Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is surgery to help you lose weight.
It does this in two ways. First, it makes your stomach smaller.
This helps you feel full sooner and eat less. Second, it changes the connection between your stomach and the intestines. This prevents some of what you've eaten from being absorbed. Many people feel nervous or worried before having Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. And they may wonder what to expect.
Here's some information that can help. First ... follow your care provider's instructions for how to get ready for the surgery, including what you can eat or drink and which medicines to take. Before the surgery, you'll get medicine to make you sleep and keep you from feeling any pain.
The Roux-en-Y gastric bypass is most often done as a laparoscopic surgery.
But it can also be done as an "open" surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is done through several small cuts ... called incisions ... in your belly.
Then the doctor puts special tools and a camera through the incisions.
Open surgery is done through a large cut in your belly.
During the surgery, the doctor separates the upper part of your stomach from the rest of your stomach to make a small pouch.
This new pouch ... about the size of a small egg ...
will hold the food you eat. Next, the doctor cuts the middle part of the small intestine and connects it to the new stomach pouch, bypassing the rest of the stomach and the upper part of the small intestine.
Then, this unused part of the stomach and small intestine are reconnected lower down. The fluids from the unused part of your stomach will now drain into your small intestine. And the food you eat will now go from the small pouch into the middle part of your small intestine.
Food will no longer go through the lower part of your stomach or the first part of your intestine. The doctor then closes the incisions and covers them with bandages. The surgery takes 2 to 3 hours.
When you wake up, you may have some belly pain, and the area around the incisions may be tender and sore.
You'll get medicine to help ease the pain. After surgery, you'll probably be in the hospital for 2 or 3 days. And when it's time to go home, you'll need someone to drive you. Now ... having surgery can be a little stressful.
But knowing what to expect and how to prepare can help.
And remember, you can always call your care provider if you have questions or concerns.
