An introduction from a soon-to-be former Bandster

Thank you, thank you!!!  WOW!!!  You have done an amazing job with your sleeve!!! Congrats!!

I love seeing posts like these. Hopefully people looking into that pathetic peice of plastic that should be outlawed might think twice about alternatives like VSG. It just sucks that you have to go through surgery again because of that stupid band. Good luck and welcome to the forum. Your gonna love your sleeve. I know I do!

P.S. Nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you, too!!  Honestly, I think the band will go away within the next 5 years or so.  When it's working correctly, it works well......for me at least, that wasn't very often! Thanks for the support!

Welcome Melly,

I too am a revision and like you i lost a lot of weight on my band, gained some back due to an unfill when i started having problems. I've had the sleeve for 7 months now and it's night and day.  I got my ins approval really quickly also.  Feel free to bring on the questions, there's a lot of us revisions here.

Hi Mel,
You give me such hope! I'm scheduled to see my surgeon tomorrow to see what my options are.  From what I've seen, the sleeve would be a great option for me too. I had been banded about 3 years ago, and had some good weight loss, but then got tight for no reason and have struggled with the band ever since and have gained a fair amount of my lost weight back.  Not good. My concern is that my surgeon only does bands and bypass and so he would need to refer me to another doctor for the sleeve. I don't see the bypass as an option for me b/c of anemia. So I want another surgeon to do the removal and the sleeve at the same time, but I don't know if my insurance will go for that. They make no mention of revisions in the policy and have started this 1 year nutritional program before wls, so I don't know if they will make me go through that process if I get the band out first and look for another surgeon for the sleeve.  Any insights folks have would be very helpful.  Good luck to you Mel and to everyone else.

Dawn

Yikes..sounds like our bands are acting very similar.  It sucks, I know.  Well, maybe finding a surgeon that does the sleeve and talk to him/her would be the best way to start.  I know its hard to put it out there in case you are told, "no", but the band issues dosn't resolve themselves, and this is just no way to live!

So happy to hear about your success and that you are much happier with the sleeve!!  Can I ask you, was it really painful where they took the port out?  Mine has been inbedded for 4 years now......ugh, I am sure it will be hard to dig out.

Hi Melly,
I remember you from way back, we were banded a few months apart. I just revised to sleeve a month ago and couldn't be happier. I am finally losing the rest of the weight I couldn't with the band. And my body feels so much better having the band out. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Revision surgery was a lot easier for me recovery-wise than band surgery, even though it took 5 hours and tons of scar tissue clean-up. Wishing you an easy time of it too!

I can only imagine all of the scar tissue my surgeon is going to have to deal with.  WOW.  Thanks so much for the welcome, and very happy to hear you are back on the losers bench with a tool that works better for you!!  I can't wait!

Awwww Melly, I've followed your fight with your band, and can't wait for you to get revised ! ! ! You gave it 110%, and while I hate that you are going to have to have another surgery, I'm super stoked that you'll be able to be done with the horrible sliming/pb'ing/puking you've dealt with for so long.