Looking for Members who have Been Re-Sleeved or Had Second Sleeve

Hi

I know there are some who do this due to issues with their first surgery, I am hoping to find anyone who has been sleeved again because their sleeve worked and they regained all their lost weight. I am interested in knowing if things felt significantly different in surgery with recovery, going through the motions the first 6 weeks and also any advice and tips as someone who is trying to correct their behaviour from first sleeve.

Also more than happy to receive general advice.

And just a note to first timers and newbies - This is not inevitable and does not need to happen to you, I did not change my habits in healthy ways in the long run, I did not become a physically active person and I chose high caloric foods and grazing and had lots of eating to vomiting incidents even up to 4-5 years post op.

I just  had my sleeve but  I am curious , what are your plans for the new sleeve?  Do you think you are ready this time around to change your habits?  How do you know?  I  want to learn and hopefully prevent  this from happening to me down the road. 

Hi, thanks for your curiosity :D I in no way regret my decision first time round, I learned a lot, had a couple of great 'slim' years and I am far more positive about myself and my body now.  All because of the process and despite having a need to have it re-done now.

As you can tell I am already aware of what it was I did wrong the first time - I think acknowledging that is part of it. 

I have a mental health issue that was undiagnosed/mis-diagnosed until almost 2 years post op - I am currently very actively learning lots of new skills to deal with my condition (and life in general)
My partner and I want to have a child, so I have a set goal of where I want to be in relation to my physical health 12mnths post op, so that we can start trying and know that I am the best me I can be

So strategy wise I am going to do the following:
- Create several Meal Plans based on my current tastes for each phase of post op recovery phase and have all of those ingredients on hand. Keep doing this when I get to solid food
- if I am some where that I don't have access to measures or scales have a better awareness of portions in relation to my pouch
- Ive started to teach DB about what I need to do to be successful so we both know what my goals are, and he can remind me of this if I seem to be struggling
- Have a list of things to do instead of eat when I notice that I am hungry for emotional reasons
- If I do eat emotionally don't beat myself up about it but try to figure out why it happened so I can learn from it
- make sure I track for as long as possible what I am using to nourish myself (with something like MFP) so I can tell what foods have what effects on me emotionally and physically
- Keep a non-obssessive eye on my weight and have a tolerance weight either side of my goal, that will make me re-focus and get back to my goal 
- Finish a couch to 5k program - even if I decide after that running isn't for me, I will fini****
- Start doing exercise I enjoy and will keep doing, but make it minimally invasive in my life so that it isn't to give u*****t do but becomes like brushing my teeth
- be nice to myself, I deserve to be fit and healthy and I can do it :D

It's hard to explain how different it feels this time.  And it feels almost silly to say some of the things I did last time 
I know the focus is to get in your protein first, but this is not an option for me - I need to focus on getting a nutritionally balanced meal that is a quarter of the size I can eat now.
I know the focus is on nutrient dense foods, but I chose calorie dense instead.
I very quickly started grazing and never realised it was a trap or that I was using it to get more calories I didn't need.
I still ordered main sized meals, knowing how I would lament not eating it all.  Now I know that if I do order a full meal, the point is not to try to put as much of it as I can into my tummy so that I teeter on the edge of vomiting (and slip over that edge too).  The point is to savor and enjoy the taste and then stop.  Fullness is not pleasant and doesn't actually help me in any way. And on top of that it causes more problems. 

Post got cut off somehow
I hope some of what I have said is useful to you (or anyone else) and I am hoping that there are some out there who have some that I can add to my arsenal of strategies to be better

I'm still a newbie so I don't know much about re-sleeving. But, I was curious to what type of foods and amounts your are eating. I was hoping some senior members would chime in here too. Have you went back to the vary basics with your eating?

This may seem like a silly question, but what has happened to your sleeve physically to warrant a re-sleeve? People have said here that anyone can eat around the tightest sleeve if you graze, drink your calories or choose calorie dense foods. So unless your sleeve has stretched out to massive proportions and you don't have any restriction anymore when you do eat dense protein and non starchy vegetables, I am wondering what your expectations are of a re-sleeve? A sleeve doesn't change behaviour. It is a tool that helps you along with a change in behaviour but the onus is on you. Do you still have restriction at all?

 

I think this answers both the above questions re what I am hoping for physically and what I am able to eat now.

Physically:

From testing - endoscopy and barium swallow - this is a direct quote from the endoscopy which was done by a bariatric surgeon - significant dilation of the fundus and proximal body of the stomach, consistent with the barium swallow findings. The stomach appears otherwise normal.

