Well I never though I'd say this.........but I'm actually going in for my 4th WLS surgery / procedure this week [emoji15], I'm 3 days away from it on the 21st of July 2017 [emoji106][emoji4]

My weight loss journey so far....back in 2004 I weighed 136kg / 300 pounds and am 182cm / 6ft. My GP in the UK wouldn't approve SAGB on the NHS so I self funded the operation at a hospital in the South of France. Operation went well, weight loss was good, got down to 90kg / 198 pounds.

However, gradually I had more and more complications with the band, slippage and erosion. Weight went up to 116kg / 255 pounds. No matter how much fluids were put in or removed from my band, my restriction was either that tight I couldn't get water down or too loose so I could eat whatever I liked. I also developed reflux and experienced frequent vomiting.

I had a revision from band to sleeve in the same operation in Australia 3 years ago (2014) got down to 84kg / 144 pounds with the sleeve. My sleeve stretched over a couple of years, partly due to the poor shape of the sleeve due to the damage done by the band (after my operation my surgeon said to me that my stomach was in such bad condition it looked looked "like a dogs breakfast in there!!") and if I'm honest partly due to me falling off the wagon, eating too much junk food and drinking a serious amount of alcohol, so my weight crept back up to 103kg / 227 pound.

So anyway I finally stumped up the courage to go for the full gastric bypass 1 year ago at a weight of 103kg / 227 pound. Weight loss was great, felt full quickly, no major dumping, no complications / side effects. Got down to 80kg / 176 pound then recently crept back up to 93kg / 205 pound, so now I'm having the Overstitch this week, which I hope will be my final weight loss operation ever this Friday! In hindsight I wish I'd never had the band and sleeve and gone straight for the bypass all those years ago, but still grateful for the overall weight loss to date.

I must have been quite lucky with the operations, I had no infections, significant pain or gas pain, I was waking around the ward on day of the bypass, got 1.5ltr of fluids down me same day and after the TT I was doing laps of the ward on day 2! Only real issue is I've become severely anaemic this week. I'm on iron tablets and Vit B12 injects.

Now when I was in the mid-80kgs I had a fair bit of excess skin and I think the weight loss and the natural getting older process had made me look older than my years, so I went in for some plastic surgery to get my self sorted out. I had upper and lower blepharoplasty (reduction of loose skin above and below my eyes, liposuction to my neck, 2 separate neck lifts (first one unsatisfactory), liposuction to remaining man boobs, stomach, hips and back. Full abdominoplasty with new belly button. Oh and a complimentary mid-face lift whilst the surgeon was in doing my lower eyes, I actually didn't ask for the mid face lift but my surgeon couldn't resist doing it once he had perfect access to the areas / structures required to hitch up the face a little. I woke up to the unexpected news about the face lift and was thrilled with the results and even happier that is was for free!! I also had a fat transfer, where they sucked some fat out of my abdominal area and had it pumped in the jowls / cheeks / nasolabial folds to fill out my face a little!!! Now I just have a little Botox and some dermal fillers as maintenance to the face. Also had a vampire facelift lol.

And OMG for those of you who have had full tummy tucks, as in skin and muscles, jeez how painful is the recovery from that bad boy!! Worst of all the WLS surgeries I've had and the other cosmetic procedure. You can't sit up, you can't laugh, sneeze, burp, fart, go for number 2's, well that was my experience with the TT recovery although I recovered very well form all of the procedures with no issues at all, thank-fully [emoji106]

The Tummy Tuck for me is what makes me want to stay at around 80kg, any heavier and I feel the skin on my belly stretching because of the tightened skin. I gets quite uncomfortable so I have to get it oI don't want to ruin the effects of the surgery.

All in all the procedure took 3 seperate operations they were 11 hours, 5 hours and 9 hours in duration. After the 11 hour operation I ended up in ICU on a cardiac monitor with a special one to one nurse as I was at risk of an adverse cardiac even due to excessive fluid loss. The three cosmetic operations cost me over $70k.

Anyway, that's my story in its entirety, I thought I'd share this information with you as I have had so much done and gone through so many procedures, so please feel free to comment and ask me any questions. Thanks John [emoji4][emoji106]

PS: No judgement please lol

if this doesn't work maybe you could do the duodenal switch.

