Hey everyone, just wondering if there are any other sleevers who had to be converted to a bypass due to complications? I've had a pretty bad 8 months with complications from my sleeve and never actually progressed to solid food. My surgeon was concerned that I was dehydrated, malnourished and losing too much weight so she converted me to a gastric bypass.

Gastric sleeve surgery was on 16 November 2015. I had it in private with a lovely surgeon and support team.

So after my surgery I was pretty much vomiting up after my puree meals. The nurse at the hospital told me it was my own fault for eating too quickly (I ate 2 teaspoons over about 30 minutes), and since then I blamed myself every time I vomited. I rang the surgeon a couple of weeks after going home and said I was still regularly being sick and feeling hungry because nothing stayed down. Her advice was to cut down my intake even more and said I was just having head hunger. So I listened to what she said and things didn't get much better. I was losing about 5-6 pounds a week. At one month from the operation, she sent me for a barium swallow as she was suspicious of a stricture. The swallow showed narrowing in the sleeve, but the surgeon decided to wait and see if it resolved itself after the swelling from surgery went down. This wasn't properly communicated to me so again I thought there was nothing wrong except for how I was eating.

Fast forward to March of this year and the vomiting is getting worse - I felt a heavy pain in my chest whenever I ate and then an almost passive regurgitation of food and lots of mucus (Sorry for TMI). I even vomited in my sleep and aspirated, which was awful. I talked to the surgeon again and she did another swallow exam which showed I actually had a very tight stricture. So I had a gastroscopy during which it was dilated. I did it without sedation, just pain relief, but it was a terribly painful experience.

One week of relief and almost normal eating after the dilation (normal as in where I was supposed to be for a sleever), then the same symptoms came back. So about 6 weeks after the original dilation, I was having it again as the stricture was back. I am a doctor so it was frustrating missing so much work for these investigations - I had to travel to another city to have it done.

Fast forward again to early June, and the symptoms are there again! This is when the surgeon decided to admit me to the public hospital she worked at because I was getting too unwell and dehydrated. The gastroscopy showed I actually had TWO strictures - one at each end of the sleeve - and these were dilated. But the symptoms didn't go away and another barium swallow showed that there was still an obstruction. This led to an oesophageal manometry study, which confirmed that I had a torsion in the sleeve. This meant that when I ate, it was twisting on itself and effectively blocking the food and making it come back up. I was relieved this was found - turned out I had 2 rate complications in one. I was beginning to think that my symptoms were in my head after they kept happening after the dilations! Because of this, there was no option to place a stent (although it had been considered). Surgery was the only way forward.

On the 8th of July, I had the sleeve converted to a gastric bypass to basically bypass the torsion and enable me to eat again and get back on track. This was a horrendously painful surgery and I recovered slowly. I then got an obstruction of the distal anastamosis a few days later as it twisted and stuck to itself, resulting in blockage. Had to go back to theatre a week after the conversion to fix it. I am still in hospital as I type this (5 weeks here) but am hopeful to be discharged tomorrow!

This whole process has been really tough emotionally. I keep thinking "I never signed up for a bypass" but I didn't have a choice - it was bypass or slowly starve to death. The diet sounds very restrictive and I worry about dumping, although I am not much of a sweet tooth and I have already been living on very little food for months. When I first received the bariatric meals at the hospital, I was shocked as the amount of food for one meal was far more than I had been eating in a whole day!!

I think the main fear is being isolated - being unable to eat with my family/friends and being left out of social occasions involving food. I'm a private person so only my close family know about the surgery. I know it will get better eventually, but it's really sad. I have talked through this with the health psychologists at the hospital which has been helpful. I feel a lot of regret for having the original surgery, but there was no way anyone would predict that I would have such a bad run with complications. My surgeon said she's only ever had one other patient she had to convert from sleeve to bypass. I did know the risks of complications and I accepted these before I went in to surgery. Being 24, I didn't think it would happen to me. But it did.

Stats wise: I'm a woman, 24 years old. Started at about 250 pounds. I'm 8 months out now and have lost 78 pounds, giving me a weight of 170 pounds and a BMI of 25.5. It obviously slowed down when I was unable to take solids, because I was given total parenteral nutrition (food through an IV which worked out to be about 2000 calories a day). But I'm happy with the loss, not happy with all the complications and having 7 gastroscopies, 5 barium swallows, 3 dilatations and 2 extra surgeries. My goal weight would be about 150-160 pounds - I will see when I get there!

Sorry for such a long post, but it would be great to hear from anyone who has had complications with the sleeve - strictures, torsion, leaks, conversion to bypass etc. It would be great to have some support as it's been quite a whirlwind for me. Thanks so much :-)

I havent had dumping. Ive had a few episodes of feeling sick. You have to limit items with high sugar. Like go to no sugar added ice cream (small amount) two forkfuls of anything fattening.

