Search the Community

So I just had this revision, and I can tell you that the weight loss will not be like it was with the sleeve. I had it because I developed GERD, esophagitis, gastritis, and a TON of pre-cancerous polyps all through my stomach. So I also didn't have a choice. I was on 80mg daily of Nexium and still had break through GERD. With the sleeve, I lost 30 pounds in the first 2 weeks. With the revision, I lost 14. I also wasn't interested in doing it for weight loss, since I was chugging along and doing well until it all went stupid. My goal was to get back to living my life, get back to my beast mode work outs, get back to feeling good and not having pain. And that's what the surgery is doing for me. Losing additional weight is inevitable, but eating the stuff you're eating right now is not the way to add additional weight. The sugar and heavy carbs are a no no, especially once you have the bypass. Keep in mind, the more weight you add on now, the more you'll lose. If you really feel the need to try and pad your weight a little, do it by adding additional protein, add in an additional meal or 2 snacks (but don't make them junk). Increase your calories, not your carbs and sugar. Again, I'm not saying this is what you should be doing, but if you're determined to add weight on before the surgery, at least do it in a healthier way than what you're doing now. I can also say, the recovery from the bypass has been SO SO much better than with the sleeve. I honestly wish I had just done the bypass to begin with. So much less pain, I was up and around faster, able to do things better, could handle my pills and supplements (had to crush or completely eliminate them with the sleeve for the first 4-5 weeks), able to handle cold liquids (couldn't with the sleeve), able to get my fluids in so much easier (I drank a 20oz of water in the hospital the day after my surgery and could barely handle 3-4oz with the sleeve). So all in all, I'm exceptionally happy I did the revision. No more GERD, no more PPI, no more pain, much easier recovery, and while the weight is still coming off, it's doing so at a slower and more manageable pace. I wish you all the luck, and I promise you'll feel so much better after the revision.

Synlee, sorry for the late reply (been out of town). My buddy's wife had similar issues, although not as bad as you. She couldn't keep anything solid down, but could do liquids. It lasted for over a year with multiple revision surgeries to try to open up her esophagus. Finally, she switched doctors and he was able to solve the issue. She is eating real food now and doing much much better. I hope everything gets better, but if it persists, you might look at visiting another bariatric doc just to get a second opinion.

I was sleeved in Mexico in 2009, and two years later I lost my gall bladder because all I did was focus on protein and nothing else. I wish I had known that we CAN overdo protein. I wish I'd known that too much protein will kill your gall bladder, your kidneys, and your liver. I wish I'd exercised from the get-go instead of waiting 3 years to finally start getting on that elliptical. It would have given me more muscle tone and less hanging skin. I wish I'd stuck to my exercise instead of letting myself get overwhelmed with all the tragedies I experienced from 2014-2020. I wish I'd gotten therapy instead of looking to Xanax, Ambien, and alcohol to distract me. I'm 23 days out of a revision from a sleeve to a bypass due to weight gain. This journey is going to be much harder than my sleeve. Treasure your sleeve, work with it, respect it. *Edit: You're goal right now should be to hydrate and keep walking. Even just the shuffling around the house is good. It helps prevent blood clots and helps flush out the anesthesia and water retention from the IV fluids. Shuffle around the house 3 or 4 times a day. Count 500 or 600 steps each time. It gets easier. Don't be bending over to grab stuff from the floor. Ask someone to help or get a $10 extended arm grabber thingy. That helped me a lot when I would drop my sock or my vitamin on the floor. 😊

I had sleeve surgery done 9 years ago in 2014. I'm 5'4" and started at 202 pounds. I lost down to 102, and looked awful. It took me until 2017 to gain back to a healthy weight of 115. I have remained in the general vicinity of 113 - 117 since. From the start I've have terrible GERD. In February of this year my gastro said the GERD is out of control and I cannot put it off anymore, it's time for me to convert to bypass. I do NOT want to do this. I sought the opinions of 3 of doctors all of which said the same thing. I had EGD, upper GI series, manometry, and pH with Bravo. Surgeon said it's worse than they initially thought, and that I need surgery now. He submitted to insurance on Monday (3 days ago). He expects me to have surgery within a couple of weeks. When this was mentioned in February I weighed 116. I immediately started eating all the things to up my weight. I live on Crumbl Cookies, lemon cream pie, crackers with cheese, and potato chips. I've always eaten those things, but now I'm eating them nonstop. I'm currently at 124 pounds. I am scared to death about losing weight again. Surgeon says he expects me to lose around 20 pounds. That's too much. I don't want too look like that again. I'm happy with how I look now. I also am not at all interested in the process of all of it again. WLS is part of my past that I was happy to be done with. I don't want to do it again. It has been made abundantly clear to me that I have to do it, but I'm scared and sad. I don't know what I'm looking for here, maybe just looking to share these feelings and get them off my chest.

