I was banded in March of 2011 and have lost 75 pounds since then. Last Thursday I attempted to eat some refried beans and almost immediately I began getting sick. I had been getting sick a lot lately and had gone in the day before and had my band deflated to try and get myself together. This would be my last attempt with the band. The pain got worse and the vomiting and dry heaving would not let up. The doctor that deflated my band the day before just happened to call and check on me during this ordeal and he advised me to meet him at the ER and the odds were that I would be admited for surgery. I went to the ER and he had orders waiting so they quickly drew my labs and gave me pain meds as well as phenergan for the dry heaving. He showed up to do the barrium swallow and sure enough my entire stomach had prolapsed through the band (he said the band hadn't slipped so I guess there is a difference between a prolapse and a slip). My blood count was very low because I had been getting sick for a while and turns out the lining of my stomach was bleeding. He admited me and took me in for surgery at 7 the next morning. The band had got under my spleen and there was some trauma there but they were able to control the bleeding and leave the spleen. He fixed a hernia that had been caused since getting the band and resectioned me to a sleeve. I lost enough blood that I had to have 2 transfusions in the 5 nights I was there. I'm a hot mess right now and in pain but I'm better today then I was yesterday. I feel so lost now because I know nothing about the sleeve and of course I'm scared that something could go wrong with it. Even though I had a bad experience I do not regret my decision to have WLS and I'm looking forward to moving on and healing up. I really can't say that I should have done things differently because I didn't have the signs people talk about. I was always able to get liquids down but was never able to get the band adjusted correctly. Anyway I'm gonna miss lappy but hopefully sleeve will give me what I need and with less problems. Now I need to learn everything I would have learned before surgery about the sleeve. Do's and don't's, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Any information would be great!

What do we have here? Looks like my spleen

that could be a peeled grape, if the angle was right...lol

JK!

yes I had but i no longer have a lap band so that site would not apply to me. I lost a lot when I went into surgery but maybe I will gain new friends and support.

You will. You have - and you are always free to message me if you like. I am sure that applies to just about everyone here.

whoa....everyone, find your breath.

We all have different experiences, and doctors are beginnig to recognize the advantages of implementing a sleeve in the same surgery as a lap band removal in some situations. the strongest arguement, Healthwise might be the aspect of having to afford the sleeve.

I would assume recovery will be longer, but still... better that the alternatives.

I was sleeved at the same time they took out an aggressive (but benign, thank GOD) tumor that had begun to separate the lining of my stomach. They will work on you with other problems.

The sleeve is done in the face of many situations, WLS is a late comer to the sleeve - cancer, tumors, trauma (accidents, war) - and more. They can and in my opinion should offer it when having to remove a band, as the rule rather than the exception.

Remeber, not all docs give the same info, and not all information is most current.

I discussed options with the surgeon but i was upfront with him and told him I would never have 15,000.00 to pay for the sleeve especially after being private pay for the band. Maybe that helped him make his decission but I am thankful that I do not have to have a second surgery or figure out what to do now. It was a very hard surgery. They basically worked from my chest down to my stomach (removing the band, getting my spleen under control, fixing a hiatal hernia, and doing the sleeve) so I was miserable afterwards. Then I had other complications and needed blood transfusion, kidneys shut down, my neck and face filled with gas (you can still feel the crackling in my skin), and to top it off one of my IV's infiltrated and now it is sclerosed and may need to be stripped later. I will not lie. It sucked!! I was very emotional the first day and thought what have I done to myself but that too passed. I spent 5 nights in the hospital but today I am up and going. I am going to my sons school for a meeting and have not had one nap today so I'm on the uphill side. The surgeon was honest with me and said he would prefer to do the sleeve when he removed the band because he has more leway with the insurance company and can get more services covered so that I may only be left with $4-5,000.00. Thank God for compassionate doctors because he could have removed the band and nothing else or sent me back to my original surgeon.

