Weight Gain After Gastric Bypass – A Personal Story

The following article about the possibility of weight gain after gastric bypass was written by a reader who wanted to share his reasons for choosing gastric bypass surgery. For privacy reasons, his name is not included.

“I didn’t know that weight gain after gastric bypass was even possible…”

When you first decide to have gastric bypass surgery done, usually at the recommendation of your doctor, the first hurdle you must jump is your insurance company.

As you wait for them to approve the operation unfortunately it gives you lots of time to think. [Read another reader's story about her experiences with her insurance company and gastric bypass.] It also gives your friends time to tell all the stories of people they know or have heard of that had gastric bypass surgery.

Some of those stories are really scary, but you just have to keep telling yourself that isn’t you. Just because that happened to them doesn’t mean it will happen to you. I listened to them (how could I not – this was a big decision for me) but of all the risks they mentioned, weight gain after gastric bypass was not one of them.

Problems right after surgery…

I have to admit that I did have problems. I had a allergic reaction to the anesthesia that was used and developed chemical hepatitis from it. It caused swelling and closed off the top opening so I could not even hold down water. Of course I had to spend about a week in the hospital while they treated that.

Convincing the doctor…

When I finally got to the point where I could at least keep down some food I found that I still had problems trying to eat any solids like meat. At first the doctors told me I was just trying to eat too much at once – that I just hadn’t really learned how to reduce my bites. It took a while but I finally convinced them that there was a problem.

They took a scope and went down my throat and discovered that with all the swelling I had from the chemical hepatitis the sutures had popped loose. Instead of being around the stomach opening part of them were going across the opening like a clothesline. The food was getting caught on the sutures and caused a lot of pressure until the food managed to slip off and do down.

They had to go down my throat again and snip the sutures that were across the top. Unfortunately that also loosened up the other ones so the opening into the stomach was no longer as small as before.

Repairing the problems is what allowed the weight gain after gastric bypass…

By this time I had lost about twenty pounds but truthfully I have to admit I wasn’t sure it was all worth it. I can’t say the surgery worked for me because of all the complications I had. The doctors refused to go back in and fix things so today I still have staples and the two stomach “pouches” but I can eat about anything.

Unfortunately I can also eat about as much as I want, and that’s what caused my weight gain after gastric bypass. One doctor did suggest that they might be able to go in again by using a scope and reduce the size of the stomach. I have thought about it but the cost and getting it approved through insurance is a problem and I didn’t really see a loss of more than the twenty pounds.

I guess the question is would I recommend the gastric bypass surgery to anyone? I am not really sure. It didn’t work for me, I wish it had, but I do know lots of people who had no problems and it worked great.

I have gained back the twenty pounds plus about thirty. The weight gain after gastric bypass puts me at a heavier weight than I was when I started. I guess if I ever won the lottery and could find a doctor who understood all the problems I had and would really listen to me, maybe.

I know that weight gain after gastric bypass is not common, and would not have happened if there hadn’t been other serious medical complications – but it did happen to me.