Gaining weight and starving

It will be two years since my surgery. I started at 446 and reached a weight of 290. I have gained 40 lbs in recent months. I am hungry all the time. I can eat almost as much as I did before surgery. I will eat, feel full and then in an hour be starving like I never ate. I think that it may be a combination of my stomach being larger and my stoma (opening to the intestine) being too large. I am constantly using the bathroom and 9 out of 10 times it is very watery. I can eat something and then 4 hours later it is in my bowel movement. Help. I see my dr at the end of August and will get an endoscopy done. I am so depressed and feel like a failure.

Hi! I just wanted to tell you that you are not a failure. When you go to the doc hopefully they will find the problem and get it corrected and then you can continue with your journey. Keep your head and think postive! I struggle with my weight all the time and I haven't had the surgery yet but I'm on diet supervised by my PCP and he got me on a diet pill called Merdia so I'm going to see if this helps me. Take care Angie

Geez, that sounds an awful lot like me. I had my surgery on 7-5-02. I noticed my weight loss seemed to stop at about 10-11 months after my surgery. From June of 2003 until now July 2004, I have been up and down with the same 20 pounds. I had an upper GI done and went to see my surgeon. He said that my pouch was still small, but that my stoma was WAY too big. He is going to scope me in September... then we take it from there to see what can be done to help. I did not realize what was happening to me until about a month ago. I thought it was a "normal" part of the progression of how your body settles in after this surgery. But that is NOT TRUE. I had been blaming myself and feeling like I was totally worthless. Here is the progression of what happened me, my hunger was getting SLOWLY closer and closer together. And if I didn't eat, then hypoglycemia started settling in. I had my PCP's nurse tell me that when the hypoglycemia settled in, I needed to be eating sweets. So to make matters even worse, I started battling the sweet monster as well as the hunger. Now here it is over a year later, and I am getting tummy growling hunger one hour after eating. But the lesson I have learned, is to stay away from the sweets. Eat mostly protein and eat small amounts frequently- that helps keep the hypoglycemia away as well. I'm still trying to convince myself it is not my fault. But that is so hard. I really am upset about this, but at the same time, I'm kinda glad it isn't me. As you can tell I have mixed feelings, LOL. I just pray that something can be done to correct this. He hasn't told me that he will do nothing yet. ****Sigh****

Hi i am taking RX diet pills to curb my hunger. i havent gained any weight but i havent lost any either in 6 months. i have an upper gi on monday and hopefully i can find out what is going on. i have a suspecion its my stoma. you never ever hear wls stories like this. i sure hope my doctor can do something so i can loose the rest of this weight. i have lost 120 and not a pound more. i do exercise drink water and get in 90 grams of protein a day. i also watch my calories 1200. i feel like i never even had the surgery, and i am just back to dieting again.

Doctors are now putting Lapbands on RNYers to help with weight loss. Go to Lapband forum to find out more about the band and hope things get better for you. Laura

I can relate. I totally feel like I failed and am just destined to be this great big fat person. So I made an appointment with my surgeon. He determined that my stoma was too large. He was able to perform a procedure where he applied an irritant to my stoma. The irritant forms scar tissue, thus building up to stoma. This usally takes 1-2 times. I'm going for my second in a couple of weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will give me the "correct" tool. I think from the beginning, my stoma was too large (doc said more stretching could have come from pregnancy). I NEVER felt full. 1-1/2 weeks after surgery, I felt like I was starving. I'm hopeful now I can receive the benefits of surgery I've been waiting for. If it doesn't work, I don't know what to do. I exercise regularly, am conscious of what I eat and I eat balanced meals. I guess I'll have to accept this is where my body wants to be. And then never leave the house...I'm kidding. Good luck! Be happy...look at the posts...there are lots of us failures out there...it can't be all of our faults! Somewhere, something went "different" with us.

Thank you for all of your responses. My surgeon, Dr. Glen Strickland in Columbia was a total jerk about it. He said that there was no way that the stoma would enlarge. I told him that I could eat a large salad at Wendy's and still be hungry. He asked my why I was eating a large salad. I said because I can and I am still starving afterwards. I walked out of his office. I have become so depressed and the weight is still piling back on. I just don't know what to do. Is my Dr. right or should I pursue this? I was at such an optimistic state before the surgery and the first year after. I feel like a complete failure. I can't even due this right.

Trish, What about seeking a second opinion? Someone not in that group that specializes in the same surgery... It is worth a shot. You've come this far, and don't just throw in the towel because your Dr. has a bad attitude. Good luck to you! Deb

I am also looking for second opinions Deb; it is your right to ask questions and to look for answers in other places if you do not feel like you are getting any where. I am doing the same thing. Recently I had a bad encounter with a Dr who was monitoring me pre operatively for gastric bypass in CT. I did not like what I was reading here, and what he was saying either. So now I am looking into lap band surgery (what a coworker had) at NYU. She also mentioned many people are fixing the problems you are experiencing with the lap band. I hope this encourages you to see some one in addition, and helps keep your sprits up. And remember it is a new year filled with possibilities for your health and your wellbeing. Best wishes Lacey

I understand exactly what your feeling. I had my surgery 2 1/2 years ago. I started at 387 lbs. I got down to 258 lbs. I have since put on about 35 or 40 pounds. I don't want to step on the scale to see that I am back up to 300 lbs. I also have 2 hernias so exercising is impossible. I have such a large hanging pannus. Some of it is skin but it seems to me to be a lot of fat. I hope that things are going better for you know. Have you had any reconstructive plastic surgery? It has been difficult for me to find a surgeon in my medical plan who will do it. Of course paying for it myself is not an option. We have to remember that we are not failures. Even with a weight gain, we are not at the same weight as we started at and our weight losses are large ones.