I am sorry to hear that your arrival to the sleeve wasn't smooth! I hope you will find that you are much happier with it than you were with your band - I'm sure those who have had the band can speak to this better than I. However, I will say that I have been very happy with my sleeve, I worked very diligently to lose the weight, and while I still watch what I eat and count my Protein - I am not on a restricted diet. I choose to eat pretty healthy foods, but my sleeve tolerates absolutely everything.

It sounds like you have a big learning curve on the diet progression too - but obviously you did it with your band so it will be easier for you than most. If you have questions about sleeved life send me a PM - I was sleeved in May (from 255 down to 142) and my husband was sleeved less than a week ago.

There does seem to be a fair amount of pettiness on this site lately, I'm sorry that it was sent in your direction. There are many people who are here to provide support and encouragement though. Hang in there!

Dearest Shucky,

I am so sorry this happened to you! Praying for good reports from here on. When I first started to look into WLS, I lthought about the Lap Band, but I couldn't get over the fact, that I would have a foreign object in my body. Somehow, the idea of having 80% of my stomach removed, sounded better than the band. It was the best decision for me, and I haven't had a moment of regret!

P.S

There a ton of great people on this site, hang in there!

There are a lot of people here who have had band to sleeve revisions' date=' myself included. One thing I have noticed universally is that surgeons will not do an immediate revision to a sleeve if there are any problems with the stomach and the band. Anyone who has an erosion or slip has to wait at least a few weeks, up to 6 months or even more before the stomach has healed enough to do the sleeve. When there has been a gastric complication with a band, there is just too much swelling and inflammation to do a sleeve immediately. This causes me to doubt this story. And it's really not possible for the band to "get under the spleen". If this really happened, I'm sorry you have had to go through this. But my experience and that of all the other band to sleeve revisions (plus my own experience working in the OR doing these procedures) leads me to believe you either have a woefully over-optimistic surgeon or something is not right here.[/quote']

You are wrong. My best friend had her band slip up to her esophagus and was taken in for emergency surgery to remove it. Doctor did sleeve "immediately". She's doing fine & never ever any complications since (13 months out). Just like everyone has different Pre & Post op diets, every doctor has their own way of performing surgery in their operating room.

Sent from my iPhone using VST

My apologies. I did not think before posting. I hope you are doing better.

My apologies. I did not think before posting. I hope you are doing better.

It always impresses me when ppl own their actions.

Quality. :-)

Amanda Rae

I was having a bad day and I guess I took it out on people I don't know. That's pretty appalling, but that's what happened. No excuses, I'll just try to be a better citizen around here. I really do hope we all have success and the better health we are seeking.

I was having a bad day and I guess I took it out on people I don't know. That's pretty appalling, but that's what happened. No excuses, I'll just try to be a better citizen around here. I really do hope we all have success and the better health we are seeking.

I do think it was pretty hateful to take the link to my post and put it in another thread with the title I call BS. That was done to be sneaky and so that I would not even have a chance to defend myself. Very school yard bully. Anyway I accept your apology and good luck to you.

I was having a bad day and I guess I took it out on people I don't know. That's pretty appalling, but that's what happened. No excuses, I'll just try to be a better citizen around here. I really do hope we all have success and the better health we are seeking.

Wonderful apology. It would have been easy to walk away, do a disappearing act, and sign up as someone else, but you didn't.

