Lapband to Gastric Sleeve

I had a Lap-Band for seven years and was revised to a Sleeve.

I really wish I had gotten the full DS. My weight loss stalled at 4 months...and now 4 months later, I'm up a few pounds.

I can eat so much more with my Sleeve vs. Band. I was really counting on restriction, but that only lasted for the first two months. I was sleeved with a 34 French Bougie, and oversewn.

I am not a good dieter, and my experience on VSG boards are that people who succeed are those who can stick to a very low carb, low fat diet, low calorie diet. I cannot. If I could, I'd never needed WLS.

The ghrelin factor was great for about 2-3 months, but the hunger is back as well. Not as much as pre-Sleeve, but definitely there.

I really do not think many people should revise from a Band to a Sleeve unless they are at goal. Even then, you need to be very careful with sleeve size.

The good thing is quality of life is 1000x better.

My name is Wendy. I just had the Sleeve performed last Tuesday. So I guess you can say I am one week out. I had the lap band and I lost 50 lbs on it.  The last 9 months of having the band were pretty much awful. I had chronic left side neck and shoulder pain. I know sounds weird, but trust me. It took the doctors that long to figure it out and to be honest they really never did. I searched on the web and noticed it is not uncommon for this to happen with the band. So they removed the band and performed the gastric sleeve.
 It is a very painful surgery for the first week. You must keep up on your PROTEIN or you will feel like you are dying.

So far so good though. I go Friday to have my staples removed and I hope he will tell me I can eat something. I have been on liquids since last Tuesday  8 days.11 pounds lost so far but not an easy way to do it...

Good luck to you !

You make some very good points here about the dieting.    The sleeve has about the same long term success as the RNY surgery and both require "working the tool".   The surgery with the greatest long term success AND is the most forgiving for those who find it difficult to "diet" is the DS.  

The good thing for you is that you already have the 1st part of the DS, so a revision would not be difficult for you.   If you had gotten the RNY where they cut your stomach up into a pouch, revision to the DS would be very difficult and it would also be hard to find a surgeon skilled enough to do it.

If you find it impossible to lose what you need with the sleeve, get the full DS.   The two parts of it work synergistically for the greatest up front weight loss when you get them together (restriction + malabsorption), but your body has never experienced malabsorption so you can still get a very good result.  

If you had gotten the RNY (instead of the sleeve), your intestines could have already adapted to the malabsorption and increasing that malabsorption by shortening the common channel with a distal or ERNY  revision wouldn't have that great of an effect on your weight loss.  

I realize you had a 34F for your sleeve but you know, my doc explained something to me that makes sense.  He said that not all 34s are created equally, or 32s, 36s, etc.  He said a great deal depends on how tight you pull the the stomach over the bougie.

There are three people posting on the sleeve board right now that can all eat a great deal of food and they all have a 32F stomach and the same surgeon.  One girl could eat a whole chicken breast 3 weeks post op.  I'm at 10 months and there is no way I could eat that.  I have a 32F stomach and I can eat 2oz of solid protein at a time.

Is it possible that this is why you are not losing well?

I was indeed at goal when I had my revision but I eat high fat, high calorie foods and the only thing I limit is white carbs.  I eat unlimited veggie carbs.  Eating white carbs starts a carb craving cycle that is hard to break so I don't eat them often.

It's totally possible.  I know it depends on how the sleeve is made around the bougie or NG tube or whatever.  I haven't been on the main boards in a few days due to computer problems, so I don't know if they have the same surgeon as me or not.  I did see my sleeve on fluoro, though... and it did look tight.  I'd love to know what it looks like now.  If it's stretched or what not.

I can easily eat a whole chicken breast... 6" subway (although I've only been there once)...etc.

I'm debating the second part of the DS as we're still working on my D levels.  Maybe not getting the full DS was a blessing in disguise if I'm already having D issues with a sleeve so early out.  I've been on D3, but now the nutritionist wants me to add D2 as well.  We'll see if it helps. 

No, you don't have the same surgeon I was referring to.  The one I refer to is in Tijuana, MX and she is fairly inexperienced.  All her newbie patients posting can eat a LOT of food, far more than those who have been sleeved well over a year.

It is interesting to watch the progress of people.  I started a thread on the sleeve board asking how much everyone could eat and you could group people by surgeon.  The more experience surgeons had more success stories, the inexperienced surgeons have patients not losing.  It's very sad.  There was one US surgeon and one MX surgeon, all their patients are losing slowly or not at all. (The US surgeon I am referring to was not yours.)

You know, if a surgeon has patients where most are doing great and one that is doing poor, you can wonder if they are eating a diet of Chocolate.  But when all the folks of one surgeon are not doing well, that's a clue.  Have you looked to see how others sleeved by your doc are doing?

If I tried to eat what you are able to eat, I'd be puking left and right.  I guess my point here is I'm hoping you aren't being hard on yourself, if we could do this without restriction, we would.  If I didn't have restriction I know me, I'd balloon up in no time.

I'm sure the Mx surgeon's prices are not that much lower than the good, experienced Mexican docs... like Alverez, Acevez, Joya, etc.  I feel bad for those patients.  Whenever I think Tijuana, I think Huacuz... giant scream!

I haven't met that many people who have used my surgeon.  I know one Lap-Band to Sleeve revision, Babs... but she was sleeved at about my weight now.  I tend to know more of his DS patients and they've all done really well.

I did the cottage cheese test, and I had a 16 oz. container.  I actually had eaten 3/4s of it before I just couldn't stomach another bite of cottage cheese.  I wasn't full... just sick of cc.

I try not to be hard on myself... and basically tell myself that just reinforces that I needed bariatric surgery.  Even with only losing 50 pounds... my life is so much better, so much more normal, than with my Band that it's a good thing.  I suppose I could look it at like those people who have to have their Band removed...and then wait for their stomachs to heal..before being revised. 

Well, right now one of the worst is doing sleeves for $6500.  Can you believe it?  Surgery in a clinic, recovery in a hotel in the middle of Tijuana.  ACK!  There is no way you can do a sleeve, pay the surgeon, clinic, anesthesiologist, staff, staples, OR supplies, etc. for $6500.  Just makes you wonder which corners they are cutting.  The one with the $6500 price has paid posters.  One of them actually admitted it.  She emailed a mod on LBT apologizing.  She said that she could not, in good conscience, continue being paid to push a doctor she has never met.  She was told to discredit anyone that said they had poor experiences and essentially chase them away.   She was told to push his name on every WLS board she could find.

If he was any good wouldn't his own patients be posting?  It's sad, all the people that think they are getting smok'en deal on a sleeve will go there.  I've written it before and I'll write it again, people are stupid.

Chrissy,

 

I am in the same boat as you... I am considering having the sleeve done from the band. I haven't had a fill in over a year.  I hated having to be put under Fleuro each time for the band due to my realize port being shallow. Please let me know what decision you make. I am considering either the bypass or sleeve. I had a friend that revised from sleeve to bypass @ 215 pounds starting weight and she just looks wonderful.  We both became so sick of the band and both decided to be revised.