I had a serious case of buyer's remorse during my second week post op. I even thought, "I should've just stayed the way I was!" But I am feeling better. I try to do a lot of reading about the bypass and revisions. I'm a sleeve to bypass revision. I'm 23 days out and at a weight stall. I'm finding it hard to consume more than 56-64 oz of water a day. I'm craving caffeine like crazy. And I'm experiencing constipation and not sure how to add more fiber without adding more carbs. It's tricky getting just enough of this and not too much of that. What's helping my mindset, though, is looking back at my very first pic (starting weight) and looking at my most recent. I haven't lost much (comparatively speaking), but I feel better. I can wash the dishes, cook dinner for my daughter, and bathe without running out of breath or having my back aching and burning. I can dress myself without having to sit on the bed. My skin looks fantastic. Focus on all of the things that have gotten better since your pre-op diet. Focus on the future weight loss you'll experience (even if it's going slower than you'd like). Focus on things you'll be able to consume in a couple of months. You can look up recipes and save them for month 2 and month 3 and so on. Also, I don't know if you pray, but if you do, pray for peace of mind. All of these things help me, and they may help you as well.

You nailed it about the “mind hunger.” I didn’t have it as much with the original bypass, probably because those no-no foods felt uncomfortable and/or I dumped, always out the back way. It took almost 2 years to be able to eat the bad stuff. After what turns out to be Part 1 of my revision surgery, it took a lot less, plus I don’t dump. I spoke with my surgeon to say that I wasn’t sure the Argon zapping was working, and she told me that the revision process takes several surgeries and that I should have been contacted by their obesity management team and scheduled for the next procedure. They’re working on scheduling that for August, and I’m in contact with the team. She also suggested calorie counting, as well as some of those online weight management sites like Noom. It’s as much about how you think of food and realizing why you overeat. I was getting therapy, but it was once a month, and I don’t think it really helped.

WHen I had my sleeve, I had to have chewables. They're SO nasty. OMG. So when I had my revision to bypass, I bought liquids, thinking I wouldn't be able to swallow any pills (I couldn't do any kind of pills with my sleeve for like 4 weeks). I was shocked when I found I could take ALL my pills with absolutely no issues at all by day 5 after the bypass. So now I have the liquid vitamins that I'm finishing up and then I'll be switching to normal bariatric vitamins (mostly because I refuse to waste money lol )

I just want to say, as someone who had the sleeve and then a revision to bypass, the sleeve recovery was the hardest. I am completely STUNNED at how much easier the bypass recovery has been. So for those of you who had the sleeve and are struggling, I promise it'll get better. It took me darn near 4 weeks before I was completely pain free. It took 4 days with the bypass. I never lost hunger with either surgery, and I lost what little restriction I had with the sleeve around week 4. The key is to talk to those who have been there and understand the struggle. Some therapy is also huge. The surgery is a tool, but it doesn't change your relationship with food. The mental part of this is actually the toughest part. I promise you, even if you have real hunger, the head hunger is the hardest thing to get past. I can ignore real hunger. But the mind f**k you get from your brain telling you you're hungry, you're starving, you have to have this or that, you can't go without it... that's where the work actually begins. Learning to get over that. Once you do, and you train yourself to recognize true hunger vs head hunger, and you learn how to ignore the head hunger, that's when you've truly won. And it's hard, I won't lie. VERY hard. But it absolutely CAN be done. I promise you that.

Hi OP, not sure what you mean by 'a series of surgeries' for revision. Most people seem to get just one procedure. Can you explain further? Also what does your name indicate - unusual choice considering the surname is sexual. And... no revision (and no surgery) will work if you 'go on a tear'. It's possible to eat around both virgin and revision procedures. Wishing you all the luck. Feel free to provide more information if you need genuine assistance with your current situation 👍 S

Not only follow-up, pre-surgery education about what to expect in terms of weight loss, and that there is a series of surgeries to be done before the revision is complete.

I never lost my hunger from my sleeve. Not once. And now I've had my revision from sleeve to bypass, still hungry all the time. So sometimes it happens.

