from banded plication to banded, plicated & DS'd.........

January 10, 2011 I had my first proceedure. I got the lap band along with greater curvature plication. I successfully lost 102 pounds pre op and I lost 175 post op. Knowing that it isn't common to lose large amounts with the lap band, my surgeon & I planned to convert to DS once my weightloss slowed. In February we decided it as time to schedule my conversion. After a long insurance approval process I was finally approved. I had my second proceedure last Monday, August 27, 2012. he plan was to leave the band and plication in place and add the intestinal part of the DS or convert to full DS depending on how things looked from my first proceedure. My port was all over the place due to the large amount of weight loss. Other than that everything still looked great. So we felt there was no reason to undo the plication and cut my stomach to get the same result.

My band was repalced with the port being atached in a better position, the plication still as it was and the instestines dne as a DS. Yes, it's experimental. Yes, my insurace was willing to allow it. Many think I'm crazy for doing something experimental. However they need to remember that, if not for those willing to be experimented on, none of these proceedures would exist. I have complete faith in my surgeon and I definitely feel that he acted in my best interests as far as what he chose. There was one unexpected complication during surgery. I have had three c-sections. From those I had major adhesions & scarring. My bowels were the worst. They were fused together and he said they resembled half cooked spaghetti. He spent two hours carefully separating them.

I am excited to continue my journey and see where it takes me.

I hope things continue to go well and glad he was able to get the adhesions cleared. Keep coming around and post. :)

--gina

Sounds interesting. It will be neat to see how things go for you.

My surgeon also removed some scar tissue from my c-sections. I am so grateful. Since my first child I have had to pee almost every hour. Now I am like a normal person and can go 3 to 4 hours. Who ever thought such a little thing would be so great.

Good luck on this segment of your journey.

Thank you. I was really surprised when he was telling about the scarring. With my first surgery it involved the upper part of my stomach so it wasn't an issue. With this surgery being more invasive it involved working in a larger area. Apparently I was full od scar tissue & adhesions. His fellows coud not believe what my insides looked like due to all of that.  I didn't even know that could happen with c-sections.

Having a band on a DS sounds like a waste of a DS to me. How are you going to be able to eat a minimum of 120g of protein a day with a band? Any problems with swallowing pills with the band?