Failed DS frustration

So originally had a lapband starting at 314. After starving myself for almost a year my dr office figured out i had an error on my chart and i had a large band requiring more saline. Once i had real restriction i lost down to 250. Never went lower. 3 years in it broke and was leaking saline. Had a clean egd. Wanted a sleeve because the band left me beyond frustrated. Dr said it was my fault i didnt lose...i was back up above 300....said a sleeve wouldnt help me if a band didnt and talked me into a bpd ds.

At first it was fine. Everyone loses weight on the liquid diet post op. Got back down to 250. Never went lower. Also have had perfect labs every time. Even when im less than good at vitamins.

Now after having a baby and a hernia and other problems im back up to 300. Dont get me wrong i know im eating bad right now. Im depressed and not trying. But when i tried my butt off i never left the realm of morbid obesity. I feel like if im going to be fat i should at least enjoy my food. I spent over a year on shakes and bars and chicken and protein protein protein for nothing.

Regardless...saw another ds surgeon today. The NP in the office said 100 to 120 grams of protein was too high. Then the surgeon said even if the original ds was too long that revising to shorten my common channel wouldnt make a big enough difference to warrant another surgery. Said he can do an egd to see if i need a smaller sleeve or if there is a problem. But basically if it didnt work too bad because i already had the most aggressive surgery available.

I dont know what i want to hear from the people out here...but i feel awful. Ive been told twice its my fault and im just not convinced it is. I want to believe there is something that can be done. I cant believe that after 2 surgeries and following the rules my best option is to join weigh****chers.

And they checked my thyroid and allegedly its fine . But my mom and aunt and grandfather all from the same side of the family have missing parts of their thyroid or no activity. In 2014 i had 3 miscarriages and had it checked but was told everything looked normal.

What do i do now???

I can't offer advice on the DS, but I would say follow through and get the test for your own peace of mind, so you know what you are working with.

You said you are depressed and having a hard time getting your head on straight. Maybe the office could recommend a therapist who helps people who have had disordered eating issues (we all have that BTW or we wouldn't be here).

This is a marathon and not a sprint. You say you are eating like crap. Start making small changes. I don't think there is anything wrong with high protein. Get the My Fitness Pal app. Track what you are eating and see what you are doing. Be kind to yourself by not beating yourself up but also by starting somewhere. Consistency is key.

Good Luck

Julanie, you've taken a major step to come here and share your story. I agree 100% with NYMom. You've admitted you're eating like crap and you're depressed. I also highly recommend therapy to figure out WHY you're doing what you're doing. Time to make serious changes that are permanent changes, not "diet mentality" changes. I think we all need support systems. Does your doctor have a local support group? Are there any other people around you in the same situation? Those two things (therapy and a local support system) were beyond helpful for me when I started my journey.

Definitely do whatever tests they want to do, but if your DS was done property, with help you can make this work. Do you know how long your common channel is now?

IMHO your NP is wrong - you need at least 100-125 grams of protein a day. With the DS there is no such thing as too much protein. How much water do you drink a day? What else are you eating? How often do you eat? These are things you really have to look at. Track what you eat for a week and then assess.

WW is not going to help you because you don't need a "diet". If your DS is working property you want to eat full fat, high protein, low carb.

You can do this!

Don't be concerned about fault. I think a two prong approach might help.

Have them check your sleeve and see if it has stretched more than you know. They might also have made the original too large. While increased restriction is only a temporary bump, as you have seen, it can give you that starting push. Do you know how long your original CC was? Who was the DS doc you talked to?

Also, back to basics on meals, Protein first, lots of liquids. Eat into the strengths of your DS. While I understand why people thin WW doesn't help I think it can help in certain areas. Sometimes it is good
to have a group of people to at least understand you are not alone and the latest free style program
can be adapted to a DS diet pretty easily. You just can't get hung up on the low fat areas and you may find that the total points are too low for you to realistically stay under most of the time.

You don't give any stats. They might be thinking that 100 to 120 is just too high an amount of protein for your size. It's kind of questionable if that really holds true for DS patients. If you are using the protein to crowd out high carb choices than I wouldn't worry about it.

Looks like you had a lot of health issues the past couple of years and let your overall eating deteriorate. The DS is good but it isn't a cure all. We all fall off a good eating path now and again, just work to get back on. You can do this!!!!

Pete

Just a small thought. How much of your protein is coming from shakes and bars? Bars are almost always crap - too carby and full of fake sugar. Many shakes are the same, you really gotta watch the ingredients. Eat real food. Meat. Don't worry about just low fat meat either.

