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I am also concerned.I want a successful revision...years later I don't want regrets because there will be not a 3rd surgery...can't do it.

Well im atheist and I am having the bypass done on November 16th. My reflux is too bad and the sleeve is not an option. Many people revise from the sleeve to the bypass cause the sleeve tends to give you bad reflux. Can't go that route. I already had my gall bladder out earlier this year.

With your current bmi I would go for the sleeve over bypass. I had my band removed and gained a lot. It's hard to remember years later what it feels like with zero restriction. I was like an empty pit and completely starving in the months before my sleeve.

I have two more nutritionist appointments to go before I get a date, all my other pre op tests are done...and I find myself thinking "what if I would be better off with gastric bypass?". My only reasoning behind that is for faster, guaranteed weight loss. Has anyone else experienced this? I really had my mind set on being sleeved, now I'm second guessing.

BCBS has so many different plans - that even have the same names - so you need to just call & ask. My husband works for a tiny company & we have BCBS Texas (not Health Select though) & they told us there is a bariatric surgery rider that the company could add on to the policy, but his company didn't choose it, so I was self-pay. Again, there are tons of different plans even through BCBS & different companies even if someone else has Health Select, so it's best to just call them. Some plans that do cover bariatric surgery only cover the lapband or bypass & not the sleeve too, so it's best to call & see what they say is covered & what hoops you have to jump through to get approval if they do cover it.

I'm in Stanton, DE and will be having my sleeve done by Dr. Peters as well. I have my medical clearance I am waiting on insurance approval! Nervous as heck. How did you like Dr. Peters? On Obesity Help, the members talk about their sleeves starting around 2 oz for some. Do you know what size he does? And did he discuss the possibility of being converted to a bypass if there are complications?

I currently have an empty lap band and will be having the sleeve revision surgery on November 20th. I hope and believe I will be a success story, so I will have to check back in 6-12 months. Good luck to you!

Congrats! How did your surgery go? I am very nervous to have the revision. I am 230 and want to make sure I am making the right decision!

Had my gallbladder removed and I am still vomiting and the various pain is not happening.I am going for barium swallow to see what is truly happening.He performs revisions in 2 steps.Band removal then revision.I am not jumping for joy.I have had deep vein thrombosis...I have to now put bypass back on the table.

I am scheduled for an upper Fi with Barium,Endoscopy ...had a CAT scan that showed a mild hiatal hernia....sick all the time especially at night I feel the band clenching...I awaken in pain or gasping....I need this revision to sleeve or bypass...not sure if it is the sleeve because I have to see what the results of these tests unveil....the band is a nightmare...it will cause mild to severe damage long term...believe me....

I am still undecided about the revision.Is it sleeve or bypass?

I'm an insurance agent, and have never seen a claim be paid for an excluded procedure retroactively. Tricare does cover the procedure at MTFs that offer the procedure just to let you know that is how I had my revision covered 100% by Tricare Prime.

Sorry - I didn't have a revision so I don't know the guidelines for a revision. I was also self-pay since my insurance policy does not cover any WLS. Hopefully my response will bump this & someone with insurance experience can chime in.

@Firebolt. Will do! I'm supposed to go to education class this week on revision process and still waiting on endoscopy to be scheduled Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

the week after my surgery, my ONLY friend lol came over every day telling me of other people who had this surgery who have failed and are big and fat again. she finally stopped. I was just thinking we will probably not be friends for long if i loose, I have always been a size or 2 bigger than her. and she has admitted to feeling "pissy" when i loose weight. she has also seemed pissy when i quit smoking. also, i know someone who had the bypass, lost like 100lbs, gained some back, and was very jealous of a co-worker with the lapband doing very well. so even people in our own shoes can be jealous. so sad. I hope i don't end up friendless...

Look up chef dave - he had the gastric bypass and I believe he has a "for dummies" book too - Kaylee Ann ~ Surgiversary: 6/11/12

There's been some patients that had part of the hospital bills from complications covered by insurance, but others have had complete exclusion of any complication bills being paid by insurance that do not cover the initial procedure. It seems it's all in how the hospital bills the charges, and how the doctor handles the complications. It's a tough situation to be in as I would not want bypass, and I would have self-paid for my revision if insurance would not have come through for me.

