Hey there---

I had the gastric sleeve 5 years ago. My life has been a whirlwind of change since--- Good change, but nevertheless hard!

long story short-- left an abusive marriage, lost my job, autistic child, etc

At any rate, I only lost about 80 pounds from the sleeve surgery initially. Since then I have put about 50 back on.

I have spent the last 3 years being mad at myself for being a failure.

I met with the surgeon a year ago and he told me no way would he revise my sleeve to a bypass because I wasn't following the protocol. I left there hysterical.

I still have about 200 pounds to lose and numerous comorbidities. I am active, walk 7+miles 3 x a week and do yoga 2x a week.

I guess my question is, Has anyone had a similar experience? Will insurance pay for another surgery? I am not sure what else to do at this point!

depends on the insurance. Most will not pay for a revision unless it's medically necessary (e.g., severe GERD, mechanical failure of the original surgery) - although even then some companies will only pay for one surgery per lifetime. You can always call them and ask, though - you never know.

if your sleeve is still working, though, you can still lose the weight. You just have to go back to the way you were eating that first year (not necessarily all the way back to protein shakes, but the whole protein first, then non-starchy vegetable thing. Tracking your food. Weighing/measuring things instead of eyeballing portion size. Etc. It usually takes longer the second time around, but people have done it...

Thanks-- it is such a battle against myself!

I am so mad that I let the golden opportunity pass me by. My insurance was very unclear as to if they could cover it or not. I know that I need to get back in with nutrition etc again, so I'm thinking that maybe the place to start, regardless of outcome.

Good luck with your research and outcome.

I think you have to really explore within yourself what caused you to fail. Yes, you had a lot of stress in your life. But why did you turn back to eating? This is what you need to work out, because RNY is not a magic bullet, either. The same thing can happen again. There is no guarantee that your life post RNY will be any less stressful. IMHO, I think you should go back to square one, as a previous poster suggested. Work through the issues. See that you can start losing weight again. THEN consider a revision. Look up your insurance company's position on line. Some will pay for a revision if a first surgery failed. Others won't. so you have to look it up. Print it out so you can study it very carefully. If you decide to go ahead, consult with another surgeon and show him how you have learned and grown from the past experience, that you have built a good support network, and are strongly motivated to succeed.

I had to pay for my sleeve out of pocket (went to Mexico) and now after gaining back 50 pounds in 2.5 years (!) I'm going to get a revision to gastric bypass in early March. For me, I think I had two reasons why I failed - first, I was distrustful of what my surgeon did. I came out of surgery feeling great (unlike everyone else on my floor) and had no problem eating or tolerating different foods when I got to those stages. One of the doctors told me that I had a really long stomach (!) and I wonder if that has allowed me to eat slightly larger portions as a result. I did well in the first 8 months after surgery, I was 100% dedicated to portion control and watched my macros, but I fell off the wagon at my dad's birthday (cake) and slowly but surely over time I was able to consume more, and eat more things I shouldn't have, over time. I knew going into the surgery that I had some food addictions, and unfortunately the last couple of years has taught me that these will be problems for me the rest of my life. There will be no "just once in a while" type of situations - sugar is a huge problem for me, and this next time around I know it will be gone for good - I'm not willing to fail after a second surgery (again, that I will have to pay out of pocket).

I don't think anyone can know if your insurance will pay for a second surgery (only your insurance can tell you that), but if not, then I would look at cheaper options for self-pay.