362 # lost from bypass - but a hard road

[Guest guest]

Halprin's situation at 550 #, made her an ideal candidate for gastric

bypass surgery. After all, she says, she'd tried every diet solution

available to her at least once.

Still, she was reluctant.

" I did not believe in gastric bypass, " she says. " To this day, I

don't believe in it unless it is absolutely medically necessary. It

is a really terrible thing to go through. "

" There are a lot of things that happen to overweight people when they

lose a lot of weight, " she says, noting that the sudden limitation in

nutrition from the procedure caused her to experience hair loss,

fatigue and other side effects before her condition stabilized.

And these aren't the only risks. While the death rate for the lap

banding is about one in 3,000 -- hardly higher than the risk one

takes from undergoing anesthesia -- that of gastric bypass surgery

like the one Halprin opted for is about one in 200.

entire article:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3210165 & page=1

Sandy r