Band to RNY

Hello everyone!  I am hoping to connect with others who had/have a band and are looking into/have already gotten revision to RNY.  I got my band in Nov. 2007 in Mexico (Dr. Acevez) and did fairly well for a while.  I had fill nurses who traveled to do fills not under fluoroscopy and that is who I saw for aftercare.  I got too tight and tried to schedule an unfill only to find out my fill nurses had quit.  Ugh.  My husband lost his job at that time and going to the band doctor close to my (okay, 50 miles away) wanted $350 per fill.  !  I had been having trouble with the $75 my fill nurses charged!  So, for 3 years I dealt with a much-too-tight band.  When it started all I could eat was cream of chicken soup.  No idea why, but I am guessing the texture was perfect for my poor angry stoma.  I eventually learned to eat around my band and managed to stretch my pouch.  A lot.  So here I am, back up to the exact weight I was when I got banded and wanting very much to get healthy.  I have started the process for revision (husband's new job covers bariatrics!!) and my team has suggested I go with RNY this time.  I think it sounds like a great choice.  I will have restriction plus some malabsorption AND I will be able to keep in contact with my surgeon and my surgical team.  I learned a lot about what not to do these past 7 years.  I know I will have to relearn the good habits I had before (small bites and chew, chew, chew!).  I know that this time I am going to have to exercise (blah).  I also know that having people to talk to who can relate to my personal experience will be invaluable.  I would very much love to hear from others who went the route I am going.  Any tips for presurgery (especially that horrible two weeks of liquids!!!), post surgery liquid diet, things to watch out for... pretty much anything you are willing to share.  At this point I am a sponge!!! 

Congratulations on making such an important decision!  I was Banded in 2006 and had a revision to RNY almost last August.  At almost one year post-op I am at my goal weight.  This surgery has been the best thing I have ever done for myself.  Life post-op is nothing compared to Banded life.  So much easier to stay on plan and follow the rules.  Check out my profile if you want to read about my journey. I am happy to help and share.  

Wishing you good luck!  Cheers-  Ashley

Oh my gosh, Ashley!  I read all of your blog posts.  Amazing!!  I am so glad you posted all of that.  There are soooooo many things in there I can totally relate to.  My band is partially unfilled at the moment, so no restriction unless there is (I flipping HATE that!!!) but I totally remember how painful it was to eat or even to drink at times!  I never, ever got used to what "full" felt like with the band.  It was just so completely different from anything I had ever experienced before that it took me forever to get my head around all of the new feelings that came along with eating.  It sounds to me like that isn't the case with RNY and I am so incredibly relieved to know that.  I want to get healthy so badly.  The last thing I want is to have to get used to a whole new set of alien feelings when I eat!  I love that you talked about exercise and that you are not overly zealous.  I do want to incorporate exercise into my new lifestyle and that is going to be the hardest part for me.  I am so sedentary!  So unhealthy.  I can't wait to find out how things are going for you after the hernia repair and the plastics.  :)  Thank you again for sharing.  I expect I will have a ton of questions but your blog really did help me with some of my biggest fears.  I look forward to talking with you again! 

Hi!  Sorry to be so late but i've been away on holiday...  I am very glad that my blog has helped.  It was very helpful to me to write all that as it is sometimes easy to forget where we have been and why we are going forward!  I can only tell you how RNY is for me - after being banded for 7 years - and it is a revelation!  Seriously.  I just spent a week traveling with my family in Eastern Europe and I was unable to control my meals like I do at home obviously.  And while it is hard to drink enough water (needing to pee every hour is a *****allenging when you are out and about!) I was able to supplement with protein shakes or bars so that I kept on my 3-4 hour protein schedule, I ate in every restaurant we stopped in and not a single time did I need to run to the bathroom to spit up, nor did I get stuck, nor did I base my meal choices on what I thought would go down easily. I ate protein forward and that was it.  And i lost a pound!  

I think moving around is important - and the weight will come off regardless.  But I think pushing out of your comfort zone, being willing to try, embracing the new experiences with an open mind will serve you well.  At least that is how I try to approach things this time around.  I no longer try to make things fit into my old lifestyle and instead have changed MYSELF to fit this new way of being.  So far so good for me.  I really hope you are able to have your surgery and that it works for you this time around.  Keep me posted on your progress!

Ashley

Yes it helped a LOT!  I love to see that it is working so well for you.  I have the exact same goal this time; to actually work this tool the way it was meant to be worked and not try and fit it into MY lifestyle.  In a way I am glad I got banded first.  Now I know what NOT to do, lol!  :) 

I will definitely keep you posted.  The nutritionist appointment next week is the final one before my team goes to the insurance company.  I am not sure how long they will take to make a decision but I am not expecting any problems there.  I hope not anyway.  This year has been hard enough without having to fight an insurance company, lol! 

Hi cooladdict,

I am in your exact shoes! I had the lap band in 2009 and has success (lost 110 of my 140lbs goal). Everything was great for the first two years then I relocated back to my home city and lost track of everything. Took me awhile to find a doctor to do my fills and I never did find a support group thinking I didn't need it anymore. Began celebrating my new body with friends with food and ignored the numbers increasing on the scale.

Long story short, I am 10 lbs away from my beginning weight in 2009. I have been approved for removal of band and revision to RNY. My surgeon does both procedures separatly so I will do the removal this Thursday and will do the RNY in November or December. My insurance is not requiring the pre op classes or psych eval but I am still going to do them since I have to wait to heal from the removal anyway. This is my 2nd (and FINAL) chance to get this weight off and keep it off so I am using all the resources this time around. I will use the next 3 months to learn where and when things started to go downhill and what I will do different this time around.

I look forward to documenting my journey on here as well as read other 2nd chance journeys. Thanks for posting, it helps to know that I'm not alone!!

Hello, NewNu! There are so many of us in this exact position.  If we had only known then what we know now...  

I was required to do the psych eval and I feel the same way you do; I would have done it even if it wasn't required.  I was totally honest with him.  I told him that I am afraid I am just an all-around failure and this will happen to me again.  He was very reassuring and told me that the hardest part was recognizing that I need to be mindful of "emotional eating" this time, which I definitely know I was doing.  He said that there is just no comparison between the 2 surgeries and that as long as I stick to the plan I should be just fine.  I have already started reading some books and I want to get some that deal just with emotional eating and head hunger. 

Thank you for sharing your story!  I look forward to hearing about your progress through this and I hope we can encourage each other and celebrate our successes! 

I'm in the same boat.  I am waiting team approval to go forward though I'll probably have to have the band removed first, then later the RNY.  THe medical director was trying to talk me into the sleeve instead.  I feel that I need the double whammy of the rNY.  good luck to you...seems like a lot of us are in the same boat

Hi Lisa!  Your doctor was trying to push the sleeve?  I really expected that from my team but when I said I was leaning toward RNY they were all for it.  It just seems to me that if I am going for something final I want it to be something that has been time tested this time. 

That is a bummer that you will have to have the surgery in two parts.  i was so worried about that but apparently I will be able to have it all done at once.  I had my EGD and everything was fine except for my poor dilated pouch and a  little (2 cm) hiatal hernia so WHEW.  :)  I see the nutritionist next week and I am thinking I will be starting that crazy 2-week liquid diet my doctor seems to like so much, lol.  

Please keep me updated on your progress.  It is so much better knowing there are so many of us doing this revision.  :)