I failed, not WLS, but I want a revision

I posted this in the main forum, but I wanted to copy it here as well. Ok, please don't slam me for asking this because I know I got myself into this situation. I had RNY about 4 and 1/2 years ago. I left the hospital with the instructions to eat peanut butter crackers and drink apple juice. I honestly didn't know to avoid sugar at the time. Well, after adapting to sugar those first few months, my body never dumped from sugar. I grazed all day and still managed to lose about 60lbs in the first 6-8 months after surgery. Then, I had to start working for it. I followed the Atkins diet and took ephedra and worked out every morning. I lost down to about 150-155lbs, which is at the very top of my weight range. Stress of work set in and I started regaining weight. I went in for counseling and was prescribed an antidepressant which made me hungry all the time. I continued to gain until now I am all the way back up to about 225lbs. I started out pre-surgery at 263lbs. I am so depressed about all this. I saw my surgeon in January, but he is over 5 hours away. The local support group meeting at the military hospital is not helpful at all. It's all brand new post-ops and they just don't understand. I can lose weight if I work really hard at it. Like, sticking to an extremely low carb diet and working out everyday. I guess I just want to ask if that is the key. Is that the only way I am going to get back to goal, by limiting my diet to protein only and literally working my butt off? Like I said, please don't flame me because I am being so honest here. Just put yourself back in the desperate mind frame you were in when you first started researching WLS. I feel like my only options now are the same options I had before WLS, just to diet, diet, diet. I hate the situation I am in and I know it is my fault. Has anyone ever heard of someone having a revision just because they regained? I am still covered under Tricare Prime with the military. My husband is active duty. Please give me some advice, some encouragment, a similar story, ANYTHING. I am so depressed about this and I feel SO alone. Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Sincerely, Angela

Angela, You are not alone, I know how you feel. My surgery was in 2003 and I lost 104 pounds and I'm sure I've gained it all back, but I've been afraid to get on the scale. Slowly at first, the weight started back at about 18 months post-op. I went to the doctor and had a scope and something to "scar" my opening to make it smaller - that worked for about a week...so I felt more like a failure. Its been downhill ever since. I have had a lot of stress and I've gone back to eating to relieve stress. I've tried Weigh****chers again and another attempt at a liquid diet. Nothing seems to last and I give up easily. In the last month I've had to stop denying it...my arms and sagging belly bother me the most and are the hardest to hide. I feel disgusted with myself. If I had the money I would go to Brazil because they do revisions from RNY to the DS there. Now in reviewing the surgeries I think the DS would have worked for me. Unfortunately I never had "dumping" and sugar type foods are the easis=est for me to eat. Most meats are still difficult for me to eat more than a few bites. I've been depressed and hardly get any exercise other than regular activity. I'm just starting to spend some time trying to see what anyone else has done - if anyone else has let this happen to them. Alsi I avoid seeing olf friends because this is embarassing. I hope you have better luck. Don't give up. I'm trying to find my motivation.

Hiya Angela. I support you and I understand. I am, I guess I am still considered a newbie? Almost 6 months out next week. But I was almost at 5 months and I was only at 49lbs so I decided to go to all liquids and got to 67lbs lost but the weight stopped dropping and I was a little desperate after almost 3 weeks of liquids so I decided to go and do the protein train thing and I have gained back around 6 lbs so far but I am not over eating I write down everything I do I exercise stil 4-6 times a week for 40-55 minutes each time and I am not near where I thought I was going to be. I have to say that I am not getting over 800 calories I am sure and working this hard to not loose any weight. Its frustrating and I have to say the only time I have not been hungry is when I an not eating solid foods at all. Like liquids only then I think I just get over being hungry because I am drinking so much water etc,.. So I totally understand where you are coming from. Its alot to have gone through to have to worry about stuggling this much to keep a few pounds down. I support you and just want to let you know that you are not alone in this. And,... just because this surgery did not work for you there is an answer out there, so I am learning. There are a tone of options. I think I should have kept researching and found a doctor that was familar with multiple types of weight loss surgeries. Instead of trying the cookie cutter way for everyone. Everyone is not obese for the same reasons and some surgeries are gonna work better for some people and others for other people. So I say don't give up on this. You will be successful just keep asking and researching and you will find what is right for you. I know I will. Keep Your Head Up! We need you to survive!!!! Stef

Sounds like you are having a really hard time losing the weight. I think 67 pounds is good but it shouldn't be so hard for you. Are you seeing a nutritionist? They should be able to help you? Talk to you doctor and see if that can help. If you are only eating 800 calories a day, you may not be eating enough. Your body could be in starvation mode. Try adding more calories to you diet and see if that will start the losing process again. Sorry you are going through this, Judy

Hi Stef, Sounds like you are having a really hard time losing the weight. I think 67 pounds is good but it shouldn't be so hard for you. Are you seeing a nutritionist? They should be able to help you? Talk to you doctor and see if that can help. If you are only eating 800 calories a day, you may not be eating enough. Your body could be in starvation mode. Try adding more calories to you diet and see if that will start the losing process again. Sorry you are going through this, Judy

