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I choose bypass because I didn't want my stomach completely removed. In some worse cases like throat cancer your old stomach can be reattached even though it is rarely done I like to know it is still possible.

Until noon today I thought I was going to be a sleeve patient. But then my surgeon in my pre op appt told me he thought the bypass was a better option. I have a hiatal hernia and reflux. So here I am. Surgery is scheduled for 2/28.

[ATTACH]44315[/ATTACH] Hi I had gastric Bypass surgery on Sept.26 2013 I weigthed 334 pounds and today I weigth 230 im very happy. And loving The surgery and new me.

Hi: Sorry to hear about your troubles. I hope that your revision works out well. You've been so successful so far. I'm sure you'll continue to do well because you've come so far and done so well already. I've never heard of a sleeve revision. What do they revise? Please educate this community by sharing what you know and how you proceed through this revision. Thank you. Sue

I was set up to have the DS on AUG 13th, but I may go for the RNY do to my doctor just had spinal surgery and he is saying that he will not be physically capable of performing the DS by my surgery date. I can push the date out and have the DS done, but all of my support from family flying in and papers have been set for my current date and they are very hard to change. My Surgery is Aug 13th. And I was excited til today. My Surgeon is basically putting it in my hands to choose. He says that the DS would be better for me. But because there may be complications do to the band not easy to remove that he may not be able to put the sleeve part of the DS and he would probably have to do the RNY anyway. I was mentally prepared for the DS, but now I’m conflicted. I really don’t want to push out my date again.

La di da, la di da...COME ON! UGH! Waiting just sucks! Met the surgeon. He had a whole schpiel about Bariatric surgery. My BMI is low enough to make the LapBand work for me but high enough for RNY to be an option. He said he'd go either way with me since I'm not diabetic and my blood pressure is just on the boarderline. So the desicion is still mine. That made me happy! I was worried I was going to be pushed into bypass and I really don't want that... So the Realize Band is the band this surgeon likes. A few days after my appointment, a person from the surgeon's office called and asked about my insurance coverage. She said she was going to request my records from my PCP and send me in the info for approval. I didn't think it'd be this fast!! Who knows though, I probably won't pass the first round anyway, right?

Mine was removed way before my bypass but my surgeon removes it at the time if RNY.

YES IT WORKS!! NO, it's NOT magic! Comon guys--remember the ol' "tool" jazz. Is it easier to pound in a nail with a hammer or with a rock? With a hammer of course--but you STILL have to POUND! I am relatively new to the band, but in my experience life is consistent. There certainly are people who have gastric bypass and gain weight back. Do you seriously think you can get rid of the fat demon forever? I believe with all my heart you CAN win the war--but don't think for a second there won't be lots of battles! Thinking the band will do it all, or gastric bypass, or lipo or phen/fen or whatever is just setting you up to let your guard down when the demon raises its head. IT WILL. Get READY for those times! By being here DeLarla's enlisting help in her battle--and thereby all of our battles. You never know what one thing you might read herr will get you out of that "I've gotta eat!" struggle. This band is a great opportunity. Please overcome your fear and grab it for all you're worth--but steel yourself to WORK at it and come here and share your failures and your successes and Celebrate everyone of them! You COULD fail--but there is a VERY GOOD chance you CAN SUCCEED! ANd what the heck would it be worth if it were easy? Sorry....hope I don't sound like I'm preaching. I've just been around for awhile and I've seen what works and what doesn't. And work is what it takes--and sometimes there is incredible joy in that.

I was told Highmark BCBS has been covering gastric banding for the last month. But yet once again TODAY I have been denied.They will cover Gastric Banding now But not Lapband what is gasticbanding if not Lapband.They say it is not FDA approved.My doctor said yes it is.I have Plenty of co morbitities. I have had six months of doctor supervised nutrion counseling and a mental evaluation for GAStic Bypass. I dont want GAStric Bypass. Thank's for letting me VENT.:angry Ladysplenda

I have been thinking about talking to my doctor about being referred to lapband surgery. My fear is that he will say, "You aren't big enough." It's true that I only weigh around 210. But I am also only 5'3". My BMI is 37 and I am starting to develop health problems. I have PCOS, high cholesterol and triglycerides, exercise-induced asthma, and prediabetes. I have made numerous attempts to lose weight, all with no lasting success. I see all these posts from people that weighed 300+ pounds when they had surgery, and I really wonder if I am making too much of my weight. And then I think that if I take care of it now, I won't get to that point. I won't have full-blown diabetes or heart disease (both of which are very prominent in my family). I won't have to have a double knee replacement like my mom did. Or triple/quadruple bypasses like my uncle and one of my grandfathers. Or die of a heart attack like my other grandfather. So yeah, I have no idea what to think. I am caught between thinking this is the best thing that I can do and thinking that I should wait until I weigh more and have worse problems.

