Here's a published article from PubMed stating RNY has a 40% failure rate:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez 

Revision bariatric surgery: laparoscopic conversion of failed gastric bypass to biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch.

Trelles N, Gagner M.

Department of Surgery, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, FL 33140, USA.

With more than 40% failures of gastric bypass in Body Mass Index>50 kg/m2, a successful alternative has to be proposed. Laparoscopic conversion of failed Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch is technically feasible, safe and can be performed in 1 or 2 stages. This revision surgery is the most effective treatment to date, and should also be proposed for failed vertical-banded gastroplasty, adjustable gastric banding and Magenstrasse and Mill procedure, as it may provide the most durable weight loss of all revision surgeries with acceptable morbidity. This may result in lesser degrees of hypoproteinemia, commonly seen after distal gastric bypass.

PMID: 19536053 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Kerry

You've had the RNY and wouldn't revise to anything but the DS. I've had the band and couldn't recommend it as a first or as a revision surgery over RNY or anything else. We both have sleeves as part of DS and I know sleeve alone wouldnt be enough for me either.
 
We're a two-person weightloss surgery experiment aren't we, wishing we'd had DS from the beginning and saved ourselves a few hospital trips. Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Sal

You're right on the money Sal. The DS wasn't available when I had my bypass, but I sure wish I would have done the revision to DS 10 years before I did. That was 10 years of RNY misery that there was no need to have lived with.

Kerry

You wait though don't you, hoping it will get better somehow. I spent a year thinking it was my fault, because on the UK band board no-one admits its going badly.

People just disappear and stop posting, thinking its just another way they've failed. I've had too much contact with the medical profession to think they are infallible though, and I'm just glad our first surgeries weren't our only choice. If it hadn't of been for the diabetes and blindness thing I'd still be putting up with the misery now I guess. Trying to view diabetes in a positive light there!

Difficulty I have now is not going on the bandster board and shouting 'DONT DO IT' because you just sound like a crazy person to be popping all of those dreams.

Yea and looking back now, I just shake my head and wonder what the hell I was thinking..

I know what you mean about sounding like a nut case; when I see people posting on the main board about how they're getting their RNY the next day or so I want to just scream at them and warn them...

Kerry

Kerry
Happy New Year to you! It is always so disheartening to learn that RNY has a 40% failure rate in patients with a bmi of 50 or greater. I had my RNY with a bmi of 73. I was so excited about my RNY back in 2007. If I would've known then what I know now, I seriously doubt that I wouldve had an RNY.  Now it makes sense that the surgeon that did my RNY was always encouraging no matter how much I vented to her;. She never once made me feel bad about weight regain and no weight loss after my ten month mark. The last time I went to her she even told me that some people that have RNY are just supposed to be obese no matter what surgery they have had. Needless to say, I have not been back to see her since. I thank God for learning about the DS and finding a competent surgeon like Dr. Greenbaum to do my revision.

You have a great opportunity with Dr. Greenbaum to lose your excess weight and improve you life. 

As a side note, my BMI was barely 40 when I was 28 and had the gastric bypass back in 1980 and i had to work out and diet like crazy to maintain. It's not your fault, you still have weight to lose, it's a poor surgery for your case. I'll bet you're going to do very well with a revision to DS, it's a wonderful surgery to help us get the excess weight off.

Kerry