First, see a doctor or psychiatrist and see about taking some mild antidepressants. If you are depressed, you will usually fall into one of 2 categories--those who lose weight and those who gain weight. For years, meds were available which encouraged eating while being depressed. Now, they have meds which are neutral affecting your eating but which will elevate your mood. You may also want to go for what is called "talk" therapy. This used to be done with psychologists but is more likely to be done with msw's (masters of social work) now. Most talk therapists won't even see you unless you've been evaluated for meds. So, don't get afraid of that. Depression is just an illness that can be treated. Second, you may want to look to OA for support if WLS support groups are not working for you. Third, most of us who have blown our initial window of opportunity with WLS can still successfully lose weight following a high protein, low carb way of life. The program says way of life as opposed to a diet; heck, it's a diet that you have to follow for the rest of your life. You can adapt to it. You may have to do so gradually. I suggest looking at George Stella's books. And, Google "low carb cooking" or "low carb recipes" on the internet. There are hundreds of free low carb recipes available. I went and found the ones I like the most, made hard copies of a couple dozen, and started my own low carb cookbook. And, I'm a guy who has never had to cook for himself. I still haven't but my wife is going to teach me. Fourth, many people are losing substantial amounts of weight without WLS. If your plumbing is still good (have an endoscopy done to ensure that your surgery is still intact), then you should be able to reduce what you eat at main meals. You probably have done so already and are only having the age old problem with grazing, carbs, and sweets. Pray. Pray, pray, pray and reach out like you are doing. I've been trying to turn over my program to a higher power for years. It's taken me about 30 years to get there. I hope you can do it a lot sooner. I did have my original RNY on 11-16-2000 and a revision RNY on 01-21-05 because an endoscopy done in 07/2004 showed a staple line disruption,i.e., the effect was as if the RNY had never been done.

Angela there are resources out there to help get you back on track. First you need to address why you eat, also called conscious eating/emotional eating. A therapist can help you with the deep seeded issues we all have with food from childhood. OA is also a great resource. The other thing to checkout is BSCI: Bariatric Support Center International. Colleen Cook has a Getting Back on Track program you can access even via the net. They also have a support board for patients where you must be at 2 years or more because they realize that issue are different further out. Last as the gentleman said this is a forever life style and diet change regardless of surgery type. Get back to basics and eat protein first your water and exercise and give up the carbs, they make you crave sweets. Good luck

Hi Angela. There are quite a few people who have gotten revisions from the RNY to the Duodenal Switch with excellent results. Perhaps this is something you might consider. If you ask on the DS board for people who've done this to share their stories with you, perhaps you'll find some ideas about how to proceed. I can tell you that the DS is *not* covered by TriCare at this point, unfortunately. (I'm TriCare too, and I just go an unequivocal "this is not a covered benefit" answer a couple days ago. It's just like chiropractic care, for instance--just plain not on the plan.) However, don't let that stop you. There's at least one MTF that does the DS, in WA state. There's also the self pay option, and you do not have to go out of country to do so. I am going to self pay. My surgeon is Dr. William Peters in Scranton, PA, and both he and the hospital he uses will work with self pay patients. Good luck in your further journey. I'm so sorry you're in this position.

Hi Angela. I know its been a while since your post, so I'm curious to if you've found the answers you were looking for? I hope you've realized that you are NOT alone. Eventually, I think we all seriously struggle with weight gain again. I have had two babies since my surgery and after then 2nd one, the quick ability to bounce back to my starting weight disappeared! I wasn't expecting that! I started out fighting with 4lbs, up and down - up and down, then it jumped to 6.....now it's 13 and I'm scared to death. I realized that I wasn't used to worrying about gaining it back. I thought it was gone for good, no matter what! and that the surgery would continue working for me. I'm scared because I don't know how to lose weight. I couldn't do it before successfully, which is why I had the surgery to begin with. I pray that I can scare myself into getting back on track before I gain it all back again too. I wish you success! I hope you can get a revision if it's available to you! Best wishes, and remember... you are not alone!

Angela, I completely know how you're feeling. I had Lap RNY 4 years ago (2/03). I started at 274 and got down to 152 at my lowest, which I felt was too much weight loss for my frame. I got back up to about 165 and stayed there for about six months, and was completely comfortable. Well, then more weight came on, and in December 2005, my surgeon weighed me in at 215. I was devastated, and the NP at my surgeons' office was not very nice at all. I know now, looking back, that a big problem for me was that I fell into soft food syndrome. I had two strictures dialated early on due to vomiting, and was scared to eat meat, so I ate alot of soft foods, which are generally high in carbs. This continued on despite the dialations, and I also have no problems with eating sugars. In fact, my blood sugar gets low, so I'll eat sugar to make me feel better. I went low-carb and can eat meat better, but I still have problems with pork and chicken (white meat). I have to be careful though to get some good carbs in, because if I didn't have enough, I really got brain fog. I now weigh 202, so I have lost some, but I really want those 35 pounds off. I can't help wondering if my surgery might be the problem too, because I was number 11 for him, and he's since grown his bariatric practice substantially. My friend had surgery with him in August 2004, has lost a ton of weight, and has the worst eating habits, but has only gained about 15 lbs. back. I asked him about it and he said "she'll gain it back eventually if she's not eating right". I had another surgery with him 2 weeks ago to repair two internal hernias, and after I came to, he said "we've fixed the problem, you shouldn't have any more pain, and we'll get you eating less". I don't know if this means my pouch has stretched or what. I have a follow up appoinment with him next week and am going to talk to him about it. I'm just kinda bummed in general. I am exercising more now; I wasn't for a long time because I was so exhausted when I'd get started, but have since found out I'm anemic (both in iron and b-12) and have corrected that with meds and feel ALOT better. I couldn't grasp why I was so tired w/ exercise because I had lost 80 lbs. two times before I had wls and the worst part was always getting started but once I started exercising I felt great. Now I know. I also tend to believe that he did bypass enough intestine because I am so anemic. I don't know what the answer is, but hopefully he'll tell me soon. I hope you can resolve yours too - you're not alone! - Jenn