Will revise my VBG to an RNY??

Hi there,

I'm a newbie and I tried posting this on the Revision forum but nobody replied....so because I'm an Alberta girl, I'll see if anyone here will respond...

I have read a couple of stories similar to mine, but it seems they were logged quite a few years ago.

I had the horrible Vertical Banded Gastroplasty 21 years ago, that apparently is no longer being done.  The doctor that did the surgery has since retired and I have an appointment with a general surgeon in Calgary. 

I have struggled for the last 21 years with issues, after my first year, I had to get the band revised, which at that time meant an open surgery again.  The issues still never went away, I threw up most of the food that I ate, especially veggies, whole grains and even fruits :(  In order to lose the weight that I gained I would do crazy low calorie diets 500 cals to be exact, I'd lose the weight and feel good again, but as soon as I started eating regular foods again, on would come the weight.

Over this last year, I have been diagnosed with BED and depression, both of my parents have been on and off of their death beds, I had a horrible breakup and all of my kids have left the nest and my best friend died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 43.  Hence the depression and the eating, as I eat my feelings.  I am sure someone can relate to that? 

Anyway, I since have also been diagnosed with LPR (silent GERD), my voice has become raspy (and not the sexy kind lol), its hard to swallow and i am up most of the night coughing.  I still throw up all the good stuff and can certainly eat a lot of the bad easy to go down stuff, I have diverticulosis and about 4 years ago had a colon resection due to diverticulitis and I was only in my mid 40"s, I have pain in both of my hips and my lower back due to degenerative disc disease.  I am a complete mess and I am not even 50 yet...oh yeah and the "change" has also started.

So back to my point here, I am seeing Dr. Debru in Calgary on Feb 8 and I am hoping that he will consider me a candidate for revision to an RNY as I think the VSG might not work especially since i have the GERD issue.

Anyone with anything similar? Was there a problem getting the revision? I am sure it will probably have to be an open surgery (which sucks cause after I lost all my weight I got a tummy tuck and now its not so tucked anymore)

Thoughts?

Rubyblue

HI Rubyblue, 

Unfortunately I have no experience with any of this, being a fairly recent Sleeve patient.  Are you on any of the FB support pages? There is a Bariatric Sisterhood (closed group) on FB and an Edmonton Bariatric Group. You may find these helpful.  I know there are ladies from Calgary on the Sisterhood.  I also have one friend on there who is having to have her sleeve converted to RNY because of GERD and another who had to earlier this year.  I hope you find support soon.

Tempestt

Hi Tempestt,

i will I'll definitely try to get into one if not both of those pages. Thanks so much for reaching out! How do you like your sleeve? 

R

My sleeve is definitely text book. No major issues, it easily healed and I really haven't had any complications or down sides to it.  Sometimes I wish I had more restrictions or dumping, so I was less tempted by sugary items, but scar tissue from previous hernia operations didn't allow for an RNY.  I've had good losses, not amazing. I wish that I had realized it wasn't as magical as I had hoped, but the losses have been steady and better than anything I could do on my own.

Hi Tempestt, do you mind if I ask what hernia op you had? I had a umbilical hernia repair nearly 20 years ago and a fairly extensive exploratory op about 25yrs ago. I'm assuming that I won't even be considered for a RNY, or is that not always the case?

I think they were both inguinial, but I could be wrong. The one was the size of a baby's head, and when I was pregnant, before it was diagnosed, I thought it was my son's head!  Ugh! It took 5 doctors to properly diagnose it. The second one was simpler, but both were open surgeries, and actually how I met Dr. Birch (second one, I was referred to him) and how I initially heard of the Weight Wise program. I wish I would have continued with it in 2010 when I first went to the Weight Wise modules, but at that time, I felt you were damned if you do, damned if you don't, if you weren't successful enough or too successful in losing weight while waiting for surgery, so I figured I could do it myself.    And, then I was trying to get back in the program in 2014, and it too****il 2016 to get the surgery, so I should have just stuck with it in 2010!  

Anyway, Dr. Kanji said I would sign for both surgeries and they would do what they could when they got inside, but she did not feel it was worth an open surgery to do an RNY. I even bargained with her the morning of the surgery.  ;-) She said that there was too much scar tissue around my intestines and she didn't want to risk putting me back together with a bleed they missed, so that's why the sleeve became my surgery. So far, so good. I just wish I had a few more restrictions sometimes.  

I used to call my hernia "my little alien" (we likened it to the "chestburster" in Alien films...) , I could see it pulsating like it had its own heartbeat - very freaky. I was not sorry to see the back of that!

My dietician has said that I'm also likely to sign for both ops and the surgeon will decide when they're in there, I'm happy with whichever I get but I'm thinking it'll be likely I get the VSG.

That is freaky!  In the end, I was just grateful to have a surgery available to me.  :-)