Weight
loss surgery (WLS) is becoming more and more common.
Celebrity advocate Carnie Wilson and doctors are
influencing people to turn to surgery as the ultimate
solution for excess weight. (As an aside, Carnie Wilson has regained
much of her lost weight and has turned to a liquid diet. She became
the spokesperson for that company, just as she was once touting
WLS.)
Like all other forms of
dieting (for this is, ultimately, only a surgical
intervention to control eating), it has a very low
incidence of success in providing long-term, substantial weight
loss. The major difference is that
WLS can have profound effects on your body that you
never really expected. While dieting - especially of
the yo-yo type most of us have experienced in our
lives - can cause physical problems and weight gain,
WLS does so in spades. It is a dangerous procedure that permanently alters your digestive
system and invokes a
state of anorexia thereby causing malnutrition. WLS also presents
the potential for a host of other problems.
Before
making the decision to undergo this radical procedure
(and I'm lumping all of the forms of WLS here - they
all have the same basic outcomes so far) research,
research, research. Talk to people who have both
positive and negative outcomes. Stay open-minded. Don't be caught up
in the compulsion to find an easy way out. It isn't easy, and it
seldom is an "out." Always question those who have a monetary
interest in your decision. Look into other ways to
improve your health and mobility before going forward.
Some people do well; the majority develop all sorts of negative
conditions. You could
very easily end up at the same weight or with a
slight variation (up or down) but with some new
problems thrown in. And there is no way to know before
WLS which side you are going to land on or what your
complications might be.
Look through these
links. They are here to give you a look at the other side of the
story. You can find plenty of pro-weight loss surgery sites. We're
offering you something to balance their claims.
Related
Links:
Obesity
Surgery Information Center - Letters detailing patient WLS
experiences.
40%
of Weight Loss Surgery Patients Develop Complications - From
Forbes.com. "A growing number of people opt for surgery as a way to
lose weight, but four in 10 develop complications within six months after
surgery, according to a new U.S. government report."
Bridget's
Story - From vertical banded gastroplasty to gastric bypass.
Dani
Hart's Story
Darlene
Cates' Story - Actress known for her work in "What's
Eating Gilbert Grape" discusses her experience with WLS.
Deena's
Story - Vertical banded gastroplasty story.
Duodenal
Switch / BPD Consent Form - Contributed by one patient who
decided against having the surgery.
Gastric
Pacing - Stomach pacemaker for weight loss. (See "V
Surgery" blog post below.)
Gastric
Stimulator - Study of new device.
Gastric
Pacer - List of peer reviewed journals.
Hey,
Feds, wait a minute . . . - Just how deadly and costly is weight loss surgery?
JIB /
Gastric Bypass - (Jejunal ileal bypass) A seldom used
anymore procedure.
Laurie's
Story - Living with poorly done vertical banded gastroplasty.
Let
Patients Know Results - Newspaper editorial.
Local
Teenager Dies Less Than A Year After Weight Loss Surgery -
St. Louis Post Dispatch article.
Longevity
after Weight Loss Surgeries - Sampling of opinions.
Making the
Decision to Have Weight Loss Surgery - One woman's experience.
Metabolic
Bone Disease With WLS - Well-documented long-term
complication of obesity surgery.
Patricia's
Story - 17 year post vertical banded gastroplasty patient.
Regarding
Gastric ByPass Mortality Statistics - Bariatric surgeon's
assessment of WLS risks.
Similarities
of JIB and DGB/Duodenalswitch Complications
UI
Pioneer of Obesity Surgery Publisher Overview - Dr. Mason's concerns.
The "V" Surgery Information - From the
absolutely wonderful blog by Sue W, regarding this
latest spin: "Otherwise, from everything I can tell,
it's the "same dog different fleas" as the gastric
pacer which not only interferes with digestion as
much as the gastric bypass but also has a set of co
morbidities all its own, some of which are NOT
PRETTY and a track record of extremely POOR weight
loss." If you aren't a regular to this site,
you are cheating yourself of valuable, up-to-the
date information that can seriously impact your
well-being.
Video Stories - Two
women's lives after WLS.
Vitamin
Deficiency in GastricBypass/duodenalswitch - Long term
considerations.
