hey guys remember me?

hey everyone ,
its been a longgggggg time since posting on here . i wanted to give you guys an update . for a refresher ....i had vsg may 26tth 2010 losing around 40ish pds within the 1st few months , i started to gain back weight 5-6 months after . long story short. i felt like a failure thinking that my stomach stretched etc so i decided to seek out a surgeon . so i brought my xray of my sleeve that was givin to me and my surgeon said that the dr in mexico left the "fundis" in i am soooooo angry i paid out of pocket out of desperation . anyway , i am going for a revision here in the states . my dr said if i am ok with 2 options that he has , he will do what he thinks best once hes in there . 1, he can go in there and fix the 1st surgeons error and trim things up or do a bypass which im thinking i might needed the added malabsorbation . so ive never seen more drs in 2 weeks than in my life lol nutritionist, lung dr, cardio dr, shrink, gastro, im almost done with them all i am having surgery on may 3rd . please tell me your thoughts and its very nice to be here xooxox

Sounds like you are back on track!!! Good for you. Going to a different surgeon took guts. Glad you've got a new date coming up. Keep us posted.

It's pretty standard to only have good restriction for 6 months with the sleeve. The same happened to me. I didn't want a re sleeve as restriction alone hadn't worked for me. Please consider the DS as it's the most obvious revision from a sleeve. There's a list of vetted DS surgeons on DSfacts.com as a non DS surgeon will never offer it.

Standard according to whom? I have exactly the same restriction now at 4.5 years out that I did at 7 months.

Her doctor has a really bad reputation and I'm not surprise he botched her sleeve. To act like what happened to her is just how a sleeve works is just ridiculous. It's not normal at all.

The 6 month window in which to lose weight with the sleeve is pretty openly discussed on sleeve forums.  People can of course lose weight beyond that, but normies can lose weight too.  It's just the window when it's easiest, when restriction is best for most.

Well yeah people talk about the 6 month window all the time. But it's not just sleevers. You hear it about it with RnY which has malabsorption until 18 to 36 months. You even hear it about the DS which has malabsorption for life though of course it does lessen too, as it has to, the human body being what it is and being such a great compensator.

The 6 months window is a combination of the swelling going down in our cut-up tummies, appetite returning and dieting fatigue. The swelling going down is related to restriction but the rest of it is not. Which is why not everyone experiences that 6 month window.

As an example, I never slowed down in my weight loss AT ALL until I got down to a BMI of 21 at 10 months and decided I was tired of being scrawny and losing 1-2 pounds a week with no end in sight and I deliberately upped my calories by adding in things like nuts and slider foods. If I hadn't done that, I would have continued to eat about 1200-1600 calories a day just like I was at 6 months out. But I was training for an Ironman and my body was burning 2000+ a day and I didn't think that was healthy.

It's also somewhat a matter of semantics and what you mean by "good" restriction. if you think 1-2 oz. is "good" restriction and 4-6oz. is not then, sure, by 6 months out, most can eat 4-6oz of food so they don't have "good" restriction any more.  But IMO being able to only eat 1-2 oz. of food is not 'good restriction.' It's TORTURE.  4-6oz, to me, is good restriction. I hit that at about 7-8 months and I have it now at 4.5 years and it shows no signs of going away.

Compare this to RnY where the typical RnY can eat a cup, sometimes 1.5 cups of food at 1 year out. To me, that's not good restriction. That's okay restriction. Not bad and better than pre-op but there's an awful lot of wiggle room in there. OTOH, maybe someone with bypass thinks that's great and only being able to eat 4-6 oz. at a time is torture. And that's okay. Different strokes and all.

Finally, when it comes to the sleeve, we have to be careful about saying "standard" because the operation is not standardized yet and one surgeon's sleeve is not another's. As the OP has found out!

I agree with Huneypie. Keep your pyloric valve if you can--just ask Jody about reactive hypoglycemia with her RNY.

--gina

If you are ready to commit to lifelong vits, mins and protein and a really new way of eating, I think DS has the greatest chance of longterm success.  I love my RNY but am jealous of the DS folks at times.  I am very glad I didn't end up with a sleeve because I think I would have had more trouble keeping the weight off. 

I would go with the RNY if you don't either find a Dr to do the DS or just have the choice of repair of sleeve or RNY. 

I researched both the RNY and the DS in making my decision.  I only wanted to do this once since I was paying out of pocket myself. 

The key for me was the long term weight loss.  I did not want to gain it all back.  Malabsorbtion works the best for me, so the DS became the logical choice. 

My opinion - go for the malabsorption.  And do the DS... revising from a sleeve to RNY may be doable, but it's just a natural progression to do the DS with the sleeve.  

Gina mentioned I have Reactive Hypoglycemia - it's common for folks with RNY to get it.  Some get it worse than others, but it definitely is something that needs to be managed. Not everyone does.. but...   I wish I had my pyloric valve back at times... 

Glad you are taking steps to fix the Dr's issue.  Glad to see you back!