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This is interesting but not really applicable to sleeve patients re: enlarging the stoma. Bypass patients have stomas and a contributor to regain is enlargement of it. However, sleeve patients still have their pyloric valve and that won't be affected by carbonation. None of us are advised to drink while eating and soda is a trigger food for some. I have had sips of a carbonated diet soda and like Coops, it just feels uncomfortable, and I used to drink 3 or 4 diet Cokes a day. I don't really miss them.

Avoid Bubbly beverages – Regular sodas are packed with sugar and high in calories, which can cause you to regain weight quickly, and also cause dumping syndrome if you had a gastric bypass. Diet sodas have zero calories, but ironically, they still can cause you to regain weight. Numerous studies show that diet sodas trigger certain hormonal reactions that cause the body to store more fat. In addition, if you drink a carbonated beverage – even seltzer Water – while eating, it forces food through the stomach pouch faster. That means food does not stay in your pouch as long and you lose the feeling of satiety and increase the chances that you will eat more. Finally, the gas released from the carbonated beverage may cause the food forced through the pouch to enlarge your stoma, which again would allow you to eat more at one sitting – defeating the purpose of the weight loss surgery. Stick with water, caffeine-free teas, and other non-carbonated beverages for best results.Dr David Provost on bariatric surgery and bubbly beverages I'm guessing the sleeve as a standalone operation is too new to have many scholarly articles on the topic, however, I will certainly keep looking. Even if there is the slimmest, most remote possibility it might enlarge my stoma, coke, soda, pop, etc is something I can quite happy never touch again.

I couldn't understand the "reversibility" of the band, like "ah, this skinny thing isn't really for me... I think I liked being fat and unhealthy better. Take it out!" Why would reversibility be a good thing unless there was a high rate of revision caused by complications? Bypass and DS were too extreme.

Very good advice and wise words here. I started with over 200 pounds to lose. I originally was going to Gastric Bypass and at the last minute canceled. Logically I just couldn't rationalize cutting up and permanently changing a perfectly healthy organ without at least trying something less drastic first. So, I got the band. So far I've lost 92 pounds in just under 5 months. It's work, I've had to change my eating habits completely as well as learn how to eat with the band. But I have zero regrets and would recommend it to anyone willing to do the work necessary for success with the band.

I'm also a band to sleeve, my surgery was 6/18. My dr has ok'd really soft foods 4 days after surgery. I didn't have a lot of scar tissue but my port was the issue and that incision site/area is still tender. I feel so much better now that the band is gone how about you?I feel so much better now that's gone too. I forgot what it felt like for food to actually hit my stomach. I can't believe you had a revision and your doctor has already ok'd soft foods. Only Soups that can go through a strainer and Protein drinks for me till next Tuesday!

I'm hoping to schedule with him in April for a revision from sleeve to MGB, so good to hear your experience went so well !

I had my surgery 10/21 and returned to work 11/16. I had sleeve to RNY revision with hernia repair. I couldn't have gone back in two weeks like some people do. I was still in so much discomfort. I have a desk job. I went back last week still in some discomfort but more than that I was exhausted in bed the first day back to work by 7 pm. I get up at 4:15am. I am just now starting to feel like my normal self and I am 5 weeks post op today.

Spice, good luck to you on your journey. I also have a lapband with plication, however, I am a revision patient. I was originally a banded in 2001. You can read more about it on the blog in my signature if you want more information. I have lost about 65 pounds so far and would like to lose about another 40 more. My band is completely empty and I plan on leaving it that way. Take care and please let us know how it goes.

I am having problems keeping food down. Not all the time tho. And I started getting heart burn. Taking pills for that. I have had the band for 13 years now. I don’t want to get rid of it. It is not invasive like a sleeve or bypass. Dr. Patterson said that when we all gone all that will be left of us will be a pile of lapbands. So they do no desinagrate. I think my problems with the lap band is that I am getting older and might have these problems even without the band. I just don’t feel good about them cutting part of my stomach out for the sleeve. No taking a out then. jmo.

Have you considered getting the gastric sleeve? Especially since you are self pay. Don't forget that with the band, you will have to pay for fills until you get to your "sweet" spot. You will also need to have follow up EGDs yearly to check for erosions, etc. Lastly, contrary to what some say, the band isn't always "reversable". I spent nearly $40,000.00 after I had the band dealing with the problems that the band caused (this is not including the original surgery which my insurance paid for). I am not trying to scare you but just think about it. The sleeve is the same thing as a partial gastrectomy, which they have been doing for years for other issues such as cancer, severe ulcers, etc. It is considered "experimental" for weight loss because of the "newness" of doing it for weight loss. Kind of like when they use a medication for one thing and then a few years later find out that it helps other diseases than just those that it was approved for. There are many people who I know that have had "partial gastrectomies" for years. The only problem they have is that they are "skinny". Once you get the sleeve, you are done. No going back and paying for "fills". No having multiple surgeries to correct adhesions and other issues caused by the band. No paying for yearly EGDs. No worrying about finding another surgeon to take care of you and do the fills if you move away or your surgeon decides to "retire" or close his practice. I could go on and on but I won't. As I said, I'm not trying to scare you or piss on your parade so to speak. Just giving you something to think about. This is especially true since you are self pay. Just trying to let you know that there is a cheaper, safer way to achieve weight loss through surgery. Just go to verticlesleevetalk.com and obesityhelp.com to the revision sections/complications section and read, read, read, read before you have your surgery.

