Another Hopeful Band To Sleeve Revision

[timetobefree 74]

I am a long-time member of LBT, although I have read these forums for quite some time. Just thought I would share my story as I go about a likely band to sleeve revision.

I was banded in Nov 2009 at 374 lbs. I had a long road to restriction, but once I got it, I rocked my band. To be perfectly honest, I probably kept it a bit too tight, but I LOVED the lack of hunger when my band was on the tighter side. For the first time in my life, I did not think about food 24/7. It was awesome! I followed the rules to a "T", and the weight slipped off.

From my banding until Dec 2011 (2 years), I lost 190 lbs. I was thrilled! Despite the occasional PB and inability to eat certain foods, I was still 99.9% happy with my band. Right after Christmas this year, however, I got a terrible upper respiratory infection. I coughed and coughed and coughed. I coughed until I puked. The cough lingered and turned into terrible reflux. After about two weeks of the coughing and reflux, I went to my primary care physician, because even drinking the tiniest bit of Fluid caused me severe back pain. Long story short, I was diagnosed with a slip. While "they" claim it wasn't the coughing, I have no doubt that the severity of my cough caused it to slip.

I got a complete unfill in early January. After not eating or drinking for weeks, I'd lost 200 lbs total. I was looking awesome! But the unfill was heavenly - I could eat! And eat I did, unfortunately. Once the slip was fixed, I started getting fills again. By late May, I was back up to 8 cc in my 14 cc band. I had good restriction, but I needed a bit more. I went in for one more small fill, and when I walked out, I had ZERO restriction. I went back later that week, and my surgeon was only able to remove 4 cc of the nearly 9 cc that should have been in there. He put the 4 back in along with 5 more. I walked out with ZERO restriction once again. Despite his claims that "bands can't and don't leak", a little googling proved that bands leak quite often, so I found a new surgeon to discuss my options with.

I've gained back more weight than I care to admit.

I finally met with the new surgeon yesterday. I had an Upper GI to confirm if I just have a leak or another slip. If, fingers crossed, there's not another slip, I will have the band out and revise to sleeve in one surgery on 8/31. If not, I'll have to do two surgeries. I was self-pay the first time and I will be this time as well, so my fingers are triply crossed that there is not another slip, because I'm not sure two surgeries are in our budget. I am fairly confident there is not, based on the immediate lack of restriction after that fateful fill, the fact that I have NO slip symptoms like I did last time, and because the Upper GI surgeon did not see evidence of a slip, although my surgeon will make the final determination. He is supposed to call me today with my results.

I was the biggest fan of the band until six months ago. I had such tremendous success, but I am not willing to go through this again. A slip and a leak, and all of this making my waistline grow and my wallet shrink. I just want something more permanent and reliable.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I'll update when I hear from my surgeon.

A

[Pookeyism 1,143]

I have just never understood how that thing is even allowed on the market. Hope you end up well, and sleeved! Good luck to you!

[timetobefree 74]

Not such good news. I have another slip. :angry

Right now, I am scheduled for 8/24 for band removal. The surgeon's office is calling me back about when I can do the sleeve.

I can't stop crying. I don't want to go through surgery twice, it's more expensive, and that's just that much longer that I have to battle this stupid hunger.

Oh well, at least I am getting this thing out before it causes any more damage!

[Wheetsin 714]

Did you have the same screen name on LBT? I was there for several years (since 2005 IIRC). We have similar stats and somewhat similar stories, though my slip occured during my pregnnacy (I'm 99% sure).

I'm still a fan of the band, just not it's long-term implications. As a temporary tool, I think it's great.

Bands do leak. Allergan (manufactures the Lap-Band brand) knows they leak. I know too many people who've had "disappeared" fill, it's ridiculous. It shouldn't be able to leak, but it can. Osmosis maybe, who knows!

I know it's frustrating and financially stressful, but two surgeries Healthwise is a good thing (I guess that's the silver lining?). The complication rate when there's a minimum two month wait between procedures goes down ridiculously. I don't remember the exact numbers, but as of about a year ago it was something like 20% - 30% initially, and a bit more each subsequent month. A lot of surgeon's will refuse two-in-one procedures now, because of the high complication rates.

