I failed, not the surgery.

I just want to be clear about that.  But my story is a bit unusual.  Anyone out there willing to read my story and maybe offer some help?  Here goes:

I had a great surgeon but l had my first bowel obstruction while I was still in the hospital recovering from my RNY surgery. (This was May 2007)
Seven months later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, then thyroid cancer.  I had to have a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.  As I was going through this, I was also diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome.  At this point, losing weight was not exactly my top priority.  I ate what I could when I could and didn't feel bad about it at all.  I was looking death in the face and losing weight just didn't matter all of a sudden.  While all of this is going on, I was rushed into emergency surgery to fix a hole in my stomach.  Next, the bowel obstructions began.  I think I had a total of about six.  I just don't have the exact number in front of me.  I know I was in the ER about every 2 months throwing up bowel contents because I was obstructed.  After each surgery to correct the obstruction, I would have to have surgery to fix an incisional hernia that would occur afterward.  It was like some horrible never-ending cycle of surgeries.  I finally had a huge piece of mesh put into my abdomen that seems to have stopped both the obstructions and the hernias. Fast forward to today.  I haven't had to have surgery for about a year and a half now.  I am also in full remission with no signs of cancer, thank God!

Here's where I failed:  

Not only did I fall back into my habits of extremely poor eating but because of my Sjogren's syndrome, I am unable to eat without drinking at the same time.  As I understand it, Sjogren's is a type of autoimmune disorder that attacks the mucous membranes of the body.  My mouth gets terribly dry.  Eating without drinking isn't do-able.  So here I am, having gone through a hellish couple of years but glad to be a survivor.  Unfortunately, though I actually took all of my weight off and then some (because I was so sick) I have now put all but about 50 pounds back on.  Because of my surgery, I now have no valves just a hole at the bottom of my pouch which has stretched to probably at least something closely resembling a regular stomach and because I have to drink while I eat, the food just gets "washed down the drain" and I feel as though I haven't eaten a thing within 15 minutes of having eaten a meal.

I'm under the impression that surgery cannot be reversed unless it looks like you'd die without it being done.  (Is this true?)  The insurance that I have now will not cover any type of bariatric procedure.  I am hypoglycemic, considerably malnourished, anemic, have to receive B-12 injections....but not about to keel over.  I'm afraid if I'm like this now, I'll be in a world of hurt in 20 years.  So, if I'm only experiencing the "cons" of the surgery but none of the "pros", I want to have it reversed.  Can this be done?  Can anybody help me?  I'm not trying to scare anyone off or even badmouth the surgery.  I just happen to be one of the few people who had a host of traumatic health complications some related to the surgery and some not.  My weight gain is completely my fault, though I feel helpless to be able to effectively use this tool now because of my inability to eat without drinking...not to mention the fact that my pouch has grown considerably.  (this has been confirmed with my many abdominal procedures)

Anyone?

All the best to you all...I hope your experiences are all what you hope them to be.

Jennifer

I'm sorry for all you've gone through. Best wishes to you.

Hi Jennifer. I'm way new, little experience, but a very good lurker. Which means that I've been reading a bunch about this, including revisions. And people are posting fairly frequently about being revised, so it can't be that hard to get reversal surgery. Because I've mainly been looking at the sleeve, most of what I've read is RNY to sleeve. But from what I understand, RNY is supposed to be reversible since all the "parts" are left,just bypassed.

That being said, I'm sure that your prior surgeries, etc. would also have some impact.

But I have to say to you--you have in no way failed! You've survived cancer (twice!), and are coping with a disease that's a lousy fit with an RNY. And it appears that your body, for whatever reason, has really fought against the RNY.

My advice: 1) try out some other forums on this site; there's actually a forum for revisions, there's a forum for weight loss surgery complications, I'd also even jump over to the gastric sleeve forum--there are folks over there who have revised, and it's a really friendly and active group. (Just don't tell them I sent you because they don't know I'm lurking!) 2) the other thing I'd do is see if you can find a suggestion for a surgeon who does revisions to do a phone consult with--someone who is able to be totally objective about your best options, and who can tell you what is and isn't possible.

You'll be in my prayers.

Thank you for posting!  I like you're username...I'm not sure if it really has anything to do with them or not but I am a cat person!

Your advice seemed so kind and I haven't posted back to all the nice folks who have posted back to me on other forums (I think it was mainly the gastric bypass forum) and I so appreciate prayers...that's what's gotten me this far. 

Since posting, I called my surgeon's office.  I talked to his nurse and she told me that he didn't accept self-pay for revisions because if something goes wrong in the hospital I'd be stuck with a huge bill....seems to me that's a chance even if you go in for a first procedure...happened to me, that's when I got my first bowel obstruction.  The difference and problem, my really big problem, is that after going through cancer I lost my job and took the 18 months or whatever it was of COBRA but then got added onto my husband's insurance which is what I now have (I'm no longer employed) and they have NO bariatric coverage whatsoever.  So that's that.  I'm really feeling almost taken advantage of at this point. 

In the meantime, my husband and I are trying Atkins...we've been on it for about a week.  I'd really love to have some bread! 

Thanks! Jennifer