My revision story

[JRT Mom 920]

Hi guys-

This is a long rambling post because I wanted to journal my story, so if it's of no interest to you you won't hurt my feelings!😁

I just got a lab band to RNY revision a week ago. I've an old band that was making me vomit quite often, and even though the xrays show the band to be perfect the surgeon said it still had to come out.

I was lucky that he only requires a three day liquid diet since that was tough. When they admitted my the morning of my surgery the nurses asked if I was suicidal and I told them that it wasn't a good time to ask me that.

When I got my band the nurses in the recovery room saw me groping my stomach after I awoke, and they asked me what was wrong. I told them I was sure that they had put me to sleep and then found something wrong and woke me right back up so I was checking for bandages. Nothing hurt-there wasn't any gas pain.

This time I awoke in the recovery room to hear a woman moaning piteously and it took me a second to realize it was me. This hurt WAAAAY more than I expected. But the nurses immediately gave me a painkiller and that helped a lot. Part of the problem was when the surgeon actually got inside me, he found not only had my band slipped, but I had a hiatal hernia to repair also. Surprise! That added to the excessive pain.

Then they get you back to your room and the drinking game commences. They line this little cups in front of you like shots at a bar and expect you to sip them down. This is while you have raging chest and neck pain from the gas and just want to sleep. The nurses where nice and not giving me a hard time about my lack of effort, but I sipped at a less than stellar rate.

What I DID rule at was the walking. The first time they made a nurse walk with me but after that I was free to go as I chose. I walked long and fast (as I could, dragging an IV pole with me..) lapping other walkers in the hall. I wanted these gas pains gone!! So I walked and walked--even at 4 in the morning. And after lapping one lady twice she hailed me to slow down and walk with her. Her surgery had been two days ago, and she was astounded that mine had been less than 14 hours ago.

But then back in my room all I wanted to do was sleep. They kept waking my up for vital signs, and even though I only had a small touch of the diabetes they kept doing the fingerstick blood sugars. But they didn't really hurt so I didn't mind. What I hated was they kept giving me all sorts of pills to take. Choking down a pill on a sip of Water with raging neck pain was not fun. And my BP was only slightly elevated, actually normal for me, but most of those pills were for HBP. The next morning I got up to take a walk and then broke out into a cold sweat and felt faint and nauseated, so I rang for a nurse. They took my BP and found it as 90/50. So at least I didn't have to take those pills for a while.

I'm glad my surgeon said I could stay two nights. I couldn't have left after the first night if they'd have kicked me out. But I was being able to drink an ounce of Fluid in an hour finally. I was proud of that until they came back into the room and said "now we want you to drink 4 ounces an hour. By the next day I think I only accomplished this feat once, but they agreed to discharge me late the second day.

Here's where it got interesting. I live 5 hours away from where my surgery was. One of the disadvantages of living in a rural area. My husband isn't in good health and we have three dogs, so he stayed behind while I took Amtrak to get to the hospital. After they discharged me I thought (correctly) that riding the train back the same day could be bad, so I laid up in a hotel 1/2 from the hospital until I went back the next day. I didn't want something to spring a leak while I was on a train. I should have known it was going to be a tough trip when the Uber dropped me off, and the Metro station was closed! Luckily there was a free shuttle to the next station down the line. I got on the train, and for the first time in my 20+ train trips, the dang thing lurches to a stop where they find a problem. So we were delayed 4 hours on a already 5 hour tip. At least we didn't have to switch trains--they brought a new engine to us.

So my advice is if you can get surgery closer to home, do it. Of course it could have been worse--I understand many self-pay people have to go out of the country. I should consider myself lucky that it was only 5 hours away.

I had the terrible "buyers remorse" that you read about here but think it won't happen to you. But in only lasted about 3 days and I turned the corner about two days ago when miraculously I could drink down amounts more than I could before. It's still not 64 ounces, but much better than it was. So I think I've lost the "buyers remorse", especially since I weighted for the first time and I'm already down 10 pounds...

So read this, if you wish, and for all the griping I did here, it was worse than I expected but that feeling only lasted about 4 or 5 days. So if your considering WLS go for it, but don't have unrealistic expectations, prepare for the worst and you'll be happy if it isn't that bad! And hang in there if you are recovering..it WILL get better, I promise!

