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 :-)

would there be any constant pain with it like when you have a hernia?

hiatal hernia caused terrible reflux. I couldn't sleep unless I was sitting up

it burn my esophagus, caused. Gastritis, ulcers, pure misery. All the symptoms cleared up after RNY. RNY had other complications in me but none of my friends had my complications My complications were primarily caused by damage from have the band for eight years I hope this answer helps you. Steve