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Your don't feel "different" because you are really not that different. If you don't have complications, it is hard to tell from the outside that you have had anything done. You don't feel full because the liquids just flow right on through. Be glad that you don't feel that different now, stick with your post-op diet (it won't last forever event though it may feel that way), and when you start eating more solid food, that's when you will feel the difference. You are in the first few days of a lifelong journey. Enjoy the ride to the new you...Kathe

1. My insurance covers either procedure as long as I'm approved for wls. 2. At only 27 I am concerned that lapband is not permanent enough since I would have to rely on a foreign body lasting inside me for hopefully 60+ years. - Even the manufacturers and FDA knows that the band will not last a lifetime. It's only listed for 10 years, I'll try to find the specific links for you. 3. The sleeve is totally permanent (scary). In my humble opinion, the band is not reversible. It can be removed, or unfilled, but once that thing is suture around your stomach, your anatomy is forever changed. 4. One of my biggest factors is that I plan on having more kids and I'm worried that the sleeve will not be compatible with pregnancy. There are successful pregnancy patients on Obesityhelp that have had the VSG, and have delivered healthy babies. Once you hit goal, your surgeon will help you determine when you can TTC. 5. I am a huge puke-a-phobe (this is a concern with both surgeries). Puking with the band is horrific and so uncomfortable. Puking with the sleeve isn't the same, it's like this creeper piece of food coming my esophagus, and I spit it out. That hasn't happened in months because I've learned how to eat with my sleeve. With the band, things get stuck and you never know when or what is going to cause you to puke. It's especially an unpleasant experience when eating in public and you have to rush to the bathroom because on that particular day, mashed potatoes didn't go down, and then you can't eat anything else because the stomach tissue swells. 6. I am totally ok with eating tiny portions, but the lapband seems way more restrictive on the kinds of food you can eat. With the band, some days I could stuff, and the next Water wouldn't go down right. meat always had to be slathered in a condiment or gravy of some sorts because my band didn't like meat, and it didn't matter how it was cooked or prepared. I could not eat any bread products with the band that was total trainwreck with my band. With my sleeve, I can have about 1/2 of a fajita size tortilla with cheese on it, or the inside of a super light yeast roll. I'm not a sandwich person so I don't eat sandwich bread. I do enjoy pita bread, but it's about 1/4 of a pita pocket with cream cheese and deli meat sometimes. Some other information about the band vs. sleeve. With my band once I lost restriction (the initial swelling with the band surgery), I never felt full, I was always hungry, but couldn't eat things some days so I ate slider foods which is completely counterproductive, but I had to eat. I had a flipped port, and could only get 2 fills post op, and then in February, my surgeon could not access my port. I was miserable, and in constant pain with band because the flipped port caused the tubing to actually tug on my stomach which in turn damaged my stomach. You won't get restriction with band until you get enough fills, and that could take months. Not to mention the unfills you may have to endure to find the "sweet spot". It's a lot of maintenance. With the sleeve, it's instant restriction, plus with ghrelin hormone out of the equation, the ravenous hunger is gone. I'm 8 months out and still have zero hunger. I still have to remind myself to eat. The risks with the sleeve are more common immediately following surgery such as leaks. But, with the band, the list of complications is long and can occur fairly early out, or a couple of years post-op flipped ports, esophageal dialation, stretched pouches, erosion, slippage, and those are the most common. Some have asked me why did I have the band. It was approved by my insurance, my mom has a band since Nov 2007 (and now she pukes 2-4 times weekly), I really thought I would be one of the lucky ones (so not the case), I needed surgical intervention, and I was so against RNY. I knew all the complications, but honestly thought I could be successful. Luckily, when I decided to revise, I found out that a military base close to us did indeed perform the VSG. I left my civilian band surgeon and transferred all my stuff to a military surgeon. My insurance (Tricare Prime) approved my revision immediately. I am not the type of person to really regret anything I've done in my life. I don't regret my decision to get the band. It taught me a lot about myself, and I did pick up some good habits with it. I do wish that I would not had of complications, and I wish I would of known that the VSG was approved at our neighboring base. But, I see a civilian PCM, so I get kicked to civilians for all of my referrals. Just my ramble. I hope that helps.

