I agree with the others. Get a second opinion. I would have a hard time accepting that nothing more could be done. I would take that as a personal challenge and make it my mission to find a surgeon who could help.

I will keep you in my prayers that you are able to find someone who can help you.

I had my remnant stomach removed with my revision in 2010, along with all of my stomach except the pouch. I was also told not to except much weight loss. However I decided to take advantage of my second chance and followed the post op diet to a T and lost all my excess weight and then some.

Now it is 8 years later and I have kept off all the excess weight. I have a lot of restriction and that makes it easier to eat like I should. As long as you follow the post op eating recommendations you should be able to lose the weight and keep it off. That is the key, though. If you continue to eat the way you did before the surgery you probably will continue to be heavy.

I never really experienced much restriction with the first surgery so having restriction was a game changer for me. I always knew that I needed to change my eating habits but until I experienced restriction it was always very difficult. Now it is still difficult but doable with the extra help.

I had a revision in 2010. I started out at 240 lbs, lost to 120 lbs and then started back up to 220 lbs.

My revision was due to other issues besides the weight gain. I was so sick I wanted a reversal. I was told that I couldn't be reversed, only revised to correct an anatomical issue. I originally had a sleeve as part of my malabsorptive first surgery and my doctor made the sleeve, which was very large, into a RNY pouch.

I will never forget my surgeon telling me not to expect much weight loss. I don't know if he told me this because I had failed so miserably or what but I didn't care if I lost any weight, I just wanted to stop gaining.

I decided after my revision to try something novel and actually follow the directions that I blatantly ignored the first time around. Protein first, no refined carbs, weighed and measured every bite.

Not only did I lose weight but I lost even faster than the first time and actually got too low. I don't know who was more surprised, me or my doctor. It has been 8 years now and I have kept the weight off by continuing to follow directions.

I really didn't expect to lose that much weight because I have always heard that revisions don't do as well as first time surgeries and I am happy to report that it wasn't true in my case. What matters more is what I eat and as long as I follow the rules I have managed to have a successful revision. Don't allow yourself to be discouraged. Use what you have learned from your previous failures and you can also be successful. I always say my previous failures are my greatest assets. You already know what not to do, now put that experience to work and do what you know you can do to turn it around.

My surgeon doesn't require a pre-op diet and I didn't have one with either my first surgery or my revision.

Some say it is to shrink the liver before the surgery and others say that it is to get used to following a disciplined eating plan after surgery. Others, like my surgeon, don't see any benefit in requiring a pre-op diet.

It really is up to the surgeon. My surgeon just required you to stop eating after midnight like yours.

My revision was complex and not due to regain. I originally had a DS done by a surgeon not really good at doing the DS. I had a lot of side effects.

My revision was to lengthen my common channel from 100 cc to 200 cc to reduce my malabsorption. I also had a blind limb that caused CIBO (chronic intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and constant diarrhea and that was corrected. My surgeon also revised the sleeve that I had and was made too large. It only removed about 50% of my stomach and before long I had no restriction at all. He gave me a RNY pouch and a lot of restriction. I think that is the key to my success because I can't eat much at all. I probably would have done better if my sleeve was smaller but I guess he decided that re-sleeving was too dangerous due to the risk of leaks so my entire stomach, apart from the pouch, was removed. Pretty drastic and not recommended since it is nonreversible. Other than that I am happy with my revision and it has served me well in giving me a tool that I can use.

Are you considering a second revision? Personally one was enough for me. Your body really doesn't need that much slicing and dicing done to it and if you weren't able to stick with surgeries one and two what will be different with number three?

Instead of putting your body through all that trauma again have you considered getting counseling to help with your food issues? All the surgery in the world won't help if you continue to eat badly. It's like getting a liver transplant if you are an alcoholic. If you keep drinking you will blow out the new liver and the next one and the next one.

Instead of treating the symptoms you need to treat the problem and the symptoms will go away.

It's not easy and I'm not making light of it. I've been there. Giving up overeating and eating junk is very hard work but it must be done before any WLS works for us.

"It almost feels like there is now a divide on this site between people whose weight loss surgeries have worked and those whose have not."

I really don't see that divide. I can't speak for others but for me I don't fall into either category. I am a revision and I know that for me my first surgery worked fine. For a long time I thought it had failed until I took a long look at it. It did work, when I did what I should do. My first surgery failed in that my intestines weren't configured correctly and I had a lot of side effects but as far as the weight loss went, when I ate what I was supposed to I lost weight and kept it off. Just like I did when I didn't have surgery.

So I have a hard time saying there are people whose surgery failed them when it really hasn't.

