Does anyone know anything about Gastric Bypass or Reduction?

My wife is thinking of having it done and I am looking for some info. I am looking for some impartial info from a person or persons who have had it done or have had a spouse or partner that has had it done. Thanks for any info. DUers are always helpful.

i think she had it done..

in California Kaiser Permanente - questions like long-term outcomes, how do people do who aren't accepted for it, that sort of thing. A friend in our office had it done - it wasn't easy or pleasant in any way, but she did drop the weight off big-time. She really needed to; she was getting a lot of bad health effects from her weight. Look up bariatric surgery, that's the doc-talk term.

nt

She lost over 100 lbs, and feels great. Had only minor complications after the surgery, but highly recommends it for anyone in need of it.
It also helped with some major health problems; high blood pressure, and elevated sugar levels, both of which have been corrected.
If you want, get in touch with me, and I'll have my partner talk directly with your wife. She'd be glad to talk to her.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

You still feel the same way a diabetic feels when they eat sugar.

such as chronic malnutrition and short bowel syndrome, both of which must be managed for life.

She hasn't really had any health problems from it...she looks great.

And I don't know why anyone would do that to themselves...but I guess it's a matter of choice.
Duckie

I believe that she had that surgery and was on this site as a regular for a very long time. It has been ages since I've seen her though.

She's now Corarose.

She is also sick from the surgery quite often.

Along with a few others. But she decided to go ahead with the surgery......

That this surgery is emerging as a popular procedure, only serves to underscore the desperation behind obesity.

I am sure there are a few individuals for whom, this surgery holds their only hope. But, I also believe that number to be exceedingly small. I hope we have more options to offer them and a kinder, more accepting society emerges that doesn't worship the anorexic form for women or unrealistic body images for either gender.

I wish folks who change their names (and don't WANT to be anonymous) would continue to sign their posts with both screen names for six months or so. Of course, she may well have done that and I just didn't notice!

I wasn't hiding and I created a post letting everyone know about the name change.

Your screen name change probably occurred during one of my work-imposed extended absences from DU. Glad to know you are still around!

How's everything?

I had to get all of my teeth removed and it might have something to do with the surgery.

The dental office that I go to has had 3 or 4 people so far that has had major problems with their teeth. The Dentist told me that he heard that the bypass surgery causes problems to you health to a point that you lose your teeth.

When do you graduate from Culinary College?

Sounds like an exciting opportunity, but hope you don't mind a question purely out of curiosity. That is, won't constantly being around food as a chef/caterer or whatever the future holds be problemmatic for you? I've always thought that was the challenge with obesity unlike any other addiction-- you can't go cold turkey and just leave it all behind. But your chosen field will make you be continually surrounded by food that you can't really eat after your surgery, right?


Just interested in all of this and you are one of the few who can offer this perspective. Best wishes CoraRose. I hope things continue to look up for you.

I should be getting out in about 8 months.


Actually cooking is like part of therapy because it gets wanting food out of my system. I know that sounds nuts but If I am cooking I will take a bite or two and I don't have time to stop and eat.

If I am baking I know that If I eat too much I will get sick and pass out and I mean pass out.

The Chefs come up to me and make me sit down when I get sick from eating. Gastric Bypass is not the best way to diet and people are not even trying to diet anymore because they think that bypass surgery will do it for them.

Bypass keeps you from eating too much but it doesn't take the constant cravings away and everyone that has had bypass can tell you that you still want food just as much as before and if not more because you feel like you are starving.

There are 4 of us that I know of that have had the surgery at Culinary College. I bumped into a young girl that is 18 that is having the surgery in two weeks. She weighs 210 and she didn't look fat to me and she said that she hasn't tried to diet.
The guys at Culinary College don't think that she needs to lose too much weight and I tried to talk her out of it but I couldn't.

Your right it hasn't been left behind because you are constantly hungry and sick.

DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU ANY DIFFERENT BECAUSE THEY ARE FULL OF SH*T.

I've known of too many people who have sufferred horrible side-effects, up to and including death.

Weight-Loss Surgery is NOT the answer - slow, steady weight loss combined with exercise and good nutrition are. If you want the straight dope from people who have been there, go to the NAAFA web site and follow the links to the Weight Loss Surgery Survivors Board.

http://www.naafa.org/

Fat Anthony had tried everything to get down to a "normal" weight. Then he had the surgery. A year later he looked great, felt great. His was a complete success story. Then he dropped dead.

a girl at work just had it done and she's been in and out of ICU for the past month and a half. Apparently, one of the staples "fell out" and caused a MAJOR infection.

my wife still wants to have it done, however.

I'm in the process of going through all the hoops one needs to jumo through to get it done. Insurance approval, cardiac tests, lung tests, psych exams, sleep tests, blah, blah, blah...

I'm going for the LapBand... It's a lot less intrusive, and easy to reverse if needed. The weight loss is slower and side effects are fewer and less severe. Overnight stay at hospital.