Because of an insurance snafu I went 7 months between band removal and sleeve revision. I did great maintenance wise for about 2 or 3 months, then hit a hard downward spiral. In the first two-ish months I gained about 10 lbs, most of which was Fluid (I was so dehydrated from not being able to comfortably pass fluids regularly). But by the date of my revision, I was up about 60 lbs in 7 months. That's insane.

Be glad the band is coming out now. The reflux can lead to some bad things. I was given the option of keeping my slipped band in because all in all, I was tolerating it OK (at first - it got a lot worse fairly quickly). I told them it wasn't an option, too much risk for something else to pop up.

I think you'll like the sleeve. It's familiar, yet night-and-day opposite -- all in good ways. Revisioners tend to lose weight more slowly with the sleeve (I don't know if it's "with the sleeve" so much as "this time around"), but quality of life is so much better, it's worth it.

I've said before, I'm not anti-band, it's just unable to do what made it successful to begin with. I am still surprise it's being marketed so hard and we aren't seeing more surgeons drop it. I guess it has too high of a profit margin. Having had both, if I knew then what I know now and it had been readily available, I'd have gone with the sleeve to start with. Especially if I was self pay (I wasn't, neither time). If I'd self-paid for my band, I would be pissed and some of the folks I know at Allergan would be hearing from me daily.

[lml32937 65]

I was fortunate to have mine done in 1 surgery and i'm very thankful although I had a lot of problems afterwards that were related to where the band was and overall healing- I totally understand why they encourage 2 seperate procedures now and if I had to do it over again i think i'd opt to have it done seperately...

[CowgirlJane 14,261]

How frustrating! I hope you are able to get this all resolved so you can move on to a healthier life.

FYI, I have lost faster with the sleeve then I did with the band. According to my NUT, I am "doing good" even by virgin sleever standards so I don't believe that revisions always mean slower losses!

[timetobefree 74]

Wheetsin, I think I had the same name on LBT. It's been a while.

My update:

I saw my surgeon again this morning. There was some confusion, as I thought they had rescheduled my surgery for 8/24 (instead of 8/31). But it was really scheduled for SEVEN/24. Um, that's next Tuesday, and for a variety of reasons, I just cannot make it work. The big one is I am out of town for work. The next available option he had was 8/17. which was 3.5 weeks later.

Fortunately, my surgeon is awesome. He worked me in on 8/3, so I don't have to move heaven and earth, AND I can get it done sooner.

The bad news is my band is EFFFED UP! For real. If you've seen your band on film, you know it should look like a slash, '/'. Mine is a perfectly round, big, open, 'O', Yep, it has not only turned, but it has flipped and twisted. Which means my poor tummy is being drug up and through the O and then back down. Not good. He said he's seen worse though. I am thankful for once that my overachieving ways didn't have me in first place.

He can't believe I don't have any restriction based on the band's position, but I really don't. Oh, also, my band has ZERO Fluid in it, even though it should have 9cc. Yep, it is a mess. I wonder if he'll give it to me as a souvenir!

Sooooo, it's bad enough that I have to wait at least FOUR MONTHS between surgeries for my poor tummy to heal.

BUT because he is seriously the most awesome doctor ever, he reassured me that I am NOT to worry about weight gain. He wants me to focus solely on letting my tummy heal. He said he doesn't care if I lose 10 lbs or gain 50 lbs between now and my sleeve, he just wants to see me healed. He said I will get it all off and then some with the sleeve. In fact, he insisted I will be sitting in his office a year from now asking for plastic surgeon referrals because I'll have lost so much weight. It seems impossible, but I know it is true. Whether I have the surgery now or in a few months, a year from now, it won't really make a difference. A lower risk of complication is worth it in the end.

There you have it - the latest and greatest from this battling bandster. I have finally stopped crying. I'm still not happy at the prospect of being restriction-free for an additional five months or so, but it is what it is. I didn't have restriction for about six months with the band, so I just need to get in that same head space and do what I need to do.

Thanks for reading if you've made it this far!

[SylviaMom 83]

Sounds like you have a plan! I'm waiting for my sleeve (had eroded band removed in June) and I think we will be sleeved around the same time (December). It'll be worth the wait to make this process as safe as possible. Best of luck on the next phases of your journey!