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Many of you probably don't 'know' me from these forums, but I have been around for several years. i'm almost 4 years post VSG. I have struggled through many chapters in my life since my surgery and have regained a good amount of weight. since I carry ALL my weight right around my middle, I look horrible and my self esteem has tanked. Since my surgery I changed jobs and moved, lost a parent, had to change doctors, and gained a master's degree. I'm currently in the final few classes to become a Family Nurse Practitioner. on top of all that, I had managed to lose enough weight initially to be off all my medications-GERD and BP. Now i'm back on both. My GERD has worsened with the weight gain and i'm at the point where I can't lay on my left side if I've eaten within the past few hours because the food and acid will backwash into my throat. i'm miserable. I have been to the psych doc, the NUT, to the surgeon, and to my GP. none of them can give me an exact direction of what to do. my GP says they simply don't know enough about bariatrics to guide me. The bariatric team trialed me on Contrave, I got so sick I had to stop. I tried Keto and spent two days in misery from all that fat. My brain is the issue and I don't know how to get it back under control. I am taking straight Welbutrin for the time being to see if that will help with behavior AND with appetite. my surgeon is very concerned that from the GERD, i'll need a revision. I don't really WANT a revision, I know that the GERD has worsened because I carry ALL my weight in my waistline and it's pushing up on my sleeve- badly. I have an EGD this week with my GI doc which will look at the GERD and also the condition of my sleeve. I have no excuse, the regain is completely my own doing. One day about 20 months ago, I thought that drinking a diet ginger ale at work would be ok, and it has spiraled out of control from there. I am trying badly to get off of soda again, which I think is really the first step. As I walk this very difficult road to get back on the path where I belong, I ask for your prayers, positive thoughts, and vibes.

I’m a band to mini-gastric bypass and it was the BEST decision I ever made. I had trouble with my band from the get-go. It sprung a leak early on so I never got restriction and spent the first nine months of my honeymoon wondering why I could still eat a full steak and everyone else was complaining about being full after a teaspoon of tuna. Had it fixed but it never really worked. Either too tight or too loose and when I moved O/Ṣ I just gave up and ate around it. I used to feel embarrassed to tell people I’d had a Lapband years ago and yet here I was north of 140 kilos. I’m about ten months out from my revision, surgery went brilliantly. My surgeon did a single operation to remove the band and give me my bypass but he had to make my stomach pouch larger b/c of Lapband scarring. I don’t mind b/c I’ve slowly lost 2/3rds of my excess weight, am just about to hit Onderland and I feel bloomin’ brilliant. Even if I never lost another kilo I love my life so much more now.

If you have severe acid reflux (GERD), gastric bypass is better than sleeve because sleeve will only make the condition worse. Too many people who had lap band surgery had to have a revision due to problems. The band will sometimes erode into the stomach wall over time and this can become a life threatening condition. As a result many doctors have discontinues performing this type of surgery.

My initial consultation was in March (don't remember the day), I got the revision surgery June 19th. BCBS will only pay for "one weight loss surgery per lifetime." I was told by some doctor's offices that since it was a revision, my insurance wouldn't cover. I called my insurance and spoke to a fantastic lady who really helped me out. I made the point that in 2009, when I got sleeved, BCBS for my school district wasn't covering WLS yet. It was private pay for me, and I had it done in Mexico (no hoops to jump through). So, technically, BCBS had never covered a WLS surgery me. She agreed. It was approved. Edit: I did have to follow a diet plan to lose weight before the surgery, I had to have an endoscopy, a barium swallow (to check for acid reflux), blood work, see a cardiologist, have a psyche eval (on the phone), and talk to a nut (on the phone). It was a little easier than virgin surgeries because it wasn't my first rodeo.

I am so sorry about your friend. And about your day. Sounds like a rough one. Can I ask a dumb question? Are you mad about eating the bread in anger or b/c you ate the bread in the first place? What's wrong w/having a bite or two of bread once in awhile? I'm really new at this. Found out on May 9th that I had to have my band out and revise to the sleeve and on June 4th, had surgery. I'm still learning, please bear w/me.

Here are two threads.. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/99057-reflux-before-sleeve/page__fromsearch__1 http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/98932-acid-reflux-before-sleevechances-of-having-it-after/page__fromsearch__1 And a very important thread about severe reflux after http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/77969-sleeve-revision-to-gastric-bypass-tomorrow/page__fromsearch__1

Also the band can be a tricky thing and not everyone has the same experience with the band. Read up as much as you can before you choose to have weight loss surgery, when it works it's great when it doesn't it's not so great. I had the lap band and also had it removed after 14 months and am now in the process of revising to gastric bypass. There are some good books out there like Weightloss Surgery for Dummies. Make sure you know all the good and bad about lap band and weight loss surgery in general and make sure you discuss this with a doctor you trust and possibly rule out some physical reasons why you have a weight issue. I wish there was a way to tell which procedure would work for each person but there isn't really plus you never know what complications could occur afterward. So much to think about before you make this major decision. I wish you luck! Nancy.

