Going form Bnd to sleeve - Melb Vic

Hello Charlie and Gailo, well, 11 days sleeved and all in all things are good. I didn't have any adhesions/scar tissue around my band so it had been mocving aroung since march 06 though can't say I notice it (discomfort, choking sensation etc) until about 2 years ago when I was sent for thyroid tests etc. Not a bad thing as I do have a few small cysts on my thyroid.

Charlie, I suffered with the shoulder gas pain when I had the band, lasted about an hour and was just awful so was scared re that with the sleeve however only had it for a short time and no where near as bad.

Interesting the reasons why surgeons won't do both together, who is to say who is right or wrong. My surgeon didn't hesitate but I also think your surgeons have valid reasons for not doing them.I often think mine is a bit gung hoe. Anyway, the drinking was fine and the progression to pureed has gone relatively smoothly (ha ha). No problems with pain when drinking or swallowing at all though I was pretty out of it the first few days. I had other problems with an infection (not sure where, temp up) then low haemoglobin and followed by a blood transfusion.Wa in hospital for 8 days and going back to the surgeon in a few days to check hamoglobin which is still on the low side though not as bad as befor. I have also developed another infection on the incision sites (not all, just a few, worst on my drainage site). I also came home with a drainage tube from my stomach however its not too bad,. I just stick the little bottle in my pocket and empty twice a day.
10 weeks and 6 weeks will go very quickly, it did for me though I suppose thats easy to say now.
Charlie, if you have a look in the diary section there are more details, go to the beginning of the site with all the topics and scroll down to Diary. Many people have their journey's there, mine is naturally under Purplehaze. The second part of journey will be on you before you know it.

Gailo, well done with the exercise and maintaining the weight, will keep my eyes open for Step into life.
Keep up the good work both of you, good times ahead.

Hey Charlie

I so know what you mean about the countdown taking forever. And I do have to watch the appetite as I've gotten into a habit of eating again because I can without all the PB'ing/blockage hassles anymore. I think I'm going to turn into a mango at the moment as I seem to be living on them!! I'm really surprised myself that I haven't put on more.

10 weeks is a short period of time in the overall scheme of things. I was going to try and get sleeved this month but my stepmum talked me out of doing before Xmas as they wouldn't be able to come down from Brisbane to look after me. Well now they aren't able to come down in Feb either due to their lawn bowls commitments and Dr J won't let me fly for at least a week after surgery but I'm not changing my date again to fit their schedule. I actually walked into my last appointment with him 2 weeks ago and asked him to take my tummy out now!!! LOL!!!

I've been training with a group called Step into Life and have found it to be really beneficial in keeping the kgs at bay. Its outdoor group personal training and no 2 sessions are ever the same and the people are really encouraging. This has also helped to keep me on track. We did our 8 week fitness assessment on Wednesday morning and I managed to knock 7 secs off my 2km shuffle time (can't call it a run) time and also did 7 personal bests in the other exercises (push ups, squats, shoulder presses etc). So this has also been a big motivation as well. (Don't mean to advertise for them but these are just my personal thoughts.)

Just remember you can get through this little hurdle and come 23 Feb you be back on the downward slide of the scales.

Cheers
Gail

Hey Gail,

I have been using the heat pack religiously, the shoulder tip pain is the worst part of it, I would not be too bad if it weren't for the pain in my shoulder, I will be telling my surgeon when he does the sleeve, to make sure he sucks out ALL of the gas next time LOL.

I am seeing Michael Talbot, so not too far from you.....

I hope that I can remain like you and keep off the kilo's, you should be very proud of what you have done. I mean if your band came out in Sept, then you have waited a little longer than 3 months.... so that in itself is a great thing, I just hope that I can follow in your footsteps. I have a few friends who have had bands out for various reasons for 3 months, and they have all whacked the weight on in record time, and I really don't want to do that... surely I can last 3 months, sheesh, it is very worrying. I have started to feel hungry again for the first time in 3 years, boy I forgot how horrible that feeling is!!!

Once this pain dissapears I will start with the exercise, although I have always found that hard when I don't have something to achieve as such, I hate exercising just to "Maintain" as such, I get so disheartened when I don't loose weight, so that in itself will be a challenge!!

10 week and counting.... crap, when you put it down, it sounds so far away. I hate wishing my life away, but this is one of those times where I am wishing it away in a BIG way!!!

Love Charlie

Hi Charlie and welcome to the waiting room.