I don't remember or maybe never saw my xrays from the leak test 1 day post op, but if you look at the pics of what a sleeve is mine has gone back to what it was before (but it is still not like it was before I will elaborate in a sec)

Sensation Wise:
If I go to a restaurant now, I can eat two courses with wine and mineral water and bread, but I can't make it to dessert.  So I do still have restriction.  But in real terms it isn't really restriction because anyone who can eat two courses along with liquids can gain weight quite easily - in other words I have no need to work around my sleeve to gain weight.  My weight however has remained reasonably stable for the last 3 or so years. (just for reference, I could definitely have eaten a full 3 course meal with drinks before my sleeve)

I lost all the weight I did by 6 months post op (30-35kg) and stayed there until 2yrs post op, I gained about 35kg over a period of 3 years - so about 1kg a month, then I stabilised.

I went to ww and exercised for 3 months late last year lost 10kg and then over 2 months (1kg a week) I gained it back.  I also attempted (at another point) an optifast style diet (meal replacements with non starchy vegetables) for a few weeks, but I didn't lose much on that and was not able to fight the hunger (the first few days), and the headaches and brainlessness (after that) that I associate with ketosis.

Neither 1600 calories a day (weigh****chers) with significant exercise, nor the Very Low Calorie Diet increased my restriction or decreased my hunger levels.

What am I wanting from the surgery:
A tool to help me by restricting my intake drastically for at least 6 months, while I use every strategy I have to learn to eat healthier and exercise, so that when the drastic restriction wears off  I am able to maintain my new habits long term in order to stay within 5kg of a weight that is healthy for me - reasonably active, more energy, no hypertension, no snoring.
It is also very important to me that my grhelin levels decrease again, because I get very hungry now if I try to attempt weight loss and exercise without this assistance.

I didn't just eat/drink/graze my way around the sleeve - I pretty much broke my tool and I (effectively) no longer have it.
I do take full responsibility for this.

Hopefully that makes sense.

 

 

 

 

Makes sense. Will your surgeon remove the fundus completely this time? That's the stretchiest part of the stomach and will significantly reduce the risk of it stretching again. Have you also considered something different, like adding malabsorption to your restriction and getting the DS? That has been the route many sleevers took when they went for revisions. Good luck with your further journey and great that you are taking action to get back to being healthy and in control. 

I am being re-sleeved this week.  Please let me know what to expect with my weight loss second time around... the doctor said I may lose slower this time!  Did the recovery take longer? I would love to hear of your experience.

I was sleeved in 2/08 and never reached goal.  I started a 248 and got down to 192.  Somehow I started gaining.  I think I thought I could go back to eating the stuff I ate before but still lose weight.  Now I'm back up to 215 and miserable.  I'm wondering if my sleeve was done correctly?  I was the first sleeve for my doctor and I don't know if he knew enough about it??  The surgery was perfect so I'm not complaining about the surgeon or the actual surgery, just wondering what size he made my sleeve and anything that maybe could have been done differently.  Bottom line is I need to get back to this forum and get some motivation and some different ideas for what I should be eating.  I still have some restriction but I can eat a whole cheese burger and that's not good.  So Quinita I'm wondering if your second surgery will be covered by insurance.  I realize you live in Australia so this might not be an issue for you.  I found my current insurance will NOT cover bariatric surgery and I'm not sure I'd want a second surgery.  I am going to go to a surgeon covered by my insurance plan and try to find out how badly my stomach has stretched.

So as Quinita said, if you don't change your eating habits you stand a HUGE chance of regaining the weight you lost.  Also, I think being part of a forum or support group will keep reminding you of what you need to do so you don't get totally off track like I did!

Hi Debbie, 
I self funded my first surgery (well I got a personal loan) as I did not have private cover. In Australia we all get free public system health cover (based on your income some of us pay a levy in tax - if we earn well and do not choose to have private cover).  Generally things that are not an emergency (elective surgery) has very long waiting lines or not feasible in the public system.  I have a reasonable income and have had hospital cover for a while, but something in my head told me that bariatric surgery was considered cosmetic like lipo . Recently I went in to upgrade my hospital cover to include pregnancy and fertility related items (have to wait an additional 12 months for that).  And I read through all of the paperwork that came with the package.  It was really only then I realised I was covered for bariatric surgery and had been even on my previous level of cover.  I had always said to my partner that if we had a spare $10K or so kicking around that wasn't earmarked for anything with a higher priority I would want to consider having WLS again.

So when I discovered I was covered (my out of pocket expenses with my surgeon would be around the $1K mark) I started doing research.

My surgeon said here in Australia a sleeve and a re-sleeve would use the same item number and that is all the insurance company looks at.  I checked with the insurance company and quoted the items numbers and they confirmed I was covered and had been covered previously too.  I still wasn't covered the first time I had my surgery, because I did not have any private hospital cover then.  I have had private cover since about 2 years post op, and there is a 12 month wait for any pre-existing conditions, so I am well and truly covered.

I am actually off to my surgeon appointment now. I am going to discuss potential dates, I have a few more questions to cement my decision about being sleeved again first - as opposed to being revised to a malabsorptive option and will hopefully know more in a few hours.

I 100% agree on support and forums - I went to ww and used MFP in an attempt to get to a healthier lifestyle and I do really well using that as a tool.