Lap band to VSH

In Feb. of 2011 I had lap band surgery. I actually wanted a sleeve but the insurance I had at the time would only approve lap band surgery so I went with that. I had the band for a year - a year of pure hell. I know they work great for some folks but unfortunately I was not one of them. The band was either too loose and did not help me at all, or too tight - my surgeon and I were never able to find my "sweet spot" with fills. In the end the band slipped out of place and I was seriously dehydrated and in starvation mode from not being able to eat nor drink anything for almost two weeks until I had emergency surgery to have it removed. I lost 71 lbs with the band and was able to keep that off these past 4 years until recently. Since last Oct. I have regained 22 lbs and am starting to panic. Even with the 71 lbs lost with the band I was nowhere near my goal weight, but at least I was able to keep those pounds off with no regain, until recently. I am not sure why I have had this regain because truthfully my eating habits haven't changed since Oct., but be that as it may, I now have insurance that will cover VSG surgery and I'm ready to go for it.

I am 64 years old and have been overweight most of my adult life, since my early 20's when I started having children. I have had a few times when I've lost some weight but have not been successful at keeping it off for any length of time. I also lose very slowly, which at times can be discouraging.

I am nervous about having the surgery agian, but I know this is something I need to do. In the last few years I have developed health conditions that are related to my obesity and I want to lose the weight mostly for health reasons. At my age it really isn't so much about looks anymore!!

I have my first appointment with the surgeon (same one who did my band surgery) June 24th. Since I have already been through the bariatric program once I am hoping I will get a surgery date sooner than later. I am currently working on losing the 10% of weight that is required before surgery.

I just wanted to ask, how are one's hunger levels with this proceedure? I know several people who have has gastric by pass and they all state their hunger is almost non-existant - some of them actually have to force themselves to eat! When I had the band I was still quite hungry all the time despite not being able to eat much a lot of the time. Just wondering how it is with the sleeve for all of you sleevers out there? Also - hair loss. Usually with lap band surgery hair loss does not happen, but for me it did. About 9 month AFTER band surgery my hair began falling out and continued to fall out for another year even after the band was removed! I lost about 1/3 of my hair. I had very thick hair to begin with so it wasn't too noticeable to anyone but me but it still freaked me out. Once the hair loss stopped, I never did regrow what I lost. So the thought that I may lose more hair now is worrying me. Any suggestions on how to prevent that happening this time around?

Well thanks for listening!

Catherine

Looks like your font got a little bit scrambled and it's trying to display in Greek! Cut and pasted for you :)

In Feb. of 2011 I had lap band surgery. I actually wanted a sleeve but the insurance I had at the time would only approve lap band surgery so I went with that. I had the band for a year - a year of pure hell. I know they work great for some folks but unfortunately I was not one of them. The band was either too loose and did not help me at all, or too tight - my surgeon and I were never able to find my "sweet spot" with fills. In the end the band slipped out of place and I was seriously dehydrated and in starvation mode from not being able to eat nor drink anything for almost two weeks until I had emergency surgery to have it removed. I lost 71 lbs with the band and was able to keep that off these past 4 years until recently. Since last Oct. I have regained 22 lbs and am starting to panic. Even with the 71 lbs lost with the band I was nowhere near my goal weight, but at least I was able to keep those pounds off with no regain, until recently. I am not sure why I have had this regain because truthfully my eating habits haven't changed since Oct., but be that as it may, I now have insurance that will cover VSG surgery and I'm ready to go for it.

I am 64 years old and have been overweight most of my adult life, since my early 20's when I started having children. I have had a few times when I've lost some weight but have not been successful at keeping it off for any length of time. I also lose very slowly, which at times can be discouraging.

I am nervous about having the surgery agian, but I know this is something I need to do. In the last few years I have developed health conditions that are related to my obesity and I want to lose the weight mostly for health reasons. At my age it really isn't so much about looks anymore!!

I have my first appointment with the surgeon (same one who did my band surgery) June 24th. Since I have already been through the bariatric program once I am hoping I will get a surgery date sooner than later. I am currently working on losing the 10% of weight that is required before surgery.

I just wanted to ask, how are one's hunger levels with this proceedure? I know several people who have has gastric by pass and they all state their hunger is almost non-existant - some of them actually have to force themselves to eat! When I had the band I was still quite hungry all the time despite not being able to eat much a lot of the time. Just wondering how it is with the sleeve for all of you sleevers out there? Also - hair loss. Usually with lap band surgery hair loss does not happen, but for me it did. About 9 month AFTER band surgery my hair began falling out and continued to fall out for another year even after the band was removed! I lost about 1/3 of my hair. I had very thick hair to begin with so it wasn't too noticeable to anyone but me but it still freaked me out. Once the hair loss stopped, I never did regrow what I lost. So the thought that I may lose more hair now is worrying me. Any suggestions on how to prevent that happening this time around?

Well thanks for listening!

Catherine

I was going to revise to the sleeve but other health issues prevented it but I did read a lot about it here. You can't even compare the band and sleeve, what everyone says is that the sleeve is what we were told the band would be but it wasn't. With the sleeve you lose the part of the stomach that produces the hunger hormone so you shouldn't be nearly as hungry with the sleeve as with the band. My band was like yours didn't work at all the way I was told it would.

As for hair loss that is more from the surgery itself not so much which surgery. So you may lose hair again but usually it grows back in time. No one can tell for sure and no products will really help i grow or keep it from coming out so don't waste any money on them. Just cross your fingers it will do as much good as anything else!!

Thank you for your reply. I was told that sometimes anesthesia can cause hair loss so that is possibly what caused mine after my band surgery. I am hoping and praying it won't happen this time but if it does, well, I'll just deal with it. I won't be thrilled about it, but I know I'll be thrilled with any weight loss I experience after the surgery! I hope your health issues improve so that you can revise in due time. My experience with the band was pretty awful. I was either not restricted at all or too much so to there I had awful pains when I tried to eat, developed severe reflux and spent most of that year vomiting.... ugh!! All that and I only lost about 30 lbs during that whole year with the band. All together my loss was 70 lbs but 30 of that was BEFORE surgery. So anyway, now I have to get busy working on losing the 10% I know the bariatric program I attend requires before surgery. I'm feeling pretty positive about what's coming, even though I haven't even seen the surgeon yet and I'm sure I won't get a surgery date before Sept. or Oct. But, Onward and upward! Good luck to you! And again, thanks for replying!