# Who has had obesity surgery, and how did it work out **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634 "2012-04-22T22:03:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/1 "2012-04-22T22:03:37Z")
I am considering obesity surgery because I have health issues that are tied to my obesity. I have read that resolution of health issues related to obesity (apnea, cholesterol issues, hypertension, diabetes, osteoarthritis, etc, some of which I have, others of which I am pretty sure I will develop due to my genetics) is 60-80%. But I’d prefer a reversible one like the lap band or plication, partly because there is less risk but also because advances in medicine may make treatments for obesity that work w/o surgery viable in the next 10-20 years. So who has had it, and what did you think of it? I think **lavenderviolet** once said something along the lines of ‘life with surgery can be hard, but it is almost always easier than life before it’. ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/2 "2012-04-23T01:29:52Z")
I had the Gastric Sleeve done and while I’m having some personal issues from it. I don’t regret having it. I have not heard of plication but I would suggest staying away from the lap band. I’ve heard too many bad stories about it. ---
**Author:** ![yorick73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b5a626/32.png) [@yorick73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yorick73)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/3 "2012-04-23T15:24:17Z")
I had an uncle that had one of these procedures done (but I can’t remember which one). He died a few days later due to complications. Not trying to scare you but just be aware that the risks are very real and potentially fatal. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/4 "2012-04-23T15:47:07Z")
> [@MannyL](#): > > I had the Gastric Sleeve done and while I’m having some personal issues from it. I don’t regret having it. I have not heard of plication but I would suggest staying away from the lap band. I’ve heard too many bad stories about it. Can you comment on that? It’s not something I have any immediate plans to look into, but if I were to try surgery that would have been my first choice given that it’s reversible and seems to be less drastic than some of the other options. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/5 "2012-04-23T15:48:07Z")
My husband had a roux-en-y in December. Aside from just losing weight, the surgery causes several profound changes in a person - within a week post-op, his apnea was greatly improved and he was able to entirely stop all blood pressure meds. Within a month, he was able to go up stairs without getting winded and he could also feel a difference in his knees. I’m not aware of plication as a weight loss surgery. I had a fundoplication about 12 years ago as a treatment for hiatial hernia and reflux, and it was not intended to have any weight loss effects. And I’m pretty certain that it has not had any effects on my weight. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/6 "2012-04-23T15:57:08Z")
My brother just had it done and has lost 50 pounds in just under 45 days. (Supposedly men lose the weight faster than women do.) Also, his diabetes has dwindled to the point he probably will not have to take medication for it at all in about another two or three weeks. He came to visit us last week here in Vegas - I could see the difference. He is moving faster and no longer breathing heavy after short walks. He was able to go to a buffet with us and eat a few very small portions of the vast selection of food. He is very happy to have had it done and has no regrets whatsoever. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/7 "2012-04-23T16:02:48Z")
As I said in my other thread, most surgeries are reversable. Plication and the lap band are actually less reversible because of the scar tissue. The lap band has more complications. I’d go the mini gastric bypass route, through [here](http://www.clos.net/). ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/8 "2012-04-23T21:54:03Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > As I said in my other thread, most surgeries are reversable. Plication and the lap band are actually less reversible because of the scar tissue. The lap band has more complications. I’d go the mini gastric bypass route, through [here](http://www.clos.net/). What kind of dumping syndrome did you get with the mini gastric bypass (since they are bypassing parts of the small intestine)? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/9 "2012-04-24T06:45:36Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > What kind of dumping syndrome did you get with the mini gastric bypass (since they are bypassing parts of the small intestine)? None. Well, a hightened senstitivity to blood sugar, but I am rather sure I had that prior to surgery as well. If I eat more then a certain amount of simple carbs, I get very tired and sleepy. In general, people with the MGB have a lower incidence of dumping (about half dumps, more or less severe) then people with the Roux-en-Y (over two-thirds dumps). Some see that as an advantage, some as a disadvantage because they need the “dumping punishment” for eating sugar and simple carbs. YMMV. But you should really educate yourself, not on the basis of individual anecdotes, but on the scientific numbers and odds. Here is a good starting point, the [medical articles gathered on pubmed.org.