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Hi I'm vegan 3 years now. I love my plant based lifestyle. No animals or animal products are consumed by me. I also just had a revision on 7/16/17 I went from vertical banded Gastroplasty performed in 1993 to my current gastric bypass. I'd love to chat with y'all too. My email is aka_et@me.com You can find me on Instagram and or Facebook. However I do not discuss anything about my weight loss surgery on either media account. I don't care to do so. But I do discuss being a vegan. Aka_ET HW-220 Pre-op 194.3 RNY SD June 16th 2017 CW-188 GW-140 HT 5' 3" [emoji120][emoji878][emoji1272] "You may see me struggle but you will never see me quit"

I had an MGB in Tijuana with low BMI and am now below goal weight. Yeah! But I recently developed bile reflux, which is quite serious, so I will be revising to an RNY next month. If I had to do it all over again, I would go to Dr. Esquerra at Mexicali Bariatric Center for an RNY. I encourage you to contact him for a consult to hear what he recommends for you post-ESG. Even if you chose another MX surgeon, it is helpful to talk to 2-3 to ensure you make the right choice of procedure for you and your situation. Please remember that WLS is just a tool. It is a great way to reset your metabolic rate but all of the surgeries can be eaten around, leading to regain. You need to get your head on straight for long term success; you may find therapy a useful tool to help you address your emotional eating tendencies. Good luck.

Plus aftercare can be done by your PCP. Since my surgeon is local, I see both. But I could just see my PCP, if my surgeon isn't available. Susan - I want you to know that your complications are one of the reasons I got a sleeve to begin with. I knew that you hadn't caused your own problems from lack of compliance and so it made slippage real to me in a way that some other poster's issues hadn't. As for standard of care, most insurance companies will pay for a revision no matter what your weight *if* the reason for a revision is a mechanical failure of the first surgery. But they won't pay for it just because you didn't lose enough weight with the first surgery. That's what their policies say anyway. There are a few cases I've heard of where someone was denied for a revision because they weren't heavy enough, so I think some insurance companies don't follow this standard enough though they should.

That is true, I'm not a big fan of the flavors but when you need a clear Protein they are really it. To me they don't taste all THAT bad, but if there was something better I'd go for the latter. Alas, there isn't anything else, so I just drink up. You're awesome! Thanks for all your knowledge on this subject. I really am still going to try to get the most out of my band while I have it. However, I will hope one day that I can save up enough for a revision. I can already see it on the horizon and I'm only a year out. Thank you Daisy for this info, I was about to ask this too. Now, one more question - is this US prices or does anyone have any other prices available that are less than?

I just had my band removed yesterday. OMG I feel so much better. Like I know it's not there anymore. I elected to have the band removed because of the awful reflux, night time coughing and throwing up. I was also diagnosed with gastricparises (spelling??). I decided that I did not want any problems down the road with a revision. My insurance covered 100%. My doctors office said it is easier to get the removal covered than a revision. I was trying to revise to the Gastric Sleeve, but my insurance said no. I am up and walking around, no pain. good luck in everyones journey. When the band is working correctly it works. Happy Turkey day to all.

stcyt I'm almost 3 months out from my revision and my scars are very minimal. I had the lap band done one year ago, so I have double the scars. But they are all just little silver lines. Some of them are no bigger than my pinky nail. I'm 50 years old and I will probably wear a 2 piece swimming suit again!!! Good luck, and happy losing!

We were banded 10 days apart. Hard to believe a whole year has gone by. In 1 yr I was banded, port revision and 2 knee replacements, I am done!!! If we don't see you, Happy Bandiversary Rockstar!

