Original Surgery 2009

Hey guys! 

I want to have a revision surgery asap. I originally had RNY in 2009 but I never lost more than 40lbs.

Where do I start???

Do what I did, do a search and find bariatric surgeons who perform revisions and to from there. This is what I am doing right now. Had my original surgery September 2004. Found a wonderfull surgeon and presently am getting three test done. The first was today, an upper GI to determine where my staples are and to verify my pouch is too big. Next is my pulmonary, this Thursday, 18 April and the last my cardio (EKG) on 5 May. Then I hopefully can schedule my surgery for mid May.

Well first of all you need to find out if your insurance will cover it or if you will have to self pay and then you can find a surgeon. I would also suggest you figure out WHY the first one didn't help you lose more weight than that. You had a malabsorbtive surgery so it's hard not to lose. Did you eat too much or the wrong types of food? Not enough exercise? Did you get any counceling to deal with whatever caused you to gain in the first place? Surgery only changes the body, not the mind. You have to be able to make permanent lifestyles changes or a revision won't work either.

Also if RNY didn't work you may want to consider the DS and if that is the case then only a handful of surgeons are qualified to perform that surgery as it is a very difficult one to do. Try posting on the DS forum they are very smart about most surgeries over there. If you are talking about the ROSE or Stomaphyx, neither one of those are any good and you may as well keep your money in your pocket.

I wish you the best but you have many things to look at before you get started actually getting any procedure done. ASAP isn't a good thing when considering surgery of any kind.

Trust me I'm saying ASAP because I've researched this for YEARS... Thanks for sharing your opinion. 

Will insurance cover your revision, or are you self pay? What surgery do you want to have your RNY revise to? Do you have a surgeon picked out for the revision? If you have all that figured out, and can give additional details it would help to narrow down what the next steps are. If you don't know the answers to the questions above, then start there. Different doctors and insurances require different things for a revision surgery, but you will need additional tests ran before your revision...like a barium swallow so you revision doc can see what was done during the previous surgery, your record from your previous surgery etc. Do you have any idea why you only lost 40 lbs with the RNY...if you don't mind sharing? If you have an underlying health issue preventing the weight loss then you might need to be tested for that as well.

So what sort of revision are you planning? I'm guessing if you've researched for years, you're looking for a surgeon who can do an RNY-to-DS revision, and there are many of them. Here's a list:

Did Dr. Stewart pass away last year?