You will find if there are foods you know will make you feel sick, you lose your taste for them.

Im the only one of my friends that had complications but worked through them

good luck

Update: new blockage in June 2017. Major surgery to remove about a foot of intestine. It s now august and I feel great. hats off to columbia Presbyterian in NYC

That is fantastic! So you had a blockage after VSG? Then all they did was remove the foot of intestine? Did you have adhesions which led to the blockage? That is awesome you are doing well!

Had a bypass. The first obstruction was due to adhesions. The second in June was due to scarring inside intestines. They snipped both sides and reconnected the ends. So far so good but it's only six weeks. The next month will tell

Hopefully it would not scar up again Regards

Hi Steve, thanks for sharing. Glad you are doing well and hope no further issues. Take care and keep us posted

I'm booked for sleeve to bypass conversion on August 18th at NY Presbyterian. I've been having painful reflux since my sleeve in December 2015. I've lost about 113 lbs and my weight is still dropping, albeit slowly because I'm not feeling great so I'm not working out. I blew every goal I set out of the water, if hoped to be under 200 lbs, my dream was to get to 160 lbs, I'm currently around 150 lbs. When I was 16 I was 140 lbs, so this is very surreal for me.

The reason I lost so much is because my pouch twisted in the middle, so is now hourglass shaped, basically meaning I can only eat half what I should at a time, and if I don't chew really carefully I tend to puke. They discovered this during an endoscopy and the barium swallow test to investigate the reflux, which I assumed was an ulcer.

I'm also very private about having had this procedure, only my hubs, children, and a couple of very close friends know. I'm also worried about dumping, I do get it now but usually only after something liquid with high sugar, like ice cream, so I don't eat that any more. I can even eat cake with frosting! I've developed more of a sweet tooth since the sleeve, but I'm sure I'll adjust to whatever I end up with. As someone else said, you stop wanting to eat things if they make you feel terrible.

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Ive had surgery by Dr Krichelly and Brezzler at NY Presbyterian. The corrected obstructions and strictures from band to bypass complications . You are in good hands

Regarding dumping, you have to get use to portions. I f you eat to much with bypass you get bloating. This happens about ten to twenty minutes after you eat. With the band, you get stuck immediately. With bypass, Your pants get tight. I started to saliva and had dry heaving.

since they fixed the problem I've been fine. Dr Krickhely promised to fix problem and delivered. Adhesions are a risk of any surgery. Good luck

Ive had surgery by Dr Krichelly and Brezzler at NY Presbyterian. The corrected obstructions and strictures from band to bypass complications . You are in good hands
Regarding dumping, you have to get use to portions. I f you eat to much with bypass you get bloating. This happens about ten to twenty minutes after you eat. With the band, you get stuck immediately. With bypass, Your pants get tight. I started to saliva and had dry heaving.
since they fixed the problem I've been fine. Dr Krickhely promised to fix problem and delivered. Adhesions are a risk of any surgery. Good luck

They are a wonderful team! They did my sleeve surgery and are always very thorough and patient with any questions and during my follow up appointments.

I eat so little at the moment, Dr Bessler said I may actually gain weight after the bypass because I'll be in less pain. I'm sure I'll mess up with portions and sugar while I learn my new system, it was a challenge to figure out the tolerance of my sleeve at first too. Thank you for the bloating tip!

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Thanks for Sharing Steve. Yes, it is tricky figuring out portion sizes. I think best thing to do is to just eat really slow. I have another question. Does anyone know how much time between sleeve and revision to RNY surgery that is required?

Hi Cheese, keep us posted. You will do fine. God bless!

I had a band .most doctors will weight a few months between taking out band and doing sleeve or RNY. From sleeve to RNY, some insurance company's require six months of nutrician and all requirements as if it was your first procedure.

In my case, Unite health care approved removal of band and RNY the following month. I had tremendous damage to esophagus and upper stomach. I had the band over 8 years and it started killing me I lost and kept off 130 pounds. The day before the removal of the band , they reviewed the file and revoked the approval for the second part (the RNY). As much as I wanted to keep the band as I was thin for the first time in my life, it was nt worth dying over

I appealed to United Health Care. They still refused so I appealed to New York

State and won. Sleeve to RNY is a single procedure So it is only a matter of getting insurance approval Hopeni answered your question. Best of luck

I had the sleeve done just over 18 months ago, but due to the GERD issues I was experiencing, my surgeon started talking about converting it to a bypass about 6 months ago.

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I had a revision in May of this year. I had bad reflux but unfortunately the surgery didn't cure my problems. Anyone know if there is something else you can do? Or perhaps get the surgery checked by another surgeon?

You might have a hiatal hernia. Check with GI dr first.

Oh that sucks, what, do they want you to gain weight back before they approve? Do you have anymore to lose?

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