Weight Loss Surgery - Gastric Bypass

I know that gastric bypasses do not fall under the category of "diet plans," but I could not find any other place on the boards where it might be more appropriate. Has anyone ever have a gastric bypass surgery? Or do you know someone who had one done? Please pass along any info you might have as I'm considering having one. Thx! :D

I voted for try to lose weight yourself. The reason is I really know a LOT of people who have had this surgery. I am not kidding. I do customer service at a phone center for a large company and it is 99% female employees. Most of us are either somewhat overweight to extremely overweight. I know of atleast 10 people who have had this surgery. Most of them are nowhere near their ideal weight. Four of them are and the others have lost about half of what they needed to lose and then they started gaining some back. In fact my aunt had the surgery too. She lost two hundred pounds and then stretched her stomach back out by eating too much and gained most of it back. I would say look into this long and hard first. I need to lose a lot myself but decided to do it the old fashioned way. So far I have lost 42 pounds! I still have a long way to go but I will get there!!

good luck to you!
lorelei

Hi.. thx for your reply. I'm a big believer in losing weight the right way. I've never tried all these diet pills and miracles diets. i think the best way to do it is to exercise and eat right. But I know myself well enough to know that I could never stick to a weight loss plan unless I see results quickly. I get frustrated too easily. If I have the surgery, then I will see results quickly and gain motivation. I think that surgery is the only way I'll ever be able to lose weight. I am going to think about it long and hard... and who knows? It may not even be an option if my insurance won't pay for it.

Hey there. I too am interested in this topic, so anyone who knows people who have went through this surgery, PLEASE post.

I want to learn more about it because my dad is scheduled for this surgery in the middle of May. He has many other complications, but physically, his back and knee are really bad due to an injury at work, and he can't move much at all to lose weight on his own. He NEEDS to lose weight for health reasons OTHER than simply being overweight. He has heart complications and diabetes.

He's seeing other doctors before the surgery to fully figure out the complications and risks since it is such a drastic procedure. If anyone has any info/advice at all from personal or friends' experience about this, please, like SavvyKat has requested, post it here!

Thanks!!

To get more info have you tried searching online? I bet if you typed in "gastric bypass surgery" on your search engine you would find lots of info on it. Or try www.webmd.com or www.ask.com These are the places I go to when I want medical info. Good luck to your dad Jaelie, It sounds like he would benefit from this since he has other health things goin on.

lorelei

look, ladies, this isn't a quick fix. it's the end result of a long, long hard road. it's not a solution if you haven't put your 'food demons' behind you.

it was the only answer for me. for health reasons. and i still view it as mutilation. but after decades of dieting and battling, and therapy and everything that goes into being a 'good weight loss' doo-be, nothing worked. and i mean that. NOTHING WORKED.

it's NOT for people with less than 100 pounds. and it's described as a TOOL. it can be sabotaged quite easily, as some of you have already seen. but i have also met people who have lived for as long as 13 years with this type of surgery. and kept the weight off. the key is to follow the rules. but, as we all know, every food plan/eating plan/diet has rules. we're used to them.

for more information, type in CARNIE WILSON SURGERY and that will lead you to her www.spotlighthealth.com site [well, how about that... i remembered the address!!!]

there's a whole forum of info there. also check out the american bariatric society, and www.naafa.org. there are good points and there are bad points. and frankly, it would be better for all if diet and exercise worked, but for some of us, after years of dieting and yo-yo-ing, the body gives up and there's no other choice.

hope this has helped. and jaelie, best of luck to your dad. i had to 'pass' inspection by cardiology, pulmonology, a psychiatrist, nutritionist, and a peripheral vascular disease surgeon. it's NOT an easy haul to even get to the surgery.

I know four people who have had it done, two with amazing results and two who are having problems. The first two did everything by the book, the second two broke just about every rule. I really think that it's like anything else...if you do everything you're supposed to do (councling, carefully monitoring your food, exercise, support, etc), it works well. However, if you look at it as a quick fix and assume that once you go under the knife all your problems are over...forget it. You're going to have problems.

I would LOVE to have it done, but I know myself well enough to be very aware that the chances of my always being that disciplined are not very good. Also, I have no excuses or deep emotional problems that have gotten me where I am today...I eat because I'm bored. Period. I am not a candidate for the surgery.

IF a person goes into it with the right attitude and is very aware that it's not easy, not a quick fix, not a totally effortless way to lose weight...THEN that person will probably do pretty well.