Edited November 27, 2019 by JRT Mom

[Hop_Scotch 1,634]

Thank you for sharing your story it was a good read!

[Myap 29]

Thank you for sharing your story.

[SorryNameTaken 85]

Oh, wow. It's amazing how two similar stories can be so drastically different. I am so sorry you had such a rough start at it, I do not envy you at all! I am crossing all fingers and toes that everything keeps looking up from here!

I had to shake my head at the metro problems. It seems they have this convenient way of going wrong when it's the worst time for it.

[MysteryJess 0]

Hello there. So I had a LapBand to VSG revision on Thursday, December 5. I had no problems except some gas pain in my shoulder and I was very sore. My concern is that I have had NO issues drinking. Like none. When I woke up, I was dying of thirst and they had the little cups lined up and two of the small bottles of Water on the table. On the marker board, it said "sip sip sip every 15 minutes". I sipped slowly; no issue. Then again, no issue. Within a couple of hours, I had both bottles of water gone. I was discharged around lunch time the next day. I drank 2 cups of beef broth in about an hour, but that's because I was just sipping on it like coffee as I watched tv. I have also drank multiple 12 ounce Protein Shakes, pudding cups, Jello cups etc. My mom had VSG about 18 months ago and said that it would take her an entire day to drink one Protein Shake. I was thinking that maybe they took the LapBand out but something happened and they didn't do the sleeve. I called the Dr. office this morning and the nurse verified that I DID have the band removed and the sleeve procedure. I told her that I have NO restrictions when it comes to drinking. Oh, I also ate an entire can of cream of chicken Soup, thinned down with milk, in about the amount of time it would take someone who had not had bariatric surgery. I feel like something isn't right. Anyways, the nurse said "well, it is probably because you had the band for so long (10 years) and you have been restricted for so long that you don't know how your actual anatomy is supposed to behave." That seemed like a super weird response to me. I know I am rambling on BUT my concern is that maybe my surgeon didn't make the sleeve as small as they are typically made. I am afraid that maybe he was too conservative with the sleeve and that I won't get the benefits of the revision. I am just wanting SOMEONE to tell me that they had a similar experience but that they have lost weight and that once they started eating solid food, they could feel the restriction. Like I said, my mom had it done about a year and a half ago and she can only eat a cup of food in one sitting. I am so afraid this surgery was a waste of time.

[Myap 29]

@MysteryJess Hi Jess, I had the same experience you are having with no limits to the amount of liquids I could take in, and I was afraid my stomach was not made small enough.

My guess is that the doctor is somewhat right in that you never know how a person's body is going to react to the procedure, Maybe it will help to go back to the materials you received before the surgery.

I will say I just had a revision gastric sleeve to gastric sleeve on December 2 and my ability to tolerate or desire for liquid is not there. In fact, sometimes it feels like something is blocking the opening from my esophagus to my stomach if I drink too fast and for a few brief seconds I cannot breathe with the pain.

I am sipping Water all day and I mix it up between water and clear Protein water. I think mentally there is times where I know I can fit more, but I stick with those little cups and realize just because I can does not mean I have to take in more. I feel a little out of sorts and frustrated, especially with still being on stage 1. I meet with the surgeon tomorrow ad we shall see.

I really wanted to answer you because I was in that same place 6 years ago. My sleeve back then was the size of a banana and depending on the banana - a lot fits in there. I eventually grew my sleeve back to 2.5 times the size.

The surgery was not a waste of time, you have to go back to all of those reasons you chose it in the first place and find your happy medium. Definitely talking your doctor, nutritionist, support group, and anyone who can help you feel strong in those moments you doubt yourself.

Kind regards,

Mya

[momotrips3 3]

Thank you for your story JRT Mom.

It's funny, when I had a laparoscopy and then my gallbladder out years ago, they were both super painful because of the gas/diaphragm thing. In 2006 when I interviewed my lapband surgeon, he laughed and said that they used warm gas and tried to remove as much of it as possible. No diaphragm/shoulder pain after that surgery at all. Now I hear that almost everyone complains of the shoulder pain with their WLS. Did they go back to not removing the gas prior to finishing surgery? Is that something just a few surgeons do? Odd.

I'm really sorry you had the comedy of errors with the train. Isn't that always the way?

I hope I am up and buzzing around like you right after surgery. May your recovery continues to be easy and uneventful now that your buyer's remorse is behind you!