The Roux En Y (I think that's the right spelling) is the actual disconnect/reconnect all the plumbing, staples, and non-reversable. Recovery time and hospital stay is up to 4 days

It all depends on what the person is comfortable with. I have met and talked with folks who have had both. I alos work with 3 people who have had it done (2 LapBand, 1 Roux En Y). The main complaint being the first few weeks getting used to eating in a different manner (failure to do so will have your meal making a return appearance quite quickly), nausea, pain (roux en y only), and a daily battle of getting enough liquids.

There are some excellent web-sites that have good information and links to Physicians that perform the surgery.

My advice... think long and hard. It's expensive, life altering, and fairly much a lifelong change. For those that are willing to put up with the post surgery restrictions it's fine, but it's far from a miracle cure, and requires a lot of work.

And she has never been happier. The only thing that makes her sick is sweets.

I am considered a SUCCESS story but what is a success?

Also, not everyone is the same and recovery time is different for everyone.

You could end up with strictures and then you have to go back in and be opened up.

Sharon Osborne had the lap band and ended up with Cancer. Do we know if they cause cancer NO but I can bet the farm that it might have had something to do with her cancer.

do some serious research before you let your wife go through with this. Exactly one year ago today, I attended the funeral of my good friend's husband who died after gastric bypass surgery (the surgeon accidentally perorated his bowel during surgery and he died from peritonitis). Please look into alternatives before you let your wife go through with this potentially deadly procedure!

Not everyone survives and that's the chance that you have to take. It a horrible choice because you are going to die if you don't lose weight and then you might not.

I can see major class action Lawsuit's coming in the future because we are guinea pigs.

If I were to get it done, I'd try to get laparoscopic rather than regular bariatric surgery. it sounds less dangerous. Study up on it very carefully before taking any action, of course.

I would prefer to have the open one because you are less likely to have complications.

If something goes wrong during surgery they will have to open her up anyways.

for many years. She should know better, but when people bring in a box of donuts at her work she eats 1/2 a donut and becomes violently ill for 2 hours then she eats another half and repeats the cycle over and over the entire frikken day. She is 50 years old. As an eating disordered person, she should know better! Her face is God-awful wrinkled. Also the part of the intestines that is left out of the loop is the only part of the intestines that can work with certain nutrients, hearsay from my daughter. So this hoard of people who are getting this done, I believe are going to have long term problems, or if they get cancer or some disease where nutrition needs to be optimal, then they are in trouble. I think the doctors are doing a lot of these surgeries, in my opinion in order to make a pile of money before they find out that it may be bad for you. It is a huge crime to me, to do this surgery on teenagers.

There are many other better alternatives for weight management. Less invasive and longer lasting.

no there aren't. 95% of people who lose 100 lbs. or more without surgery do not keep it off.

I tried for over 10 years to lose the weight but it kept coming on and I got bigger then before.

eating sensibly and exercising. Feel free to PM me and I'd be more than happy to talk to you or your wife about how I did it.

Congratulations!

She had gotten up to 400 pounds and had tried every other method to lose weight.
It is a very serious operation. She had to go for a psychiatric evaluation before the surgery to see if she could mentally handle it.

After the operation she was in intensive care for about 4 days. There is a Web site where there are before and after photos of people who have had the surgery. And I think it explains the surgery. There are 3 different methods. I think the site is obesity.org.

She has lost over 200 pounds so far and wants to lose 50 more. The down side is that after losing a tremendous amount of weight, there is a lot of loose skin which cannot be gotten rid of by exercise. Surgery is the only answer.

I will never take my clothes off in front of anyone until I get the fat cut off and the insurance company won't pick the bill up unless the fat is hanging to your knees.

The Transcend Implantable Gastric Stimulator

Here's the relevant abstract --

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11969104&dopt=Abstract

Gastric electrical stimulation as therapy of morbid obesity: preliminary results from the French study.

D'Argent J.

Polyclinique de Rillieux, 941, Rue Capitaine Julien, 69165 Rillieux-la-pape, France. jerome.dargent@wanadoo.fr

BACKGROUND: Gastric electrical stimulation to treat morbid obesity, using the Transcend Implantable Gastric Stimulator (IGS), is being evaluated. We present our preliminary results from the French segment of the worldwide study to evaluate this therapy. METHODS: Institutionally-approved informed consent was obtained from all patients. The IGS is placed laparoscopically. The system has two implantable components: 1) a lead with two electrodes that is implanted in a gastric lesser curvature muscle tunnel; 2) the lead is connected to an electrical pulse generator positioned subcutaneously on the abdominal wall. Two electrode positions were used; half (6/12, 50%) were "low" near the pes anserinus, and the other 50% "high" nearer the esophagogastric junction. Intraoperative gastroscopy is used to diagnose inadvertent gastric perforation. 12 patients (5 M, 7 F) had the IGS implanted between July 2000 and February 2001. Mean age was 40.6 years (31-51). Mean weight was 122.2 kg (93-146), mean BMI was 42.7 kg/m2 (39.1-48.6), and mean excess weight was 60 kg (42-74). Electrical stimulation commenced 1 month after implantation. RESULTS: All devices were successfully placed laparoscopically. There were no deaths or major operative complications. Postoperative course was uneventful in all cases. In 25% (3/12), postoperative lead dislodgement occurred; 2 of the 3 had their leads replaced. By 9 months, mean excess BMI lost was 30 +/- 24% or 16 +/- 12 kg. CONCLUSION: Implanting the IGS to treat morbid obesity is technically feasible and safe. Lead dislodgement has been simply and satisfactorily corrected. Satisfactory short-term weight loss has been achieved in a subset of patients. Long-term efficacy must now be determined.

