shriner37

Just curious how long it was before you were able to sleep on your incision sites. I'm at Day 5 post RNY. My incision sites are no longer sore but I've been sleeping in a recliner as a precaution to keep from putting pressure on them. I'm told my staples will be coming out at my one week follow up, which is actually tomorrow. How long after surgery did you wait (if at all) to return to normal sleeping?

This topic is a large part of why my first surgery wasn't more successful. I was quite the party guy, hanging out with friends every weekend who drank lots of beer and ate snacks while shooting the breeze at the lake. Unfortunately six months or so after the sleeve I was able to train myself how to drink beer again, and also learned that most snack foods are "slider" foods. This stalled my weight loss at about 60% of my goal. The other thing I learned was that the restriction lessened over time. By five years out I was able to eat almost a regular plate of food. There was still restriction on solid protein (I could only eat about 4 oz of steak) but I could eventually add reasonable side dishes to it. I'd say before surgery I would eat a very large portion, while after I was able to eat a much smaller version of a normal plate of food. While most folks Thanksgiving plates were heaping masses of food, mine was a few ounces of turkey and an assortment of maybe an ounce of each item I wanted to try. I just did a revision to gastric bypass due to hiatal hernia and GERD, but i am looking at this as a second chance to get it right. Six years out from my first surgery my lifestyle has changed enough that not drinking, or only having an occasional glass of wine or cocktail, now is fine with me. Success with weight loss surgery truly does require lifestyle change. The sleeve or pouch is a tool. Its maximum benefits are the first year after surgery. It continues to be a tool after but without a change in lifestyle the benefits won't last forever.

I haven't been diagnosed with LPR but my primary says many of my ongoing symptoms suggest it. I've had eustachian tube dysfunction for a number of months. After ruling out the other causes he thinks it may be GERD or LPR causing them to be constantly irritated. I also had a hiatal hernia which might have made things worse. I just completed a reversion from sleeve to bypass. Both my surgeon and my primary think this will help once things have a chance to heal up.

Yesterday my surgeon did my hernia repair surgery to repair a substantial Hiatal Hernia and to do a revision from Sleeve to RNY. What I found out after surgery was there wasn't actually any hernia repair completed, just the revision. I was told by the surgeon's PA that conversion from sleeve to bypass pretty much permanently resolves most potential hiatal hernia issues. Recovery and first night seemed very similar to what I underwent with the sleeve in 2015. I do believe I am more sore at a couple of the incision sites than I was the first time. The most painful was where they had placed a couple of surgical drains which were removed this morning before discharge. Relaxing at home this first day isn't really relaxing, as almost any movement, and certainly getting in and out of chars, causes significant discomfort. I'm not one to usually take serious pain meds, but I did start using the Oxycodone that was prescribed to help reduce the pain. But other than incision pain the process was flawless. The surgery center specializes in bariatric surgeries so they have the routine down very well. There were only six patients in the center yesterday, and with three nurses working each had two patients. Great responsiveness.

Alcohol ended up becoming a major obstacle to my loss. My social life involved regular beer drinking. After getting sleeved I knew I was not supposed to drink carbonated beverages, however my desire to hang out with my friends caused me to learn how to overcome that obstacle and drink beer. I think this is the major reason I never hit my weight loss goal and then gained some back. What worked for me recently was to use a time restricted feeding program along with a Keto based diet. I ate mostly Keto and only had two meals, lunch at Noon and dinner around 5-6pm. This came from, the insulin control diet programs recommended by Dr. Jason Fung. Given that my sleeve kept me from feeling really hungry it worked well and I dropped the 20 pounds I gained during the pandemic restrictions. Now I have major issues with hiatal hernia and GERD, so a revision to RNY is scheduled for tomorrow. I've decided since I have been given a second chance I am going to make the most of it. I have determined that alcohol no longer has a place in my life, and neither do snacks and slider foods.

I'm set up for surgery the day after yours. However, mine is a revision so I went through the process of having a sleeve in 2015. I too was concerned about complications. I have a family member who works at the bariatric practice and sees patients every day both before and after their surgeries. She was 100% supportive of both my decision for initial surgery and the revision which was comforting to me. I also realized that the horror stories we read online are a tiny percentage of all who have these surgeries. I believe the vast majority go smoothly and once they get past the initial discomfort of the early healing process most folks are glad to have done it.

