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Having my revision to RNY from Lapband was the best thing I ever did for myself!!! Life is much more easier with the RNY. I have not vomited or slimed once since my revision, I made it to goal in 1 year and all my labs are text book perfect. I also love the fact that there is no maintaence, by that I mean no fills or unfills and BTW most insurance does NOT cover fills and unfills so I'm saving alot of $$$$ with the RNY :thumbup:

1st off ANY surgery has it's inherant risk (I work in the PACU so I see it 1st hand) I had a revision because AFTER 3 1/2 years with the band, I had a slip and the start of erotion. I also developed a severe case of esophagitis and GERD. At first I wanted another band, but; after alot of soul searching and the fact that it could slip again and I needed staples in my stomach to repair the damage done by the band, it was a no brainer to revise to RNY. As far as dumping goes, yes I do and I'm quite happy I do. Remember WLS fixes the stomach and NOT the brain, but; once you experience dumping you tend to stay AWAY from high sugar and high fat foods because dumping is not pleasant at all.

I am paying 17700 for my revision from lapband to sleeve....it includes 1 year of follow-up care...he charges around 12000 for just the sleeve

The doctors and staff are great. I had my revision on August 15 in Puerto Vallarta. Your in good hands.

Hey guys just venting. I have been approved for a revision to gastric bypass from VSG due to severe GERD and just found out I have COVID. I'm super disappointed. There will be three weeks in between from when I tested positive to my surgery date and I've researched that people can continue to test positive even though they are no longer infectious. I'm sure my doctor's office will reschedule I'm just sad this happened. Not much I can do about it now. COVID sucks.

I just got off the phone with my insurance Anthem BC BS through my employer Verizon. The guy they transfered me to was a doll. a nurse. He said that since he is now familiar with me he took my case. I haven't even gone to my first appointment yet but I go to the consult on October 1st. I will be a band to sleeve revision. This is what he told me and asked me to write it down that this is what they'll need. 1) dr should highlight mechanical problems. he said that sometimes they don't do it right. 2) should state height and weight beginning before banding and current weight. 3) psychological exam 4) registered dietician evaluation 5) medical clearance he also said that if the doctor asks if they need a medically supervised diet for 6 mos etc that the answer is NO Lastly, I asked him about all those other tests people talk about like sleep test, venus doppler etc and he said they don't need that but the doctor may. Hope that helps. Alfie

I've been banded 2 1/2 years. The first year was great. Found that sweet spot on the second fill. When I was 5-10 pounds away from goal, I started having problems. I was unfilled, and the battle began. I haven't been able to get that sweet spot again, and have constant problems with back aches, heart burn, acid reflux, former banders, you have all been there. In the short time I was unfilled completely, I gained back about 20 pounds. I've since lost that, but am sick of all this. I currently most likely have an expanded pouch yet AGAIN. The problem is that I was self pay, and insurance isn't even covering unfills due to dehydration (twice, yet they pay to have me go to urgent care and get 3 bags of fluids in me). What conditions will insurance pay for removal (and then a revision to a sleeve). I'm afraid to just get the band removed, I know I would gain everything back, but not sure if insurance would approve doing the sleeve at the same time since I am so close to my goal. The quality of life at this point is getting very frustrating. I can't eat healthy foods, and I can't even get in to a routine since one day I'm fine, then the next I'm throwing up an antacid tablet.

This is my first post on the forum, so here goes. I got a band March 2006 and was self-pay. I'm scheduled to have a revision to VSG on October 30th with my original lapband surgeon. I went to him for a checkup because of abdominal pain. After an abdominal ultrasound it was found that I have gallstones. After discussing my band "issues", he suggested we do the sleeve. My insurance will pay for gallbladder removal, so we're going to do it all in the same procedure. I will pay $5000 for the band removal and VSG. This is much less than most revision surgeries since the insurance is already paying for the hospital, anesthesia, etc. I know this is not the way to go about it for most people, but it is something to consider if you have gallbladder issues and your insurance will cover removing it. Good luck!

hi there,,,,, i had aetna and they ended up paying for most of my band.... i think i had to pay 300 dollars.... now i am looking to revise from the band to the sleeve, so i hope they are aprroving revisions ???? good luck to you

Wouldn't you know it? I have been steadily losing for about two months (I had lap band revised to RNY in July) and I plateaued at 200.0 last week!! Now I'm bouncing between 201-202. Sigh. I know I'm not supposed to weigh myself every day, but I was really looking forward to 199. I'm down 74 right now. I've got 41 more to reach my goal of 160. Alright, pity party over. Thanks for listening.

Hey All, My insurance Co., Aetna Health Care has approved the cost of removing my band but NOT the sleeve revision. My Dr says he can perform the procedure at the same time. Price will be $8000 for hospital and $1736 for his fee. Total $9736. I asked about a discount as it seems my insurance company is already paying for hospital, surgeon, anthestiga, etc. They are telling me no because it is two different procedures even though performed in in the same operation. Has anybody else run into this?? I expect to cover the cost difference and I am sure there are some but this really sounds like I am being double dipped. If anyone else has had this situation what was your out of pocket expenses?

