Anthony’s denture thread was super useful and hit home because I’ll probably be headed down the denture road soon, as a side effect of poor calcium absorption, from my gastric bypass 13 years ago this august 22. So if any of y’all are interested, ask away
Nine year veteran. I got your back.
Only issue I’ve had was a very ugly gall bladder removal last month.
Do you regret getting a malabsorbtive procedure done? I don’t think the ones where they just shrink your stomach without bypassing the intestines leads to malabsorption, at least I don’t think as much.
How much did you lose? How hard is maintenance?
The body adapts, and the malabsorption lessens with age but does not completely go away.
I lost 130 pounds initially, and I’m currently down 95.
Maintenance for me is taking dietary supplements for vitamins and calcium. My blood has been checked a lot in the past couple of months, and the levels are excellent.
Did you have vomiting/regurgitation issues? My mom had a Roux-en-Y 7-ish years ago, and she still pukes a lot. Sometimes she’ll bring up stuff she ate 2-3 days previously, entirely undigested.
Is there stuff you can’t eat? Mom can’t have anything carbonated, or any significant amount of raw vegetation without getting such horrible gas she says it feels like her stomach will explode.
Usually when I vomit, it’s because I’ve eaten too fast. A quick trip to the bathroom and all is well with the world. Any chow I blow is recognizable as something I’ve eaten within the previous half hour or so. I suggest mom should get an endoscopy because that is not normal.
About the only thing I can’t eat is tough/stringy meat. Game is right out, and beef can be an issue.
This question is different for everyone, so I’ll defer to the OP for his experiences, especially since I’m hogging his limelight right now.
If you had it to do over again would you still get the surgery?
The reason I ask is because I know at least half a dozen people who’ve had some version of this surgery done and anyone who is more than about 3 years into it is just miserable. One of my friends who had it done about 10 years ago lost over 100 lbs and is now seeing it all come back again, one had some type of issue with the surgery and couldn’t eat much of anything at all and got dangerously underweight because of it, etc. Every single one of them loved it at first but has become increasingly less enamored with it over time.
Absolutely. I’m sure I would be dead via heart attack by now if I didn’t. The only thing I would do different is to make sure my gall bladder came out at the same time, instead of 9 years later. That incident almost killed me, for real.
This ties into my question. My understanding is newer surgeries like plication or lap band do not have as many side effects. What surgeries did the people you know get and when?
I know my friend who is gaining the weight back now (she is only about 20 lbs down from her weight when she got the surgery) had the gastric bypass 10 years ago. I’m not sure about the others and what kind they had but they are all dealing with really unpleasant side effects of the surgery. The woman I know who had it done about 18 months ago also had gastric bypass and she is loving it, but she did confess to me once that if she had known she would never be able to eat cake again (something about it makes her vomit now even if she only has a small bite) she probably would have reconsidered.
My sister-in-law had a bypass at about the same time. She’s had so many corrective surgeries since, half scheduled, half emergency, that the family has lost count. She’s Frankenstein from the sternum to her crotch, inside and out, with greatly reduced life expectancy. A year ago she had 13-hour surgery to comprehensively rebuild her interior and remove generations of surgical mesh, patches, and the adhesions and faulty growth around them. Third time she’s been at extreme risk on the table.
Its effect on her weight was indifferent. She lost perhaps 100 pounds initially, and can only keep the minimum 80 or so off by the kind of careful dietary control she should have relied on in the first place. In other words, she’s a 100% argument against the procedure and an outcome that’s not rare enough to make bypasses a good idea except in the most extreme cases.
I had the R-N-Y, which was the gold standard at the time. Lap Band was just becoming popular, and I originally wanted it. My insurance company would not cover it as it was still considered ‘experimental’.
Other than my recent gall bladder issues which ARE related, the R-N-Y has been no muss no fuss for me. I’ve gained weigh back, and lost it again, twice.
I lost 240 lbs, and I’m still down 205 or so. I do not regret surgery. I did insist in having the gall bladder yanked at the same time due to an almost guaranteed problem post op. Most of my support groupers who didn’t do the gall bladder ended up doing it later. My regret was not going for plastic surgery afterwards. I have a lot of loose skin that only surgery can removed. Despite the thirteen years of adjustment,no still think of myself as fat…which I’m not…that fear has kept off the weight that has crept on so many of my fellow by passers.m
The calcium malabsorption is a problem, mostly related to me not taking the supplements as religiously as I should. I puke when I eat too fast…and cake and most sugar does make me I’ll if eaten to excess. I can eat mostly any food, but raw veggies are great for giving my hubby a late night intestinal serenade.
Would i do it again? In a heartbeat…which incidentally I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t done the surgery back in 2001. It also saved my life in another way…I was scheduled to be in the WTC on Sep 11, but my surgeon wouldn’t clear me for work for another day…wow…so the surgery has been a lifesaver…in many ways…
And…I don’t need to patronize the ridiculously priced Big Fat and Tall men shops anymore…hated that place…and none of the models were ever “big”…just tall
I’m ten years out on my R-N-Y and I eat cake (small amounts) and drink way too much Pepsi Max. My teeth aren’t falling out…well, okay, one broke, but it isn’t related to the surgery. Broccoli (cooked) is still not my friend, but I had a bunch of raw broccoli for the first time in ten years the other day and no major issues. Beef is the best thing ever…chicken is problematic. I throw up maybe once every three months, if that, and only if I’ve eaten fast and something gets stuck. And with no bile to contend with, the process is much less unpleasant…except the tiny blood vessels under my eyes that seem to break each time…looks like tiny freckles so no worries. NOTHING stays in my pouch for 2-3 days…that woman definitely needs to get to a doctor. Rice is best it kept to under a 1/8 cup per meal. No gall bladder issues. I AM anemic…donated blood which kicked me into severe anemia and required several series of treatments…but I had no symptoms. I haven’t lost as much as I wanted to, through my own poor choices, but I’m still down about 60 pounds from top weight and can buy clothes in the normal range. My doctor hassled me so much about not being able to take daily aspirin that I finally called the Bariatric Center at the hospital and discovered they do now allow aspirin consumption for heart issues as long as it is taken with Omeprazole, but then my doc said I didn’t need it THAT badly. Just had double knee replacements and Tylenol is fine for my pain…I don’t really miss not being able to take NSAIDS. The only lasting problem I have is that right after the surgery I had some complications involving blood pressure that kept me in the hospital for a week. Getting the medications right to treat that without me falling over dizzy all the time was a challenge, and it took a few years to get things right, but my blood pressure is now normal with meds, and I have no side effects from the Labetalol and Lisinopril I take, so I’m fine as far as that goes. And now that the new knees are healed up and not as painful, I can resume walking for exercise.
So bottom line…The benefits have outweighed the minor hassles that I deal with.