HI all -- I am worried! So I am one month post-sleeve revision (from the band) and today was my first "food" day. Being the contrarian type, I decided to "test" the waters, as it were, by eating "more than I should"....but I am not feeling restriction!! Here's what I had: Believe me, this will not be a habit, and I've asked hubby to throw away all tempting food items. I started with chicken - about 1.5 oz....went down great - in fact, in my 3 years banded, I was never able to get chicken down. So I was glad. BUt I still felt "hollow" so I went on...had some cherries. WOrked out great. Then had some of my son's salad (with croutons and cherry tomatoes). Still great, a bit hollow. Then, I lost it! I was feeling so "good" -- and worried about it (why can I eat so much!!) that I had a granola bar, graham crackers, little PB cups and mini chocolates my poor son brought back from a birthday party -- and still, not FULL!! I know I'm not "supposed" to eat this stuff, but I thought I'd get restructoin (you know, the negative reinforcement??) WHAT GIVES??? Is this supposed to happen?? It's also my 2nd day of monthlies, and while on band, the monthlies usually triggered total openness and ability to eat (except for chicken). But I Thought the sleeve operated differently? Thanks in advance for your thoughts! I'm really worried.... Danielle

OK this post will be long and involved. SO if you don't wanna read it then skip over it. I sent Dr. HUNKY (BILLY) an email stating that I did not want to do the surgery on Friday before having an Endoscopy (ENDO) done. His reply to my email is listed below. It is long so bear with me. __________________________________________________ We can do the endoscopy at the same time if you want. The surgery we have already discussed, namely the correct positioning of your port has to happen anyway. I think it is very unlikely that you have an erosion. Your symptoms are not as dramatic as the patients I have treated with erosion. Because I don't think an erosion is very likely I was hoping to avoid the endoscopy entirely. My thinking was that if the laparoscopy which we would perform at the same time as your port repositioning was totally normal then there would be very little chance that you have an erosion. Erosions always cause lots of adhesions between the liver and the stomach and the port tubing is always wraped up in lots of fat. It is not a subtle finding and easy to diagnose. If on laparoscopy your have none of these findings then I don't think you need an endoscopy. Your symptoms are not at all very suggestive of an erosion. Erosion is just one of the things on the list of things to consider. If you want us to perform an endoscopy while you are under anesthesia we can do so, it just might not be necessary. I think there is a very low liklihood you have an erosion so I was thinking how to minimize the need to perform an endoscopy. If you want to have an endoscopy we would perform the endoscopy first. If there is an erosion I would either wake you up to discuss the erosion and show you pictures and make a reccomendation to you and then you would be able to participate in the decision as to what to do. If there was no erosion we would proceed with our planned revision of your port site to secure the port and reposition the band tubing. Let me know what your thoughts are. If you want to do the endoscopy fist and then schedule the second procedure at a later date that is fine with me. Another strategy would be to perform the laparoscopy to examine what the surgical site looks like (rule out all the adhesions) If it looks fine then proceed with the port repositioning and tubing repositioning. If it looks like an erosion then proceed with the endoscopy. If there was an erosion I could then stop and discuss the findings with you. I'm sure it is possible to get the endoscopy scheduled for friday. It would be easy if we combined it with the laparoscopy and the information at laparoscopy would be useful anyway. If you just want to have a routine endoscopy in the GI suite then let me know and we will work on getting that approved for friday. If you want us to do the endoscopy simultaneously with the laparoscopy then we can do that on friday because bothe procedures would be done in the main operating room which we already have scheduled. As I said, your symptoms are unusual and don't really fall into the pattern of symptoms I have seen in the erosions I have treated. They really appear more like an allergic reaction at this point. I have one other patient who had a red port site after placement of a lap-band in Mexico. I did the endoscopy first and could not find an erosion. I then replaced her port and found lots of adhesions and lots of Fluid around her port site. Now I have scheduled her for another endoscopy just to be sure I didn't miss a very timy erosion. She has no complaints and has not had any problems but she still ended up with multiple procedues. I think that your situation would be similar. I don't think that I will find an erosion on your endoscopy, If we do the endoscopy first but then when I replace the port I find fluid around the port and adhesions with the laparoscopy I will be concerned that you had an infection at some point around the port. We always worry about erosions and since we are not perfect we always wonder if we missed the erosion at the time of the first endoscopy and often would reccomend a second one to be absolutely sure. I hope this helps. Let me know which way you want to proceed or if you need any more information to help make this decision. In the meantime I will see about getting time to do the endoscopy on friday if that is all you want to do. Again I think the liklihood of you having an erosion is very, very low. Dr. Billy ____________________________________________________ Don't you just love him???? So, I am gonna have the ENDO at the same time as my surgery on Friday. That will put to rest any idea if I have erosion or not. OH!! And Donali see in the email where he states that erosions cause lots of adhesions? You came into my thoughts while I was reading that cause didn't you say Lopez said you had lots of them. He thought you were rejecting the band when in fact it was the erosion causing the adhesions. Anyway, I am feeling so much better now. THanks to all of you great people for listening and letting me vent to you. You are all angels to me. VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A co-worker of mine, who prior to my surgery was all about helping me along. She was a successful bander who wanted to take me under her wing. Post-op she changed. Negitive nelly, if you will. She is 3 years post of and has lost 70 lbs. I have no idea what she weighs, she looks nice, not tiny but healthy. She ask me today how much I'd lost. I told her 50+ lbs in 9 months. Rather than saying good job she snickered. She ask how much more I wanted to lose, I said around 50. She plain out said I would never be able to do it with the band and I should have had gastric bypass. If I needed to loose 100 lbs then my doctor never should have done the band. She keeps telling me that I had more to loose than she did. I have never told her my numbers so how the hell does she know. I am sorry, but that is just a b#$%3 thing to say. While my weight loss has slowed, why is it impossible to lose all of my excess body weight? I don't know if I will get that small, but I would at least like to make to the 150's. If you are going to be negitive and discouraging keep it to yourself!