I am bipolar. I have type b where I lean towards depression. I am on 5 different medications for my disease. I have a healthy relationship with my psychiatrist and he was one of my support persons prior and during wls. none of my medications were changed. I have some real lows and we were about to change one of them but I pulled out of it without tweaking my med's. yes you may have a harder time losing wt. but being overweight and doing nothing about it I think, would cause me to be more depressed and out of control. wls is having control of that aspect of your life. it will make you feel better. but don't expect wls to correct your bipolar. or your med's you are on. I wish I could take those medications out of my life but I know I never will be able to. you have to be very compliant with the lap band. if you don't think you can you need to go to another surgery. I have the band but might be revising. I had the band fail, my doctors both pcp and surgeon fail which caused depression so I have failed too. it is very very depressing. I cry when I talk with my husband about what is going on with me. but now I am looking forward to talking with my surgeon and the possibility of revision to a malasorbtion type of surgery. I wish you luck. as long as you put in the work the band is terrific.

That would work great. . . I picked smoking back up after my revision. I'm back in the process of quitting. BLAH.

I am on a preop diet 2 weeks before my surgery oct 24th. I know this is to shrink my liver. I can have protein drinks and some thinks like hot cereal low fat or fat free dressing with salad, low fat or fat free puddings and eggs and some cheese.... Just "nothing that ever had eyes" hahahahaha so no meat! Anyway, I wanted to know band to sleeve revision ... Is everyone in this struck diet? Also I am trying to mentally prepare. How much pain can I except when I am in recovery? Has anyone had any complications/leaks and are you happy or regrets? I would love to here from both people who just had revision and tho use more than a year out and have successfully kept weight off! Oh I am staying 2 days per my doc! Thanks so much this sight has really been an amazing help to me. Don't sugar coat!

I'm scheduled for a revision from sleeve to mini bypass in Mexico on march 31. As long as it goes as easy as my first surgery I will be thrilled. Just hoping this one works better in the long run.

Hello welcome. And yes a lot of us. Have. Go to band to sleeve revision . I was sleeved 2 and half weeks ago had my band for 4 years. I did keep weight off. Only 30/35. But not happy with it. The sleeve is going well in recovery phase just like we did band. Welcome and Check out that thread.

I'm a military spouse with Tricare Prime. I'll preface my response and tell you that if you can hold out until after the 1st of the year, and get the sleeve, do it. I had a band, it was hell. I had the major issue of not being able to get restriction, and being hungry all the time. Tricare paid for my band, and my civilian surgeon (that Tricare referred me to) disregarded my concerns and pain with a flipped port. So, I went to our neighboring base here in Florida with a referral for a revision to the sleeve. BEST DECISION I ever made, literally. I hated my life with the band. It was miserable, and Tricare Prime covered my revision 100% no questions asked. There are many stateside MTF's doing the sleeve at this time, and have been for at least the last 2 years. Just to give you an idea of my band experience: October 2008 - Band placed Flipped my port (or at least ripped my anchor sutures and the port flipped soon thereafter) in the hospital the day of surgery because a nurse had my pull myself up in the bed after going for a walk. First fill came 6 weeks later Lost 23-25lbs the first 2.5 months then the swelling from surgery went down, LOST all restriction. Next fill came in January still no restriction. Begged for a fill didn't happen until mid-February Pain in my port area had managed to get to a 6-8 some days (on a pain scale of 1-10, 10 being the worse), and the surgeon at the time would not address the issue even though I told him that my husband and I could not have sex some days because the pain was so intense. In March, after begging again, I went not for just 1 fill, but 2 under fluoro because he could not longer access my port, because it had literally moved in my abdomen. LOVELY. I endure almost 40 minutes of him prodding around trying to get to the port under fluoro, and then he finally told me to just diet, and eat smaller portions, but don't work out because it would cause more issues with my port. From the January fill to June 3rd, 2009 when I had my revision, I gained about 16-17lbs back. So, technically, I only lost 7lbs with the band in an 8 month time frame. Since having my revision (June 3rd 2009), I've dropped 107lbs. A week later I started researching my options with Tricare. I found myself at Eglin, and got approved the day of my consult for my revision. It's been rumored that the VSG should have full approval shortly after the first of the year. Since you are overseas, I would highly recommend researching surgeons. There are several MTF's here in the states that are performing them, and that are the preferred surgery. My revision surgeon wanted to just do a port revision. Luckily, I told him that there was something wrong with my band. I could literally feel the tubing of the band pulling on my stomach. The band damaged my stomach severely. If you can hold out for VSG approval, I would highly recommend it. The band is very tempermental. My mom has had one for over 2 years, and she gets food stuck 3-4 times a weeks which leads to her puking up her dinner. She came to Florida for a visit from the Texas, and the humidity here didn't allow her to eat anything but mushy foods because solids would not go down. She's only lost 75lbs in 2 years, and she just thinks her "band issues" are normal and deals with them.