Hi.

My husband is scheduled for surgery in two weeks. April 19th. It has been a year since we first started considering this as an option for him.

If you go to the catagory of Fitness Scams you will find a thread that talks about this subject. No I do not consider this a scam, it is a necessary step for alots of people. I'll check back later and keep you all informed of his progress.

Hi Savykatt,
I had a gastric bypass 18 years ago. I lost 110 lbs in about 7 mo.
The only real problem I had, and still have is diareah. ( I don't think it is the right spelling).
I had just had my 3rd child 4 mo. before. And I was weighed 247 lbs.
I was amazed at the progress. I exercised religously. When I got down to 137 lbs. my lowest, I really didn't like myself. I lost to fast. My skin was hanging everywhere. I kept the weight off for about 4 years, then started gaining. Little by little. I now am at 206. I have thought about having a second operation to re-staple the stomach, since it streched all out again.
I am first going to try on my own again. The operation should be a last result. I did have health problems 18 years ago. Now at 47 I have more. I still want to lose on my own.
It really can work--- but it is a change you have to make for the rest of your life. So is a good mealplan.
Good luck in whatever you decide.

if anyone is on aol, there are quite a few rthat come into the wt loss chat room that have had it.

Thanks, everyone, for sharing stories and info with me. I have been doing some research online. I have found out things I don't like and things that sound good to me. This is not an easy decision for me to make nor is it one that I ever thought would be made easily. I know that I will have to follow rules if I have the surgery done. The point is that I will see results and want to do things right so that I can continue to lose weight and keep it off. I have taken college courses on nutrition and exercise so I know how to do it. I even like to exercise. The problem is that I eat right and exercise but don't see results quickly enough for me to "keep on trucking." I am 300+ pounds, 5'5" tall, and suffering from severe depression. I stay home all the time because I cannot bear to be seen, I cannot work because I'm too ashamed of my appearance. Surgery won't solve all of my problems, but it WILL give me the boost I need to solve them myself. Thanks y'all!! :p

Good luck to you in any situation you decide. If it is sugery, please go for the therapy after. I never did and I believe it would have been a good thing to do. For everything changes,
weeder

Hello. First let me say that I empathize with anyone who qualifies for a gastric bypass surgery as i have friends who do and understand how hard life is for them to carry around so much excess weight.

I have to say, I have known several people who have had the gastric bypass. Several have gained weight back because they just eat until they eventually stretched there remaining stomach out. Another one i know, stops in middle of meal, goes to bathroom to puke and comes back and resumes eating. Another one I know, eats too much and then moans and groans making everyone else miserable saying her stomach hurts. Well, hello, you cant fit a baseball into a ping pong ball.

I think gastric bypass is great, but it doesn't address the behavior modification issues needed for those of us who are overweight. A majority are what we eat. A few have rare disorder that make them gain weight. Those of us who eat too much, have to learn not to before the surgery because later is not a good ideal.

Good luck and God bless to anyone who has this procedure.

Hi, my name is Jennifer and I am new to this site. I had gastric bypass surgery Feb. 7 of this year. I am 30 years old and have been overweight my entire life. I was 389 at the time of surgery and now 9 1/2 weeks later I am 321. I am so happy that I made this decision to have surgery, it is changing my life. I feel so much better! I would recommend it to anyone, I haven't regretted it a moment. I should also say that am an emotional eater and I eat out of boredom. This is not a problem anymore. You get very satisfied on a small amount of food so you don't feel like you need more. You do not have the same desire for food that you have before. I am extremely thankful for this surgery. If anyone has any questions feel free to e-mail me. bookchick27@aol.com Thanks, Jen

I'm a new member, and thought that I would add my 2 cents to this topic. I've been considering gastric bypass surgery for nearly a year. The first and foremost thing is that this is not a quick fix. Yes, you lose weight fast, but this is a complete change of lifestyle and you have to be ready to accept it and deal with a lot of issues. In a lot of ways I would say that eating a healthy, low fat diet, and trying to lose weight "the old fashioned way" is easier, but its not an option for everyone. I guess I could consider myself lucky, though I'm over 100 lbs of my "ideal" weight I don't have the many health problems that many have.

