HELP - PO 3yrs - Back Up to 300lbs

Hello Everyone, It has been ages since I have posted but I am now desperate and need some help to get back on track. I tried to get a revision but my insurance has denied the request. So this means that I have to do this on my own somehow. If anyone has suggestions, I am truly open to all. I had the LAP RNY on 3/27/03. I started out the gate at 365lbs but lost 24lbs in order to prepare for my surgery. The day of surgery I was 341lbs. In order to stress how slow of a loser I was, it took me 3 months post-op just to loose 31lbs. My surgeon explained that he did not reduce my stomach as usual because he wanted his patients to not get sick everytime they put food in there mouths. Well needless to say that this was not explained to me until I was post-op and questioned why I was the one that was sooooo slow in losing weight. During the last 3yrs my lowest weight was 260lbs which means that I had only lost 105lbs overall and 81lbs since I had WLS. Well today I have a very different story to tell. I have gained 40lbs back and now weigh in at 300lbs exactly. I need some help and want to get back on the losing track once again. I am originally from Chicago, and have not seen my family members because I am too embarassed and do not want them to see me and wonder what happened. They always ask when I am coming home for a visit and how I am doing or request for me to send some pictures but of course I always avoid them. Please email me if you have any suggestions. I have been so depressed about my failed WLS and is even more disappointed that my husband's insurance will not pay for a revision. Many Blessings, Marilyn Lexington, KY

Marilyn,With what you discribed in your letter you have reason for an appeal to your insurance company. First I would write my own appeal and include any medical records you have based on what you said in your post. You can go to the hospital for the records of the surgery that includes the notes from the time you where in the OR where the doctor records what he did and how much he took of your small bowel and disected your stomach. Then if that doesn't work I would contact this group http://www.obesitylaw.com/ they help out with appeals for little or no cost. My surgeon left me with a 2 oz pouch and he took only 45cm of my small bowel. When I had my surgery in 10/02 the ASBS guidlines for someone with a BMI of 51 like I had the surgeon should have left a pouch of 1 oz and taken 120-150 cm of small bowel. To date I have only regained 30 pounds but I was never able to get below 185lbs. I don't know if anything I typed helped you out but I hope so. Jenn

Have you looked into a revison to a DS? Here is the link to an awesome appeal letter, which got the lady approved for a revision to DS. http://www.duodenalswitch.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5822

Oh Marilyn, I so feel your pain! My dr did the exact same thing, he cut our intestine shorter, but left the stomach the same size and cut off the pyloric valve. I started 274, got down to 147, now am back up to 210. I'm just so mad, I can eat such huge amts and was never motivated to exercise or maybe to do any of it right. I do feel his surgery was quacked, but I also think I failed it. It came off easy enough, he said I would never have to worry about gaining it back. Huh??? I've also considered a lap band or something, but since my surgeon died 2 years ago, I'm not sure I could get anyone to look at me. I hope that both of us can come to grips with our addiction and get healthy. I really feel like crap. Sincerely Becky

Somehow it does not make me feel better to know that this is happening to a lot of us. I had surgery LAP RNY in 2003 and was down to 174 lbs. Now I am up to 211 lbs and climbing FAST. I can eat like a normal person and that is not helping me at all. I heard from my doctor that us African American Women are in the lowest loser group... like that helps me. Men lose faster than women... white women lose faster than black women. Somehow having an EXCUSE does not make me any happier. I have more trouble than the law allows even going to the bathroom anymore. I also think that my arthritis pain meds have slowed my metabolism down so far that it would be next to impossible to lose if I tried... meanwhile I can't do without that medicine... especially in the winter time. Can't win for losing as per usual... only we lose everything but the weight. How many YEARS do we have to diet while other people can eat whatever happily and not gain an ounce. We eat one extra piece of candy and have to guilt trip or exercise until we drop NOT to gain behind it. I also have a sit down job where we don't even TYPE.... all we do is click the mouse. We don't have to go to the printer... we don't file a piece of paper... so you would have to not eat ANYTHING to not gain weight working here. Proof of that pudding is you should see all the FAT ladies and men that work here. Oh well, nothing ever works for me... story of my LIFE!