Also a band to sleeve revision by Dr Aceves. Self paid for the band in Florida and the sleeve in Mexico. Doing all of my research he was the most experienced revision surgeon other than the one I also really liked in San Fran. Since I was self pay Nina was able to schedule within 10 days. Dr Aceves and Dr Campos are worth whatever they charge. My husband went with me and was really surprised at how great everyone was, how clean it was and how the Drs were so informative. Congratulations on your new life and hopefully I will be able to do as well as you have. NOTE: I have not been paid for my review of Dr Aceves! It is just my experience.

Hi there! So obviously, I can't tell you what to do I was wondering, however: are you at a stable weight? Is your health declining, or has it been this way for a while? If you're gradually going up in weight and you're feeling the side effects of that escalating, I'd definitely consider the surgery if I were in your situation. In terms of how it works, it's pretty accepted now that the main effect from any WLS other than the lap-band is metabolic. That means it's not the restriction or the malabsorption or the combination that does most of the work. It's the change in our GI hormones. And speaking of those: I'd suggest you look into comorbidity resolution with the different procedures. It seems the resolution rates are higher for procedures that bypass some of your small intestine. Since you're self-paid anyway, have you considered the Mini Gastric Bypass? It's revisable and reversable and offers higher resolution of comorbidities than both the sleeve and RNY.

Yes, even for revision surgeries. Sent from my HUAWEI NXT-L29 using the BariatricPal App

I was recently revised from VSG to RNY at my goal weight. So when the surgeon said I needed to do a pre op diet I was pretty resistant and questioned why constantly. He said they place everyone on the preop. The reason he gave was to shrink the liver by ridding it from excess fat making it easier to mobilize and more pliable so it doesn't crack/tear/break. I was confused: how do you break a liver? He likened a fatty live to a marblized piece of beef and the fat makes it stiff/vunerable during retraction. It will be handled alot during surgery. I begrudgingly followed my 2 week diet (except 1 day) because i didn't want any extra issues Good Luck with the rest of your preop 💜

Such fees are the norm here but I suspect its different because of our system being different. Here, Medicare pays a schedule fee for everyone, rich or poor, but doctors charge well ABOVE that scheduled fee. So for any given expense, you'll get 85% of the scheduled fee back from medicare but there will be a gap over and above that which is out of pocket. this is the same for all doctors, specialists and surgeon's - you'd never find one anywhere who charges only the scheduled fee, its unheard of. Private health insurance pays hospital costs, not doctors. When a doctor "bulk bills" it means he bills Medicare direct, not the patient, and he bills only the scheduled fee. When we pay this program fee, we are then bulk billed for all aftercare which means no out of pocket cost ever again, for fills, follow ups or revision surgery. We can go for fills and consultations whenever, as often as we like. So in one regard, its the same, it covers the doctor's outrageous fee over and above the base that he should be charging, but the fact is, if we went to another doctor we'd pay a couple of hundred for each consultation/fill so we'd be paying that money out any way. But here, no pay, no surgery.

For me weight watchers counted and didn't need to be 30 apart I started ww feb 28. As soon as my first April meeting papers but through my date is May 2 revision from lapband

Holding, you should take the MMPI (a personality inventory). When I last administered it back in the 70s (there have been a couple of revisions over the years), it had true/false questions like "I often have black and tarry stools", "I often talk to God", "God often talks to me". As a psych major, I never understood why any of the tests had the "I'm not being honest" routine .... that's like a HUGE joke to me because a pretty good percentage of the people I gave that particular test to were coming into an in-patient psychiatric hospital and I figured they were going to say whatever they wanted regardless of the connection to reality. Actually, I thought some of the questions back in the 70s version were misleading. I mean, a religious person would call praying "talking to God" and I wondered what was wrong with that. Apparently, it meant "conversations" but that's not how the question reads, right? Anyway, you probably came across as about as sane as the rest of us, LOL.

I'm still in the pre-cert process, finished my 3 month waiting period. But for a revision for a RNY done 25 years ago. I've tried and failed even with the surgery so for me really needed to do something more than just going it on my own. I did my psych eval with a licensed therapist who was in network for my insurance provider who specializes in eating disorders-- the gamut, not just for folks who are overweight. I decided to continue therapy with her-- to address eating disorder issues and what I believe to be some mild depression (most likely tied to the weight, maybe). I've never gone to counseling or therapy before besides the stuff you might get with weight loss programs. We've been meeting weekly thus far. No magic bullets, still feel like we're in the getting to know you phase. She eventually suggested meeting with a bariatrician in the health system who prescribes weight loss medications, she felt like they would be a useful adjunct to my effort to try to lose weight (and keep it off if I get there) whether my surgery is approved or not. I did that and just started those this week. The bariatrician had a list of meds and we talked through the mechanism of action and which might be the best for my eating triggers/issues, she also provided a list of dietary changes, exercise plan, etc. I'll continue to meet with her for tracking. She said average/best loss with meds is 10% so doesn't get me close to where I want, but could help. She has a lot of patients who had WLS who she follows and use meds-- some til they get to goal weigh and some who have stayed on them longer term. ALL of that say I encourage you to continue exploring those other avenues and perhaps consider what other formal supports you might be able to identify (licensed counseling, support groups for accountability, etc.) that you haven't yet tried to help you be as successful as you can.