15 hours ago, Julie norton said:

Is the overstitch the newest endoscopic stomach stitching? Following. Seems to be the latest darling of wls. I have my dinosaur of a lapband so I am always checking on what is new and statistics. Very few out yet as it is so new. Any info. Cost. Time. Pain. Besides what you have divulged would be so appreciated.
Thanks and good luck

Hi Julie, yes I believe the Overstitch is fairly new, although not to sure how new it is. It was new to me and my surgeon is quite experienced and up to date with new developments and I think he'd done about 5 previously and only in recent weeks.

They go in endoscopically and put some permanent sutures in the stoma, then if needed also in the pouch to reduce the size of that as well.

I don't think they could do it to a patient with a band in because you don't have a pouch or stoma. And it wouldn't be a stand alone procedure as it's designed to be a remedy for gastric bypass patients experiencing weight gain due to enlarged stomas / pouches. Although I believe they can do something similar to a gastric sleeve endoscopically which I think is gastric plication. (If I am not 100% correct anyone please feel free to correct me) :-)

Now as for the cost, my surgeon didn't charge me for this Overstich or the Gastric bypass. I've been quite lucky. I paid the full price for the band 13 years ago, which I had done in the South off France. Then 10 years later after I had moved to Australia from England, I had the band removed and the sleeve done in the same operation. My private health care insurance covered most of it, I think I had to pay $3000 extra towards it. Then as my sleeve failed, the same surgeon did the bypass for 'free' just charging my healthcare fund with no co-payment, and the same for my Overestich. No co-payment. He accepted just the payment from my health care fund here in Australia. All I had to pay for was a payment towards the anaesthetist fees which in total were $800 and Medicare paid $300 so all I paid all up was $500 which I was very pleased about. :-)

Now to answer your last question about pain, I experienced next to no pain at all. I had a slight scrape on my lips from the scope, like I've had bigger pimples really. And a very mild sore throat when I woke up. The kind of sore throat you had after slight cough for a few days. Gone all together within 24 hours. Hardly worth mentioning. I was prescribed antiemetics and some strong pain relief, however, didn't fill the script as my nausea and pain were zero, seriously nothing at all painwise post op. I should add though that I was the same after gastric sleeve and bypass. No pain, no wind, no pain relief needed, I was up doing laps of the ward same day as both operations and declined all pain relief. I've either been very lucky or have a high pain threshold or a mixture of the two! Never even had reflux or anything. Oh and time in theatre was 1hr 20mins, think that it normally takes around 45 minutes, but I had sutures to both the stoma and pouch, and there was an Overstitch rep or something in the theatre watching the procedure and asking questions / having things explained I think, so that may have added time, not that it bothered me, I wouldn't have known if the operation took 10 minutes or 10 hours, i just closed my eyes and then woke up, felt like milliseconds haha, I went home after about 2 hours with a recommendation to follow a liquid diet for 1 week then soft / puréed for the second week, then a normal diet after that with lots of chewing and not to push the amount of food eaten.

Now I am at the stage of puréed food and cottage cheese, I am eating around 100mls and feel as full as an egg. Have lost over 10kg and am only 4kg away from my target and about 1kg away from being in the healthy weight / BMI range, but I did start the Saxenda injections one week before the Overstitch and they are definitely helping, I felt the appetite suppressing effects of the Saxenda even just on the initial starting dose of 0.6ml, am now up to 2.4ml and will be on the maximum dose of 3ml starting this Friday. Apparently a fair few people stop taking the Saxenda because of the most common side effects which are abdominal pain, headaches and nausea, which I haven't experienced any of at all, must be my high pain threshold again! :-)

The thing with the Overstitch is that I guess it can stretch again over time if it's not looked after. I'd imagine it wouldn't be able to stretch as much as without the stitches as they'd continue to provide some resistance, although I'm not sure if there have been any long term studies on this yet, again happy to be corrected if anyone knows anymore about this.

