I had gastric bypass surgery thirty years ago. In that time frame little was known about the long term outcome. At least where I lived there was. Without any education I manage to lose all the weight I needed to. Life was good, I was young, about to get married. I woke one morning about 4am with back pain. At 4am I did an exercise routine with the aid of television thinking I just was having muscle spasms. Before the half hour routine completed I knew there was something gravely wrong. I was on my knees and had crawled to my parents bedroom in unimaginable pain. Now in the ER and it 6am they discussed privately with my parents that I was having stress problems that was bringing on the pain and they was writing my release papers. Quickly after this time I began to vomit blood and our family physician just happen to be walking through the ER for morning rounds. The rest of the morning is sketchy for me. I remember swallowing a tube which pump my stomach. I remember being taken to an endoscopy. I remember multiple people holding me down as I fought them in excruciating pain. I remember begging my mother to have them put me to sleep and telling her calmly I knew I was dying. Then I remember waking in intensive care. The surgeon and my family explained that I had an intussusception and the surgeon (unfamiliar with bariatric surgery) had to cut a portion of my intestines out and put it back together. It has telescoped so tightly they died and I bled internally. In fact the endoscopy showed them nothing but blood so they had to go in with exploratory surgery to find the cause. Another hour I would have died. At the time this happen I was told the Dr's were not accustom to this happening to an adult and in fact it was so rare they had never seen it to even know to look for it. From this forum it seems knowledge has come a long way.
This is not something to take lightly. I had no warning signs what so ever. I had about eight hours from start to when they said I would of died for all events to unravel and take place. While I had great success with gastric bypass immediately I had major problems keeping the weight off. It took me fifteen years to seek out what happen that changed my bypass so greatly. After tests I was told the surgeon when putting my intestines back together made the empty of the stomach so large the food just falls through leaving my entire intestinal track to hold what a stomach would. While I am thankful the surgeon saved my life, I am sad that thirty years later I am disabled due to my weight and health. I am trying to seek a revision but in my case it is far more than a revision and while having two stomach surgeries each one greater than that last I will be facing the most serious one if I can get insurance to cover it.
Good luck to anyone that is facing this. If you even think it could be this don't hesitate it's a very serious situation.