I'm in the same boat as you. Although I had to have my band removed via emergency surgery in September as it had slipped, and I too hadn't formed many adhesions and was told to wait 3 months before getting sleeved.

I'm now booked in for 6 February so its 7 weeks tomorrow and I actually getting excited, except for the 2 weeks on opti-puke before hand.

I've been rather lucky as well in that I haven't put on too much weight since having my band removed, in all only about 4kgs, and good dose of gastro last week got rid of a couple of those again. I've upp'd my level of exercise in the past couple of months which seems to have kept me steady. And watching what I eat as well.

Can I ask, who is your surgeon in Sydney? I'm with Dr Jorgensen at St George.

I found peppermint water and a heat pack helps for the gas pain.

Cheers
Gail

Hiya all,

Well the damage is done... band is out, and NO sleeve!! Boo Hoo, funny enough I am ok with the situation at present, I didn't think that I would be ok, but I am for now, however, ask me in a month when the food monster really starts to appear again..... this may change!

So I have my date for my sleeve, it will be done in Feb 23, so I am counting down the weeks..... and I just know that they are going to go VERY slowly!!

Well my Dr said that I didn't have too many adhesions, but he doesn't like to do the sleeve straight up because of the way that the band distorts the stomach, and he finds that the pouch that he can make with the sleeve isn't as tight if he does the surgery at the same time, so I suppose that I can live with that, even though we all want it done yesterday!! In the long run, it will be better for me, and considering this is for life, then I guess I should be happy with the outcome.

Purple Haze, I was just wondering how you got on, did everything go smoothly?? You have most likely answered this in another thread somewhere, but I am not too good at navigating through this site yet.... please let me know how you got on. I hope all went very well

Anyway, I am holding strong currently, I don't care about loosing weight, I just want to maintain what I have got to, which is about 95kgs... I don't want to go back to triple figures again, as I have said before I have fought so hard to get out of the triple figures...

So I am going to celebrity slim it a bit for the next 10 weeks or so, not too much, hopefully just enough to maintain my current weight...

PS, Shoulder tip pain is the pits!!!

Love Charlie

Hey Purplehaze....

All I can say is that I am SOOOOO jealous that you are getting your surgeries done on the same day, and so LUCKY!! I fought tooth and nail with my surgeon to do it, but he said NO! AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH..... He said that if he gets in there and the adhesions to the band aren't too bad then he "may" do it, but it is like a 2% chance that will happen, but let me tell you, I am holding dear onto that 2% chance!! I will hold onto anything that I can, however, in my heart I know that i will be going in on the 16th and coming out without a band, or a sleeve.... and that will lead to a very sad me!!! But alas, the future is bright.

I too wish that I had the sleeve first, however, I think that I needed the band first because of the whole concept of losing your stomoch sounds all too much for the first tiime that you consider surgery. However, since putting the weight back on in my pregnancy, I don't care if it is Irreversible, mate, when you loose weight and then wack the sucker back on, you never want to go through that again, so sleeve me up baby!!!

They always say hindsight is a wonderful thing, but at least the options are still open for the furture, and future here we come.

Keep us updated, and let us know how you get on with the double procedure.....

Good luck
Charlie

Hey Charlie and Phillipa. If I'd known about this forum prior to having the band I may have opted for the sleeve. I have the band out next Tuesday and sleeve done in same op. I You have done so well Phillipa in persisting for as long as you have and the weight loss . I had some difficulties but nothing in comparison.
Charlie, I can relate to having the easier foods. I have stuggled with the fill since I got the band though I did have several other surgeries since which aggrevated the situation.My tendancy was to go for the easy to eat, drinks etc

Hey Koonta,

Thanks for the reply, you know you are exactly right and I am going to do my best not to be silly about this weight thing!! I currently have no fluid in my band which leads me to eat very normally, it has been this way for a week now.... a little scarey but also a relief, it is SOOOO nice to be able to eat something and not feel any pain! So far I have been relatively good, and have been eating well. I have to admit I have put on a little weight already (very little) but that was bound to happen as I am going from not being able to eat barely anything to being able to eat anything. I have gone to dinner with my husband at the place that we love, and that was great, it was like another last hurrah, however, I left there feeling bloated and sore, and that is a feeling that I don't want to experience again.

