Amazing, I wish you a speedy recovery! I am looking into revision from sleeve (12 years out) to SADI myself.

I had surgery in '06. For the last couple of years I've been getting iron infusions off and on. This is my fifth week this time around but my level is still going down. About a month ago I had a bone biopsy. My doctor says he can't figure out why my level isn't improving. Starting Monday I'm starting on shots instead. Anyone else having this problem?

1. I had RNY in 2005. I don't post much but read a lot.

2008 Ungson Hermosillo...this place hold close to my heart... new struggles

(2008) 273 down to 167 (2014ish) lowest

maintaining at 194 after 14 yrs...

still need to seriously up workout to get off meds but when I think back on my whole life and the things I made it thru, Having a second weight lost surgery, traveling to Hermosillo alone having my surgery alone coming back to the US having a stricter at anastomosis and then going back to Hermosillo and then only getting help after coming back (Yes I had stomach stapling in 2001 and got down to 205 in 2004).

It was the hardest but BEST thing I ever did for myself by myself..i use it as encouragement daily. it saved my life..

Vitalady was so helpful RIP...

In your situation, I would certainly strive for the DS, as what revisions that are typically done for the RNY are minor tweaks - installing a band over the bypass or one of several stoma tightening procedures, none of which seem to have a very good track record for stimulating much additional weight loss.

I don't know if Dr. Inman does the RNY to DS revision - that is a complex revision that is another level above the basic DS, and few surgeons do it - but she would be a good start. I know that Rabkin and Keshisian out here in CA do them and I believe that Roslin in NYC has done them (and there may be others in the NY crowd who do them) but you usually have to cast your net wide in finding the right doc.

As Patty noted, worry more about getting the right procedure for you than how close the surgeon is. Most in the DS business are used to dealing with travelling patients and doing their pre op and post op care and longer term sustaining care remotely. I travelled to SF from LA just to get my VSG from the Rabkins because there was no one in the LA area at the time who had much experience with them, and they had been doing them for around twenty years by then, via the DS. So, it is certainly worth travelling to get what you need, if you can swing it.

Another option that some will promote in your situation is to convert your standard proximal RNY to a distal RNY, which combines your RNY pouch with the greater malabsoprtion of the DS. This tends to be a fairly problematic procedure and I suspect that the main issue is that the surgeons rarely do them, and don't really appreciate the different nutritional and supplement requirements, and their patients suffer as a result. Most practices that do the DS do so as their primary or preferred procedure, so they are well versed in its requirements and whats needed to keep their patients healthy in the long term. My wife has been on some of the meds that you mention and they haven't been a problem with her DS; there might be adjustments to be made, but between the surgeon's experience and that of other veteran post ops in the practice, they are quite manageable, as the knowledge base is there to draw from.