Not sure what could be done after stretching the Overstitch, maybe another Overstitch or change to a Duodenal Switch. In wouldn't be too keen on the DS as I'm already severely anaemic, even though I'm not feeling any ill effects. My doctor said my iron levels and ferritin are in the low single digits and I shouldn't be feeling at the very least tired and exhausted but I'm not for some reason. Anyway, I'm hoping I won't need any more revisions. I have enough already!! So here goes, fingers crossed for me.

Anymore questions, just ask, more than happy to share my journey / experiences.

John :-)

Thank you very much for the great first hand info
Best of luck to you and please keep us informed. This site is great for all kinds of info!!

With the videos I've watched on the sleeve I've seen them do a overstitch. Is that not standard on all sleeves or is this something different?

On 02/08/2017 at 7:59 AM, fastfoodaddictnomore said:

With the videos I've watched on the sleeve I've seen them do a overstitch. Is that not standard on all sleeves or is this something different?

Hi Fastfoodaddictnomore!

You are right! I have just conducted some extensive research (aka google search lol) and yes they can use the Overstitch with stretched / enlarged sleeves! I never knew that, but I guess it makes sense and could be an option for sleeve patients gaining weight rather than converting to a bypass. Thanks for mentioning it, more knowledge to add to our weight loss journeys :-)

Hi! You guys have some experience here! So please let me pick your brains! I was banded in 2013 lost about 60 pounds, and have gained some back due to many complications from the band and other health issues.

Here I am now with a total band slip and prolapse miserable can't keep much down without feeling sick 23 out of 24 hours. Dr. has me scheduled for band removal on August 9th. I'm wondering what the recovery will be like...will I be able to get that nutrition in again because right now I am feeling just weak and tired from not being able to eat more than ice cream or shakes! I am taking my vitamins.

We have also talked about having a sleeve revision in a couple of months after I go through the insurance gambit of medical testing etc. all over again.

I'm not looking forward to yet another surgery...and I'm wondering if the sleeve is the way to go, or if I am going to go through all this medical testing again for approval I should just push for the bypass and get the weight off without "guessing" if the sleeve is going to work out for me or not.

I'm always the one that falls in the failure percentage rates...I been using this analogy alot lately...you know if birth control pills are 98% effective to prevent pregnancy well yep I am the 2% who got pregnant while on them taking them without fail every day even after I was pregnant and Dr.'s couldn't believe it, his name is Christopher and he's now a healthy 22 year old!

What is your advise? Also how painful is recovery from the band removal? I am hearing the port site muscle is sectioned and that causes some major discomfort and pain for a while....

On 17/07/2017 at 9:48 PM, MelodyBronson said:

Different surgeon for each surgery.....

Thanks!

May I ask have you had any counselling along the way? And goodluck.

I've just had my 3rd wls (29/7/17) also with similar situations to a couple of others (I'm sure many more) that I've just read. I'm hoping it will be the last and the bypass was way harder than the other two surgeries..probably as I'm older and emotionally this has been much harder.. I suffer terribly with anxiety and depression anyway, but this op really knocked me..im feeling better each day and looking forward to milky drinks at least, rather than this putrid protein water...YUCK

Just found out you can keep on Overstitching!!

So I went for my follow up with my surgeon after having the Overstitch a few weeks ago and starting on the Saxenda. Weight continues to drop slowly, couple of pounds a week. Weight it really difficult to get off now as I am almost at my goal. Anyway, surgeon told me that if the Overstitched pouch / stoma stretches out again, it is easily re-overstitched!!

Now I am certainly not planning to ever have another Overstitch, I am happy with my weight loss and am sticking to the rules. However, good to know that the Overstitch isn't technically the end of the road or the last possible surgery for bypass patients before potentially considering DS.

Just thought I'd share that with everyone as it was news to me :-)

i am about to have a conversion from a sleeve to a bypass - next month. Can you tell me what the changes were after you had this revision done? thanks

No judgements, that could so easily be any one of us.

Any updates after a year has elapsed,@ Melody Branson and @ SydneyJonno? you both had quite a story to,tell!???

Pathetic

What?

08/01/2018 10:37 PM, Yo-yo girl said:

Pathetic

That’s uncalled for. You are neither supportive nor helpful with that comment.