Petra, You and I are similar. I am about as far in to the process as you and have doubts now and then, but then I get on here and all my doubts go away. I'm 35 and my BMI is 38 and I have high triglycerides and high fasting blood sugar. So I'm not diabetic yet, but w/ my fasting sugars and the fact that my identical twin is already diabetic, I'll take the small chance of possible risks over the ill health effects I'm already having. Nicely put by SoCalDixieGal I am an RN and I'm getting surgery so don't feel bad like you're taking the easy way out! My primary care doc who is skinny is AWESOME and she said it nicely when she said I'm taking control...as are you. I think the rate of leakage complications is 1-2% so I'll take that over the 50% chance I have of getting diabetes. I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant so that increases my risk. You will be able to have foods you had before but in much smaller amounts and not until probably 6 months to a year out (at least that's the idea I've gotten from these boards and my classes I've had so far:) Good luck to you, wish me luck that my insurance approves me! They say they want a BMI of 40 or 35-39 w/ co-morbidities which I have, but they seem to be more strict for the sleeve than the bypass which seems backwards doesn't it? Oh well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I am a month out and I still haven't had sex, my poor husband. I haven't for 3 reasons...1 I'm terrified I will hurt since I still have some discomfort, 2 I have now been on my period (first one in 17months) for almost 2 weeks, & 3 I'm scared I'll get pregnant. My surgeon says not to get pregnant for 18-24months because there could be some complications.

You can have sex when you are comfortable enough to do so. They say to be very gentle though and not to do anything too wild haha. Also it is important that you use birth control because you become very fertile after surgery. My doctor recommended not to plan pregnancy until at least 18 months past surgery date. Generally, I think it's about a year at least. If you become pregnant earlier, it can cause complications.

Thanks yeah there is complications to all surgerys and he was just exagerating the negative effects of this one...

Tomorrow is my last day before surgery. I have done the liquids & tomorrow I will stick a bottle of mag citrate. I work in the med field. Believe me, you want to do it. It will decrease your risks. If anything happens to get nicked, you would have crap leaking. It's just an easy thing to do to improve odds of complications.

Yes, please get your vitamins & supplements ASAP!!! This is one of the things they always stress! You do not want complications due to insufficiencies! Your body needs this.

Unfortunately, if you can't swallow anything, the only thing that is going to help is an unfill. It's important you do this immediately, too. Dehydration is very dangerous and bands that are too tight can lead to very serious complications. Good luck.

I'm traveling for business this week and have not been able to eat since I landed. Does flying cause complications? I tried to have dinner tonight but vomited several times. Only able to tolerate broth. Cold liquids come right back up. Does this mean I have a slip. Should I go to the ER? My co-working know nothing of my surgery. How do I explain this? Need all the advice I can get. Surgery date 5/8/12 6.8cc in 10 cc band

Hi Bryan! Welcome and congrats! I am a little over two weeks post op and I haven't had any complications besides the nausea for the first 18 hours or so. Wasn't too bad. Everyone is different, but I feel most people don't have many complications. Best of luck and let us know how it goes!

I hear you! I was banded one week ago. I had complications the day after surgery where I could not even swallow my own spit. I am so nervous about more complications, that I can't get excited over the future. To top it all off, my anti-depressants are too big for me to swallow and I have not taken them in a week. My nerves are frazzled! The good thing is, I have moved to full liquids and doing good. I think we have to take it one day at a time and firmly believe things WILL get better. Soooooo....you are not the only one LOL! Things are rough right now and I guess they call it bandster hell for a reason! Trust that things will get better and try to think positive thoughts! Sending well wishes your way :wub:

I'm scheduled to see the physician's assistant at my surgeon's office on Aug 4th, which will be 6 wks post-op. I've lost 27.4 lbs as of today, 20.4 of those pounds being post-surgery. Unless things change a lot in the next 2 weeks I plan to hold off on the fill. Sometimes I'm hungry only a couple of hours after I eat, but other times I can go 5 or 6 hours until I get hungry. Not sure why but I don't always eat on a regular schedule anyway. It seems like the less fill people have, the less complications they have, so I want to be conservative with fills.

