Lapband 2008, looking at sleeve or RNY, your thoughts?

Best of luck to you in whatever you choose! ?

Hey Kris, just wandering if insurance paid for your revision and what caused them to approve you if so... What was your bmi or did you have clinical band problems ... Thanks 

Hello, yes my insurance did approve it within like 5 days I was surprised, it was based on BMI and GERD and I believe he had to show that I was at first successful with the band as well because I did see that noted on my paperwork. 

Hello Yellowtj,

I too had the band in April of 2008 and will be doing a revision to RNY on tomorrow; January 21st to be exact. I am super excited. I lost about 100 pounds from the band and over the past 7 years, the weight crept back up surpassing my initial weight of 290 and ending at my current weight of 334. My biggest issue was when I quit smoking in 2012 and gained 70 pounds in 2 years. As a result, I decided to do the Gastric Bypass because it is the gold standard  of weight loss surgeries with awesome results. I don't have any health issues outside of my obesity and think Gastric Bypass will be lifechanging for me. I suffered acid reflux with the lapband and I hear folks talking about that issue with the Gastric sleeve which is another reason I selected the gastric bypass. I am 38 and would like to be 100 pounds lighter by my 39th birthday. Good Luck with your decision.

Kenneishak

I'm 39 and would like to enter 40 in Novrmber lighter, in my case up love to be closer to 200 than 300. That's not a huge goal cause I'm at 280 right now.  I need to be heading in the right direction.  I'm hopeful the doc can make his suggestion next week and we then do the insurance dance.  

Good luck and recover fast!

Went to the dr yesterday to discuss revising from band to sleeve. He said no! He doesn't do it, he said a lot of docs do but he won't bc the lap band leaves a scar and damage to the portion of your stomach that the staple line goes right through and the sleeve would be under pressure at times ?? 

He said we will begin the process of revising to gastric bypass .... However , I never expected that bc I've read so much on revising to the sleeve that I am completely in the dark about the bypass. 

With my bmi at 35 , insurance more than likely won't pay reguardless UNLESS , they find a problem with my band when they do my egd next week . 

I know there is some problem with it as I have had it for almost 7 years and have been having problems with it for the past year  and half . 

Sorry to hear about this early road block.  I think it's confusing that the doctor says there is scaring that wouldn't allow for the sleeve yet the insurance says there is no reason to pull the band out.  For me the upper gi shows the band settling in and nesting into my stomach, that's enough for me to say take the dang thing out before more issues appear but I'm certain that's not enough for the insurance company.  I'll update you on Monday about what my doctor says.

Good . I'll be looking forward to hearing what he tells you !! This dr seems a little sketchy and everyone I. His lobby had a bypass 

He sounds like he just doesn't know how to do sleeves because there are thousands of people who have gone from band to sleeve and all sleeves and bands are done a little differently depending on the surgeon and where they put their bands and how they do their sleeves. If you really want a sleeve I'd look for another surgeon and see if they would give you a sleeve. It is in now way a certainty that the sleeve line would be where the band is. That is a bald faced lie, he just hasn't learned how to do the sleeve because he talks everyone into getting a bypass. I don't think I would trust him at all if I were you. If he will lie about that what else will he lie about? There are docs who just do bypass and that's fine but he should be straight with you and tell you he doesn't know how to do sleeves not lie about the technique.

You arenright. I am one that researches every detail and gathers as much experience as I possible can and never just buy what a dr tells me just because he tells me . I'm a surgical nurse and though we don't do bariatric a , I am familiar with instrumentation , anatomy and dr preferences pushing toward what they are comfortable with doing . 

He also tried to deny me once again to be scoped saying that the barium swallow would have 10% shown erosion and I wasn't leaving there without an order to be scoped ! Thank God for a support group and being a part of the age of information