never feel full

Hi everyone!  i had my 1st RNY in 2006 and did well considering I had ulcers repeatedly and had several surgeries to repair them includig a vagotomy to several the vagus nerve so less acid would be relseased into my pouch.  I then started gaining a little at a time, doc found a couple more ulcers and decided to do a revision and  cut out the ulcerous area in april of 2008.  Since then I help my 2nd post surgery weight well until about 3 months ago...when all of a sudden I started gaining weight like crazy...sometimes a pound a day.  I haven't changed my eating styles and have excersized a little less due to a pinched nerve in my lumber area but not a lot.  I'm really upset and not sure of what to do...call my surgeon...try eating even less (I have had a prob maintaining my vitamins and minerals already)...just call it as it is and appreciate what I've had?  I've gone from 159 in Nov to 184 today..I'm not sure what to do and am getting really frustrated.  Any words or suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks!

 sunny1 so sorry to hear of your troubles!  How worried you must be.  My suggestion would be to contact your surgeon/PCP right away and start going through the process of testing and finding out what is going on.  If you have changed nothing in your eating pattern (providing you are not consuming a high amount of carbs and grazing) and you still maintain an exercise schedule then there could be a mechanical problem with your tool which needs to be investigated.

Good luck to you.

In reading your posts the first thing that came to my mind is - medicines. Are you taking anti-depressants or any kind of medicine that has a side effect of gaining weight. Many times doctors won't even tell you that or flat out deny it beccause they want you to take the medicine to resolve whatever the issue it they are addresssing and whatever else happens - well, that's another problem.

look over all your medications carefully. get on the internet and check them out thoroughly. sudden unexpected unreasonable weight gain can often be traced back to medicine.

good luck in your research.

                                                  

I agree w/ both of the posts above me.  It sounds like you might either have a dilated stoma or are taking medicine that will make you gain weight like crazy.  I'd call my surgeon and see if they could do an upper-gi or endoscope.  W/ the scope, they should be able to get exact measurements of the pouch and stoma.  I started gaining weight out of nowhere, and when I was scoped it turns out that my stoma was 2.5 times wider than it should be (and I wasn't eating too much or forcing anything down - it just stretched over the period of 4 yrs), and my food was going straight down.  The upper-gi turned out normal, so I'm glad I had the scope. 

Elavil, Doxepin, and some SSRI's are pretty bad for weight gain, too.  I took Elavil to help me rest the week I had my wisdom teeth cut out, and I gained 9 lbs in 5-6 days.  I know it wasn't from eating because I was pretty much living off of liquids.  I hope you figure out what's going on :) 

Hello - I had RNY gastric bypass back in August of 2002.  Over the past year and a half I have gained approx 40 pounds.  Even if I faithfully watch everything I eat, I still can't seem to lose weight.  In addition to the weight gain I noticed that more foods are making me sick, not to the point of vomiting, but feeling like I am dumping.  I never had any dumping at all after my surgery.  I also noticed that I could never feel like I was full for long.  I would eat a relatively small amount of food, feel like I had enough and then half an hour later felt like I had never eaten a bit.  It was kind of like eating chinese food all the time - nothing stayed with me.  In addition to all of this, over the past four years I have been fighting severe anemia (to the point that I passed out a few years ago).  After many failed attempts to contact my original surgeon and after seeing my regular physician (who is not familiar with bariatric surgery) I finally found a great doctor in Orange County.  She immediately did lab work and found out that not only am I still anemic but also deficient in most of my vitamin levels.  She sent me for an upper GI and an EGD (camera down your throat) the result is my pouch is somewhat stretched out and the opening into my small intestine is also stretched out (almost twice what is used to be).  This is causing my food to just go through me and that is why I never feel full for long.  When I had the upper GI they had trouble getting pictures when I drank the fluid because it was going through me too fast!  The other problem the enlarged opening causes is that your food does not stay in your pouch long enough and gets released too quickly into your small intestine, this limits the amount of nutrition you are getting from your food.  My doctor believes that the stretching of the opening and the pouch combined with possibly a little too much of the first portion of my small intestine being bypassed is what is causing me to have all these deficiences and malnutrition problems.  My doctors fix for this is to do put a lap band on my pouch which will make the pouch itself small again as well as tightening the opening into my small intestine.  I am hoping to have this done in the near future, also this is covered by my insurance, according to my doctor.  Last but not least, if you are having problems with your iron levels see a bariatric doctor, not your regular physician.  I spent four years being run down and tired and now my bariatric doctor has me going to a hemotologist monthly where I get IV injections of iron.  If your level is severely low the taking iron pills is only a temporary fix since your body cannot obsorb enough from the pills.  Good luck to you.

I had RNY gastric bypass in June 2002.  I lost a total of 207 pounds.  Since then, I have regained 167 pounds!!! 

I had sclerotherapy almost 3 months ago today.   Here's my story:


I had my endo consult back in late November, my first sclero procedure on Jan. 13, my second one on Feb. 25 and going in for a endoscopy (potentially a 3rd treatment) on April 15.  I am doing soooo good!!!  I weigh in weekly and tomorrow is the day.  So far I have lost 34 1/2 pounds!  Woo hoo!!!  Aside from the weight loss though, I am no longer hungry all the time.  Actually, I am no longer hungry at all until it's really time to eat.  I've been eating about 1200 cals. a day; breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner and maybe a low cal snack if I get "head hungry".  The procedure really does work.  You will get your satiety back!  

It has worked really well for me this far.  When I first read about it on these boards I was really discouraged.  People made comments about how it worked for a few weeks and then "that was it".  It's not true.  It does work.  Understand that after a few weeks out of your procedure, your intake will increase.  This is normal.  The Dr. doesn't shrink your pouch.  He injects your stoma with a chemical that closes up the "drain" at the bottom of your pouch.  This is what keeps you fuller longer.  You still have to make good food choices and stick to a plan. 

Hope this info. helps.  I sure could have used this positive feedback when I was looking for it!