The big losers do not necessarily have more willpower or desire. The important difference between the big losers and the re-gainers may be how easy they find the journey to be. Surprisingly, you can control a large part of how easy or hard it is to lose weight. The weight loss journey is not just about changing your digestive system through surgery. It is also about changing your entire lifestyle to facilitate weight loss. Weight Loss Surgery is a Weight Loss Tool, Not a Cure Weight loss surgery is a tool. It can make you less hungry by reducing the size of your stomach by inserting a band around your stomach (Lap-band), removing the majority of your stomach pouch (vertical sleeve gastrectomy) or folding or stapling away the majority of your stomach pouch (gastric bypass, duodenal switch, and sleeve plication). The vertical sleeve gastrectomy reduces hunger by reducing the amount of ghrelin, a hunger hormone, that your stomach produces. The gastric bypass and duodenal switch reduce nutrient absorption. All of these surgeries can help you eat less and lose weight, but none of these surgeries are fail-proof. You can “cheat” by eating high-calorie foods, drinking high-calorie beverages, drinking beverages while you eat solid foods, and eating without measuring your portions. Successful weight loss requires good choices on your part, and making good choices is easier if you focus on your entire lifestyle, not just the part of your digestive system that was changed with surgery. The Influence of Your Surroundings on Your Weight Think about this scenario. You leave home without breakfast and order a muffin and ice coffee at the drive-through on your way to work. You grab a doughnut at your morning meeting, and go out for lunch with your friends. You order the lunch special with a salad, breadstick, fettuccine alfredo and cheesecake. You nibble on some chocolates from your secretary’s desk as you make your way to the vending machine for a soda in the afternoon. You pick up a pizza on your way home because you know that there is nothing else for dinner. Now compare it to this second scenario. You wake up early to meet your friend for a walk before you get home for a breakfast of scrambled egg whites and spinach. You drive to work and have yogurt and some fruit at your morning meeting. Lunch with your coworkers consists of a green salad with canned tuna, and you have a hard-boiled egg for your afternoon snack. You are able to get dinner on the table quickly when you get home because you only need to defrost the meals that you prepared earlier in the week. Which scenario do you think you can help you lose weight? The second one, of course. So why not make it a reality? Do Your Surroundings Encourage Weight Loss or Weight Gain? You have battled your weight for years, if not for your entire life before weight loss surgery. In all likelihood, your environment was set up for you to eat. Take a good, hard look at your environment. Is it more like the first scenario or the second one described above? You have the ability to make it more like the second one. Notice the following items from the two scenarios. Exercise was automatic in the second one because you planned to meet a friend – so you couldn’t back out. Preparing your dinners ahead of time meant that you could eat quickly without going to a fast food restaurant. Packing your own snacks meant that you did not have to eat a doughnut in your morning meeting or chocolates in the afternoon. Make the “Right” Choice Automatic The fewer tough choices you have, the less likely you are to make poor decisions. Set up your environment so that the healthier actions are easier. To make healthy eating easier: Prepare plenty of meals ahead of time so that you always have a ready-to-eat, healthy option to prevent you from opting for take-out. Throw away the take-out menus that you used to store in the kitchen. The extra time it takes you to look up the phone numbers and menus online may be enough to let you come to your sense and realize that you don’t want fast food. Keep your kitchen stocked with all kinds of healthy foods, so that no matter your craving, you have a healthy answer. Do not keep unhealthy foods at home. If they are not there, you cannot eat them. Make sure that the healthy option is the default option. For example, measure your cheese and cut and wash fruits and vegetables ahead of time so that it is easier to snack on them than on cookies. Also consider these ideas: Meet your friends for walks or shopping trips instead of for meals at restaurants. Park your car a few blocks away from work so that you have no choice but to walk those few blocks again at the end of the day as you leave work. Do not drive past drive-thrus if they are too tempting. Also, do not keep money in the car, and consider removing your car’s cup holders so that eating in the car is no longer an option. All weight loss surgery patients have their own struggles. Far from being wimpy, removing these obstacles rather than fighting them is the best way to overcome them. The weight loss journey path will always have speed bumps and potholes, but it will be a lot smoother if you set up your lifestyle to promote better choices all day.