I am assuming you want advice. Skip the band and go straight to sleeve. Just go peek at the thread of "band to sleeve revision". I personally dont know anyone 5 years out that still have their band. I lost great in the beginning too with my band. But only for one year then nothing. Well slowly, very slowly started to gain. Maybe 1-2 lbs a month. Then maybe 3 or 4 lbs on vacation. With band you are constantly chasing the "sweet spot" where you aren't too tight or too loose. The sleeve eliminates all that. Just food for thought. If I had to do it over again, I would have skipped all the band drama, sliming and fills. Best of Luck, in your decision and process. Keep us posted <3

This thread makes me feel good about my decission to wait on my revesion....I don't want to loose my band, but have plans that having it revised now will interfer with...I will be paying close attention to what my body is telling me between now and the end of july when i am planning my revision...If anyone has anything that I should look out for that would warn of a problem please let me know...and/or what you were able to eat afer a slippage, but before having it fixed...thanks for any input...

Hi Karen! It's been 5 days since I'm band free and I can't believe how much better I feel already!!! The reflux is totally gone and the only annoying thing right now is that I look about 7 months pregnant from the removal surgery. Hopefully the swelling will be gone in another week or so. I should hear by Monday afternoon about my revision surgery, I have a GREAT appeals nurse over at Empire who let's me call her anytime and has been great about keeping me posted on the happenings. As far as Dr Cussatti is concerned, I know he's he GREATEST!!! I was actually the 2nd lap band he ever performed so that let's you know how much faith and trust I have in him.

Ah, That was actually the best attempt yet to kill this thread. Make a deliberate and snide "for real" attack. Bravo. I say that now we just charge on madly and ignore that snide-aside and try and kill this thread in a much more entertaining fashion. *steps up to the plate* I recommend RNY Revisions for everyone!!

Hi I am new here. Banded back in July 2002! Had great success until my band slipped! Had revision surgery and have been gaining since...I am so scared. I am up to 149 that is w/dieting and exercising! The end of Jan I was 125 because I could hardly keep anything down. Had a huge unfill to see if my band would self correct. Never happened! I went from 125 to 139 the day of surgery (17 Mar) and since then I have gained 10 lbs. Had a small fill but I can't tell. I am looking for folks who have had experience with slippage surgery and where they able to get the weight off a second time around? Dody 220-July 02 125-Jan 06 ( sick and unhealthy) 139 Mar 06 slippage surgery 149! 21 April HELP:mad:

I'm doing GREAT since my removal :biggrin1: My esophagitis has completely healed and my reflux is a thing of the past thank goodness Now as far as my revision is concerned....I'm down 34lbs since my revision to RNY on 10/1/07 and I feel GREAT I'm now officially ONLY 33 lbs away from my personal goal!!! I also want to add that since I began my WLS journey with my lap band I'm down a total of 105 lbs!!!

I had my revision from the lapband to the sleeve on June 26th. I'm feeling great!

I have not been on here in a long time. I have been slowly but steadily losing since I had my band placed sept of 08. Just this past two weeks something is wrong! I have not gotten or needed a fill for the past 9 mo. I have lost 85 lbs so far. Just this past two weeks I haven't been able to eat anything without pain and slime-ing. I make myself bring up that yuck just so the discomfort goes away. I've lost 8 lbs in 3 weeks. While that's nice, I'm scared that for some reason my band has slipped. I thought I was just super tight because it was that time of the month. I always got super tight for about a week, then gradually it would loosen as hormones settled back down. I am self pay, and can not pay for revision at this point. Have decided I need to do some liquids for a few days. Tried to drink a carnation instant breakfast for dinner just now, and can't get that down either. Any suggestions?

Research both carefully. Some surgeons don't even do the Lapband anymore though, because of the high rate of complications. I had lapband and was happy with it for years until it slipped on me. By the time I had it removed I had massive scar tissue and adhesions that had to be removed before my surgeon could do the revision to Sleeve. Everyone that was in my original Lapband group has had it removed now due to erosion, slippage, or just scar tissue build up. I personally wish I had just done the Sleeve to begin with.

The 10 year Swiss study also supports the Dutch results. It hasnt been a success long term. And erosion of the stomach is a real concern.My experience long term confirms this and after 7 years I'm revising to bp. Sent from my GT-I9505 using the BariatricPal App

Hey you all my surgery in June 6th. It was supposed to be January 19th. I was going for a band revision but I had too much scar tissue so now 5 months later here I am again doing another pre-op and time of work.

I have nothing good to say about the Lapband You need to give your body time to heal, while i know how anxious you were for the revision, this will give your body time to rest. So rest and begin your pre-op diet now. begin reading all there is to know about nutrition and exercising...educate yourself while you wait. Before you know it, two months will have flown by and you will be sleeved. good luck to you

I had revision from band to sleeve on November 7, 2013. I am down 20 lbs! Excited!