Yeah, if you google it's called "stomach saving gastric plication". They don't use staples, and it's supposed to be about as effective as a gastric sleeve plus reversible and without required adjustment follow-up like the band. They fold your stomach up over itself and stitch it so it remains contorted in place. You don't bypass anything, you can still absorb all nutrients... It doesn't sound bad, really, except it does sound more "dramatic" to me, and the fact that there aren't a lot of long-term results out there is also a little unsettling. I'm probably still going to go for the band. But the center seems to be such a fan of gp, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on a much better option for no good reason.

I just gat back from Mexicali yesterday and I paid 10,500 for lap band to sleeve revision. Dr Aceves is amazing. I can't say enough good things about those people.

They did a full Endoscopy yesterday in the main OR and my stomach is totally twisted and kinked, in order to fix is revision is required. This is VERY UNCOMMON and happens in less then .02 % of sleeve patients. :/ I just happened to be in that lucky percent, ugh

I used premier after my sleeve surgery but find my stomach won’t tolerate them after my recent revision to bypass. I highly recommend trying these samples. https://store.bariatricpal.com/products/syntrax-nectar-protein-powder-trial-sizes-17-flavors-to-choose-from?vec=eyJ2ZVRwIjoiRk9SVU0iLCJ2clRwIjoiTU9TVF9QT1BVTEFSIiwidnJJcCI6IjEifQ%3D%3D my favorite is the chocolate truffle and I tolerate them very well. I would be Leary of a one per day vitamin. Iron and calcium will counteract each other in certain doses. Also check with your team as they may require you to start on chewables. I take the bariatric fusion. Bottle says take 4 per day but my dr assures me that if I take two twice per day I will get the same results. I like that I don’t need any extra d3, iron or calcium with these. good luck!

I asked my Dr. and his very good nurse about the same thing and I was told yes stress can cause the band to tighten up. I asked my friend a nurse this same question she said that when we become stressed and I mean very stressed our internal organs can swell up. I get stressed and boom the band tightens up like a vice..I was told if this happens to go back on the clear liquids for a few days until things settle down. I ahve had so many fills and then un fills as I call them it is not even funny anymore due to this. The last one was about two weeks ago. I seen a new Dr. in May and he did not fill me, he just checked me out. I started to cough at night and get reflux my last fill was in mid March so I know what I was experiencing was not from the last fill. The new Dr. said that I am a crammer a packer that I eat and gulp my food, well I ahve never done that not in my entire life. I eat slowly and chew very well more so since I ahve been banded. He also told me I had a mega esophagus well without the upper GI unless he had x ray vision there is not way to diagnose that and well my esophagus had been dialiated a few times in the past but it was diagnosed after the swallow test was done. He started talking about how the esophagus could rupture and I could die and how I needed to have surgery and a revision well I don't think so. He took out 1 cc and well I have been fine ever since and am I going back to him?? oh heck no I am going back to my original Dr. that did the band and I should have never left his practice and di the other Dr. ever order up the GI test? no he did not I have not heard back from him or his office. So don't let anyone tell you that your doing stuff that your not doing at all.

Erica, I also suffer occasionally from hypoglycemia but in my case it is usually easily avoided with diet and on those occasions that my sugar does drop too low, it has been easily rectified by eating something (exactly what does not seem to make much difference as long as it has some sugar). Here is a link to a very recent study from the University of Cincinatti - http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-03-exaggerated-insulin-response-subset-bariatric.html . And this link refers to the same study with a slightly different approach toward explaning their findings - http://www.healio.com/endocrinology/diabetes/news/online/%7B570bedca-38a7-46bc-8cb9-9a5b97379fb2%7D/islet-function-insulin-clearance-affect-patients-after-gastric-bypass . I would be very grateful if you could share links that you have identified from your research to other sources of information on hypoglycemia following gastric bypass. As they say, "knowledge is power"! Thanks so much!!

