Question:
If you have a staple line breakdown will you definitely gain back all the weight?

I am concerned that after surgery my husbands insurance will change to a different company and if I have a staple line breakdown that they will not cover it. If that happens is it dangerous to live with a staple line breakdown? Will I definitely regain all my weight? What if I had become used to eating so little and continued to eat very little would I still regain a lot of weight?    — Dawn M. (posted on March 9, 2002)

March 9, 2002
Did you have RNY? If so, then part of the way it works is by malabsorbing a certain portion of your calories (& nutrition). When the staple line disrupts, the food is allowed to go through the normal digestive process, which makes it worth 100% to you again. So, even if you only had a small disruption, part of the food would give you 100% value, part of it would be malabsorbed at whatever rate your surgery provides. Unfortunately, once disrupted, the staple line seems to "unzip". The switch which tells us to stop eating is at the top of stomach, which is a good plan if the "stomach" is an oz. But when the partition is removed, we're back to filling a full sized stomach and it takes more food to hit the off switch, no matter how careful we are. With full absorption, it would work as well as any diet has in the past. Since I faced this myself, I know your fear very well. Oddly, my husband's company had JUST changed from a company that would NOT have paid to one that did (with no hassle) and we didn't even know it!
   — vitalady