What Do You Recommend?

Hello Everyone! I am new to here and just wanted to  know a bit about revision surgery. I am a year and 3 months post-op and have noticed from the very beginning that I wasn't progressing the way I should. I went from 278 to 170 in 6 months but, stopped losing weight after that. It's been  9 months and even after doing things right I haven't lost any weight, in fact I am back up to 180. I've been starving myself lately in hopes of losing more weight but nothing works. I was wondering if a revision would be good. One thing I worry about however, is if my insurance would cover. When I got the by-pass I had another insurance I wasn't denied. Now I have an insurance issued by the state kinda like medicare. I don't know what to do??????Any answers and/or comments are appreciated, thnx!

I think it's too early to think about revisions. In the insurance world you would be considered a success since you have lost over 50% of your excess weight. Unless there is a mechanical failure they probably wouldn't cover a revision. Also, what would you like the revision to do? If you are eating less then making your pouch smaller wouldn't help. If you want more malabsorption, with the RNY the malabsorption ends after about 2 years so that wouldn't help. If you want another procedure like the DS you are limited as to the number of qualified surgeons that could do the surgery. I think there are only 4 or 5 out there so you would probably have to travel. If you think that would be worth it then that is the path to pursue but again I don't know that your insurance would cover it since they already consider you a success.

I see your point. I guess I am looking at the glass half empty rather than half full. It just bothers me so much because I know that for my height (5' 4") I am still considered obese since my BMI is 30.8. Thank you I appreciate your response.

personally i think you have done amazingly well!  i have had the band for 7 years and never went down more than 40 lbs!  i gained back 15 and have stayed in the 10-15 lb regained range for several years.  as of today, i am still only 30 lbs lighter than i was the day of my surgery in 2004.

now i am considering revision.  it was sent to insurance yesterday and IF they approve it my surgery from lapband to ryn will be 12/26.  i was worried that my bmi was too low for the approval and mine is 36.  i would love to be at 30.8!

i am not trying to trivialize your concerns.  i am sure there are many people on these message boards that think would love to be at 36 too !!

One thing that is helpful is to track you food on a site like Fitday.com. This will help you see if you are eating too much or too many carbs. Also it seems that drinking a lot and eating a lot of protein helps with weight loss. Are you drinking with your meals?

You should also check out the lightweights board!!!  They might have some additional information for you!!!  Thay are a really neat & supporitive group over there!!!!
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/wls_lightweights/



Hope that helps!!!
-Jamie

Regardless of insurance they aren't going to pay for a revision with a BMI of 31. You'd have to meet all the usual requirements such as a BMI of 35/40, comorbidities, etc.

IOW, you'd be self pay for any revision at this point.

I have noticed over the years of high complication rates with revisions...be careful