I had the Argon-zapping revision surgery in June 2022. I started losing weight, to the extent that people noticed. I lost 40 pounds from my pre-surgery weight. My 16th-century dresses fit better. I noticed that I would get stuck at a certain weight. I also got constipated. Getting unconstipated helped with the weight loss. At 40 pounds lost, I got stuck for a long time. I got frustrated. At one point, I got an appetite for pastries, and I went on a tear. I gained 20 pounds. I thought that perhaps the revision wasn’t working. I have lost 13 of those pounds (being poor-ish helps). I just had a telehealth visit with my surgeon. She said that I am at a better place than expected! She gave me more information about revision surgery. One procedure isn’t enough, and I should have been scheduled for the second procedure and been followed by their obesity surgery team. I will be scheduled for the next surgery in August. If you’re frustrated about weight loss after revision surgery, speak with your surgeon, and ask if there are further surgeries that are part of your plan. One surgery isn’t the end-all of your plan!

Hi All. I'm scheduled for gastric bypass revision surgery on 7/24/23. I originally had gastric bypass 12/12/2012. Today is the first day of my liquid diet. I'm looking forward to hopefully connecting with some of you who are also having surgery this month! Cheers to new beginnings

The good news is that this seems to be fairly normal - our weight loss when we start a major effort, surgical or not, tends to be front loaded - lots of initial loss, mostly water weight, and then slows down. Plus you are just getting in.to the "three week stall" window where weight loss typically slows or stops for a bit while the body absorbs what has happened to it, and then resumes (though usually at a slower rate.) The not so good news is that as a revision, weightloss is typically slower and less than with the original surgery. My simple minded thought on this is that originally, our stomachs will hold 32-64 oz, but now after your original WLS and whatever stretch and adaptation it goes through over the years, it might hold 4-6 oz, yet you have adapted to that (learned how to eat around your sleeve/pouch) and still regained. So things will be slower. And, the biggest loss tends to be around surgery time when we are stuck with the highly restrictive pre- and post-op dieting. Additionally, the RNY is metabolically similar to your original VSG, so it doesn't provide a big change over what you had - so it is much slower going the second time around. (The DS, duodenal switch, is stronger metabolically than either of the others, so does work somewhat better on regain, but few surgeons offer it, or mention it.) Those who I have seen who have done really well with revision weight loss are those who take the "I'm not going to let that happen again" attitude and really knuckle under and get, and stay with, the program.

From what I have read in the revision forum, you don't lose like you did the first time when you have the revision. So I wouldn't stress about it,

I'm using the Bariatric Fusion multivitamin chewable. I'm taking 1 three times throughout the day. I added a separate chewable B12, plus a chewable iron, a chewable biotin, and a chewable calcium. The thing with the bypass is that because of the malabsorption, we need to take them several times a day because we don't absorb the way sleevers do. I am a revision from sleeve to bypass (20 days out). It won't do us any good to take a large amount of any vitamin just once or twice a day because we won't absorb it anyway. We'll have better luck taking the regular amounts several times a day. This way, we give our bodies several opportunities to absorb some of the vitamins we're consuming. Also, we shouldn't take iron and calcium together because they compete for absorption. Those should be taken at least 2-3 hours apart.

Life just sometimes throws crap at you & it sounds like you went through the worst of it. So sorry. Sounds like you are the right thing (& yes avoid fruit at the moment). Ten pounds is far from a bad loss & you’re certainly not failing. I’d lost about 11lbs at 18 days & my surgeon was happy with my rate of loss. Remember too that many don’t lose as quickly or as much after a revision.

