FEAR OF FAILURE-- Band to Sleeve

I had the lapband about 10 years ago. I had moderate success but not what I would have hoped. I have heard people have better success going from the band to the sleeve. I waited for years and put the revision surgery in the back of my mind because my insurance wouldn't cover it. I recently found out that it now covers it. I thought finding that out was all I needed and I would jump to getting the ball rolling for the revision surgery and now I'm just not sure. Scared of failure ... again. Anyone out there have a band to sleeve revision that could give me some advice would be greatly appreciated!

can you go from band to the RNY?

I suppose that I could. The idea of RNY scares me a lot. More so than just the sleeve

Before you set your mind on a surgery, get checked out by someone who does both. The band creates scar tissue around the stomach, and the sleeve has to go through that scar tissue. Many surgeons will only do a sleeve several months after removing the band. RNY avoids the scarred area, and it's ok to do a revision in a single operation.

I haven't had my sleeve surgery just yet but wanted to tell you that I completely understand your situation. My story is similar to yours.

I was banded almost 10 years ago as well and was also moderately successful. I never got to onederland though and have gained almost all of my lost weight back in the last 2 years. I also had the same reservations that you had and have a huge fear of failure. I bit the bullet about 4 months ago and decided to go see a surgeon to discuss options. I was fully expecting him to tell me that I wasn't a candidate because I already failed once before. But you know what happened? He was extremely encouraging and informative and went through all of the different options for me. He suggested the sleeve right off the bat because he's seen a lot of success from the band to sleeve procedure. We scheduled the band removal surgery in November and I am scheduled for my sleeve surgery on 2/7/18....almost 10 years to the date from my band surgery!

The point of all this is that you don't know what you don't know. I would advise that you at least meet with a surgeon and discuss what you like and don't like about the band. And ask lots of questions to make sure you make an informed decision.

I would be cautious going from band to sleeve. Now the sleeve is a great surgery with very good results as a virgin surgery. I have seen lately band to sleeve patients end up having to revise to the bypass due to severe GERD/reflux/heartburn.

Also, most surgeons will not do a band removal and then sleeve in one procedure they wait 3-6 months to make sure any damage done by the band heals. Unfortunately the band has done quite a bit of damage to folks who had it me included.

Best of luck.

I have read so much abt people getting the revision from the sleeve to the RNY. Reason for this is the sleeve has issues, and as such things wrote above. As well as weight gain comes back on, IF ONE Doesn't follow diet for life. Don't want to scare you. But RNY is pretty much about the best one, and then it can even get altered so people can gain weight.

I have gained half my weight back. MY bottom stoma has enlarged and so this has allowed the weight to come on, and I just can't get it off or stop it from slowly creeping up. I am getting a revision so to reach my goal weight.

Good luck and pray the right most successful procedure done.

I am a revision patient.

I initially was terrified of RNY and had my mind set on Sleeve.

When I sat down and spoke with my surgeon, he advised against it. He told me that the sleeve works similarly to the band and he didn't think that would be the best surgery for me. He also spoke about scar tissue being an issue. I revised to RNY and I am so happy I did. I am still scared to fail, but so far so good :) Just have to develop healthy habits for life.

I too had the band done just over 12 years ago. My experience with the band was that it was great for about 8-10 of those years. I lost just over 120 lbs and managed to stay close to that number for a long time. As long as I was able to keep exercising I was relatively successful. I did not lose all the weight I wanted to but I did lose most and as a guy it was okay. Over the last 5 years things began to get difficult and I started to go up and down quite a bit then about 2 years ago I had some medical issues that made impossible for me to work out. I managed to put on about 70 lbs in the last 2 years. I had already begun looking into doing a revision because of the struggle I was having and was approved for Gastric surgery. My surgery was just 5 days ago (Feb 5^th 2018). I was told that the surgeon would decide between RNY and the sleeve once he got inside. I was informed by the surgeon after the surgery that due sacring issues he went with the Gastric sleeve.

It's only been 5 days so I can't pretend to have any great expertise but my opinion is that you should not let fear of failure impact your decision. Think of all the great things in the world that wouldn't exist if the people who created them decided not to proceed because they may have failed.

I have already lost 40 lbs from when I started the pre-op diet and I feel very good about my decision.

Good luck on making your decision, I hope you the best.

I juat had my band removed after 11 successful years (except horrible GERD). My surgeon would not do or think of doing any kind of revision during the removal due to the severity of the stomach swelling I had (and possible scarring). I will find out later this week when I see him what options I have for the future . I have actually all ready put on a couple of pounds in 1 week and I am scared about gaining it all back.

Surgeon said 6 months of healing for me

Mary