Your story is MY story! I am 3 years P/O and I also weighed in at 341 day of surgery! Lost 90lbs and have gained at LEAST 30 back...(a little afraid to get on the scale now). Please let me know how you are doing and what has transpired since you first posted this. My thoughts and prayers are with you! Laury in AZ

I, too, feel like a failure. I had an open RNY in 2001 and started out at 307. I now weigh 278. My lowest weight was about 227. I have wondered about lap band. Is it possible to get it done after an open RNY? Or would it be better to get a revision? I hate the thought of more surgery. But I also hate feeling all the effects of being fat......still!! I don't know if our insurance would cover a revision either. My name is Barbara. Blessings to you as well.

marilyn, I feel for you, and I know exactly where you are coming from.  I weighed 368 pounds when I had surgery.  I got down to 238 and that is as low as I got.  I am now back to 280 pounds and I know that if I don't do something fast, I will gain every single pound back that I have lost.   I had my surgery in 2003 also, and I know that the demands on me at home, my responsibilities, my sedentary job, and the extremely cold winter has motivated me very little....but I miss the way I used to feel at my lowest weight, the ease in which I could walk, no more aches and pains, I felt comfortable for the first time in many years, and I want that feeling back! I have not seen my surgeon in over 2 years because I am ashamed of my lack of progress, even though he has done nothing except cheer for me....I just hate the idea that I have gained this weight, even though I know why I did it, and how I can stop it....it is just so difficult to stop eating comfort food when life here gets too difficult. I have been trying to get in touch with a therapist and he has not called me back in the month that I have been calling him...I have finally decided that perhaps this man does not seem like a good choice for me, I mean damn what if I was suicidal?   Marilyn,  I have said all that to say this.  There is a way to get this weight off.  Yep it sucks, I know it does.  But all we can do is, eat half of what we want, exercise like a beast, find someone that we can pay to yell at for a couple of hours a week, and keep it moving!  If you are willing to do that, dammit I am willing to do that with you, what do you say?     

Hi, I had a new procedure called Stomaphyx done in Las Vegas 11 days ago.  They go down your throat with a tool that sucks in the stomach tissue and staples it off into little pillows, making the pouch smaller.  They do the same thing to the stoma (opening from the pouch into the intestine).  I saw my pouch in the barium swallow before and after surgery.  The pouch was reduced 50% and the stoma is about 1/3 as big as it was. I had gastric bypass in 2002 and went from 252 to 122 then gradually up to 160.  I have already lost 10 lbs. in 11 days and only have 20 to go to get back to my goal of 130!! There was no side effects from the surgery, didn't feel like I had anything done, I just get full quickly like I did right after gastric bypass surgery.  A few bites fill me up! I had a mild sore throat the day of surgery but it was gone by the next morning. If anyone is interested in having this done you can contact Dr. Barry Fisher or Dr. Cottam at Surgical Weight Control Center of Nevada 3802 Meadows Lane Las Vegas, NV 89107 Phone:(702) 313-THIN (8446) The procedure was $6250. - $1,000 for the surgeon, $500. for anesthesia and $4250. for the hospital.  Insurance will not pay for it yet because it's new. 80 of these were done in OH without a single complication. There are only two places doing them right now - Las Vegas and a Dr. in Texas. You only have to be 10 lbs. over your goal weight to have it done.  Three other people had it done the day I did.  I knew two of them.  My friend was also about 30 lbs. overweight.  She's lost the same as I have.  Another one was a male, he's lost 19 lbs. already! Cheyenne

This is very hard for me to write. I had my RNY surgery 04/17/01. My start weight was 226 with my top weight loss 160lbs. The surgery cured my gastric reflux but not my blood pressure. I knew this would happen when I reached my goal of 140lbs. This never happened. Between 2002 and 2004, I was down sized twice and couldn’t afford the TT or BR surgery without insurance. If that wasn’t enough, in 2004 I was diagnosed with arthritis in both knees and Sciatica in the left hip. When I was working I averaged 7 hours a day walking. Now I can barely move without pain. I have regained 26 lbs. and am very depressed. I can't eat a lot at in one sitting but if you eat every hour without any exercise you will gain. This has kept me house bound. I can’t sleep in a bed because there is too much pain when my legs lay flat so I sleep in a recliner.  I am now on disability (this took 2 years of fighting) and have to wait 2 years before Medicaid will pay for my knee surgeries. I am afraid by then all the weight will come back. If there is anyone who has had a similar problem please contact me? Oh, and I also read that  I can't take the pain meds to often because this might cause ulsers. What luck!!!!!!!