My brief story is that I was banded 6 years ago. Horrible tool. I lost about 40 lbs. and have gained back about 35. I am now starting the process of getting insurance company approval for the gastric sleeve. I am terrified of this surgery! I have to follow a 6-month diet prior to approval and I've started and stopped twice due to changing my mind. I just can't get passed permanently removing part of my stomach. I'm searching for any advice you can offer. Will my stomach eventually stretch back out (if I overeat? I assume that after a year or so that I want it to stretch out a little. Can you eat carbs? Will I be able to take normal size Vitamins again. Will food get stuck like in the band? Can I eat carbs while sleeved (even if it's just a 1/4 cup)? Did anyone have malnutrition issues? hair loss issues? What do you struggle with the most being sleeved? Anyone else that was banded first that can make a comparison of the two? Any information on long term effects of the sleeve? I've done some research but just don't seem to find enough information. Sorry for the all my questions - I just need HELP!

I take regular Vitamins. Sleevers don't have malabsorption so as soon as your stomach heals enough you can start taking regular vitamins. I did at 6 months, I could have sooner. I hate chewables.

I can eat carbs or anything I want. I don't.

food only gets stuck when I eat something to dry, or over eat. It is easy to prevent. Never had the band, don't know what getting stuck with the band is like.

You are asking a lot of question about carbs. If you really love carbs like that, no surgery is going to help you. You can eat around your sleeve and you don't have any success with it. Almost everyone that posts here that is successful is low carb, and were very low carb in the losing stage. If you plan on eating carbs, even in small amounts, having surgery is going to be a waste for you. You don't have malabsorption with the sleeve like with the RNY, so you are going to absorb all the calories and other bad things that come with carbs.

If you can't change your attitude about food, every WLS is going to be a horrible tool for you. Surgery is a method to help you support healrthy food changes. Surgery alone won't lose your weight, you have to make an effort.

Band to sleeve people lose slower and have to work harder, so eating carbs after a conversion is going to be even more of a disaster for you.

It depends on your idea of carbs. I try to keep my total carbs below 140 grams. When I go above 150 I gain weight.

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So there's a lot of questions here. I'll do my best....lol. I think you'll get lots of varying answers when you ask the question about whether the sleeve can stretch or not. I don't think it matters really what the answer is, as much is it matters that you understand that you CAN gain weight with the sleeve. It doesn't matter if it stretches or not. If you put the wrong kinds of food into it (small quantity or not) you can and will gain weight.

The period of time right after surgery is key (the first 10 months or so) because you are healing internally and there's some swelling, etc that makes it pretty difficult if not impossible to eat "normal" portions of food. You have to maximize this time and stick to the plan religiously to get the most out of the surgery. I would say somewhere around 10-12 months post op everything kind of healed I suppose and I felt that I was able to eat more at a time. That's when I had to become really, really mindful of the kinds of food I was eating. Because I *COULD* at that point eat pretty much anything without getting sick. But just because I physically COULD doesn't mean I SHOULD. So, yes, once you get to a certian point post op you will be able to eat the old kinds of things you did eat before. But you shouldn't. It got you in a bad place to begin with, so you definitely do not want to return to it.

What I can tell you with certainty is that if you stick to eating Proteins and limiting carbs to 30-40g/day, you will feel maximum restriction that day and the following day. If you introduce back in those carbs, they tend to be "slider foods", tend to make you crave more, and feel more hungry. It becomes a cycle. So the more you're able to eliminate them from your diet, the better it is for a variety of reasons.

I've nver had any issues with food sticking or getting sick at all once I got past the first couple of months. I didn't really even have those issues then, jsut maybe a little nausea if I ate too much or ate something sugary. Once the healing was complete, nothing bothered me.

I can take regular size pills and Vitamins. I have not had malnutrition issues. You don't have the malabsorption that you have with the bypass, so that is rare with the sleeve. I did have some hair loss, but probably only noticable to me. There's really not much that stops that. It will run it's course. I can tell you that around 1 year post op I had lots of regrowth and I have a full, thick head of hair.

My biggest issue with the sleeve has nothing to do with the sleeve at all. My biggest issue is that after that initial "honeymoon" stage when I was losing tons of weight rapidly, I realized the same emotional issues were still with me that caused me to overeat in the first place. I had to start working hard on myself, the underlying issues, and what was driving me to food. I realized that if I didn't do that, I would quickly be back where I started.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your journey.