I didn't realize you were the beholder of all medical knowledge about bands and sleeves. Obviously my surgeon did not realize this either and failed to consult with you. Thankfully I have my operative pictures and you can clearly see my inflamed spleen laying on my band. Seems like you might need to learn your anatomy a little better because as a nurse I can tell you it is absolutely possible for a spleen to get in the way especially when it swells. I'm so glad you gave me all your divine wisdom here so i guess that just erases everything I went through the past week because YOU have deemed it can't be possible. Are you kidding me??? I didn't post on here to get your approval or permission but obviously you feel the need to give your uneducated rediculous opinions. The fact the the sleeve was unexpected was because the surgeon told me he would not know what he could do until he got in there and if the stomach was to swollen he would only be able to remove the band. Again I must tell him to consult with you from now on because you have all the answers. Would you like to see my operative pictures' date=' reports, hospital records? I wouldn't want you to be misguided. This surgeon did me an enormous favor by handling this but that is what happens in the medical profession when you are a NICE and UPSTANDING person in the field. I'm grateful for this surgeon and he has wonderful bedside manner as well as great operative numbers. He has even called me at home each day to make sure that I feel okay. I didn't say I had an erosion or a slip. I said I had a prolapse so you might want to do your research before you run your negative mouth and make an attempt to call me a liar. The only thing not right here is YOU. Worry about your own journey and I will take care of mine. What would I have to gain to make up a story and post it on here especially when I have already lost my weight ( not 20 pounds). You might want to respond to the other members that have responded to me and have gone through the same thing and let them know that they are lieing as well and that this experience didn't really happen to them. Feel free to not comment to me because i don't waste my precious life on negative and ugly people.[/quote']

Sounds like you've been through quite an ordeal. most ppl here are helpful and very willing to give opinions, share experiences and/or give advice. Obviously as a medical person, u already know your docs input is #1, but it helps to have ppl to bounce things off of or fill in gaps. There are always a few in every public forum who are umm...wellmeaning (smile) but I've learned to weed through and gained amazing knowledge here. Good luck. Happy to help anyway I can.

I didn't realize you were the beholder of all medical knowledge about bands and sleeves. Obviously my surgeon did not realize this either and failed to consult with you. Thankfully I have my operative pictures and you can clearly see my inflamed spleen laying on my band. Seems like you might need to learn your anatomy a little better because as a nurse I can tell you it is absolutely possible for a spleen to get in the way especially when it swells. I'm so glad you gave me all your divine wisdom here so i guess that just erases everything I went through the past week because YOU have deemed it can't be possible. Are you kidding me??? I didn't post on here to get your approval or permission but obviously you feel the need to give your uneducated rediculous opinions. The fact the the sleeve was unexpected was because the surgeon told me he would not know what he could do until he got in there and if the stomach was to swollen he would only be able to remove the band. Again I must tell him to consult with you from now on because you have all the answers. Would you like to see my operative pictures' date=' reports, hospital records? I wouldn't want you to be misguided. This surgeon did me an enormous favor by handling this but that is what happens in the medical profession when you are a NICE and UPSTANDING person in the field. I'm grateful for this surgeon and he has wonderful bedside manner as well as great operative numbers. He has even called me at home each day to make sure that I feel okay. I didn't say I had an erosion or a slip. I said I had a prolapse so you might want to do your research before you run your negative mouth and make an attempt to call me a liar. The only thing not right here is YOU. Worry about your own journey and I will take care of mine. What would I have to gain to make up a story and post it on here especially when I have already lost my weight ( not 20 pounds). You might want to respond to the other members that have responded to me and have gone through the same thing and let them know that they are lieing as well and that this experience didn't really happen to them. Feel free to not comment to me because i don't waste my precious life on negative and ugly people.[/quote']

This forum is insane. I got away from it for a long time due to the know-it-alls who obviously feel non validated in their real lives, so they choose to come here where they can't be questioned & "prove" their knowledge base by cutting down others. Oh, & they always follow up with "but if it is real, I hope you get well soon." They're just pathetic. And I am so glad you handed it back full force. welcome to VST.

I do think it was pretty hateful to take the link to my post and put it in another thread with the title I call BS. That was done to be sneaky and so that I would not even have a chance to defend myself. Very school yard bully. Anyway I accept your apology and good luck to you.

Report it. That's truly BS. & then to come back & pretend to be all humbled?

Report it. That's truly BS. & then to come back & pretend to be all humbled?

This matter has been handled. Sincere apologies issued and accepted by the parties involved.

We will now invoke the wisdom of Sir Paul McCartney and "let it be..."

Amanda Rae