Help with Band to Sleeve Revisions

lillifter35 · May 13, 2010

Hello all.

This is my first time on here. Long story short I had the band done in Feb 2006 and lost a little over 100lbs and was at my goal for 3 yrs. Last October I had to let all the Fluid out for 6 weeks because I was having heartburn and night coughs. Why so long I don't know. I wish so much that I would have just said no. In that 6 weeks I gained over 20 lbs. Now it won't come off. I have taken some drastic measures to no avail. I no it's not alot but we no where it goes from here. I get so paranoid just thinking about it. My band is as tight as it can go and I still can eat as much as I want. I keep it a little tighter so that there are at least some restrictions. I called my dr's office today to schedule an appt to maybe get a revision to the sleeve. I almost don't want to go because I strongly believe that it's not gonna go well. Insurance, I'm sure will be a big problem. I really only started researching the sleeve today but i'm mostly hearing good things, but i'm wondering if anyone has had any negative experiences with it. I'm afraid to have this done only to have this problem again. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Tiffykins · May 14, 2010

The sleeve is fabulous, and if you had success with a restrictive band, then the sleeve is a good choice. Don't get me wrong, you can eat around the sleeve just like you can with the band, but it sounds like you did good with the band.

I had it, it worked until the complications started and I revised to the sleeve. RNY, DS was not an option for me.

I posted a lot of my story for others looking at band to sleeve, and you can read some of previous threads in this forum to see all of the band to revisions progress.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Tiffykins

wannabehealthy · May 15, 2010

Hi There! Having had the LapBand for 7 years myself, I now understand that once the complications start, it's time to move on from the band. I wish I had known that at the time and may have possibly avoided the 4 more surgeries I had due to the lapband complications. If I were you, I'd seek revision-it's likely that the lapband is doing some damage in there right now and the less damage the better when going for revision! Good Luck!!