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=mini%20gastric%20bypass%20) This is the first article I stumbled upon: > [@](#): > > There is growing evidence that mini-gastric bypass (MGB) is a safe and effective procedure. Operative outcome and long-term follow-up of a consecutive cohort of patients who underwent MGB are reported. The data on 1,000 patients who underwent MGB from November 2005 to January 2011 at an academic institution were reviewed. Mean age was 33.15 ± 10.17 years (range, 14-72), preoperative BMI was 42.5 ± 6.3 kg/m(2) (range, 26-75), mean preoperative weight was 121.6 ± 23.8 kg (range, 71-240), and 663 were women. Operative time and length of stay for primary vs. revisional MGB were 89 ± 12.8 min vs. 144 ± 15 min (p \< 0.01) and l.85 ± 0.8 day vs. 2.35 ± 1.89 day (p \< 0.01). No deaths occurred within 30 days of surgery. Short-term complications occurred in 2.7% for primary vs. 11.6% for revisionnal MGB (p \< 0.01). Five (0.5%) patients presented with leakage from the gastic tube but none had anastomotic leakage. Four (0.4%) patients, all with revisionnal MGB, presented with severe bile reflux and were cured by stapling the afferent loop and by a latero-lateral jejunojejunostomy. Excessive weight loss occurred in four patients; two were reversed and two were converted to sleeve gastrectomy. Maximal percent excess weight loss (EWL) of 72.5% occurred at 18 months. Weight regain subsequently occurred with a mean variation of -3.9% EWL at 60 months. The 50% EWL was achieved for 95% of patients at 18 months and for 89.8% at 60 months. MGB is an effective, relatively low-risk, and low-failure bariatric procedure. In addition, it can be easily revised, converted, or reversed. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/10 "2012-04-24T06:53:09Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > My brother just had it done and has lost 50 pounds in just under 45 days. …He is very happy to have had it done and has no regrets whatsoever. That is great to hear. Back in my thread, you told me your brother planned to get this surgery (Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y). I am very glad it worked out so well for him. But then again, he had the odds in his favour. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/11 "2012-04-24T07:02:12Z")
Wesley, here are some studies on gastirc plication on pub-med. [Judge for yourself.](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=plication%20bariatric) It might also be worthwhile to look up some of the links in [my earlier thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=619485). ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/12 "2012-04-24T18:39:17Z")
I don’t know if my non-surgical advice will be welcome but a little over 2 years ago I started working with a non-surgical weight loss doctor (bariatrician). I tried it because I was frustrated and didn`t see much of a downside, but it was such a great move. My biggest concern going in was that they’d just educate me on eating right, which I already knew a lot about and simply had trouble sticking with it. Instead she put me on some 6 week long 900 calorie per day diet. I lost about 65 pounds total, 45 in the first 6 weeks. It was extremely “hands on”, with me coming in for a checkup weekly for the first couple weeks then every other week. When you compare how fantastic losing all that weight so quickly felt, not eating real food for 6 weeks was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. It sucked, but the results were amazing. Anyway, my point is that it was way less invasive than surgery but much more hands on and structured than simple nutrition classes. So I’d suggest anyone who’s serious enough to try surgery to look into whether there’s something similar near them. Incidentally, when I got weened back onto normal food they did work closely on healthy eating, so it’s not like you finish and immediately go back to what led to obesity. It’s just that the surprising part of it is that you get rapid weight loss without surgery. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/13 "2012-04-24T18:54:06Z")
Fuzzy, that is amazing. Have you gained weight again in the last two years? ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/14 "2012-04-24T19:01:53Z")
My sister has had nothing but problems with her lap band. At her most recent appointment with her bariatric surgeon, he told her the trend is moving away from this procedure because of its long-term failure rate. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/15 "2012-04-24T19:22:13Z")
