Why Did You Bother?

We are a society of "quick fixers". None of use would be in OH if we didn't at one time have eating 'issues'.
Part of the problem with regain is that many surgeons don't provide a good enough support care afterwards and we get busy with life and don't seek it out ourselves.
There ARE absolutely medical things that happen with WLS~of ALL KINDS~and not everyone who has a revision has it because they 'ate too much'. When I had my original gastric stapling in 1992 it was all that was offered in my city. The surgeon who did it saw me 2 times post-op and once my sutures were out...ADIOS, Amiga! I was on my own.
Within the first 2 yrs my GEJ (gastroesophageal junction) stenosed. If I ate even rice, it got stuck and I was 3 days vomiting til it finally disintegrated enough to pass. In no way could I thnk of eating even blenderized meats for protein. I could only tolerate liquids and yogurt thickness, ALL of which are HI Carb & SUGARS. I vomited so much peers thought I had become anorexic. NOT!! I just didn't want to have the stapling reversed. I got myself online (in 1995) and, as a medical professional, sought out the MD doing WLS the longest (700 miles away) and emailed him. He took me under his wings and told me what tests to ask for and I forwarded the results to him (over the next year). By then I had a hiatal hernia, probably caused by the vomiting, and HE told me about the stenosis at the GEJ. He scheduled me for a revision and I've been good to go ever since...13 long years.
I, too, sometimes get frustrated with people *****gain all their weight then cry about it, but I do know that in my BIG city I live in there is NO SUPPORT aside from each Bariatric Group and once they are done with you, you are fairly on your own.
I've found, over my own journey, that support AND exercise are the 2 keys to keeping weight off forever! If you do only one or the other, you still end up regaining...NOT 100% of people, but too many. I'm also a HUGE believer in counseling. We all eat or ate for a reason and no surgery removed that. No matter what the issue is for each, counseling can't hurt and may help in oh so many ways.
I'm not here to criticize anyone. I've learned all of these things ON my journey. I'm NOT perfect; don't ever aspire to be~it's a tall pedestal to fall off of. I try to be caring to all and to look at those struggling as if they were one of my kids or my best friends, and I'd NOT attack them...ever. Making someone who already feels bad, feel worse does not help them to move forward ever.
Life's about choices. Sometimes we make good ones and sometimes we make not so hot ones~we are all humans.

Here is to your special day and all the glory that you should feel in getting there and being so talented in not regaining! Wooooo Hooooo! I keep my worst pic on my refrigerator to remind me how awful I FELT when I was 392 lbs and you are correct, NO FOOD tastes, to me, as good as thinner and healthy feels today.

I applaud your honesty to share your feelings.  And I'm proud of each of the respondents' passion for their personal views on their own journeys.  I can definitely see where each of you is coming from.

Passion for our lives and our choices will hopefully fuel us on to long term success (well, passion and of course the work necessary to be successful!)

Love you all, love hearing your perspective and most of all love your passion for your choices and your willingness to pay it forward on these boards.

Have a great day!

Thank you Kim, wonderfully put.  This is what I was trying to say to both Beth and Heidi in my responses to their posts.  I hate to see anyone taking someone elses posts personally, but I also try to not let this forum overpower my "real" life.  I love the people on here that post regularly and are bold enough to speak out.  Both Heidi and Beth do that. 

Great post Heidi...I hate it when someone berates a person for choosing the "wrong" surgery, or for any other reason.  Deciding to have any kind of WLS is a personal, difficult, last option, and takes a lot of courage!  
Regarding guilt...guilt is what made me obese.  Fear was a factor as well, but mostly it was guilt over things that happened to me as a child over which I had no control or choice.  The fear came from needing a shield to protect myself because I didn't have a voice...
I may not have chosen what many consider to be an effective WLS, but it was the best choice for me and I stand by my choice.  I do have a voice and at 61, I am finally ridding myself of the guilt and fear that brought me to 290 lbs...today I am 10 months out and 68 lb down and my life is so much better.  If I never lose another pound, it has been worth it.
I am very motivated to continue to lose slowly...I owe that scared, guilt-ridden little girl a chance to finally blossom into a healthy adult woman. 

