I bought a house and then...

 HI Sarah,

Love reading your posts since we lived in Victorville over 30 years, moved about 4 years ago.  Will be flying in next week as my 96 year old grandma died and will be having the funeral at the place on the 15 freeway in Hesperia.  

Anyway since I am now a band to sleeve revision I made the choice to trade mine in.  Mostly due to problems with restriction and getting somewhat sick.  Fills and then more fills.  Then too much fill and unfill, and unfill and then remove all fill.

I do agree that I didn't even know about the sleeve when I self paid for my band.  Was totally desperate and did lose a lot of weight with the band.  When it was empty i also gained a lot of weight back.  Could I have eaten better when I had no fill?  Of course but the reason I got the band and what I heard in the seminar was if the band was properly filled you wouldn't be able to eat the same amount.  When I kept having problems with fill level mostly due to misquito (sp) bites making my band so tight I couldn't swallow water.  Dr didn't know why it was only when I was bitten.

Self payed for my revision with Dr Aceves, can't say enough about how great he and his whole team was.  The difference for me is the same amount of restriction all the time.  When I talked with a friend of mine she told me that she never understood why I wanted something adjustable and removable since I have been fat my whole life.  Finally doing much better and I really do think I have learned so much from both surgeries.

When I look back over my past 3.5 years I don't remember reading the large amount of posts about the lap band problems.  Looks like there's more now.  Whatever surgery type you have that gets you where you need to go is great.  BUT when it isn't for whatever reason, trade it in.  

Good Luck Sarah hope you get back to where you want to be.......

Hey there :) How is your revision going? Thats awesome that you saw that your band wasnt the best life long choice for you and made a decision to go with the sleeve. I really wish more people shared their stories as you did yours. There may come a time when I make a similar choice but I will fight regain at any cost and dont think I would qualify (even as a self pay) without gaining. Though I love my band I am also unsure what to say to someone in passing when they ask my advice on whether they should get it done. Its not easily shared in a 5 minute conversation. It was what I chose when I had only two options and it had made such an amazing difference for me, but if I had all 4 choices in front of me I am not sure I would chose the same again. Good luck on your new journey!!

 Hi Sarah,

So far it is what I thought the band would have been.  Don't know if that makes any sense other than full restriction right away, no fills, no getting pills stuck.  I can actually take ANY and ALL pills. At first I could only eat about an oz at a time especially if it was dense protein.  Now can do about 3 oz and totally full.  Haven't felt hungry in months.  For some reason with the band especially when I was gaining it made me totally miserable mentally.  I would get on the scale and see more pounds so I would really, really do great for a couple of week and lose 4 lbs.  I was really hungry and resorted to unhealthy things to lose weight.  Was researching the sleeve for months and really did a lot of research on revision surgeons.  Other than Dr. Aceves the other surgeon was a Dr I really liked in San Francisco but  went with Dr Aceves.  The pain was much less than with my band surgery and I also had a long flight home on the 4th day with no problems.  There was another lady doing a revision from band to sleeve and she had lost 120lbs had trouble with the band and only gained 10 lbs in 2 months and did the revision much sooner than I did.  I think she weighed like 140lbs, looked great  and she is thrilled too.  So I really waited to long and gained too much back.

I have noticed that a lot of the people getting sleeved (not revisions) need to lose 50-70lbs.  Some are done within a few months.  

Like you said we can't go back but I know that if I had seen all the negative posts about the band it would have scared me.  The revision people I have talked with aren't mean, I think they just want to save the pain and $$ of several surgeries.  Sure do wish I would have known but live and learn.

Usually when someone asks an opinion and they get several answers the only answer they like it the one they want to hear anyway.  This is pretty much with everything not just WLS.  In my opinion the lap band should be the last choice.

Have a great day.