Disclaimer: I haven’t had the surgery, but worked with patients who were prepping for the surgery, having the surgery, and then after the surgery for one year for an insurance company. I don’t do that work any longer but it opened my eyes to a lot of things. [ul] [li]Find someone who has done thousands of these surgeries. Too many general surgeons who do gall bladders, appendectomies, and the like saw the money being paid for these surgeries and took the minimum amount of education to do them. If you pull their numbers out of the statistics the rate of death dropped considerably.[/li][li]Look for a bariatric group that provides aftercare for AT LEAST one year. There are great facilities where they provide a gym and group meetings for their patients for life. A doctor that doesn’t have at least a year of aftercare for you doesn’t give a damn about your progress.[/li][li]Contrary to what people will tell you (even people here in this thread) there is no such thing as permanent weight loss. NO SUCH THING. Often people who have WLS end up gaining back every pound and then some. If there are people who’ve done that here I am not sure they’ll reply here so do take success stories with a grain of salt. If you fall back into old habits, you WILL gain weight back. It really is a lifelong commitment.[/li][li]To expand on that, you have to think of the surgery as a tool and nothing more. One tool you’ve been handed and not a cure. You will have to monitor what goes into your mouth even more than you have in the past. Now that the amount of food you are taking in is drastically cut, you have to make every bite count. Although you’ll be taking vitamins for the rest of your life, you still want to be sure you’re eating the right foods. You’ll have to commit to that and exercise for as long as you expect to keep weight off.[/li][li]Also consider finding a therapist you can see after your surgery if you have a lot of weight to lose. Some people’s attitudes and lives change so drastically after surgery they are not always sure how to deal with it. Ask your surgeon’s office if they have a referral to a therapist who is familiar with the impact of the surgeries.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/16 "2012-04-24T19:55:06Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > I don’t know if my non-surgical advice will be welcome but a little over 2 years ago I started working with a non-surgical weight loss doctor (bariatrician). I tried it because I was frustrated and didn`t see much of a downside, but it was such a great move. I have an ex boyfriend who did the [Protein Sparing Modified Fast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Sparing_Modified_Fast) a year or two ago. Is that what you did? He lost almost 150 lbs in 200 days. Not sure what he did after that (he was already my ex when he started and then we lost touch even more) but if you read [his blog](http://stevesweightlossblog.blogspot.com/) he didn’t seem to be having too bad of a time. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/17 "2012-04-24T23:41:19Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Fuzzy, that is amazing. Have you gained weight again in the last two years? I had a near perfect record until last summer when I gained almost 15 pounds, which I’ve since lost again. However, I had a constellation of major stressors that got to be too much. I had been trying to (1) care for a sick family member, who (2) hadn’t gotten his affairs in order in the early stages of his sickness, so I spent countless hours trying to sort out his finances to pay for his care and (3) unrelatedly my business had gone under and I was trying to wind down things there while (4) trying to find a job. So I really don’t even consider it a weightloss/diet failing. It was by far the most stressful time of my life and I could easily have turned to alcohol or heroin or whores for comfort. In retrospect I’m glad ice cream did the trick. And like I said, I lost the weight again once I had everything settled. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/18 "2012-04-24T23:48:25Z")
Fuzzy, You mention a 900 cal/day diet. What did you eat to get that little? ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/19 "2012-04-25T00:53:49Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Fuzzy, > > You mention a 900 cal/day diet. What did you eat to get that little? I ate 100 calorie packets of nutritional supplements my doctor provided evenly throughout the day, so I drank them every couple hours. They offered “oatmeal”, which was a few spoonfuls of oats and very vitaminy tasting, “soup” that was really gross broth with a fragment of a vegetable or two in it, or a sweet smoothie/pudding in various flavored. After experimenting I stuck to the smoothie/pudding stuff. None of it was really good or satisfying but with eating every couple hours I really wasn’t hungry most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/20 "2012-04-25T00:55:56Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I have an ex boyfriend who did the [Protein Sparing Modified Fast](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Sparing_Modified_Fast) a year or two ago. Is that what you did? It was along the same lines but not exactly this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634.md?page=2)