Reversal of RNY any and all stories are welcome......

Hi am seriously considering having a reversal of my RNY. I had my surgery in January and since the moment I woke up I have been nauseated and have had no appetite. The surgeon did upper endoscopy and found a ulcer in my pouch 2 weeks after surgery......2 weeks later back in the hospital for a feeding tube in the old stomach here I am 3 weeks from feeding tube insertion and the surgeon has told me if this does not work, I will have to have a reversal.............When any of you had yours reversed,  have you noticed any improvement of any of your symptoms since the reversal????? I am still nauseated all the time, the Surgeon can not explain why.  The tube feeding causes diarrhea and makes me feel even worse, than I already do.....This is no way to live..........

Thank you
Melissa

When you had the Endoscopy, did they do a biopsy for HPylori?  This is a common cause for ulcers and most surgeons require you to have an endoscopy preop to prevent this.  If you do have HPylori, this is a bacteria in your stomach that needs to be treated with 2 antibiotics plus a PPI.  If not treated correctly, you will continue to suffer and further ulcers will form.  Do you ever take NSAIDS?  Do you take a PPI?  Nexium, Prevacid, Protonix?  You should be taking this for atleast the first 6months and being you had the ulcer, you should take it for longer.

I was treated for h. pylori prior to surgery and have been on pepcid since the surgery along with carafate at first then when the ulcer was not healing they put me on cytotec 4xdaily. they are going to re scope me this thursday because my abdonimal pain is getting worse and I can't eat any thing by mouth. Food was actually caught in my throat the last time I tried swollowing.

If you were treated for HPylori preop and you got an ulcer so soon postop, I tend to think that your treatment for the HPylori didnt' work.  It doesnt' always work the first time which is why you need to go for a breath test to make sure it is gone but no all doctors do this.  If it is not gone, you can get severe ulcers that are difficult to treat, like yours and treatments without double antibiotics will not help.  Please ask them to test test you for HPylori again.  You also need to be on a PPI not pepcid.  Pepcid isn't strong enough, it doesn't block the acid, it just lowers the level.  I take Pepcid AC if I eat something acidic to take away the burning fast in adition to my Protonix.

I had severe problems with nausea after my surgery that never went away.  I had several EGDs, Gallbladder removal, and was on SEVERAL medications for nausea all at once. (My surgeon actually told me that he thought it was all in my head at first, so you are doing good if your surgeon isn't saying this.)  I had two feeding tubes... let me give you some advice on that one..

I don't know what they are giving you through your tube, but there are several types of formula.  Some of them cause you to dump more than others.  I KNOW this doesn't make sense because it is going into your old stomach, but TRUST ME... You still dump.  I tried several different kinds of formulas with my tube, and I still dumped.  My doctor ordered a pump.  I pumped continuisly through the night.  The dumping went away.  I am sure that it was because i slept through it, but that is all that matters.

I am surprised that this is an option that they are giving you so fast.  They usually wait for at LEAST a year.  I had a reversal done 10/23/09.  Even after the reversal.... I thought I was going to live with the nausea forever.  Now I VERY rarely have problems.  There is hope.  If they do reversal, it will not go away over night.  Your stomach has not been used for a little while.  I was a lot further out before they offered reversal to me, so it won't be AS BAD for you.  It is kind of like when you had you origional surgery..  Your stomach will have to get used to food all over again.  You can eat "normal food" a lot faster than before.  The longer out you go, the more your stomach will adapt.  I will still have some dumping, but I don't have to worry about eating away from home anymore.

Good luck.

-Kim T
 

I am sooooo glad to hear that your reversal has helped you. You're right, there IS hope