Consult run down- my 1st consults I am grouping as one - those were the Mexico ones, which are basically just virtual. Price for both surgeries was between 8-9.5K. Fam begged me not to go to Mexico then my cardiologist said I would come back in a box so they got nixed Right away. FYI, Idid get a quote from Bariatric Pal MX for all those curious. You never "converse" with the surgeon during the process (which is different from the other Mexico consults) and they didn't have any openings until September. My second consult was probably the worst. Surgeon said with the amount of sag I have the implant would have to be done in a separate surgery- which was hard to hear. What was harder to hear was that I would end up part of the itty-bitty titty comittee. He said I would end up possibly a B cup. That is a no go, even for the 4 months in between surgeries. Plus how the hell are you gonna turn a 36DDD into a B. What type of hack job is that? Quote for that 19K. On to today's consults (#3 & #4) first doctor was super personable. He said he'd have no issues doing the implant and lift at the same time. But it would need to be a small implant - with out the implant I would end up a large C but would not have that full round look on top. With implant, rounder, perkier. Arm lift, great candidate, easy-peasy. Scars with be long and knarly, with take a year to lighten. He said I would have drains in the arms for a week, no drains on the breasts. Cost for that 17,513. Second consult of the day(#4 consult) was a bit more dicey. First off Doctor was a little surly (but f*cking handsome) and he had a similar take as the first of the American surgeons. Lift and implants at the same time were not a good idea. Why? Chance of revision would be high, symmetry would suffer, chance of necrosis of the nipple high. What I did like about him was the fact that he crinkled his nose when I said the other doc said I'd be a B. Worst case scenario, large C, probably a D. If they ended up a D, frankly I wouldn't go back for the implant. I might loose feeling in my nipples, yikes. Again, arms no biggy, great candidate. Cost 15,400. He said if I wanted the implant later for fullness on top, he would give me a steep discount. Still two consults to go on January 28 and then I make my decision. Oh, and no one today said anything about it being too soon. So if you want plastics now, go!

Hi everyone. I've been a lurker for a couple of months now, learning about this procedure. You guys are tough and have been through so much, and I truly admire you. My boyfriend (of only 2 month at the time of his surgery!) had a band to sleeve revision the 21st of June. I'm a nurse, so I was skeptical (having cared for some patients with some pretty gnarly complications) , but I read and read --and read and researched some more about the procedures and felt pretty okay with it. I was and told him I would be supportive, regardless of the outcome. His surgeon chose to do the revision and removal all in one day. He did great for two weeks and was moving forward perfectly on his full liquid diet, just about ready to graduate to softs. Right around day 15 or 16, he began getting nauseated with some vomiting. Then fever, so I told him not to ignore it anymore. He went in. Was dehydrated. They did an upper GI series and abdominal CT. Was seen by a gastroenterologist. They sent him in for IV fluids to rehydrate him. And they also did an endoscopy. All of this within 3 days. They found nothing but did widen/ dilate his esophageal sphincter a bit due to the appearance of some narrowing. By the end of that week, he was in the hospital. They did a CT there. Gave him IV fluids, IV antibiotics and came home 3 days later on oral antibiotics. He got through a 10 day round and started vomiting again, violently 2 days later. He went BACK in to the surgeon and he ordered another round of antibiotics, but he could not tolerate taking them in and by the time Friday rolled around this weekend, he was hardly tolerating very small sips of water and was vomiting several times an hour. The did another Barium swallow and found what they thought might be a small abscess, but the doc on call didn't want to treat it with his surgeon out of town, and then ordered the antibiotics again and told him to follow up in 1 week. One week and he would have been dead! I talked him into going to the ER Saturday morning. He called me to tell me he didn't want to do that because he didn't want to be admitted. I did a little nurse magic, and told him they couldn't make him do anything. All he had to do was tell them he wanted to be hydrated only and go home. Luckily, when we arrived, they popped him a bag of fluids, zofran and a dose of pain meds and did a CT of his abdomen. They found the "abscess" but later determined the original CT on 7/15 (at the hospital) had been misread and he had a leak with some minor pooling outside of his stomach. So now he has been in the hospital 5 days. He has a PICC line in for TPN, tons of IV fluids and antibiotics, is NPO. The gastro doc did the stent this morning, but I wasn't able to be there. She said she would be putting an NG (nasogastric) tube in as an alternate feeding source (in case the docs don't want to keep him on the TPN). He called a bit ago and has been vomiting pretty violently and the Zofran hasn't helped much. Is the vomiting after the stent normal? He was doing it too much earlier to do the scan to check the stent's placement, so they are holding off until the AM. Someone tell me that this will get better? They found the leak without any major infection in his abdomen. No pain. No fevers. And it wasn't an abscess after all. Just vomiting. So, I certainly think that is a good sign overall, but I'm scared for him. Thanks for listening-- to this book!!! ~worried girlfriend~

Michelle, You are already on the right path to discovering alternative coping tools to manage stress. Running instead of eating is excellent. Other tools include the dialogue you are telling yourself, internally. In the field we call this self talk. You already know that eating is not going to help resolve this issue, so ask yourself how is my eating going to help my daughter? What can I realistically do assist my daughter? Why should I give myself a negative consequence for my jerk SIL? The more internal dialogue processing you do, it helps you to discover, identify, and revise your using food to cope with adverse family issues.

