What kind of WLS did you originally have and what went wrong?

I am in the process of getting approved (again - had a change in insurance) for WLS and am trying to do as much research as possible in order to make an educated decision about the surgery I ultimately choose. 

I was wondering if those of you here could share with me what WLS you had and why you're seeking a revision?  Also, if you could go back and change anything, what would it be?

Thanks so much for your help! 

I had the band - lost 100lbs but it slipped.  I'm revising to RNY.

I had gastric bypass in 1993.  I lost 180lbs (originally I was 370).  Over the years my pouch stretched and I went back in to seek a band (gained back 80 ish lbs).  The upper GI showed a gastric fistula.  I am going in tomorrow to get a revision to the original pouch to fix the fixtula and make the pouch smaller.  This will all be open surgery and on the way out he is going to be repairing my hernias.

I had lap RNY in 2001.  I have no idea what is going on, hope to find out soon.  I'm hoping it's just that the pouch has stretched out and nothing more complicated than that.  I can say that you are doing the right thing...research your butt off.  I'm hoping that if I can figure out what is going on with me...I can get back on track and keep my butt in gear and be healthy.  Lord knows I need to.  I have a pretty sick 2 yr old that I tend to 24/7, while she is "sick" she is still active and runs around and such, so having the extra weight is not helping me at all.  Good luck to you and I will try to update you with whats going on with mine.  I have been researching Revisions, and the DS sounds pretty good to me.

ETA: What I would change: the fact that I wasnt as prepared for the emotional stuff...the "missing" the eating, and just the emotional issues that surrounded my being overweight to begin with.  "back then" I dont feel they dealt with the mental health side of being over weight.

I had the band in January 2006.  The first year was great and then I stopped losing. I ended up with non-stop reflux from Easter Sunday 2008.  My band was emptied with no help at all.  In August I had my band out in emergency surgery because I couldn't hold any food down. I had a revision to RNY on 9/22/08 and I have never been happier! If I could change things I never would have gotten the band I would have gotten the RNY from the beginning.

I had an open RNY on Jan 24, 2006 (almost 3 years ago).  I lost 100 lbs in the first 10 months. I have always been a grazer, but I was able to keep that under control for the first 2 years.  Well, in the last 6 months I have re-gained between 35-40 lbs.  I just had an endoscopy 2 weeks ago and found that my pouch is only stratched a tiny bit,,,within normal limits for 3 years out. 
The surgery didn't fail--I did.  I have been eating an entire box of Wegman's sugar free fudgies every day...that's not an exaggeration...10 entire fudgies. 
  If I had it to do over I probably would have had the DS surgery, but my insurance wouldn't pay for it.  I wish I had never tried to eat sugar because I found out that I don't dump on it at all.  And I wish I hadn't skipped going to the gym that very first time because it made it easier to skip it after that.  I haven't been to the gym in over a year.
  Do your research, but be prepared to change your eating habits for life.  I hope to get back on track soon.
Kathy R

I had VBG back in /87, and went from 260 lbs. down to 113 lbs.   After the first three years due to the way they used to perform it the staples started to separate and I had to go back to dieting to keep the weight off.   Eventually I regained to 251 lbs. by /06 and had a revision to Lap-band.   It's been great for me and have gone from 251 lbs. day of surgery down to my goal weight of 124 lbs. twenty months later.   Now I just celebrated one year being below goal and this journey is soooo much better.

I had a VBG 22 years ago. I lost 130 pounds, and over the course of the last 15 years, have put all but 10 pounds back. I came here thinking the RNY was my only option, and then someone pointed me to the DS board. After a LOT of research, I've decided the DS is the surgery that will give me the best chance at long-term success, the highest resolution of co-morbidities and ... and this is an important one, after living 22 years with a pouch ... the best quality of life, post-op.

I'm currently preparing for a revision to a DS.

Do you own research. Don't rely on the opinion of a surgeon who is monetarily motivated to sway you to the surgery HE performs.

And come on over to the DS board and ask questions. The folks there are very helpful.

good luck!

Kathy

I had a gastric bypass / stomach staping in 1980, I lost about 90 of the 110 I wanted to lose before the staple line came apart. I almost bled to death when the staples tore out or came apart and had to have a blood transfusion, from which I got Hep C. Of course back then no one knew about Hep C or AIDS and I didn't discover the Hep ****il 1997. During the time from when the staple line failed and 1997, I was able to keep my weight undercontrol through a strict diet and lots of exercise. When I discovered the Hep C and had to take interferon injections every other day for a year, the treatment was really difficult and I couldn't bring myself to exercise and eat the strict diet I should have and I lost control of my weight again. I gained all the weight back from 98-04 and by 07 decided I needed to look into some sort of revision. I found this site in June of this year and started researching what my options were. Thankfully someone directed me to the DS board where I learned about that WLS option. I untilmately decided that a revision to DS was my best option and on Sept. 17, I had the revision to DS. This was a big operation; it took 8 1/2 hours and even then I had to go back into surgery three days later to remove a flap of scar tissue in my new stomach that had been missed during the first surgery. Revision surgery is not to be taken lightly and if your original WLS was done open, you will probably have a lot of adhesions and scar tissue, so make sure your surgeon is qualified to do such a difficult operation.

All that being said and taken into account; I could not be more pleased with the results of my DS. I can eat like a normal person again; there is no dumping; I can drink milk again! The foods I need to eat to be healthy are foods I love and in so doing I've lost 65 of the 100-110 lbs. I want to lose. The DS does require a commitment to take suppliments in order to be healthy, but IMO that is a very small price to pay for the life and freedom I've gained.

My advice to you is to do your research and really look into how you will have to live and eat for the rest of your life after a revision and make sure it's what you can and will live with before you deicide what kind of a revision you want. For me, the DS is the only way to go; that may not be the case for you. Just realize that revision surgery is not to be taken lightly, it's big time surgery and has more risk than your original WLS, so make sure you get what will work for you.

Good luck!

Kerry