Band to sleeve revision experiences???

Hi all,

I'm looking for band to sleeve revision stories.  Could you tell me how your experiences went?  

1.  Why did you revise

2.  What happened in terms of insurance (I have medicare)

3.  How did surgery go

4.  How does the sleeve compare to the band (positives and negatives)

Thanks so much in advance for your info 

I had lap band surgery 2/6/06 and did well for a while, did not really loose too much, I went from 234 to 175 or so...gained 25 back..and was there for  a while.  I decided to revise to sleeve surgery last year.  I did well with that, I started at 205 and today I am 175...that is it...Dr. had told me I would probably not loose too much since I had the lap band already.  I had no problems with the insurance getting the revision approved, I had Aetna at the time I just had to have 3 months of nutritional counseling again...the surgery itself was easy.  I was walking the day of surgery and did not really have pain...it was easy...however, I am experiencing a lot of acid reflux.  I wake up choking with that acidity taste at least once a week.  I eat and 30 minutes I sometimes feel food coming back up with that acidity taste.  Dr. has told me that they are finding patients that have had lap band to sleeve conversions are experiencing this, the only way to fix it is to go to bypass.  I am now scheduled to do the gastric bypass on 7/23/12...which will fix the problem and give me more weight loss.   I now have GEHA insurance and they approved it quickly at 100% since my Dr. justified the need in a letter.  Had I known that this would happen I would have had the bypass first of all. 

Hi, i also had the band.My original surg was June 2009,i lost about 50 lbs.Major slippage and band removed exactly 1yr later June 2010.Oct 2010 had sleeve done,lost maybe 20 lbs. Severe reflux,live on nexium. Scheldued for rny on Aug 20,2012.Hopefully this will be it,had i know the sleeve wouldnt work,i would have done the bypass last year.
 

 OMG, I'm so sorry to read this.  how horrible that you've gone through all of this :(  I will pray that this is all you need now.  3 surgeries is disgusting.