lc6342 and all of you who've experienced complications you have my sympathy. Pain in your left shoulder is a sign of a leak. I'm surprised your doctor didn't know that! I'm 3 weeks out from gastric bypass and I'm experiencing pain in my stomach, upper right side. Could be gall bladder. I can drink liquids but I can't keep any solids down. My ribs & diaphragm hurt so much from the regurgitation that occurs when I eat the simplest things. My doc is sending me to a gastroenterologist tomorrow. I hope that everyone gets relief & look back on this experience as a bump (massive potholes for some) in the road to healthy lives. Best wishes. JP

Hello, I am in the same situation. I have Highmark Blue Shield and they have a policy for new procedures and one for revisions (I will post the revision policy) so I'm wondering if I will be required to do the 6 month diet again. I did it back in 2010 with my lap band but that was through Capital Blue Cross. I can't wait to get the band out, every day is a struggle with it! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Hi Evelyn thanks for responding. My email is chesscott245@gmail.com and I am happy to have someone to go through this with. How are you doing with sticking to your diet? I have not been doing so good but I keep trying. I am guessing that my surgery will be at the end of August because it is in the final stages of review by the surgeon now. My insurance will take about 3 days to approve it and I will be on my way. I went through all of this 2 years ago when I was going to have the gastric bypass. I was already pre-admitted into the hospital and 2 days away from surgery when I backed out. I have the same insurance and the same bariatric surgeon so I am sure everything will be the same. I feel so much more comfortable with choosing the lap band although I know this journey will be tough in the beginning. On another note, I have been able to accomplish getting 60+ grams of protein in everyday and 64 ounces of fluid. Ok, so I got some protein shake mix from Walmart...(not the red/black ones) but another brand...I will email you later with the name. Anyway, I went on Amazon and ordered this amazing protein shake cookbook from Bariatric Foodie and it is great. I usually make the creamsickle shake in the morning or a raspberry mocha frappachino. I make the raspberry mocha frappachino by mixing 8oz plain lowfat soy milk, 1 Tbs. sugar free raspberry syrup, 2oz Decaf coffee and 1 scoop of Chocolate flavored protein mix....OMG its soooo good. Anyway, sorry for talking you ear off :-)

My surgeon told me that over the counter drugs, including Advil and Aleve are ok with the sleeve. It's with the bypass that you can't take these drugs.

My surgery was over 3 times longer than it should have been for a Band removal revision to RNY. I arrived at 6am, was in prep by 630 and was in the surgical suite by 730-800. I was awake and coherent before around the same time my bed made it back to the recovery room. My family was allowed in at that point (once I was awake) From there I did a little light walking, then I was wheeled up to my room within an hour or so. I was then in my room for the rest of day 1, 2 overnights and I was home before 1pm on the 3rd day of my stay.

We are all different. I was instructed when I have a food that I added and it did that to me, I was supposed to go back 1-2 stages for a day or two until the inflammation resided. Then try to progress again with ONPLAN foods. Carrots (raw) are NOT part of the puree stage. Well-steamed carrots? Would be ok to puree, BUT when you cook carrots to that point, they have a crap ton of available sugar in them and may spike your blood sugar and since you are a bypass pt. you might have an episode of dumping with sufficient quantity. So a better choice would be butternut squash, canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling), or even a bit of well-cooked sweet potato. Or even better, roasted smashed cauliflower. Glad you feel better today.

Oh Kyle! I hate to hear this! I'm so sorry you have to, once again, go through surgery. What is the reason for the revision? I'll definitely be sending positive thoughts and prayers your way for a smooth and speedy recovery. You already know you'd better keep me updated!! I'll be worrying about you until I hear back from you! Oh how your anxiety must be going nuts right now! Just plz try to stay calm and don't miss a dose of your meds! I set alarms for mine so I have a consistent level of Ativan in my system at all times. We both know how traumatic attacks can be. I was under the impression that your sleeve was doing great, what happened? What symptoms did you get?