My insurance company requires a person to be on a doctor supervised weight loss program for at least a year. There are so many other restrictions and "hoops to jump through" in order to qualify for this surgery. Can't just wake up one day and say "hey, I think I'm going to have this surgery" and in a week its done. Its a loooong process. Another great site is www.obesityhelp.com Lots of wonderful info there.
Take care
Avalon

so, let's bring it up again...

how is everyone doing?

i've lost 113 pounds since surgery on january 29, 2002. feeling great. not having too many problems unless i eat too fast or don't chew well enough.

the old knees don't hurt nearly as much, the sleep apnea is lessening, and i have a great job with a huge salary increase over my last one.

any regrets? not yet. but i keep reading about people who are having problems. and there are some in my support group who are in serious trouble. one has lost only 20 pounds in 10 months, and she has no idea why. another one has lost about 45 in 3 months, but is confused about why she's stalled. turns out that she's drinking 6-8 gin and tonics when she's out with the girls. and each one has more than 150 calories!!!

and so it goes. even after the surgery, it's constant vigilance, but at least this constant vigilance pays off...

There is more than one type of weight loss surgery done these days, and several are known by the broad term "gastric bypass". The roux-en-y and duodenal switch can both be called gastric bypass procedures, yet are very different. It would be a great help to me, personally, if people would differentiate between them, and whatever other form of weight loss surgery they have had, are considering having, have heard about, etc.

I had the duodenal switch procedure performed in April 2001. I have had no major complications, and feel marvelous. My health has improved tremendously. I am on several WLS lists, some specifically for those who have had the duodenal switch, and others who have had the RNY as well as the DS. They really are different. Alike in some ways, but very different in others.

There is more than one procedure being done to help the morbidly obese and super morbidly obese to lose weight.

That said, I know people who have had both procedures, as well as some older procedures which are no longer being performed.

There are some in both camps (DS/RNY) who have had complications. Some serious ones. There are many more who have had fairly uneventful recoveries.

Compliance is an issue with both surgeries. Compliance with nutrition, exercise and vitamin supplementation differs with each procedure, but compliance is necessary in both cases. Will compliance yield better results in terms of weight loss? in regain? in long term health? Absolutely. However, there is also variation within the normal expected range, and just because one person does not lose as much of their excess weight than another person does not necessarily mean they were less compliant.

Everyone wants to be the lucky one who loses the majority of their excess weight, who has no untoward complications, etc. Everyone. Not everyone will be.

Hopefully, people go into WLS with a lot of careful consideration, after much research and after doing all that they can to lose weight by other means available.

Is it the right thing for everyone? Of course not. But for those of us who find it our last resort, it can be life saving. I know it has been for me.

Dawna

Hi everyone, just thought I would share my story with you.

I had Lap-Rny on 01-14-02, my starting weight was 321. I had a leak in my new pouch, so on the 15th of January they went in to repair the leak. My husband and I were told the surgery to do the repair would take about 20 minutes. Four hours later, my husband was starting to panic. It seems that everytime they would repair my leak I would spring another. Finally they did get it repaired.

I went home from the hospital thinking everything was okay, and it was for a few days. On the evening of the 29th of January, I had horrible, horrible pain in my left back (lung area) and I was having a hard time breathing. I was rushed to the ER, where they could not tell if I had another leak or just what was causing the problem.

This is where I get fuzzy, so much happened that I don't remember, but my husband remembers every gory detail. I believe it was on the 30th of Janurary they did another surgery, that I didn't know about for weeks. They wanted to see if I had another leak, thank goodness I didn't.

Fast forward, I spent 6 1/2 weeks in ICU all but 11 days on a ventilator. I spent another 4 weeks in a rehab hospital learning to walk all over again. It seems that the gases from the original leak had formed an infection pocket on my lung and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. They inserted a chest tube to drain the infection off, I don't remember this either, my husband said they were draining it into a gallon jug.

I had a staph infection with a fever of 107. I had blood tranfusions, a trac, a second chest tube, I was being feed by a feeding tube.

Because of the feeding tube I actually gained weight. When I was transferred to the rehab hospital on 3-15-02 I had gained up to 341 pounds. As of today I am now at 260 and feeling pretty darn good.

I was released from the hospital on April 12th (my baby girls 16th birthday.) When I first came home I had to use a walker to walk with, in less than two weeks I had graduated to a cane. I now need no assistance to walk. I am still not back to normal, my doc seems to think it could take me up to a year to regain all my strength.

Would I do it again, it has taken me sometime to come to this place, but yes I would.

