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Your old stomach before the VSG could hold somewhere between 32 and 48 ounces of food at a time. Your sleeve could hold a few ounces. When I taught classes for pre-surgery patients, I did this demonstration.
I had an empty 2-liter bottle of soda. Next to the empty bottle I placed the cap from the bottle. The bottle represented the old stomach, the cap the new stomach. There is a dramatic difference in capacity.
With the new tiny stomach, weight falls off effortlessly. But after a few years, we learn how to eat as much as before the surgery. We learn to eat more servings of smaller amounts, usually eating a little bit at a time during most of the day.
This happens whether we have trauma in our lives or if we are perfectly happy and content. Most gain back twenty pounds in third year after surgery. By the fifth year at least half of patients have gained back 50 pounds. Many have gained back all of their lost weight before ten years.
You still have your sleeve. It may have stretched out from the overeating, but it never can get back to the size of your old stomach. A revision might make it an ounce or two smaller, but we have learned how to eat plenty of food with a small stomach.
The 20 pound loss is because of the diet to prepare for the surgery and the liquid diet a few weeks after while it heals. After that people go right back to eating as they always did and that is the end of the weight loss.
The only way to lose weight again is by eating less calories and burning more calories. A revision will not make that happen. What will make it happen is getting on a diet and exercise program and sticking with it.
I had RNY in 2007. Yesterday I was 12 pounds over my weight goal. I am working on losing those 12 pounds, but will be thrilled if I lose 6 of them in the next few months.
I have gained weight and taken it off again several times since surgery. I follow Weigh****chers and attend a virtual meeting every day. I love WW because I can have any food I want as long as I track it. I get great support from their team. I also exercise for 30 minutes at least 4 times a week.
I never again will have quick weight loss like I did after surgery. I accept the fact that I must be on a diet for life if I want to avoid weight gain. The revision that I had was in my brain.
Real life begins where your comfort zone ends
Good morning all,
I've been poking around, now I'm ready to ask for help as to where I should be starting.
I live in VA, am 49, and I had a VGS 9 years ago - start weight was 282, lowest point of weight loss was 185.
I've had a lot of family trauma (my father was murdered and then my mother passed dramatically 1 year later, followed by MUCH drama from step father ongoing). I know the death and legal stuff from my father was stressing and I started eating poorly again, but I think that I HONESTLY didn't put the work in pre-surgery as far as figuring out the WHY...I'm not committed to revision surgery right now -- just thinking about it, researching, and trying to PUT IN WORK on the WHY part!
So, the help I'm looking for:
1) what type of revisions are available for VGS?
2) any recommendations for doctors in VA (northern VA specifically but willing to travel for better surgeon/results)? My original doctor was Denis Halmi from BluePoint (who now works 75 miles away at another practice, not interesting in going back to him but have looked into another doctor from his old practice, Dr. Amir Moazzez who now works at Inova Bariatric).
3) how do I now get to the WHY -- therapist?
4) i also know I need to figure out my untreated ADD (diagnosed after weight loss surgery, but I'm considering that the weight gain is related to some "typical" women ADD seeking stimulation from food --which I'm finding is more common in women and I had no idea it was even an issue or I would have attempted to address sooner.
5) I've read some posts about revision only offering 20lbs of losses...is that procedure specific, or just a general statement? Any input you have on this is appreciated.
6) anything else you think I need to be looking into, thinking about, researching, etc. websites, links, doctor info, etc. etc. etc. is GRATELY appreciated!!!
HW 286.7--SW 264.4--CW 184.2 M1-24.8//M2-14.8//M3-7.6//M4-10.0//M5-3.8//M6-8.4//M7-6.4//M8- 4.8//M9 +1
I have never heard of going from a RNY to a sleeve. I have heard of making the opening in the stoma tighter. Many surgeons convert a sleeve to RNY. But I have never heard of one that reversed RNY to a sleeve.
Converting a RNY to a sleeve would be a complicated procedure if that is what he is actually doing.
Taking down a RNY is only done by a few surgeons in the world. It is both complicated and dangerous.
I would do a lot more research and get other opinions before agreeing to doing this.
Real life begins where your comfort zone ends
I am wondering if anyone has heard of revising from gastric bypass to a sleeve?
I had gastric bypass surgery in 2014 and lost 125lbs getting down to 145lbs at my lowest. I then got pregnant within my 1st year. I am now at 215lbs and my surgeon says my pouch is still small but the opening is too large and has suggested and scheduled a revision to a sleeve in October. I am hoping to find others who have gone through something similar because I can't find much information on this type of revision.
Thank you!
That is true and every person is different. I would love to hear more about what you are having done and what the results have been with other patients.
Real life begins where your comfort zone ends
Hey there Kathy,
I am a 53 yo professional who is having a revision to my RNY. I am not going to a DS. I am having a Distalization done. Results from that type of revision will yield much different results.
I am happy to share what I know with you.
What type of revision are you seeking?
My revision is not going to reduce the size of my pouch. If that was what I was having done, then yes, I know that there are ways to eat more.
Not all revisions are the same so I was just inquiring as to where the 20 lbs of weight loss post revision was coming from.
Thanks for the clarification of what type of revision you were commenting about!
Your old stomach before surgery held about 32 to 48 ounces. Think of a 2-liter soda bottle. You could hold one or two of those full of food.
After surgery you get a pouch that is about two ounces. Maybe the size of a walnut. You eat a tiny amount of food and you are stuffed. The pouch grows to about the size of a large egg. As it grows we learn how to eat more.
We get good at eating many times during the day and gaining weight even with a tiny stomach.
A revision might cut the pouch down from eight to four ounces, but that is not a big shock because it is almost the same as before. And we know how to put enough food into our pouch to maintain and gain weight.
Almost everyone goes back to drinking with their meals instead of waiting 30 minutes. Drinking with meals really helps to eat a lot more.
Most revision patients lose 20 pounds because they are on a restrictive diet preparing for and after surgery. But once they are able to eat normally again, they go back to the same amount of food as before the surgery.
The only way to lose weight is by eating less calories and burning more calories. Just waiting for the magic that happened after the first weight loss surgery does not work.
Real life begins where your comfort zone ends
Just wondering where the 20 weight loss post revision is the norm. I have not heard that anywhere before. What kind of revision did they have and what was their original surgery procedure?
thanks in advance
I primary Dr suggested to me that a revision would be beneficial to me. I reached out to the Bariatric Surgery Team and spoke to a surgeon. My original surgeon has retired but amazingly the surgeon that I was assigned actually worked with my original surgeon. He is familiar with how my surgery was performed and has recommended a Distalization to be done. I am just learning about this process as I type this but my estimated surgery will be in November 2021. The tests they are running are a ton of blood work looking at levels of "everything" seriously. I had to have an EGD to check the "plumbing" and just working on getting my vitamin D, Iron, Zinc etc levels up.
I know that gastric bypass surgery is just a tool and I have a lot of hard work ahead of me. I'm here to share and look for support. Lot's of life changes have happened in the past 6 years and I am looking forward to this door opening up for me in the near future.