Publication Types:
Clinical Trial

PMID: 11969104

--bkl

And have decided to have it done. A friend of mine had it done a little over a year ago and is down 104 lbs. She is healthier and happier than she's been in years and has had NO complications thus far.

Yes, there are complications, just as there are w/ any surgery, though it seems that because of the unhealthy state of the patient (let's face it--s/he is obese!) complications are more common than in some other surgeries.

There are a lot of websites for information: spotlighthealth.com and obesityhelp.com to name two. You won't find a lot of "con" info there, but you will find some at http://gastricbypass.netfirms.com/.

In my opinion, you should know both sides of the story.

Sure there are pro's and con's but I will suffer so that I don't have to go back to my old way of life which was NO LIFE.

ossg (to subscribe send an e mail to OSSG-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)
as well as one dedicated to navigating the insurance approval maze (OSSGInsurance-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)

I work for an insurance company and have seen some monster size hospital bills for folks who have had complications. It is a decision not made lightly.

Believe it or not doctors want to do the surgery on adolescents.

I TELL THE TRUTH AND I WAS TOLD BY MY WEIGHT LOSS GROUP TO NOT COME BACK AND SCARE THE NEW PEOPLE WHO ARE INQUIRING ABOUT THE SURGERY!

I weighed 290 when they performed the surgery and I weigh about 148 today.

If your wife hasn't tried everything and I mean everything then you should tell her to try dieting before going through with bypass surgery.

I had hair down to may waist when I had th surgery done and my hair has fallen out so much that I had to cut it off up to my shoulders.

The surgery staples your stomach and not your head. You are hungry every minute of the day.

People are getting this surgery done because they think that it's an easy way to take the pounds off but it is not. They reroute your bowels when they staple your stomach and you get sick when you eat and that happens all of the time.

If you wife isn't a diabetic you can tell her that she will have all of the symptoms that a diabetic has except she will not have the disease.

If I eat sugar I pass out and it makes me feel like I am in a sauna. If I overeat and overeating is when you eat over 6 ounces YOU PASS OUT.

IS YOUR WIFE AT CHILD BEARING AGE? Tell her this! I don't think that I will ever be able to have one of my own because of the surgery. It messes your body up so bad that you don't have to buy feminine products except 2 times a year.

Isn't it funny how Carnie Wilson is all smiles when she talks about the surgery but she doesn't tell the negative things about it.

I AM CONSIDERED ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE GOOD AND THAT IS NOT SAYING MUCH!

After my daughter had it done, she was only able to eat about 2 ounces of food at a time. But she is not hungry all the time. In fact, she has to force herself to eat. She has to supplement her diet with protein drinks. Do you do that? That will prevent hair loss. Yes, my daughter lost some hair, but not a whole lot. She can eat some sweets, but only a minimal amount, as it will make her sick to her stomach if she eats more than a couple of bites of a dessert.

Before her surgery, she was 415 pounds. That was over a year and a half. She now weighs 199, and wants to lose about 50 more. She does not regret doing it and has never been happier.

They tell you at Northwestern Hospital that you will NEVER be able to digest sweets and starch's and they tell you this AFTER the surgery.

It could be that I am thinner than your daughter at the moment and I couldn't hold down food and that's why I lost my hair. If you go into my group you will find my of them have lost a majority of their hair. I am not talking about going bald what I am saying is it thins out.

I applaud your daughter for being one of the special people that nothing has happened to but 90% and I mean 90% suffer complications.

Like I said I would do it again today or tomorrow because of the pro's and I wouldn't stop from the con's of this surgery.

She is lucky if she can eat sweets without getting sick and it's rare.

My cousin is an RN and she had bypass surgery. She works in a hospital in Ohio and she has the same complications as I have.

People need to know about the side effects and if your daughter is only eating 2 ounces after 1 1/2 years she needs to be checked by the Doctor immediately because she should be up to 6 or 7 ounces by now.

for being so honest and open about your experience. Many may do well, but one never knows whether they will be lucky or have lifelong regrets. Thank you for your courage in conveying the risks!

I'm sorry to hear what you've been through. Please do not stop telling the truth - it need to get out there.

Wayne
(CO Liberal)

2 ounces of food is not a good sign 1 1/2 years after bypass surgery. Someone is going to die of malnutrition if that's all they are eating in one sitting.

Sorry for this I am pissed off big time now!

It has all been informative.

It's from a hospital in Boston... http://www.local6.com/health/2614009/detail.html
Basically, someone died and this hospital is going to stop doing the proceedure.
Duckie

Well she DIED one year after the surgery because she couldn't hold more then 3 ounces of food per sitting after one year.

:kick: