I had my RNY reversed, anyone else out there?

Thank you.

Dr. Davis isn't famous, he's just on TV.

IMO, a good sugeon doesn't mangle up his practice with TV cameras.  Their practice has grown because people assume that because they are on TV, they are famous or good.

I saw Dr. Garth Davis in April of 2006.  He is the bariatric surgeon I mentioned met with me after a phone call from my WLS in Louisiana, and not only misdiagnosed me which could have led to my death but literally, when I asked about how we would control pain until we found an answer, said to me,
 
"Mrs. X, there is nothing wrong with you.  You need to go home and get over yourself." 

Good thing I didn't listen to him.  I'd be dead.

Thank you for your kind words.

Vanessa,
Yikes!  I'm sorry I suggested it.   I feel like I have two great surgeons who are just stumped by what is causing my intestine to kink/telescope in on itself...as with most people on this forum, and in my opinion, with these problems, everytime I have a test, it is normal...but, I am not right yet.  I just did a small bowel follow-through yesterday, and of course the results were "normal", so now what??  Who knows...more wait and suffer I guess, I try and stay positive, but it is difficult.  Hang in there, I am thinking about you and hoping you get better soon!

Hi All,

I am a little slow responding to this original post as I just found this forum.   My story is not as dramatic, but here goes:

I had my distal RNY in October of 2003.  Had pretty much an uneventful course, lost all of my weight, as happy...blah blah blah...fast forward to November 2007.  Started losing weight again.  Not quickly, but slowly.  Lost down to 104 pounds, was getting a little nervous, as I was not feeling very well.  Went to the doc who did my original surgery.  He walked in the exam room and said..."are you trying to die?"  I was like...what the heck...I'm hear because I do not feel well and I'm losing weight.  His solution was prescribe some more vitamins and told me to "eat".  Well I have been eating between 3000 and 5000 calories a day.  I was very frustrated and just let things go...fast forward to now...I am now 94 pounds.  I decided I was not going back to my original surgeon, so chose a different surgeon who would take on other doctors' patients.  He is absolutely WONDERFUL.  He informed me that my original doctor had bypassed way too much of my intestines as I was barely 100 pounds over weight.  He said he has been fixing at least 1 patient a month wiht the same complications that I am having for the past year (I am not sure if these patients are coming from my original surgeon or not).  I now have to go back in, in two weeks and have my bypass revised.  He is going to put me back to a proximal and see if that helps with the malabsorption issues I am having.   I thank God I found a surgeon who would listen to me.  I have done nothing but lie in bed and eat, puke, and feel sick for the past year.  

My original surgeon is very well known and is considered a "master" in WLS.  I think he is a good surgeon, I think he is just performing too drastic of procedures on people.  One never knows how a person's body is going to react, and evidently, my intestines did not  "adjust" to absorbing more over time, they have just continued to absorb very little.  

It would be great if anyone else has had the same experience if you would email me or contact me.  I am pretty nervous about having this surgery done, but feel it is necessary to get my life back.  

Laura

230/94/110 

I am so happy to hear that someone on here is having as miserable a time as I am.  Not that I wish any misery on anyone, but thank GOD! 

Let me tell you my story,......I am 33yr old and had my RNY on 12/11/08 and I am completely miserable!  I am nauseous just about every day.  Unexplained pains that will not go away but come intermittently and when they do the are excrutiating and my surgeon thinks it is all in my head!

Well, let me tell you I am trying to do everything they tell me to do and I do not appreciate being told I am a headcase!  I want this reversed because I can NOT go thru this the rest of my life.  I realize my problems are not nearly as bad as your are but that is just it, I do not want to be that person in the future.

I am a woman who knows her body and I listen to it and it is telling me to get the hell out while the getting is good!  I am unable to get my protein in that I am supposed to and fluids, you can forget that!

I just want resolution!  Can you tell me other than the bowel thing, has life gotten better for you?

Thanks for listening!

Patience

Patience,
I think (and hope) that the nausea you are experiencing right now is the normal post-op nausea that we all felt right after surgery, your surgery is so fre**** is hard to tell.  Are you still on clear/full liquids at this stage?  I do agree that you need to listen to your body, and to be honest your surgery is so fresh that I am thinking that although it is a miserable phase, just getting used to getting liquids in can be tough, I would say to keep communicating with your doctor/nurses and if you feel like you need a second set of eyes to look at you, then you should listen to what your body is saying and do it.  Keep drinking no matter what, little sips are best, you can't gulp at this stage no matter what.  I wouldn't give up on this yet, I didn't want to have mine reversed, but I had struggled with complications for 10 months or so and tried many solutions before I came to the very difficult decision to have it reversed.  The small bowel issue hovers over me everyday, so right now it is hard to say because I feel like I have traded one problem for another one.  Hang in there, right after surgery is tough, but just sip sip sip and take it slow.

I just found this post so like the poster above excuse my late post.  I had my RNY in April of this year.  For the first three days i was doing great.  Then it became difficult for me to keep anything down.  At first i wasn't throwing, it was just that if i drank more than 1 ounce of anything in a 6-7 hour period i would get this awful pain and then start throwing up.  But i listened to my doctor and kept trying to push liquids in b/c I was always severly dehydrated.  When i did push the liquids i would start dumping or throwing up on top of the pain. 

I have been to the ER so many times in the past five months that i now know most of the doctors there.  There was a point were they thought i had a stricture and i went in for dialation of that. I have been on the PIC line and TPN.  As a matter of fact i found a doctor that is willing to do the reversal.  My reversal was orginally scheduled for july at UCLA.  However, they wouldn't allow my surgeon to work there.  They wanted to take me on as a patient.  I spent almost 10 days in the hospital at UCLA.  They said that i did not need a reversal that everything was going along fine; that my levels were good and so was my protein intake.  If everything was going along fine why did they have me on TPN for 9 days (b/c i haven't used any type of sugar since my surgery the TPN gave me severe dumping syndrome).   So then after all that time on TPN they sent me home with the doctor saying "he washes his hands of me"

The problem was i still couldn't eat more than probably a few ounces of food (soft) or drink the required amount of liquid.  It seems for some reason when i drink or eat some of the food/liquid just pools to one side (not a stricture); but b/c of this it is difficult for me to get more than 300-500 calories in a day.

By surgery weight was 237 and i now weigh 176 i would like to get to 150 but i am so weak and tired that i am now on short term disablity.  I have trouble absorbing my vitamins now.  As such i have severe leg pains for B-12 defeciency.  Given my stomach problem the doctor has stated he has to go in and revise it.  I made it clear if there is any type of surgery to be done on my stomach it will be a reversal.  So now my reversal is scheduled for 9-10-09.  I know i am only 5 months out but it has been 5 months of hell.  Still i consider myself lucky b/c
1--my problems started early enough for me to try and do something about them
2-though i have been in and out of the hospital, none of my symptoms have progressed to life threatening
3-I was able to find a doctor who was willing to do a reversal (has experience doing it)

The hardest thing will be not gaining my weight back.  But since having the surgers i haven't been able to exercise or move around that much. I am hoping after the reversal if i do portion control and exercise that i might make it through.

Hi there, I see in your post that you were going to have the surgery performed at UCLA.  I'm sort of in that area.  What doctor did you use?  I need to find one desperately and just looking for some information.  Did you have the reversal done, if so how do you feel now that it has been done?  Any information that you have would be appreciated.  Not sure if you check the post anymore, but I hope that you do.

Hi,
When I had my reversal, the surgeon was concerned, as I was, about weight gain after reversal.  I have an hourglass shaped stomach, if you can imagine it, it is almost like having a lapband made out of your own tissue the way he did it.  The radiologists have described my stomach as a proximal pouch and distal pouch, they aren't willing to make the leap to call it a whole stomach I guess.  So, food goes into the little pouch at the top and stays there for a bit, and slowly has to work it's way to the bottom half of the stomach.  This was designed to give me some restriction.  As much as I appreciate this, it hasn't been an issue yet because everything I eat still makes me sick.  A reversal is not always the answer, good luck and let me know how you are.  I will add you as a friend.