Thank you guys for answering. When my husband came home last night he told me that post op the dr that did my surgery explained to him that intentionally gave me a long channel so i would be less likely to have vitamin deficiency issues, kniwing he could always go in later and shorten it if necessary. I've requested a copy of my chart to see what my length is.

My height is 5 lft 4in so at 295 my bmi is 53. When i hit 250 my bmi was 43 so still morbidly obese.

When i was losing i ate a lot of stuff. I had a shake in the morning and kept protein bars in my desk at work but mostly ate real food. fage full fat greek yogurt sweetened with sugar free torani syrup, hummus, I also ate chicken like it was going out of style. Even as a kid my family said i ate so much chicken i was going to turn into one so that was just normal for me. I didnt count carbs...my nut told me as long as my shakes and bars were 10 calories or less for every gram of protein it was low enough in sugars to be safe.

I mixed up the shakes and bars so i wouldnt get tired of them...but mostly premier rtd and chike powders. I ate quest bars but the lower sugar ones. Sometimes id eat premier bars but they werent my favorites.

My goal was to hit 100 grams before the end of my work day. Then id go home and eat a meal with my family where i didnt worry too much about protein and counting.

I think the surgeons attitude yesterday started with a comment i made about my original surgeon, dr david kim. The new surgeon said he retired...i said "well he stopped practicing because you have to when you get in trouble for fraud." Im guessing they know each other because he defended him and then made a couple comments about how he was sure dr kim did a good job and there wasnt much he could do for me.

Im in the dallas area. For anyone reading that doesnt know at the time i had my ds there were 2 drs that did it...dr kim and dr barker. A couple years ago both were named in an investigation of a hospital that was bribing doctors to bring in patients that had expensive surgeries with high out of network reimbursements. I dont know if they were found guilty...but kim retired right after. I also had a friend that was involved in a separate investigation about kim billing for surgical services that he didnt perform. Dr barker is still practicing but ive seen a couple of his patients that lost too much and was scared he would be too aggressive. Now i dont want to go because if he was friends with kim i might get the same attitude when asking for a revision.

Thanks for posting more information. It's helps.

Did you and your surgeon discuss how long your common channel was going to be? Did he ever tell you that a longer common channel, while helping avoid vitamin deficiencies, could lead to a lesser weight loss?

I don't have any answers as to why you can't get below 250 (could be your cc).

Back to basics - high protein (at least 100 grams), high fat, low carbs (less than 20 grams), lots of water (at least 64 ounces per day). See how you do.

P.S. - with a quick google search i found an article that in Dec 2016 the co-founder of the hospital (Toussaint) pleaded guilty to fraud and as part of his plea, he sung like a bird. Barker, Kim and 18 others were indicted by the DOJ for taking kickbacks and fraud. So sorry.

I dont recall being told about the long cc prior to surgery but my husband said that the dr told him in post op. One of my coworkers had the same surgery a week later and we had the exact same experience . A third coworker had hers in 2 parts and she ended up deficient in vitamins and needed vitamin infusions so i feel like its probably a real ds that i have, just a long cc.

As soon as i get my first visit with the next dr over with im getting back on track. Most of my weight gain has been hormonal from being on progesterone supplements...i miscarried three times in one year and took the supplements 3 times to try to stop the losses. Then i had a full term pregnancy on the 4th so it was like being pregnant for 2 years straight. She was worth it though. ? then i ended up with a hernia on my csection incision because i was too active too soon. So now i sit around a lot. I was looking for a surgeon to fix the cc and my hernia at the same time.

I also have to say that i know i can lose weight by getting back to basics. But before i was 325 and lost about 25 on post op diet, then lost 50 more following the guidelines i was given. I was happy and then i couldnt break past that plateau. I have never gotten past the 250 mark no matter what protein source I used or carbs or whatever.

Part of my concern now is that if after 2 bariatric procedures i have never been below 250, if i get back on track now and get back down to 250 then if i have to do a monitored diet prior to revision and i cant go lower they will blame me again. The surgeon i just saw has it in his materials that you must show some weightloss during the monitored diet or he will not operate. Obviously im going to keep looking for a different surgeon but if the next one is the same i think its better to walk in at 300 knowing i can lose instead of going in at 250 in case i still cant go lower.

Of course this guy said if i was still fat after ds then nothing could help me since he knew my surgeon must have done a good job because he just knew.

i will get my chart in one week. It should be an interesting read.

You are doing the right thing, getting your records and finding out what you have. That should always be the first step.