If you had the band...

And could be revised to any surgery without worry of cost/doc/or insurance, which surgery would you get? I honestly can't decide between the sleeve and RNY.  I'm afraid the sleeve won't be restrictive and malabsortive (is that a word?) as I need. BUt I have various horror stories about RNY too. I'm so confused!

how much do you need to lose ?  how successful were you with the band?

i think if you were successful with the band, the sleeve is an easy fit.   if you need more, i'd look into the DS over RNY - just for keeping your pyloric valve intact.

i didn't have a worry about cost either & went with a DS surgeon for my sleeve.    

 I have over 100 to lose and never found a good fill with my band.  It was either too tight and I could hardly get anything down except slider foods or else it was too lose and I was eating too much.  I'm hoping the sleeve will allow me to eat normal food and not have to rely on ice cream.  The DS really interests me but the nearest surgeon who does it is pretty far away plus it seems like a very complicated surgery.

i hope several of the DS patients who still post here chime in - as i can't compare without just saying i would prefer a stomach to a pouch.

i believe there are surgeons in NY/NJ that do this revision - i drove 2hrs to see dr stewart for mine.

it was more of finding an expert & DH said he'd not sign off on revision unless i did so.

good luck to you!!

Personally I would never get RNY.  If I were to get a malabsorptive procedure it would be the DS. But I am getting the sleeve in hopes I that is enough. Down the road if I needed it, my surgeon can easily ad the switch component.  The DS has the best long-term statistics for weight loss and keeping it off.  With the RNY the malabsorption of vitamins is forever but not calories. Many RNY people regain a lot of weight. It's sooo much easier to go from a sleeve to a DS, but extremely difficult to revise from RNY to DS, only a handful of surgeons in the US can do it.

Read up on the pyloric valve and why you might want to keep it intact (which you get with sleeve and DS). I think it's a great thing.

I failed with the band, and have been fighting to revise. The reason I failed, and what I need to revise to, may be completely different than your reasons. 

Did you just have mechanical failures, like port flips, no sweet spot or band slips and such, or did you get decent restriction, and just not lose, or lose enough?

I initially wanted to revise to the sleeve. My band never worked well enough for me to know if I could lose with just restriction. I looked at other things, like how well I lose when dieting ( I don't) and know that just eating smaller portions will not get my weight off and keep it off. I need to add the bypass part to be successful.

That said, I will not allow my pyloric valve to be cut. I decided against RNY because not using your own pylorus is the cause for most of the RNY issues, some of which are nothing to sneeze at. I'm particularly scared of the possibility of reactive hypoglycemia, but also not interested in the possibilities of things like dumping, marginal ulcers, difficulty of scoping the remnant stomach, and the regain issues. 

I'm going to preserve my pyloric valve and opt for the sleeve, or more likely the DS. I gain despite not being a volume eater, and think I need to malabsorb those calories, especially the fat calories. Man it would be nice to eat a piece of cheese. 

It really only comes down to if you need to add malabsorption or not, but the best choices are sleeve or DS. I won't consider the RNY under any cir****tances.

Hi! I have the band and just got approval for revision to RNY.  I was going to go with the sleeve, but I had really bad reflux with the band and my surgeon said the sleeve doesn't help with that and he thought I should go with the RNY. I also have hormonal and female issues, so he said I might need help with my metabolism. 

My brother had the RNY a few years ago and has been doing good with it. He lost 215 lbs total. I also have a friend that had it about 8 years ago and she is doing great also!

Good luck!

Go with your heart! I am having my lap band removed this Friday after almost 10 years. I loved the band in the beginning, lost 110 lbs. As the years went on, i lost restriction. I started the process to revise to RNY in September. Last month my tubing became disconnected from the port and has caused a lot of abdominal pain, so i am having it removed before my scheduled bypass next month. Good luck to you and any surgery you decide to do.

Thanks for all your advice everyone! I'm still a little unsure but am leaning towards the DS.   I'm calling this week to make an appointment with a dr who does every sort of surgery you can think of, and some I haven't even heard of.  I'm really excited to get the process started. In the mean time I've really been trying to cut out the carbs and sugars and have lost 5 pounds. I know it's not a lot, but it's a start.

And I wanted to thank you all for your kindness. I've posted for help on a few other boards and actually gotten attitude and yelled at  Thanks again. I hope you don't mind if I hang out here and maybe ask more questions and try to learn a bit more from you.

Susan

My band erroded into my stomach.  The tubing got infected, which traveled up to my port, and the port got infected.  I had oozing fistulas at the port site, and had a severe infection.  What a nightmare this was, and extremely painful.  After a serious operation, and a week in the hospital... the band was removed, infection healed up.  Personally, I would NEVER recommend a band, ever....but that's only my personal opinion.  It has worked for some people.