Hi! I'm (obviously) new here. Anyhow, I'm from the Philippines and I'm going to be banded on May 11, 2009. My surgeon is Dr. Rey Santos and I think he's going to perform the surgery with 4 other surgeons. I've actually had a chat with my surgeon already and have already raised my questions and concerns (mostly drawn from reading the posts here. Hehe). Admittedly, after reading the Complications section, I'm still a bit afraid of what can happen post-op. But, I'm really trying my best to stay positive. I really want to become healthy. So, just a little background info. I'm 22 years old and my BMI is currently at 41. Since I'm Asian, I am most definitely morbidly obese (35 is the cut-off for us) I'm at my heaviest right now at 257 pounds. I'm 5'6 and I'm an incoming 2nd year medical student. Fortunately, I don't have any complications from being obese. My lipid profile is normal, no diabetes (no family history either plus my blood sugar is usually around 80s to 90s), no hypertension, no PCOS, no chest pains, some slight insulin resistance, etc. The only thing that's really bugging me right now is that my ankles hurt sometimes. Actually, when they started acting up, that was the time I really started to worry and considered Lap-Band. Ever since I was three years old, I've been overweight. I tried to lose weight when I was 14 years old and enrolled myself in a gym that summer. I lost 30 pounds that time and from 210, reached 180. But I gained the pounds I lost eventually and then some. After that, I still worked out every summer but I wasn't able to lose as much before. I tried cardioboxing too, South Beach Diet, Sibutramine and even Orlistat (yeeech). All of them helped decrease my weight but not significantly. And I gained them all back eventually. I had two nutritionists but they weren't able to help as much. So there. That's basically the story of my battle with obesity. I'm sorry if it's so long. Haha. I have this tendency to overshare information. You guys are really supportive and I'm really glad to have found this community. I hope I'll get to know all of you more. :thumbup:

I am a just over two years out and I have gained 40 pounds back. After surgery I had no complications. Nothing made me sick, there was no food that I couldn't eat or that I couldn't tolerate. I did good for a little over a year then I hit a rough patch in life and went completely downhill. I was craving and eating sweets like it was nothing, I was drinking again and often, I quit taking my vitamins regularly. I was taken off of my depression and anxiety meds and put on Vyvanse. It seemed to be working for a while. The transition from my regular meds to Vyvanse happened right before I had surgery so of course, it helped me losing weight. I lost 114 pounds. Then all of a sudden my Vyvanse seemed to not be working anymore. Everyday was a struggle. I tried to get taken off of it a few times and my psychiatrist didn't think it was a good idea. I tried to take myself off of it and I quickly figured out that was not a good idea. I am so irritable most days. I have gotten to where its a struggle to even want to get up out of bed and do anything. I've had several people at work tell me i'm never happy. I'm always complaining or biting someone's head off. This is not me at all. I am generally a happy and fun person. People used to like being around me and now i'm pretty sure they don't. I finally took my myself off off of my Vyvanse (3 weeks without it) and struggled through it. My psychiatrist put my back on depression and anxiety meds last week so i'm hoping to be doing better soon. I've started back on how i'm supposed to eat today and have all of my vitamins. Has anybody else went through something like this or experiences irritability and unhappiness?

I am sorry to hear. However, I don't feel that way at all. I may have had a rough recovery and suffered a few complications, but at this point, I feel this is the best decision I've ever made. My willpower to diet pre surgery was shot. I never would have lost the weight if not for surgery and I would have continued to gain and gain and fall deeper into depression. My family is very superficial and focus on size and looks and you are judged if you don't "meet the criteria" I was embarrassed to even attend family functions. I haven't seen much of my family in years. So, I am gaining my confidence back and the depression and self loathing is fixing itself. It was all weight related which caused me to eat more and more crappy. So for me, this was life saving. Literally Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Banding is the easiest procedure in bariatrics to do. With that said, there is a learning curve. The sutures can't be too tight, they can't be too loose. The band can't be too high, it can't be too low. The sutures cannot be too many in number, nor too few. Once the learning curve is over things are fine. But complication stats (erosion, slips, etc.) are indeed higher for newbie surgeons. Something as simple as scratching the back of the stomach can possibly cause erosion years down the road. That is the biggest reason I wouldn't personally go to a newbie surgeon. This was my last shot at weight loss and I wasn't going to screw it up. I gave myself every opportunity to do this the right way. It's kinda like crocheting. The first project is probably pretty fugly, not even. But with practice it's just about perfect. Same concept applies to the band. I can't say that I would go to anyone with less than 250 bands myself. If someone didn't have any money at all and having a newbie do it was the only shot they had it might be different. I wouldn't do it, but many would. Another issue is aftercare. Fills are an art, not a skill. Anyone can measure out a cc or two. But to get good restriction without absolute misery is hard to do. The problem with banding is that all the bad stuff usually happens after surgery or after the fills. It's not like a minor complication in OR that you fix right then and there. Our complications often times don't happen (from surgery) until down the road. So you have to weigh money vs. skill. You have to do what is right for you.

