Time from band out to sleeve performed

anonynurse · May 25, 2011

Hi all. I am getting my band out on the 31st and then will be sleeved on June 16th. I just have a question:

How hard is the time between the removal and then the revision in terms of appetite, nausea, weakness, pain, recovery and ability to work? I'll be on the pre-op diet during that interim. Thanks!

Jax · May 25, 2011

I am getting my band removed on 6/17 and revised to a sleeve during the same surgery. I do not have to do the liquid diet as my doctor does not require it as I have a BMI of 26. How come you have to have the two surgeries?

time-4-change · May 25, 2011

Do you mind me asking why you have to wait 2 weeks? I had my band to sleeve revision back on May 3 and it was done in one surgery. I, also, had a huge lipoma removed while I was asleep! Just wondering. All doctors are different!

Good luck with your surgery. You are going to love the sleeve!

Barb

quote name='anonynurse' timestamp='1306334808' post='155093']

Hi all. I am getting my band out on the 31st and then will be sleeved on June 16th. I just have a question:

How hard is the time between the removal and then the revision in terms of appetite, nausea, weakness, pain, recovery and ability to work? I'll be on the pre-op diet during that interim. Thanks!

anonynurse · May 26, 2011

My surgeon always does it in two separate surgeries with two weeks or more between them. Most people who have band complications have a degree of edema internally of the stomach tissue. This can, in turn, lead to an increase in complications if the sleeve gastrectomy is performed at the same time - when the swelling goes down, it is more common to find a leak that was hidden by the swollen tissues, which seemed at the time of surgery to be adequate. So he does them two weeks or more apart to allow for decreased swelling of the stomach tissues prior to further traumatizing them. I am pretty comfortable with that logic and his complication rate is unbelievably low. He's never had a death.

My BMI is relatively low - around a 34. Not super low, but not nearly what it was when I had the band placed three years ago. It was a 45 then.

time-4-change · May 26, 2011

Makes perfect sense to me! I had my Band for 4.5 years and I was really happy that he was able to do it all at one time. I did go into surgery knowing that it was a possibility that I would wake up un-sleeved.

Good luck!

Barb

Yorkie Fan · May 26, 2011

I had my band removed in April and will be having my sleeve done on June 8th. I can tell you that at first you aren't real hungry. In fact, it wasn't until the last week that I have had an increase in my appetite. The pain isn't too bad either. I was sore but all of my band pain that I had been experiencing was gone. I went back to work after a week. But I will tell you that I was tired for awhile. That's surgery for you!

I can tell you that it is better to know going in that it will be in 2 surgeries than not. I went in thinking that it was going to be in 1 surgery and waking up to find that I had no sleeve due to the amount of swelling. My surgeon opted to wait to do the sleeve until the swelling had gone down. I was cleared for my sleeve about 2 weeks after surgery. I was just waiting until I had the right time for work purposes.

Let me know if I can be of more help.

Nichole