I'm new to this site and looking for all the support I can get (tough love is welcomed, I can handle it)! My story started nearly 13 years ago when I had a VBG (vertical banded gastroplasty). At the time I was committed to living a healthier lifestyle (making good food choices and exercising everyday). Over the first 18 months I lost 114 lbs and gained a new baby. Yes, four months after wls I became pregnant (that's a whole other story), and a little over a year from the date of surgery I gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Needless to say, my focus became all about taking care of a new baby. Over the years the weight crept back on (poor eating choices, no exercise, a bad attitude, depression, frustration, etc.). In January of 2013 I decided to look into having a "revision". Many things had changed in the world of WLS and I was hopeful that a different type of procedure would be the answer. I met up with Dr Schwartz, shared my previous experience with WLS, and thus began a new journey. I jumped through all the familiar hoops that one must jump through in preparation for WLS along with a few other hoops that are required for someone seeking a revision. All went quite smoothly, however it did take some time. In November 2013 I had my revision. I did not have a single complication...the procedure was relatively painless. In the months since my surgery I have lost 50 lbs. I had expected that having a RNY would force me to change the way I eat, what I eat, how much I eat; like it does for so many others. I will be honest, in my desperation to be thin, I hoped the RNY would force me to change the way I eat. I wanted salty snack foods, sodas, sugary foods, etc., to make me sick! I didn't want to have to rely on self-discipline to stay away from the things I shouldn't eat. After all my extra pounds are not the result of an underlying health condition, simply put they're a result of years of bad choices. So where do I go from here? Another Weight Watcher meeting, Medifast, LA Weight Loss, or a "supervised" liquid diet through my local clinic? I don't think so. I choose to go here...I choose to work the WLS program, but I need your help, encouragement, SUPPORT. I'm looking forward to hearing from all you WLS winners!

I'm in a similar situation. I'm having issues with the rerouting and get very ill when I eat certain things. There might be a stress factor as one day I eat something; repeat the exact same thing the next day, but get sick from it. I vomit copious amounts of thick mucous. That started about last Jan. '13. It's gotten progressively worse and after UGI, CT and upper endo, I finally went back to the surgeon and he wants to go in and revise the jejunojejunostomy. The thing is, if I STOP eating soon enough, I can control the pain. If I don't, I vomit not only mucous now, but have to vomit the partially digested food to get relief from the pain. Sometimes I have to help it along by sticking my finger down my throat. But the "SICK" part is, then I still want to eat more!! I make myself worse by not stopping soon enough. I sure hope the surgery helps! I see Dr. Monday to reevaluate and schedule it. BTW; what is "myfitnesspal" and where do you get it?

Hi Astrid I am uk based aswell. I am 3 months post sleeve op but due to get revision to bypass in about September due to acid reflux making it soooooo difficult to eat and drink. I only told about 3 people about op and they have been very supportive. I dont tell anyone as people are very judgemental. If they think its the easy way to lose weight they are seriously wrong lol. Good luck with surgery and I know you will be successful in your weight loss journey

Hi Laura. I just went back and read through your thread about your TT adventure. It was very helpful and I'm sure I will be referring to it often. I am not at goal . . . I have another 15 lbs to go (I have revised my goal to 150 instead of 140 . . . I think I was being a bit unrealistic at first :thumbup:). Anyhoo, I figure I'll probably have about 5 pounds of skin removed as well, so that will put me about 10 lbs from goal. It probably would have been better to wait a bit longer, but this was the most convenient time schedule-wise. I'm so excited!!!! Less than two weeks now! BTW, I am not having the breast lift at this time. I am still really unsure about doing it at all, and have decided to wait.

