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I have not had the surgery myself, but I live in a small mining town where everybody knows everybody.
I would say population ratio, we've had a greater number of gastric bypass cases than the general population. At least it's been very easy to see the results. I know of only one case that has maintained her weight loss, and regained normal health, and that was after the second surgery that corrected a major stomach defect caused by the first surgery.
First off, the stomach “banding” seems to have fewer serious repercussions, and is reversable.
Those having the gastric bypass have all suffered major, upredictable metabolic problems, including mineral non-absorbtion, and a kind of wasting disease that's resulted in being housebound, nearly bed-ridden, and will definitly reduce life expectancy. Some, having the surgery, have not been able to maintain normal weight, and look sickly.
I don't mean this to be harsh, but when they are required to limit themselves to frequent, very small food portions in order to adjust to stomach size, we wonder why they didn't just stick with a strict diet. In fact, one woman had to lose approx 100lbs in order to qualify for the surgery. After losing 70lbs on a strict diet, she came to the DR and said, “I've lost 70lbs with no surgery! No surgery for me. I'm sticking with the diet!”
Now, with all my heart, I am not questioning your situation. I am only reporting what I've observed. It is a serious decision and the surgery is not reversable. I wish you the best as you decide, and happy results!

Thank you so much for your informative post. I know someone that had gastric bypass and he too has regained some of the weight he initially lost. I guess it’s not that uncommon after a couple of years.

My niece has a friend whose father had it also, and he was one of the surgeries gone bad and required other surgeries to repair the damage. I’ve also heard of cases where people die from malnutrition afterward because the section needed for absorbing nutrients is the section they remove. Saw an article about a woman that died from this.

FR lost a FReeper ‘TexasFlower’ (Tammy) in 2005 from gastric bypass.

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