Well...this Person who is Regretting their Sleeve is not doing EXTREME dieting and she is...

I had a revision from the band to the sleeve and I have never been happier!  The band never really worked for me, I did loose weight, but that was because I never ate anything.  All I could ever do was drink.  The band was a serious nightmare for me, it was placed in '05, slipped in '07 when I had another one placed and then I finally had a revision to the sleeve in Nov. last year.  I don't think anyone can know if they've made the right dessicion until after they've had the surgery.  I thought I had fully vetted my first doctor, asking all the right questions and got great answers.  The thing that started me on this journey was that I needed my gallbladder out, the doc was supposed to do the gallbladder first and the lap band if he could.  Well that's not what happened, he placed my band and when I woke up he told me he would take my gallbladder out after I lost some weight.  1 1/2 months later I was having emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder.

I also woke from surgery with a nice long scar on my belly that looks like someone took a hot knitting needle and rolled it around, when I asked the Doc about this he said it was an incision, Um No!  There were never any stitches there, I think he dropped or slipped with the cauterizing tool.  After I told him this, he said, "oh well, it doesn't matter you can have plastic surgery to fix that." 

After I started having problems he blamed it on me, even going so far as to stand in front of a punch of patients who were all awaiting a fill from him and  say, "If you are like her" (points to me) "you are eating to fast and are going to have problems"  At this point I was eating nothing, because as I was being filled you could see the pouch begin to stretch over the band and the band was beginning to move.

For a bit I didn't know what to do, I was sick all the time when a friend suggested I try her doc.  I told him my story and showed him my scars.  I knew he didn't take my insurance, but he agreed to see me and treat my like an in-network patient.  I cried!!!!!  He saw me and we worked on it.  Then one day night I couldn't sleep, couldn't lie down.  Had extreme pain all the way across my stomach.  It was two days before Thanksgiving, he said my band had slipped, he admitted me thru the emergency room and replaced it.    Things were ok after that, but I was constantly getting sick.  Then last year in July I got really sick, vomiting, couldn't keep anything down.  I went in to get an unfill, but my port had tipped sideways and the PA couldn't find it.  My doc was on vacation, the PA even called him to see if he could help find the port.  He said if she couldn't find it I would have to either just drink liquids until he got back, which I could not keep down.  Or go have another emergency surgery to have it removed.  I coached the PA into how to find my port.  But after that the Doc and I decided this had gone on long enough and it was time for me to get a revision. 

I had to jump thru some hoops to get my insurance company to cover the surgery, even gained weight, but it was so worth it!  I have not lost any weight since my revision and I am disappointed about that, but I have been thru A LOT!  None of which I could ever have predicted going into this Journey.  I feel so much better, I have no hunger, I know I have all the tools I need to loose weight.  I just need my body to start cooperating.  If anyone asks my about my experience I always try to tell them straight up.  I would never recommend my first surgeon to anyone, and I would never recommend the band.  But that was my experience and I would never wish what I went thru on anyone. 

Kris