okay I am officially addicted to my 600 lb life show. I watched the where are they show last night. both people have had remarkable losses. Chuck had gastric bypass I think, he has lost from 600 to 248 I think. His wife left him during the process and he was devastated but he regained his focus and actually met someone else. I was inspired by his story and there are others who lose massive amounts of weight and undergo huge skin removal surgeries. So, I am determined to lose my little 13 lbs in the next few months . I have been bummed because after 2 years I'm still not where I want to be and I think my apron tummy is ugly but after seeing how much these people have to go through and the determination it takes for them to even get mobile I am embarrassed to complain about my little problem. I think it shows that even the most obese people can be successful in changing their lives if they want it bad enough.

It's a pretty normal reaction. I remember in college, I joined a Christian fellowship and there was a time we had a 3-weeks fast. It did a number on the brain during the first week. That's how the brain works. It floods you with pleasant memories from tasty meals, in a bid to get you to eat. The brain has set your metabolism and 'weight'. Reducing food triggers the brain to try and restore equilibrium. It's much more than saying "food addiction". It's hard-wiring by the brain that must be bypassed or overcome. That is why many people regain on diets. The brain is sometimes one's biggest adversary.. Hang in there Sent from my SM-N900P using BariatricPal mobile app

re: "I asked my doctor and he said that I could have the surgery on a Friday and go back that Monday. But the more I read on the internet I'm seeing that people take anywhere from 2-6 weeks!" My bet is the doctor estimate is right.... At 58 my surgery went so well I was headed home the same day, had a couple days recovery & by day 3 was (somewhat feebly, given) carrying a few bits of firewood in for the stove. I gladly returned to modified work by day 5. I've heard of a few folks needing as much as a week, but we are all different. IIRC, it was near the 3rd week postOp I went on a solo road trip of 4 or 5 days. Learning how to eat in mushie stage in a non-protected envionment was a challenge. Certainly read up on all options to your situation and explore any questions before you consent. Sleeve wasn't an option when I had my Band done in 2004....yet given a bit of hassle and annoyance at times, I'm satisfied it saved my life, and consider myself a Happy Bandster. Should the time come for revision, replacement or repair, certainly I would hope further advanatages were obtainable. As it is, the worst day of my PostOp Band life has been better than the Best day of the last 5 years PreBand. If anyone asks about the (small) port bulge, I tell them that's my Alien Implant. Good luck in your journey.

I found out today that tricare denied the revision request they say it would qualify for revision but the Dr that took the lap band out did not show medical necessity for removal. I have ask his office to review his notes and see if they can correct or add to my reason for removal because it was a necessity... bummed I still have hope a little

The fundamental problem on this site is that people start to compare their results to others when they shouldn't. It's not a competition. We all have our own race to win so best to stay focused on that. Everyone will lose differently. My surgeon said that when we get a gastric bypass people lose in the first 8-12 months and if I stall then change up the diet. I am 5 feet, was 210 and now 161 and my surgery was on march 31. But I have lost a ton of inches from all over my body and my clothes are huge and I just feel energised and can actually work out and not huff and puff anymore. I love my body more than anything now. I am enjoying it all