Weight Loss Surgery - WLS and autoimmune disease?

I am extremely prone to infection and have a tendency towards vitamin/electrolyte defficiency. I've had vitamin D deficiency and my sodium levels are always very low, they've even beel low enough to require sodium pills. I also have an undetermined autoimmune disease that seems to be attacking my lungs, sinuses, and the cartilage in my nose. It could be vasculitis or connective tissue disease (which I think is often caused by vasculitis). Some autoimmune diseases can be diagnoses by tests, but often (and in my case) they don't get a name until they've done enough damage to see a pattern in what is being destroyed.

I've always discounted the possibility of gastric bypass, because I am just too vulnerable to short and long term complications, but recently I was considering lap band, but I've read that the mere suspicion of connective tissue disease really eliminates me as a candidate for that surgery as well.

I would imagine with extra caution even the infection risk and vitamin/mineral difficiencies could be addressed, but has anyone had either surgery with connective tissue disease, or other autoimmune conditions?

get yourself tested for lyme disease. a western blot. Or just go read about the symptoms of tertiary or latent lyme disease.

Evilah

Colleen, I hope some one can answer this for you :hug:

I've already been tested for lyme disease several times. I've never lived in very high risk areas, and now that I'm living in a city with more wooded areas I take extra precautions just to be careful. With fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease, it's one of the first things tested for "just in case." Fibromyalgia especially has a lot of overlap symptoms. Fibro is often associated with sleep disorders of several types. A sleep test showed that I had sleep apnea and was not entering the restful stages of deep sleep. The apnea disappeared after I lost 30 lbs, but my sleep cycles are still not normal. Meds to regulate sleep have helped the fibro tremendously.

When I was in my 20's I was in a car accident and my car keys hit my knee embedding a bit of denim into the cut. I got a pretty nasty staph infection, and have been prone to bacterial infections ever since. The autoimmune disease was diagnosed when my ENT found a quarter size whole in my septum (the cartilage separating the nostrils). Since I've never used cocaine or other inhaled chemicals, have never had a nose job, and since flesh eating bacteria doesn't normally just go away without treatment, the doctor concluded that the only likely explanation was Wegener's granulomatosis (a deadly autoimmune disease). It doesn't seem to be following the usual course of the disease, so it's either an atypical form or it's an undifferentiated connective tissue disease.

I have been doing pretty well on a South Beach style diet (about 6 weeks now, I think), but before and since, I've been put on prednisone and other steroids with the lung conditions which is making even weight maintenance a little maddening. At my weight, I guess in the back of my mind, I'm still wondering whether "regular" dieting can ever work for me.

Lap band sounded great because it didn't mess with the plumbing, but with connective tissue disease being an excluding condition, I'm not

Colleen, I know how difficult it is to have an auto-immune disease and especially when the Dr.'s can't figure out what it is. My first liver biopsy came back as PBC with "underlying unidentified auto-immune disorder". They literally could not tell what was wrong with me. I had huge batteries of tests. Later on, the immune system disease was given the name of Chronic/Active Auto-Immune Hepatitis. I was glad just to finally KNOW the diagnosis so I had the ability to research my diseases and know what I was in store for. Many times family and friends had told me "you sleep more than anyone I know" (usually 12-15 hrs. a day or more). I didn't know why, I just knew that I couldn't stay awake. I knew also that I had recurring rash over my entire body. I can certainly identify with your situation of the prednisone. I've been on it now for 4 yrs. and been told that I'll never be completely off of it. It does provide a challenge when trying to lose wt., that is for sure.

I don't know the answer to your dilemma about the lap band surgery. My hepatologist felt it was immediately necessary for me to lose the wt. (so that I could be considered for a liver transplant). We talked about lap band surgery for me and to my disappointment I was not a candidate due to my liver disease. I did take the wt. off by low-carb way of eating. I am now on the transplant list, but I feel so much better and my liver enzymes are drastically improved. I'm hoping my disease stays stable where it's at and hoping it's a long time before I get the transplant.

I certainly hope your Dr. can give you some answers.

I'll have more immune function tests within the next few months, and possibly get more answers. It's so frustrating because the specialists keep saying that if I'm "lucky," we'll be able to get it in remission without it having done enough damage to get a diagnosis. That's a weird thought I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around, because it seems easier mentally to cope with bad news than uncertainty.

Reducing carbs to only high fiber whole grain ones has helped alot, so maybe I don't even have to consider WLS, but I'm not eliminating any possibility at this point.

