Has anyone removed their Lap Band and then had RNY at the same time?

Hello Everyone,

I had my Lap Band put in on 12/26/07.  During the first 6-8 weeks, I was able to see pounds coming off.  However, after that along with 4 fills later, my weight has NOT gone down at all.  I am very frustrated over this because I thought that I would have like 30-40 pounds off already.  I can't tell any difference when I get a fill and I still have the urge to eat just about all the time.  I'm constantly fighting that urge and sometimes I just have to give in because as I said, I'm not losing ANY weight with this Lap Band.

On top of this, I live with a disease called Systemic RSD day in and day out.  I am not the typical obese patient that walks through the door.   I can't even exercise without being in pain.  So I'm told that the Lap Band will take me 3 years to get my weight off.  However, my sleep doctor tells me that I must get 100 lbs off as soon as possible because I have a severe case of Sleep Apnea. 

I've explained all of this to my surgeon but I feel like she is not listening to me.  I want to have the Lap Band removed and then have RNY Gastric Bypass done at the same time. Isn't this considered a revision???  Has anyone ever gone through this?  Any information you can provide would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Marie                                                                        

From what I know you will lose a lot slower with the band. In a word YES that would be a revision. You have to look at the way you eat in order to get the right WLS for you. If you are going for a revision you might want to also look into several different types of WLS. RNY. BP-DS, and Sleeve. Each comes with pros and cons.  Do you snack and graze throughout the day?? BP-DS might be the way to go. Can you (maybe) live withour a lot of sweets or fatty foods (dumping with RNY). You might also want to post of the revision board.
Good Luck,
Robin

I agree with what Robin said.  You might also want to look into talking with a counselor about the urge to eat because some of that might be psycholoigical rather than physiological (and will likely not go away long-term even with a gastric bypass procedure).

Definitely check out the revisions forum here.

Lora

Hi Marie, I can really hear from your post how frustrated you are and since I went through the same set of doctors at Mt. Carmel for my lapband surgery I will just offer a couple ideas to help.
First,  I would give Melissa Webb a call, the Mt. Carmel bariatric nurse coordinator and ask to sit and speak with her for an hour appointment to talk to her for ideas. I've found her to be really responsive and caring to talk with about weight loss surgery.  If you need her number, I can get it but you can reach her through calling the Mt. Carmel West main number and ask for her.
Second, they hired a new bariatric nutritionist named Andrea Czopur (I think I have her last name correct) and she seems to be very good to listen to you and wants to genuinely help people get on the right track nutritionally. I found her to be easier to talk with and very knowledgeable compared to the other nutritionist that was there before about April 1 of this year.  Last, if you are not participating in local support group in Central Ohio, where you see other lap band patients face to face, I can offer you that there is a group of combined patients from Mt. Carmel, Riverside and OSU and some self-pay patients that went to Cincy or Detroit, who meet once a month and we've formed a close knit bond to support each other.  If you aren't tracking your daily food intake I'd suggest any one of a few online food tracking and exercise tracking web sites as this really holds me accountable - days when I blow past 1800 calories before I could blink an eye versus days when I stay down in the 1000-1200 calorie range. I use www.myfooddiary.com, I've heard good things about www.sparkpeople.com and I think there is one called "the daily plate" - not sure of the url for that one.  Hope all this helps. 

Thanks for your input but I don't think that I explained myself very well when I said, "I'm constantly fighting the urge to eat".  It's not that I'm really hungry all the time therefore I can hold my own by simply drinking more water instead of eating.  I have followed this program to the "T" by getting in lots of water in between my 3 meals each day.  I don't drink the water with the meals.  I don't snack and eat whatever I want either.  I read every label to ensure that it doesn't have ANY sugar in it, along with the calorie count, protein, and carb amount.

It''s nice that you have a support group going but as I said before, I have Systemic RSD that is all through my body and I haven't drove in 4 years.  I wanted the GB from the beginning but was talked into doing the Lap Band instead.  I have researched a lot of information about the Lap Band and IT does in fact have failure rates.  For the past 7 months I have been trying to figure out what I'm suppose to be feeling with this band because I don't notice anything different.  You must understand that I started this journey back in March 2007 and to be almost at 7 months since surgery and only having a 3 lb. weight loss is not a good thing.  Especially with my illness.  I don't have 3 years to wait for something to happen.  Yes, I'm frustrated and I think that you would be too if you had gone through what I have been through.  I understand what you said about the previous Nutritionist at Mt. Carmel.  She wasn't a people person at all.  As for bariatric nurse, she has given me the wrong infiormation a few times, therefore I don't trust her.  Don't get me wrong, I do trust my surgeon 100% that is why I went under the Floroscope the other day so that she could take a look at my band.  First, she removed what was in it which was 7 cc's.  I have a 10 cc band.  Then she filled it all the way up but nothing would come out of the bottom so she removed 1 cc.  Now I have a total of 9 cc's in me to see if it makes a difference but so far not really.  I go back in a month and we will discuss at that time what the next step should be.  Marie

I will offer a prayer for you Marie that either this adjustment kicks your band and metabolism in place or you can find another option to lose weight as I definitely know how much I want to lose this weight (180 lbs total I want to lose). 

I had my third fill this week and have lost some but so far don't notice much difference in restriction but it takes some time for me to adjust and settle in after a fill so I'll give it a try and see. I have my next dr. appt Sept 2 so I know I can get my next adjustment to keep going tighter.

Also, I have a sister with RSD in Florida so I know what you are talking about on that but don't pretent to be an expert. She is able to still drive some and I now understand that is a blessing but she's been through lots and lots. Had to fight like heck to get disability declared and has a pain stimulator device implanted in her back, etc. So I will also offer a pray for you, my sister, and all those suffering from RSD.

God Bless you today!

Some people simply need more than restriction to succeed.  It looks like you're one of them.  I was too, only I identified that ahead of time, and matched myself up to the Duodenal Switch, which offers the largest amount of malabsorption.  For the first time in my life, I actually lost weight.  After decades of dieting with the only results being a plateau of gaining -- I really LOST.

Edited to add -- YES, what you're talking about is considered a revision.  Out on the DS board, we have Band to DS revisions and RNY to DS revisions.