion. Having said that, there are so many great surgeons so I'm confident you will find a great match. Good luck in your journey.

I am a former bander too. I lost 65 lbs with band then stalled out after 6 months. At a little over a year I had dilation and edg showed my band had slipped. I revised to sleeve May 30 and am down 40 more pounds. Sent from my iPhone using VST

I had revision surgery last month. My port had flipped and had to be turned back around a stitched back down. It was a much easier recovery than the first time for me - not nearly as much pain. The surgery itself was a simple outpatient procedure. It's wasn't bad at all. Good luck to you.

Has anyone had the gastric sleeve done and then have to have the bypass revision surgery? What are the outcomes and things I should watch for. I lost 120 since June 2014. The Dr said I may lose more.... will it be as quick as the sleeve?

Thank you for your suggestion. I have names of several endocrinologists. Issue is many are booked way ahead. I am having symptoms I am concerned about and hope I can get in to one that is a good one. So many are not good Do you know anyone that has Secondary hyperparathyroidism? I had the DS which is worse for issues I think. Especially since it is so long ago. My fatique and mental issues with it are concerning, and I have recently had huge stressor with my husband having heart bypass and aortic valve surgery October 3 and he just got transferred to cardiac rehab. He had serious issues post surgery and I had a hard time not internalizing all the pain , confusion, etc he has had. Thanks Jackie

use the search function at the top of the page and put in hair loss or hairloss or Biotin There TONS of threads around here about it and I think the consensus is that bypass patients usually have worse trouble with it than bandsters. I'll try to dig up one of the threads and put the link here.

Hi everyone...I am new to posting but having been actively reading everyone's advice and couldn't be happier to be going in and getting this part of the journey over with. I am soooo tired of being heavy and hearing people saying "your not that heavy" or "your not heavy enough for surgery".....Well yes I am that heavy and I am heavy enough for surgery!!! The dr's assistant tried talking me into switching to the gastric bypass surgery today saying that the band was going to take more of a commitment on my part than bypass would be and he wanted to know if I was really committed...HELLO I am here and having surgery tomorrow how much more committed can I be. I thought the goal was to excerise and eat healthy???? Anyway enough rambling hopefully I will be home Thursday am and can let you all know how it went....

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I just used UHC as an example of bariatric revision policies for my appeal. Here's what they say: Surgical revision or a second bariatric surgery is proven for inadequate weight loss if the original criteria for bariatric surgery (BMI, co-morbidities and patient selection criteria) continue to be met. Surgical revision of bariatric surgery is proven for complications of the original surgery, such as stricture, obstruction, pouch dilatation, erosion, or band slippage when the complication causes abdominal pain, inability to eat or drink or causes vomiting of prescribed meals. You can see it all on their web site at: https://www.unitedhealthcareonline.com/ccmcontent/ProviderII/UHC/en-US/Assets/ProviderStaticFiles/ProviderStaticFilesPdf/Tools%20and%20Resources/Policies%20and%20Protocols/Medical%20Policies/Medical%20Policies/Bariatric_Surgery.pdf

If you eat too much sugar and your digestive system responds with a surge of fluid and it cause inflammation and nausea as well as tachycardia and sweating and a lot of pain. It usually happens with bypass, rare in the sleeve as our food is still digested normally..

I live in Jackson Co on the MO side but I work in KCK. I had the sleeve in 2011 and I'm having a revision to mini bypass in March. I feel like I'm starting all over but I could probably answer any questions you might have. Dr. Hoehn was going to do my revision but my insurance denied it so I'm going back to Mexico.

Anyone getting bypass in the Dallas area?!

I thought I better start writing about this journey now so I don't forget. I had lap band surgery November 3, 2007. I actually lost about 60 pounds with the lapband at one point but gained most of the weight back. For the first four years of the lap band I was in constant flux. I dieted more in that four years than in the rest of my life. In December 2011 I was back up to 255 pounds. At that point I realized the lap band had failed me and I needed to consider other options. Through a long drawn out process I was accepted by my insurance company to get a revision to the Sleeve. On December 27 I decided to make a radical change in my lifestyle and eating. After confirming with my bariatric surgeon that I qualified for the revision I decided to become a raw foodist for the next five months. It was a very positive experience and I learned a great deal about health and nutrition. I have to say I read everything I could get my hands on regarding raw foodism, veganism, and the like. I finally understood what it is to make a very real lifestyle change. Understanding that eating processed, boxed, bagged food was not the answer, it finally dawned on me that what I was missing was the live enzymes of fresh fruits and vegetables that no one seems to think are important, or simply don't know that they're absolutely necessary and needed in the body. I watched quite a few documentaries and I'd like to recommend that you also consider watching these few. Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead was the first documentary I watched; that became life-changing. Foodmatters, Food Inc., The Gerson Miracle, Burzynski, Forks over Knives, and The Beautiful Truth. Sorry more than I thought... Anyway I guess what I'm trying to elude to is that we've all had an eating problem to the point where we've had to have surgery once or twice and for some of us it is still escaping us as to how we can actually make a real change that will ultimately save us. So many times I have heard people say I could never give up sugar, coffee, meat, wheat, bacon, soda, etc... When I hear this I think then a lifestyle change for you is probably not something that is going to happen for you. How much do you truly want good health? Maybe it's time to start pushing yourself in new and different directions, maybe there is new and exciting information to be gleaned that will help you to a better and healthier you. For me being a 80-10-10 raw foodist wasn't for me. But I did adopt eating a high fresh fruit and raw vegetable diet into my new lifestyle. I have decided to include cold blooded sea creatures in my diet as well as cooked Beans and rice in moderation, but also to maintain a balanced healthful diet for me. Please understand I am writing this as much to myself for my own remembrance as I am sharing my experience with you. The day of surgery I weighed 204 lbs. Two days after surgery I weighed 213 lbs. that was disappointing but the Water weight gain from th IV was to be expected. Today is 7/1/2012 and I am at 202. So from December 27th 2011 to June 25th 2012 I lost 56 lbs. I am so excited about where I am going... God bless us and keep us! Mardee

