Sleeve Stretched! Revision and DS in Nov!

Got news that my planned DS will require a revision Sleeve, first, as it has stretched so much! Finally approved for surgery!

Congratulations on your approval!  

--gina

Congrats! Had my sleeve revised when I got the DS too. It was about 2 1/2 years after my original sleeve. Good news is that my food intolerances seem far less of an issue than many full DSers. I think it's because you already know what settles well in the tummy, just have to figure out what is okay on the intestines.

Good luck!

How did it affect reflux?

I was on two Pantoprazole per day with the sleeve and still had episodes about once a week. Since my DS I've taken one Pantoprazole per day and have honestly not had a single episode in all 10 weeks. I haven't even thought about acid reflux until this post. So happy about that! I am supposed to take one per day for six months then I can decrease it and eventually stop taking it.

I was told that an irregular shaped sleeve (aka stretched) can make it worse. Acid will back up when it's not going down a smoothly shaped sleeve. Most sleeves don't stretch evenly all the way from top to bottom, they stret*****ertain areas that are just weaker (bottom or middle or top or a combo). So when the acid hits certain areas, it slows down or backs up. Hope you don't have any issues with it. It can be such a pain to deal with.

When you say 'first', you don't REALLY mean they're going to re-Sleeve you, then later do a second operation to add the Switch, do you???

ReSleeve + DS about 3-4 hrs.

The sleeve is supposed to stretch some, which the VSG surgeons seem to forget to tell people.  I was only able to eat around 2oz  my first year or two, but I can probably eat around 8oz in a sitting today.  I'm still way smaller than the average bear, but nobody would see me eat and think I had any wls.  If a person is thinking that simply eating less is the answer to weight loss, then perhaps the VSG is the answer, but so many don't realize until its too late that they need the push of metabolic change.  I'm glad you're getting the opportunity to make the switch.

Thanks for adding that, Val. 

Many people forget that our sleeves are designed to stretch, so we can eat enough to overcome the malabsorption to stabilize the loss for maintenance.

I was a real supporter of the sleeve in the beginning! It's a great operation, if you do not have diabetes, or ANY kind of food issues. Well, how many 300-400# people fall into that category? So many, like me, are getting further out and finding out WHAT IT TAKES to maintain..It is not possible for me to live at 1100 cals for the rest of my life. And, yes, the GS is MEANT to stretch, to accommodate the amount of eating it takes to maintain the high level of protein in the DS. The sleeve was the door step of the DS, never meant to get you inside Weight loss maintenance without the malabsorption part. Surgeons are not saying that and need to.