I began my WLS journey in 2015 with gastric sleeve surgery in September. My starting weight was 301, which I had managed to diet down to 285 by the time I was approved for surgery. Surgery weight was 277. Surgery was uneventful and I was back at my normal activities within a couple days. My goal weight was 185, but I only managed to lose down to 210. I believe this was because I made the mistake of continuing to drink alcohol after surgery (although less than before) and still ate too many snacks and slider type foods. Over the next several years my weight gradually increased until it settled in at about 230-235. Then the pandemic occurred and that added 20 pounds, so I was back to 255. This is when I learned what I felt was a good method to handle regain - I combined time restricted feeding with keto dieting... I only ate between Noon and 6pm, and strictly limited carbs. Doing this for a couple of months I was able to drop from 255 back to 235. I had issues with reflux before the surgery, and they continued after. They seemed to worsen as time passed. I learned not to eat at least 3 hours before bedtime, and still sometimes I'd end up sleeping in the recliner for several hours when the reflux was particularly bad. I also had developed a hiatal hernia (which a CT report said was small). Then in January of this year something changed. I started having issues where I could only eat a couple ounces of food without feeling severely overstuffed. This plus some bouts with chest pain prompted a couple of ER visits for cardiac workups. Finding no cardiac issues my doctors determined the pain was likely the hernia that had expanded. I also started experiencing symptoms that seem to be consistent with "silent reflux", such as throat, ear tube and sinus issues. I scheduled an EGD with my bariatric surgeon who found a 3cm hiatal hernia. He is going to repair it this coming Tuesday, and to prevent recurrence of the hernia as well as to resolve the GERD issues is doing a revision to RNY. I'm not happy about having to start over with the healing process, but am excited to finally lose the excess weight, correct the hernia and GERD, and get a chance to do things right the second time. So, here are some lessons learned along the way. If they can help someone else then this post is worth making: 1. Listen to your surgeon. If they recommend one procedure over another, there is a reason why. I probably should have done the RNY in the beginning but opted for the sleeve even though I had existing reflux issues. 2. Follow the dietary guidelines. They are there to assure the most successful weight loss. Unfortunately I 'taught myself' how to overcome the carbonation in beer and continued to drink it after recovery, which is a large part of the reason for lack of loss and regain. I wasn't addicted to either, but both were present in my social environment. I have now determined that alcohol and junk food are poison to my system and have resolved to be diligent in avoiding them. 3. If you do experience regain, get on it quickly. I found that time restricted feeding along with a keto eating plan worked wonders for me. I was essentially following the insulin control program established by Dr. Jason Fung. I quickly dropped close to 20 lbs using my sleeve along with this plan. 4. The sleeve, or bypass, is a tool that is given to you for life. You have a great window of opportunity the first year to lose weight and correct health problems. Make the most of it. Even though the tool is still there in later years, it becomes more difficult to lose weight after your system is fully healed and settled into normal life. It's possible, but harder. Make the most of the "one year honeymoon" window!

To follow up on this topic, I had my EGD today and the surgeon said he saw about a 3cm hiatal hernia. He went ahead and scheduled me for hernia repair and revision to RNY next week. I'm looking forward to resolving the hernia issues and also the GERD.

That is a frustrating situation I'm certain. I haven't gotten that far yet as my EGD is next week. My doctor seems to think he can get a hernia repair approved, so if that were the case I'd only be on the hook for the extra work related to the RNY if I decided to do it.

Did your surgeon revise your surgery when they did the hernia repair? Mine said they almost always revise the sleeve to a bypass when they do a hernia repair. I wasn't told why, but am thinking this might prevent recurrence of the hernia in the future, as well as addressing GERD issues that might be more prevalent with the sleeve.

I am five years out from my sleeve. I am going in next week for an EGD as my surgeon suspects my hiatal hernia is blocking my sleeve. I am only able to eat a couple ounces at a time without feeling terribly full. I read a message here where someone stated their surgeon was able to push the sleeve back into place during their EGD. I have never heard of this before. Has anyone else heard about hernia symptoms being relieved during an EGD?

I don't know. In 2015 I was self pay as my company insurance didn't cover bariatric surgery. I'm now retired and the ACA plan I have also doesn't cover anything related to bariatric surgery so if GERD was a side effect of the first surgery they wouldn't likely cover it. I think they will cover the hernia repair but not the bypass, so there might be some partial coverage.

I was sleeved in September of 2015. Weight loss was moderately successful with some regain. High weight was 300, surgery weight 277, got down to 210 and I'm currently at 233. Goal was 185. I have had some issues with GERD like others. Recently though my hiatal hernia has worsened and I am only able to eat very small amounts of food at any given meal. It seems like I'm back to eating like I did 6-8 weeks after my initial surgery. I reached out to my bariatric surgeon and have scheduled an EGD for next week. From what his PA told me if they do a hernia repair they will want to do a revision to RNY at the same time. He said they do this in most all cases. I was also told that their practice (a high volume bariatric surgery facility) does 80-90% RNY these days with very few sleeves. I've noticed that my type 2 diabetes was initially resolved by the sleeve surgery but my A1C has crept back up to 6.0 and my fasting glucose teeters right around 100. I wonder if the revision will resolve the metabolic issues as well as perhaps helping me lose another 20 pounds or so. Does anyone have any insight into the reasoning behind doing the revision with the hernia repair?