Sorry to hear about your weight gain after pregnancy! That is something I fear when my husband and I discuss starting a family. As for the bypass after the sleeve... I was still loosing weight with the sleeve when I had to be revised to the bypass. I am still losing weight but since I'm 200 pounds down and 8 pounds to go to hit my goal it not coming off as fast as it did when I had more to loose. I lost over 40 pounds in the last 5 months since my bypass surgery so I shouldn't be complaining but I really want to hit my goal!!! I was very scared of getting the bypass and having my intense moved around. Very against it and tried everything I could to avoid it but honestly it's not as scary as I thought and really helped with my acid reflux. It dosnt feel much different then having the sleeve except for the dumping syndrome. Haha sounds worse then it is but when I tried drinking orange juice I had horrible stomach cramps and diarrhea for about 15 to 20 minutes. But I'm thankful because now I know oj has a lot of sugar and to stay away!!! It's really just a friendly reminder to stay away from all sugar. Not as scary as it sounds and is the best weight loss option out there. Wish I would have just went for the bypass to begin with!! Let me know what happens and if you do have the bypass! Sending prayers your way!!

There's a couple of new bariatric techniques you might consider? Placation is one and the other is a new technique where they perform a faux sleeve endoscopy. No stomach removal and no invasive surgery. But that one may still be in the exploration stage? I agree with bulawookie, check out another surgeon or two. Can't hurt. And if some new non surgical technique shows up in 3-5 years you can still revise? tmf

I had a 1/2 of corn on the cob twice last week - no problems. I'm also 3.5 months post op. But I'm also a band to sleeve revision and have not had any problems with any foods

My name is Jamie and I started my weight loss journey many years ago but my surgery journey started in February 2010. I was 330 pounds at 27 years old. I was always a healthy person but after 4 knee surgeries I gained over 100 pounds and tried EVERYTHING to try to loose the weight. When I hit 330 I knew it would end up being life or death. I attended a bariatric surgery meeting at my mothers suggestion. After meeting with my surgeon and discussing all options with my husband we decided on the lap band. (Man was that a mistake) I had the lap band surgery in May 2010 and it only took me 3 weeks to recover!! I thought I had done enough research to prepare my self but I was very wrong. Eating was hard and I was seeing the Dr almost every 4 to 6 weeks for 3 years trying to figure out where the perfect fill was. After 3 frustrating years of throwing up and learning how to cheat with the band we decided it was time to revise the band. I decided to do the a sleeve, it seemed like a safer and less invasive surgery. I was very excited to start this new journey after seeing co workers have great success with it. I had my revision to the sleeve May 2013. The recovery was much harder then the recovery from the band and I think it was due to doing the band removal and the sleeve revision at the same time. After 6 weeks I was as good as new and dropping weight at a nice pace. I was very excited to eat right and exercise because I was actually loosing weight!!! After the first 3 months I began to get really painful chest pains. Being a person that never had to deal with acid reflux, GERD or heartburn I didn't know what the pain was from. I went back to my Dr and he began seeing me every 2 - 4 weeks and we tried every acid reflux, hernia, heartburn and GERD medication we could. By the time I was 10 months out I was in such bad pain and no medication would help my Dr decided we needed to revise my sleeve to the full bypass to eliminate the acid from being created in my stomach. I am very unhappy with this decision so I went to 3 other doctors that specialize in acid reflux and weight loss surgery and sadly they all agreed with my surgeons prognosis. We began the insurance approval process and it was a little harder to get the bypass surgery approved this time since I am 178 pounds and they didn't see a reason for the surgery. Last Tuesday the pain got so bad I ended up in the ER for 6 hours as they tried to figure out how to make the pain stop. The prognosis was esophagus spasms so I had to be put on a liquid diet since eating hurt. Finally my insurance approved the surgery and my doctor is rushing the surgery date due to the severity of this issue. My revision to bypass is scheduled for May 13 2014 and I am completely freaking out!!!! This is not a surgery I want and I am concerned that I am going to have all the bypass side effects I really never wanted to have! I know the surgery is inevitable and the only way to get rid of this intolerable pain for good! I am coming top grips with it and feel more assured that this will work since I did seek other opinions from multiple specialists. I am telling my story because I really need help from others out there that may gave went thru the same issues I am and what did you do to resolve it? What should I expect to be different from the sleeve to the bypass? Please help! I am really scared and really don't want to have to go thru this again!!

On the subject of which surgery is better than the other? With all surgeries, the jury is out until we're in our graves. As most of us who have struggled with food addiction all our lives know, we've had long periods of maintaining weight loss, only to have it slip away at some point. That's how we ended up here.....on BP. The surgery, whichever one we chose, is a tool. And people gain weight all the time after WLS.....at some point. I'm not saying that everyone does, but many do. The jury is still out on Rosie O, and she should be a bit more humble when she opens her (big) mouth. But that's who she is, and she may be "eating crow" sometime down the road. We'll see her on some show talking about revision surgery She should take note of someone like Carnie Wilson, who is very humble and open about her struggles; never pointing fingers at anyone else's choice. Beauty and grace; everything Rosie is not.