My name is Jamie and I started my weight loss journey many years ago but my surgery journey started in February 2010. I was 330 pounds at 27 years old. I was always a healthy person but after 4 knee surgeries I gained over 100 pounds and tried EVERYTHING to try to loose the weight. When I hit 330 I knew it would end up being life or death.

I attended a bariatric surgery meeting at my mothers suggestion. After meeting with my surgeon and discussing all options with my husband we decided on the lap band. (Man was that a mistake) I had the lap band surgery in May 2010 and it only took me 3 weeks to recover!! I thought I had done enough research to prepare my self but I was very wrong. Eating was hard and I was seeing the Dr almost every 4 to 6 weeks for 3 years trying to figure out where the perfect fill was. After 3 frustrating years of throwing up and learning how to cheat with the band we decided it was time to revise the band. I decided to do the a sleeve, it seemed like a safer and less invasive surgery. I was very excited to start this new journey after seeing co workers have great success with it.

I had my revision to the sleeve May 2013. The recovery was much harder then the recovery from the band and I think it was due to doing the band removal and the sleeve revision at the same time. After 6 weeks I was as good as new and dropping weight at a nice pace. I was very excited to eat right and exercise because I was actually loosing weight!!! After the first 3 months I began to get really painful chest pains. Being a person that never had to deal with acid reflux, GERD or heartburn I didn't know what the pain was from. I went back to my Dr and he began seeing me every 2 - 4 weeks and we tried every acid reflux, hernia, heartburn and GERD medication we could. By the time I was 10 months out I was in such bad pain and no medication would help my Dr decided we needed to revise my sleeve to the full bypass to eliminate the acid from being created in my stomach. I am very unhappy with this decision so I went to 3 other doctors that specialize in acid reflux and weight loss surgery and sadly they all agreed with my surgeons prognosis. We began the insurance approval process and it was a little harder to get the bypass surgery approved this time since I am 178 pounds and they didn't see a reason for the surgery.

Last Tuesday the pain got so bad I ended up in the ER for 6 hours as they tried to figure out how to make the pain stop. The prognosis was esophagus spasms so I had to be put on a liquid diet since eating hurt. Finally my insurance approved the surgery and my doctor is rushing the surgery date due to the severity of this issue.

My revision to bypass is scheduled for May 13 2014 and I am completely freaking out!!!! This is not a surgery I want and I am concerned that I am going to have all the bypass side effects I really never wanted to have! I know the surgery is inevitable and the only way to get rid of this intolerable pain for good! I am coming top grips with it and feel more assured that this will work since I did seek other opinions from multiple specialists.

I am telling my story because I really need help from others out there that may gave went thru the same issues I am and what did you do to resolve it?

What should I expect to be different from the sleeve to the bypass?

Please help! I am really scared and really don't want to have to go thru this again!!

Edited May 5, 201412 yr by Alex Brecher

I had the revision from a band to bypass a little less than 3 months ago and have only lost 20 pounds. I know I am not eating like I should but I thought the bypass would be more like the band in the amount of food I could hold. The is no signal from the bypass that I've had enough food like the band did. I thought I would be a more useful tool. I am disappointed!

The sleeve really helped me loose weight, when I switched over to bypass my weight loss slowed down. I am still loosing weight but I think it's more because I am crazy about calorie intake and I workout like a mad woman!! My advise is to keep. Food diary and count calories, you should be eating between 600 - 800 a day to loose weight and burning twice that much daily. The fitbit has really helped me with tracking!! When I had the band it really didn't do much but make me sick all the time. Bypass isnt very different from the sleeve but do you ever feel full after eating? Bypass does let you eat more but you have to be smart about how you eat. Try tracking your calories and see if you can loose more that way?

Edited October 24, 201411 yr by jamiep5

I hit my one year next month and I am planning to do a sleeve to bypass revision because the sleeve did not work as well for my weightloss. I also had a significant loss and gain back before that the surgeon thinks has hindered my relose and that the sleeve didn't help me enough.

What makes it so frustrating is I've been doing everything by the book and really exercising and have a physical job. :/

so your doctor wants to do a revision? How much did you loose and how much gain back?

Hi, glad I found this thread. I had the the band in 2007, had tons of complications and had it removed and got Sleeved in Dec of 2010. I did great, lost all my excess weight (110 pounds) then got pregnant, did great in the pregnancy but since having the baby 18 months ago I have gained back 50 pounds. Can't seem to get it off no matter what. Can't seem to stick to my diet. It's like before I was sleeved..no restriction whatsoever, plus bad acid reflux. So I saw my surgeon today to ask about getting resleeved and he let me know that resleeving is high risk for leakage and he recommends gastric bypass I am freaked out by that. I have to have a swallow upper GI xray coming up to look at my sleeve.

Am I reading these posts right? Am I seeing that you DON"T lose weight as well with RNY after sleeve as with the original sleeve? I had always thought RNY was the most drastic WLS and the one you lost the fastest with. I am scared to do RNY, scared to have my intestines jumbled around...lol....and scared of the after effects. I lost hair terribly with the sleeve and with all my pregnancies and I am just now getting a normal amount of hair back. I am worried I will go bald with RNY, for real! Scared of the malabsorbtion, which is why I wanted Sleeve to begin with....

any advice?

Thanks, Kindra

Sorry to hear about your weight gain after pregnancy! That is something I fear when my husband and I discuss starting a family. As for the bypass after the sleeve... I was still loosing weight with the sleeve when I had to be revised to the bypass. I am still losing weight but since I'm 200 pounds down and 8 pounds to go to hit my goal it not coming off as fast as it did when I had more to loose. I lost over 40 pounds in the last 5 months since my bypass surgery so I shouldn't be complaining but I really want to hit my goal!!!

I was very scared of getting the bypass and having my intense moved around. Very against it and tried everything I could to avoid it but honestly it's not as scary as I thought and really helped with my acid reflux. It dosnt feel much different then having the sleeve except for the dumping syndrome. Haha sounds worse then it is but when I tried drinking orange juice I had horrible stomach cramps and diarrhea for about 15 to 20 minutes. But I'm thankful because now I know oj has a lot of sugar and to stay away!!! It's really just a friendly reminder to stay away from all sugar.

Not as scary as it sounds and is the best weight loss option out there. Wish I would have just went for the bypass to begin with!! Let me know what happens and if you do have the bypass! Sending prayers your way!!

Tv