Question:
What happens when your pouch is stretched, do you have to get a revision?

And if you do, does your insurance pay for it?    — [Anonymous] (posted on February 7, 2002)

February 7, 2002
Whenever I see questions/comments about pouches stretching out too much, I just have to laugh. It would be awfully hard to stretch a pouch out so far that it wasn't functioning normally. The way to "defeat" this surgery is to graze between meals eating high-carb foods; not by eating too much in one sitting and "ruining" your surgery. If you were actually stretching your pouch, you would feel so much discomfort that you would stop immediately, and the pouch would shrink back to its normal size within a day or so anyways. Trust your surgery; work it. If you actually have a staple-line disruption, then the insurance company should cover a revision, but chances are slim that there's anything wrong. Good luck--
   — [Anonymous]

February 7, 2002
Every big Holiday I always have to stop eating as soon as my stomach feels the slightest bit full. No one can eat beyond what their stomach can hold. And it always shrinks back to a small stomach. Obese people know this first hand. I agree with the previous poster. It's impossible. Don't worry.
   — [Anonymous]

February 7, 2002
Dr.Richard Thirlby whose web page I am quoting http://www.virginiamason.org/dbSurgery/sec3198.htm says............. "Other technical problems include stretching of the stomach reservoir or the connection to the bypass intestine, which also result in weight gain." So be very careful not to stretch your pouch.
   — Jessica C.

February 7, 2002
Don't want to be flamed over this but my surgeon said that the pouch does not stretch! He said that pouch stretching is a myth! Wish we could get a doctor on here to answer this......probably each one would answer differently. I don't understand this at all.
   — [Anonymous]

February 8, 2002
Yes, the pouch can stretch. It will over time, even if it is a nice tight vertical pouch. How MUCH it stretches depends on how it was shaped originally (how much fundus is still there?) and if the owner of said pouch grazes. Grazing is painless pouch stretching. How SOON it stretches (whatever amount it's going to) is controlled by the grazing thing again, and the theory that a 1 oz pouch should hold 4 oz of food. But if you keep your volumes small and do the many tiny meals (NOT grazing), then YOUR portion of the control is taken care of. There is teh contruction of the pouch issue and then the UNKNOWN--that'd be what your body decides to do, indpendent of your action or your surgeon's. (Don't you hate that?) Stoma stetching is an entirely different matter.
   — vitalady

February 10, 2002
My surgeon also told me that a pouch does NOT stretch. The weight gain will come from grazing on poor food choices.
   — Sassy M.