Of course there are failed surgeries. Just about anyone who had a band will tell you that. But for the people who have been successful they weren't lucky. Their surgery was successful because they were.

So really I think the divide you are talking about is between those who were compliant. Don't get me wrong. I understand that as a population most who have WLS do it because they have failed every diet they tried. We aren't here because we had good control over our eating. Exactly the opposite. We found ourselves on the operating table because we could not control our eating and were hoping that WLS would give us the help we needed in order to control our out of control eating.

And there is nothing wrong with that. Of course we can fail our surgery. We failed all our previous diets. No one came here on a winning streak. We wound up here because we couldn't control our eating and we were hoping that rearranging our bodies would help us do that.

But to have the surgery and still continue overeating and assuming that having more surgery will fix that problem doesn't make a lot of sense. It is faulty thinking to assume that more surgery will fix the problem when we didn't use the tools we got the first time out. First you have to figure out why it didn't work and if it isn't broke, don't fix it.

So even though they didn't ask for dieting advice she got it because that is where the problem lies. I'm not going to give someone advice on having more surgery when they have shown that they aren't able to use the tools they got with the first one.

So looking at the eating is the obvious place to start. Giving her the name of a great revision surgeon won't help if the problem isn't physical. Giving her advice on how to best utilize what she already has is the logical thing to do. If she chooses not to listen to that advice and insists that a different surgery will fix the problem we aren't doing her any favors in encouraging that.

Does that mean that some people don't have the best tool for what they need and can benefit from another surgery to one that will give her the tools? Of course that happens. In hindsight malabsorption wasn't the best tool for me, restriction was and my first surgery didn't have any so changing tools was a good thing. But that conclusion came in hindsight.
Maybe someone does need more than restriction but you have to give the restriction a fair shot before you can decide that. If she was being compliant and still not losing than it would be fair to see if there were other options but you can't declare that your surgery has failed if you haven't really given it a chance to do it's job.

And finding a tool that can help you eat better isn't easy. The best it can do is help restrict the amount eaten but no surgery can change what we put into our mouths. And that is what needs to be fixed before we consider any more physical fixes.

Let me introduce you to my friend the paragraph.

It will help make your post much easier.

"I just wanted to say that I used to be on this site 10 years ago and it felt like a completely different place. I've been considering a revision, but honestly got nervous to post because it felt like a place that used to be about inclusion and kindness, but had now turned into one more place where people judged overweight people.

As an outsider of this post, I was a bit surprised by the responses at first, and can see how the original author might have felt judged and was hurt by it. It almost feels like there is now a divide on this site between people whose weight loss surgeries have worked and those whose have not. Those whose surgeries have worked, seem to now be those people in the world who used to look at fat people and make assumptions, like they are just lazy, they don't care enough, they should just diet.

Bottom line, that being fat was their fault. Now add to that the knowledge that someone has already had WLS and you have a whole new bag of ammunition. I just want to say that before you judge someone for a failed surgery, you may not want to just assume it was the person's fault because then you become those people, that I think most of us come here to get away from. This forum is for revision surgery help, not diet shaming.

These are just my two sense because I know a lot of people have commented on forums that people aren't responding as much, and I know I've been scared to respond because of the new negativity I've found here. I would just love for this site to go back to a place where people were just kind above all else. It saddens me that so many posts now have to literally say, "please don't be mean in your comments, I'm sad enough..." When this place has become a site where people have to ask for kindness, something is wrong.

PS. There are still a lot of amazing people here who are super supportive, and this doesn't apply to you at all."

My 2 cents. I am a revision. I failed my first WLS. It WAS my fault, not the surgeries, not the surgeons and certainly not the people who tried to help me. I put the food in my mouth and I ate it.

Until I accepted that reality I was destined to repeat the same outcome with any further surgery I had. Of course there are some exceptions but for the most part a person *****gains their weight after WLS did so because they out ate it. That isn't to say that some people simply did not get an effective surgery for their particular issues but when it comes down to it any WLS can and will be failed if you continue to eat the way you did after the first WLS. I can sugar coat it but it won't change the facts.

It seems that some people aren't asking about revisions as much as they want to know what the super magic WLS there is that will allow me to eat what I want and still not be fat. Let me save you time. It isn't out there. Oh, some have made the claim but just as many have proved that claim wrong.

No one is doing anyone a service by holding their hand and telling them to go ahead and have your body diced and sliced some more and see if this time they can finally manage to do what could have been done the first time.

No, I am not unsympathetic. I am after all a WLS failure. But all the sympathy in the world did not cause me to not fail my first surgery. Only honesty and self assessment, thorough understanding of my mistakes and a plan to make the changes necessary so that a third or fourth WLS is sought helped. And There are people who still haven't found that magic surgery after 3 or 4 tries.