I have Rhematoid Arthritis which I have been told is basically an auto immune disease. I was on predisone for 3 years & gained 80 pounds I was not able to take off with normal diets. I had the RNY 3/1/06 and have no unusual problems. I still have RA, I still take medicine for RA. The medication that I am on has been reduced as a result of the weight loss & I have less flare ups. Every 3 months I had a complete workup for malabsorption as well as malnutrition & was always at & above normal levels with the supplements (protein, vitamins, calcium, fish oil) that I added after surgery. My blood results for the RA have been really good.

BTW, I worked in Wausau & lived near there when I was diagnosed. There are some good doctors in that area.

Oh my gosh! I am so sorry you are dealing with all of this! Stupid question coming, but do you have breast implants? I was deathly ill for years and couldn't figure out why. When the implants came out, I was immediately better! I was diagnosed a gazillion times with different types of auto immune diseases.

It looks like you are doing fabulous with your weight loss. Congrats and what a great job.

I would be worried about surgery at this point. However, if your doc takes extra precaution, and you do as well, I would hope all would be OK.
Please keep us posted. Keep up the great work!

Nope, no implants, but I think my biological parents were alien mutants.

Just kidding, but I was adopted as an infant, and do not know much about my biological family history, except through some logical deduction from my health problems. Many of my physical oddities and health problems are genetic, so they must have been a mess.

Being I am the only person in my adoptive family to have had a childhood weight problem, I of course wonder if one or both of my parents were obese.
The family joke is that in our family marriage causes weight gain (I've lost weight since marrying my husband, so I'm weird there too).

I've always had sinus problems (though that is common in my adoptive family as well) and seasonal allergies (my adopted dad has severe skin allergies, so at least I didn't feel too weird there).

I have unusually shaped or configured spinal discs (I forget the technical term, some kind of nodes on the bone?) which I was told (at 22) apparently increases the risk of disc herniation in late teens, but didn't necessarily result in back trouble.

When I was 30, I herniated a disk (coincidence or a result of the deformity, who knows?)

I have congenitally missing teeth (one of the four top front teeth, and only one of the wisdom teeth). My sinuses are configured in an unusual way ("extra rooms, which create more nooks and crannies for infections), and needed to be "remodelled" with surgery. I am color blind (very unusual in girls because it means both parents would have had to carry the gene -- ewww just for the first time wondered if biological parents were related -ewww, ewww, ewww)

Oops, all better now (sort of). The adoption agency told my parents that I would be VERY smart, because apparently bio mom was some sort of genius. I did read before kindergarten, but have to say usually my "precociousness" was less an advantage, as a way to get me in "more creative" trouble.

I'm allergic to honey and possibly bee stings (it seems more likely that I'm allergic to pollens that a bee that stung me might have carried, because I've had one reaction to a bee sting, but have since been stung with no reaction). I have severe seasonal allergies.

I'm left handed and can read and write backwards AND upsided down (I reversed my letters for a LONG time), and can write legibly (though not prettily) with my right hand. All of these skills came "naturally" with no practice.

I was always the tallest girl (and usually tallest kid) until fifth grade. I had my first period in 4th grade (a week before they showed the film) and from month 1 had a clockwork regular cycle of 8-9 day period on a 25 days with
"wish I would just die and get it over worth" cramps (birth control does control a little bit, but I didn't discover that until I was 25, not that anyone would put a 9 year old on bc).

I also have a congenital heart "murmer" that is common in women, and apparently nothing to be too concerned about.

How much of all this strangeness is due to inherited factors, and how much is coincidence is uncertain, but, in a nutshell, I think my bioparents were mutants. If they happen to be from outerspace, that would just explain that much more (just kidding, just want to make sure you don't think "delusions" are another of my oddities).

I've thought of trying to find them to learn more, but since knowing wouldn't really change medical treatment, I haven't really given it much thought.

Oh, as for surgery, at this point, it isn't at the top of my list, just want to keep it in consideration, if I come to the point that I've exhausted all other efforts. I have my first appointment June 10 with the doctor I met in the walk-in clinic (the non-emergency ER) when I couldn't get in to see my doctor for an asthma/bronchitis attack. She recommended low carb, and suggested I get a referral from my GP to see her at the hospital Weight Management Clinic.

The only problem there is, I don't think Medicare or my supplement cover any of their services, but the first consultation is not billed, so I'm hopeful that it works out.

It really bugs me that insurances don't cover treatment programs that prevent the much more expensive treatments and procedures for the life-threatening conditions they will cover.