So far so good:) I would like to have more than just clear liquids though LOL

I had a revision to RNY due to gerd on 2/28. When I had my barium swallow it looked like I had a gastric fundus that had grown at the top of my sleeve, but when the surgeon went in my sleeve was fully intact, with no fundus and minimal stretching. My insurance would not have covered a resleeve. My doctor would never perform a resleeve as he says it's too risky although I have read some promising research that it can be done safely and is a good means to restart weight loss. However, it wouldn't have fixed my problem of gastritis and reflux. I had my sleeve 7 years ago. Good luck to you!

How long was the surgery? How long did you stay in the hospital after your procedure? I'm having my revision in December - I've had the band for almost 10 years. Sucks.

I was banded 2012 and immediately stopped having reflux. I was revised to sleeve 4 days ago and have had worse acid reflux than I have ever had in my entire life! Is this normal? Common? Will this go away? The prescription Pepcid isn't doing a thing to help it. What do you do about your reflux? I'm on full liquid diet for 2 weeks and I can't imagine what food will be like if liquids (water, juice, broth) is this bad.

Hi there, I'm Alene. I am 48 years old I do not have any children except for the four legged kind. I live with 2 dogs and a wonderful boyfriend. I work in our local hospital as an EEG technician doing brain wave testing. I had the lapband then put in in 2007 and it was horrible I was miserable most of the time with the food getting stuck and so my surgeon suggested that I get the gastric sleeve surgery. I went in for surgery October 2012 to have the revision and when I woke up from anesthesia my surgeon told me there was no way he could do the gastric sleeve surgery because the band had damaged my stomach and we would have to wait 6 months to try again. So I waited 9 months and had the surgery two and a half weeks ago (7-8-13) my highest weight before surgery was 276 lbs, my surgery weight was 268 and I am now 250 but I've been in a stall for the last 5 days. I'm so happy to have found this site it has helped me tremendously and I can't wait to one day show my before and after photos!!! My goal weight is 140 lbs but if I get to 170, I know, I'll be very happy . :-D

Well...those people are where the cautionary tales come from. So in a way, their failure can help future patients. I met a guy in one of the support groups I went to prior to surgery who had RNY, he must have weighed over 500lbs. He went in for surgery, lost about 100 pounds over the first six months, but when he was healed up he decided to go back to drinking Coke. Then his pouch stretched out and he started eating crap again, thinking "Wow, the surgery helped me lose 100lbs and I could eat pretty much whatever." In short order, he regained the 100lbs and then some. He was back in another six month pre-op program to have a revision...this time, with the knowledge of what NOT to do. I took his story to heart, and I knew that if you don't go into this with your mind right, you are SCREWED. I see a whole lot of that on this forum and others. Cautionary tales waiting to be written.

I am also brand new to the site. My surgery is Feb 6 and is actually a revision. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I was sure you were going to say you had vsg and was revising to bypass. I haven't heard of someone having Barrett's after bypass. I am very curious about this. I am interested in knowing what the surgeon says about this. I myself am getting ready to revise to bypass from Vsg before I end up with Barrett's myself. I'm sorry...I don't have any input on the insurance question

No she didn't have a revision. She went right to RNY. She did have problems with the anesthesia. She was hospitalized for 5 days. My youngest sister also had RNY but she is younger and has been doing great. Do you know anything about the drain that's left in when you the the hospital?

Hi i am also from maryland ! I just had a revision on jan 29th . I am very happy with my decision ! I have lost 40 lbs . You do get full alot faster ! Proud mommy to three amazing babies!

I went to my Surgeon because he had thousands of lapband surgeries performed successfully. He also does sleeve and by pass. I did not want my intestines re-routed and a large portion of my stomach removed or stapled. the sleeve seems to be the flavor of the week, everyone is rushing to get it. I think over time there will be as many issues with the sleeve as people claim there are with the band. no surgery is 100% guaranteed. I chose the band because I wanted an option of removal or revision if needed. the follow up care has been good for me. I haven't had a fill in 6 months or more, haven't had any issues with my band. I have lost what I wanted and slowly , never lost my hair, never had dumping syndrome or malnutrition. I only take 3 Vitamins a day, B12,D3 and a Multivitamin. I am no longer on diabetic meds, high cholesterol or high blood pressure. I pray that I never have to have my band removed but I will most likely have it replaced if needed. All in all we all have to make the best decision we can for our own health.