You only need to read about about the dismal results of revisions to know the sad fact. I wouldn't be surprised if the failure rate of revisions is even higher than the first time surgeries.

Even the best WLS in the world won't work if you don't use it. If someone comes in my house to rob me and kills me it doesn't help that I had a gun in my drawer if I didn't reach in to use it.

Have you considered having your common channel lengthened? I had mine lengthened from 100cc to 200cc and also had my sleeve (too large in 2002) revised to a pouch. I have been doing great since then.

My problem wasn't malabsorption, it was issues with chronic bacterial overgrowth due to a blind limb but having a revision was the best thing for me. I hope you can get some help.

Unable to edit the above post.

I just looked at your history so the part about a perfectly healthy stomach does not apply.

I also suffered from severe GERD, which was completely cured after my revision.

I still would get another opinion, though.  Something I wish I had done if I wasn't feeling so sick and desperate to get better.

Revision from a RNY to a DS is possible but it is only done by a handful of surgeons.  It is a technically difficult surgery and should only be done by a surgeon experienced in this type of revision.  Many surgeons may tell you they can give you a surgery "like" the DS but mainly that would be to revise you from a proximal to a distal RNY.  That adds more malabsorption to the mix but can cause more problems than it helps.

The reason the DS isn't done by more surgeons isn't because it is a bad surgery.  It is one of the best as far as weight lost and maintained and resolution of comorbidities.

It also is very high maintenance with strict monitoring of vitamin levels and supplements.  Many surgeons have seen so much lack of compliance in their patients that they are reluctant to perform a surgery that has such requirements and dire consequences to those who cannot comply.

That is why the VSG is so popular.  While it has many post op requirements, too, the consequences aren't as severe for noncompliance.  

As for the surgery itself, many surgeons are doing variations of the DS such as the SADI.  These variations are too new to have much long term data regarding results.  You might want to do a search on the SADI to learn more.

Revisions are very serious and riskier than first time surgeries.  It is very important to follow through and find out if your original surgery has failed for mechanical reasons.  If the reason for the failure has to do with overeating than it is important to address those issues before having more surgery.

The DS and distal RNY mainly cause malabsorption of fats and proteins.  Many people have weight problems due to overeating refined carbs, things with sugar and flour.  There are no surgeries currently that can help in that area.  Simple carbs are absorbed 100% no matter what surgery you have so if that is your problem it is important to work on that before you have more surgery.  You may find that the tool you have is enough to help you make changes to your eating.

I actually had a revision from a DS to a RNY, not because of the weight gain but because of major complications I was experiencing.

My doctor told me not to expect to lose any weight even though he was giving me a pouch.  I don't know if he told me this because I had failed so miserably with the first surgery or if it was just his experience that people *****gained their weight with WLS don't have the discipline needed to lose weight and keep it off.

At that point I honestly didn't care if I lost weight or not.  I agreed to the pouch because I didn't want to continue gaining but I just wanted my health back.

But I knew exactly why I had gained most of my weight back and I figured that since I had to have surgery anyway I might as well give it my best shot and try to do things differently this time.

That included actually following directions, sticking 100% to the post op eating plan and avoiding the junk I had never bothered to give up after my first surgery.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why I had failed but I knew my eating problems went much deeper than just eating too much because I was hungry.  I knew I was a compulsive overeater and that if I didn't address my food addictions I was doomed to have the same result as I did the first time.

What I am trying to say is that the outcome is in your hands.  If you do what you did after your first WLS you will get the same results.

But if you have taken a serious look at why you failed and are completely honest with yourself and willing to address your eating issues you have a much better chance of winding up where you want to be.

It isn't magic.  Every surgery, no matter what kind you have, requires a change in eating habits.  And if you have a problem with refined carbs, bread, crackers, cake, candy, fast food and generally just eating garbage, which many of us have, dealing with those problems is mandatory if you want to be successful.

No matter what surgery you have simple carbs are absorbed 100%.  Having a DS gives you malabsorption of mainly fats and protein so you do have an advantage there, but if you don't get the other things under control expect to only lose 20%, if that, and not be able to maintain a healthy weight.

I lost all the excess weight and have kept it off for many years now because I changed my eating habits.  The surgery has helped me manage my hunger and gives me very adverse reactions to eating sugar, which definitely gives me motivation to avoid them.  I am using the tools the surgery to my advantage to help me stick to a good way of eating but I still have to make the choices of what I put into my mouth.

If you look into the reasons you failed the first time and take steps to deal with those problems, whether through counseling, support groups or self examination, you should do great.