maybe this time around you're not as swollen inside. How do they do a revision surgery?

I’m struggling with this diet terribly. I’m 16 days post op so I’m suppose to only eat puréed food. I can’t do it. In fact a big part of me regrets doing the gastric bypass altogether. I know that’ll probably change once I start losing the weight but I miss bread. I haven’t puréed anything and I seem to be dealing with it fine. I’m hungry coming evening and I don’t seem to get that full feeling. Struggle hopeless. Any advice encouraged. Thx!

I too have waited many years thinking about WLS. I work in healthcare and see so many bypass complications that haunt patients for years. I don't see band patients though (I work in a bariatric hospital). I have the issue that even though I know I'm overweight I don't feel overweight. I'm very active and "see" myself skinnier then I really am. I lost 110 lbs in one year (11 yrs ago) doing Atkins/exercise.....kept it off for 2-3 yrs then it started to creep back. I've gained 60 back total, so not a total loss! I decided on getting banded this past fall, have done all the work for approval (lost 18 lbs too!) and got my surgery date today! April 16th will be here before I know it!! I wish you the best with your band and know that we are taking a great step towards healthier lives!!!

Thank you to each and everyone that replied. Like Alexandra I was told by my doctor that I could eat or drink anything that I could tolerate. It was only in my research that I found that carbonated beverages could cause medical problems and I wasnt sure if this information was directed to all gastric patients or bypass patients specifically. Of course I wouldnt go through the surgery and not follow the rules which is why I was inquiring. Thanks again for the information. Tied2BeFit

Hi Maggiec, yes I saw that Oprah show. It was on addiction transferance. I really felt for those women, they had to deal with many different addictions in their lives not only food. I also wondered if these women would have struggled with these addictions at some point in their lives without having gastric bypass surgery. Just a thought that crossed my mind as I was watching it. As someone else had mentioned in another post, if you have an addictive personality you are more susceptable to abusing substances or other activities that are addictive. It could be drugs, alcohol, food, sex, gambling, exercise (I wish) or anything that gives you the high. What kind of bothered me about the show was that it was presented as if these women's lives got much worse after WLS and it was the surgery that made them get addicted to the other stuff. They didn't deal with the whole issue of addiction in their lives separate from the WLS but -- I guess that was the point of the show. I wonder if they'll do a show about people who low fat diet and get addicted to other things - I doubt it. Just a thought.

I had the total band revision done on Tuesday! I had to stay over night and have been home since Wednesday late morning. This surgery has not been so bad! I have already started my mushies! It is good to eat a little. My Realize band was totally defected and by that I mean that it had again detached itself from the tubing. I am going to have a fill on Wednesday already, trying to get me back on track with the weight loss. I am a bit nervous with the bad experience I have had in the past with the fills not working, but I am hopeful. I had gained 7 pounds from the IV fluids and I have also now lost the same 7 pounds. So if you get on the scale after surgery please do not be surprised by the gain it will just come off fast. Having now been through this surgery two full times and one port revision, I have to say this third time was very easy. Maybe because I knew what was coming next! I also just heard from another LB friend that she also just had her entire band replaced this last week due to leakage. I am not sure what brand of band she has! This is very interesting. I have been told by a lawyer that we have no recourse as long as we are healthy and it has not changed any of our normal life. This was all due to some court case that happened in 1974. It is the chance that we are taking by having a device implanted in our tummy's I guess. oh well, I am thankful to be alive and healthy! Three Cheers to Our LAP BANDS!!!! They do work well with loosing weight even though we may have to go through little glitches! :thumbup:

Some people just don't take to change well. They like it the way it's aways been and when that dynamic is threatened they rebel and repel. Those who are large, seem to be definitely envious, especially those whose insurance won't cover the surgery. They want soooo much to be in your shoes, or for you guys to buddy in the weight loss... but change is happening. It's very difficult for some to be happy for others when the change is that dramatic. Like in divorce... those who used to be friends with the married couple are not split over whom to associate with... no matter how long the friendship. In weight change friendships... many people feel powerful when they believe they one-up someone else by their looks. As if suddenly, that power will either evaporate, or change, or even be transferred. That powerful one, if he/she doesn't know how to deal with that change, will live a life of resentment and that friendship may be doomed. I lost several what I thought were close friends when I started gaining weight. I lost a friend (she and I were pregnant together) and she lost her child. Though we remained somewhat friends during her next pregnancy, she ended up saying something about mine that cut through me like a knife... I asked her to clarify what she meant and she meant what she said and the friendship was over. So, I decided not to tell any of my friends. I'll just say I'm on Atkins or something and that will be that. If for any reason surgery pops-up, I can confidently say, "Of course I didn't have Gastric Bypass Surgery, that's wayyyy too radical for me." No one things of banding first! I could even say that I decided to go to a Nutritionist who put me on a diet, and I joined a gym. I'm not in the mood to be teased or to test their friendships. Maybe I'll come clean in 2 to 3 years, maybe I won't. As for banding surgery being "cheating to lose weight", HA, they don't know. They don't have a clue. Heck, I didn't have a clue and I thought I researched it thoroughly. Good luck everyone and I hope your friendships survive and become renewed. If you need a friend in Pennsylvania, I'm in South Central. Would love to hear from anyone in Maryland, too. Maybe we can be new buddies?

If the protein shakes are so bad you refuse to drink them, they are worthless. They could be the best available in the world but if you can't stomach them, then they are nothing. Slim Fast maakes a Low Carb Diet ready to drink. 20 grams of protein in the can and onlye 2 grams of carbs. The chocolate is pretty darn good. Unjury powder is really good but it's pricey. And there are lots of others. Try to compare the nutritional information on what you're using with other products and see if you can come really close and try that as a substitution. You could always take your "3-scoop protein shake made it with crushed ice and a cup of water and 3-4 strawberries", cut all ingredients in half so that you have an amount you can drink in a decent amount of time. Frankly the revised proportions are probably weak tasting and you could even try adding about a 1/2 scoop more of the powder to the 4 oz of water, too. Everybody has had to find what they like, what works for them,etc., be it protein shakes or ways to prepare their food.

I have to admit, I was. I was one of those people that thought about bypass, but never did it because it seem so extreme to me. That was in 2003. I loss weight and got to a comfortable 223 (still fat), but lived there and just excepted that was my life. I was active, I exercised and had great labs. So here I am back at 259-260 and going through the sleeve process. I admit I have had several friends that had RNY and I was always supportive, but always stated it was not for me. Now I am dealing with my own hypocritical feelings. I said I would NEVER do this.....NEVER is a mightly long time. I always believe in life everything ain't for everybody. So I am sure some people in my life will call me a hypocrite. I will deal with that when the time comes. Anyone else feel the same way prior to making this decision?

I am pre-op and have a surgery date of May 21. I am having laprascopic gastric bypass. Can anyone share with me when they were able to start exercising after this type of surgery? I have joined a gym and am now wondering if it will be a long time after my surgery before I can start exercising again. Thanks!

Good luck to you! Prayers for a smooth revision and speedy recovery

I am 7.5 months post op. I have had zero complications and no regrets. I am 1 lb shy of losing 100 and 46 more to go. The absolute only regret I have is not having this surgery 10 years earlier! I had gastric bypass and am very satisfied with my choice.

Hi everyone! I am not scheduled yet but have my final appointment (nutritionist) on Aug 13 before going to insurance for approval. I am assuming I will be a September surgery patient. Allielee it is very good to hear that you are finding life after bypass easier than with the band. I never found anything about the band to be neither easy nor intuitive. I am so looking forward to my second last chance to take control of my health. Sface if the August people don't wanna hang out I will hang out with you! Of course the more the merrier, though!

Is there anyone who can give me any feedback with this? It would be great to have support from anyone who is going or has gone through this! Look forward too responses~