"Weighing
the Risks" - Excellent article from the St. Louis Post
Dispatch web site.
Weight
Loss Surgery Memorial - Touching memorial to friends lost to
WLS.
Weight
Loss Surgery Release Form - Used by many hospitals and
bariatric surgeons across the United States.
What are you willing to lose? - Barb's story.
What are you
willing to lose? - Veronica's story.
Where Are
The Others - Request for contacts from people 20 years
post-op.
Without
Measure - Article from post-wls patient.
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Many patients say it was
worth it because it's a permanent change and the idea that they might have
lost something forever is much too painful.
I just chatted with a "happy patient" (gastric bypass patient)
my age, 61 the other day. She described how excited she was that if she
took an hour for lunch and ate tiny bites and chewed well and took breaks
(to let things go down) she could eat a whole chicken breast. Imagine
going through that with every meal!
This 61-year-old friend with a gastric bypass had two weeks previously,
experienced total body pain and found out she was very anemic and needs
iron infusions (which is neither comfortable nor without risk) regularly.
After her iron infusions, she feels a lot better, but she seems to need
these every couple of months. And of course, she has to give herself
vitamin B12 shots once or twice a week for the rest of her life. She gets
blood draws often - like every couple of months.
Another friend just had a takedown (WLS undone) and is so thrilled to eat
"normally" for the first time in 22 years! "I always use to
eat cold food," she told me, because it took her so long to eat
anything and make sure it went down. And if it doesn't go down, the food
causes a few hours of pain until it DOES go down.
Reminds me of a fat friend of mine who told me she'd never get WLS
"You can never eat normally again". Many who get WLS never
consider just the daily grind of eating with a digestive tract which no
longer works well.
Living with the fear of complications (and that can happen at any time
like bowel obstruction etc) often gives these patients a rather bad case
of post traumatic stress syndrome. Plus if they gain weight or don't lose
"enough," it's psychologically devastating. As it is also if they
lose "too much" and cannot keep up their weight. Most WLS
patients are on anti depressants.
..
That is the REAL face of gastric bypass and not the 5 percent of happy
faces you see on TV (but note, I've never seen a poster kid more than 2
years post op). But since people ONLY see the happy faces of the 5
percent, they think that's the rule, not the exception.
I've followed some of those poster kids. One of the saddest cases was a
lady who started out at 550 lbs. So she lost down to 190 or something like
that (was very tall). But then she gained back 80 lbs and was up to 270 or
so. The doctor she was working for (a WLS surgeon) fired her telling her
that now that she's regained so much she is no longer a "good
image" for his office. Never mind that surgeons expect a 50 percent
rebound gain which she was way under - she still was keeping off over 200
lbs. Well, since she had appeared on a billboard advertising this doc etc,
she was absolutely devastated. She kind of dropped out of the support
groups but was talking about having additional WLS to bypass most of her
small bowel.
I've seen WLS ruin quite a few lives. I've seen WLS post ops who were
perfect patients, keel over in sudden heart attack 2-5 years post op. I've
seen WLS get plastic surgery all over their bodies to the tune of
thousands of bucks and much pain, only to still hate their bodies. And
I've seen WLS patients who look like concentration camp victims because
they are so ill. Some of these don't live.
The long termers I know all say that their litter mates (those who had WLS
at the same time they did) died years ago. And most patients who are more
than 4 years post op take not only pain medication but anti depressants as
well.
This is a no-brainer. The stomach is not just a storage organ but a
critical part of the digestive system. (in a gastric bypass, the pouch is
fashioned from the ring of muscles at the bottom of the esophagus called
the LES -lower esophagal spinctor- or CARDIA and the working part of the
stomach is bypassed totally... this is a fact not easily obtainable unless
you actually interview docs - which I have done). This to say that the
digestive tract is, in a gastric bypass, totally changed into something
the body never intended and that causes global repercussions as the body
is a finely tuned system as it comes from the factory.
What is needed is for the public to learn the facts of WLS and then if
each of us tells a friend about the deal breakers, that will inform a lot
of people so people will no longer go into these
procedures without being warned about the other
side. Some may still make the decision to have it,
but as they say "forewarned is forearmed."
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