I am going t do exactly what you have said, in that I will eat healthy and well for the first half of my wait, and then I will do the meal replacement thing, however, I am NOT going near opti puke.... I will do Tony Ferguson instead, I find this much nicer and easier to deal with. I am just hoping that I can stay in the double digits as I fought hard to get there in the first place. Although there is only 6 kgs between me and the 3 figures, and 3 months of sheer agony in being able to eat, it is just a goal that I have to keep at.....

thanks again for your time and your reply..... here is wishing 3 months of my life away very quickly!!

Love Charlie

Hi Phillipa,

I just read your post on yahoo, (i'm lizzardbell on yahoo) and now i see you here too :)

I was sorry to read your new port is also giving you trouble. You can't catch a brake you poor thing! And seeing your hubby loose 78 (?) kg must be driving you crazy after all the problems you've had.

I wish i could give you some helpfull advice on not putting the weight back on..if i had any i'd take it myself, lol! I guess all you can do is dredge up some will power from somewhere (hows that for crap advice :) Its only for a couple of months and there is a great reward at the end of it. But its not the end of the world if you have trouble, so don't be too hard on yourself.

Yours was one of the stories which helped me to finally decide against a band. Which was a great relief to me. Stories like yours are getting a bit too common for my liking. Multiple ports, slipped bands on going pain, blockages. Not being able to eat good food. And the toilet becoming your best friend, i can live without that, haha!

Looks like there are a few of us who are getting done in Feb or March next year, i'll look forward to watching how you are all going

Bell

Hi Phillipa and Charlie,

Sorry to hear about your band problems, there are quite a few people on this forum that have had the band and have now had it removed and gone to the sleeve, so you should find lots of helpful tips on here.

Me - I had my sleeve done on the 12th November, 2008, so nearly 2 weeks ago and have lost 8kg's. I started on the Opfast 2 weeks earlier than my surgeon suggested and lost 10kg's during that phase in the 4 weeks prior to surgery. So in 6 weeks I have lost 18kg's and I feel fantastic. I am still a little sore and have a bit of heartburn but other than that I am going great guns !!!! My biggest concern when I was considering the band was that my body (being the biatch that it can be sometimes) would reject the band as seems to happen with some people. I am so glad I went with the sleeve and am on my way to a new and improved me.

Charlie - have you thought about doing a deal with yourself (I do these all the time). Once you find out your surgery date for the sleeve, work out how many weeks it is and split the time in half. For the first however many weeks, try and be as good as you can be eating normally (I know very hard to do) and then the few weeks prior to your surgery start on the Optifast, that way you should counteract any weight you may have put on ....... just a thought anyway !!!!

Good luck with the band removal and keep us posted !

Koonta

Hey Phillipa,

I am the same here, although I have NOT gone through half of what you have with your band. I am getting my band out on the 16th of Dec and getting a sleeve either late Feb or early March. The concept of not having anything scares me so much, but the thought of the different lifestyle excites me a little. I am very much sick of the toilet being the place that I see the most. I have large food intolerances and to loose weight I have to have VERY tight restriction which means that the good foods are IMPOSSIBLE to eat, and the bad foods are the easiest, and it just gets too hard to put up with the pain of the band with the good foods, so like most I resort to bad foods to keep me going..... same old story with the band I feel!!

I have decided that I can be good for a month, this I know, beyond that I think that it will get difficult, but I was thinking that if I can control the weight for at least the first month, and try for the rest of the time, I am hoping for NO MORE than a kg a week gain (I am hoping that I am being generous in this number) so all in all if worst comes to worst, hopefully then it will only be a 8 kg gain in the long run, which in the scheme of things I can handle it. I have to admit it has taken me a while to come to this conclusion, but I know that we both will be ok!! I just know that after having my baby and putting all my weight back on, I just can't do it again. It was too painful when I was bigger again!!!

At least there are now 2 of us going through it at the same time.... this could be very helpful in the longrun.....

Love Charlie

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow I am having my 6 week old replacement lap band removed as my body is rejecting it. I was originally banded in Feb 07 and have had numerous problems including 3 ports, heamoraghes, necrotic tissue, hernias, heamoseromas etc. Tomorrow will be my 11th operation. I have lost 32kgs to date and my surgeon and I are considering a sleeve in the new year - maybe february/ march. I need some time to le the poor body heal and purge al lthe drugs out of my system before I start again.

I am worried that I will put weight on duringhte time with no band in. I will be reading all the topics to ensure I know what I am in for next year.

Thanks
Phillipa