Hi!

I am a 28 year old female and I have had the Lap-band for going on 8 years now. My starting weight was 240, and I got down to 155. I am 5’2 and my goal weight is 125-130. For the past year or so I have had many problems that have landed me in the hospital...mostly my esophagus being torn up from the acid reflux. We figured out my band had slipped. So my surgeon is performing revision surgery to the sleeve. Has anyone else experienced this? I am currently at 165 and I’m just curious about if and how fast I would lose weight since I am smaller than the first go around and how the sleeve differs from the band after all these years! Thanks guys!

You have bad reflux you need to avoid the sleeve, it can make it worse. It seems strange that your surgeon would revise you to a sleeve with your reflux history. Generally the recommended route would be to have a Roux en Y Gastric Bypass.

Agreed! I have GERD and was told stay away from the sleeve. Look into this site lots of people get their sleeve revised to bypass due to acid reflux. I left my first surgeon’s office because of this. He only does sleeves and I quickly left lol

Yes, I did read that about avoiding the sleeve with reflux and I did ask my surgeon about it. Once they removed the fluid from my Lap Band I have had zero reflux or heartburn since. He said the band was so tight it was pushing up whatever I consumed into my esophagus which caused the reflux. He said he thinks the sleeve is my best option for revision. I really hope it is the right decision! I honestly just want the band out at this point as I have been struggling with it for a long time now.

I would get a second opinion. You are better off delaying this so you can make the right decision. You don’t want to have to go through another revision later on

Agree with elcee if there's even 10% chance it will return I would go with bypass to be safest

I agree. Does your surgeon even DO the roux en y bypass? If not, this might be why he’s pushing the sleeve? The general advice - if you ever got reflux, go for the RNY because you almost can’t get it after that...

I got sleeved 5 years ago and had terrible reflux/GERD every single day since. My esophagus is a mess! Doctor said RNY bypass is the way to go & I’m having revision on Monday. Doctor said that every single patient he did revision to RNY for bypass for no longer suffered from reflux. I’ll let you know how it goes, but don’t jump the gun and get the sleeve.