Thinking about revision

Hi, I have had my band for 3-years.  I lost 120 pounds in the first 2-years than my stoma shut completely and I was emptied and restarted and I am just not loosing anymore and tired of the reflux, tight and not tight.  So many visits to the doctor.   Throwing up, fills and unfills.  I still weigh 300 pounds.  I cry a lot because I feel I failed.  I just now gave up.  I walk 1 hour 10 min a day and I decided I will eat what I want.  I am sick of counting protien and starving to death.  I did not get wls to starve to death.  I am a dedicated person but I will not stick to a routine if it is not giving results and I have fought hard for a long time.  I am scared but I am thinking of asking my Dr. for gastric sleeve.  I have medicare disability insurance as secondary and Athem PPO primary and I don't know if they will pay for revision.  I will have medicare disability as primary in July cause I am moving to Fort Myers Florida and will loose hubbies insurance which is Anthem PPO.  I just need to know if I am alone and if anyone out there can help guide me in this.  I am just so tired of fighting but I don't want to live the second half of my life in this fat body.  Please help.

Wings

I am sorry you are going through this hell - I understand completely how you are feeling.   Had my band removed in Oct last year after 2 years of mediocre losses and then months of illness last year  - it eventually turned out that my band  was not locked and consequently eroded into my stomach,   I felt like a total failure, especially since all my band friends were doing so well but now a year further on several have had their own band issues including 2 band replacements due to band failure.   I regained all but 8 lbs of the 44 lb I had lost and in August this year I finally got revised to a VSG and can tell you that once it was done, my depression and hopelessness left me and I have been on cloud 9 since then.   It is so much better than I expected, and the qweight is coming off slowly and steadily.   I can't help you with your insurance because we live in different countries, but I can tell you to push for a a VSG any way you can.  I hope that one day it will work out for you like it did for me and that you will also have the life you want - free of the noose of obesity.    Hugs..........Marion

Did your insurance pay for the revision.  I am scared to death I wont be able to afford to change my situation.  Right now we are doing a chapter 13 and giving up my beautiful home. 

You certainly aren't alone - I was the same as you in terms of too much/too little restriction. My surgeon said a really interesting thing to me 'restriction isn't enough for your body to lose weight, you need malabsorption'.

So although the sleeve might work for you, you have quite a bit to lose and might find a malabsorbtive surgery easier to live with. I now eat more than my DH (who is still banded), and I'm losing weight faster than he ever has.

If you like eating, then DS is good - you can eat as much fat as you like, because only 20% of it reaches your stores. You eat as much protein as you can fit in, because you only absorb half of it. And you have the sleeve stomach, which stops you pigging out on quantity, and stops you feeling hungry. So if steak dripping in butter, mayonnaise on everything, seafood, cheese or KFC gets your mouth watering then look into the DS!

Sal

Thank you so much for responding.  I have cried so much over all this.  I want out of this fat body.  I still continue to walk everyday which I have worked up to 1 hour 10 min every morning.  I treat excercise like a job.  I get up and go just like going to work and I give myself no excuses.  I did get a fill 1 1/2 month ago and lost 12 pounds.  Then I had to have a unfil, now I can eat a little more but still get stuck on the wierdest things and get so hungry because I am not eating enough that I will sneak a soft slider in more and more.  I do feel better that I am eating more cal, fat and carbs than my dietition says I can have but I am just besides myself with no wt loss.  My NP says when she unfilled me and restarted my fills a few months later that it would be just like starting over again.  Well I sure as heck am not taking the wt off like in the beginning.  My friends are amazed at how much smaller my portions are to theirs and how I can go way long periods of time without eating which drives them crazy cause I starve them to death and I am not losing.  I did ask Dr. Curry about revision thru the message board yesterday and I have not heard anything fom him yet.  He is my Dr. and I just feel like a failure and don't want to do this face to face because I fear he will tell me it is all my fault. 

I haven't exercised more than twice in the past 8 months, and it hasn't made a difference. I can't be bothered to feel guilty about that - if anything it cheers me up that I'm still losing without flogging myself on the treadmill.

If you have a sleeve, either alone or as part of the DS, things don't get stuck. Ever. I ate dry cooked chicken on the way to work today for breakfast. No biggie. I'm not hungry because I produce hardly any ghrelin (the hunger hormone).

I get the opposite reaction from people now - they can't work out how I'm losing while eating ham covered in cheese sauce for lunch. But to me its protein, fat, low carb and excellent. Bloody tasty too.

You might need to talk to a revision surgeon to get more options though - my band doctor only did bands, told me DS/RNY were awful and was no help at all. The second surgeon does all the surgeries, particularly revisions - they can be trickier technically because you can have scar tissue and stuff. At least then you get an unbiased view - the surgeon will get paid whatever you choose! DS revision surgeons are in short supply though, so post on the DS board if you want more info about the current ones doing it. There are plenty of insurance experts on there too - this is alien to me, I had to pay in the UK.

If anyone tells you its your fault, sack them. 50% of bandsters fail to lose 50% of their excess weight in the long term. We aren't all failures. Then tell me where he lives and I'll come and tell him...

Sal

Wow lol, thanks Sal, I will look on The DS board cause I need to research the DS as well as the VSG.   I am not sure what would be right for me.  I am calling the office tomorrow an asking the insurance girl there if my insurance will even pay for a revision.  I don't deserve to stay fat.