Debbie

but you scared us all!!!! and of course, since peachie didn't want me to worry about you or about myself, she told me very very little about what was happening, until quite a bit later.

i was annoyed. but i understood why she did it, and that's ok. but we were all so very very worried about you, and grateful for the regular reports. and so very very glad you're here.

I've had weight loss surgery, but not the bypass. I had the Lapband (adjustable gastric band). Same surgery Ozzie Osbourne's wife Sharon had.

I started at 310 lbs. I currently weight 191 lbs. My goal is 172 (i'm 5'9").

The band restricted my portion control and the weight loss has been very easy.

Here is my website for info:
http://www.geocities.com/robinh26/lapband.html

If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Robin
coffeewench28@hotmail.com

I am all for WLS, if all other methods of weight loss fail. I tried everything I knew to lose weight. Then I learned about WLS and tried one more time to lose. I lost 50 but gained that back plus some. I knew I had to do something.

I had the roux-n-y gastric bypass 5 weeks ago ,I feel great and I have lost 28 lbs so far! Yes, it was painful when I first woke up out of surgery. Then painful again when the gas used for the surgery settled in my abdomen. I was sure I was dying! (only 1 in 2000 people die from the surgery). But the pain was temporary and for this kind of weight loss ,I would do it again in a hearbeat.

The hardest thing for me is head hunger. I was an obsessive compulsive eater before and I'm still one. The difference now is with WLS is that I pyhsically cannot overeat now. If I take one little bite to much, I puke. At 5 weeks postop I can eat about 1/4 cup or less of food at any one time. That little bit makes me feel like I've actually eaten a full course meal. Major head trip! A down side of that is that I'm full before I even get the taste in my mouth...I am willing to pay that for healthy living though.

glad you're doing well, KCS1.. it's not an easy road.

if it's any comfort to you, things do indeed get easier. i'm finding, though, with a new job and additional stress, that i've always been a stress eater, and i'm still a stress eater. not pretty.

i'm doing pretty well substituting liquids [iced tea, water, SF lemonade, anything!!] and it's helping, but sometimes i just want something!!! so a couple of SF candies have been helpful, or a slice of melba toast, of all things.

and i'm realizing more and more with each day that i tended to zone out when i ate and just didn't really taste anything or feel the food. and now, with all the chew chew chewing, i'm really tasting it and feeling it, and it's making a difference. in fact, there are some foods that i used to like that just taste gross after all that chewing.

who knew?? go figure.

is this going on with you as well? or are you finding other issues?

Jiffypop,
Yes! I noticed that shrimp tastes nasty to me now, where before surgery I loved it. I've also noticed that I have an adversion to anything fatty or greasy. UGH! It turns my stomach to think about that stuff let alone look or eat it now. Some foods taste even better now too. Especially turkey breast or V8 juice. How far postop are you? How much have you lost?

well, it's a little complicated.

as of 2 weeks ago, i was down 210 pounds total. and still have about 120 or so to go.

but. i lost 97 pounds before the surgery because the docs finally diagnosed and corrected my sleep apnea. as one smart doc said, i now had a metabolism!!! the stupid docs said that i was now eating right and exercising not true!!! it took a couple of months before i could walk 40 feet!!!

surgery was january 29, 2002. just about 5 months ago. and, as of 2 weeks ago, the total loss from the surgery was 113 pounds!!! i'll be getting another weight within the next couple of days. i've been amazed at how fast it's come off, but i know it's unusual.

one person in my [non]support group said that the people who do best with the loss are those who almost completely avoid carbs.

and i've been really enjoying all those yummy different flavors of turkey breast. especially the salsa one. i had to cut back on the spicy food at first, but i can tolerate it better now. not sure that's a good thing!! :lol: and the first thing i do at work is pop a can of v8 in the freezer for about an hour. very very nice. stays cold for awhile.

and most fatty foods also taste gross these days, but i had some buffalo chicken tenders with a dab of sour cream and blue cheese. and wrapped it all up in a lettuce leaf. very very happy thing.

so, keep up the good work, and glad to see you!!

by the way, do you go to a support group? what's yours like? debk has a good one, and so does ageoldie, but mine is almost useless..

any and all info would be gratefully appreciated!!!

W:dizzy: W What an incredible weight loss Jiffy! I am 6 weeks out tomorrow and I have lost 29 lbs. I also lost 7 lbs before the surgery. The self confidence I have now even after 36 lbs is amazing. I can't wait to shed more to look and feel better.

I don't have any support group other than online people. But I was invited to one close to where I live. I may start that one.

Thanks,
KCS1