I was banded almost 5 years ago. I lost 55lbs over a very long period of time and from what I honestly think was just hard work and not much help from the band.

I hate my band. It hurts. I feel like it's violent when I get stuck (often) and I can feel my port all the time for FIVE years. Sigh. Eating is stressful and to top it off I've gained every ounce back. I sometimes eat 2 bites can't eat another bite longingly look at my healthy or even healthy-ish food and an hour later eat Cookies because I am starving. I feel like my eating habits have become worse because of the band and at this point I'm totally out of control.

I'm excited about revising and petrified too. I would like the sleeve but I'm so afraid I will eat thru it like I did with the band. I hear "it's so different" but I wonder if that applies to people like me that ate around the band. Waited for food to pass then slid junk down. I suppose I could fail at the bypass as well.

I'm wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience with the band and been successful with the sleeve or failed to lose with the sleeve as well. Any and all advise would be so appreciated!!!

I had my band put in 8 years ago. Three weeks ago had gastric bypass. My band had prolapsed last year and had to be removed immediately. I had success with the band lost 65lbs but do agree it was the hardest process ever. Also agree I could of done it without the band. I constantly had food stuck no matter what I ate with the exception of junk food. All my weight came back and then some. I choose gastric because I'm in it to win it this time around!!! In my mind I decided I was going all in and didn't want any excuses. Although the sleeve does have great results mentally I needed more:-D

Which ever one you choose if your ready you will have great success

Good Luck! !!!!!

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Onmyway,

I don't have any advise for you, just my story which is not complete yet.

I too hesitated to get a revision because of my experience with the band. My current doctor told me in January, "it's not your fault. The band doesn't work". I didn't believe him because I knew I had eaten around my band at times, was totally out of control with cravings at times. But I started the process toward revision because I knew I had to do something. I was desperate. I lost 60 pound slowly with the band and have now gained it all back after having an empty band for 3 years due to complications.

I was very conflicted, trying to figure out what to do. I had to go to a nutrition class once a month for my insurance to cover revision and I started going even though I wasn't sure I was going to have surgery again. When I got there, I thought "I've been through all this before. I know all this". And I thought "I don't have to practice. I can do it when the time comes. If it comes". By the third class, something changed for me. I started believing that there was a chance I could be successful with the sleeve. I got 3 books about the sleeve and started reading. The truth is that I am a carb addict and when I am able to stay off of them for a period of time, I don't crave them as much. I just have never really committed myself to staying off of them before. Now I have. I need to. I decided to go for a sleeve.

I took an optional fourth nutrition class to finish learning implementing all the new behaviors I would need to follow after the sleeve and I would need to start practicing now. Stopping alcohol was hard as it had become my replacement behavior after the band, one thing that went down easy. Getting down to 1200 calories was hard. Cutting out carbonation was hard. Increasing exercise with my arthritis was hard. But slowly I have implemented everything including going down to 1000 calories a day and 50 gms or less of carbs from veggies and fruit. I'm not losing an ounce yet but I am sticking to it for the first time because I have committed to doing this. I need to lose some weight before surgery to make it safer.

I am hoping for the experience that a lot of sleevers have: not being hungry and not having cravings. But even if I don't get lucky with that, I'm going to be as good a sleever as I was bad a bander.

All that said, I haven't got my sleeve yet and haven't been successful with it yet. But I think if I can start to believe in myself, you can too.

There several advantages to sleeve and bypass over band. The restriction from sleeve and bypass is better tolerated, both show better resolution of medical problems over band, and both have more consistent outcomes compared to band. When deciding between sleeve vs bypass the benefit of each should be discussed by the surgeon as well as the risk. Bmi greater than 50, diabetics taking insulin, and patients with bad reflux and large hiatal hernia do Better with bypass. Patients with history of bowel resection, very bad anemias or complicated history of kidney stones may not be good candidates for bypass. Lower bmi (35-50) are also usually good candidates for bypass but the advantages are limited to better control of diabetes and more long term data substantiating durability of result. The two operations have about the same risk, although there are articles that vary on the topic.

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I was banded ten years ago. I was very successful, I lost 125 lbs with the band. Wonderful, right? Except for the bad stuff...the vomiting when something gets stuck, the port bothered me, even ten years later I could lay on my side and it would give me a tweak. Overall though, my surgeon called me a success story.

Nine years go by, and I'm staying pretty steady. I've since gotten married, had two beautiful children, and remained around 185 lbs (I was 305 when banded). Then about a year ago I started having acid reflux and I was gaining weight...and fast. I turned to comfort foods, which exacerbated the problem. Finally I went to get a fill, and was told by my surgeon that he doesn't do fills anymore, but if I want to work with Janine(his asst) she is over here at this program. So I go, and I find about about lap revision to sleeve. At this point I've gained 70lbs with no explanation. The surgeon was amazing. On July 13th I was revised from the band to a sleeve and I feel great. And all those people that tell you that this totally different? Absolutely! I wish you all then best!!

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I saw my surgeon for 1st consult yesterday. His opinion is that there are too many possible complication converting a band to bypass, so he recommends the sleeve. He said the place you are banded is the exact place they cut for bypass and if the area is already eroded or irritated, it can cause problems.

He did say there can be issues with the sleeve for the same reason, but the cut is slightly different and not right on the band placement site.

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I had bypass after band removal and depending on your surgeon I think its not a concern. My surgeon made sure the cut was in a spot that would not be of concern. I think also it depends on what the extent of your damage is after removal of the band. I was recommended to heal at least 6 months after removal before gastric. I didn't have the procedures back to back.

Good Luck :-)

Band to bypass is a safe option for conversion as long as there is no history of intestinal surgery or reason to have extensive intestinal adhesions. I recommend seeing a surgeon who regularly performs band to bypass conversions and routinely does band revisions/conversions. The bypass has more long term data compared to sleeve. The bypass is also considered the gold standard weight loss operation.

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