Resleeve with DS

I has the duodenal switch surgery on October 15 th, I had the gastric sleeve 6 years ago . I had regained roughly 50 lbs in last two years. When I spoke to my surgeon he said when we done the DS switch he would resleeve me also , along with removing my gallbladder. However he decided not to resleeve me while in surgery . I paid out of pocket for my surgery, and I kind of feel slighted, and just wondering , or wanting to know if I have a reason to be upset . My stomach had definitely stretched out some and I'm kind of scared I wasted all this money , and can still eat more than I had in the beginning

I seem to remember reading that the sleeves they do as part of the DS tend to be a little larger than the sleeves they do when it's a standalone surgery - so maybe the surgeon felt your existing sleeve, even though stretched, was still an adequate size for the DS? I'm not sure, though. I'd ask him to see why he made that decision.

Picture ten McDonald's Quarter Pounder sandwiches. That is what you could have stuffed into your old stomach at every meal before your sleeve was done. After VSG, half of a Quarter Pounder would have been a huge meal. Even with your stretched out sleeve, you probably could not eat more than one sandwich at a meal. Going from somewhere between 28 and 40 oz stomach to a 2 or 3 ounce stomach was a huge change.

If your sleeve is now 6 ounces, putting it back to 3 ounces would not have made any noticeable change in capacity. We all learn how to eat smaller amounts of food more frequently.

It is probably amazing that we learn how to use our tiny stomachs to hold enough food to gain back our weight. But about half of weight loss surgery patients have regained 50 pounds by five years after surgery. It is normal to regain about 10% of the excess weight. That happens even with careful diet and exercise.

I have regained and lost several times in the 14 years since my surgery. I have told myself that I am on a diet for life. I can eat a lot of food at one time, if I let myself do it. Just because I can do that does not mean that I should do it. Every day, I make a commitment to track my food, to weigh myself, and to get in my exercise.

I am 73. I joined Weigh****chers and became a lifetime member in 1973. I would get to my goal, stay there for about a week and a half and then start gaining again. That happened over and over again. I could not figure out why I could not lose and stay there. For me, the final solution seemed to be weight loss surgery. That was wonderful for about three years. But when I started to gain again, I went back to Weigh****chers.

Even with surgery, a diet plan, and an exercise plan, I am overweight, but no longer obese. I am currently struggling with 12 pounds over my goal weight. And it is a struggle. Surgery does help and you now have malabsorption of fat that will last a lifetime. Carbs will still be absorbed and used by your body.

The important thing is not the size of your sleeve, it is what you put into that sleeve. If he had tightened up the sleeve, I think a few cheat meals would have stretched it back out and we all have cheat meals. You should discuss your concerns with the surgeon and get his take on what he did. Perhaps he should refund part of what you paid for, but that is something you would have to take up with him.

I hope you are revcovering well! I understand your concern, but resleeving can have a boatload of complications with leaks etc., so just consider yourself fortunate an angel was watching above....keep healing, move a bit and keep going

I am in talks to get a DS from VSG. I was told that I won't need to be resleeved since we need to eat more due to the malabsorption. I don't know how much you need to lose but maybe he felt you would loose too much and get malnourished? I would go ahead and ask since you did pay out of pocket. Did you have to pay more for the resleeve? Hope you are feeling great.