 You say this is a great post and you hate it when someone is berated for their surgery?!@? She is BERATING people who have gained weight! Why don't they get a break? So only fat people can be berated?

I read about wls failures all the time, people who made it to goal and gained it all back or people who get revised to another surgery because the first one didn't work as expected.  It leads me to the question of why did you have wls in the first place, what exactly was the motivation and the expectation and what is your responsiblity in all of this. 
This is not berating people for gaining weight back of because they are FAT...it is asking a valid question about what our role and responsiblity is in achieving success (as we define it).  That is how I read it.
I can tell you for a fact I carry around a ****load of guilt that I had to resort to surgery to fix my inability to diet and keep myself from becoming diabetic which means I take a serious interest in keeping myself from regaining.  I made it to my goal and I keep myself in check or my surgery keeps me in check and I remain where I am because I refuse to fail, I refuse to let anyone say look there goes another one who gained it all back, what a waste of our insurance dollars, they lose the weight and then start eating and drinking and stop trying to take care of themself.  Everyone knows that person who had wls and turned into an alchoholic or the one who gained it all back. 
Some might be offended by this paragraph, especially if one has dealt with any of the issues she mentions; regain, cross addiction and generally checking out on life...but Heidi is just pointing out her own fears of failure and how we might be perceived by others if we fail with WLS...you and I both know that obese individuals are treated differently and those who lose and regain (surgically or not) are judged much more harshly.
Do we have a responsiblity to keep ourselves healthy at whatever goal that means because we were given a gift of a second chance?  For me the answer is yes, I try to be a rolemodel of wls success because its important to me to keep diabetes as far at bay as possible and I want to be as thin and healthy as is possible for me.  Will I ever be a size 2 again, more then likely not, but I am squarely a 6 and here is where I plan to stay.  Honestly gaining more weight makes me depressed, its bad enough I have size 4 skirts that are tight, its amazing what 10lbs can do to your size, but I celebrate where I am, yes I said celebrate like actually go out and say yeah me on my recent wls anniversary.  Whats to celebrate on my birthday, the day I came into the world to two parents, one of who didn't want me, conceived on a night of drunk passion on new years.  Yeah my birthday doesn't mean very much to me at all, but my wls anniversary means the world to me, its the day I decided to be free of the bondage of excess weight.  And I say **** you to anyone who tries to take my day away from me, success is a choice, I chose to not fail wls and that does mean some sacrifice.  There is no ice cream on earth that tastes as good as a thin healthy body feels.  Period.
I read this as just explaining why she is so adamant about keeping the weight off and how much being able to have WLS requires a certain level of personal responsibility for the outcome, short term and long term...and that she is willing to sacrifice in order to do it.
I would be the last person to endorse berating someone for failing at anything...one thing I don't appreciate is your post taking me to task for appreciating the positive parts of Heidi's post. 

Then entire TONE of her post, even the title was judging and berating - herself and everyone who has WLS.  If she focused on herself and left "everyone" else out of it, it would be different.

I am not familiar with the OP, but based on some of the responses to her post, I would guess that she has pissed a few people off before...as I explained in a prior response that took ME to task for daring to appreciate some of the positiveness (is that a word?) in the post, from a personal perspective, how I read the post. 
I did not get that she was suggesting that Beth should have had an abortion...and I still don't think that was her intent.  I think her intent was to say that when you want something so badly you will even risk your health to have it, whether it is a baby or being thin...I don't think the two wants are really analogous...a baby's life is so heavily weighted against just about anything else that we would want.
On a personal note, having grown up in an environment that was horrifically abusive, I probably related to her saying that her surgery anniversary is more important than her actual date of birth because she was unwanted...
Sorry if I ruffled some feathers...I love Beth and subscribe to and read her blog daily and follow her on Facebook...
Thanks for the feedback.

When did you become the revision police? Hate to break it to you, but you aren't qualified.

Get off the cross. We need the wood.