there is a very famous opera singer who had bypass surgery and my mom said it did not affect her singing...i will find out who she is...maybe it's you? my mom is in new york and always goes to the opera..seaview

Has anyone had this done? What's the pros and cons of it over lapriscopic? My surgeon decided to leave the practice and now ill be seeing the other surgeon (which things happen for a reason) and he does both lap and open but prefers to do open. He's pretty honest and reather do open so, that's what I'm thinking of going with, partly because he sutures and they disolve with open instead of staples being in my body forever with lap. I just wanna hear if anyone has any thoughts on this. I know its one long cut (which I'm ok with) instead of 4-6 different little cuts. Anyways just curious because surgery is going to be in april and wanna decide before this on what may be better. I am definitely leaning towards the open though, also what's the down time for both?

Hi, I haven't been revised yet but if you go look at the responses to my previous posts you'll get a lot of answers to these questions. 1. 500 cal??? Maybe in the beginning but not forever. 2. Nope - not recommended with any surgery - its just one of the things you need to accept 3. The part of the stomach left is very muscular and less likely to stretch (unless you really push it) 4. I can't attest to that as I'm not revised yet 5. For some the reduced Ghrelin does suppress appetite 6. hair loss is common after general anesthesia and if you are low on Protein so expect some around 3 months post op (happened with the band to) as long as you keep your protein up though it should grow back and be fine. Good luck!

For treating a regain problem, I prefer the DS as it is stronger metabolically than either the VSG or RNY - the RNY is too close to the VSG in strength to reliably offer a significant improvement in weight loss, from what I have seen over the years. Figure maybe 20lb loss on average - about what one would expect from going through all the intense dieting associated with going through surgery again. (There are some who do significantly better, bit it seems to be more a function of their determination to "make this work" or "not screw it up again" than the actual surgery itself. Call it something like a surgical placebo, lol.) By your surgeons not finding the codes for the DS implies that they are talking about the newer SIPS/SADI/"loop DS" which is a single anastomosis adaptation of the traditional BPD/DS (biliopancreatic diversion) which has been routinely covered by US insurance and Medicare for the past 14-15 years, but is a more complex procedure that relatively few bariatric surgeons perform. Some practices that do the SIPS/SADI use the BPD/DS billing codes which is technically insurance fraud, but if they're comfortable doing it, that's their concern. Revising the VSG to a DS, of either flavor, is straightforward as each use the VSG as its basis (some don't even consider it a revision, more a "completion" of the ultimate configuration.) The strong point of the BPD/DS is its regain resistance - regain is possible as it is with any of these procedures, but it is harder. I know many with the DS who are 10-20 years out (my wife included) who are still maintaining a healthy weight; some are up a bit more and working on losing their "Covid 19" - just like "normal" people but major regains are relatively uncommon. The SIPS/SADI type of DS seems to fall somewhere in between the VSG/RNY and the BPD/DS - I have seen a few in the various forums who have had it and seem to be doing well with it, but it doesn't have as long a history. Any of these procedures - the RNY, DS or SIPS - will be somewhat fussier and less care-free than your VSG when it comes to supplements and follow up; the RNY is maybe a bit less so, but one can get into some serious trouble with any of them if one slacks off. If keeping up with supplements and annual labs is not an issue with you, then any of them should be fine.

You had your surgery on the 7th? So not quite a week ago which is very early days. This is major surgery, so it can take a while for the pain to ease and we all heal at our own rate. I felt like I'd been hit by a bus for a good two weeks. Can't say if it would have been the same if I'd had a sleeve, but the Mini Gastric Bypass/ Omega Loop is a shorter operation than the RNY but still took me a while to recover.

I'm completely lost and unsure about doing a sleeve or bypass. I am female 37 yes old, no kids in the future, 172cm and weigh 111 kilos. I have a small hernia and the surgeon recommends a bypass. I guess I'm apprehensive because I focused so much on doing a sleeve. I am an active individual who would like to add muscle while loosing fat. I'm afraid with a bypass I wont absorb necessary nutrients to achieve these goals. Anyone out there with similar situation? Is there a success bypass story where adding muscle mass wasnt a big challenge? Sent from my BLA-L29 using BariatricPal mobile app

Welcome and best wishes with the insurance approval. I'll tell ya the sleeve is fabulous. NO sliming, puking, good foods getting stuck constantly, and the gammet of other issues that are hosted by the band. The sleeve works like the band is supposed to, and the restriction is immediately, and forever. It's not a magic pill, but 10000 times better than the crapband. I've had one as well, and was so glad to be able to revise to VSG.