there are fewer complications with sleeve, but on the other hand, complications with either surgery aren't very common. And if you do have them, most (for both surgeries) are minor and "fixable". I personally would not let that make or break your decision because most of us sail through these surgeries just fine and don't experience complications. However, since you have GERD and choose the sleeve, know that you have about a 30% chance of that getting worse. That was the reason I went with bypass instead (and I've been very happy with that decision). Of course, you may be one of the 70% for whom it does NOT get worse. I wasn't willing to take the chance, but you might be.

The complications is what worries me the most. I have people in my life who keep telling me about people they know who have had trouble. But I think a lot of them tried to use the bad wrong, and where over filled and that's what caused their problems. I don't know. I have watched a lot of people on YouTube who have success with their Lap Bands. I just pray I am a success too! My husband is also worried, and that makes me worry more! LOL I start my liquid diet tomorrow! I am not turning back! I have my eyes on the future! I am so excited, I just have to calm my nerves.....

I would disagree. Signs of slippage usually involve nausea, new onset of acid reflux, ability to eat larger portions suddenly or the opposite-difficulty eating/drinking at all, sometimes abdominal pain etc. The fact that you are asymptomatic can mean that your band is on the tighter end of your green zone. I would food journal and ensure that you are getting adequate protein/nutrition and fluids. If not, than you are too tight, simply because you can not take in minimum nutritional requirements. Sometimes a mere 0.1-0.5cc removed will keep you green but allow you to eat more and consume your minimum nutrition. I always recommend being on the loser side of green to prevent complications such as erosion, slippage etc. It's not necessary to be so tight you become symptomatic or cannot eat properly. Being day 3 you can still be inflamed, just depends on how much of a fill you added. I noticed I am much more sensitive to fills now that Im 3.5 yrs out. At 6cc I could not swallow water at 5.5 I'm at green.

I like your post because it's a good reminder that fills follow us for a life time. Newbies may expect that once they reach green that that's it. No more fills. However, weight loss, pregnancy, complications and even saline evaporation etcetc may warrant unfills and fills throughout our journey. I got a fill last May, first one in 3.5 years. I was ready to get back on track and my last fill was maintaining me at 195, my new fill maintains me at 155. Thanks for the post

Hi all, I am going for my preop visit tomorrow and wanted to know if anyone can give me some ideas on what questions to ask? I have a list and I will post it, but please feel free to add to it if you can think of anything. I have decided to go with the Realize band, but I am going to talk to him about it further. So far, my questions are as follows: 1. When will my husband and I be able to resume sex? 2. Which band are you most comfortable placing? 3. Which band seems to show obtaining quickest restriction? 4. How long should I take off work? 5. Which band has shown more complications that he has placed with tubing, ports, etc. 6. Hair loss? As I said, if you guys can think of anything else, please let me know. Thank you bunches!

But why would consider a 2nd surgery??? Yikes. The sleeve does sound less complicated than the Roux-n-Y . Can it be done laproscopically??? What is the recovery time, surely is longer than LapBand as they do remove most of your stomach, therefore more stitching and healing to be done. None of your internal organs are CUT in Lapband, making recovery time mininal and very painless... I was out walking around the block the same evening as surgery and hiking in the woods the second day. Only took tylenol for pain for a couple of days. Pretty good I'd say... But the advantage with the Sleeve is you don't have to have repeat visits to the Doc's for fills.... Pros and Cons to both.. What are the COST differences?

Hi I had surgery on a Monday and was released that Wed, all the gas came out that Friday and I was walking and improving everyday, I do believe that I could have went back to work that Monday but I stayed home until I had my two week check up and then I return back to work. I have a very demanding job but I was ready for it. I had no complications and my husband and family were great. After my 6 week check up I was approved to exercise and I began exercising three times per week and then went up to 5 days per week. I have had no complications and no problems. Good luck and congrats on your choice on being healthy.

That's AWESOME, congrats! Did you have any complications or excessive pain afterwards?