I had rny gastric bypass may 2, 2012. I had to have 2 blood transfusions and my blood pressure was higher then normal. They did the upper GI and found no leak so I was released after 2 days. When ingot home a couple days later I was having trouble keeping anything down. I was very thirsty all the time. I had a lot of pain in my belly button area that would go around to the lower back. I still had the jp drain in (thank God) I started seeing brown liquid in the drain and that's when I realized it was my protein shake. I went to my surgeon and he sent me to the ER and they did a cat scan and found a leak. They also found an abscess and a gastric gastric fistula. The leak cause the connection from my old stomach to my new pouch. So when ever I would eat or drink it would go out through the fistula into my drain and old stomach. My doctor admitted me into the hospital. I had to have a picc line and I was feed food bags. He couldn't go in to fix it because the area was to mushy. He wanted everything to dry out and then see if the fistula would close on its own. I was in the hospital for 18 days. I missed my daughters high school graduation. I was so upset. I even began to question why I did this surgery. After I was released from the hospital he kept me on the food through the picc line. I had to have home health care. A nurse came out once a week for about 2 months. Finally everything was getting better. All my vitals were back to normal. The doctor did another cat scan and decided the fistula was so tiny that no food would pass through it so we decided to wait and see if it would close on its own. I started on the diet I lost a lot of weight. I started at 264 lbs and lost over 105 lbs. about my year mark I started having trouble keeping any food down everything made me throw up. I kept complaining about the pain it felt like something was always getting stuck. He checked for a stricture I didn't have one. We checked the gallbladder, mine was fine. Everything we checked we couldn't find what was the source of all this pain. Finally he did a endoscopy. I had a pretty good size ulcer. They put me on carafate and 2 other antacids for 6 months. The pain and everything just kept getting worse. I asked if the fistula could cause the problem. He said it was to small. Well we did another endoscopy and now the ulcer is tripled in size. Now I barely eat anything. I went in for an upper GI. As I drank the stuff I watched on the screen all the liquid go into my old stomach. The fistula was bigger. The acid in my old stomach was coming through the fistula and caused the ulcer and damaged my pouch. I was told I had to go in for gastric revision. March 12, 2014 I went into the hospital and the doctor removed the upper part of my old stomach were the fistula was and he had to take down the pouch and rebuild it using part of my intestine. He said this surgery is more intense then the first and I would be in a lot more pain because of all the scar tissue and mess he had to repair from the first surgery. I was in the hospital for 3 days. I am now 6 weeks post op. I feel so much better this time. I was not in as much pain as the first time. I honestly believe that God said I was in enough pain the first time, that I didn't need it this time. I weighed today at 130 lbs. my new pouch is smaller then the normal size so I need to make sure I get my protein and water in. I was told I may have to eat a little more often. But so far I'm doing great. I am glad. Went through this surgery if I didn't the weight would have killed me. Even with the complications I would do it again if I had to. Everything has risks. I had a great surgeon who was there for me every step of the way. And I had a lot of family and friends support. And I pray to God everyday for giving me the faith to get through this and heal.

It feels like forever since I've been on here to give an update! Last time I posted, I had just gotten my date for the port revision surgery and was about to be heading off for vacation. First of all let me just say vacation was AWESOME. Leaving Massachusetts and heading to Florida for a week was a much needed break! Little things throughout that week helped me to realize that my body is changing for the better, and at 70lbs lost so far the difference is noticeable, even though I don't always perceive it to be. For instance, the last time I was on an airplane was in Feb. 2006, and I remember it being so cramped and uncomfortable and barely being able to get the seatbelt buckled if I managed to buckle it at all. This time, I didn't feel like I was invading the seat next to me, and not only does the seatbelt buckle, but there's a good five or six inches of extra belt leftover after I tighten it. Such a good feeling!:blushing: Later that week came the amusement park rides...I haven't been to an amusement park in probably at least 4 years for fear of not being able to fit on the rides and having to be asked to get off. I've never actually been asked to get off a ride, but the anxiety of thinking that it was a possibility was more than enough to keep me away for all those years! I guess I figured stop going before that happens, because I cannot even fathom how humiliated I would feel if that happened to me in front of everyone waiting in line. So, even though I knew that this time I shouldn't worry I still kind of did...but happily discovered that my fear no longer seemed to be warranted! Needless to say I had a fantastic time and went on just about every ride in the park.:biggrin2: Came home from vacation on May 11th, and then had my follow up surgery to correct my flipped port a few days later, on the 14th. I met with my surgeon the day before and discussed the procedure and I asked the questions I had. I finally remembered to ask what size band I have, and it's a 10cc band. I asked about what the chances were that my port would flip again later down the road, and he said not likely but not impossible. He did say that of the patients he has had to do the revision surgery on, none have had any further complications...hope I continue that tradition! The day of surgery went very well, and was definitely much easier than the initial surgery. I got to the hospital around 1:30pm, and the procedure was scheduled for 3:30pm, although I think they actually got started a little closer to 3:00. I was out of the hospital around 5pm, stopped at the pharmacy to get my Rx filled on the way home, and asleep on the couch due to the Percocet by 6pm. The procedure itself was much easier, and I only had to have local anesthesia with sedation instead of general. Which I was thrilled about because I hated the horrendous sore throat I had before with general. I was sore afterwards, but not nearly as bad as last time since there was just the one incision and it was just below the surface. I'm barely a week postop now, and feel 99% back to normal...just a little soreness if I try to do too much with my ab muscles, and my incision is nearly healed. My surgeon did my first fill while doing the surgery, and I think he put in about 1cc. I notice a little bit of difference as far as restriction, but not much, definitely not as much as I was hoping for. Perhaps next week at my follow up appointment he will do a second fill. We'll see! How is everyone else doing?