Here's my concern with what you just said. If it says 25 carbs, you will drink it. But what about carbs in other things? Are you staying below your allotted carb count for the entire day, or are you counting the carbs based on each individual item and not the entire day as a whole? Your allotted carbs for the entire day are much lower than they were pre-surgery, so make sure you're paying attention to that and staying at or below your carb amount for the whole day. For me, I can't go above 50 carbs for the whole day, but I tend to stay at around 30 for the day. You have to watch the protein, fat, carb, and calorie intake now. My nutritionist said my allowable numbers are: Calories - no more than 500 calories per day (based on being where you're at in the process)m carbs: 50 or less, fat: 50 or less, and protein: 60-90g. I just had my revision, so I'll have to start my process over once I'm done with all liquids, but given the guidelines, there's no way I would ever drink anything that was 15, 20, or 25 carbs per serving.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm new here. I was looking for some kind of forum where I could interact with others like me. I think I may have found it. I live in South Texas, and I had a sleeve gastrectomy in Mexico in 2009 when I was 35. I initially weighed 340 lbs and lost 149 lbs. and went from a size 32 to a size 14. My goal was a 12, but I was really happy. I was exercising 5x a week on the elliptical for a whole hour nonstop! I kept the weight off for approximately 6 years. Unfortunately, all kinds of tragic events started changing my life. In 2014 my father passed away, and I took it really, really hard. I ended up on Xanax and Ambien. In 2015, I got divorced. In 2016, my mother passed away. In 2017, I was transferred from a job I really enjoyed to a brand new location with all different people to work with. Then the COVID Pandemic kept me teaching from home for a year and a half. It was literally one heartbreak after another. Rather than looking for actual help, I helped myself... to pills, alcohol, and crap food. Over the past 9 years, I regained all my weight. Even though I still felt restriction in eating (i.e. only half a burger or 1.5 slices of pizza, with no sides or drinks and I was done). I was 10 lbs away from my original weight before my sleeve. Last year, though, my school district sent out an email stating that WLS was now covered by our insurance. I was so excited! I looked into it, made many calls, and thought coverage was out of the question because I had already had a surgery. Our insurance covers "one surgery per life." However, since my first surgery was private pay, they went ahead and accepted covering my revision to a bypass. Today is my 18th day post op. I've lost 42 lbs altogether since May 11, but only 10 of those lbs since the surgery. I feel a little blue because I was hoping for more than a 10lb loss in 3 weeks. I lost more weight at the beginning when I started a semi-liquid diet to prepare for surgery. I was doing 3 shakes and one solid, no-carb meal. I know that revisions are slower than virgin surgeries. I am doing as much reading and research as I can. I just can't help it, I guess. After my sleeve, the weight loss was phenomenal. Right now I am consuming 450 cals, 60 g protein, and keeping my carbs under 40g. I am walking around my house (not outside because South Texas) 4x a day and was told I could start on the treadmill this coming Monday. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I'm also trying to find ways to consume fiber without a lot of carbs. I've eaten 1/2 cup of pinto beans twice but, man, that's a lot of carbs. I wanted to try raspberries, but I'm afraid of the little seeds getting stuck in my sutures. Any advice, thoughts, suggestions?

Today weigh in is 172. The post op diet helps to lose so this hasn’t been so bad. I did re-gain (my own choice) to the 160 area and took it a little over when I knew I was getting the revision. So I am 8+ lbs less than my original weight pre surgery and 17 lbs down in 3 weeks from when I left the hospital. I don’t thinks that’s too bad. My worries are at ease because I don’t see the 140 happening anytime soon. Lots of my loss has been fluid and the rest I took on due to being afraid to look sickly again.

good suggestion. I can't modify my original post to request this info, so i'll look up each person's profile and input what it says the type of surgery they had. Not everyone fills this in, so we'll do with what info we have. Also, for those with revisions, only their latest surgery will be noted as it will start to get hairy if i have to cross-reference exactly WHEN they had thier revision...

I understand the pain of trying to find a surgeon! I've been trying for the last two years to find a surgeon that would even touch me because I'm not actually having the DS done for weight loss (Although that is a really amazing benefit of it) I had a Nissen fundoplication done in 2005 that has failed and no surgeon wants to revise another's work here locally, so I'm going back and forth 5.5 hours each way to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. So I have a huge learning curve as this wasn't even something I thought was an option until my doctor told me it was his plan to fix me so that I'd have a chance at normalcy again. I'm just looking forward to being able to eat something with flavor. Everything gives me heartburn at this point (including certain brands of bottled water) it's nuts. I basically eat potato soup every day because I know it's something I can handle. I'm hopeful as we get closer and I learn more. But I have also come to the conclusion that some of this will just be embracing the suck.

I had a full RNY revision from VSG due to reflux and a hiatal hernia and it really helped me! I wish I had just had the RNY from the start. So happy I had the revision!

Full broad revision. Helped tremendously. No more burning throat (silent reflux), and I never wake up in the middle of the night with acid burning up to my nose.

My doctor is recommended I have a bypass revision done (currently 5 years put on my sleeve) as I have severe GERD and weight gain. For those that have had this done….. which bypass did they do? Full ? Mini? Or? and did it help? Thanks in advance.